My sister and I saw Illegally Blonde in this theater.

I am feelin the Jersey shore today. I have so many childhood memories of funnel cakes and salt-water taffy, of tacky jewelry and pinball machines. I’m from Michigan, but nearly every summer, my mother packed us kids up in the green station wagon and we went to visit grandma and many of my 30-some-odd cousins in New Jersey (my mom is one of 10). There was always a trip to the shore. I cherished the boardwalk memories so much that when I was in college, I spent a couple summers working crazy waitressing hours morning and night during the tourist season in Ocean City. (Good way to make college money!) Some very late nights after work, a bunch of us would drive up to Atlantic City to blow our tips on slot machines. During the calm midweek, we’d take a drive down to North Beach Island to watch the surfers or Sea Isle City for a coffee. For my 27th birthday, I drove out to Asbury Park to visit Bruce Springsteen’s old haunts. For my 30th birthday, my roommate and I drove all night from Ohio through the Pennsylvania turnpike to do some vintage shopping in Philadelphia and then straight to the beach just in time for sunset. (I had to have a slice! Sorry New York and Chicago, there is no pizza like Jersey pizza.)

Anyway, I hope those in the storm are staying peaceful and dry.

In other news, I’ve done a bit of site redesign. Whenever I get a new creative bug or project going on, I turn my house inside out. I have to re-arrange everything. I’ve dragged 300-lb furniture between rooms. I want new things on the walls. If I had time and money I’d re-paint the entire house and replace all my cat-destroyed chairs. This time, I went at my blog. I wanted to re-do my blog design a year ago but the project sat on a shelf while my headers and other little designed navigations slowly started to go wonky as I continued to upgrade my WordPress theme. I got most of the new look up today and I hope you like it!

On a very important tech note, if you subscribe to my blog, you might need to resubscribe. I am no longer using Feedreader so my subscription links have changed.

If you use Google Reader, you can either go into your account, click the big red “Subscribe” button and add my website name. That’s it. (An even easier way to subscribe to blogs in Google reader is to add their bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, which is in the “Goodies” tab of your Google Reader account. Any time I’m at a website I want to follow, I just hit that button and bam! it’s in my Reader.)

If you use Bloglovin, you shouldn’t need to do anything, but I’ll keep checking on it to make sure it’s working. FYI, here is my site’s feed on Bloglovin.

Annnd, if you use something else like an email program to read blogs, you will have to re-enter the feed address, which is http://clothhabit.com/feed/

And alright, while I was at it, I made a Facebook page. A little birdie told me that more people are reading blogs through Facebook, so I thought I’d shoot my feed through FB, too.

It’s a few weeks away but I’m already starting on my wish list. Here’s one fantasy…

Have you seen this beauty? It’s not in production but a finalist in this year’s James Dyson Awards. UK university student Sarah Dickens designed her “Alto” as a basic make-do-and-mend machine. (I love the name, too–I’m an alto!)

This would be an awesome Kickstarter project. About time someone made the “Mac” of sewing machines, right? You can read about the Alto and watch a video of it in use at Ecouterre. (Thanks Steph for the link!)

Wish list aside, I like fresh starts and I almost always hit the reset button on a lot of things in October. Maybe it’s that beginning-of-school-year feeling. And I have a confession for this new year… Over the summer I got bored with blogging. Maybe restless is a better word. Every time I went to write a post, I’d write and rewrite sentences 15 times before I’d blast the whole thing and assign it to blog draft purgatory. There are a lot of lonely ideas in there that would like to be free. A month-long break from blogland helped, but I still wanted a bit more focus, perhaps some new direction. Up till this point I’ve written mostly about personal sewing projects. The problem is, I start to feel pulled and nagged by a project queue, rushing toward the finish line just to have something to blog about and that’s no fun, is it? Blogging is an art in itself and I want to get better at that.

So sat down for a few hours and wrote out some thoughts about the topics I like, where I’d love to go with this whole blogging-sewing-fashion-thing and how to keep a natural rhythm with it. And one thing really stood out to me. I LOVE to teach, and more than half of my blog ideas were teaching about sewing and designing, not just sharing my own makes. I spend far more time experimenting with patterns and fabrics than finishing them because I love to learn more than I want finished clothes. I love the process of problem-solving, too, and my constant instinct is to help others solve problems. But teaching is a skill and I need to sharpen it.

