Tradition, TRADITION!

Did any of you grow up eating Sunday dinner? We did, sort of. My mom would come home from church and make dinner for lunch. I always looked forward to Sunday, not only because I could never make food taste exactly like mom's, but because it was the one night of the week neither me nor my brothers had to cook. Mind you, I didn't care about saving my brothers a chore but I did mine not having to hear them complain about it or wait until the last minute.

I was the oldest so of course I was a secret squirrel micromanager, whispering furious instructions to my brothers where my mom couldn't hear. Or more like where I thought she couldn't hear. Now that I'm grown, I know why she came out of her bedroom and gave me the evil eye. Moms know so much more than you think.

So anywaaaaay, back to the point.

I miss traditions. I suppose I could wait for a couple to fall into place, but hanging out in bed watching House Hunters doesn't seem like much of a plan. P&p have gotten into the habit of having a movie night every Friday. Last week we watched an old school version of Alice in Wonderland. Tonight, it was Nanny McPhee. I'm thinking that's a tradition we need to keep.

And I'm resurrecting Sunday Dinner.

Pete's requested smothered pork chops sounds like the perfect start.

P.S. If you haven't seen Fiddler on the Roof, find it and get on it. kthanxbi

Everybody's working for the weekend

Lulu looooves her some cheezits, which totally makes her not only my doggie but my mommy's granddoggie.

I'm not so sure my mama would approve of that title but there you have it. My mom passed on her love for the cheezits to me and I passed it on to my dog. Now if I could just get Lu to watch a Flyers game, we'll be one big happy family.

Here's Lulu working hard for the honor of earning a prized snack cracker. At the very least, she's praying I drop one as I make the kids' lunches for school.

Yook at dat wittle doggeh face!

You know, I never babytalked p&p but I totally babytalk my dog.

And here's what I'm working with today. Does anyone else have trouble with self portraits? I'm always doing something weird with my face. Or perhaps it's time to accept that my face is just weird, right? I'm just going to blame it on the crappy ass camera phone. The replacement cord for my Sony Cybershot should be here any day.

Whoooopeeee!

As for working, I'll be concentrating on finishing that hat, working on Heather's bag, and possibly cutting out my muslin for the Eva Dress contest. Pete's requested smothered pork chops for Sunday dinner so if you're lucky, I'll share the recipe.

Do you have plans this weekend? Share in the comments or I shall shank you. Or something.

I keep a stuff upper lip

This is buckram.

Once upon a time, this stuff was everywhere. All different kinds, too. Apparently, now there are only four, used mostly by milliners to make vintage style hats and Civil War era bonnets. It's the stuff that will be making the brim of my cloche hat nice and stiff.

Can you get high on Elmer's Glue fumes? Not that I'm trying or anything

The nice thing about buckram is that it's essentially a glue stiffened fabric. You can use a hot iron to and bend it the way you want and steam to get your fabric to stick to it.

But all the steam makes for waves of Elmer's glue sent all up in your face. I feel like I'm in the third grade again, spreading glue on my hands and waiting for it to dry why I pretended to care about my times tables.

What?

You didn't spread a thin layer on your palm so you could peel it off, wave it in a boy's face and pretend it was dead skin?

I'll shut up now.

Look at the pretty hat in progress (and stop staring at me. The third grade was a confusing time in my life.)

Putting on the ritz

I usually wear the dresses I sew to church on Sunday. But I have so many pretty cotton prints and simple summer dress patterns that I think it's time I went casual.

But with dresses like this,




From The Time Traveling Lark

From Vintage Skater

From Opal's Owl Vintage



my usual DCs and sandals just won't do. So I've been taking a look around the interwebs and I've come across a pair that might fit the bill from Aerosoles.

Too bad I'm too cheap to spend $80 bucks on a pair of shoes. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll go on sale.

These ones are on sale, but only available in gray or black. Hmmmm

Would anyone like to spot me $90? This why I don't shop at Endless.

