My little sweat shop....

Wednesdays and Thursdays are my usual days off. On my days off, I try to work in the yard, take Maggie for walks or hikes, and enjoy some relaxation time. But my sewing business seems to be going a little too well, so I'm spending my days off sewing like crazy. The problem is, it's been hovering around 100 degrees, and there is no A/C in Popeye's house.
*** Oops, I better back up for a minute!*** Let me explain something... Because of a blogging 'run in' with a wealthy person with a fitting name, I now change names on my blog. So,the nice man that is letting me stay at his house will now be called Popeye, because he fancies himself a sailor, but never seems to be on a boat. (Ever notice that about Popeye? He's always on land! What's up with that???)

OH! By the way - I did not have a stalker. I found out that - uh,.. I'll call him "Peter Richy" now -was the REAL thing. Silly me! I really did think he was some bored internet creep that was bugging me. But nope! He was the real thing.

Ok, back to sewing,... because there is no A/C in Popeye's house, and it's 100 degrees outside, and my sewing room is upstairs, facing due west, it's 100 degrees in my sewing room. But I have 4 jobs that need done, so escaping the heat is not an option. So I'm literally working in a sweat shop. But,... or should I say, BUTT, ... I turned on a fan, and I'm sewing in the BUFF!!!
EEEwwww! Just TRY to get that visual out of your head!!!

Bwaaa ha ha ha ha!!!!

At least I'm not including pics with this post! But there is that visual that your own mind will make, and it's probably far worse than photos!!! LMAO!!!

Anybody care to play darts?

Note to Peter and the public at large: This is not a picture of anyone in particular, it's just a random photo I found on the internet. I just needed something to use to practice my dart game, (big tournament coming up.). This photo looked as good as any other, and I'm sure if this person has done anything REALLY stupid in the past day or so, it's merely coincidence.

Actually, I could practice my accuracy by throwing tar balls at it,...yeahhh,...

UH OH.... Somebody's is pissed....

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.


Man, that's scary, when Jesus is getting hit by lightening! That means NOBODY is safe!

Makes me wonder if Mother Nature just needed to send a little message saying... "I'm still the one calling the shots around here, and don't forget it!"

Why I changed my blog to 'private'....

For those that don’t know, I had a cyber stalker.
He's some guy from Massachusettes that is pretending to be Peter Richy, the rich guy I wrote about on the Sailing Quest blog. He had the big blue boat that ran into all the little boats during the night.

Well this guy started out just commenting on the Sailing Quest blog saying "This is Peter Richy, and I don't think you should use my name and my boat in your blog." Then he started emailing me. He acted real tough at first, like he was trying to scare me because I blogged about him. But when I didn't respond, he started trying to make friends, saying he's my most avid reader. Then I notice he’d started reading this Hooty Hoot blog. Then he started telling me he wants to be friends and pen pals. So I finally responded, telling him that I knew he was not Peter Richy, but just a bored guy from Lexington, Massachusettes. (I could tell from my site meters, and he was on my blogs ALOT!) He responded with "Good catch!" But I'm still not going away until that post goes away."

The final straw was when I got a call from Sid. He sent Sid a registered letter! Again saying he was Peter Richy and that he wanted his name removed from that particular post. He told Sid that the post could stay, but to just change the names and then we could be friends. Sid was not happy. I told him that I was sure it was not Peter Richy, but I also assured him that I would not only get rid of the post, but the whole blog. I then decided to make all my blogs by invite only.

Seriously, if a rich guy like Peter Richy was really upset about the blog, I would have gotten a letter from his attorney not him!

He would certainly not start with a comment on my blog, then,... send a nasty email, and when I don’t respond, send a nice email trying to be ‘friends’.

And why would a rich guy with 100 foot Italian yacht want to be my 'pen pal'? Yes, he said he wanted to be pen pals!

Just CREEEEPY!

privacy in blogging...

You know, in the past couple of days, I've had two great subjects to blog about. But it's funny, since I made my blog private, it's just no fun.

Part of the fun of blogging, is putting your thoughts 'out there' for the whole world to see. But with it made private, heck why not just send an email?

So with the beautiful beach art that is what I did, I just sent an email instead of blogging.
- yawn-

And the second subject, one that really gets my dander up:

Abby Sunderland -The 16 year old girl that was trying to sail solo around the world to break the "youngest solo circumnatigation" record.

I was really going to do some serious blogging about the whole fiasco of sending a little girl out on a 40 foot sailboat alone! For gosh sake, that is the size of Quest! That's a big boat, with huge sails. There is a lot of strength required to sail a vessel like that, even if everything on it is electric, it's still a lot for a little girl alone! Sid and I had our hands full a couple of times in some weird weather, and that was still a cake walk considering what was expected of Abby.

Oh and then there is the expense of her rescue, (and who will pay for it?). Will Daddy get the bill???

But the best part,...the fact that her father has stated that "the family will not be elaborating on the problems that lead to the emergency." Gee! REALLY??? That's a shocker! WHY???

1. Could it be because a little girl shouldn't be out there in the first place?

2. Or that she didn't have the strenth to cut away the sails from the broken mast, to keep it from pulling her over or pulling her down?

3. Or that she was out in one of the worst areas on the planet, at the worst time of year, because waiting for a better weather window would have made her miss the 'youngest' record?

4...

5....

6......

GRRRRR!!!

I could go on and on, but I'm not going to... because it's just no fun when I can't share my opions with the world.

It just isn't the same at all. Ol' 'Pete' has taken the fun outta blogging.

Maybe I'll wait a few weeks, give 'Peter' a chance to get bored... and then put it back to public view.... -yawn-

Maggie and Jeri

Maggie loves Bob's old chocolate lab, Jeri.
She wants to be wherever Jeri is.
Fortunately, Jeri is VERY patient with this obnoxious little squirt.

Hanging out with Aunt Jeri, in the back yard.

Playin' Tug o' War with Aunt Jeri!

(Look at the big brown eyeball pleading for help...)

Sewing Projects

I have been getting some great sewing jobs.

I am currently working on putting all new isinglass into a boat dodger. (Putting new plastic window material into the canvas windshield and sides.) It's a large job. It's a full enclosure with 4 large pieces that contain 7 'windows'.

This has been a very challenging project. But I'd really like to reach a point to where I can specialize in marine sewing, so this is a fantastic.

You can see the old window material is badly discolored, and also cracked and breaking apart. Removing the old material, while maintaining the correct size and shape of the canvas frame was the most difficult part of the entire project, but I figured out a great trick and it has worked beautifully.

This is the old windshield... you can really see the discoloration on the right side of the picture.

This is the new windshield. Much better!

Old...

New!

I'm not completely finished, but I will get it wrapped up on my day off this week. :o)

These are some cushions and a table cloth that I made for a lady that has an antique patio set which is painted pale blue. She said she also has red flower pots and accents in the area. She asked me to help pick out fabric that would look good, as well as do the sewing. Here's what we did!

She said she'd send me a photo of the cushions ON the set, but I haven't received that yet. (Too wet to put the cushions outside!)

After finishing the boat dodger, I'll be putting a backing on a quilt and making matching pillow shams.