So to that end I’ve just initiated a local sewing workshop with friends. It’s still in the planning stages but I’m so excited about this! I’d like to bring that here too by sharing some of my own patterns, technique tutorials, re-fashioning. And I heard y’all about the bra-making sew-along. It’s in the works! Friends, that will really sharpen my scissors.

I’m going to start simply this week, with a new weekly post called “Lingerie Friday” featuring some of my favorite designs with a big sprinkle of DIY. I like having a little something to hang my hat on each week no matter what I’m working on.

And thank you to all my readers and friends for following thus far–you are amazing people and I hope that what I express here can be a source of refreshment for you.

That I’m wearing a windbreaker should give you an idea of how happy I am! When I last saw Texas, the heat was still pretty killer. I experience a certain late-summer languishing akin to those late-winter blues in climates that actually have a sense of winter. Too hot to think, too hot to get inspired about clothes! I’ve been traveling quite a bit and have hardly been home in the last month but I’m hoping some of this time away from heat and le blog and interweb activity will bring some fresh perspective and direction, both in my sewing and my writing.

Not that I haven’t been sewing or at least thinking about it! My free time has been filled with visions of pretty underthings and a few experiments in my own designs. Friends, I am utterly taken with lingerie design. Making my first bra a year ago tapped into something deeper for me–more than just another thing I’d like to learn how to make. Gardeners often talk about “signature plants” and my flowers became sweet peas. I even tried breeding my own varieties. Their history, fragrance, short-lived ephemerality, small but radiant blossoms and attraction to bees essentialized everything I loved about flowers. You can probably see the connection. I might have to stop myself from turning this into a lingerie blog! But seriously, I might start a regular feature on lingerie design, sewing and sourcing.

But first things first. Thank you for your sweet comments about my silk bra. It’s already become one of my favorite bras and definitely one of better-fitting ones I’ve made. I can’t wait to get back home and experiment some more with the pattern. Several comments gave me some good ideas for later later posts. Katherine asked me about how I adjusted my patterns for stretch and this is a little something I’ve been researching and working on, with a help of a few books about lingerie design. I’ve even come up with a geeky cool calculator that is helping me adjust pieces for different stretch percents. In an upcoming post/s I will share more ideas on how to adapting and fitting bra patterns.

Now to catch up on all your lovely blogs… Or just keep enjoying the bits of cool sunshine on my face.

Lately, my brain has felt like it’s on inspiration speed. So many ideas coming at me, all at once. When I was younger, I’d just ride the wave, worried that the muse wouldn’t strike twice. But since then, the tsumanis can be as much of a burden as the droughts. Every single idea being “a rare opportunity, the one that never knocks!” And I keep hearing that song in my head.

I’ve taken personality tests in the past just to get a grip on what tends to motivate me and how I organize (or don’t). On the popular MyersBriggs, I’m usually an INFP which explains my passion for ideals, intensity of feeling, love of learning new things, and a lot of my past jobs and education (and my not infrequent changing of jobs and education). It also, unfortunately, tells me I have trouble organizing, setting goals and sticking to them. I do like finishing things, the sense of satisfaction that comes with it, but if something very interesting and important and new comes up, it’s hard to concentrate.

The one thing I’m always wishing for more of is organization. I’m just not the personality type who comes up with brilliant organizational strategies although I love to death the kind who do. (Y’all are a gift, and you know who you are!) At this point in my life I’ve made peace with my creative impulsiveness, but I’m always searching for a better way to sort through all the ideas that come at me. For awhile I was trying to keep a visual logbook, sort of like this one.

I also get real pleasure out of following my mental rabbit trails until a few of them connect in some meaningful way. Lately I’ve taken to mind-mapping software.

I have two highly organized business-owner friends who’ve suggested I try it out. I downloaded MindNode because it has a Mac-friendly interface. (There are free ones, but they run on Java which I don’t like.) For example, I used it recently for a blog post idea. As I started writing, the post started turning into a tome (a frequent problem) and I needed to map out all the rabbit trails I was going on. Visually, my mind works more in circles than branches, but it’s been really helpful to use this so that I can 1. find the theme that ties all my ideas together, 2. happily follow the ideas to their extremes, 3. decide which branch is important–at this moment.

