DIY: A Scribble-Scrabble Back to Art Teacherin' Dress and a Contest!

So, what does one do when her art room isn't ready and her lessons aren't planned (um, I have a vague notion of what will go down that first day. It starts with something like, the kids will come to art...and that's pretty much all I got)? MAKE A BACK TO ART TEACHERIN' DRESS, OF COURSE. Yes, I'm shouting. Because, like, duuuuh. 

I decided a dress was in order because 1. I always make a Back to Art Teacherin' Dress (see exhibit A and B), it's tradition and 2. Cuz I was kinda feeling like this about the whole notion of heading back...

Staying up entirely too late and sleeping in til high noon, I will miss yooooooou!

But now that I've got a snappy outfit to wear on that very first day (which starts tomorrow with four daze, er, days of professional developementishness. But I don't really count that. The true blue first day is when the wee ones show up which is this Friday, eek!) I'm feeling much better about Back to Art Teacherin' land. In fact, I'm now feelin' a lil more like this...

I...Can....Do...It! 

By the way, I recently downloaded the giphy app and have henceforth been solely communicating with friends via gifs. It's like a super fun game for me tho I'm not quite sure they feel the same. 

WHUT, CHUCK NORRIS?!

But whateves, y'all. Forget about my gif obsession and let's talk CONTEST, shall we? 

HEEEEY, say what?! I just spent entirely too long making this fugly -n- difficult to read image. So lemme reiterate what that thar thingie says in all sorts of bulletpoints, words and sentences. 

* Snap a photo of your Back to Art Teacherin' style and share it on instagram tagging moi @cassiestephenz. If you wanna throw in a hashtag to boot, I quite fancy #whattheartteacherwore.

* No instagram? No problem! Email me your photo at cassieart75@gmail.com. 

* I'll share your amazing art teacherin' looks right here in a Back to School Fashion post! 

* You can enter more than once...and every time you do, I'll enter you to win a giveaway! (Yes, I know I'm currently doing ANOTHER giveaway. No, I've not announced the winner yet, stay tuned this week). I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M GIVING AWAY but I'm sure it will be something swell!

Oh, I so hope all y'all share with me your stylish ways! I can't wait to see what you be wearing! Now, on to that dress at hand...

Saturday, el hubbo and I decided to play tourist in our own town and hit the local antique and thrift shops. I was coming up pretty empty handed until I stopped in SMART: Scrap Made Art Supplies. It's a pretty magical place in the Berry Hill area of Nashville. It's completely stocked with just about every crafty making supply known to man for cheap. I stocked up on vintage patterns (a whooping 18 for $2) and this gem happened to be one of them. Bows on shoulders?! YES, PLEASE!

I used the pattern for the bodice only and just winged it for the skirt portion. I was having a fabric shortage (I scored this Lisette fabric from the sale bin at Joann's many moons ago) and managed to eek out this dress with a few scraps to spare. I love this print so much what with the wiggly marker-esque lines and the primary colors with a touch o' pink. It just screamed "Art Teacher" when I saw it. 

But those squiggles, y'all. Trying to match up those squiggles just about put me over the edge. At least the back skirt is matched up. The rest of it, meh. Not so much.

 The only thing left this dress needs: A Marker Hat! 

 Could I get it over that hair, tho? 

And there you have it, what Ima wearing to head back to school! Looking forward to seein' what all y'all are wearing. Til then!

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DIY: Let's All Go to the Art Room! Prints, Posters and More

Hey, y'all! Me and my super happy and excited art supplies are thrilled to announce that A. I actually made a wee bit of headway on a project that I started in, er, JANU-FREAIN'-ARY and B. you can purchase prints (and more!) of these fellas over on Society6! 

So I've had it in my oversized and vacant head for a while that I wanted to create my own fabric. But I'm so stinkin' low tech that for me that currently means drawing my ideas out by hand and painstakingly painting them in. The hubs has been telling me for months that I outta scan in my designs and alter them that way but, y'all. This old dawg isn't down with new tricks. Tho I am suriouzly thinking that is the way I've gotta go if I ever do wanna transform these lil drawings of mine into something other than paintings. So! If y'all have any advice on scanners/drawing tablets/photoshop vs. adobe, that'd be greatly appreciated. 

But! That's not why I'm here today! I'm hear to share with you what I have managed to accomplish: finishing of a wee series that I've titled Let's All Go to the Art Room inspired by this gem...

Bring back memories, y'all? Puts me in the mind of those summer nights, swatting at mosquitoes, falling asleep in the backseat while watching a double header at the drive-in movie. 

