I did something creative

It's been a while since I posted anything. All kinds of zany shit going on in my head right now, but I'll focus on something positive and fulfilling.

I was a part of an INCREDIBLE wedding last weekend (10/06/13) and got to flex my budding seamstress wings in the process. I did some minor alterations to a dress, but I'm pretty proud of the outcome and wanted to share.


So here's the dress in it's original glory. It's a size 6. Um. Yeah... I am not.

First step was to take the lace around the waist off. I pulled out my trusty seam ripper and went to town. Here's the dress with the lace removed.

Then I pinned on the copper ribbon that would be replacing the lace. I only stabbed myself 20 times, but was very pleased with the look.

Here is the ribbon fully stitched into place. The ribbon is wired, so it laid down nice and flat for stitching! Only stabbed myself 10 times getting it on!

So the back was a little more tricky, and I didn't take overly fabulous "during" pictures. Ok, I didn't take any, haha. For the back I cut a modesty panel out of the skirt liner and stitched it in along the right side of the zipper (which was kept fully unzipped). The left side of the modesty panel hooks into place with hook & eye closures. Since I had plenty of ribbon left over, and the back had a weird pucker to it, I decided to throw in a slight corset back. Along the zipper, I measured out loops and made them out of the same copper thread that I stitched the ribbon onto the dress with. I then threaded the ribbon through and voila! Corset back! I blew up the below picture slightly so you can see the loops the ribbon goes through and the modesty panel in back.

And here is an action shot from the actual wedding. You can see the modesty panel in place and I tucked the loose ends of the ribbon into the back of the dress. In this shot I am fastening the beautiful brides shoe. Love those shoes. Love that girl!! I had a great time at the wedding, and I had fun working on the dress too! <3

Busting My Butt (In A Good Way!)

I've been pretty quiet lately - mostly because I have been completely obsessed with working out and tracking my calories. I am so determined to loose weight and get fit... and doing it the right way! :)

This week I'm down 2 lbs. I've been tracking everything and thus far I've burned 900 calories. That's this week. To say I'm proud is an understatement! I'm really working hard. My face has even started to slim down already... Thank goodness!!!



And now, for something completely different...

I've been playing in nail polish. Pretty pleased with the outcome. China Glaze in Recycle as base, Liquid Leather as tip. Pinstripe in silver.

Training Has Begun

Having a compromised immune system in addition to everything else is a bunch of bull, if you ask me. Apparently I had forgotten that it's not just my muscles and joints that I have to be mindful of while training up ye 'ol body to do the 3-day... Apparently some internal organs are out of shape too. I already knew my heart was a little on the fritz, but I forgot my lungs would be working out too.

I have some kind of bronchial flare-up at the moment, and it's pissing me off. I've never had asthma before, so I'm not sure it's that... but I just keep coughing and can't seem to take a deep breath.

I love that I get one part of my body slightly under control (I use the term "slightly" loosely - I've managed to roll my ankle twice and popped my knee out Saturday night) and another part goes boink. But I'm going to try really really hard not to get discouraged and frustrated and beat myself up over something I can't control. All I can do is keep on keeping on.

I stumbled upon a quote from Gilda Radner that I'm trying to keep as my focus...

"Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity..."

I've never been a fan of ambiguity. I like plans... structure... But lately I've been digging the idea of just letting it all go. Of just letting myself LET GO and just BE for a little while. We've talked about it in therapy, about me going away for the weekend and just "being" without anyone to bother me - to let me just have some time to regroup, refocus...

I want it. I want the space, the lack of responsibility other than for my immediate person, a chance to just rest and figure this shit out.

Getting Something Together... Kitchen

Through a bit of teamwork between Hubby and I, and the use of my new canisters and labeler, the kitchen is in a much better place now. I'll be honest, it was bad. Really bad... I'm not going to hold anything back here... the before pictures are preeeeeety scary looking. But, here goes.

