15 years, 3 months
fifteen times twelve plus three
one hundred eighty-three months!
Not much else to say. Time marches on.
February
Well, it’s the last day of February and I did vow to write a recap post every month, so here I am. February was mostly Mardi Gras, but some other stuff too.
George and I went to lunch for my birthday.
I started physical therapy for my back (that will continue through March.)
I made a puffy vest.
Mardi Gras happened.
I redid this shirt from sequins to fringe.
I made a big obnoxious hat and a tiny obnoxious hat.
We watched the varsity team lose the state final. 😦
Club soccer started up again.
March will be my 30th high school reunion (!) and more soccer.
15 +2
Well, at least Miles got a haircut.
(Yes, Mom, I took it on time, I just don’t usually feel like using my computer on weekends.)
January in review
How on earth is it still January? I feel like this has been the longest month ever.
Started out flying home from the Dominican Republic, and finally getting Ziggy back home. We missed him a lot. He…did not seem to miss us very much at all. I guess he had fun. He was hoarse from all the barking (or something, maybe a mild case of kennel cough, the vet said, he’s all better now in any case.)
Soccer started right back up, and then on Sunday the 8th, we took the boys to their very first Saints game ever. It was also the first time they’d ever been inside the Superdome. It was a not-great game, but we had fun anyway. Except we walked to the dome from the ferry and it was sprinkling so by the time we actually got to the game, we were all kind of wet and cold. No big deal.
Later that evening, I flew to Austin for a work meetup. Got in close to midnight, just a few minutes before my birthday!
Woke up the next morning, said hello to my colleagues, picked up a chocolate croissant from the Whole Foods down the road, worked, was surprised (sort of, I mean, I kind of demanded it) by a beautiful cake, had a nice lunch and later a nice dinner. This was my fourth work meetup on a birthday!
The rest of the week was more working, yummy food, bonding with coworkers, getting a spur-of-the-moment tattoo with Vanessa, bowling, puzzle assembling, scooter riding, renting a Tesla with Beckett and Karen, driving a Tesla, visiting our friend Elizabeth and finally meeting her daughter. I gave her a quilt I made her with bees and she seemed to like it.
Back home, more soccer, then another tattoo the next week (that I had originally scheduled for my birthday, but the had to push back a week because of the work trip) and more soccer and more soccer.
This past weekend was the end of school soccer, and the very last game was between the freshmen and sophomores. Under Miles’s coaching, the freshmen won! And I got some great pics of Coach Miles.
I did some sewing. Made some shorts, bought more fabric I don’t need, but that’s okay. We had a bit of an issue with mice, but I think we resolved it. I don’t ever need to see tiny mouse bodies stuck in traps ever again.
Also I have someone cleaning the house again and it’s wonderful and it really is good for my stress levels because, let’s face it, it’s not exactly my forte.
I wrapped up the month by making a king cake yesterday. On to February!
2022 in review
Better late than never, I suppose. I barely posted at all last year, a mere 28 times! And 12 of those were monthly pics, so only 16 other posts? Actually that is more than I would have thought. Anyhoo, I’m going to try to post more in 2023. (For context, in 2014 I posted 342 times.)
January
We were in the middle of that Omicron wave so my birthday was low key. Obviously that’s the only important day in January. But it was a lovely day anyway, sitting outside with friends and drinking margaritas and eating king cake.
Also I got a new sewing machine. Love.
February
I took an amazing jeans making class from the inimitable Lladybird. It wasn’t just the sewing tips but also the camaraderie from other sewists and just being around happy people that was so lovely.
Mardi Gras. Parades came back!
March
Technically Mardi Gras Day was in March.
I found a really cute video of Miles that I could watch one million times in a row.
I visited Kiki after her mom passed away. I was happy to see her, but not happy why.
April
I went to visit Kiki again to help with her mom’s memorial celebration. We cooked a lot of fancy food.
The boys went to a dance.
May
The boys finished 8th grade, and had their last day at Lycee Francais. The end of an era!
Oh, and they all got Covid, one by one. George and I did not, somehow.
June
We got a new oven.
July
We went to Virginia! I stayed with Kiki, the boys went to Camp Aunt Jenny, and we all had a great time. (Kiki and I also went to NYC.)
August
The boys started high school. And competitive soccer again.
I got a tattoo.
September
My brother and Ellie came to town.
I made a coat, it’s beautiful.
October
I gave out candy on Halloween for the first time. (with Steph)
November
Went to Denver for my first work trip since January 2020.
Got another tattoo.
December
Took another sewing workshop with Lauren.
My babies turned 15.
We went to the Dominican Republic.
I did sew a lot this year, but I didn’t always blog about it. Here are some more things I made:
It was a bigger year for quilts than I would have thought!
15 years, 1 month
Who are these shaggy haired ragamuffins? All I know is they smell after their team won 3-1. Hooray!
Punta Cana 2022 (and a little bit of 2023)
At 6am on Christmas morning, we got on a flight to the Dominican Republic and met up with 12 other family members for a vacation.
I could go through what we did every day, but really it was “put on bathing suit, go to breakfast, sit by pool, get a mojito, go to lunch, go in ocean, get a pina colada, go back to pool, go to dinner, go to bed” with a few random activities sprinkled in.