Being all kinds of old school, you can see my slow process of sketching and painting. You can also see that I use our dinner plates as a palette. Which is why the hubs is always suggesting we go out to dinner. Surely there's some nutritional value in paint, amirite? Some folks are just such picky eaters. 

Tho, truth be told, I do love the process of sketching, erasing and drawing again. Would I love it as much on a tablet? I dunno. 

You know, it's a sad thing about glue bottles. They always start their lives this happy...until they get a lil "congested" and a kid decides to stab the end of a pair of scissors into their heads. Tis the reason we don't use glue bottles in my room, y'all, nuthin but glue cups and crappy paint brushes for our glue applicatin'.

Oh, look. It's said glue-stabby scissors. This painting went thru a coupla color changes. Initially the handle was a dark blue...I'm happy with the lighter color. 

Everyone loves a brand new box o' crayons. We don't use 'em much in my art room but I do seem to get tons of donations of them. I have a rarely used cabinet full of them! Time to bust out the encaustic crayon melter and make some masterpieces!

Another big influence on this project of mine? One of my faves: Katy Perry. 

So, lil known secret: the hubs and I are pretty big Katy Perry fans. Actually, my husband is the one who loves her so (I do believe there might be a KP calendar hanging in his office? I don't ask) and turned me on to this video. I could watch it all stinkin' day. I loved the 80's references, the Pee Wee Herman lookalike dancers, the Mondrian HAIR and, of course, these guys...

 Tell me I'm not alone in my KP love, y'all. What, you got a problem with it? Then, just, deal.

If you are interested, you can order prints from my Society6 shop! Are y'all familiar with Society6? It's AWESOME! All you have to do is upload your high resolution work, select how you want to have your work reproduced (prints, mugs, t-shirts...it's like an adult ArtSonia for those of y'all familiar) and you receive a small portion of the profit. You get to decide just how much you'll earn based on how much you charge. I'm trying to keep the prices as low as possible...so I most def won't be making too much. But I'm more interested in sharing my silliness with y'all not making retirement cash! Society6 processes the order, prints, packages and ships. After having used etsy for so long (and loving it), I do like that this is so hassle free. 

By the way, I've got several more art supplies to this Let's All Go to the Art Room series so I'll keep you posted. ALSO...you'll see my Mary Blair-inspired piece that will be featured in the book If Picasso had a Zoo! More on that excitingness soon (hoping to get my copy of the book next week to share with y'all!). 

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DIY: A Dress and Necklace That'll Leave you in Stitches

Well, would ya lookie who detached herself from declutterin' for a solid two hours this mornin' and finished up a dress that was started, um, let's just say a while ago (meaning: I can't even recall when I began this thang!). I'm as happy as can be in this colorful number cuz I just love these two prints together. I so wish I could recall where I scooped 'em up as I snipped off the salvaged edge and threw it away ages ago. I know I've spied the sewing machine fab on fabric.com so if you're dying to get your kitten mittens on some, that'd be the place to start. 

But, for now, back to the dress! Complete with piddlin' pockets! (or, as I once heard Michael Kors refer to 'em on PR: Pleasure Me Pockets. Y'all. That placement. WHHHHHHHY?! And yet, I stitch 'em in every.single.time.)

This dress pattern and I, we go way back. I think I've made, I dunno, about a dozen variations of this dress! For zample, check here, here, here and some other rando places. I'd list 'em all but I'm lazy. So there.

This dress was also the topic of a great debate ole instagram when I popped it up. I was going back and forth with the idea of a sleeve. Just about every dress I've made is sleeveless and I'm starting to feel like that's a copout. So I thought this one could Be.That.Change. But then everyone was all eeeeeewwww, the sleeves are terrible, they're burning my retinas! (not for realz but there was most def no love for those sleeves, y'all). So I opted to go with el cap-sleeve-o. 

And I totes dig it. Here's a lil belt-less view of the front and the back. That sweet scoop in the back is one of my faves. Even if my long-a##, in-need-of-a-hairs-cut 'do usually covers it up.

A close up. But the real reason I'm sharing this photo is to say: DOESN'T MY HEAD LOOK EXTRAORDINARILY LONG? I look like some sort of freak-show real-life Modigliani! 

Why the loooooooooooooong face, brah?

 Of course no sewing machine dress is complete without a necklace of spools, right?! I've had this small vintage collection of wooden spools in my stash for a while. I glued the loose string in place, painted some wooden beads and strung 'em together on a strand of elastic. It slides right over my big ole Modigliani head like a candy necklace. 

