The Woodland Fairy Queen's Bifurcated Dress Form - Even Titania...

While hiking Windy Hill this past weekend, I was amazed to see that the Woodland Fairy Queen had gone off leaving her bifurcated dress form behind.

It seems, even Titania wears trousers these days.

(co-published in Postcard From California, and  Me Encanta Coser/Encanted By Sewing)

Mrs. Obama's Arms Inspire Shirt Dress Sewing and More (Romancing the Dress, Ivy)

Mrs. Obama is an inspiration to me professionally and politically.
Also she inspires me to want to improve my muscles - using sewing as my exercise willpower gimmick!

I've been working on adding weight lifting into my health routine. I'm a regular exerciser, but weights have been a challenge for me to add. They just doesn't interest me like walking, hiking, biking or swimming do. I know, however, that weight lifting is linked to a decrease in health problems that affect ladies of a certain age (osteoporosis). I think it may help with my posture improvement program. I know that it improves lean muscle mass, which increases my metabolism rate (never a bad idea). It's clear from her toned physique and excellent posture, that Mrs. Obama has mastered this exercise skill. Isn't it nice when our leaders and their spouses are not only professional and citizen role models, but health models as well? Images of our president's beautiful wife  have reinforced my desire to improve my own biceps, triceps, and .... you know all that other arm area stuff.

Oh yes, this is my sewing journal!

I don't know 'bout you, but I sometimes have to fool myself into liking a new exercise. I think I may have found the secret for making weight lifting more fun for me. 

You probably guessed that has something to do with sewing...

Here's how I do it... 

Over the last week, I've been working on a new dress, I call Ivy. I had the piece of forest green, raw silk (silk noil) you see below, in my fabric inventory, just waiting for more meaning in it's life, then could be found in my armoire. I bought the material at Thai Silks/Exotic Silks in Los Altos a year ago, planing to create a shirt dress for last fall's Draping class. Part way through the semester, I realized, that I wasn't quite ready to drape something with that much detail, so I made a simpler linen dress with a front zip instead. Since then I've altered a commercial shirt dress pattern to create just the  type of dress I wanted. (More about my pattern work and sewing experiences in my recent Shirt Dressing audio podcast. You can also read blog postings I wrote about my first shirt dress "Peaches and Cream".)

A little pinning, a little cutting - it all fits great in between
ten curls, rows or other weight bearing exercise moves.
Don't you love this deep forest green silk noil/raw silk?
I bet Mrs. Obama would approve!

I'd like to wear Ivy to several events over the holiday and winter season. I've also got a personal deadline for finishing her. There's a supper party coming up midway through this month. Though these events inspire me to complete Ivy, life gets in the way a bit. Believe it or not, I have a few things to do other than sew :-) ! Of course in addition to fitting sewing in and around those things, I need to schedule in my exercise as well.   New activities like weight lifting might just get overlooked. 

So I setup a multi-tasking project session, alternating between weight lifting and sewing.

My weight lifting program is three sets of six exercises. That's 18 different spots of work. So first I do my first ten bicep/tricep thingies. (Yeah, I forget what each exercise is called, but I know what to do each time, and that's what counts.)  Then, while I'm taking my quick break between exercises, I unfold Ivy and do a little bit - maybe I plug in the iron and set up the board - maybe I pin a seam. Next, as you guessed, I do another batch of ten exercises for the next part of my program (that extended flying arm thing maybe - do you like the professional way I describe my exercises?)  after which I sew that freshly pinned seam or perhaps press what I sewed last time.

Well, you get the idea. I do a little bit of each, sandwiching my sewing and weight lifting tasks together. It also really helps me to get through some of the aspects of creating Ivy that I don't like as much. My least favorite parts of creating a shirt dress are the work on the front facing and collar, with all the interfacing, pinning, pressing and basting, working to get a clean, precise, finished edge. 

Collar and Front Facing
I'm not as partial to doing the work involved in getting the
interfaced pieces working, as I am to other
aspects of sewing a garment.

Fitting the steps involved in these less desirable activities around weight lifting, gets me through more easily. It also encourages me to stop regularly and stand back from the task, which helps me to accomplish the task more neatly and thoughtfully. It actually makes me less likely to buzz through too quickly (in an attempt to

Anything that helps me avoid those
 painful personal sessions with
Auntie Seama Rippah is to be encouraged!

finish what I don't like to do), which can typically result in a painful session with Auntie Seama Rippah. I know that never happens to you, of course.

When we elect Mrs. Obama as president a few years down the road, I'm going to write her a fan letter. Of course I'll tell her I respect her stand on important issues. And then I'll let her know that she's been an inspiration to me for quite some time...

