My Family

So here we are in Las Vegas for a few days visiting family. On Monday, the hubby and I decide to take the boys out to shop and get lunch. As we are attempting to get on the freeway and missing the on ramp we decide before we go anywhere we need Diet Coke, logical right? It's while we are in the drive-thru that a typical family conversation occurs. 

Me: (reading billboard) Tourists bring in 45 billion in cash to Las Vegas. 

Hubby: really? 

Me: that's what the billboard says. I think that's what I'm going to do, open a casino in the living room. You won't mind will you? I'm sure the Feds won't either as long as I pay my taxes. 

Hubby: the local authorities might. Well I guess you can bribe them. 

Me: so this is our plan, we'll start with roulette and craps. 

#1 son: and Russian Roulette, you gotta have that. 

Me: no thanks, I'd run out of places to hide the bodies. 

#2 son: no mom, you're missing another income opportunity, organ harvesting. 

Hubby: yeah, think of the money to be made, it doesn't have to be a good kidney, just a kidney. 

#1 son: then you've got, hearts, lungs, livers, corneas and I'm sure someone will take the rest off your hands, this is a win/win. 

Me: how did I go from hypothetically running an illegal gambling den to harvesting body parts? 

Hubby: we're just trying to help you realize your full potential. 

This people is why I love my family. 

New Sewing Room

I've been busy all day today so just a brief post. I moved my sewing room! I've been working out in the garage for years now and although I've created some fun and gorgeous stuff out there, let me just say that it was also hotter than Henry Cavill out there. And in the winter it was colder than a penguins butt.  So I decided while I'm working on my daughters wedding to move into the living room, next to the dining room it is the least used room in the house. I swear some men should not be allowed to design houses, they have no idea what women, especially mothers need in a house. If I designed my kitchen, it would be all stainless steel and have a drain in the middle of the floor. I would be able to hose it down too. My boys bathroom would have shower stalls, urinals and toilet stalls. It would also be capable of being hosed down for easy cleaning. It would be located next to the laundry room/locker room where clothes would be left to be washed and kept.  Just a few thoughts on how houses should be designed. So here's my new work space. All of the living room furniture is in the garage for the time being. Did I mention how awesome it is to have 4 strapping teenage and adult sons to to the heavy lifting and a hubby that knows how to get them to work? 

Pretty much my entire fabric stash is still in the garage and getting to most of it will be a problem because the 2 sofas are blocking the garage, but I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while. 

In other news, in case you didn't know this about me, I am a geek.  I love superheroes, comic books, superhero movies, animated superhero movies, you name it. I have every season of Warner Brothers Batman the Animated Series on DVD. I love this series, I loved Kevin Conroy's voice work as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Mark Hamill as the Joker. I'm working on getting all the different series of the animated universe, Superman, Justice League, Batman Beyond and the stand alone movies. If Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano had a hand in them then I want them. So having said that, here's how I feel about the casting of the upcoming movie "Superman vs Batman: 

Yeah, what idiot did the casting? Did they not see Daredevil? Gigli? Jersey Girl? I love Ben Afflecks writing and directing but Batman? I think they should have gone with Richard Armitage. Just sayin. 

Well that's it for now, I'm a little fried from all the moving. 

Take care,

Terri

Did it ever occur to you that the Ruby Slippers belonged to the Wicked Witch?

Really when you think about it, Dorothy Gale murdered her sister (you could call it involuntary manslaughter) then refused to give her the shoes that she rightfully should have inherited. What kind of person kills your sibling and steals her shoes?! 

Seriously though, I love shoes. I believe I have mentioned this before. I grew up with a mom who believed you only needed 3 pairs of shoes. Black, and brown for Fall/Winter and white for Spring/Summer. Boring. I remember throwing a hissy fit one year at age 7 because I wanted a pair of tap shoes for Christmas.  I got the shoes but I couldn't dance, still can't, and there were no available lessons in the area we lived. But I wore the crap out of those shoes and loved the noise they made in the store or at church. Did I care if I annoyed anyone? Not a bit, my shoes have always been for my enjoyment that anyone else likes them is secondary. A few years ago a friend and I went halfsies on a pair of stripper shoes with a 7" heel that lit up when you walked. These were the first pair of shoes I bought solely with my husband in mind. I wore them in Vegas  where you can get away with that kind of stuff. 😉

So, here's a look at my closet: 

My friend Cheryl should recognize this shelving unit, it's from her son's bedroom. Then it was my son Andrew's shelving unit. I was going to pass it on but realized it was a perfect fit for my closet and shoes. 

Here's the part you can't see:

This is the floor in the center section of my closet that I haven't figured out a solution to. Actually, I have but my husband doesn't want to buy me a bigger house. 

