7.28.2011

Comin' right up!

It's that time again...countdown time!  As an avid maker of lists and plans, I love laying it all out and seeing what I have coming up...even if it's still insanely far away (like...retirement).

In just a few hours:  Project Runway premiere (here are the designers - Becky Ross, I'm already totally on your team knowing absolutely nothing about you except that you are completely adorable!)

In 4 daysBachelorette finale - although isn't the winner sort of obvious by now?  Unless you are using tricky editing to mess with our heads, ABC!
Sadly, this also means an end to the backless shirt parade.
via
Which means in 11 days:  Bachelor Pad, the bane of Chris Harrison's existence, starts!
Stay strong, Ames!

In 21 days:  Key West with Scott's parents - beach vacay!

In a month and a week:  Meeting up with my parents on their tour of New England - we get to join in for Boston, Mystic, and Cape Cod!

In two months and one week:  Autumn begins!  It's human nature to never be happy with our current situation, isn't it?  Bring on the cool temps and changing leaves instead of this heat.
This is the actual view out of our apartment window.

In 4 months and 5 days:  Cruisin' to the bahamas with a best friend and a best band

In 8 monthsHunger Games movie!  Have you seen these pics?

In 9 months 4th annual girls' trip - destination TBA

In a year and 10 months:  Scott's graduation - we've passed the halfway mark!

In 40ish years:  retirement

7.27.2011

Stripes: Another Everywhere Dress

I thought nothing in the world could be more comfortable than this dress. Until I made another version of it in striped rib knit, and it suddenly multiplied in both comfort AND cuteness!  This could very well be the dress I've been waiting for all my life, folks.
Vanessa wears it well, no?

7.26.2011

Where "it" comes from.

As anybody knows who has read this blog in the past few months (or even just past 24 hours), I make my own clothes.  At this point, in fact, I rarely buy anything from a store at all.  It's not that I don't see a million things in stores that I want to buy, it's just that I have found so much joy in creating things with my own hands that I would rather clothe myself that way.

Sewing is something I started when I was young, and just kept coming back to again and again in life.

When I was in elementary and middle school, I made a few pieces of clothing with the extensive help of my granny and my mom.  Specifically:  a red and blue plaid vest with matching blue elastic waist (still love it!) shorts, a clown costume for Halloween, a neon green shift dress with yellow daisies on it, a black and purple floral skort (ah, the '90s).

My first major in college was, in fact, apparel design--a major I switched out of after the first semester because I thought if you were going to be a part of the fashion industry, you would have to live in a big city, which I never wanted to do.  Ironic, considering I now live in the biggest one of them all, and also the fashion capital of the U.S.!

So after a few more changes in my major, I became a teacher instead.  But I found myself sitting back down at the sewing machine during my first year of teaching, thanks to my mom (ahem...Santa) giving me a sewing machine for Christmas, and I have been making garments (mostly for myself, but sometimes for friends!) ever since.

Lately, I have been thinking about where this comes from.  What it is that has drawn me back to the sewing machine each decade of my life, why I think about seam finishing all day when I'm at work, why I happily stay up way past my bedtime hunched over the ironing board, why I stare women down on the street and constantly think "How did they make her dress/top/skirt?"  I think I may have figured "it" out.

When I was in kindergarten, my mom had a dalmatian print dress.  Not an over-the-top, Glenn-Close-as-Cruella type dress.  Just a regular dress you would wear to work or church, only the animal print of choice wasn't leopard or zebra, but dalmatian.  It's no wonder that I remember this dress to this day, since it wasn't just your average dress.  But the thing is, I don't just remember it; I remember everything about it.  It had a 50's style shirt dress silhouette, with a full skirt, covered buttons up the front, a big belt at the waist, red trim, and a sassy collar.  I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I thought my mom, with her tan skin and permed hair, looked absolutely beautiful in it.

I have owned a lot of clothes in my life, but I could not describe 90% of them to you with the same detail that I can recall my mom's dalmatian dress.  I remember that I thought that maybe when I grew up, I could have a dalmatian print dress too.  And what I just realized is that I can.  I can make one if I wanted to.  I could gather up fabric and thread and a pattern and buttons, and I could sew up my own version of that dress and I may or may not end up looking like a Disney villianess.