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Let's Not Invite Auntie Seama Rippah for the Holidays! http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2012/11/avoiding-auntie-seama-rippah-for.html

I recommend Exotic Silks (formerly Thai Silks) highly for both price and quality. They are a local business, but you can buy their products on-line. http://www.exoticsilks.com

My Enchanted by Sewing Shirt Dressing Audio Podcast (listen on-web or download to your mobile device) http://www.enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2014/09/ench-by-sew-024-shirtdressing-and-fall.html

A wrap-up posting about my first shirt dress project, "Peaches and Cream" http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/09/terminado-completing-peaches-and.html

Mrs. Obama's Exercise Program http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/6156655/Michelle-Obamas-arms-the-nine-minute-secret.html

More Sewing Inspiraton from Mrs. Obama - A blog kept for five and a half years that records many aspects of the first lady's wardrobe http://mrs-o.com

An App for That: The Pedestrian's Rope Bridge App (Priority Street Crossing)

Do you find it so unfair that walkers have to waste precious minutes waiting to cross major boulevards when we're out for a walk?

Hey! Who is not wasting the planet's fossil fuels here? We walkers deserve a special right of way, when it comes to crossing busy streets. At the push of button, and not the one on that light pole that shouts "Wait" until it's darn good and ready to give me 8 seconds to get across a six lane highway, I should be able to get immediately and safely across any intersection I choose. 

And now I can.

With the Pedestrian's Rope Bridge App, the walker rules! With one quick swipe of a finger on my iPhone, a rope bridge comes shooting out of the bottom of my mobile device, springs up from my feet, arcs over busy streets, and let's me down safely on the other side of the road. It's neat, it's easy to use, and it's guaranteed to make others wonder, "Why am I driving when I could be walking?" 

Once I've crossed the street, another quick gesture on my phone and the bridge springs back into the base of my phone. Remember those retractable metal tape measures we used in the old days before we calibrated everything with laser beams? Yup, it slips back in pretty much the same way.

You can call this app a fantasy if you want, but just give it a couple of years...

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Yes, many of my fantasy apps are inspired by other great thinkers. Like those of this author....Smithsonian Magazine - There Was an App for That: Apps That Changed the Course of History http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/there-was-an-app-for-that-75586616/?no-ist=

iPhone Apps Development https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action

But... What Would Beethoven Print? (3D Printing)

You just know the kind of organ
Beethoven would have chosen to print

There's been quite a lot in the media about wonderful advances in 3D printing in the medical field. No doubt about it, these are indeed noble uses for technology. Imagine being able to just pop that new appendix, still warm from the printer, into the fella on the table before you. Sure applications like print-on-demand bodily organs allows for great advances in medical science. But what really strikes my fancy, when it comes to 3D printing, is the creation of our own musical instruments. I'm not so much interested in the bodily organ as I am in the pipe organ.

The idea of a musician being able to design and create that pipe organ is what really intrigues me. Thinking about pipe organs  naturally leads to thoughts of  Beethoven. I'm guessing Beethoven would also have been more interested in printing a pipe organ than a fresh new lung or kidney.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken

Tochter aus Elysium!

(Joy, beautiful spark of the divinity,

Daughter from Elysium!)

These lyrics, from Beethoven's famed 9'th symphony, enhance one of the most beloved classical music pieces in the western world*.  Beloved by people, that is, who have access to classical music training. Outside of choral singing, for those who come equipped with the right sort of vocal chords, that training requires access to a musical instrument. 

Though this symphony has words, the emotions that stir in the hearts of the performers as they come together to make this music happen, can't be accurately described. In fact, it spoils the experience if you try.

Yes indeed, there are musical folks working on rolling their own instruments. Check out the beautiful creations on Six 3D-Printed Musical Instruments, and what 3D Printing Could Do for Musicians. Sure 3D print-your-own-instrument technology isn't yet exactly at the affordable-for-the-masses stage, but neither were cell phones just a few years back. Maybe it won't be too long before that day, a few autumns from now, when the kids line up to pick up this years social studies text, the math workbook, and their sixth grade instrument. There just waiting for Mrs. O'Houlihan to come back from the staff room with that replacement box of liquid brass for the classroom 3D printer.

Any parent who has ever ponied up for an organ, clarinet, french horn, string bass, or flute knows that a child's access to an instrument of her own can make all the difference, when it comes to  being exposed to the wordless and wonderful joys of making her own music. Will many kids give up before the age of 10? You bet. Is there any guarantee that an individual will make it to even third chair violin in a small local symphony? Nope. 

