Sunny day sewing

One of the positives/negatives of a job in the arts is the need to dress up for opening nights, galas, cocktails parties...
Positive... I get to DRESS UP. All those vintage shoes and fun jewelry get worn outside the house!
Negative... I have a non-profit arts administrator's salary.

We have a Gala ball coming up on April 12 and I swore I would make my own gown - not only to save dough, but to prove I could do it again.

A little background info - I worked in a costume shop all through college and spent a few years doing museum exhibition work specifically with clothing - period and modern - so I have a solid understanding of clothing construction.
However, I haven't made anything in donkey's years, so... nervous? Yes.
$100 of fabric stand between me and fab gown.

I chose this for my pattern - and have chosen a basic black crepe for the lining and black matte chiffon for the top layer.

Today I purchased the chiffon at Joann's (when I went to get it 3 weeks ago, they only had 2 yards, I needed 6), cut out the pattern and constructed the bodice - sort of.

As you can see its... um... low cut. Like "here's my breastbone, wanna touch it?" low cut.
Yeek. Not for work.
So I completed the two sides and will enlarge that little upside down keystone thing in the middle to ensure modesty.

I'm feeling quite smug about the whole thing - it looks far more difficult than it was, all the gathering and draping is grecian goddess at its best and the ruffle around the neck is decadent.

I'll post photos as it progresses - and progress it must, as this shindig is in two weeks and Cinderella needs her gown.

Found: Normalcy (somewhat)

Happy to report...
Heat back on.
Head cold packing bags.
Sun shining.
Deadlines being met.
Credit crap straightened out.
Friends still... friends.
4 Crocus appeared in my garden the other day, urging me to clean up my pots and last remainders of dead organic matter in them.
I got out last year's plastic plant flats and planted seeds for my garden and some for a friend. Now dreaming of lettuces, cukes, peas, lima beans and sunflowers (among other things).
If only I can find an easier way to keep the patch watered and free from the neighbor's overly aggressive perennial...

Wanted: One life returned to normal

Every since the beginning the March, things have felt tumultuous.

Not in the big, bad life changing way, but in the little-things-add-up-over-time way.
Two big government grants in early March followed by the Film Fest being a week early.
Then the snow storm and the car inaccessible for 5 days.
And the 2 nights in a hotel that cost almost as much as a months' rent.
Followed by the week of horrendous sick and the malaise and feelings of depression that came with it.
And then I found out the company I'm working with to get my debt in order took March dollars and dispersed them in February, leaving a March payment undpaid and sending mean letters to my mailbox.
This also meant I had to shell out more cash - something I'm in short supply of.
My gas bill was HUGE because my place is drafty and old (which is also why I love it) and I couldn't put it off any longer and the icing (literally) is that my furnace appears to have stopped working and those I would ask to fix it appear to be out of town.

But I don't know that. So I feel out of control.
And I don't like to feel out of control.
Whether it be my health or my heat, I want to know that things will continue to work reasonably well and when they don't - that I have the tools to fix it right at hand.

But a headcold and a hard-to-reach furnace add up to one thing: WAIT.

So I wait and hope that in June, I'll barely remember the concerns that currently fill my days.

Casualties of Fluchitis: Day 6

"The terse yet unsteady demeanor, the puffy discolored glare, the quivering lines of fever and chills, only highlight the despair and isolation of the “grippe” patient, the oppression, the weakness, the malaise, the lack of air, the stupor, the hopelessness."
Reference.