None of these are quite what I'm looking for. But I thought I'd share anyway. Anything to avoid the lists I'm supposed to me making, right?

To all the girls I've loved before

May I present the women of the Snarktastical Household:

That frightening little blond who the devious look in her pretty blue eyes is pinkadink. Don't ler her fool you. She's a tricky one.

And that beautiful pupparone, that's Roo, our two year old Boston terrier whom you might remember from an earlier post.

If you're wondering what's up with all the crappy quality pictures, I have this beautiful pinky Sony Cybershot with a dead upload cord. I bought a new one on Amazon so hopefully I'll be posting clearer pictures next week.

I want a girl with a short skirt

I went into an Urban Outfitters for the first time ever on Saturday. I found a couple cute things I'll be waiting to go on clearance or for a good coupon code.

Pinky was even more inspired.

She wants this:

I apologize for the tiny pic. You can view it here at their website. It's a cute little summer skirt, isn't it? Don't worry, mom. I'll be adding a couple inches to the bottom to preserve pinky's tiny little girl modesty. Or at least the appearance of it. God bless little girls and their penchant for flashing their mundies at the most inopportune moments.

And yes, I just called the mundies. According to mr man, little girls don't wear panties because panties are sexy and little girls are anything but. However, underwear just isn't a very cute word either, so utilitarian for a scrap of fabric usually emblazoned with the days of the week, Hello Kitty, or Disney characters. So mundies is it.

Maybe sewing a pair of shorts to the waistband would be a good idea.

Help me, Rhonda

I bought this book for my mom at Christmas with the plan to read it along with her. We sort of accomplished that goal. I had it sooner than she did and I couldn't wait. I was only ahead of her by a couple of days though so it still worked out.

If you can get your hands on this book, you really should give it a read. We tend to only see the heartwarming nostalgia of the "Good Old Days" but the reality is that the seemingly idyllic world of the 50's and 60's was only warm and fuzzy for a select few. Not even being white and somewhat well off guaranteed happiness then.

This book centers on the lives of two groups of women living very different lives in the same Southern town, a handful of white housewives and their black maids. There were a few things that struck me as I was furiously flipping the pages. The first is that the story is set in 1962, the year before my mother was born. Some would have us believe that this is all ancient history but the fact of the matter is it really wasn't that long ago. I'm not sure why people believe racism is dead when just a generation or two ago, white households didn't want to share a toilet seat with the black woman who was raising their children.

The second part that struck me was how difficult it can be to look past the way things always have been and to make your voice heard amongst a group of people who don't see the point of questioning. People you've grown up with can turn on you fairly quickly and fairly viciously when you challenge the status quo.

If you want to know more, you should pick up the book. It's a very quick read, an easy read that still manages to be thought provoking. I'm a huge history buff so this was right up my alley but even if you aren't, I think reading about a topic in a context that we can understand, such as the complex relationships between women can really help you get a feel for something you might otherwise find boring or too complicated.

So go find it.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This one goes out to the one I love

So I have this friend named Amy. Amy loves her some lists. From what I hear, there isn't a thing Amy doesn't have a spreadsheet for. She just sold her house (congratulations!) but do you know what happens when a list addict prepares for a move?

Feel sorry for her husband, yo!

Despite my faux sorrow for poor Andrew, I've decided to take a page out of Amy's book and make a couple lists of sorts for my new housewifing ventures.

The first one will be a daily list. I've decided I need a schedule. Mind you, I'm a grown woman and shouldn't need to make lists for myself, at least this has been my argument up to now. However, my house has a different story to tell. I'm a girl who needs a list. So what should we put on a daily list? I'm sorry to report there will be no vaccuuming in heels and pearls for the simple fact that I don't have a carpet. But perhaps a simple reminder to do the dishes twice a day could be useful, yes?

I'll think about it.