But I know that if, at the age of 8, more kids are given the opportunity to play a hundred renditions of Frère Jacque on that french horn they printed at home, then one day the freude! of Beethoven's 9'th symphony is going to be waiting out there for one more kid looking for a little wordless wonder. 

And one more kid is going to get a chance to be a part of a wordless spark of divinity, at one with the daughter from Elysium.

* Classic western music is extremely popular in Asia as well.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

3D Printing Organs, Other Medical Applications http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/12/opinion/lungs-chip-3d-print-organs/

Wikipedia: 3D Printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

Six 3D - Printed Musical Instruments and what 3D Printing Could Do for Musicians  http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/10/six-3d-printed-musical-instruments-and-what-3d-printing-could-do-for-musicians/

Beethoven's 9'th Symphony Rules Supreme, as far as I'm concerned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven)

An App for That! Plumber's Friend App Saves the World

I'm in the final throes of finishing up my Edgewood Secrets iPhone app. Today I'm beginning the job of submitting it for approval. 

I created Edgewood Secrets as a companion for folks hiking at Edgewood Nature Preserve, here in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. I hike at Edgewood quite regularly and I'm also a wildflower docent there.  In the app, I share stories of different experiences I've had in the preserve, as well as tales I've been told by other folks. 

As great as it is (and I should know!) Edgewood Secrets is a pretty straightforward app. Like most developers, I have plenty of plans for other mobile device creations along similar lines. It's not challenging coming up with ideas for great apps, it's challenging doing the work involved to get those ideas implemented. And despite the typical claims of the folks who create the software development environment I use, the technology isn't easy.

The ideas, however, spin away. I keep lists of course. Yes, I have lists everywhere on my laptop, and iPhone. Most of them are quite practical. It's a matter of getting on with them. Then there are those....hummmm what can I call them? Speciality apps, I guess.

One of my favorite specialty app plans is the Plumber's Friend App (PFA).   Here's the user experience I envision...

Have you ever been brought up short while speeding out the door - your laptop zipped into it's case, your lunch packed in that outside pocket (so the avocodo doesn't mash onto your keyboard),  your teeth (hopefully) brushed, your hair at least looking brushed, and shoes that more or less match on both feet - to the call of "Mom, the toilet's backed up again!". Why oh why, you wonder for the hundred thousandth time, are we stuck with the retro fifties, only-one-bathroom apartment model? (Surely it couldn't be affordability.)

What to do? The metro isn't going to wait while you get out the plunger. And the folks at work aren't going to keep a chair warm for you in the 8:15 meeting. In fact... if you arrive late at that meeting, you're going to get volunteered to put on the Friday night Management Achievement Awards banquet. How fun will that be in addition to getting your already-behind-goal project fully functional before the project status meeting next week?

PFA to the rescue. You simply pull out your iPhone - now which pocket did you put that in? - aim it vaguely at the wall, and with one swipe of your finger you launch the Plumber's Friend App. PFA does it all for your. As you streak along making a beeline for the metro station, you hear from the open window above, that blessed sucking of air, a mighty flush, and the noise of your teenage daughter cheering (I did say this was pure fantasy, right?) as PFA once more saves both the world, and your day.  

I haven't quite identified the foundation kit classes I'm going to need to write this app. Perhaps they haven't quite yet been created. But you can be sure once they're out there, you'll be seeing a new app in the store. 

Do you think I'll be able to charge more than 99 cents for it? 

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Hiking Edgewood http://www.hikingedgewood.blogspot.com/

Yes, many of my fantasy apps are inspired by other great thinkers. Like those of this author....Smithsonian Magazine - There Was an App for That: Apps That Changed the Course of History http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/there-was-an-app-for-that-75586616/?no-ist=

iPhone Apps Development https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action

Dark Side of the Force - Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing can be beautiful. In fact, it's got a touch of classic fantasy sci-fi charm about it. I'm thinking Alderon, before the Death Star (back in the first Star Wars release) blew up the entire planet.

Massive numbers of photos need the human touch.  A volunteer army of citizen scientists peruse these images working to differentiate cancer cells from normal blood and tissue cells. Can't you just see the people of that one-time tiny peaceful planet making similar contributions to those that are being made today in our own world?

Crowdsourcers contribute vital genetic information to Alzheimer research by contributing their own memory and attention test data. Other folks share information that is pooled in a database used by breast and ovarian cancer research. This isn't fantasy. It's reality.

