Here's a little of what I've been working on...

I've been working on a few projects trying to get them done so that my parents could take them back to Idaho when they came for Thanksgiving.

I didn't get both of the quilts done but I did get this one done, and I love how it turned out. The piecing I kept really simple, and to go with the Knight fabric I appliqued this amazing dragon onto the quilt. I even used minkee for the belly, ears and tail. The applique pattern is from this wonderful website full of free patterns. Hopefully my nephew likes it as much as I do.

I'm almost done with a quillow for my niece, but I promised my husband that I would finish quilting a Christmas wall hanging for us this year before I get back to making presents. So I better go and quilt.

I Love my new camera!

Okay it's not really new new, since it was my birthday present in September, but I finally got a chance to really play with it.

Last Saturday my daughter and I went to see Disney Princesses on Ice. We bought tickets in the middle range. It gave us seats in the middle concourse with a great head on view of the action, but we were in no way close. While we were waiting I tried taking pictures of the backdrop without the flash on my camera just to see what it would do. I was pleasantly surprised. Then during the show I took pictures zooming in just to see how they would turn out. I even took pictures at the max zoom. I was a little worried because on the screen the scene was prettypixelated, but I was so excited to look at the pictures on the computer when we got home. The second dress is even a still capture from the movie I took!

This is why I love my camera!

Just in case you couldn't guess, Daph's favorite princess is Cinderella

Purse #3

Here's my 3rd purse for my cousins. This one is for my 13 year old cousin who LOVES pink and kind of flashy things. With this one done, I've finished the purses for the cousins that are going to be with us for Christmas. Yeah! Now I just have a couple more to make that will get mailed.

This purse was made using the Buttercup bag pattern from Made by Rae. I love this pattern!

So 3 down and 2 more to go!

Two Down, several more to go!

Here's the second purse for my cousins. This one is for the 12 year old. It's not the fabric I would have picked for a 12 year old but she loves browns and blacks so it just seemed right. I based the purse on this pattern, but of course I can't make much exactly by the pattern.

Yum!

Eggnog is back, so we had eggnog french toast for dinner. I think this is one of the best things about the holidays. Okay well after spending time with family and friends, and making and giving gifts!

At least I'm sewing!

For some reason I'm still having trouble getting motivated to sew all the things I want to sew before Christmas, but I have gotten a few simple projects done.

I made my daughter her cowgirl skirt for Halloween!

And I just finished this simple baby blanket for a soon to be here new nephew.

I even have my next project planned out!!
For some reason I'm still having trouble getting motivated to sew all the things I want to sew before Christmas, but I have gotten a few simple projects done.

My first purse from my own pattern!

I'm planning on making my cousins purses for Christmas. I had all the fabrics picked out and was planning on making them all from the Buttercup bag pattern. Then I realized that they might actually use them if they didn't match, they're all in their teens. So I needed another purse pattern that was easy to make and a similar size to the Buttercup. I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I decided to just make my own. I love how it turned out!

I don't know why it took me so long to make up my own pattern for a purse. I make up my own quilt patterns and variations all the time. But I'm really glad I did it finally. It's a slim purse about 7"x12"x2". Now I'm looking at the fabric I got for my Birthday and thinking it would look really cute for myself. I just need to make sure I save this pattern and that I don't loose it.

Dropping your laptop is not good for it!

There was a bit of a pause in my blog posts at the end of September because dropping your laptop is not good for it!



This is an actual picture of the screen of my laptop after it slid of my lap. My husband even had to pass this around at work he was so impressed at the amount of damage. they are all software engineers He even wants to use this picture as his computer background. So see it served some purpose.

I just don't understand why my husband thinks I need a nerf shell for my new netbook!

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!!

The Christmas albums are out in the stores and I just bought my first new Christmas CD of the year.

and my fortune said ...

Last night my family went out for Chinese food, when we were done and the fortune cookies came I reached for a cookie at the same time as my husband. I let him grab it and then he gave it to our daughter. I got mine and opened it. However Daph couldn't get hers open so we traded and I read my fortune.

Do not rush through life. Pause and enjoy it.

I have to say that I've never had a fortune that I felt I needed to share, unless it sounded dirty, but this one seemed so appropriate.

