Here are the fall forecast colors for 2011. I like these colors a lot. Overall, they’re warmer and deeper than the shades for 2010 were. Last fall, your trendy brown would have been chocolate, and this year it’s coffee with nougat.   Last year it was rustic green and this year it’s cedar. Last year’s sunset yellows have deepened to this year’s bamboo.

The change is just enough to make you want to buy new clothes, but not so much that you have to buy all new gear, which might make you rebel and ignore the new color forecast. This way, you can still keep the old stuff without looking too dated, but the new things won’t go with the old ones.

I began my Summer Tops Project today with a top from Butterick 5354, which you’ll notice is illustrated in shades from last year.

However, I’m making it in Honeysuckle Pink, the 2011 Color of the Year (in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s Tusk, a very pale citrus green a lot like the pale green in our colors from last year).

If you read the sewing blogs, you might have noticed that buxom seamstresses are liking 5354 and making it in multiples, while slender girls are saying it’s like a tent. I like it a lot and will probably make more. I’m hemming it this evening, probably while watching a movie, and then tomorrow I’ll show you a picture.

As I say, I like the colors for fall. The teal and the blue-green are the same color family as my eyes, and they make my gray hair look silvery, so those are always good colors for me. The thing is, when your good colors are in style, it’s easier to find things in those colors.

However, even if the trendy colors happen to be favorites, you’ll find that your older clothes won’t look stylish. First, they’ll be in different combinations. Last time we really saw teal, it was being paired with mauve and  burgundy. Nice colors, too, but wear them with teal this fall and you will immediately look old-fashioned.

No, this year you have to wear your teal with mustard yellow and warm browns, and I guess with spicy pink, though I’m finding that a hard combination to accept right at the moment.

Skirts are longer, and A-line, either full or narrow. Pants have longer legs. Sheath dresses are holding strong, with little A-line dresses as an alternative for those who aren’t slinky enough to wear a sheath well. Jackets are boxier and simpler in shape, but there’s quite a bit of draping and layering going on. Pleats and tucks are still popular, and I’m glad of that, but there’s also a lot of metallic embellishment, which I could do without. Mixed neutrals, like caramel and gray and black, are popular, and some of us will add what people insist on calling “a pop of color.” That’s another phrase, along with “seamless” and “passionate,” that I’m really tired of.

And I guess that lets me be sympathetic about the color changing. I’m quite sure that people who work with fashion color all the time begin to feel that they can stand no more chocolate brown, and will stab the next person who offers them anything in aqua with their scissors, just as I just can’t think about any more seamless integrations of X with Y.

We had a wild storm last night which left the back yard smelling of honeysuckle. 

The honeysuckle was there before the storm, of course. We have honeysuckle and little wild dog roses growing along the fence. The scent isn’t usually as heady as all that, though. You have to get right up to next to it normally to get a sniff.

The storm took all the trees and shook them wildly, and I guess that stirring up brought out the scent.

It’s been a different sort of week for me. Monday I gave a final exam and then had a couple of clients in for a training.

I like these guys a lot. They’re smart and honest and really passionate about their work (and if you have any idea how sick I am of that description, you’ll know there’s no other way to put it), and they deserve their fine new website. (I really am sick of that description. And yet, when The Computer Guy said of us to a client, “We’re passionate about the web,” I had to realize though with a jolt that it was true. Otherwise I wouldn’t think that some people deserve good websites.)

Tuesday I worked hard to make up for the time I’d lost on Monday,  but Wednesday I had my hair cut and went to the bank and the bookstore. Yesterday I had to drive up to sign my contract and go to the dentist, and I ended up at the fabric store.

And yet, in spite of these extra gallivantings, I stopped work each day at 5:00 and took the dogs for a walk. I started each day with 30 minutes of basic Wii Step (2900+ steps). I stopped for meals and had balanced, cooked meals, too. I did some housework and spent time with my family. I practiced music.

True, I went back and worked again some evenings. But still, I’m doing amazingly well with the whole Systems and Schedules bit. I worked only 47 hours this week, and I have only a couple more hours to do this weekend.

I’m living a practically normal life.
Tomorrow I’m going to sing at a lecture on the Book of Revelation. Revelation never has made any sense to me, frankly, however hard I try.

The Dalai Lama came to speak here this past week. #1 son and La Bella both went to hear him. Neither could really understand him, either because of his accent or the sound system, but both felt that he was saying really wonderful things, and stayed entranced through the whole thing. This is sort of how I feel about Revelation.

Tomorrow’s speaker is an expert on the subject, so I may be able to get the gist of it this time. We’ll see.