So back to shoes. My mother-in-law, who happens to be an amazingly talented artist, believes every outfit should have matching shoes. Hallelujah! I finally found my sole-mate. Someone who understands. I even think some outfits can have more than one pair of shoes that match it.  What if you need to take the outfit from day to evening? Hence the multiple shoes. 

Yesterday I read a woefully misinformed blog by someone who listed the 12 essential pairs of shoes all women should have. I have stopped following said blog because I felt she was wrong. 

Let's be honest no one really needs that many shoes and if I'm being completely honest my favorite state is barefoot or flip flops, I love a good pair of flips, my current favorites are about 3 years old worn down and need to be replaced but until I find another pair like them, they stay. I don't want to talk about the essential shoes every woman needs because we all have different needs, a woman that's a bus driver probably has different shoe needs than a woman that is an attorney or a woman that works in a school or an office or etc.  The list goes on. I'm a mom that works at a college part-time I really only need a pair of Vans or Nikes for my job. I'm usually barefoot at home. Again my shoes are for my enjoyment, having said that let me introduce you to some special members of my shoe family:

My favorite pair of black sling backs. These are Coach brand and were a replacement pair for a beloved pair of BCBG sling backs that the heel snapped on one day in church. Not sure how it happened but it was when they died I realized how much I love shoes. 

Everybody should have shoes that make them happy. These are a few of those shoes: 

Red peep toe Mary Janes. I found these in Downtown LA in Santee Alley. They made me feel girly the moment I slipped them on. My friend Helle covets them and actually told me she was going to steal them, trust me if she did that, I would have no qualms dropping a house on her. 

More happy shoes:

This little number is a leopard print D'Orsey named Lolita. I found this at DSW on my friend Natalie's birthday. She wanted to go shoe buying on her birthday and insisted that rather than spend money on her we all had to buy ourselves shoes. My kind of friend. These

Make me feel like a 1950's screen siren. Think Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".

The Holy Grail of Shoes:

Christian Louboutin black patent leather pumps. This style is named Pigalle and that heel is 5" high. I sit a lot wearing these shoes. But the toe cleavage is very sexy, I got these shoes after my hubby lost a bet to me. 

Probably the oldest pair of shoes in my collection:

I've had these for about 10 years now and still love them, I have another pair in pink. I think these were the shoes that started my collection of fun shoes. 

Speaking of pink shoes:

Most people would call these formal shoes, not me. I've worn them with jeans and gone grocery shopping in them. I remember seeing a blog of a woman who was going through chemo treatments for breast cancer, the disease had ravaged her body, taken her breasts and hair but she wore shoes just like the pink glitter shoes above to every treatment because they reminded her that she was more than just the disease and they made her happy. 

More pink shoes:

I shared the story about these shoes in one of my early blogs. I got these on clearance. Half price shoes are the best shoes!

This pair I found when the local Bakers Shoe store closed its doors. 

I bought 2 pairs of shoes and a pair of awesome boots for only $60.00! If you know anything about Bakers you know that most of their shoes start at $60.00. At least I can still order them online. 

Another pair of Natalie shoes:

What I mean by that is Natalie is quite the instigator, it usually starts with, "hey come with me, I need to find something to wear to a Christmas/Easter/GroundHogDay party" next thing you know, I'm looking at shoes. Then I'm buying shoes. It escalates that quickly. These are some fun double t-straps that I found to go with a gray dress I made for myself. 

My Steve Maddens: 

Sparkly platforms, yes please. The funny thing is I own 3 pairs of Maddens, all in shades of brown. 

And finally: 

These are the newest additions to the family. A pair of over the top patriotic Swarovski crystal encrusted pumps, I will probably wear them to my next high school reunion since these are the school colors. And I will definitely wear them to church on or near Independence Day. 

My husband loves the Union Jack spiked pair. I haven't worn either pair yet because I've missed the last 2 weeks of church. We rented a beach house and spent a very relaxing vacation tanning, laying about, barbecuing and walking to the pier to get ice cream. Heaven. 

So my take on shoes? If you love shoes and can afford them, indulge. Buy the necessities that you need for your lifestyle first but then if you see a pair that make your heart go pitter-pat and put a smile on your face, buy them!  This is just a small sample of my collection, I have several pairs of fun platform pumps in orange, turquoise, fuchsia, and lime green that are known as my Skittle shoes. I could go for days talking about shoes but I will end with: 

Cinderella is proof that shoes can change your life. 

 

Now, go find shoes that make you happy!

Terri

Like Columbo, just one more thing:

The wedding purchasing blitz has begun, what could possibly be in all those bags? 

😮

 

Back Again!

So what have I been doing for the last year? Stuff. Many sewing jobs and a lot of down time. I worked part time for a woman that makes vintage style swimsuits. You can check out her stuff at www.mysugardoll.com I had fun learning new techniques!