A little over two weeks ago my best, basically a sister, friend called me at 12:30 pm with the news that her husband of almost nine years had unexpectedly died. I flew out a few days later and was able to go and spend a week trying to help her and her three boys.

I know she hates it when people say she's strong, so I won't! However I think what people were seeing and amazed at was her ability to see the positive. As much as she was devastated by her loss she could still look at the fact that they had had an amazing summer as a family. The economic situation meant that her husband had been home with them all a lot. They had great memories of gardening and just being a family.

They had spent the evening before just talking, and she always told her husband how excited she was to be his wife, so she didn't feel like there was anything left unsaid.

There were so many things that she found to be thankful for.

She wanted only a positive message at the funeral. That we are saved by Grace and Love endures. Even the music, Simple Gifts followed that feeling. And just to make sure people didn't leave crying she had them play a very Dave piece of music as we left the funeral, Aerosmith's Walk this Way.

So it just felt right to share my fortune with anyone who reads this, and to remind us all to slow down and find the things that we are thankful for.

Take the time to enjoy life, don't wait to get new pictures, let those in your life know how much they mean to you, and don't assume there will be time to do it all later.

A couple more pictures

After I published the last post I realized that a few of the pictures were missing. It just seemed easier to do another one.

A little extra time on my hands

Today I found myself with about 45 minutes between appointments, and amazingly I had my new camera in my purse so I just drove around and took some pictures of the fall colors and whatever struck my fancy!

There's actually enough snow up at Lake Tahoe that people have been snowboarding!

I think I really like my new camera!!

Where's my groove?

I thought that as soon as Daph started school again I'd be able to get back in the groove again and get back to sewing, but that just hasn't happened.

I have so many projects too. And Christmas isn't very far away in crafting time.

Ahhhh, what am I going to do.

I may have to resort to desperate measures, and "horror" schedule!

But on the bright side I got an early Birthday gift, a new camera. It will be really nice not to have to turn it on 3 times to get it to really work. Hopefully I like this one as much as I liked my old one!

I just couldn't cut it!

I fell in love with this fabric. I thought about making myself something with it, but I just couldn't cut it. So instead I bought a large canvas from an art supply store. I wrapped it with a thin batting, and then wrapped and stapled the fabric around it, and I only had to cut 4 inches off.

Public Service Announcement

Here's my public service announcement for the day.

Always remember to put on your sunscreen, especially when you are going to be at the beach of a high altitude lake.

Does sunburn count?

I don't know if you've noticed, but on the side of my blog I've been keeping a log of how often I burn myself, and still have a mark the next day. If you don't know me that might seem like a really odd thing to keep track off.

My friends and family however find it a source of amazement and humor. If there is even a remote chance of me burning myself I will.

When I was in junior high, I had to quit ironing my Dad's dress shirts for extra money because the school had called my parents with some concerns about the scars on my wrists. For some reason I just kept burning my wrists.

Even the family that I babysat for all through high school joked about how often I burned myself. The Mom was so excited one day because she had bought one of those self contained frying machines that you couldn't burn yourself on. I followed the instructions exactly, but for some reason it didn't release the steam like it should have. In fact I shouldn't have been able to open it unless the steam had been released. But for me, it opened and the whole top of my thumb turned into one large blister.

My friend likes to joke about the times I burned my self on the screen door and even on her car. My husbands favorite story is the time I burned my forehead. Your thinking well yeah, with a curling iron. But no I burned my head with the regular iron when I bent over while I was ironing a seam open. There are so many more stories I could tell but instead I'll get back to my question.

So does sunburn count for this list. While I was at Camporee with my daughters girl scouts troop I forgot to put on my sunscreen when we went to the beach. That was on Sunday, and I'm still bright red and have a couple spots that still hurt to touch. So what do you think, do really bad sunburns count?

Oh fudge!

Girl Scout camp is THIS Saturday!! I thought I still had another week!

A little reorganization.....finally!

This was my sewing space a couple weeks ago. I know it's terrible, especially when you realize that the table edge you see on the left is our dining table. Yeah, it's bad. I keep meaning to get it cleaned up and organized but somehow it never happens. It gets cleaned up, but without the organization that doesn't last long.

But once I got my new serger I had to make room for it, so I used this as an excuse to FINALLY reorganize. Ta Dah!

