Well, it's that time of year again...

Last year I managed to kinda avoid this by leaving one job at the end of July, which happened in a bit of a whirl of life events, and starting at the beginning of this "busy season" business, so it was really a lot of transition time and not crazy time, which was really great.  But now I find myself back in a cycle where my life disappears into a cubicle/office where this guy watches over me...

yup, watching over me at both Pdub and TWM - he's everywhere, rallying the dark forces

...and I eat three meals a day here...

...and I wonder why it is that I do this stuff.  Sigh.

Sewing...an actual garment...for me to WEAR...in public...

The last thing I attempted to sew that was actually meant to worn on my own body was a pair of pajama pants, circa sometime early 2000s...heck, let's call it a decade or so ago...and it was pretty much an epic fail.  Sorry to break it to you like that.  It did come together relatively smoothly - the legs ended up actually being about the length of my legs, my waist wasn't horribly constricted by some ridiculous elastic situation, the fabric was cute and everything.  I triumphantly pulled them on and went to curl up on the couch - and the entire crotch area riiiiiiiiiiipped apart because I did a horrible job of taking care of an important seam.  So much to learn about reinforcing and stitch length and so on and so forth.  I think I got frustrated and threw them in the trash.

Well, we've come a long way, people.  Skillz acquired and ready to go.  And when my dear friends Dan & Jeremy said "hey y'all, we're getting married in Mexico, you SO must be there, please wear white because it'll look awesome and beachy!!"...I thought big.  I mean, first I looked on ModCloth and scoped out my options, but then since I'm an insane crazy person I relish in at least starting craftastic projects, I thought about sewing a dress.  Yeah, let's go for it!  I can do this!!  I'm going to buy Rae's Washi Dress pattern and DO this thing!!!  So excited, LET'S BUY THE PERFECT FABRIC!!!!

There you go - March 9, 2013 - captured for posterity in a sad phone pic - found some great seersucker with a bronzey metallic thread running through it, super cute, tons of possibilities.  Let's do this thing, for reals.  I have approximately three months to make this dress happen, and I'm feeling dang good about things.

So excited that by MAY 27, two and half months into this three month window, I had done THIS with the fabric...

...yeah, that's right, I totally washed AND dried it.  And refolded it.  And let it sit.  Until Memorial Day weekend, about two and a half weeks before we were hopping on a plane to Cabo San Lucas.  I figured this holiday weekend better count for something, so I made some epic progress, like actually getting the pattern assembled (PDF patterns from online purchases...yup, you print those bad boys out on regular ol' paper, tape it together, and then cut it out - just putting the pattern together was a little tedious, yeeps)...

...and cutting out the pieces for this thing, where I gladly used whatever typical household tools were available to assist and was extremely grateful that we shelled out for the extra-long dining room table, which basically serves as a craft station far more frequently than it actually functions as a dining room table. 

Then I actually started sewing, and the piles of fabric started to come together in something remotely resembling a garment.  Holy hell, I'm feeling kinda good about this, even with the late start.

I mean, I have helpers and everything!

Craig helped by bringing me a glass of wine (a sewing machine doesn't count as heavy machinery, right?), and Harry and Zach are totally helpful when it comes to sewing.  Just look at all of that encouragement surrounding me.  And those shelves that still haven't made it onto a wall, but let's not think about that right now.

And then the dress really did start looking like a dress, which happens when you decide to line the dress (since it's white...I mean, come on, we need another layer of fabric in there), which means you're basically sewing two dresses instead of one and one of the dresses just happens to get sewn into the other dress.  Phew.  We're getting there.

Mission-critical pinning-together of the dress and the lining - fingers crossed!

So, at this point, I've basically exploded all over the dining room AND my office/craftastic room...

...and everyone's worried, even the dog, who is usually pretty laid-back about most things in life, so now I'm getting worried, too.

Mom, WHAT exactly are you doing??

And then it all went wrong when I botched the lining and basically sewed everything together backwards and cursed the day I decided to freaking sew a dress wondered what I had gotten myself into and spent more time than I would like to admit to picking out stitches and redoing hours of work.

Yes, I finished the dress the night before we left.  And it worked.  Thank goodness.

I'm going to call this one a craftastic win, even with my procrastination.  Because, I mean, just look how cute we are.  Phew.

I knew you were coming, so I went ahead and baked a cake

A month ago (yeah, I know, July disappeared, too) we had some visitors (hi, Mom and Dad!!), and since one of them was having a birthday, it really was the perfect reason to bake a cake.  So I did.  At, like, midnight the night before because I have poor time management skills when it comes to prioritizing things and strongly feel that sometimes watching crap TV is number one.  Oops.  Let's commence with the caking.

Is it scary when the stuff IN the mixer matches the color OF the mixer?  Only a little bit...

And that's why you slap on a crumb coat - look at that hot mess of a cake

There, that's better!  Thumbs up to the cake!

This is Dad we're talking about, so I knew red velvet was the way to go.  And yes, it's kinda ridiculous to bake a giant cake for four people to maybe have one piece each, but when has that ever stopped me?  So we kept on celebrating by doing the present thing...

birthday present opening while wearing Father's Day present - now, that's pretty cool, Dad

...and journeying over to Ft. Worth and eating some really delicious Mexican food at El Rancho Grande, where we've been going as a family since before I can remember...

...and doing some definite Dad-style shopping, where Craig was more than just a little out of his element.

"What the heck are these things?" - oh, Craig, so much horse education to go

It was a little on the crazy-hot side, but we explored the stockyards for a little while and found some horsey friends.

Then back home to just sit in air conditioning where certain animals were a little less inclined to be friends...

...but then pretty much got over it and decided these guys weren't so bad after all.

oh, kitten, you are ridiculous

Happy birthday, Dad, creepy dripping candles and all!