Decade and a half
Happy birthday, boys! Laying low today – they’ve had four soccer games in the past three days and Linus has a cold, so they need the rest. Their big gift is tickets to a Saints game next month, their first, so they’re excited for that.
Goings on and whatnot
I never want the monthly pic to be the only thing I post on my blog, but it looks like October went by without anything else, so I am going to make up for that now. Buckle in.
Just kidding, it hasn’t been that eventful.
Let’s see, the last thing I posted about was my new coat, which I have had several opportunities to wear. Which brings us to topic #1, my first work trip since January 2020. Automattic has gotten very very large since our last Grand Meetup in late 2019, so they decided to have smaller division meetups instead. So I spent last week with almost 500 of my colleagues in Denver.
It was so nice to see them, but quite bittersweet not to see my other coworkers and friends who I might never see in person again! Don’t really like to think about that.
A truly random assortment of pics:
Let’s see, what else? Oliver went to homecoming, his brothers did not.
I made a hoodie dress. It’s exquisitely cozy.
I got another tattoo! Well, actually, I got two more since I last posted about tattoos. I hadn’t get posted about the one I got in August. I had been wanting one of star jasmine, because I love it, but I don’t really know a tattoo artist in New Orleans whose style I really wanted. Until someone I know posted a picture of a tattoo she’d gotten by Mecca at Hell or High Water Tattoo, and I immediately booked an appointment.
The inspiration/tattoo:
And I loved it so much I went back for a magnolia.
And I love that so much I made an appointment for my birthday, but I won’t spoil what I’m getting.
Everyone is asking “are you doing a sleeve” and I am a dorky middle aged soccer mom, I’m just getting flowers I like without much of a plan.
Speaking of flowers, the camellias started blooming again.
Ziggy remains cute.
Halloween was fun because I got to give out candy for the first time ever. I made a shirt to wear.
Well, I guess that’s it? School soccer has started, but the first two games happened while I was in Denver, so I’m looking forward to seeing them play this weekend. Linus scored a goal at their first game!
14 years, 11 months
You’re looking at the three newest members of the Ben Franklin JV soccer team! Okay, it’s not that much of an achievement since no one gets cut BUT STILL I can be a proud mom, can’t I?
I also realized I haven’t posted since last month’s picture, which is shameful but also, there hasn’t been much to post about because life has generally revolved around, well, soccer tryouts. And starting next week, games and practices. But I’ll be out of town for my first work meetup since January 2020! Pretty excited about that.
Whoops this is supposed to be about the boys, not me. Well. They turn 15 in a month, and ain’t that a kick in the head?
No. 178
Look! I managed a laugh in there! They do have teeth, betcha didn’t know that.
Also, Linus and Miles obviously have favorite outfits.
The perfect coat
Due to a shipping snafu, I ended up with six meters (instead of the three I ordered) of a gorgeous teal melton wool from Blackbird Fabrics. Last fall Two falls ago I made a cape with it, and I love it, but capes aren’t the most practical and I’ve wanted another teal jacket/coat since I “outgrew” the one I wore to my bachelorette party, 17 years ago.
After making the Chilton trench last year two years ago, I always thought I might make another one without all the bells and whistles (the epaulettes, the belt loops, the cape, the flaps, etc) and a bit shorter, since I had enough fabric for that.
Figuring out what to line it with was tough. The matte satin I lined the other one with was a nightmare to sew with, and my pockets have torn at the seams a couple of times, and it frays incessantly. But satin really does make the best lining so it goes on smoothly. I wouldn’t have minded a cotton lawn, but Joann doesn’t carry cotton lawn and when I want to make something I want to make it ASAP so I didn’t have time to order any.
So. I went with the infamous rainbow stretch satin that I’ve made a dress from before. It’s so dreamy, I love it, but I wasn’t sure if it was the vibe I was going for, and I was reluctant to use another satin again.
But I’m so glad I chose it. It doesn’t fray as much as the other satin I used (maybe because of the presence of stretch?) and it’s really soft to wear on bare arms, much nicer than the other stuff. And it looks incredible.
I do wish I’d used a darker solid color inside the pockets, but I couldn’t settle on anything so I just went with the rainbow satin. It’s all good.
It all sewed up well (I cut and sewed it almost entirely in one ten hour day) and the lining came out much better than the last time, and I really paid close attention to the details (like the bits that need to be hand sewn) and so I’m really proud of it.
But the last part, closures, was the hardest. I really didn’t want to make buttonholes. I contemplated sending it out to a tailor, and if I had settled on buttons as closures, I think I would have done that in the end. But I liked the idea of toggles, so I ordered some brown leather ones from etsy and I adore the way they look. It took me a while to figure out the placement, and then some time to muster up the nerve to sew them on, but it finally got slightly cool here (to be clear, not cool enough for a wool coat) so I just went ahead and did it last night. (Thanks to my friend Jen for helping me troubleshoot the placement.)
This morning I hung it on the soccer goal outside to get some good pictures of it. The color is just so beautiful! I love everything about it, and I can’t wait to wear it for real.
I actually bought a clothes steamer but obviously didn’t use it today.
pyjammy dot blog 