Even I'm impressed! (as long as I don't look in our guest room) I have this milk crate cover tutorial and some great fabric that I was thinking of using to hide the clutter a little more. We'll see when that gets done, lol.

I also HAD to change the strap on my latest buttercup bag. I loved the look of the faux leather strap, it was just too long. Not for a normal person, but when you never made 5' without heels a couple inches makes a big difference. I still love the hardware on it and the new strap is perfect.

It could be love!

I finally got out my new serger and it could be love! How did I sew for this long without it? Well back to my sewing!

I'm back!

We're back from our family visit, and I'm hoping that I'll be back mentally as well as physically. I just haven't been very productive this summer. I haven't been able to settle down and write, sew, create, even read. Hopefully that's over and I can get things done.

While I was on vacation I did get a couple projects done. After all I HAD to try out my Moms fancy new sewing machine. Here they are.

The first is a large summer tote that I used my great Fruit Ladies print on. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The other is a purse based on the free Buttercup pattern. I enlarged it 15% (the original pattern wasn't big enough for me to carry a book), used a thin fusible fleece on the lining and added a leather look strap instead of a fabric one. It's actually bigger than I was expecting ( but I like it)and I'm trying to decide if the strap is too long for me, but that's an easy fix since I have more of the green fabric.

I also have a new toy to play with. My Mom got this with her sewing machine, but since she won't use it she gave it to me YEAH! Now I just have to figure out how it works since I've never used a serger before. So if anyone has any tips or suggestions I'm listening!

Well it is summer!

I just can't believe how little I've gotten done this summer and how fast it's flying by. I still have so many project I've been meaning to do. And now it's time for our vacation to visit the parents, so instead of using some of my stash and finishing projects I'll be going fabric shopping and adding to my stash.

Oh well it is summer vacation right?

Too cute to resist!

I love how it follows the cursor with it's head and if you press the more button you can feed it!

adopt your own virtual pet!

Roar!

I loved this roller coaster! Now I should probably admit that I didn't actually ride it (terrible motion sickness), but I loved the look and shape of it, the shadows it made, and in a couple photos the mix of old and new. So I played around and these are the photos I got.

Happy Anniversary X3, Happy Father's Day, Happy Birthday

This is a busy weekend for our family.

Saturday was the family Anniversary. I know that sounds odd! When my husband and I were planning our wedding, and looking at dates, we knew we wanted to get married after Andy graduated and before he left for his new job, so that meant the last couple weeks of June. We needed a weekend so that family could travel without having to miss too much work. So we had 2 choices, the 13th or the 20th. I just couldn't get married on the 13th, my paternal Grandma had been very superstitious and evidently more rubbed off than I had thought. So we picked the 20th which also happened to be my parents anniversary. Then 3 years later when my brother and his wife were planning their wedding they decided to go with the tradition we had started and they got married on Wednesday the 20th of June. So this year we celebrated 39 years, 11 years and 8 years together. Now it's kind of fun to conference call and wish everyone a Happy Anniversary.

Father's Day today.

Then on Monday is my Father in laws birthday. The poor guy really gets jipped when ever his birthday is right around Father's day because we all end up merging the celebrations AND the presents.

Mom of the Moment

Sorry for the quality of the video, my Mom took this on her cell phone

For a brief while yesterday my daughter thought I was the best Mom in the World. My parents had taken us to Six Flags again this weekend and I paid for her and my Dad to go pet and feed a dolphin. She was so excited, she could barely stand the 15 minute wait till it was time to line up. Afterwards she talked for hours about this being the best day of her life, and that she couldn't believe that she got to feed a dolphin. It was so fun hearing what a great time she had.

Then we went on a silly ride. It goes fast, but it only goes in a circle with a couple of up and down bumps. It is fun, but I didn't think it would eclipse the dolphins. But alas my moment of triumph was over. Now if you ask her what her favorite thing of the day was, she says the Thrilla Gorilla ride.

My little morning projects

Daphne had practice for Super Circus yesterday and I realized that she couldn't wear the scrunchy that came with her leo like most of the other girls because her hair is too short. So this morning I made her and the other little girl in her her class with short hair barrettes that coordinated with the leos.

