Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween was AWESOME!

This has been a crazy couple of weeks. But now it is over and things are going to slow down for us a little, I hope.

The Octo-Boo! festival at Marion's school was fantastic. All the kids and parents had fun and we raised a lot of money for the school. The parents who helped out where great.

Then last night we went to a friend's birthday party and had fun playing Rock Band and M got to jump tons in a bounce house.

Then today was the big day. HALLOWEEN. Sadly I spent much of the day feeling exhausted and resting. Eric is a trooper and spent much of the day with M and I managed to rally and be able to join the neighborhood kids for some serious trick-or-treating.


In fact my darling daughter had so much fun that this is the conversation that we had at the end of the night:

Marion: "My tummy hurts!"
Me: "I'm sorry baby, do you need to burp?"
Marion: "Yes" then she burped and barfed.
Me: "Are you done barfing?"
Marion: "Yes, I am done barfing, night night Mama"
Me: "Night night baby, glad you feel better"

Well it went something like that any way. Apparently she just can't hold her candy and needs to learn moderation. It was pretty funny.


Now for some details about my super fun witch dress. It was really comfortable and did not feel like a costume. Probably because it is just a regular dress pattern that I used.

McCalls M5619

I used view C which is the yellow dress pictured. I made a few small changes but mostly for fit. As usual I made the shoulders several inches smaller but had to make the arm bands bigger.

I cannot decide if I would like this dress as a regular dress on me? Anyone have any opinion? Should I make another one in a more everyday fabric? I am not sure how it would work out.

Plus I really want to make myself a little black dress, but I am not sure what style to make. I even thought about making a bunch of little black dresses in a bunch of different styles as an experiment.

But once again I have more ideas than time so this one will have to wait for a little while any way.

Here is another shot of me in my Halloween costume, I did love wearing it.

I can't hear you my pretties!

Eric really loved his Daddy Dinosaur costume too. The tail ended up being a little cumbersome when indoors.  But it was great for trick-or-treating. A few people asked if he was a dragon. The "spikes" are made of felt and stuffed with good old fiber fluff. The dino teeth are just some sew in interfacing cut into teeth and sew into the inside of the sweat shirt hood. I added claws to the sleeves and little feet to the legs of the jogging pants. Embellishing a store bought jogging suit is sort of cheating but it was a super original costume and he loved wearing it. Plus he looked really cute. Marion would meow and would growl back at her. A good time was had by all.


Tomorrow I have to start on my stuff for my festival booth. Tons and tons to do. So I hope that I wake up full of motivation.

Hope you had a great Halloween too. I would love to see some pictures of your costumes.

Peace Out - C

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Halloween is almost here!

As I sit watching the History Channel tell me all about the origin of Halloween it dawned on me that I have not written in a few days. By the way fascinating.

I should let you know that the fashion show last Thursday went well. Would have liked to have seen more people there. The crowd was thinner than planned. And the thing that you really missed was that the drag queen we had lined up to be the MC was ill and guess who took over as MC?  Yes my friends, ME! I was the MC for this super crazy fashion show. It was pretty fun. But I am glad one of my obligations is done!

Now onto the next volunteer task. I am co-chairing the Halloween festival (The Octo-Boo! Festival) at M's school. It is actually going really well. Since I had pretty much cleared my schedule for the week I have been having a pretty stress free week. And I managed to get all of our costumes finished yesterday.

This past weekend M did some serious testing of her costume. She had been telling me for weeks that she wants to be a red cat. So that is what I made. A red kitty cat suit.

I admit that this is a semi-homemade costume. I took a red jogging suit and added ears and lots of fuzz. I also made a little red tu-tu and attached the tail to the skirt.

She decided that flip flops were the proper foot wear to complete the ensemble. She also decided that it was the perfect outfit to wear to the park. Even though it was about 80 degrees on Saturday. While we were there she worked her cute magic and got us an invite to a birthday party that was being held in the pavilion at the park.

  Seriously she is so cute it is killing me. So as I may have mentioned before I am being her witch and daddy is being her dinosaur.


