Spring Cleaning

Oh what a beautiful, warm, sunny weekend! We opened every window in the house to enjoy the fresh air. Ahhhhh! It's been such a long, dreary winter.

If you think that I spent the time hiking or raking the yard, you don't know me very well. Yesterday, my friend Lori came over for a little sewing lesson. She made a cute little drawstring skirt and it came out fantastic. Yay Lori! . I should have taken pics, but I know that she wouldn't have wanted me to post her white legs (like we all don't have them). Later in the afternoon, we were joined by our friend Aimee and her little poodle, Shaggy (why didn't I take any photos!?), for some S'n'B. I can't think of a better way to spend the day. I bought some Amy Butler fabric for the Cabo Halter at a new quilting shop, Sew Portland, but decided that I'd better try the pattern first to make sure that I like it before cutting up 2.5 yards of fabric. I found some inexpensive cotton on sale at JoAnn's to use as a test run.

I like it. We'll see if I actually wear it. Mr. Strange doesn't care for it. He thinks it's "not my best". Here's the back view (tattoo shot). I made the size small because it matched my bust measurement, and I'm glad I did. If I want to wear this without a bra (which I most likely will), I need it to be snug enough to hold up the girls. Speaking of which, I was not cold when the picture was taken, those are the bust darts.

Hopefully all of the working out I am doing will shave off some of that back and arm chub. Yuk.

I'm still going to hold off on using the Amy Butler fabric, shown below, to see if I really will wear this top. If not, I can always use it to make a skirt or something. Due to an error in the pattern, it called for 2.5 yards, but barely used 1.75. At $8.95 a yard, that makes me a bit peeved.

Today I did a little housecleaning, both literally and virtually. In a fit of weather optimism, I put away most of my winter sweaters, organized my closet and drawers, and purged some unused items (how many purses do I really need and how did I come to own so many black socks?). Many dust bunnies were killed in the process.

I also spent a fair bit of time blog organizing. Added 100 things (being a sneaky monkey, I back dated it) and all of the stuff in the sidebar I lost in the upgrade to the new layout. I also totally re-vamped my finished objects blog, formerly called "Tarilyn's Knitting Gallery", now known as "Tarilyn's Show'n Tell", using all of the new archiving and label features offered by the new blogger. I think it's much easier to navigate and finally looks the way I want it to. Take a visit and tell me what you think!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer than today. Happy joy joy!