Daphne wanted 2, so hers are the smaller bows and the rounder bow with the star in the middle is for Megan.

Need an idea for a fun Father's Day gift!

If you are looking for an out of the ordinary and fun Father's Day gift check out these websites. Both of these are great because they have some really items that aren't very expensive. I think I'm going to order Andy a rear view mirror for his monitor, I just need to decide which of these websites ( this one or this one) to order one from since they both have them. And I may have to get this for myself, I don't know why but it intrigues me

This one is Andy's favorite online store, and pretty much the name says it all Think Geek. Andy really likes the cube warfare category.

This one I just found when Lola...Again posted about it on her blog, I love the Zorro Sword BBQ meat fork, and the mini circular saw pizza cutter, here at Perpetual Kid.

I got them done!

I finished the stockings and just in the nick of time. I think they'll like them. The only problem is that I accidentally made the cuffs on these a little bigger than the others.

This stocking is an extra because they are planning on having another child down the road so this way they will still have a matching stocking. I gave them a little kit to add the name to it when the child is born.

And look what was delivered yesterday, I sort of felt like my reward for getting the stockings done. I found this fabric in the sales area at Hancocks of Paducah and I just had to order it.

I have been sewing!

Look I have been sewing! The Christmas stockings are almost done and I finished the purse to give my Daughter's teacher as a gift tomorrow. I used this tutorial from Lola Again and I love how it turned out.

The Art of Procrastination

Normally I would never say I'm perfect at something, but I really do think I have perfected the art of procrastination. I have 3 more Christmas stockings that I NEED to make for Daph's teacher before the school year is over (in other words 6 more days to sew) and I WANT to make her a purse for an end of the year gift because she keeps making comments on how much she likes the one I made for myself. However instead of being at the sewing machine right now I'm updating my blog. See! Oh and just in case your procrastinating too, and need something else to do you can look at the other stockings I made for her in my slide show (right column), hers are the stockings with the names on them.

Actually I think I should wait till tomorrow to start the stockings because I was thinking about making a tutorial on how I make my Christmas stockings and for that I really need the good day light for the best pictures. Yeah that sound good, it makes perfect sense.

See I told you I think I have this down perfect.

I love Thunderstorms!!!

As a kid growing up in Minnesota one of my very favorite things was a good thunderstorm.  I loved listening to the sound of the pouring rain, seeing the flash of lightening and the crack of thunder.  Those are really happy memories for me.

Now I know in other parts of the country that a thunderstorm may not deserve a blog post, but let me tell you, living in the high desert of northern Nevada they do not happen very often.  In fact that is one of the few things about the area that I don't like.

But tonight we are getting a wonderful treat, at least in my book.  We are having a full on thunderstorm, with the pouring rain even, and best of all it's lasted a half hour so far.  I could be having a moment of Nirvana.

Moms - We all have our monents!

Now before I start I have to say that I don't remember any of this, but I have heard the story over, and over, and over again!!

When I was about 5 years old one of my best friends was a little boy named Tony who lived next door to my Grandparents.  We played all the time when I was at their house.  For some reason, and I have no idea why, I would also bite him all the time.

My parents tried everything to get me to stop, they had even tried to get Tony to bite me back, but he just wouldn't.

One day when we were out playing my Mom heard Tony cry and came running out.  She sent Tony home and as soon as we got in the house asked my Grandma for tape.  My Grandma told my Mom they only had electrical tape.  My Mom said I don't care.  As she says now, she had just hit her limit and was so frustrated, she didn't know what else to do.

So she taped my mouth shut.  

It had only been a few minutes when Tony came back over and wanted me to play again.  My Mom said I could go out but only if I kept the tape on.

So I went out and played, and never bit Tony again.

Now when my Mom tells the story she's mixed between seeing the humor (especially at my expense) and being embarrassed .  She can't believe she really did that. 

My little project for the day, and a quick brag!

My daughter had today off (again, this is the 2nd of 3 this month), so I didn't get much sewing done, but I needed to get this little pillow done for our next Girl Scout meeting.  It's for one of the girls in our troop who is moving this summer.  I have fabric markers for the rest of the girls to sign on the plain purple fabric so she can take a little bit of them with her.