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Clearly a vast improvement. Hubby and I agreed that if he and I tackled a room per weekend like this and maintained the past rooms we've attacked, the house will be amazing in just a couple weeks. I'm feeling better. Accomplishment will do that. :)



Getting Something Together... Pantry (pt 1)

I've been feeling exceptionally depressed lately, so I haven't had much to say. But this morning I got it in my head that I would make a dent in the pantry so I can make a dent in the kitchen.

First item I felt like tackling was all of our spices.

We had a MILLION it seems, and I had an ancient spice rack in the back of the pantry, bottom shelf - completely inconvenient to get to and annoying. Well, no more. I pulled *most* of my spice and herb bottles out and gave them a good once over: what is still good, which are 7 years old...

Here's a pic of all the bottles I pulled out of the pantry:

That's 35 bottles!! 35 bottles that were being under utilized, ignored, or otherwise just taking up space. And kindly ignore the basket of laundry... I'm working on getting that all straightened up too. Another post on that some other time...

Here are the bottles that are going back into the pantry:

11 containers going back into the pantry. That's IT.

So here are the containers that are NOT going back into the pantry:



So I'm sure you're wondering... "Did she really only have 11 herbs/spices that were salvageable out of 35?? Really??" The short answer is: No, that is not quite the case.

So where did all of my herbs and spices go? Why, on the walls, of course!

The 5 spices I use most often are over by the stove for convenience, tho if I plan on making something, I can swap out for whatever the recipe calls for, and put my "ol' faithfuls" back with their friends.

Here's the other 20 herbs/spices that I had in the cabinet that were still good. But now they are in cute little tins that I bought at Michael's on sale (tin wedding favors) and some magnetic tape. Viola!!

I know it's not as tidy as something you'd find on pinterest... but that is exactly where I got the idea from. Should I have measured out my lines first? Yeah, probably... but it's not like I won't ever be able to move things around should I wish. And that new label maker I just bought? I think it just earned it's keep. :) Everything is labeled so nicely!!

***EDIT***
Ok, the lack of uniformity was pissing me off. And my husband managed to take one off and spill cajun seasoning all over the world, apparently... So I reapplied the magnetic tape and tacked it into place with brad nails. That puppy isn't going ANYWHERE. And it looks amazingly neater:

OMG, MUCH better!! 

Getting Something Together... Linen Closet

My body isn't the only thing falling apart. So is my household. Since I am a control freak (I try not to be, really I do...) I need to take control of something. And as my own body seems to be on the fritz (confirmed new tear in lower abs. Joy.) I've decided to try to focus on the things I actually can change.

Like my house.

Currently it's trashed. Mind you, I do kinda live with a hoarder, and I am not the cleanest person in the world either. But it's bad. Like HELL NO company can't come in should they show up. So last friday I attacked the top half of the linen closet. I wanted to start small. Pace myself.

Here was before:

Our linen closet is the catch-all for paper products, cleaning supplies, first aid randomness, and a whole slew of other things. I had been cruising around on pinterest, looking for inspiration, and saw a pin on converting old diaper boxes into storage. That pin was pretty hardcore - covering the boxes with black fabric, then lining the interior with another fabric bag.

Yeah, um, waaaay too involved. I don't want to buy yards and yards of fabric. I do, however, have a HUGE roll of heavy duty brown paper. I covered 3 boxes with the brown paper and used those. I took everythng out of the linen closet and put them into piles based on what they were for. I had the big wicker basket in there already, so I was able to reuse it. Cleaning supplies went in there. I also have containers for bathroom supplies, hair supplies and paper products. It looks soooo much better.

 

After an overhaul and organization:

 

 

I threw out a LOT of stuff. Random empty containers, expired products, etc. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

 

Next hurdle... Attacking the kitchen. I went through and took all my "before" pictures. And I didn't even do a prelimenary clean out to make it cleaner... Nope, it's true, its raw, its filthy!!