Month: July 2014

What’s happening on and around Belmont Street.

I had cause to take a walk up Belmont Street and took a few pictures. 
Check out the date on this sign. It has been hanging in this window since before we moved into our house!

I want them to solve this crime.  This poor guy, (friendly to all as far as anyone can tell) was walking along a bike path in Ashland when he was decapitated.  Yipes!

These two signs together are great:
A School for Self & Energy Awareness
Absolutely You Salon.

I love the retro sign for this convalescent center.

Can you spot the update to this house?

I’m guessing this happened in approximately 1968.  I kind of like it, though.

Fancy house.

Really great church building.

Next to the really great Presbyterian Church that now also holds TaborSpace.

Ivy growing like mad over this building.

Ah. It’s a former Lodge building.

Look at that ivy go!

Around the side of the building we see one tenant.  I did some other checking and I think the rest of the space has been converted to residential.

Once I saw this, I wanted to make one of my own.

They also had painted bricks to look like books.

Here’s a fun house for when I have untold millions.

And here are the new houses next door.  I wonder if the above house had a massive lot they subdivided to a not-so-massive lot.

Poetry post.

With very interesting stapled metal top.

Still apartments! (After the condo conversion mania of the 2000s, that’s something.)

House for if I don’t ever hit the “untold millions” stage.

There’s some water sports and some biking going in with this car.

Three sentence movie reviews: Persuasion (BBC)

Part of the Ruby Oliver Film Festival.

This version of the Jane Austin novel has more running than a Tom Cruise movie!  I greatly enjoyed this tale of love lost, a deserving heroine and a convenient school friend who eagerly rounds up all hanging plot points in one breathless soliloquy.  I’m guessing it doesn’t happen that way in the book.

Cost:  free from library
Where watched:  at home.

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844330/

Postcard from Virginia

and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia, and Virginia.
That’s right. Regular commenter Sara cleaned out her stash and I got a long letter of 17 postcards.  15 arrived today.  Only #5 and #6 are missing.  When will they show?  I’m pretty sure this is one of the reasons why my regular postal carrier knows me. Who else has such fun mail?
Colonial Williamsburg

Governor’s Place at Colonial Willamsburg.

Covered bridge.

Kentuck Knob, Frank Lloyd Wright house.

St. Clement’s Church in Philadelphia.

More Kentuck Knob.

Here, I’ll translate for you:  The Conciergerie.

Summer evenings at the Biltmore House

Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Lady in Washington DC

This is not translated.  But I bet you know what it is.  

Another of our friend St. Clement’s church.

West View of Biltmore House, but in the fall.

It’s a Portland church!

An interior of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land.

And here’s the largest private office building in the world.
Whenever I get around to updating my postcard display, someone is going to dominate an entire row.  Which, knowing that someone, was part of her plan.

Three sentence movie reviews: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

It turns out that watching this movie is much easier if one is knitting and counting stitches. The incredibly banality is not quite so annoying when trying to ensure you’ve cast on 99 stitches exactly.  Plus, this time I know who Taylor Kitsch is, so I got to evaluate his portrayal of Gambit.

Cost: free from library.
Where watched:  at home with Matt who is watching all the X-Men movies in order.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2009/x_men_origins_wolverine.html

Yet another walk to work, this one focused on apartments and houses.

Not only does this have a stone lion out front (cue Sara and a Borah cheer) it also has a shiny address plate.

On the minus side, it’s hard to read the address.  On the plus side, super cool!

I spy a tall bike.

The house next door has a fancy name plate too.

Here’s what I refer to as the Brigadoon house.  It was for sale and I wanted desperately to buy it, as it meets all of my requirements (small house, large lot, maker space out back).  Alas, I did not have a few spare hundred thousand dollars.  Then, for months I couldn’t find it again, despite swearing it was on this street.  At one point, I thought it had been torn down.  Was this a house that only appeared every 100 years?  (Which would make it difficult to sell, I guess.)  I finally figured out that when I cross Lombard, I’m faced with turning right or left to pick up a connecting street, as they don’t match up exactly.  This house can be found by going right, I went left all those months, when I should have been turning right.  I’m happy to say that the new owner also seems to love the house and it may survive for me to someday purchase it.

Rare Spanish-style. In my opinion, they are covering up the best feature by letting that hedge/bush grow in front of the windows on the right.  

Interesting metal object on side of house that I don’t know what it is for.

Hey look!  The “watching a block” apartments are done.  Here they are, taking up a full city block, where once there were houses.  Here are the houses.  Here is a link to all the watching a block posts. The building is called the Prescott and apartments range from a 381 square foot studio to at 1069 sq foot two bedroom.  Apartments.com reports they are leasing from $1195 to $2005.  Count this girl happy she owns a house with an unchanging mortgage payment. $1195 for a studio?  That’s more than half my monthly take-home pay.

This dude is boarded up.  Will he survive to have another tenant in him, or be replaced by a tall house (or tall apartment complex)?  Also,check out the pushy bushes invading the driveway space.

Nice tiny crack between buildings.  

Mossy roof.

I’ve had my eye on this white house for a long time.  It has open lots on both sides.  I have mentally purchased said house and both lots and have a lovely garden platted.  It’s very nice, the things I’ve done in my brain.

When’s that Channing-Tatum-with-the-wolf-ears movie coming out?

I was thinking it was this weekend, but the Internet made me laugh arguing with itself.  The top search result plainly states July 18, 2014, but the picture next to that information says February 2015.
Phooey.  That was one of my five approved movies to see in the theater this summer. In happier news, this means I can sub in Boyhood  which I stupidly forgot to put on the list and which I’m dying to see.  Boyhood is going to be a better movie anyway.

Colette Patterns Moneta: 90% finished!

So fast!  So satisfying!
My main thing I learned with the Mabel and the Moneta is how awesome Wonder Tape is.  Here I have marked where the tape should go.

And here I have affixed the tape. Next I pulled off the top layer, pressed the edge to the tape et voila!  Sleeve hem is held securley in place (no pins!) while I sew the hem.

I’m wasn’t really sure what was going on here.  My guess is that I could have used a bit more ease at the waist (these patterns have negative ease, because of the stretch of the knit fabric).  It also might be a case of my serger not being properly adjusted for tension.  I solved this problem by reinforcing the seam with my regular sewing machine.

Look at this dress!  It still needs a hem, but it came out really well.

Side view. There are pockets!

Closeup of my neckline hemming.  That’s done with a twin needle.  The Wonder Tape, aside from holding the hem in place, also stabilizes it, so it doesn’t stretch.

I made notes of things to remember for the pattern.  I’ve decided to make this year’s uniform dresses with this same pattern, so I’ll go over these notes in the construction of those dresses.

Waiting for a hem.

One thing the dress needs is a tag, or other such thing to indicate which side is the back.  I’ve sewn in a little flower I pulled off my bra during my teenage years.

Colette Patterns Moneta: Cutting and bodice.

Here’s my layout.  I tried to make intelligent decisions about where colors of stripes would fall.  This time I traced around the pattern with a marking pen, then removed the pattern and cut out the materiel. My scissors are so dull!

And here is the bodice. 

They weren’t kidding about it coming together quickly.