DIY: Gone Cuckoo

I know, I think it's sacrilege to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving as well but I was just dying to hang my new cuckoo ornaments on my tree. If it makes you feel better, I still have Halloween decorations up. From last year.

 As you might recall from my previous post, I've gone completely cuckoo. More so than usual. Remember I told you I was crafting a new dress from some super cute fabric by Kelly Lee-Creel's Storybook Lane collection? Well, here it is! And not only is it a brand new dress...it's a brand new pattern (cuz you know I usually just sew this dress...over and over and over and over). It was a pattern that truly tried my patience and made me question humanity so it's a marvelous miracle I was able to pull it off.

 The Simplicity pattern and Storybook Lane fabric I used.

Now I've only sewn from two dress patterns, this one and the aforementioned. One was vintage, this one contemporary, both Simplicity. I like their patterns because the directions are clear(ish) and come with plenty of pictures (that I had a lot of fun coloring when I wasn't gouging out the eyes of the model in frustration).

My first dress with pockets!

Sometimes, whilst frustrated, I dubbed this the "Nine Levels of Hell" dress after Dante's Inferno. I ain't even gonna pretend I'm the least bit literary, I've never read the book. Or poem. Or is it a limerick? Dunno. What I do know is that at least eight of those levels of my Dress Making Hell where trapped in the land of The Sleeve.

Would you believe I had to take several photos of this sleeve because my ugly-old-lady-wrinkly-elbow kept photo bombing the picture? Hence the hand-on-elbow.

 This sleeve had many a problem. Firstly, look at that inverted "V" thingie. Cute, right? Not so much when you've had to seam rip it seven times and redo. And just look at it. It's still as wrinkly as my elbow. In the other photos, you'll see that the sleeve is tufted or puffy or pleated (can I get a correct word here, please?) on top. Boy that was fun. The first sleeve actually took me just under two hours to complete. Do you hear me? Dos horas.That translates to something like "too freakin' long!"

 You know, because inverted "V" sleeves just aren't hellacious enough, why not add one to the neckline? This one was actually not nearly as bad as the others. Prob because I'd had all those hours of practice.

Can we please pause a moment and take a look at my hair? Because it actually did what I told it to today. All thanks really to my amazing new hair dresser Jesse Linares. Not only did I get a great haircut, but, after removing my bumpit like a doctor would an alien baby (complete with appalled expression and wonderment), he gave me an amazing teasing comb. That's right, this big 'do is sans bumpit.

 As usual, when the dress making hell just became too much, I resorted to crafting. I had all of these adorable cuckoo clock scraps that I just couldn't bear to part with. So I decided to create some ornaments out of them.

 A friend of mine gave me a bunch of jewelry gift boxes in various sizes. I painted the brown boxes completely white and once try, I added lilac or light blue to the lids. Using a tiny brush, I added a pattern of lines.

 I cut out several of the clocks (using my tiny sewing scissors for the job) and Modge Podged them onto the lid. I bedazzled 'em with some gold glitter glue, drilled holes in the top for the string (and bottom of a couple for the buttons to hang from) and viola! Cuckoo Ornaments!

 After making the first batch of ornaments, I went back upstairs and tried to decide if my dress actually needed two sleeves. I mean, I could bring back the asymmetrical look, right? I decided to go back to crafting.

 These guys were created on the larger lids with random bits of wood. Did you know you can cut popsicle sticks with scissors? It's the truth, Ruth. I hot glued these together and spray painted them in my neighbor's yard. Didn't want to mess up my own grass.

A little work-in-progress photo.

After some spray painting, bedazzling and gluing, I was ready to hang these guys too. I used cinnamon sticks at the bottom of this clock.

 After all that crafting, there was nothing left to do but return to my dress. It turns out that the hard part was over as attaching the skirt, taking up the hem and inserting the zipper were all things I'd done before. And that's a good thing, because I've already cut out a couple more versions of this dress that are waiting to be sewn. These new ones, however, will be sleeveless. 

Thanks for dropping by!

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Summer Adventure: NYC in 48 Hours

How does one manage to get their photo taken when traveling solo? Why, you kindly offer to snap photos of families...and immediately afterwords, shove your camera into their hands with an "okay, now you do me!"  Works every time.

