the upholstery project

first, a little background on my family.  my sister and i love to clothes shop, and i'm a big fan of thrift stores for over-enthusiastic furniture remakes.  our parents, the mums specifically, abhor shopping of any kind that has to be done in person; i think internet shopping was invented for them.  my sister also stand at a towering 4'11.75"... or 5' according to her doctor.  but i digress.  needless to say, regular chairs dwarf her, and her little feet dont touch the ground. 

mums, of all people, found the tiniest chair ever at some kind of estate sale where they live, and brought me the chair to reupholster.  and then it sat in my living room from thanksgiving 2014.  over christmas, my sister and i perused fabric.com for the appropriate fabric, i ordered it, aaand it sat in my sewing room for the next 4 months. 

cross country skiing and allergy adventures

long ago and far away [high school] i was diagnosed with cold urticaria.  believe me when i say, DO NOT GOOGLE IMAGE THAT SHIT.  basically, i break out in hives if its too cold.  fortunately, multiple allergy pills [every goddamn day] help quell the breakouts and allow me to survive in maine.  polar vortex, record snowfall, and all.  buuuuuuut a friend came to town and we went cross country skiing.  an outdoor pasttime i had been interested in for awhile, but had just never tried.  we ventured out on a gorgeously sunny, clear, 10 degree day, and with windchill it was probably well below that. 

homeowner problems

aka the saga of the shit flood and getting stood up by a plumber.

im not serious about the shit flood.  it my have been that tragic in my mind.. but really it was the contents of the disposal, a load of laundry, and maybe one toilet flush that seeped out onto my basement floor.  if you were brave enough to read to here..  kudos.  i exaggerate in times of panic.  also, i used a gallon of vinegar and 3 bottles of lysol sanitizing the floor.

spritz lessons learned

so cute and tasty!  and ..such a learning curve

crate centerpiece

i made a centerpiece for my dining table!  aaaand its not made out of pallets.  but very similar.

liz's laundry

these outfits don't look too vastly different than what i have been wearing all year.. but they are part of my back to school week!  im sure i wore clothes the other two days.. including a kelly green/bright yellow combo, but failed to take any pics.  

• dress: thrifted
• sweater and white bandeau: h&m
• necklace: steve & barrys [now defunct]

the tale of amazon

last year some time, my mom admitted back when i was a kid, they had dinner with a friend of a friend.  he had a business proposition... would you like to invest a couple thousand with jeff bezos, in his start-up company?  my parents declined, investing in the stock market instead.  welp instead of having college paid for by stocks and bonds, I COULD HAVE BEEN A TRUST FUND BABY. 

christ.

but that's a different tale.  

this was a box i received from amazon.  containing 2 textbooks and only 1 birthday present for my pops.  the receipt confirmed there were originally 4 items in the box, but two giant text books tend to destroy the packaging theyre in, and small items make a glorious break for freedom.  after searching through page after page of FAQs on the amazon site, i noticed... like a moron, this convenient orange "contact us" button along the left hand column.  below all the 15 menu links id been trying.  but i digress.

the website noted i could click through latest purchase order and highlight the problem item, call in and sit on hold for 5 minutes, or input my phone # and someone would call me back in 5 minutes.  genius!  but what did i do?  instead of sitting on hold?  i sat and stared at my phone for 5 minutes.  anyway.  it rang, and after a brief confirmation of who i was and what the problem was, the customer service rep ordered me a replacement item with overnight shipping, apologized for the inconvenience, and we went our merry ways. 

easy freakin peasy! 

and yes i am a little bitter that my parents dont own a significant portion of amazon... but that doesnt stop me from ordering a ridic amount of stuff and having an amazon/chase credit card. 

sigh. 

in which i buy 14 pairs of shoes

to preface i have three phrases:

• credit card
• free shipping
• poor impulse control

you can guess where it goes from there...

consignment adventures

something that i never found on long island [but im sure exists] were consignment stores.  there was....one in cedar rapids growing up but it opened when i was a junior or senior in high school.  here in portland however, there are quite the plethora of place to buy other people's used shit.  and i looove it. 

i did a light spring closet cleaning and came up with two massive grocery bags [those are not the fold-up-and-put-in-your-purse size] of clothes and purses and an oversized goodwill bag of shoesies. 

