Deer and Doe Airelle and an Award, my first EVER!

*** Warning *** Crappy mobile phone pictures coming up ***

*** Next project are more exciting, I promise! ***

I wanted to post this 2 weeks ago before we went to Belgium to visit family and friends, but never got round to taking pictures (and now I only got round to snapping a few bad pics with my mobile phone), so here it is now...

My Deer and Doe Airelle.

Please don't mind my hair. I have a long standing love-hate relationship with my hair. I had long hair (I didn't go to the hairdresser's for over 2 years), then decided I didn't want that anymore. I went to a hairdresser and asked for short asymmetrical hair and she said she wasn't going to do that, but that she would cut it to shoulder-length. I hated it from the minute I stepped outside. (Push-over much, me?) My hair doesn't have a nice drape (yes, this is a fabric analogy) when it is shoulder length, it does what it does in the above picture. Mad Max Tina Turner... And I hate my bangs right now too, they're not short enough to lay flat but not long enough to lay neatly aside. So now it is growing again and it will take me at least another 2 years before I go to a hairdresser again! But until then I will just have to make do.

First comment my husband gave: Very pretty, well done again! Too bad I don't really agree. This shirt does nothing for me... I don't dislike it, but I'm not in love with it either. I don't know what it is.
It could be because I really hate what the neck facing is doing, and I don't know if it is my fault for messing up, or if the pattern is just not wide enough, or maybe it has something to do with my fabric... More on that later...  Another possibility is the fact that it is a shirt and thus I am forced to wearing pants (or a skirt if I had one that goes with it) and I don't like waistbands. At least not in summer, in cold weather I don't mind because I have to wear stockings anyway. So I'll just put this shirt away until my body doesn't reject waistbands anymore.

Unlike with my Bleuet, I set my pride aside and cut size 42. Cutting a size 42 makes me sad. In my mind my ideal size would be a 38. When I have to cut a 40 that's OK to me because that means I'm really close to a size 38  but cutting out a 42 means I'm a long way from my (self-imposed) ideal... Maybe pattern companies could change their sizing to animal-names (although I don't recommend a size Elephant) or colors or ... Just anything but numbers or letters...

Now about the fabric...
Someone please stop me when I'm in a fabric store and keep looking and coveting the slippery stuff and redirect my attention to the cottons? It is some kind of polyester because this fabric DOES NOT breathe. It sticks to my body and I feel sweaty after about 30 seconds.
But just look at this fabric... They are poodles. POODLES, I tell you. How can you pass on poodles? You are absolutely right, you can't! And so now I am paying the price...

Due to my attraction to the poodles, I'm in a lot of trouble with the neck facing. I not only understitched the facing, I even stitched it in place under the collar, but it still pops up... Anybody have any idea how to remedy this? Preferably a method that does not involve invisible handstitching...

The pattern calls for a double-folded hem, which I replaced for a very fine rolled hem, because taking off 2 cm of the length would make the shirt too short. Now it ends where I kind of want it to end, sitting on top of my butt, not above and not under it.

And although I don't really like it, I still get complimented over the doggy shirt. Nobody seems to notice the facing sticking out, or maybe they are just too polite to say anything about it...

On a completely different note, from here on I am my own positive self again, I got my first ever Blog Award. I was so happy when I got the news. Like everybody I like to be liked... Preferably publicly... 

I was awarded the Super Sweet Blogger Award by the lovely Kim from Reves Mecanique.  A very pretty (as you can see in her pictures) and smart (she is a veterinarian) lady that makes super clothes and bags, like a Megan Nielsen Cascade, a very cute Deer and Doe Datura Blouse, a gorgeous Gertie's Wiggle Dress, and she went to Burning Man last year... Thanks Kim, I feel really honored!

THE RULES: 
1. Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that nominated you.
2. Answer 5 Super Sweet questions.
3. Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award in your blog post.
4. Nominate a baker’s dozen (13) of other deserving bloggers.
5. Notify your Super Sweet nominees on their blog.

THE 5 SUPER SWEET QUESTIONS - these are really hard for me to answer because I don't eat processed foods, especially if it involves anything made from soy and it's derivates and refined sugar, but I am a sinner sometimes, so here goes:

1 – Cookies or Cake?  
Homemade Chocolate-Chip Cookies, definitely my favorite. But my mom makes a wicked apple-cake too...
 2 – Chocolate or Vanilla? 
Chocolate, the darker the better, no doubt about it. Belgian genes, do I need to say more? (But my favorite chocolate is Spanish, a brand named Amatller Chocolate. They have some über-cute tin can packages).
3 – Favourite Sweet Treat?  
Marshmallows, I can just keep eating those.
4 – When Do You Crave Sweet Things The Most? 
 When I am tired, the sugar-rush wakes me up for a little while.
5 – Sweet Nick Name? 
I am not deserving of a sweet nickname, but my mom sometimes calls me "Zoetje" which translates as "Sweetie".

I nominate the following bloggers - I don't know if any of these people already received this award, but here goes:

France Parijs


Masustak Eguzkitan

Atelier Ampersand

Handmade by Heather B