It's Mother's Day, and we always have our first  rose by Mother's Day. This year, Falstaff is the winner.

New Dawn is all over the lot, though, and when she blooms, Falstaff will be overwhelmed and Montezuma will hardly get a look in.

If you mostly want a really prolific bloomer, New Dawn is a good one to consider. Montezuma is actually also a good full-season bloomer. Falstaff is lush and heavily scented, though, so the mixture is nice.

I did slight bits of work yesterday, answering emails, sending out a proposal and a corrected invoice, working a bit on our new portfolio site -- but very little work took place.

Mostly I sewed.

When you make a SWAP, you should generally plan to spend the first day planning and pinning and cutting. You don't generally get into the sewing straightaway. You have to make your storyboard, pin and cut all the patterns, get bobbins loaded for your colors...

But I haven't followed the rules properly, have I? So I got the first two tops cut out just fine, since I had decided how to make them and chosen TNT patterns, and I set them over by the sewing machine and returned to the pinning and cutting.

And stopped. I have this wonderful indigo linen, and there's enough to make a two-piece dress -- but I have two patterns I'm thinking of, neither of which I've tried before. And both are princess-seamed, which is a style that looked great on me when I was younger and thinner, but who knows now?

So of course I didn't want to plunge right in cutting that. I folded it up and put it away to think about it. I cut the jacket instead -- after quite a bit of time thinking and deciding and measuring and otherwise fooling around, because again I'm not using a TNT pattern.

And then I had to sew up the major seams, just to be sure it would work out, and pin it all over the place to approximate the proper shape.

And since I didn't plan properly, I don't actually have enough for a skirt to match this, which is a shame, because I think it's going to turn out well.

You can't really tell, since it's not pressed or finished or anything, but I've tried it on and I feel optimistic.

However, my husband came out an surveyed my progress and assured me that things I sew don't look good and I should just buy clothes. He's not one of those people who believes in saying encouraging things.

But then CD came by with bunches of additional fabric, so I continued. I think I will make the 2-piece dress from this floral here, since prints are more forgiving when it comes to seams.

And I think the dark brown will make a great accent color, though brown is probably another color I should keep away from my face.

There are further blues, though, including knits, so I can add knit tops.

While you can't tell much from WIP photos of sewn things, I think this will be quite a nice SWAP, and I'll be able to be well-dressed for my summer class.

So today after church I will carry on with my pinning and cutting. I'll probably go ahead and cut another of these jackets from that lovely deep blue linen, now that I know it will fit and look nice, and I think it has enough for a skirt as well, so that can be my suit and this can be a second jacket.

I cut the beige linen pants, too, so I'll run the main seams up and make sure they fit and are within my skill range. If they are, I'll go ahead and cut dark brown ones as well. And I'll do the same with the 2-piece dress, possibly doing a muslin first.

If I had followed the rules, of course, I'd have had everything cut out yesterday and sewn it all up today. However, I am having fun.

Today I am going to have a PSD and work on my  SWAP. Love those acronyms, right?

A PSD is a Personal Sewing Day, when you put dinner in the crockpot, cue up some chickflicks on the Movie Watching Device of your choice, and spend the day sewing.

SWAP stands for Sewing With a Plan, rather than randomly sewing stuff because it looks cute. If you do this, you will end up having clothes to wear every day.

I know this to be true, because I did it a few years back. I made a nice burgundy and gray wardrobe for the fall, and since everything worked together, I was able to get dressed like a grown up every day.

