New pic on yahoo

Where's the link to your Yahoo albums?????

Sharon, did you make the half-kimono with felled seams? That would make them stronger, it would seem.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

Well.... I did mock felled seams. I didn't want to put in anything that was too hard to rip out if it didn't fit him well. (this is the trick to sewing for someone 5 states away!) I knew that alterations would likely go to my MIL as she lives in the same town he does.

I will hold the tip of my tongue between my front teeth and fell the seams on the gussets though. ;)

I have better patterns and better measurements now than when I first did this too. So any future work should be more accurate.

Sharon

I hear ya. We are in the boonies here too. I can get a cable connection (like cable TV.) But I've heard really unflattering things about the local cable company. And there is only one. *sigh* Broadband isn't this far out yet, and doesn't look like it will be any time soon. :(

Hmmm... I will keep this in mind. Thanks for letting me know about that.

Yep. Sure am. I love his book. I even scanned the page with the little man that shows how to measure. Then I emailed that to my BIL. SIL measured him and they emailed it to me. :)

For the hakama, I used the method on this website:

If you scroll down on the left, you will see a link to a hakama pattern. The instructions to draft the pattern are all right there.

Did you tell me this one:

I can't remember who told me about that pattern. I need to order one of theirs just to see if it differs much from what I have. (I'm all about using good tricks!!)

Sharon

Merciful Heavens!!! According to my calculations, that's roughly 1000 USD. No way could I even BE online at those fees. Ah well, there are advantages to living in the big, dirty city. I am too cheap for anything but dial-up, and my monthly aol bill is $23.95 for unlimited access. I guess "you gets what you pays for", or "you pays your money and you takes your choice". You live in the gorgeous countryside, far from the madding crowd, and it obviously isn't cheap in that regard. Gotta grow an awful lot of your own fruits and veggies to make up for that!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Trish, I hope that expense is tax-deductible for you guys, since you do web-based work!

And I thought paying for three versions of AOL (one for household, one for dh's business, one for college kid), an ISP and a broadband connection was a lot!

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

"Mike and Sharon Hays" scribbled in news:DI9Va.4464 $ snipped-for-privacy@fe01.atl.webusenet.com:

Ack, when I was out changing E-mail addresses, I must have "left the group". I used to use snipped-for-privacy@sewingweb.com, but changed over to my personal E-mail address donna at croakerwoods dot com

Can you reinvite me please?

your own fruits and veggies to make

Damn straight you have! And I couldn't even give my cherries away this year. Being in the countryside means ordering everything online, or driving

20 miles to buy a zip. There are also no free local calls in Yurrup, remember.

We got caught out, is the truth - we had switched the line to a cheaper provider, Cegetel, so we were using the web much more freely, but now we find the number we have to dial through is France Telecom only, so it's normal cost. Ouch. That bill is for only one hour a day each for me and the DH, so you can see how much we'll have to cut down, especially as we have to go online for work. Waah.

Although France is ahead of the UK in its ISDN service (they even put in a new sub-station for us, and it was all free installation), it's behind in ADSL service. We've been told we may never get it here, as we are too far from the nearest population centre. You should hear my American friend Trever on the backwardness of French comms after the US. And don't get him started on petrol (gas), which is 300-400 per cent more expensive here than he was used to in NC. He nearly fainted when I told him it's cheap here compared to the UK.

To add to our joys, the laser printer broke down last week and a new one is about 1,000 euros. Rather an expensive week, all in all...

:( Trish

No - it wasn't me who told you about that one.

Do you get Belle Armoire magazine? Who should be on the front cover of the summer issue but John Marshall? I didn't know he was a stencil artist - his work is beautiful. He has a website, too, at

so I shall go take a look at the w/e. He apparently has done a video on stencilling, too. Can't benefit from that, sadly, as European format is different.

Did you get on OK with the measurements in 'Make your own...'? I couldn't make head nor tail of them - I'm a bit thick when it comes to maths. I couldn't get the equations to work at all, and neither could Steve, who is pretty good at maths. Maybe I am a weird shape! So I just set a shoulder width to 11" and extrapolated from there, and then everything was fine.

:) Trish

Not on your nelly!

In France, journalists get a flat percentage for expenses. Actually, this is generous, and works very well as long as you keep your expenses low, but if your expense are high, tough nuggies. We're generally better off, tax-wise, than we were in the UK, but only because we're earning about a fifth of our former income.

This situation was rather our own fault, though - see other posting for how we got into such a pickle.

:) Trish

Boohoooooo. I would have loved a basket or two. When we lived in Northern Ohio I had apples, raspberries, mulberries and grapes in the back yard (garden to you), and bought most of the rest of my fruits and veggies from farmers' roadside stands. Oh, how I miss those yummy peaches, bite into them and the juice runs down your chin! A friend had a cherry tree, and every year I used to make pies, cobblers and lots of jam. In Florida, all we had was various kinds of citrus, but it did feel odd at first, tripping down the path in a cotton nightie on a January morning to pick a grapefruit for breakfast. Here in the Big Easy, we and all our friends have minute pocket-handkerchief size yards - the only edble we grow is bananas, and that is provided the big thunderstorms don't knock them over before the fruit is ripe. However, the potted lime tree has three limes of varying sizes on it (this is its first year to fruit), so we may get a few G&Ts out of it. I do my best, going to the Farmer's Market once a week, but they all seem to pick the fruit while it is still somewhat underripe and it just isn't the same.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

And I thought I spent a lot of money last week. Pais half to the roofer for a new roof over our head. that's going to be $4600 and $3000 for new hearing aids. a major car repair and a couple of other BIG bills all in one week. Don't always sleep well lately worrying. Then I take my Pollyanna "tude" and say "oh well, it's only money" IN my next life I'm going to be rich as well as beautiful. LOL. JJ

Me too! Really need a new garden shed, but the old one will have to do for a while! DH is putting a new roof on it and giving it a new set of internal braces to bolster the old ones... Then it will need new planking in some places, after which we replace the window... And I had to cancel my new spectacles! The old frames are worn out. I don't need a new prescription, but I did have a lens drop out in the street last week! Had to grope my way round to the opticians and get them to screw it back in!

Re: OT online costs (was: New pic on yahoo) kate dicey groped around blindly...

And I had to cancel my new spectacles! The old frames are worn out. I don't need a new prescription, but I did have a lens drop out in the street last week! Had to grope my way round to the opticians and get them to screw it back in!

I have used Fray Check in the past... ;D