since i needed motivation i made a consignment appointment at material objects and took my stuff in.  20 minutes later the nice ladies had picked out what they thought would sell and put the rest back in one bag for me.  and its considerably lighter as there are a couple bulky purses and only a couple actual clothing items. 

im still thinking about just dumping the stuff at goodwill, but there may be some other items in there worth taking elsewhere.  a couple months ago i dropped off some rather expensive [still with tags on] dresses that i had bought from sample sales or for occasions, and consigned them at second time around.  their schtick is only upper-end retail so they were brand name dresses.  as the woman was pricing stuff i had a peek around and there was a rather wide selection of mall-type brands - ann taylor, gap, etc, but whatever.  3/5 of my dresses have sold already with a total of 5 minutes of effort on my part.  i could have made bank on ebay or the like, but too lazy.  and frankly there is too much content out there and without doing things like ***OMG HUGE SALE*** ***DISCOUNTS!@@@@!!***  which i absolutely abhor and makes want to punch people in the face.... its hard to get noticed. 

a couple other places right in downtown are encore which sells mostly 60's-80's stuff [overpriced] but has really awesome jewelry and find.  i am 90% sure i took a bag of stuff there but looking on google i honestly cant remember going in there. 

and yes i feel a little bad about not donating my clothes to help the beneficiaries of goodwill/salvation army, but i take really good care of my clothes.  and im poor.  so selling them seems to be the way to go. 

it was a good day

a direct quote from my grammie.  and welp it was.  the one negative: apparently i havent been eating enough bananas [or water maybe] and got the beginnings of an ubercharleyhorse while at the gym.  so i left.  before i had an actual serious cramp and fell off the elliptical or something.

no sewing updates.  in the midst of several refashions and after spring cleaning tomorrow [which may extend into the week depending on how thoroughly i do my closet] i will knuckle [or buckle] down and finish something.

but the positives:

the ravioli experience

aka: im not as smart as i look and that ole learning curve is steep

the breakfast experience

near our office is a full service deli/restaurant/catering business.  excellent [though a little pricey] food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  this morning i stopped in to grab a bacon/egg/cheese croissant in the hopes of staving off another shitty shitty day.  so far it has worked.  here was my exchange:

me-walking up to line to pay for my croissant sandwich, turkey wrap [for lunch-pictured above]; i grabbed a bag of chips

old guy: WHOA you kinda crept up there on me
me: uh sorry
old guy: didnt even hear you until you crinkled those chips.  all stealth-like
me: uh yup


me-dropped bag of chips cos im awesome, then bent down to get them
old guy-does old man heave trying to help me with chips
me-placed chips back on counter before old guy reaches floor

old guy: whoa youre a fast one there
me: kinda..
old guy: what are you 25?
me: yup
old guy: wow.  young and fast
me: umm k bye

usually when people try and make small talk just for the sake of hearing their own dribble it annoys me.  today however, it was pretty hilarious and all i could do not to straight up laugh at the guy.

and the croissant was DELICIOUS

*edit* the pinwheels were lacking but i will definitely attempt the sliced turkey-slaw-rollup idea in the future.

sewing and story time

before going to work and after working on some homework i fixed 2 skirts

chopped off 9" of fabric and took in the poofy hippy sides a bit

chopped off 7", removed the waistband, and sewed together the slit

polyester fabric.  woo.  and size 10 my arse.  but it turned out pretty decently in the end.

and now: story time.  so typical long island.  the owner of the restaurant has a son.  he is 23 and works at a car dealership.  apparently he can talk his way in or out of anything.  a coworker closed one of his sales and the son threatened to punch out the guy next time it happened.  welp it happened again and the son told the guy to stand up so people wouldnt think he hit a sitting guy.  the guy stood up, the son punched him in the face, and knocked the guy out.  what happened to the son?  well now he's general manager of the dealership.  cos in LI if you have balls and you show them...we pretend its 1950 and machismo still reigns.  woooooo.

edit 12am:  i finished the blue skirt tonight also.  i took out the waistband and the lining unfortunately but it is heavy enough fabric i think to avoid the dreaded squirrel crotch smuggling look.  basically, the [again "vintage" sizing] waistband was painfully tight when i got it zipped for the first picture.  the wool/acrylic fabric is a little stretchy so now its a wee bit too big... but i may or may not deal with that later.  i kept the length cos i liked how it flares out a little at the bottom and added some black lace ive been hoarding for about a year.