A Pretty Good Day Off… And a Yellow Hat

I had a pretty good day off today. It was cloudy, but it didn’t start raining until later in the afternoon.

After breakfast I took the boys for a nice walk and then got ready for pickleball and hit the road. I played at a court in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a town just south of me. It’s a pretty swanky area and the courts were really nice. I went by myself again as my friends are all heading out of town. I had a blast because I was playing with people who are above my skill level, but not miles above. It really forced me to think about the finer points of the game and not just power the ball back over the net.

Our play ended at around 3:00 when it started raining.

On the way home I decided to stop at a lovely garden center to pick up some lettuce and some peppers. I ended up taking home a star jasmine plant and a six pack of lettuce.

I’ve wanted a jasmine plant near my patio for some time. I’m not sure where I’m going to plant it, but I’ve narrowed my options down. They didn’t have a very good selection of peppers so I decided to see what I could find somewhere else.

After we got home I took the boys for a walk and the skies opened up! We got really wet so cut our evening walk short at 1.8 miles. It’s many hours later and they’re still wet.

I talked to my friend as we walked in the rain. Today is her birthday. I sent her three things:

I didn’t make the hat with her in mind, but she loved it so that was a no brainer. She said it fits her perfectly! I did make the bag with her birthday in mind. She loved the indigo batik with KFC scraps one I did a few months ago and I know she loves Aboriginal fabrics. I also sent her this extendable magnet. I bought one for myself a few weeks ago and it came in a two pack. It’s wonderful for picking up pins and other metal things in my sewing room.

It extends out to 3 feet or so. That means I can easily pick up pins I’ve dropped under my sewing table! I always worry about pins being left on the floor and my dogs picking one up in their paw.

Before my vacation I gathered a bunch of eggs from my chicken owning friends. So when I got sick and my company couldn’t come, that meant I had way too many eggs on hand. So today I boiled 1.5 dozen of them up. They’re nice to have on hand for breakfast or for a salad. And I even give them to Bender and Rico occasionally.

They each got two eggs with their dinner tonight. I laughed so hard at Rico… he just didn’t know what to do with these slick little orbs.

After dinner and our walk I hit my sewing room and sewed this little number together.

I had seen this fabric combo in a hat posted on the KFC Facebook page and just had to make one for myself.

Here’s some eye candy… take a look at the gorgeousness of that coleus fabric!

I just love things that are nicely finished… with details like top stitching, nice pressing, and smooth seam lines… And after this was all sewn together I realized that I had forgotten to top stitch around the sop of the hat.

It’s not a huge deal… certainly not worth taking the hat apart to fix. But it does bother me.

Here’s me pressing before I add the main fabric to the lining and brim.

This hat went together really nicely. Odd how one comes along now and then that gives me fits.

I’m still using lots of clips when sewing the crown to the top of the hat.

… and when sewing the main hat top to the brim.

Tomorrow is going to be more rainy than today. We’re supposed to get a good soaking. So I’m planning to get some things done in my sewing room.