Here's the SWAP system:
1. Determine your mystical best colors according to the system of your choice. One should be a neutral, such as gray, while the other should be a "fashion color" such as burgundy. In this case, I am making what is known in the trade as a "stashbuster" SWAP, which means you look at your fabric and see what you have a lot of. La Bella gave me a bunch of wools and linens a while back when she quit sewing, so I have beige and blue. Beige is a neutral, and blue is a fashion color, so I'm right on track. Beige is, as it happens, a horrible color for me, so I will be twisting the rules a bit to keep it away from my face.
1.b. Read on for the rest of the system, but you should make a storyboard between understanding it and doing it. If you are a proper sewing blogger, which I'm not, you'll give your SWAP a name based on its colors. Mine, being blue and beige, would have something about the beach in it. I didn't make the rules. One very sensible rule is that you should use TNT patterns (tried and true -- ones you have already made so you know they fit, etc.).
2. Find a print containing those colors, and make a two-piece dress from it. I did find such a print, and I like it very much, but it was a remnant. I will therefore be making a solid two-piece dress and using that print for a top.
3. Make a three-piece suit (jacket, skirt, and pants) from the neutral. I will be bending the rules again here, because of the aforementioned not looking good in beige issue. I'm going to make a skirt suit with a soft blue linen. There is no way I would wear a soft blue pantsuit (it would look great on LaBella), so I will be making the pants from beige linen.
4. Once you've done these things, you'll have a jacket, a top, two skirts, and a pair of pants. You must make another skirt or pair of pants. Generally, you'll make it in the other color -- that is, a skirt in the fashion color, so you have one in the neutral, one in the fashion color, and one in the print. I'll be making a second pair of pants in another shade of beige.
5. Now you need to make a slew of tops: five more, for a total of six. You've made one in the print and it must work with all the skirts and pants. Now you'll make one in each of the two main colors, also making sure that they work with all the pieces. The other three can be in accent colors that work with your main colors and your print.

The Colorschemer suggests that my blue and beige look could do with a shot of red. The Color Wizard thought lavender would be nice. In fact, I have a slate blue, an ivory lace, and an electric blue, which bring me up to four with the print. I think I have some nice red linen, too. And you really aren't supposed to use multiple prints, but since I have no print skirt for it to have to work with, I'm thinking about making the final top from a blue and beige tropical flower print I have had hanging around for years. I happen to like those prints, but my daughters have told me firmly that I mustn't wear them. Since I am breaking all sort of rules here, I may go ahead and break that one, too.

I also saw the top here in a catalog, for $35, and quite liked it, so I may take the picture to the fabric store and see if they can help me replicate it for much less. I like to mess around with the tops to keep it fun, but Australian Stitches magazine,which is where this idea comes from, has shown in many photo features that you can make all your tops in basic T shapes and still have them all look different, based on your fabric and embellishment choices.

So, yes, that's my plan. It's a gorgeous day today, so I'll break for a walk at some point, but otherwise this is a PSD.

I went hiking this morning, between redoing a web page and writing a passel of blog posts fro various people.

I also chatted with clients, but they were all happy and love me, so that was fine.

It was a good day, productive and pleasant, and I'm stopping work on time. I may also go to the grocery store right quick so i don't have to do it tomorrow.

I even have a plan for what to make for dinner.

Amazing, huh?

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. I made him a cake and took him for a little jaunt to the Botanical Gardens. It was a very enjoyable interlude in the day.

I was working on an article about green exercise at the time and needing a couple hundred more words, so I was thinking I could include thoughts on preparing for outdoor sports and adventures. I asked my husband for his thoughts on the subject, and he informed me that one should make sure there aren't any tigers.

I felt pretty sure there weren't any tigers at the botanical gardens, and sure enough, our visit there was entirely tiger free. Lovely gardens, though.

There was also bell practice, choir practice, the last day of face to face classes, and an interview with a motivational speaker. That's a bracing experience, I can tell you.

I went to Tuesday night class last night. Partygirl called me just as I was finishing up one thing and getting readyto plunge into another, she asked if I wanted to go, and I just said, "Yes." Like a person with a normal life.

The speaker talked about people who let their lives be ruled by feelings, fear, or fatalism. Big mistakes.