So for example, remember in my last post I was talking about re-doing my website? I had a theme all redesigned and almost ready to go and then some other ideas popped in my head. I tried them out and kept fiddling and fiddling. At no point during all this did I take notes on what I had done or why. Did I want a typographic-y theme that felt like an old book? and how old? Did I want a very clean look, kind of modernist and straightforward? I have a soft spot for designs with little clutter, with simple visual cues. Or did I want some feminine-y sort of retro vibe? I should’ve had my mind-mapping software when I started!

And as a sort of creative exercise this week, I did some serious spring cleaning of all my sewing stuff and my books and files in my home office. This was really good. I spent hours and hours going through papers and tossing. I fasted a bit from Pinterest and other distracting muses.

And I weeded, a lot. Weeding is good for the brain, too.

(See, Oona, I got dirty hands!)

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by your ideas and how do you organize them, just the ideas?

*As a kid, I loved flipping through these for hours and was endlessly fascinated with the Dewey decimal system and book titles. I remember sitting in a farm country library circa 1998, researching for my grad degree. I was the only one in there with a laptop; it was just at the the beginning of the dot-com boom. There were two lone card catalogs left and I felt a little pang of sadness; I knew the weight of that type of organization, the beauty of its craftsmanship, would be gone in a matter of days, months. (I remember thinking, time to get one now on ebay before they are like $1000. Um, too late.) These things are a beast though, the smallest weighing at least 150 pounds.

The Liebster is for blogs with followers of 200 or less and I admit I’ve never actually looked at my numbers so I went digging around in my Feedburner account. It didn’t help much with follower numbers, which seems to change from week to week (Feedburner averages how many times blog is viewed per day in readers) but I was totally geeking out looking at all the statistics. Apparently I have nothing on the geekdom that seems to land on this site. Namely Battlestar and Tricia Heifer fans. Over 90% of the hits on this site relate to my Number 6 Dress. I’m sure by linking that in here yet again I’m in danger of attracting even more of these hits, and if you are here because of that, Go Battlestar!

Although these days I’m more of a Fringe fan, and I’m praying they get one more season because this show is just warming up. Instead of Cylons, we get three versions of each character, who cross alternate universes to talk to themselves. Self, meet self. Fun. It’s not much to talk about in the clothes department but I do like The Observers’ hat style.

And now part of the game is to pass the award on to five more bloggers. I think I’ll make it six. I kinda like finding rarefied corners of the interwebs, don’t you?

The Thinks. Well, this might be cheating, but this is a blog by my dearest friend Han Stoney. She’s a lovely illustrator and rabid book reader and I appreciate her observations on art and life.

Pattern Vault. Sarah does elegant research into fashion history and the media behind Vogue Designer patterns. I confess I was the first in line to buy a few from her collection of Alexander McQueen for Givenchy patterns.

Blooms Fabric Obsession. It always helps me to follow stylish Aussie sewists… they teach me how to be funky yet relaxed in a hot climate. And remind me that I need to be living near a beach.

Fool For Fabric. I kinda stalk this blog. I want to be her when I grow up. And in 10 years if I’m not living near a beach, I should be living in Northern California. (Near a beach.)

Sallieoh. All around lovely blog on color and sewing and fashion and food. I think I felt better about my Rachel Comey shoe collection after discovering her!

A Good Wardrobe. Liz is designing, patternmaking and crafting her own wardrobe. And she lives in my favorite city in North America. (Near an ocean… am I sensing a theme here?)

Yes, I know that’s a bit late, but only in internet time–which pretty much came to a halt for two weeks. We had a very quiet and unplugged Christmas in Antwerp, Belgium. My husband and I lived there briefly before we settled in Austin, but continue to visit at least once a year. This year we used the holidays as an excuse to gather with a few friends who traveled from Prague and Berlin. I love European cities at Christmastime… the families gathered together in the squares, huddled against the cold with cups of mulled wine, the relaxed holiday pace.

We peaked into the Christmas Day mass at St. Mary’s, where a glorious tenor was belting out American black gospels.

