Since I would’ve added granulated garlic and salt anyway, made a tuna fish salad sandwich. Yum. Going to use what’s left on fries.

Last week, the buff orpington and the araucana (easter egger) started running up to me and flattening out like so:

While they’re squatting in this position, they let me scratch their backs and ruffle their feathers pretty much however I want. It’s fun (they’re super soft), and it’s also a sign that they’re ready to start laying eggs soon.

Sure enough, was treated to this sight last Friday! (courtesy of the buff – not pictured)

It’s tiny, but nicely shaped.

We decided to hard boil it. Fresh eggs are always really hard to peel. Delicious…

The buff gave us another egg on Sunday.

Fried over-medium this time with some sungold tomatoes from the garden. Mmm…

Monday, the araucana gave us her first egg! She decided to lay it in a pile of poop… Need to build them a nest box soon.

And … in action:

It’s rather difficult to figure out a way to photograph pant waists and fit without 1. removing your top or 2. having your shirt tucked in all frumpy.  I went for the bank-robber-victim pose.

I went through a spool and a half of topstitching thread. The waist does not gape at all when sitting down, which is exactly the reason I sewed these pants. Yay! There are many mistakes, but normal people probably won’t be able to tell.  Gory sewing details below.

——

For anyone sewing the Anita jean pattern:

• I recommend creating a fly shield, even though the pattern comes without one.  With the close fit in women’s jeans, you don’t really want to have to watch out for a metal zipper each time.
• There is a mistake? in the pocket step.
  Sew, don’t baste, the pocket opening fabrics together.  I have no idea why it tells you to baste the thing — it implies you’re supposed to pick it apart (don’t) and I used crappy colorful thread, which showed later on.
• There is a mistake? in the front pant pattern on the front fly stitching line (looks like a backward J).
  It showed the stitching line for the smallest 2 sizes, which has the crotch seam end / zipper start at a different point from all the other sizes.  It’s missing the stitching line for all the other sizes: the end of the J is supposed to be under the end of the zipper.  I didn’t know that and ran into trouble.

I ran into weird issues with a baggy back thigh area after I practically put the whole thing together. I was so annoyed.  The lovely experts at Pattern Review helped me figure out how to fix it.  It’s known as a Flat Seat Adjustment.  You have to take out just the fabric in middle of the back thigh because your butt is not as round as the pattern maker thinks it is.  Useful links:

• Pattern review thread where I got help, along with many pictures of my backside
• Excellent video explaining how to fix this in muslin in the first 20 min, by Silhouette Patterns (also goes over sewing jeans in general)
• Flat pattern fix, with a great set of photos in flickr

Harvest of things planted this spring (beets, potatoes) and last fall (garlic):

This is the first time I’ve grown potatoes. It’s like digging for treasure! I’m a little disappointed that each plant only made 5 potatoes. But if you think about it in terms of weight (~1.25 lbs), I probably got 10 times the investment of the original potatoes planted. I should plant more of everything.

We also let the chickens run around outside and Gizmo got to meet them in person. Until he started trying to eat their poop. It was a good weekend.

Ingredients:

• empty kimchee jar
• 4 Coke bottle caps
• pie plate
• drill
• hot glue gun
• one curious dog who’s going to get his nose glued one of these days (not pictured)

The kimchee jar holds more water and has squarer dimensions than the mason jar waterer we have now. Hopefully the chickens won’t be able to tip it over as often when they decide to stand on it. I tried super glue the first time around. Didn’t work. The bottle caps popped right off of the lid after the glue dried.

I put the caps on the outer rim to make it as stable as possible.

More holes means the dish fills up faster which I thought would be nice. It turns out that the fast fill isn’t worth it because it means that a ton spills out when you flip it over. If I had to make another one of these, I’d drill just one hole in the center

In the chicken run and next to the original waterer for comparison.

I bought even more fabric, so I figured I should start going back and finishing projects before I’m buried in a mountain of stash.  I had been planning on joining the MPB jeans sew-along back in May, but I missed even that (especially as they did everything in a single week).  I’m using the blog posts now though, as a really handy step-by-step of what to do.

So … I fixed the muslin first.  Lesson learned: if you want the waist higher, do NOT use the lengthen/shorten line across the hip.  That is for people with longer or shorter butts.  Instead, extend the waist/yoke up.  I ended up keeping the front waist, raising the back center yoke by ~1 inch, and taking in the top of the back center seam by ~1-1.5 inches.  The fitting aspect probably was the most painful part to do.

The rest has been mostly easy.  I’ve cut out all the pieces and sewn in the front pockets.

Materials: “Wrangler” twill + metal zipper from Britex, cute mermaid fabric I had laying around (from Eddie’s Quilting Bee) for the pockets and waistband lining.  I’d ordered some other twill online, but it was much too lightweight for pants.

If you like costumes, you should download the catalog pdf before it goes down.

Wizard of Oz, Ben Hur, My Fair Lady:
debbie reynolds hollywood costume auction by joclin on Polyvore.com

I particularly liked the Cleopatra concept art buried 244 pages in.

The commercials are really funny! … and I just spent 20 minutes watching a whole bunch of them.

Specifically, the poster was based on a one-off mini series guest-starring Shota Matsuda.

Best attempt at translating #3…

Mother:  Here we go.
Family: Waaah.
Matsuda: Thank you, Yuko.
Father: Don’t call Mother by her name
Mother: Isn’t alright, since she’s his wife?
Brother: She’s his wife.
Father: She’s not his wife yet.
Daughter:  What will be our new grandfather’s career?
Matsuda: Acting.
Daughter: That’s difficult, isn’t it?
Matsuda: Yes, but I have a dream.
Father: Dreams won’t feed you.
Grandmother:  He doesn’t need to worry about money, because Jiro is here.
Father:  Does this rascal want me to earn money for him!?
Grandmother: Don’t say “rascal”, say “Father”.
Matsuda: Don’t behave like that, Jiro!
Mother: The nabe is ready.
Father: Hot!

Here are a few others that are translated in English. Start with this hilarious one, starring the older brother:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Pvbbadd4s

For fun, here is Gizmo, hoping for some of the pudding I’m eating.

He is currently barred from most of the house because he is leaking squishy charcoal poo after a sneaky chocolate snack landed him at the vet’s office.  I’m going to work on drawing really cute shibas.  Really cute shibas that are obsessed with licking their leaky charcoal butt clean.