Drop your suggestions in the little comment area and I'll update you guys on . . . how does Wednesday sound?

A Thousand Rainy Days

It's a special time in Georgia. All it's doing is raining, raining, raining. But since it's Snowmaggedon for a vast majority of the rest of the country, you feel like a dumbass for complaining.

And yet, STOP RAINING, DAMMIT!!

Now that some of you are planning to shank me with a dull spoon, let's talk about Easter.

I'm conflicted. As I've written in a previous entry, I'm doing a sheer fabric over a solid lining for both mine and pinky's outfit. The issue is that I can't decide what color to line them with, lavender or green. So it's up to you guys to decide. Andalsoplus, howsabout you tell me whether I should use the lighter or the darker ribbon?

Zank you!

See the off white linen fabric on the right? That's going to be my 1920's Cloche hat. It's really soft and creamy.

Want to see the matching shawl I'm knitting? (And if you say anything about shawls being all granny-like and such, I hope you've dusted off your anti shanking spells of late because you will need it.)



Hello, I've been waiting here for you

Poor Heather.

She asked me before Thanksgiving if I would make her a Hello Kitty lined purse/diaper bag. Due to tighter customs restrictions out of China in December, the fabric I ordered didn't get here until a few weeks ago. And then I had that nasty little plague. I am, however, mostly cured and onward I go.

Isn't that adorable? I think I'm gonna head to Joann's tomorrow and pick up two or three fat quarters for contrast though. The body of the bag will be that pretty celery green, ivory for the accents, and the Hello Kitty for the lining. It's an interesting fabric, from Hong Kong and it only took five milion years to get here. It was almost worth the wait.

It looks like a cotton rip stop fabric but it's like a two for one. On one side is the cute, khaki based Hello Kitty and on the other side of the fold line lies a vivid pink of the same print. One fabric, two colorways. 

Anyone else want a Hello Kitty bag? I think this fabric would look really cute as the lining for a black back with hot pink topstitching.

The yellow is much more goldenrod than the picture suggests. Very cute!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Nothing ever goes right on a Sunday morning. When I was a kid, I had pastors say it was the devil's way of keeping you home. Then I guess it was the devil who sent mismatched black church shoes home with pinky's friend after her sleepover last week because this morning, pinky had only had one mary jane this morning. This resulted in the hot mess you see above.

What? It was quicker than finding something else for her to wear.

I faired much better, I think. I call it my Clearance Look.

That skirt is the primary reason I venture through the wilds of J.C. Penney on Black Friday. I scored it for $11 and actually made it out of the store in less than 45 minutes. It's made by Worthington which always goes on sale on Black Friday. And the stuff holds up. Three years later and I'm still rocking it.

The top was Old Navy clearance two summers ago for $6. The necklace belonged to my greatgrandma and I bought the shoes, again on clearance from Wet Seal for $15. I was wearing an ivory cardi from Target that only cost $7 but a freak gust of wind turned my hair from cutesy curly into something Hercules took on so . . . yeahno.

Children Go Where I Send Thee

I found this propped outside my daughter's bedroom door last night.

Shane is her brother.

Aren't kids grand?

The Way You Wear Your Hat

I love hats. Too bad I don't own many. I'm never really sure they look good on me, even though my mama says they do. Mothers are notoriously biased.

Here's hoping she's not too far off the mark because I'm planning to wear a hat on Easter Sunday. This hat, to be exact. See the little green plaid one? It's a reproduction of an original 1920 hat pattern. I bought it from the Vintage Pattern Lending Library. It will be the first hat I've ever made and the first time I've worked with buckram. For those of you that don't sew, buckram is a very stiff fabric used to make hats and bonnets. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I suppose now you want to know what I'm wearing for Easter? I thought you'd never ask. This is a Vogue Pattern that's been sitting in my stash for more than a year. I have a medium green fabric I'm using for the slipdress and I bought some amazing paisley chiffon in shades of lavender, green, and gray for the sheer overdress. I have to admit, I'm a little scared of chiffon, especially silk chiffon.