On Sunday she told me she wanted to test out the make-up to go with the costume to make sure that I could do it right. Apparently my make-up skills where up to her standards. 


Here is a little preview of my costume. Marion wanted me to be her witch. So I decided my spin on it is that I am a medium witch, not all bad but not all good either. The dress is all handmade by me. But I did buy a plain witch hat and embellish it. 


And here is a little tid bit of what the AWESOME dino is looking like. This one is also a fix up on a jogging suit and it semi-homemade. I plan on posting more about how I made the dino and my costume after we get to wear them this weekend.


I am really looking forward to the festival, we are going to a friend's party Saturday night and of course we are  Trick-or-Treating with the neighbors on Sunday. Did I mention I LOVE Halloween?

One thing I learned recently is that if you child ever says "I am going to paint my whole body purple", that you should listen. Because she might just be serious. 

 
I mean really she might be serious. 
I asked her to show me her paint and she stood still for about 5 seconds for me to take this picture.  Three bath tubs full of water later she was only slightly tinged with purple. But there is still a bit of a purple ring around her tub. 
And yes I did "let" her do this. I actually sort of wanted to join in. But I decided I needed to mitigate the damage rather than make it worse. Amazingly there are only a few spots of purple paint through out the house. I hope that they will come off the walls with just a little effort. 

Are you ready for Halloween? What are you going to be?

Peace out - C

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Fashion Show for Feminist Women's Health Clinic

For those who know me personally, you know I am a supporter of many causes. One of my current causes is The Feminist Women's Health Center tonight I am helping run their condom fashion show which is a part of their fall fund raiser aimed at getting younger peeps involved with the cause.


The thing I like most about the Center is that they are focused on education and prevention of disease and unwanted pregnancy. They have been working for reproductive justice for my whole life (they opened in 1977).  It sort of boggles my mind that womens rights are still an issue in this day and age, but they are.

Go to their website and read up if you want to know more. There will be a web page set up devoted to the fashion show. But here is a glimpse of my outfit.



Erin McKean over at A Dress A Day got some flack for posting a condom dress. My opinion is if you don't like it you don't have to read about it. But you are certainly free to express your opinion. Gotta love America! And our right to bitch about what ever we want to.

 Party is tonight 10/21/10, starts at 7, show it at 9 down at the Cosmopolitan Lounge in Midtown.

Whatever cause you support do it with your whole heart! I respect your choices. Just support something.

Peace Out - C

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Cleaning up and Cleaning out

Giant pile to sort.
Have you ever heard the phrase "cluttered home, cluttered mind"? I think about it a lot. I have too much stuff in my house and in my life. This morning I decided I am going to give myself a pass on the gym and allow a little time to focus and regroup (again). I keep having to do this! But eventually things will get unstuck and I will move forward, I can feel it.

I decided that the thing that would help reduce my stress the most right now was cleaning up my house a little. I long ago learned that if I tackle the whole house in one day it is too much. But if I choose a room or even just a spot I can get started and that is a step. I really really don't want to end up on a hording show one day. It really does say something about us as a people that these shows even exist. We all have too much and do too much. But once again I digress.

So today I chose my bathroom to straighten up. I managed to de-clutter the counter and do a little cleaning. Which fortunate for me lead to me wanting to clean out my closet. AGAIN. I tend to do a little "What Not to Wear" make over on myself every season. And since it might actually eventually turn cooler I decided to do it today.

I have been holding on to a lot of "pre-baby" clothes. Today I finally asked myself; "do I even like these any more?" and "if I wear thinner would I really wear them?" Clothing is one area of life where I think it is ok to be a little fickle and change your mind.

You should update your look as the seasons change. And I finally must admit that some of the clothes I wore at 28 (and maybe was too old to be wearing them then) are not the same things I want to be wearing at 33.

Another thing I asked myself is if I were Stacy London and was cleaning out someone else's closet "would I let them keep this?" Since I have a limited clothing replacement budget I was a little more generous here than Stacy would have been.