And that's "it."  Why I love to make clothes.  Because the clothes you wear on any specific day help shape what you think and feel and do that day, and clothes--the really good ones--can become ingrained in you.  Because some clothes you will never forget.  Because clothes make memories, such as these.  And with every piece of clothing that I make, I'm making my own memory right along with it.

7.25.2011

Breezy Blouse

Sometimes it's nice to have something new to wear on Monday morning, just to start the week off right. And if it's in a fairly loud shade of green, all the better!  So today, I'm breezy like Monday morning (okay, so those aren't exactly the right lyrics, but they work for me today!).
 Worn today with my Beetlejuice Skirt
I made this blouse sans pattern, but it wasn't too hard to figure out. The front and the back are the exact same shape, only the back is sliced down the middle at the top to create a keyhole (one of my other new favorite things, to add to the list with elastic waistbands!)
I made my own bias tape for the neckline and the armholes and really like how it turned out.
 
And because Scott always likes to poke his head in...

7.23.2011

Let's All Wear Our Hair in Beehives Today


Valerie sung by Amy Winehouse...gotta love songs with your own name in them!

7.22.2011

Bored/Board

I've been feeling rather bored 

while Scott has been studying for his Board exam.

Good news, though!  He takes his exam on SUNDAY.

Here's to Scott dominating his test, and then reclaiming my husband back from the library!

7.19.2011

Equations

+
__

for just a few hours
= 



+
= 
The newest dress I made, 
which you cannot see because 
my camera is being borrowed at the moment



__

=
 Total bummer!  I shall miss Ames' concussed, permanently frozen grin
and his advanced vocabulary.  And his Brendan Fraser-ness.



X
because that's how many times I've watched it
You might want to grab a tissue.

7.18.2011

Scott is getting older...

Happy birthday!!!
To the man who is:
Sometimes a rock star

Sometimes (too much time!) a dental student

Sometimes Jack Nicholson

Sometimes a creeper

And always my very best friend.
Also, he, like, never reads this blog, even though I am his wife, so if you know him in real life, go tell him happy birthday on his Facebook wall!

7.15.2011

Yeah?! You and whose army?!?

As I made my way to the subway to head downtown last night, I was confronted with this image, which I have seen every time I've been on the subway for the past two months:
And yes, I was on my way downtown for my 12:03 AM showing of that very movie!
So I was feeling a little like this:
 
That is: sort of crazy insane wacko with excitement.

Then I got to Mary's, and she fed me some butterbeer!  And I've been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and had a butterbeer there, and let me tell you:  this tasted exactly the same.  Delish!
Once I downed my beverage, I was feeling kind of like this:
That is: yeah, bring it on, Harry Potter 7.2!  I'm so ready for you!  Let's do this!

Then we attempted to get a cab uptown to the theater.  And it just wasn't happening.  And we stood at that corner through three lights and still didn't get one.
Which left me feeling kind of like this:
That is: WE NEED A CAB IMMEDIATELY SO AS NOT TO HAVE THE WORST SEATS IN THE ENTIRE THEATER.  WHERE'S A DRAGON TO RIDE WHEN YOU NEED ONE.

But we finally made it there, settled in, and started in on our treats.  Brian's tie looks very Hogwarts-ian, and also he likes shortbread.
And we three girls were pretty excited ourselves as we downed our caffeine that would hopefully ensure no narcolepsy during this, the most important movie of 2011.
 
Although I seem all smiles, inside I really felt like this:
 
That is: a weird combination of anxious and afraid, and also we were pretty close to the front, so we spent the whole looking up at basically this exact angle.

And then, IT STARTED!
And then this happened:
  
And this:
 
And this!  And the thing that happened right after this!
And THIS:
And THIS:
And the whole time I was watching like this: 
And then we saw the last Ronface we will ever see:
 
And then it was all over, and I felt a little bit like this:
That is: MAN, too bad this is over, and what a way to go, but even though I'm pretty sad that there will be no more, wasn't that also so AWESOME when it was alive?!

And I woke up this morning feeling like this:
  
That is:  I'm going to see this movie again as soon as humanly possible, and no one can stop me, not even you, Bellatrix Lestrange!

Who else went at midnight?!  Don't leave me all alone out here...