Toby

The War Of the Ironing Board

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Sunday morning I got up early and started to sew. Despite having two cat beds and a blanket on the floor, Toby only wanted to be up on the ironing board. Thus began the great Sunday Morning Ironing Board Battle.

Here he is after the initial attack, deploying his reserves of cute so I don’t notice that he’s 1.) getting cat hair all over my project and 2.) stopped all progress. 

Here he is about 30 minutes later, having unwillingly ceded the project fabric to a kitty blanket rescued from the floor. He’s not happy; I still can’t iron. A low point of the battle.

And here’s the happy ending: In a sneak attack, I slid him and the kitty blanket to the other end of the ironing board, giving him my ironing hams to use as a “pillow.” After the initial shock and awe, he decided that was acceptable and proceeded to roll around and get more cat hair everywhere. I was able to iron on the other end and we all lived to fight another day.

The Story Of The Weekend

By in Toby, weekend report

Friday night: “What’s that you say, Mom? A long weekend? Prince Sir Toby approves.”

 

Saturday: “What a pleasant day to be color-coordinated on the deck.”

 

Sunday afternoon, on an urban hike: “Is this stupid or genius?”

 

Right after we got home Sunday afternoon: “Wow I’m glad we didn’t go for a real hike”

Not shown on Monday: Getting some help at the gym with my lifts and then sewing and organizing allll daaaaay (aka The Best Day).

Floral Weekend

By in Toby, weekend report

We went to the botanical garden on Sunday to check out the orchid show, which had some very cool things (orchids with parents, tiny orchids, orchids I’d never heard of). We also walked around the gardens and saw my favorite Secret Garden wall covered in quince. Then Toby stuck his tongue out and the weekend was complete.

How I feel about Monday, too

Goodbye, March

By in Toby

We went to bed early all weekend–Doc was getting over a cold and I was getting over a really terrible month. Toby was there for us, though: He’s usually not a snuggly cat at all, but he came and sat on Doc’s legs during a nap and cuddled up to me Sunday morning.

Snow Day

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We got a foot of snow overnight Saturday. We usually visit Doc’s family on Sunday but they were out of town–so we didn’t drive anywhere, not even to the canyon where it was sure to be amateur hour on snowshoes.  We shoveled out, read the newspaper, did some sewing, and walked over to the grocery store for store bought cookies. Thrills!!

Spring Fever

By in Toby, weekend report

There’s two feet of fresh snow in the mountains and it was a cold hike on Sunday, but I’m d-u-n with winter. It’s going to be March this week; I’m looking forward to projects made with linen and finding some sunshine. (Toby agrees!)

Wednesday Project Roundup: Loungewear Capsule

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I’ve mentioned the StyleBee blog here before and how helpful many of her exercises have been. She also put together a “loungewear capsule,” which intrigued me but also sounded a little too fashion-blogger-y. However, she made some good points:

I’ve always felt my ‘after work’ clothes were blah and uninspired but never did anything to change that. I figured, who sees it? Who cares? But the truth is that I do and the crazy thing is I end up wearing these pieces almost as much as I do my core closet items (if not more!).

And I kept coming back to her VERY GOOD POINT to make sure your loungewear doesn’t show your pet’s hair. I’d been living in the same pair of terry Hudson pants I first sewed and a black hoodie (Toby is not black). I needed a few more pieces so I decided to make them all work together.

The “inspo” (since I’m going all fashion blogger today–image source is lost to the depths of Pinterest):

And the capsule:

I started with another pair of Hudsons in a really wonderful Telio bamboo knit–it has way better drape and recovery than the terry pair. It’s exactly Toby color, too:

The two tops are the Thread Theory Finlayson pullover–aka the same pattern I made for Doc for Christmas. (Yes, we are the couple with matching loungewear now.) I made the hoodie version for me in a gray fleece from Amazon:

 

And I made the shawl collar version in a drapey French terry blend from Fashion Fabrics Club via Amazon (I had some gift cards to use up):

I got fancy with the facings in my versions and used scraps of my favorite projects–Liberty and ikat. (The pattern has fantastic instructions for adding twill tape and making a professional finish.)

These three, combined with the original lounge pants and that flannel shirt, have been keeping me feeling pulled together at home for a couple of weeks now. The color palette means everything works together. Even better–all the cat hair is invisible now!

Weekend Signs

By in Toby, weekend report

I made the call that it would be too sloppy and too worrisome to head into the canyons (seriously, the Wasatch Front gets all its water from mountain snow melt and this year there just…isn’t any). Instead, we took a tip from Austin Kleon’s blog and found things of interest within a two-mile radius of our house: an accountant’s precise signage, a cemetery, the grocery store’s most excellent chalk art.

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