I just had to brag for a moment and say look at all the incentives our Girl Scout troop earned, our average was over 200 boxes per girl.  We had several at 300+, and even 2 at who reached 400.  The girls will be so excited when they get handed out at our meeting.

I finished the bag!

When I added the picture to the last I thought that it would work to just show the almost finished bag, but I find I just couldn't stop with that.   I just had to show you how the finished bag turned out.  I especially like how the flower pin turned out.  I followed this tutorial.

However my SIL won't be getting the bag to use as a diaper bag before the baby arrives, because I got it in the mail today, and then my brother called to tell me that my new nephew had arrived about 9 o'clock this morning. 

Mom and baby are doing well, but on Monday my brother was told his contract wouldn't be extended like they had told him last week, in fact he was let go that day.  So if you can keep them in your thoughts and prayers it would be appreciated.

Here's what I've been doing lately!

I've been working on a couple things for my sister-in law's baby shower.  I still need to attach the handles to the main bag, but I'm almost done.  I made up the diaper and wipes bag based on the size of the wipes container, I used this pattern for the pouch for my SIL's things, and this pattern for the reversible baby booties.  The baby booties were really easy and turned out super cute and the pouch was pretty easy as well, and I was happy with how it turned out, especially since it had a zipper.  The final things I made were store bought cloth diapers that I decorated with a strip of flannel down the middle.  I love how they turned out and I got lucky when I found those fun colored cloth diapers on clearance!

I didn't take a picture or it but I also made a very simple blanket for my SIL's sister since it's a double baby shower.

Now I just need to make 3 more Christmas Stockings for my daughter's teacher before school ends (June 4th) and I want to make her a purse as an end of the year gift.  I better get back to sewing soon.

Janet do you recognize the flannel?

This is the reverse side of the booties

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to wish all you Mom's out there a Happy Mother's Day, and I hope you get shown and told how important you are!

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.  ~Adabella Radici

Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.  ~Pearl S. Buck

Is it supposed to be that way?

Sometimes people scare me.  

A couple weeks ago I bought a book at Walmart.  It was just a basic science fiction paperback.  It was turning out to be a really enjoyable book until I got to the middle of chapter 17, where it jumped to chapter 26.  Oops.  So I  look through it and I notice that not only does it make that jump, but a couple chapters further on it goes back to chapter 20 and then goes on to the end.  So it is completely missing 2 1/2 chapters.  

But like I said it was a good book, and when I kept forgetting to exchange it, I just bought another copy.  Then the other day I finally remembered to return it, and yes to Walmart.  I didn't have the receipt but the publisher had said to return it to the store and they could return it to the publisher.  I wait in line, and I finally get a free clerk.  I explain the problem with the book, and that it is MISSING chapters, and she actually looked at me and asked,

 I quote "Is it supposed to be that way?"  NO!

I did finally get a store credit, but I just couldn't believe she had actually asked me if a book is supposed to be missing chapters.  I really wanted to ask which school district she attended, just to be on the safe side for my childs future.

What I could be doing with that $70

My daughter loves her gymnastics class, and for the most part so do I.  Her class is a trampoline and tumbling class, which is very cute to watch.  However once a year I dread it.  Our place does a "recital" that they call Super Circus, and this years is fast approaching.  AAAHHHHH (running away screaming) NO!  I'm not sure what I'm dreading the most, the financial output or the tortuously long performance.

Now let me just get this said, as cute as my daughter is in her outfits, jumping on the trampoline, she will never be a competitive gymnast, so that said I'll continue my rant.

I didn't realize this last year but the gym looks at this whole production as one big fund raiser for their teams.   We pay full price for the leotards (that are hopefully washable this year) so that the gym can get the profit, we pay for tickets to come and be tortured (oops) ENJOY the 3 hour performance which is done in their own facility.  Luckily we don't have other children who will want to come because they take the whole circus theme to the extreme with concessions to buy at the show such as cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones etc. 

Last year we paid about $40 for this leotard and a matching hair scrunchy, yeah we got all of that for 40 dollars.  I know that is nothing compared to the price for dance recital outfits, but it's pretty annoying when they have cute outfits in their store area that are only about $30.  When a couple parents mentioned the prices last year the owner just said "well the coaches (high school student) got to pick the outfits."  Yeah that helps.  At least this year we will know that price up front.  Last year it was a deposit with an unknown amount due the day of rehearsal. 

