WHAT A TRIP! PART 1

It's taken me more than a month to get back to blogging...I posted some pictures as I went along on Facebook and Instagram, but I needed some downtime after I returned on the 14th.

photo by Shams

Here I am, in front of my favorite Paris sculpture, by Pol Bury, in the Palais
Royal. Shams and I arrived in Paris four days before the Tilton Trip began, and managed to do a little retail therapy and learn the Metro system on our own.

In our hotel lobby, raring to go!

But first, a little fuel in the form of escargots, good bread and a glass of wine...

Then, off to the Trippen Store (of course)

photo by Shams

LOVE my new Trippens! 

Shams and I had a fun meet-up with Jeanne of 365 dresses, who spends

several months in Paris every year. We had wine and hors d'oeuvres with

her and her husband in their apartment; then Jeanne joined us the next day, took

us to the Bon Marche department store, and did a little shopping.

Bon Marche

photo by Shams

Meet ups are so much fun, especially thousands of miles away!

Here we are, learning our way around Paris on the Metro...

photo by Shams

and waiting for the next train...

photo by Shams

Then, the Paris Tilton Tour began!

Thirteen fabulous women and Katherine and Marcy Tilton...what a recipe for fun!

After meeting each other and orienting ourselves, we set off for the

wonderful D'Orsay Museum.

Original Station Window

Familiar Degas ballerina

weird lounge in the museum

Lots of shopping took place (of course)...

Shoes

Hats

photo by Shams

Ruth and Shams shopping

photo by Shams

Ruth's Hat

One of the most fun things was meeting Ruth H., who lives in Santa Fe

and Indiana (and soon to be Minnesota). Ruth was on the Tilton trip last fall

and returned for a second trip. She is tall, beautiful,wears gorgeous self-sewn clothes, usually in black, red and white, is great fun, and loves her glass of 

wine, just like me!

in her gorgeous Koos coat

photo by Shams

We also like distinctive glasses (both wine- and eye-)

photo by Shams

The Paris Tilton trip involves LOTS of walking, which is perfect, as Paris

is a fantastic walking city. Luckily, my foot injury was beaten into submission

and I was able to walk 5 or 6 miles a day.

"Les Copains" photo by Marcy Tilton

photo by Shams

photo by Shams

I foolishly thought I could cover the whole trip in one post...it's not gonna happen! Too much fun stuff left to share. For anyone wanting instant gratification, go to Shams' blog; she is much more prolific than I am, both in 

photos and blog posts. I'll be back soon to finish my tale!

Meanwhile...Thanksgiving happened, and we had a small gathering. Maggie, David and my nephew Dan, the glass artist. 

Here we are, this morning, having a good time at breakfast...

David and Dan 

Maggie

and moi, laughing!

You can find me over at Patti's Visible Monday this afternoon...and also at Judith's (The Style Crone)

December "Hat Attack"

TTYL

YAY FOR SEWING MOJO!

The sewing mojo chez Houtz has been strong lately! I made another Paris Piece,
a very textured silver tunic to go with many of my already-sewn jackets.

The pattern is my old friend B5526, with added pockets and a stand-up ruffled collar. Shams from Communing with Fabric chose the fabric for me, a textured synthetic from Fabrix several years ago.

It enhances many of the fabrics in my Paris Wardrobe-to-be, so I made it so that I could use it as a layer, as well as on its own.

Here it is under the Minoru

under the Giant Houndstooth jacket I made for Portugal

and under my knit vest from last year

I'm very pleased with it!  Here is a peek at the new hanging rack I got to put the Paris wardrobe possibilities on...more on this later.

After I finished that, I went to work on my "Franken Pant" pattern, which is 
Marcy Tilton's V8929 plus my custom pattern from Lynda Maynard. I'm trying to get the combined patterns (that's the Franken part) to the point that I can cut them out, serge all the edges and sew them together in a day. The first one was a wadder, the second ok, but meh...and here's the third one in a stretch cotton from someone on Etsy...

o

It gets better every time! While I was doing all this sewing, I listened to the
final two books of Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes trilogy, Finders Keepers and End of Watch.  They're pretty good...I've not been a Stephen King  fan in the past, but I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes so I decided to follow through on the last two. After those, I started Barkskins, Annie Proulx's new book. It's loooooong and fabulous. I'm about ⅔ finished. All these audio books are available on Audible Books.

Before I bring you up to date on the puppies (I know some of you are mostly interested in them....!) here's a RTW outfit from Sun Kim that I had to have...

I've already worn it several times and I love it!

Our beloved housekeeper gifted me with this awesome charm "bracelet" for my birthday...her sister made it and I'm so touched by it!

It's a spool of thread, a button, a dress form, a measuring tape, a thimble and a pair of scissors with a rose. Love it!

And one more thing...there were quite a few questions after my last post about  my raincoat...here are some answers...

I didn't line it or add inside pockets as I wanted it to be as lightweight as possible.
I did not shorten it.
The top in "the wineglass picture" was the top of this Alembika outfit that I bought in Oregon

...

The sheer sleeves belong to my "Sleevey Wonder"!

And HERE are the latest pictures of the puppies...(they are English Cocker Spaniels, blue roan, and we're only getting ONE although Dave has been wondering if we should get TWO
NO I said...

..

I have a very cute video of them tussling with each other, yipping and GROWLING...
I'll try to up load it.

Well, I tried twice and I couldn't get it to work... 

I'm headed over to Patti's Visible Monday...come see us!

TTYL
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ANOTHER PARIS PIECE!

Lots of time in my studio, working on my raincoat for Paris. I used that gorgeous red/black cross woven taffeta I wrote about last time...

gorgeous to look at, a bear to sew on. Because it's nylon, it doesn't take a nice press, so crisp edges are not possible. But....I'm very pleased with it!

I used Vogue 8934, Marcy Tilton's shapely "cocoon" coat, but used the collar and detachable hood from Waffle Pattern's Tosti Jacket.

.

I made it sufficiently roomy, to allow for layering over jackets and vests

I hadn't ever made a detachable hood, so I got to learn a new technique, and also learned how to use my new Goldstar Heavy Snap Press Machine.

I

I'm wearing my birthday present from Dave, a wonderful necklace from Kathleen Nowak Tucci, made from Harley-Davidson inner tubes and stainless steel brake cables (!)

Cool, isn't it?

While I was working on the raincoat, I listened to The Atomic Weight of Love, by Elizabeth Church, which I loved, and Don Delillo's newest book, Zero K, which was just ok. Both are on Audible.

I'm still getting almost daily pictures from the dog breeder...the puppies are alost 3 weeks old, their eyes are open, and they're SO CUTE.

I will be joining the Visible Women on Patti's website this afternoon...come on over and take a look!

TTYL...