Then I came home and graded papers, and then got up before dawn to grade some more papers, and now I must rush to get to class. Directly after class I have a phone interview, which I guess I'll have to conduct in the classroom. Then a bunch of deadlines.

At least it's not fear, feelings, or fatalism.

So the print in my SWAP fabric collection contains several shades of blue, plus a golden brown. I also have solids in several shades of blue and beige, including some of the beige-to-gray tones here.

I certainly have enough fabric to make an entire SWAP, and it can be what the seamstresses call a stash-buster, the kind where you don't have to go out and buy any more fabric at all.

Still, it is fun to look at fabrics, and I'm not sure that I can actually follow the rules with the stuff I have an hand.

So yesterday, in an almost unprecedented burst of workday fun, I stopped on the way back from class at the fabric store.

First, of course, they might have had enough more of the print that I could have made a skirt from it. I think the original Rules of the SWAP called for a two piece dress in the print, a three-piece suit in one of its two main colors, and a fourth bottom piece (pants or skirt) in the second main color.

Then you use the remaining colors from the print to make tops. 

They did not in fact have any more of the print. They did have many different fabrics in that nice golden brown -- soft pinwale corduroy, rayon challis, cotton gauze -- it was a feast of choice.

I think that I look terrible in that color, though.

They also had a couple of options in the electric blue, which just seemed too bright, and the indigo, which seemed boring. So I left without fabric, which may be just as well, since I may never actually sew these things.

Wrong attitude, though. I should be positive about it. I have soft blue linen, and I could make this jacket from it.

It's a quick and easy jacket, with no buttonholes.

My friend CD is doing this properly, with a wardrobe pattern. I own this nice suit pattern. No blouse, but I have several good blouse patterns.

I could do the suit in indigo blue, or in the soft blue (without the bow -- I can barely imagine wearing that almost pastel blue as a jacket, but certainly not with a bow.
 
I have a couple of yards each of linen in slate blue and electric blue, and I could use them to make the kind of simple tops that look good under jackets.

I also have some not-really-linen someone gave me in a golden brown, and I could make pants from that. Pants are far from your face, so it doesn't matter if you look bad in that color or not, right?

I also have this less frivolous-looking suit.

Sewing a proper jacket may be beyond my skill level. I have actually sewn jackets before, but it has always been a great adventure.

I may or may not have time for a great adventure.

Also, I suspect that the trumpet skirt is out of style.

The advantage of using a wardrobe pattern (the kind with a jacket, top, pants,and skirt in the same envelope) is that you know the pieces will work together.

If you take a jacket from here and a skirt from there, you can discover after you finish that the shapes of the two pieces don't work together.

However, I could use the same skirt, pants, and top patterns I've used before (another SWAP rules is to use TNT, or tried and true patterns) and just have the adventure of the jacket.

Well, it's fun to think about it, and I may actually make something. Who knows?

I did figure out how to use the gallery feature at Freshplans, and I'm pretty excited about that.

I have a meeting this morning. Yesterday, I spent a lot of time in phone calls and phone meetings and IMs and even one physical meeting. I'm spending more and more time on admin stuff. I think this is widely thought of as a good thing in business, in that it means that other people are doing some profitable work, and you have more business coming in, and stuff like that. You hear, "Work on your business, not in your business."

We'll see. Right now I'm back to watching for the mail eagerly in hopes of a check arriving.

My friend CD is planning a SWAP. She has shown me the patterns she has chosen for the purpose -- one wardrobe pattern plus one top, not 12 patterns to make 11 outfits -- and explained the color scheme she has in mind.

I had a SWAP planned last year, but never got it done. I had to go out and buy clothing for the five day a week teaching part of my summer: two pairs of pants, three jackets, and five blouses, I think. One of those blouses is stained and another has a tear in it. The pants are showing wear. The jackets are fine, but still... I will be teaching five days a week, and that is an undertaking that requires clothing. I also have a lot more client meetings these days.