 Cuz it's perfectly reasonable for a lady of my advanced age to be seen out and about in a necklace o' spools, right?! 

Y'all, it felt so good to wrap up the dress and be back in the sewing saddle again. Next up, that sweet thing beside me. What have you been up to this summer?!

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DIY: My Accidental Blog-Cation

So, guess who took a totes unintentional, completely accidental, thoroughly unforeseen (why yes I have a thesaurus and know how to use it. Was it that obvious, er, conspicuous? Or maybe it was straightforward, self-evident and/or unmistakeable? [side wink to Mr. Thesaurus]) blog-cation?! That's right, this person. Seen below. Lookin' crazy. 

Hiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee! I really didn't mean to ditch all y'all, it just happened. And I don't know if it's gonna keep happening or not. You see, I've been at this bloggin' biz for quite some time with the mostly strict routine of blogging thrice weekly (that's right, I just said "thrice". I'm bringing thrice back, y'all). But since summer started, I've shifted my focus to other thingies. Like cleaning the shizz outta my biz aka decluttering. You know it's fur serious when I've even stepped away from stitching to do this thing right. Because, as things currently stand, my dining room table looks a lil like this: 

I know, riiiiiight? When I popped this picture up on Instagram, my mom called and all she said was "Cassandra.Lane." That's when you know it's bad. Mama's using full first name and middle? Someone is thoroughly disgusted. 

So, I'm a super stuffy person. Meaning, I got tons o' stuffs. I've been collecting vintage since high school and, as you might have guessed, have the worst time parting with it. Especially the clothes. I blame my childhood (that's right, mom!). Can we have a soul-gazing, hand-holding Dr. Phil moment together? Please? You see, I went to Catholic school for a pinch in junior high (no, I'm not Catholic. Yes, I need therapy. I was always so ticked I never got to sample that body of Christ wafer! I always imagined it tasted just like a ranch Dorito) and I wore THE SAME WHITE PETER PAN COLLAR BLOUSE AND PLAID SKIRT for two years. We're talkin' even the weekends. Why? Because my parents totes got a free ticket to not have to buy me any new duds. Did I mention I went thru my growth spurt and that skirt (which at one time had crisp pleats and was threadbare and pleatless on it's deathbed) had me lookin' all Brittany Spears "Baby One More Time."

Okay, maybe I didn't look like that. More like if The Brit had braces, glasses and was about 20 lbs skinnier/gawkier, particularly in the tots, that'd be me. All that to say, I think my clothing-hoarder ways stems from my severe deprivation during my formative years. (muahahaha, mama, you know I'm kidding! Ish! Therapy bill is over due, btw!).

But I just can't bear to part with these lovelies without knowing they'll go to a good vintage-loving home (not to mention, I do love me some side cash). So I've been loading my etsy shop daily and shipping out to the far corners of the earth (Thailand! Australia! Ohio!). For my non-vintage-y goods, I've discovered all of these amazing buy/sell/trade pages on Facebook. It's awesome! You simply snap a photo of your item, list your price and an interested person picks it up and leaves cha-ching under your doormat. Of course, there's always Craig's List, Varage sale, you name it. It's been a motivating means of decluttering, this cash-making biz-natch. And it's made it so I've cleared space to make a studio...

 Eeee! A real live studio space that isn't my dining room table. Not that you can do anything on that dining room table anyway. Ahem. With the cash-ola I made from selling some stuffs, I was able to pick up that lovely 1940s drafting table from Craig's List (which I've renamed Crank-list as I'm currently a total addict). I even scooped up a vintage Luxo lamp and an aluminum bar stool to go with 'em. I can't wait to get to painting! 

 Cuz that lil masterpiece is sadly overdue. I started it ages ago before I lost it under a mountain of clutterness. 

And now that much of the mess is gone, I can enjoyably function in my sewing room. Previously, I always had to sh** shovel before doing anything. Do you do that? I'm constantly sh** shoveling and I'm determined to stop. I stack, move, restack, move again...it's a vicious cycle, y'all! But with these two rooms shipping up nicely, I'm hoping to throw out that shovel! Hold hands and pray with me, will ya?

Part of my (many) probs is that I use up a lot of surface area of my stuff. So I up and decided to hang everything that I could. Buttons, embroidery floss, thread and bobbins. I even have a place to hang the hubs! 

So! All that to say, I do hope my Accidental Blog-Cation is over. I've missed y'all! And sewing, painting and general mess-making. But I'm still on my decluttering mission. If you don't hear from me, y'all, just know that I'm here cleaning. Or buried alive under some rubble of vintage goodness. Regardless, I'll be back! Xo!

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