I’m also going to work on this year’s sewing project. I have a couple of weeks off between spring term and summer term, and in the summer I teach five days a week. This is not so much a big deal in terms of the work involved, but it is a big deal to dress like a grown up five days a week, so I try to prepare a bit between the terms. The first year that I did it I bought clothes. Last year I started a SWAP and managed one jacket, four tops, and a skirt — half a SWAP, in other words. This year I intend just to sew as many different tops as possible. I have some jackets and pants left, even if they are a bit worn by now, so I figure that new blouses will see me through.

We have some plants!
Baby nasturtiums. We have pots of nasturtiums on the back patio. There may not be any flowers, since the soil is rather rich, but the foliage is getting pretty.

I surrounded the patio with pots like these. We have a single chaise longue and a barbecue, which isn’t exactly a welcoming furniture arrangement, but it’s nice for me to sit out and read.

The weather is perfect for that, and I have a light novel for the purpose. I gave a final this morning and read Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Dominationon my Kindle while the students wrote. It was nice, but reading out on the patio is nicer.

We have a rose blooming (New Dawn) and columbine and azaleas in the front.

Baby salad. The cracks in the dirt are the result of the flood. We expected that it would wash everything away, but it didn’t, so we had a lucky escape.

We have baby peas and squash, too. Tomatoes and peppers have yet to be planted.

We have some plants!
Baby nasturtiums. We have pots of nasturtiums on the back patio. There may not be any flowers, since the soil is rather rich, but the foliage is getting pretty.

I surrounded the patio with pots like these. We have a single chaise longue and a barbecue, which isn’t exactly a welcoming furniture arrangement, but it’s nice for me to sit out and read.

The weather is perfect for that, and I have a light novel for the purpose. I gave a final this morning and read Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Dominationon my Kindle while the students wrote. It was nice, but reading out on the patio is nicer.

We have a rose blooming (New Dawn) and columbine and azaleas in the front.

Baby salad. The cracks in the dirt are the result of the flood. We expected that it would wash everything away, but it didn’t, so we had a lucky escape.

We have baby peas and squash, too. Tomatoes and peppers have yet to be planted.

This was my kitchen at the beginning of the day yesterday. I have the “after” picture below. 

I think before and after pictures are just about the only way to gain significant satisfaction from housework. It doesn’t last long, and no one is impressed with it at the time — at least not in my house.

Still, we can’t expect to live in a state of squalor like the before picture and also be happy, can we?

I did the cupboards as well, so you will see before and after pictures of one of the cupboards below as well.

I was supposed to go to a party yesterday, but I didn’t. Allergies are my excuse, but the truth is that I never feel like going to parties, even though I enjoy myself once I’m there.

Since I hadn’t arranged to go with anyone, the time came and I was engrossed in  a book and didn’t feel like going, so I didn’t.

My husband had me attempting to find out the names of the particular Navy SEALs responsible for the death of Bin Laden for much of the day. He gets made fascinations with particular news stories and wants to know lots of details. In this case, he thinks that the Navy was the wrong force for the undertaking. It seems to him that the Army should have been called, since it took place on land. He’s imagining the Army sitting around feeling bad because the Navy took on the task instead of calling them. “Blast those Navy SEALs,” he imagines them thinking, “they should stay in the water!”

Of all the things a person could worry about in this particular bit of history, the feelings of the Army seem to me to be about the least important.
I am having a horrible allergy attack, though. Headache, swollen eyes, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, sore throat. I woke up last night — turn away if you have a weak stomach — because I was about to drip onto my pillow and had to go blow my nose. Pretty disgusting.

In addition to cleaning and organizing the kitchen and discussing the case of Bin Laden, I also read and knitted. While I did read a bit of a new and wonderful science book I’ve just received, I also read a lot more of a light mystery novel. I rejoined Booksfree, my former steady source of books that are fun to read but not really worth rereading.

Booksfree sends out a couple of books at a time on a rental basis, like Netflix but for books. I stopped my subscription there during my Stage I business building. Now, three years in and still in business (which means that I am more successful than 80% of all businesses, since only 20% of businesses started in the U.S. ever reach their third birthday), I am returning to a more balanced life.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve heard me say this before. However, since almost no one does read my blog any more, I can say it again as though it were news.

With anything of this kind, where you keep saying you’re going to improve and actually don’t, you only really have two choices. You can give up and admit that you will never improve, and keep doing the wrong thing for the rest of your life, or you can keep trying again.

Trying again has the disadvantage of allowing you to fail again. But not trying again has the comparable disadvantage of meaning that you already have failed.

So I’m trying again. I’m beginning with systems and schedules. #1 daughter, project manager of the company, is being helpful with this, organizing my work schedule into manageable bits for each day. I’m trying to resurrect my former schedule from the days when I worked a fairly steady 40 hours a week instead of 55 or more hours a week.