Thousands of volunteers scour detailed satellite photos of the Indian Ocean, helping hugely in the effort to find a missing Malaysian Airlines jet. Crowdsourcing helps rescue workers to both avoid less likely search zones, as well as target areas where they are more likely to be successful. It's not just in movies when people come together in response to the suffering of others.

Other folks are involved in massive translation efforts. The goal of Duolingo is to “… get millions of people worldwide to translate the Internet.” (*). C-3PO himself, couldn't have done better.

People in Santa Cruz – ten percent of the population in fact – pooled their ideas and abilities to eliminate a $9.2 million shortfall for their city. The plans these people made continue raise money for the city and benefit local programs. Several other cities, both large and small, follow these same successful citizen government crowdsourcing patterns. Government of the people isn't a leftover from old time films.

Crowdsourcing sounds like a wonderful dream come true. We’re harnessing the good energy of thousands or even millions of people to create a righteous universe. It's something Star Warrior heroes like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would totally get behind. We are talking the power of The Force here!

So what’s not to like about crowdsourcing?

How about the ability to send work offshore to be completed by desperate people earning a dollar or even pennies an hour? The author of the “Digital Sweatshop” Wikipedia page says “…digital sweatshops represent a phenomenon in a recent trend that offers workers and the employers the freedom to accept and request services. However, some believe that completing repetitive tasks for very small amount of money is an act of exploitation, hence the term sweatshop. A notable example is the Amazon Mechanical Turk, a marketplace dedicated to crowdsourcing.”

With Mechanical Turk, amazon has access to an unlimited labor pool that will almost literally work for peanuts, doing basic tasks a machine can’t do, but that doesn’t require skilled human labor. And amazon isn’t the only player in this outsourcing field. Crowdsourcing of cheaply paid labor, has become a huge part of the digital economy. 

Who’s doing the work? Desperate people who’ll do whatever is required to survive. And yes, the potential for slave labor and child labor is there as well. Oh of course it isn’t only these folks. Skilled digital laborers in a number of third world countries are just as determined to make money. It’s not too hard to figure out that a lot of our software development, and tech support have been driven off shore. 

I can hear some funny breathing headed down the hall. Darth Vadar is on the loose. This kind of energy harnessing isn’t drawing Earth’s citizens into a collective sense of accomplishment. Nor is it a righteous universe we’re building here. It’s more like we’re headed straight into a real life sci-fi fantasy world, complete with an evil emperor.  

Do previously well-paid western workers plan to go to battle with their determined competitors in other countries? We all 
need to make a buck, a rupee or a yen. It’s a matter of coming together and figuring out how to we can all earn a decent living. 

Sounds like we need to get busy on some citizen-of-the-world crowdsourcing techniques to kick Lord Vadar and the dark side of The Force right back into fantasy land.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Thanks to Fantasy Planet Art for making this postings image freely available http://www.mrwallpaper.com/Fantasy-Planet-Art-wallpaper/

3 neat ways to participate in crowdsourced cancer and Alzheimer’s disease research http://medcitynews.com/2013/11/3-ways-participate-crowdsourced-disease-research/

Crowdsourcing volunteers comb satellite photos for Malaysia Airlines jet
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/us/malaysia-airlines-plane-crowdsourcing-search/

* Five Ways Crowdsourcing Can Transform the Public Sphere
http://www.governing.com/columns/mgmt-insights/col-government-crowdsourcing-five-models.html

GovFresh – Crowdsourcing Citizen Ideas
http://govfresh.com/2009/11/6-government-sites-crowdsourcing-citizen-ideas/

Wikipedia: Digital Sweatshop discusses not the concept, and also names names of companies who make use of the unlimited workforce of very low cost crowdsourcing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_sweatshop

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk 
http://www.utne.com/science-and-technology/amazon-mechanical-turk-zm0z13jfzlin.aspx#axzz2xlJMsraK

An Eye On that New Smart Phone Star in the Sky

Has the smart phone market bubble gone bust?

I read this week, that companies like Apple, HP, and Intel may need to take things down a notch, when it comes to smartphone production. They don't doubt their popularity. Folks continue to enjoy these devices,  it's just that sales aren't growing like they once were. Oh, and they may not be able to charge as much for them. Of course I also read about the market in China heating up for Apple, so I don't think that fruit stand down the street is going to be suffering too much. For those of us without investments in these companies, is a price break a bad thing?  

My main concern is built in obsolescence. Like that stove top we had to replace in less than ten years, whereas the ones I remember from my childhood had been around since the 1930's, and may still be in use somewhere today. If those big companies decide they want to sell me on wearables, instead of a phone, you know I'll be stuck. Although it sure would be awesome to be able to just look down at my wrist to see what time it is, instead of having to get out my phone. Oh wait, isn't that what we all used to do?