And yet, having sent vast sums of money to the IRS and state equivalent, not to mention all that tuition, I don't feel that I can do any shopping.

I have two weeks off from teaching, though, which ought to give me an extra 7 or so hours a week. I could make that SWAP I planned and did not make last year.

The print in the center of the photo has a sort of golden beige with dark and electric blues, and I have a beautiful beige French lace that would make a pretty blouse. I have linens and cottons in various beiges and blues, plus a spruce green that makes a nice contrast.

I'm thinking it'll end up sort of like this picture. Maybe not. But I am feeling inspired. I can have a bit of a stay-cation and sew, and be ready to attend June classes fully clothed.
 

CD and I went on a hike yesterday. It was beautiful. 5 miles around the lake.

I think my Rocketdog sneakers weren't up to the task. My feet hurt. I'm lurching around like Frankenstein's monster. I'm thinking it might not be a good idea to walk to church this morning.

I may need hiking boots.

At the time, however, it was very nice indeed.

We had lots of good conversation. So did the people we passed. Cyclists discussing substance abuse, walkers discussing relationships, one woman giving an impassioned speech to her companions about what the body needs.

Along the way, we met up with part of the Butterfield Trail.

There was a marker and there were benches made of wagon wheels, and even a special paving in the shape of a wagon wheel, and I guess we could have walked on the trail if we'd wanted to.

For three years, the Butterfield Mail carried mail and passengers 2800 miles from Missouri to California. It took 25 days to get from the beginning to the end of the trail. The very worst part of the trip was in our state: 11 miles which used to be announced on the highway with a sign saying "# accidents this year. Don't you be next." I haven't taken that road for a while, so that sign may still be there. I just haven't seen it recently. It might have said the current number of people "died here. Don't you be next." I can't remember. I know it was a good, ominous warning.

After the hike, we went to lunch. Lunch involved turkey with avocado and salad with dried cranberries and walnuts, combinations which I find irresistible.

And then I came home and folded laundry, read, napped, did a bit of work, and totally forgot to go to the Derby party.

I meant to go. I had invited Blessing to go along with me, in fact. She must have forgotten, too.

The Art Professor has done a second pass at the roofer's website mockup. He has a skyline on his current site, and was asking for a refresh, not a new design. He's getting something so much better that it's essentially a new design. I hope he'll realize that on his own so I won't have to point it out and tell him that further revisions will add to his cost.

However, the hiking has me relaxed enough to do so in a cheery voice.

Here's a very small turtle who was hanging out in our garden. 

My husband brought this turtle inside. I don't entirely know why. He really likes animals, though, and has an affinity for them. Even when he's about to kill and eat them, he always speaks to them lovingly, and they seem to love him as well.

The dogs were going nuts over this turtle, though. Toby, in particular, wanted to get it -- probably more than he has ever wanted anything in his entire life.

My husband put the tiny turtle down onto the floor, and told the dogs to leave it alone.

They did so, but you could tell it was a supreme effort of will.

My husband encouraged the turtle to put its head out, and then its legs, and after a bit #1son came in  and announced that my husband was saying, "Run, little American turtle! Run!"

We don't know how to respond to these things.

In any case, the turtle survived its adventure and was returned to the wild.

It's pretty wild in our garden.

Though I am making an effort to have a normal life, I haven't yet gotten around to doing any work in the garden.

We have flowers and things amidst the weeds, but it's very jungly.

I have papers to grade today. I've graded everything that was turned in on time, but students turn things in late and then  email repeatedly and urgently to suggest that I should hurry up and get their feedback to them.

I have limited sympathy.

I also have a hike planned for today, with a friend, and perhaps a Derby party, and somewhere in there I ought to do the grocery shopping and a little mild housework, so I may or may not get to all the grading, but I'll try.

I met yesterday with a local chiropractor who needs a new website. I may pass it on to The Computer Guy, since he also has some hosting issues, but sometimes The Computer Guy doesn't want these things, so we'll see.