Because I love my work and I love the people I work with, and I feel blessed to have been able to make this change in my life. But I also miss having a pretty house and good health and interesting thoughts outside of work, not to mention more than three or four FOs a year.

It is, by the way, Mother’s Day, and we have no full-blown roses. They’re late. I’m excusing them, since there were all those floods and tornadoes and things.

Here’s #2 son hiding his face so I couldn’t take his picture. That means that I can post his picture, so the laugh is on him.

He called yesterday to say that he’s got an apartment on campus for the summer, and  a summer job. We’ll miss him, but I’m also excited for him.

#1 son plans to get a real job and move in with friends this summer. We went out this week and bought him some grownup clothes for the job hunt; he looks sharp in them, though that doesn’t guarantee that he’ll get a job that will allow him to support himself. If he does, then we would have an empty nest — apart from the dogs, of course.

#1 daughter not long ago said that she thinks I’m tired of taking care of people. Not, she hastened to add, tired of my kids (though I am certainly tired of the dogs), but tired of taking care of everyone.

It’s true. Maybe it’s time for me to take care of myself for a while.

I may be thinking of this because I’m having an allergy attack and that, combined with my perpetual lack of sleep, is making me feel a bit sorry for myself.

No matter. Today I think I’ll take the day off and do some things for myself: clean my house, do some sewing, go for a walk, read. Actually, I have some blogs I have to write, and we just launched a website so I have to keep an eye on it a little bit, but mostly I think I could spend today taking care of myself. See how I like it.

We had a nice Easter. All the kids were home, a rare event, and we visited my parents.

Even though my kids are all pretty big now, they still wanted Easter baskets, so  we had those along with breakfast.

I went to early service at one church and came home and got #2 daughter for the second service at the other church.

I got to sing the Hallelujah Chorus twice, and the second church had brass and tympani.

#1 son had to work on Easter Sunday, so we had our Easter dinner the day before, but the leftovers were quite good on Easter day as well.

With Easter past, life settled back into its routine: lots of work. However, I did have some social events this week, I got some knitting in, and I’m doing at least a little bit of housework every day. Yesterday I didn’t work at all.

We’ve been having dramatic weather here, but I’ve planted some things and they’re mostly up and looking cheerful. I may get around to planting the rest of the garden today, since things seem to have settled down a bit. Spending time in the garden is a satisfying thing to do.

It’s Palm Sunday. I’m singing at two services at two churches, so I’ve had to get up very early in order to get my Australians settled before church.

This is because I really didn’t feel like working yesterday, so I didn’t.

I made a rather shapeless green silk charmeuse nightgown, since it should soon be too hot for flannel, and planted squash and peppers again with the idea that it will soon be hot, and sewed all the seams of a dress which I might have ready for Easter, and did the grocery shopping, and talked with my daughters, and sat out on the patio and read in the sunshine, and cleaned house a bit, and drank some of the Snow Dragon tea while idly watching basketball with #1 son — everything, as you can see, except working.

I haven’t kept a good Lent and I’m going into Holy Week with no plans beyond the usual Sunday church attendance. Odd for a church musician.  I don’t even have plans for Easter.

Looking back in my xanga, I can see that I used to be rather good at daily life. Now, with the third anniversary of my self-employment upon me, I think I need to recapture that.

It’s an anniversary. On this day in 2008,  I learned that the store where I had worked for 15 years was going out of business and that I would be unemployed.

Among the many cool things I saw up in the Big City were these triangular cushions.

I can add them to my list of things I think about making, since I don’t actually have time to make anything.

#1 daughter says that I’m wrong about this. I choose to work a ridiculous amount, she says, but I have a choice.

She may be right. If so, then I ought to make these cushions. They are composed of long, triangular tubes stuffed firmly with something like horsehair. The tubes are then stacked up and sewn together. The result is a very firm, very comfortable backrest of a cushion.

You probably can’t see that there are elephants walking along the fabric. A soft mushroom brown and pink stripe enlivened with elephants.

I feel as though this sort of cushion is so clever that I ought to make one for no other reason than that.

Actually, I still have quite a bit of work to do for this week, and I have to clean the carpet because one of the hideous dogs wee’d on it, but I also plan to go to the farmers market and plant some stuff.

Big plans, in other words.

This evening, #1 son and I had pizza, he told me the three characteristics he has chosen as the main things he wants to achieve with his writing, and then I watched Dirty Sexy Money and worked on my gray sweater.

I don’t know whether I’ll actually get around to the cushions, but the sweater should be finished in time for the cool weather in the fall.