Last Days of Self-Stitched-September

Lots of repeats during these last few days. I never managed to wear my new black and grey dress - the weather has been too warm!

These challenges are good because they make me use all of my wardrobe. If I could, I would probably just wear jeans and t-shirts all the time, despite the fact that I like a dressier look. I'm just lazy! So by wearing a piece a few times during these challenges I get comfy with it and am more likely to wear it during 'normal' months. :)

Plus, since I don't have 30 or 31 different me-made garments, I have to try different combos and accessories to keep things fresh. This forces me to delve into my jewelry collection as well...but I think I don't have my stuff very well organized. If I can't see it I forget it exists, so I tend to wear the same pieces over and over again. I've been meaning to do something about this for several years now...I like this earring display frame, for instance:

You can get the pattern free from Stitch Diva, which is also where I got the photo from.

And, of course, the really cool thing about these challenges is seeing what everybody else is making and wearing. There's always tons of inspiration. And my blog reading list gets longer and longer!

Speaking of blogging, Alessa from Farbenfreude was kind enough to pass along a Versatile Blogger award to me! Thanks, Alessa! She's great, she also helped me some technical blogger problems I was having. :)

So, these are the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave the award and link back to them in your post
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass this award along to recently discovered blogs

Obviously the hardest part of this is figuring out 7 things to share! Hmmm, let's see...

1) I finally talked my husband into signing up for a swing dancing class! We started last week. I used to swing dance all the same when I was college, but it's been a while so the skills are a little rusty. Plus there were never enough boys, so I used to dance the 'boy' part more than the 'girl' part so that I could dance more often!

2) I never finished reading War and Peace. It's been so long at this point that I think I need to start all the way over!

3) I've been learning to meditate for the past few years. I practice a meditation style as taught by the Shambhala tradition. I'm not good about doing it every day though!

4) What Alessa said about lists reminded me that I have to write everything down. I have a very bad memory for things I need to do. One wonders if I purposefully forget!

5) I have a minor obsession with L'Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre and have an idea for a quilt about it. I wanted to write my thesis on it, but unfortunately my idea was too monstrously big...more like Ph.D thesis size, so I guess I'll never do it. I'll do the quilt instead. :)

6) I have a major sweet tooth for magazines. I love National Geographic, Smithsonian, Threads, Selvedge, Interweave, etc. I've been forced to cut down my consumption since moving to France!

and finally...

7) I can't help it, I like emo music. But not exclusively, I like punk too. And some rap. :)

I'm happy to pass this award onto some blogs I recently discovered, thanks to SSSeptember 2011:

1) Sølvi at deflfinelise

2) Two Little Cabbages and Cie

and

3) Minnado


I hope everyone manages to stay inspired throughout the coming months and I can't wait to see you around for the next me-made-challenge! :)