SSS Day 20 & more!

So part of the gig is that you must post 10 things people might not know about you. For the sake of post-length, I will break it up into two sessions. So here goes with the first 5…  

1. I was a skateboarder in Jr. High/Early High School – Yes, in between 7th & 8th grade, our family moved from the central valley of California a wee bit south and east to a small mountain community just north of Los Angeles. Here I was nervous because in my head, rural mountain community = cowboys. I was not excited about that. Come to find out, the first few people I met were some guys on skateboards! They convinced me to buy a skateboard and try to learn and before I even walked in the door to my new Jr. High school, I was known by some as “the girl with the airwalks.”

2. I was in Advance Placement English Classes all through High School – You wouldn’t know it by my lazy writing style now, but at the end of my 8th grade year I was begging my English teacher to refer me to the AP classes. She laughed (who can blame her, right? Could I have been any more nerdy?! lol) and said of course. And I loved it. I love writing papers – you know the ones where you gather sources and quote and cite them and tie it all together…intro paragraph, make points, concluding paragraph! Beautiful! I would rather write 10 papers than take a multiple choice test.  Our senior year, we have a 10 page paper due every 2 weeks and one 20 page paper due each semester. It was grueling, but in a good way – I really enjoyed it. (Look at that awful paragraph! What has blogging/social networking done to our punctuation and proper english? haha)  

3. I also took 3 1/2 years of French in High School…but can’t speak it! – Oui, oui! Pourquoi, in California, I chose French over Spanish, I can’t really say except that I wanted to! However, I venture to say that if I had taken Spanish, I would probably still be able to speak it to this day as I would have used it more often (Don’t meet many French people here!). BUT, then I wouldn’t have participated in some traveling, which leads to my next point…  

4. I’ve been to more countries than states – Starting in my teenage years, I’ve traveled to Italy, Switzerland, France, England (twice), The Netherlands, Canada, Mexico, & Israel. Some of this I did as a part of my French Class (not that it was included as part of the class, but the teacher who taught French offered the opportunity for travel) and some was done in college. As far as states, I’ve only been to Washington State, through Oregon in the middle of the night so it doesn’t count, Nevada, and through Utah (doesn’t count! lol) on the way to Colorado. I’ve been to 4 corners, but that hardly qualifies as visiting Arizona and New Mexico and to the Newark airport on my way to the aforementioned countries. I would love to see all of the states, specifically Idaho and I’ve always wanted to see Texas. In fact, for our 10 year anniversary, instead of going somewhere exotic, I want to do a road trip! We’ll see what actually gets planned…lol.    

5. I started teaching myself to sew as a teenager – I had always been crafty, but got a bug the summer between my sophomore and junior year to learn to sew. I started making shift dresses from quilting cotton – they were a mess! This was before my pear-shape awareness so they were loose up top and tight through the hips and I don’t know why, but that didn’t deter me. I made the homecoming court my junior year and decided to make my dress – a royal blue satin empire waist a-line with chiffon sleeves. The fit was still a little funky, but it was wearable. I loved that I had made it but was also secretly very self-conscious about it. One of the insights I’ve gained through SSS is that I’m passed my awkward sewing stage. It’s given me a lot more confidence in my current sewing skill set!

Speaking of Self-Stitched September, here is yesterday’s outfit – with something you haven’t seen yet! My Bird Jacket. My bird jacket is a result of a recent obsession with yellow & gray. People either love it or think it’s bizarre, but that’s okay. I like it. lol.  

I really love the style (Simplicity 3538) and should probably make it again in a less flashy fabric, but as it is, I just wear it on my more confident days and have fun with it! We needed some sunshiney yellow today anyway – look at this big menacing cloud rolling in!  

The clouds only lasted for the morning, but still… On my lunch, I was able to make GOOD progress on my swimsuit cover up. I’m worried it might be too big, but it does have a tie waist just under the bustline so I think it’s supposed to be loose and comfy otherwise. I just need to get the facing in and hem the bottom and sleeves. Then I’m hoping to get some stitches in on my Lady Grey muslin! You should see what progress the other sew-a-longers are making – check out the flickr group!See you tomorrow with the other 5 things you might not know about me and my 21st Self stitched outfit!