Speaking of stocking up on Thanksgiving Day supplies early, I have this ingrained need to also stock up on TP (toilet paper).  I am very much aware that there is thankfully no shortage of TP in the USA – thank goodness because we don’t need any flashbacks to Russian days of yore — but I definitely picked up this odd habit from my mom.

Growing up, my mom always had lots of packs of TP on hand.   And I don’t mean lots of 4-roll packs, I mean the big huge packs of TP. My folks used to have a membership to a now defunct warehouse grocery store and my mom would buy these HUGE packs of TP that had SO MANY rolls of TP inside.  As far as I know, she had access to plenty of TP growing up so I have no idea why she felt she needed to buy so much   But like mother, like daughter, and now I keep lots of TP in our house.  We don’t have a warehouse grocery membership, so the big packs at the grocery store will have to do. Or sometimes I buy lots of little 4-roll packs if they are on sale. I get a little nervous, like right now, because we only have one 4-roll pack in the house. I need more TP. And as a side note, I am loyal to my TP brand. Even if another brand is on sale, I will not buy it.

YAY! My one-yard wonders book finally shipped out yesterday!  At the time when I placed my pre-order I had the choice of ordering the regular book or the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition.  At the time I didn’t know the difference between the two editions so I chose to save a dollar or two and pre-ordered the regular version but I have since learned that the exclusive edition contains 5 more projects!  Right now, BN has the exclusive edition for only $11.31 — which is nearly 50% off the cover price!  Just thought I’d pass the good news along in case any of y’all want to order it!

We’re only just one week into November, and yet I’m stocking up on Thanksgiving supplies like the stores are going to run out.  Well actually, some very popular food items will disappear as Thanksgiving Day approaches.  One year, a few days before the holiday, I remember our Publix ran out of the big cartons of organic chicken broth and those cute little cans of solid jellied cranberry sauce which I loooove so much — I love how the solid cranberry jellied mass slides out of the can and I love that the can’s ribbed markings imprint themselves to the solid mass of cranberry jelly which is a very helpful guide for cutting even slices   But I digress… 

Last Saturday, I was psyched (goodness, I can’t believe I just used the word ‘pysched’ about my grocery store trip!) that I bought the 2nd to last can of Libby’s canned pumpkin.  So of course when I saw a freshly stocked display of holiday foods, I plunked another can of Libby’s canned pumpkin in my cart.  I also bought another litttle can of jellied cranberry sauce.  I do make a big batch of cranberry chutney from scratch with fresh cranberries, apples, raisins, among other things, but I still dig on the canned stuff.  I also love to bake with fresh cranberries throughout the year as well, mostly muffins and breads, so  I will stock up on bags of cranberries since they are only sold during the holiday season and after that, no more until next year.     

Anybody else stock up on their favorite Thanksgiving Day food items early in case the stores sell out or am I the only kookie one?!

As you can see,  Benjamin very much likes the pillow I made that has the spotted doggie fabric — they’re his peeps.

Due to all the unexpected heavy rain we’ve received, my allergy season has lasted longer than usual since all the rain caused things to bloom and/or re-bloom.  The most uncomfortable part of my allergies are dry, itchy red eyes — my OTC drops are pretty good but you know they can only do so much.  Lately I’ve been taking notice of my co-workers’ eyes.  One of my co-workers seems not to suffer from allergies at all and the whites of her eyes are so pretty and clear that they remind me of big, white hard-boiled eggs.

A big thanks to shawnlorette on flickr for sharing this vintage pattern set in the hoop love group on flickr.  A big thanks to all who share on hoop love.  Is it just me, or is the online stitchy community really kind and generous with advice, encouragement, and sharing?

I can’t promise too many updates to this WIP.  I’ve been way more bookish lately than stitchy.  I transferred this pattern 2 weeks ago but only today felt the itch to embroider.  I’m in no rush to finish — especially since I might actually have to set this WIP aside at some point to begin making/embroidering/sewing Christmas gifties.

Admittedly, I have a lot of sewing patterns.  Easily, over 2 dozen (yay for $1 pattern sales!).  And yet I’ve only used 2 of them to make jammie bottoms and sleep boxers.  The 3 skirts I’ve made, I used my own drafted pattern.  So why oh why did I become so smitten, dare I say obsessed, with finding an out-of-print (OOP) McCalls pattern #5315?  Weirdly enough, I  think it was because OOP M5315 has side bust darts rather than vertical ones.  Plus, the store bought shift dresses and dress shirts I own have side bust darts and the garments fit well.  I also really like how the side bust darts look, they seem more discret   I’m definitely not a busty gal so I thought side bust darts might be more appropriate for my body type.  I have no idea if my theory is valid or not!

You’d think it would be easy to find an in-print dress pattern with side darts.  Not so.  I may have come across one or two dress patterns with with side darts but the pattern envelope started at a size 8 or 10, and I strongly feel that I am a size 6 in commercial patterns.  I do not have the skills to scale down a pattern nor move bust darts. 

You’d also think it would be easy to find an out-of-print pattern online but I had mixed luck with that.  Nothing was listed on etsy.  But a couple of OOP M5315 patterns were actually listed on ebay, but when I contacted all the sellers they admitted that the pattern came from smoking homes so I declined to buy.  So what was I to do?  I didn’t want to do the obvious option of plunking down $20 to buy the pattern for full price + s/h from the McCalls website.  So I decided to upload an image of the pattern envelope for OOP M5315 to my flickr page so all my contacts could see it, and of course I added the picture to a few sewing groups for extra exposure, and in the picture’s caption I asked if anyone had this uncut pattern in their stash and would be willing to swap it for fabric or something.  My jaw dropped when Nikki from flickr sent me a private flickr message and said that yes indeed she had it and was willing to swap it.  Several days later, our swap is complete.  Nikki sent me the pattern and some beautiful fabric scraps too!!!  I’m grateful for the kindness and generous of the online stitchy community.