Kaoru Marie

Ahhhhh, this workweek was even worse than last week. I pretty much reached my breaking point Thursday evening, but I shook it off and had a good time at happy hour yesterday. Getting drinks with former coworkers to bitch about work and catch up on life is always a good stress reliever. The no-good, very bad, horrible project is still alive, but will hopefully end this week. It better. I also can't believe we're in the home stretch of July. When did that happen?? Craziness! I have another happy hour scheduled for this week, a mid-week all-gals one, which should be fun. Happy hours....the best way to make it through the work week. Our new kitty is doing better. Her eyes have stopped watering, we're heading to the vet as soon as I publish this post, and she is a major cuddler! Nothing beats waking up to a tiny kitten snuggling next to you. I haven't done any sewing in awhile, but hopefully I'll sneak some in this weekend. I bought a large spool of thread for $1 in...

Every month I tell myself to stop buying fabric until I make several garments with the fabric in my stash. Unfortunately, most of what I currently have in my stash is for making dress/button-up shirts, which I still need to work out some fitting issues. I've gotten a lot better about not buying new patterns by the five-fold from Jo-Ann Fabrics during the Big 4 sales, although I have bought a couple new patterns from Sewaholic and Thread Theory. But fabric shopping....oooooh, I just can't help myself sometimes! I'll have an idea in my head and then I HAVE TO GET THE FABRIC NOW! I got into one of those fits last Friday. I blame Marrie and her amazing stretch cotton sateen dress . That dress is so cool and exactly the style and colors (black and white!) I would love to use as the backbone for my work wardrobe builder. After thinking about stretch cotton all morning, I sped-walked over to Michael Levine during my lunch break hoping to find some fabric to make a dress. ...

Gaaaah, I'm so glad this week is over! It started with a meeting with a client that absolutely did not go well and I've been busting my arse trying to finish a lot of work in a short time frame. I really only have myself to blame, so lesson learned. Hopefully this time next week this particular project will be over and I can move on from it. Instead of beating myself up over this project, whenever I start to sense that I'm getting frustrated and overwhelmed I focus on how I will feel once it is over. I will feel so relieved. and happy. as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. That feeling is driving me to finish this project and it's keeping me surprisingly sane and in good spirits. So let's move on to what I've discovered the past two weeks. Hope you enjoy some of these links. Did you catch Norma's tip for working with lingerie elastic? Steam It! This was the first time I've read about this and now I can't wait to try it on my nex...

I meant to post this on Sunday, but somehow life got in the way. By the way, how was your weekend? (I feel like talking about mine so I'm going to pose a rhetorical question first.) I felt so off all last week as I kept getting the days mixed up and my husband was out of town for half of the week and normally I'm all like " SEWING ALL NIGHT! Woooo!! ", but I just wasn't feeling it. Instead I was mopey and sad that he was gone and my cat ignored me most of the nights (is that not the saddest thing you've read all day??) This is how I felt all last week.......mehhhhhhhh...... But the weekend made up for it. We celebrated our SIXTH (!!) wedding anniversary at Animal , which we first went to three or four years ago, I think for another anniversary dinner. Then two nights later, on Monday, we went out for sushi at Sugarfish , which in my opinion is the best value for the quality you get. And now it's already Wednesday evening! Where did the week go? ...

Do you ever get so close to finishing a garment, but you don't finish it....and then you wear it anyway? Yeah, I've done that. Twice. With the same garment. I made this McCalls 6696 shirt dress back in late 2014. I admittedly totally blatantly copied Mary of Idle Fancy . I saw her version and immediately bought the fabric. No shame. None at all. It looks amazing on her. I wanted to have it. And now I do have it. I wanted to make the dress with sleeves, but I didn't have enough time to modify the sleeves. I was scrambling to get the dress done in time to wear to a friend's baby's baptism, so I just threw on a cardigan. " I'll work out the sleeves later ", I said to myself. That was back in December. Then earlier this week I discovered all of my work pants were too wrinkly for me to feel comfortable wearing. I'm not above wearing slightly wrinkled pants to work since I sit all day, but even I have my limits. I was too lazy to iron any of t...

Happy Fourth of July Weekend, Fellow Americans!!!! Hope you have a wonderful holiday tomorrow and hopefully you have today off to enjoy doing whatever pleases you. We have a friend in town this weekend who is staying with us tonight and then with another friend tomorrow. We have a lot of eating planned this weekend as we take him to our favorite restaurants. My current plant-based diet will be on Holiday this weekend. But I gotta say, I haven't been missing meat or desserts this week and this is coming from someone who is probably addicted to sugar (candy). My husband told me about some ridiculous dessert he had the other night and I was like, "meh....not interested, that shit's so bad for you." Here are some articles and fun tidbits I read this week. Enjoy! 1. I always think it's odd when Eastern Cultures build structures that are so Western looking, and vice-versa. So I was totally weirded out when I came across this article that highlighted some global c...

I almost declined testing Heather's newest pattern for Closet Case Files , the Sallie Jumpsuit/Maxi , because it looked sooooooo farrrrrrrr outside my comfort zone. Jumpsuit? Excuse me, what? Long, flowy dress? Hmmm, don't think I've ever spotted one in my closet. But I took a chance and accepted. It wasn't that I didn't like the line drawings or concept. It just it didn't seem like me. And it didn't seem like me because I had always, always, always stayed away from those styles. But if what if they were for me? As I contemplated what to respond to Heather, I put myself in my private fantasy version of " What Not to Wear ". I could hear myself telling Stacy and Clinton, " but I never wear maxi dresses! I'm short, I can't wear them ." I could almost feel Stacy rolling her eyes as she forced several maxi styles in my hands and pushed me into the dressing room. Out I appeared in a long, flowy and ridiculously comfortable knit...