{This one is by my husband. I have a sorry lack of pictures of the entire two weeks but I’m not the iPhoneographer around here. He somehow climbed on the rooftop of our apartment for this one.}

Antwerp is, in my humble opinion, one of the friendliest and most relaxed cities in all of Europe. My favorite activity here is just to sit on the crowded Meir and people-watch for hours on end–the Flemish walk to the sound of their own drum with offbeat style at every age. (I’ve also never heard so much whistling in any place. People whistle songs to themselves–constantly. Surely a sign of happiness?)

It also has a reputation as a fashion and shopping mecca, and I’d be remiss if I never wrote about it on this blog. There’s every kind of fashion from high street to luxury packed into the small streets. You may have heard about the Antwerp Six, a collective of designers (Dries van Noten, Ann Demuelemeester, etc.) from the Art Academy here who basically put Antwerp design in the international spotlight in the 80s. These designers have their stores here and you feel their influence in much of the design. I’d name that influence something like post-street-pop-Japonisme. (There’s a huge representation of Japanese design here–including the pioneering designers of the 80s. I should write a post about that connection sometime.) The MOMU fashion museum is a rare treat with a curated exhibition that changes a couple of times a year and a permanent historical collection.

Since lace was on my brain when we left Austin, I thought I might find some here–after all, this is Belgium, right? Surprisingly it’s hard to find fabric stores in Antwerp and I didn’t have much patience to explore in the gale-force winds and rains that haunted our last week.

But it was exactly the holiday we needed. Friends, lounging indoors and talking, lots of Irish coffee, more talking. And Chocolate. Every. Day.

New Year’s on the Scheldt. (One of two pictures I took! Yep, it was that relaxed.)

I’m looking forward to getting back to sewing…. and catching up on the crazy zillions of blog posts in my reader!

My birthday was a week ago and we decided to leave Texas for the much greener pastures of the borders of Yorkshire.

Somehow we didn’t get any actual pictures of me facing the camera but I have to say the scenery upstaged us anyway. Apparently this is where they shot parts of the final Harry Potter.

A few days later our friends took us for a lovely day at Chatsworth estate. (This has also been home of many film sets, including being Mr. Darcy’s “Pemberley” in the last Pride and Prejudice.) My lovely friend Jen is a textile artist in Sheffield–I had to include this because I love how her colors looked against the sky that day.

I’m 41. It sounds so big to write that down. Did you know that Winona Ryder turned 40 last month? To me, that’s the official sign that Gen X is going into middle age. (Did you see her in Black Swan? Strange and gory.)

My 40th year took me by surprise. I didn’t want to think it’d be a big deal, but it was. I was suddenly crowded with unexpected thoughts, as perhaps many women are, about the rest of my life–about health, children, career, places to live and how to manage it all. All good questions. I started this blog as one of my new resolutions (it started right before my 40th), as a way of challenging myself to write and focus on one particular passion.

I share the same birthday week with my mother and her mother (both seamstresses!). I’m happy to say that my grandma is 102 as of last week, and she’s a sharp and witty lady–she is now mostly blind and no longer sews or knits, but on her birthday last year told me she listens to audio books now, about 20 a week!

Here’s to new horizons and giving oneself permission to change routes!

This blog was actually my first experiment in wordpress.com but I found it limiting and have since installed WordPress on my own host. I started out using the Duster theme but didn’t like how single entry pages had no sidebars. At the same time, Duster is nice because it is very, very uncluttered. I like lots of white space and good typography and there are a lot of themes that really squash too much in too little space–and go overboard with fonts.

So I installed Canvas and gave it all the same CSS style that I used in Duster, with a few new upgrades.

I’m curious, though, about how people read blogs.

*Do you like to see lots of sidebars?

*Do you scroll through blogrolls? They’ve been around since the beginning of blogs and I wonder… these days I find blogs through comments or boards and not through blogrolls.

*Google FriendConnect: what is it for? If I subscribe to a blog in my Google Reader, that seems like enough, so signing into FriendConnect seems like a superfluous thing. Am I wrong?

*The biggest thing I’m curious about is–do you like to see the entire post on blog pages, or just a teaser/excerpt? Or do you generally read blogs in your reader first (which bypasses the whole excerpt thing anyway)?

I have another blog on which I occasionally write about design things. I wonder if it’d be useful to put some code or blogging engine tips here, specifically for sewing/fashion blogs?