But I ended up with a bunch of stuff to sell at the consignment shop.  Yes that is a gray t-shirt with silver sequins stripes. Sometimes things are on clearance for a reason and you should not buy them. AND I look terrible in gray. But is was shiny, what can I say?

Still a few things in the wash to add to the consignment stuff
And I added to my Goodwill pile. I always have a Goodwill pile going for the whole family. Looking nice every day really does make you feel better about yourself. And right now any little thing I can do to improve my outlook is something I want to keep doing.

Folded and ready to go to Goodwill
Now my closet is a little less cluttered and my bathroom is all spiffy. I think I am inspired to clean the entry way. My garage and entry get really cluttered really fast. I think at least keeping them cleaner would help make it so that I am not assaulted by the clutter every time I go in and out of the house.

Wow there is a lot of empty hanger there!
I did learn a few things from the closet clean out. I need to stick to my rules of fashion a little more firmly. Here are some of my fashion rules:

1. Only wear it if it FITS. Wearing clothes that do not fit well does nothing for you. This applies to too big as well as too small. This one is hard because I change size way too often, but that is a whole other blog.

2. Do not shy away from color but only wear colors that look good on you. This one is hard. There are lovely gray and yellow items out there. And I am always tempted to take them home with me but alas I cannot. They are just shades that I cannot wear.

3. When shopping buy for the person you are, not the person you want to be. I have a hard time with this one too. Some days I want a closet full of gorgeous suits and other days it is flowing gowns that catch my fancy. But in reality I have use for neither. In reality I need nice basic everyday clothes that are washable. It is just who I am right now, you be who you are. However this is not permission to be a slob.

4. Only buy it if you LOVE it. This one I mostly stick to. And sometime this rule encourages me to break all the other rules.

5. Comfy shoes are ok. Well as long as they don't look orthopedic and cheap. There are plenty of cute comfy flats out there peeps, don't settle.  But I still wear high heels more than most people that I know. They do make comfy heels these days you know. 

I love a good bag!
I really need to keep these rules in mind when I am planning sewing for myself, they apply to handmade clothes just as much if not more than store bought.

So I think I am going to head out into the world and run some errands and have some fun! Maybe I need to approach breaks the same way I approach cleaning? Rather than look for big long vacations I need to give myself a little mini vacation every day (or so).

I hope you have a great day today and can un-clutter something of your own and make a little more room to breath.

Peace Out - C

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

So you sew........?

I think I mentioned that a while ago the teachers at M's school discovered that I sew. If you are a fellow stitcher you know that this question is often followed by...."oh, can you make me fill in the blank?". So I was asked if I could make some zipper and button boards for M's class. Without really thinking about my response I said yes. (Of course, well it is flattering to be asked, right?)

Then I had a bunch of other things come up and I put it off for a while. But I did manage to get the zipper boards done and taken to school. We will see how they like them and then determine if they need any more.


I have never made one of these before. And have only ever even seen a few of them that were manufactured. So I used a separating coat zipper on the left so they could practice that as well as the easier regular zippers on the right. It took me a while to figure out what to use as the insert. Can you guess what I went with? I think it turned out pretty great for such an experimental project.


I have started on the button board. I have all the pieces sewn up and ready to get put together. For this one I am doing half of the board to look like a shirt so they can practice a bunch of buttons in a row. And then I have a bunch of other little pieces that are like cuffs that will button. Should be pretty cool once I get all the pieces together.

While working on this project I started on M's Halloween costume and my piece for the charity fashion show I am doing. Additionally I need to make Eric's Halloween costume. And oh ya there are like a million other projects I want to be making but just do not have time for.

I love volunteering but after I finish up my two current projects no more volunteering for the rest of the year! It just takes up tons of my time. I am still a little bit in the process of re-evaluating my priorities. And I know one priority is my house. It needs to be fixed up. The poor thing looks neglected. One thing I am really looking forward to is new bedding! We have had the same sheets since we got married and there are holes in them and they are just pitiful! This is going to happen soon. I am going to make time to take better care of the house and my peeps. And sew stuff and take over the world! Oh wait did I type that? I was supposed to just think it ;)

Also for those interested we had a great time at the Bar Mitzvah and M loved getting to wear her fancy party dress. We had a big break in the middle of the day on Saturday and she wore the dress to the zoo, since I could not talk her into changing.

