Sometimes plans change, so you catch your breath and move on in a revised direction.  As for me, I now have what I like to call a “stolen week,” a week at home with a blank calendar when I had thought I’d be away. What luxury!  Started out by taking a long bath while reading The New Yorker, which,  is a bit ironic all things considered.  (Long article on Jeb Bush.  He may be the brightest of those good old Bush boys and he is a shrewd business man; but he has some very eccentric ideas about education.)

Anyway, today I got my taxes in the mail and I have a little time to do some sewing.  I never actually make anything anymore, but I never buy a garment and bring it home and leave well enough alone.  I have to put my hand to it and add my personal touches.  In the years I was raising a family of little girls and keeping house, I made absolutely everything from lawn chair cushions to christening dresses.

My mother taught me to sew on this machine which is now my own prized possession.

It is as fine as when it was new.  Entirely made out of metal.  Makes a perfect stitch to this day.  Mother sewed everything for me on it.  Every Christmas, she used to make me a nightgown.  She did the same thing for my girls when they were little.  Later, when I was in high school, she sewed me a party dress out of purple velveteen.  She set the machine up on the kitchen table and, since she wanted the dress to be a surprise, she removed every trace of the garment, including the thread, and hid it away before I came home for lunch.  I cherish this machine and often find it more convenient and reliable than this one.

Made by the same company.  Lots of plastic.  Have to take it into the shop to have the belt replaced, and they charge $70 just to open it up!

Saw this on Facebook recently.  It surely made me smile.  This is the typical advice that was touted in women’s magazines right after WWII .  What incredible standards those women were supposed to live up to!  Of course, their husbands did not read The Ladies’ Home Journal, so they did not hold  their wives to such ideals, thank goodness.

Guess I’d better freshen my lipstick and prepare myself mentally and get to it. That tee shirt I bought yesterday needs shortening up just a bit.