I do notice a strong desire to have the latest and greatest smart phone, don't you? Mobile devices seem to have replaced changing fashions in clothes. Yes, believe it or not there was a time before we all wore tee shirts and jeans to work. Hemlines went up one year, down the next, and no gal wanted to be seen dead in last years skirt. Of course men could get by with just switching out the wide tee for the narrow one. Oh a tie, let me try and explain what that was.... 

I wonder who figured out they'd do better selling us on keeping up with the phonies down the street, than getting us to simply fill our wardrobes? I know it's going to cost me more in the long run. I tend to sew my own clothes, but I strongly doubt I'm going to be rolling my own mobile devices.

Built in obsolescence is a big help to mobile device manufacturers - not so much for me.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Apple, HP, Intel may be hit by slowdown in growth of smartphone sales http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_25347385/apple-hp-intel-may-be-hit-by-slowdown

Music to Apple's Ears: the iPhone is Mobile China's Leading 4G Smartphone http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/03/music-to-apples-ears-the-iphone-is-mobile-chinas-leading-4g-smartphone.html

Free Grub(s) - Chicken Haiku

A few neighbor gals

Stop by unexpectedly

Guess the grubs were good

Traveling Light - It's all Relative :-) (Historical Tripping in London)

Frances Stuart
Duchess of Richmond
by Sir Peter Leley

Inspired by a recent trip to the U.K.

Want to hear more about London through my sewists eyes? Listen in (download to an mp3 device or listen directly on the web) to the June episode of the Enchanted by Sewing podcast Laurel Loves London.

After returning from a two week trip to London and Cornwall , I was thinking about the challenges of packing light. No matter how hard I try to plan in advance I slip too many things in the bag at the last minute. In the case of this last trip, we needed a bigger bag for trekking poles (without which I could not have survived the challenging footing on the coastal trail of Cornwall), which gave me a larger suitcase.

Oh dear, that was a mistake! I just located a universal packing list planner at http://upl.codeq.info, but frankly I think it would just have caused me to put in more stuff than I did. However, I think I can give myself points when I consider the practicality of the garments I did put in.

Bet you dollars to doughnuts that this gal, Frances Stuart (she was also a Duchess of Richmond),  was a much worse packer than I am!

Like... do you think this outfit goes with everything else in her suitcase? Could she use it as a substitute for a raincoat? If she washed it out in the bathroom sink in the hotel room, would you guess it would be dry by morning? Not to mention I'm guessing her beauty and hygiene bag (my husband calls it a 'ditty' bag) was fuller than mine.

So... I'm feeling like a pretty savy traveller right now.

Alternative Energy: One Cat At A Time (CA Point of View)

All over the world there are cats generating BTU's
And nobody's taking advantage of that fact
to Reduce our Reliance on Fossil Fuels

Fairy Houses

Click on the image above
For a close-up view of the lands where the Fairy Folk Dwell

Fairy housing beats ours hands down. The fay folk are the green construction originals when it comes to environmentally 

conscientious

 developments.

• Pefectly permeable pavement - no challenge to the aquifer!
• Edible totally organic roofs and walls reduce the cost of transporting food to the home
• High-efficiency, non-fueled solar lighting
• Totally compostable buildings lead to no-waste, no environmental impact

Are you a Celebrant of National Pie-For-Breakfast Day?

Happy National Pie-For-Breaksfast-Day for those of us in the U.S. This fine holiday, of historic national importance, was created by ma Belle Seour Kathy John A merry holiday to all!

Trick or Treaters Come Early This Year (Green Humor)

To get the Whole Picture

Please CLICK ON THE ILLUSTRATION above 

I'm a big fan of the biodegradable approach to Halloween decorating. I've already put out several pumpkins, big and small in the garden. I've tried growing them myself, but I don't have the light, heat, soil or something* to get them going. The little kids who walk past with their parents, by the way, don't realize that they aren't growing out there. They have been happily checking out my pumpkin garden for the last couple of weeks.


Funny though, the mini pumpkins started disappearing. Were they just walkin' off?


Turns out they weren't. Somebody's been getting their trick or treating in early this year. 


Whatever's leftover after the kids and the raccoons move on, I'll dig the reminder down into my adobe soil. It'll help out with the salvia blooms next spring.

. . .

* Tired of adding compost, redwood soil amendment, and gypsum to my adobe soil, I finally decided to figure out what likes to grow there. Salvia, is one good answer.

Wisteria Gone Wild: New Language of Flowers

Click on the illustration above
For the full psychedelic detail