Casualties of Fluchitis: Day 6 - DRY

Despite drinking oodles water and juice
Despite the humidifiers and baths
Despite the fact that I'm supposed to be 70% water
There is a 20 lb ball of dessicated phlegm where my heart should be

Casualties of Fluchitis: Day 5 - Fresh New Hell

I realize something like this has more umph when days 1-4 have been recorded, but if you’ve had fluchitis, or know someone stricken, you understand the absolute lack of energy and available umph for anything but general malaise.

let's count the fallen, shall we:
5 days of work.
1 sense of accomplishment.
2 12+ hour long stretches of time to sleep.
1 sleepless night.
2 boxes of tissues.
3 tubes of orange juice concentrate.
2 pineapples.
2 quarts strawberries.
2 pints blueberries.
2 many gallons of water to count.
1 sense of optimism that spring (the weather, not the concept) will come my way and bring with it CLEAR AIR PASSAGES.
2 bags gummi worms (don't ask).
1 bottle generic cough & cold (How can something be both a cough suppressant and an expectorant?)
1 box Alka Seltzer Cold Plus.
1 can of Lysol.
1 tube of Airborne, purchased pre-lawsuit.
Countless brain, skin, nose, throat and lung cells (seriously, I miss you all).
1 friendship (possibly 2, I get REALLY cranky and manic when I'm sick this long).
3 days with my family - not exposing mom and dad to this monstrosity, I don't care how dead Jeebus was and how not dead he became after a nap in a cave. Peeps or no peeps, I'm staying home.
2.5-year long streak of not having a cold.
1 over-used phrase, "I never get sick."

urban adventure

I'm a bit chagrined to say that I JUST experienced the free E-Line Trolley downtown. It's a nice little circulator - hunter green with wooden slat seats - v. stylish and of an early 20th century vintage.



I find that I experience unfounded anxiety around things related to any transportation that isn't walking. It's gotten better, but for months I've been avoiding the Trolley out of some unidentifiable fear that I would end up...what...?

In Indiana?
In a Turkish prison?
In a 4th dimension where my cell phone doesn't work and the bus driver can't communicate through usual means?

No clue what my problem is, but I steeled my apparently fragile nerves and
*waited at the stop (worried that it wasn't the RIGHT stop)
*got on the bus (worried that it wasn't free and if it wasn't would I have the right change? could I get to it quickly?)
*rode the bus with much trepidation about WHERE I was supposed to get off and WHEN (or IF) I should pull the Stop Request line when the destination was in sight... keep in mind that the length of city I was crossing is one I regularly walk when it isn't an icy tundra, so even if I did get off at the wrong stop, I could easily remedy it by WALKING)
*exited the bus and felt like I CLIMBED MT. EVEREST

What's ironic is that I can do NYC subway, Chicago L, no problem.

I gotta do this more often, the city is not that big and I need to learn to ride the bus without fear of ending up in the imaginary wormhole of fear and helplessness that I conjured up for myself...

well, that was a bit premature

UPDATE: Car in valet, day 5.
I missed the festival last evening to wait for the grants.gov website to acknowledge my submission, so I got caught a ride out and back in to work today.
Get my car tonight -
Lucky pampered car.
5 days and 4 nights at the Ritz.

****
turns out I was done with winter, but Cleveland wasn't.

I just spent about 60 hours in Tower City.

Friday a.m. I went to Tower City to work the Film Fest.
On a whim, I packed a bag with some extra clothes and necessary things, since it was all doom and gloom about the storm.
I guess they weren't lying.
I valeted at the attached hotel, and worked my 13 hour shift.
I stayed there that night, only to be told that it was going to get worse the next night...
so I worked a 14 hour shift and stayed again.

i called a neighbor, and he said the street was horrible, a bus stuck and cars snowed in along the curb -

i was lucky enough to get a ride home after a shorter day (only 11 hours - woo hoo!)
and left my car - again - at the hotel.

but the Film Fest is going great - 3,000 people yesterday (amazing!)

let's hope i can get (and park) my car tomorrow evening -
here's to warm melting thoughts.

done done done

NO MORE WINTER.
I'm finished.
Done.
Exasperated.
One more goddamned snowflake and I will
LOSE IT.

I want to banish wool coats.
Burn my gloves.
Eviscerate my car scraper.

I want to incarcerate my shovel.
Crucify my earmuffs.
Toss my boots in a THAWED SEA.

musto as lohan as monroe

love it