 This here extremely photo-heavy post is brought to you by a 48 hour trip to New York City. Hubs often goes there for work and this time, after just a wee bit of nagging (and by "wee bit" I mean only minor kicking and screaming), I was able to tag along. The only catch? As soon as the plane landed on Monday morning at Laguardia, I was on my own. Me. The person so directionally challenged, I still have to hold my hands up to see which makes an L for left. Which got strange looks on the subway. Even from the lady talking to herself. 

Despite all of that, I managed to take to the streets of NYC and pack in as much as possible. I thought I'd share with you some of the must-do high-lights of my super-short trip. And if I managed to miss something, please let me know. I'm sure I can manage to muster up another fall-out-fit the next time hubs needs to take a trip.

I've been to NYC many times and never walked the Brooklyn Bridge. It's amazing! Although getting there proved to be quite the feat. From the airport, I had to take a bus into the city to get onto the subway. Then I took the subway back out of the city to get to the Brooklyn side of the bridge. It was definitely an adventure and I loved every minute.

After arriving in Brooklyn, I made the Must-Do rounds: Jacques Torres Chocolate for the most amazing peanut butter and chocolate cookie, Front Street Pizza for a slice and a cone of the chocolate chunk chocolate ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Stuffed to the gills, I walked the bridge. Do you know anything about the tragic history of this bridge? It goes a little something like this: It's creator, John Augustus Roebling, managed to crush his foot before construction of the bridge even started. The amputation of his foot lead to tetanus infection that caused his death. His son, Washington, took charge of the bridge but later suffered from the bends which left him bedridden. Under his guidance, his wife Emily took over the completion of the bridge. Not long after the opening, a rumor was spread that the bridge was going to collapse. This caused a stampede at which 12 people were crushed.

The NYC skyline from the bridge. Lady Liberty was off to the left, just a tiny patina green speck in the water.

Just a peak at the Manhattan Bridge that runs parallel to the Brooklyn.

Once off the bridge, I left the Tribeca area (Museum of Finance? Um, no thank you) and took the subway to one of my favorite areas: Nolita. You've heard of Soho? That means South of Houston Street. And Noho? You guessed it, North. Nolita is in between Little Italy and Noho. It also happened to be where they were filming...wait for it...PROJECT RUNWAY!

Purl Soho, how I love thee. I have been a huge online fan of this shop forever...so to finally venture inside was wonderful. But the best part? Walking out side and seeing TIM GUNN! That's right! All done up in a sharp navy suit with his silver hair gelled back. And just when I was recovering from that, I see ANNIE LEIBOVITZ. Yes, I'm shouting. Because that's what you do when you see genius like that walking the streets. I managed to get THE BEST PHOTO EVER of the back of her head. Yeah, picking my jaw up off of the ground proved to take a mighty long time.

I did my shopping rounds in Soho: Madewell, Topshop, the vintage shop Screaming Mimi's, and my fave shoe store John Fluevog. After all of that shopping, I met up with hubs and some of our favorite New Yorkers (thank you Al, Laureen and Vito!) for an amazing dinner at Becco on Restaurant Row. The food was incredible but I dare say the company was even better.

The next day, I had hubs to accompany me so no more harassing strangers for photos. Our hotel was in Chelsea so we decided to walk something called The High Line.

The High Line was created back in 1999 from an old freight track. Instead of tearing the track down, the city decided to create it into this amazing walkway. It rises above Chelsea and the Meat Packing District. Planted along the line are wild flowers.

A view of a mural from the line.

Near the end of the line is The Chelsea Market. Housed inside of the old Nabisco factory, this place is filled with the yummiest of delights and...an Anthropologie. Which seemed a little out of place...but I was sucked into it's evil vortex and came out with a shopping bag nonetheless.

I took that Big Apple and made it my, ahem, new friend in 48 hours, yo!

Hubs and I on the High Line. Where we managed to find a stranger to take our photo. This time, we didn't have to play any mind games, this kind local offered to snap this herself.

 Thanks for putting up with my endless photos and blabbering commentary. Enjoy your week!

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