Tomorrow I am attending a memorial service for a relative. Not looking forward to it. But such is life, right?

Hope you are doing well and that you have the chance to do something fun or rewarding for yourself this week. You should make sure you take time to take care of yourself. And one day I am going to actually take my own advise.

Peace out - Chrissy

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A new party dress!

 We are going to a family friend's Bar Mitzvah soon, which I took as an excuse to make Marion a new fancy party dress.

It is an old McCall's pattern that I inherited from my cousin and is a long dress with a matching jacket.

I actually bought all the stuff and had this all planed out to make as Marion's "holiday" dress last year and just never got to it. I am so glad I finally did get around to making this one. It fits her really well and is unusual. No one else will have one on, that's for sure.

I also like that it is a little bit retro and is very little girly without being pink or too super frilly. Mostly I am glad I took the time to measure her and not just guess because I would have guessed wrong. I would have made it one size bigger and I think that would make it unwearable.  I took the lazy way out and bought her  a little white blouse to wear under it.  I just never get around to making some things.


The jacket has pockets made of the same plaid as the skirt, just shifted to add a little visual interest. It is also trimmed in the same lace as the dress.


She was having fun jumping on her bed in her new fancy party dress.


This is basically what you get when you say to a spunky 3 year old girl "show me your new fancy party dress".

There was also a little twirling action but I just got my new camera back and have not figured it all out yet, didn't think you would enjoy big old blurs.

Today I am trying to hold on to the popular saying, "do what you love and the money will come". I know that if I just give myself some room and space to practice and get better it will develop into something, somehow, some way.

But it looks like I am spending the day with a kiddo with an unhappy back-end ;) Hope you are doing something fun today.

Peace out - C






Monday, October 4, 2010

Liberty of London - hand delivered!

I was supposed to go walking with a friend this morning, but she just called me to say she can't make it. Her daughter was screeching in the background and apparently they are having trouble getting her off to pre-school these days (I hope it gets better!). I have been through phases where my child is doing something difficult and I know it is no fun. My heart goes out to her, being a mom is the toughest job!

So now I have time to write this and will try to make myself go for a walk by myself after, I will have my ipod to keep me company. Ohhh maybe I will even down load some pod casts or something new. RABBIT HOLE alert!

Corsica - an island near France and Italy
Back to the task at hand. My adorable husband was on a week long trip to Corsica for work and no I did not go. I never go with him on his travels. Having to do things on my own while he works just does not sound fun. Why does everyone always ask me if I go? Am I missing out on some way to make it fun to go? Maybe I am and now that M has proven to me she is a great traveler I am beginning to re-think my stance on this. Ok today is rabbit hole day.

On his way back from Corsica he got stuck with an over-night layover in London. When he was planning this trip I said "well if you only have one night in London you should stay by Liberty of London so you can get me some fabric". And would you believe that is what he did.

Of course travel being a pain these days, he was late getting into London and it was raining. But he made it to Liberty (dripping wet & suitcase in tow) with 15 minutes until closing. He had pics of the fabrics I had pre-approved on his phone and the sales girl helped him find some of it. She thought it was a sweet story and wanted to know what I was sewing.

He got home safely yesterday with my new Liberty of London fabrics!


The bag was smooshed put the paper was intact, it looks like a posh gift, right!


When I opened it I discovered these two lovely prints. The one at the back is a deep blue with a tiny white leafy print. And the front one is clearly very lovely peacock feathers. And he got 2 meters of each! I am so happy these are the ones I ended up with. I am still very into navy blue these days. And they are another great addition to my Platinum Seamstress Challenge!

I do have some things in mind, but have several thing I have to get done ahead of these and I do want to live with the fabric for a little while before I cut it Any suggestion? What would you make?

Well I guess I am off to get a little exercise in before a day of errands and hopefully at least a little bit if sewing.

Peace out! C