I think it would help if we weren't paying for everything.  The expensive outfits for the girls might not be so bad (this years is about $50) if the boys outfit wasn't  $18.  Why can't all the kids in this class wear t-shirts and short.  And then after paying for the outfits we will pay about $7 per person for tickets to sit in their facility.  I find my self irritated beyond belief, but unable to tell my daughter that she can't go and get her trophy at the end of the performance.  So I had to vent here, but I keep thinking of all the other things I could spend this money on.

1)  8 weeks of calming yoga class

2)  one and a half video games for my husband

3)  10 books

4)  at least 9 yards of fabric

5)  several trophies

6)  we could all go out to a nice dinner

etc

etc

etc

not to mention all the really practical uses the money could go for.

Oh well as the commercial try and tell us, my daughters happiness and pride in her new trophy will be priceless.  Right?

 

Update on my Sister-In Law and Baby

Hi I just wanted to give you all a quick update.

They had an ultrasound this week and everything looks really good with the baby, yeah.

The medicine seems to be working so my sister-in law is doing well, and we found out that the procedure to fix the heart damage isn't quite as scary as it sounds, and is almost routine these days (according to an ex ER nurse my brother talked to) so that all is another Yay.

The final bit of good news is that the company my brother works for is trying to get his and 3 other employees contracts extended, and if that doesn't work they are talking about moving him to their IT department, so that is another tentative sigh of relief.

Thanks you so much for all your thoughts and prayers, I'll keep you updated.

Note for Janet

I probably shouldn't say this, but for some reason every time I look at my new fabric I just have to chuckle to myself because it reminds me of us, unfortunately it's not the cherry girl or the banana.

My new fabric came today!!!

When I found this fabric I just HAD to buy it.  This fabric is called Fruit Ladies by Elizabeth Studios.  I'm so excited that is came this fast.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, maybe a summer bag, but I have it!!!

Opinion Question - please help me decide

My sister-in law had an ultrasound yesterday, they won't know how everything looks until she sees her doctor today, however they did find out that they are having a boy.

So now I have a question for you all.  I have this cute fabric that I want to use to make either a blanket or a quilt for the baby, I just can't decide which.  I'm just torn between a blanky  with this fabric and then a toddler size quilt later out of other fabrics, or a knight themed quilt out of these.  Help what do you think?  What would you do?  What would you like to receive if it was you?

If I make a blanket it will be a simple one with the knight fabric on one side and maybe minkee on the back with the shields as the binding.

If I make a quilt I'll add fabrics, they have a castle fabric that matches, or maybe even one of the patterns that make a large castle for the middle of the quilt.  

A small prayer request

I just wanted to ask for your prayer for my brother and his family.  My sister-in law is pregnant with their second baby and due around the end of May.  Everything was going pretty well this time until she started having what they thought were anxiety attacks.  She was transferred to a high risk OB, and they found out that she is actually having mini strokes.  Luckily the baby is still looking good,  and medicine seems to be controlling the strokes, but she will need to go in for surgery to repair the damage that has been done to her heart.

To top off the worries, the surgery needs to be done within 8 weeks of the baby being born, for her to be covered under Oregon Health (they don't have insurance), and my brother has been told that his job is safe until June, but they can't make any promises after that.

There isn't much I can do right now for them, but I thought that a few extra prayers might help!

See we did have fun...pt 3 (mildly mature content)

Before we headed out to the San Francisco area we did a little sightseeing here.  I decided to take my Aunt and Cousin to Virginia city which is the sight of a big gold and silver strike in the 19th century.  In fact during it's heyday it was the largest city between Denver and San Francisco.  I love all the mining artifacts that are scattered about the countryside.

Alright I know I warned about mild adult content, because on the way to Virginia City we pass through one of the few counties in the country where brothels are legal, so we had to drive by so my Aunt could see them.  There are about 6 in along a small stretch of road.  I have to say that it doesn't really bother me to have them there.  I figure this is a much safer environment for all concerned.  Here are a couple pictures my Aunt took along the driveway to the Bunny Ranch.  Just as an aside, their business seemed to be booming that Saturday, I had seen cars in the lots, but that day we saw probably 6 men coming or going from the brothels.