A Sweet Beginning at the Bitter End

On Sunday night, Scott played mandolin for Mandy Lynn during her gig at the Bitter End.  It was their first time performing together that wasn't in someone's living room!

She was adorable and sang beautifully, as usual.  Her songs are so catchy I've started waking up in the morning with them already stuck in my head.  What a talent!

Scott looked cool, and played like a pro.

Scott, the one-man band.  Seriously, someone whose name is Mandy Lynn is just meant to have a mandolin in their band.

And I honestly just liked watching my husband being a rock star.

Sadly, my video keeps showing up with an error when I try to upload it on here, and is too large to post on Shutterfly...so I'll try to wait and see if something gets put on YouTube, and if it does, I'll add a link later!  But trust me, it sounded good :)

This seems sketchy.

If you got on the elevator, and it was this dark, and it stopped on the 13th floor...

would you have gotten off to take the stairs?

The Skirt That Tried to Fight Me

Last week, my awesome g-ma sent me a denim jumper in the mail that she had had for years and hadn't worn in a long time.  Since G-ma is an avid reader of my blog (hello there, G-ma!), she had seen some of the transformations I had made from old clothes into new garments, and thought she would send me something to transform!  This is what I got when I opened the package:

I had half a mind to just keep it as overalls and add some front pockets so it would look like my old Osh Kosh B'Goshes, but then I had a vision of a skirt, and I knew that's what I wanted to make.  So I set out with a mind to finish it tonight...but there were obstacles.  OH THE OBSTACLES.

First, this zipper tried to act a major fool and I had to rip it out and use a whole new one.

That's what you get for misbehavior, zipper!

Then I practically cut my whole finger off with a rotary cutter.  Scott will try to tell you that statement is a gross exaggeration, but don't listen to him.  As far as I'm concerned, there were buckets of blood, and I was prepared to go to the ER.  Instead, Dr. B (dentists are real doctors, people!) taped me up with this amazingly efficient duct tape and gauze cast:

This is actually still on my hand as I type this, too!

But since I'm not into letting my self-made clothes get the better of me (as evidenced by the Chambray Blazer of Glory), I soldiered on, and here's what I came up with:

What I made:
Tulip skirt from repurposed denim jumper

When I made it:
Just now, duh.  Didn't you read the whole entry before this?

I am not really this sad about my skirt!  I'm just contemplating my injury, I swear!  I'm totally happy about my skirt!

What I like about it:
I love the shape of tulip skirts.  Love love love.
I decided to use one of the straps as a detail on the waistband to maintain a semblance of the original garment a little bit more.  I actually really like the way it turned out!
And of course, I love that it is something that my G-ma used to wear!  Now I can think of her every time I wear it, and I love that she thought of me and wanted to contribute to my self-made wardrobe.  I love you, G-ma!

I actually still have a tiny bit of finishing to do on this skirt, but my finger cast is not really conducive to hand-sewing, so I'll have to REALLY finish when I am completely healed.  Which could be months.  Okay, I'll admit that that one is an exaggeration.

Playlists

Recently I started playing this fun little game with my iTunes while I do the dishes and get ready every morning.  The game has no particular name, but here's the idea:  I pick a word completely off the top of my head and type it in the search function, and iTunes finds any song that has that word in the title, the artist's name, or even the album's name, thus making my own playlist of songs that may have nothing to do with each other whatsoever, and therefore meaning there will be tons of variety.  Here are some of my favorites playlists that have come up as a result:

search word: TAKE

search word: BEAUTIFUL

search word: WOMAN

search word:  FRIEND

search word:  THERE

Sometimes the fun of it really comes when you use a word that can be part of another word, and iTunes picks all those up in the search too, so you don't just get songs or artists with the word "arm" or "each," you also get "army" and "warm" and "harmony" and "peachy" and "beach!"

search word:  ARM

search word:  EACH

Anybody else play this game too?

My favorite thing to NOT do on a Saturday...

Set the alarm.

www.lapsura.com

An LBD that's not for me!

Three weeks ago, my sweet friend Sam e-mailed me with a special request:  that I custom make her a Little Black Dress for her 21st birthday in October.  Considering how much I enjoy this girl's company, admire her convictions, and love her personality, there could only be once answer:  YES OF COURSE OBVIOUSLY DUH.

The idea she had was to take the front of one dress she saw on Urban Outfitters and combine it with the back of another dress from the same website.  (And no, I am not going to show you the two original dresses as not to give away the final result!).  I studied both dresses, Sam sent me some measurements, and I got started.

First, I drafted a pattern and cut out the fabric parts.   Then it looked like this:

I sewed the top first, in two identical parts:  one for the facing and one for the shell.  Then it looked like this:

Next I sewed the pretty little back, with cut-out designs, WHICH I LOVE (anybody remember the back of my wedding dress?).  Then it looked like this:

And tonight, I sewed up the skirt (Sam, I gave you pockets!), attached it to the bodice, and did all the final clean-ups.  The very last step was adding this:

I really should start leaving my mark on everything I sew...

And now, off it goes in the mail to Fayetteville, Arkansas!  Happy early 21st, Sam!

If you haven't read The Hunger Games, you won't get this.

On Tuesday, I hosted my book club's monthly meeting, for which we read The Hunger Games (if you haven't read this yet, you should be regretting it.  Stop reading this post immediately, go to any sort of establishment that sells books, and buy the first copy you find.  Begin reading before you get back to the car).

Here's our meal:

Left:  Prim's Goat's Cheese and Mushroom Taquitos

Right:  Cornucopia Vegetable Salad

Top:  Mellark Family Bakery Cupcakes (thanks, Mary!)

Bottom:  Poisonous Capital Rebellion Berry Terrine

Multigrain Rolls Sponsored by the People of District 11

And then we talked (gushed) about the book, discussed our ideal cast for the movie, found out what District of Panem we would belong to, figured out our own personal strategies if we were Tributes (run far and fast from Laura if you ever meet her in the arena) and ultimately decided to read the next book in the series.  BECAUSE THE HUNGER GAMES IS AWESOME, Y'ALL.  also, so is my book club.

Read Mary's take on book club here!