Wish me luck.



We Don't Need No Education

I'm somewhat bipolar with regards to my movie choices. I really hate overwrought crappy dramas or romcoms. But at the same time, I love a good drama about how falling in love can change your life. Sounds cliched, doesn't it? I actually kind of hate myself for writing that line.

In any case, An Education, starring Carey Mulligan and the very cute Peter Sarsgaard is pretty much exactly what I like watching when I sit down for a good drama. It's a strong movie that gives you quite a bit more to think about than awwww, he luuuuuuuuurvvess her. It's set in 1961 England with Carey Mulligan playing to perfection to part of an overeager 17 year old girl who just can't wait to grow up aka, she's kind of stupid despite being incredibly smart. She thinks she knows so much which really means she knows nothing.

 If anything, you should watch this movie just to appreciate how perfectly pretty Carey is. She's one of those people for whom still photography doesn't do her justice.

My favorite character, however, is that of Carey Mulligan's father, played by the very talented Alfred Molina. Yes, yes, I know he's Doc Ock as my son pointed out. And while he's definately the chauvinist you'd expect circa 1961, I think it was a very difficult time for men and Molina plays the part well.

But I totally suck at discussing movies without giving away important plot points so we'll discuss the dress porn instead.

Isn't that beautiful watercolor fabric just amazing?? It looks like a painting. I want some. It's either very good or very bad that I've reached my fabric quota for the month.

And here is the goddess, Rosamund Pike along with Carey in their very smart furs and elegant winter coats.

I adore a brocade dress and a well dressed man. I wish I could get Mr. Man into a nice suit and a fedora. Fat chance.

I wish I could find a better picture of this jacket. It's to die for. I wonder if I have a pattern I could adapt.

The pleating on this dress is just divine. I think I would have liked it better if the red were on both sides. But between this and an the dress Julia Stiles wore to the SAG awards, I'd added "Dyed and Draped Chiffon Dress" to the sewing bucket list.

And for good measure, here's Julia's dress.

If you have Netflix, An Education is on Instant. So you have no excuses.

Here we go!

It's February, which if I'm a good girl and plan things right, should be my busy time. You see usually I wait until the last damned minute to make holiday dresses but after the Christmas Dress Fiasco of 2010, I have vowed change.

This year, I got a head start and ordered all my fabrics, patterns, and notions last month. I still have an order out with http://www.baltazor.com/ but that's because the lady was nice enough to let me send her a swatch of pinky's lace so she could match the silk ribbon I want to it. I love little fabric shops. They really are the best.

I've decided to enter a contest with http://www.evadress.com/ using one of her vintage reproduction patterns. More on that later, but for now, just know that it's due in March, I'm pretty sure and I'll have to make a muslin first, that is a mock up of the pattern in an inexpensive material in order to test constuction and fit. Usually I'm too lazy for such business. But reproduction patterns really isn't a place where you can skip this step. They are copies, you see, of a pattern someone found in some tiny little corner which may or may  not have been adjusted and may or may not be designed to be worn with period correct undergarments.

I also have to finish a baby dress for a friend, work on the knit shawl and the cloche hat I want to wear with my Easter dress, and make a Hello Kitty purse for a friend.

Wanna take bets?

In the meantime, I was looking pretty spiffy today so here's an OOTD. Forgive the crappy lighting. It was overcast and gross this morning.

And here's the other apron. I finally finished it! Unfortch, I'm a little unhappy with how wide the torso section is on this bad boy. Perhaps I should take it in about an inch? It just hangs weird, don't you think? And yeah, I'm well aware that my hair looks like Michael Jackson circa beat it. Shaddup.

*I swear on the lives of my plaguey little beastie children that I will blog furiously tomorrow. I've been planning a movie review of An Education for days and I just haven't gotten to it.