My son Andrew came home from serving his mission in Fiji. He was only home for a month when we shipped him off to live with his grandparents to go to school and help them out. He's back home again but will be leaving soon to attend school in Idaho.  

My daughter Ashton became engaged last year and her wedding will be in October. The reason for October you ask? So we can use pumpkins for the decor. We have purchased the gown, found a photographer. booked the church, reception venue and caterer plus the In n Out truck. This Saturday I will be heading to LA to purchase fabric with the bride and her bridesmaids for their gowns. The groom and his guys will be purchasing new suits in September. There is still a bit to get done but that's the big items taken care of.

This summer I also attended Chaffey College, I took a computer aided design class. It was taught by one of my all time favorite teachers, Colleen Poteet. My sewing skills have improved exponentially since meeting her. I was also offered part time employment by the college as an apprentice working in the fashion design program side by side with Colleen.  Definitely my favorite job ever! 

Here's a recent photo of the hubby and me at the Martin Johnson House in La Jolla, California, we were there for a wedding. Gorgeous location. 

A dress and jacket I made for my friend Natalie Hughes. She had purchased the jacket fabric in LA, when I asked what she was going to do with it she said she wasn't sure, she is an amazingly talented quilter and every year she makes quilts for the 4th grade class of her local elementary school as part of a reading project they do. I volunteered to cut batting and help with the binding along with some other ladies. When ever I was over at Natalie's I would see the green fabric on her shelf. Finally, as I was leaving one day I grabbed the fabric and told her I was taking it. She protested that it was hers and I told her she would get it back but only after I made something out of it. The jacket is what I came up with. While searching my fabric stash I found the light green linen and made her a dress to go with it. 

A dress for Natalie's daughter Bailey who was in a wedding, there was enough fabric left over to do a tiny dress for Bailey's daughter Peyton!

On the left is my wedding gown, I purchased it in 1988. It was very in at the time. It's been hanging in my closet for a while now and with the daughter getting married I got it out hoping to do something with it. I had an idea of making it look like a dress from the 1950's, the photo on the left is the bodice after I had taken the entire dress apart and recut it into a sweetheart shape. This is as far as I've gotten with it:

This is another fun project I got to work on,  my friend Edee and her granddaughter Ariel asked if I could replicate this vintage dress they found on Pinterest:

They loved the dress but wanted sleeves and a skirt that wasn't quite as full, here's my design:

And Ariel in her dress:

There have been other sewing jobs, most of them were alteration jobs. I have a customer that really loves Tommy Bahamas gear so I've been making stuff for him, mostly shirts and a pair of swim shorts. I tried my hand at making swim suits, I successfully made a couple for myself but I won't be posting any photos of myself in swimwear. And shoes! I have a couple of pairs of new shoes that are awesome! I will post those next time. 

Again, welcome back to my blog, I'll try to be better about posting, thanks for sticking with me! 

Terri

Hello? Anyone there?

I know I shouldn't expect anyone to stick with me considering my last post was in September!  September! It seems like yesterday. So what have I been doing with myself?  Once October hits my attention turns to thoughts of Halloween.  I love decorating and costuming for it.  Here are a few items that kept me occupied:

This is my youngest Jonathan.  He was willing to let me dress him as PeeWee Herman. This is the easiest costume I've done in a long time.  Most of it was thrift store finds including the white shoes.  Thank you Deseret Industries in Las Vegas! I did make the bow tie.

My daughter Ashton and her boyfriend Matt. Ashton found this ugly, homemade bridesmaid dress at the same thrift store and I did the rest. I also did the make up.  I found an awesome tutorial on how to do the make up on youtube. It was so much fun and I got to use most of my MAC makeup brushes!  

Here is the 3 of them at our church Halloween party or Trunk or Treat.

This was on a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in late September.  This was just after a successful trip to the Deseret Industries thrift store to find all the goodies we used for Halloween.  I probably should have fixed all the glowing eyes everyone has in this picture.

I have a bit more to post including one tutorial and some photos of Jordan in his costume from Halloween night. He's the one on the left.  He decided on the 31st that he needed a zombie costume to go hang out with friends that were also going to be zombies.  We spent about 45 minutes in the front yard destroying one of his older brothers old suits with everything we could think of, including fire, to make it look properly zombiefied.  Then I did make up for him and some friends.

Here's a sample of what I will be posting the tutorial on and some projects I have completed recently:

One of my hubby's shirts that he doesn't want anymore. I turned it into a cute shirt for me.

My Homer Simpson angel, we have a giant inflatable Homer that goes in the front yard every year. I always wanted one for my tree. Yes I know it's goofy but that's who we are as a family.

A dress I made for Ashton, as you can see I am totally inspired by TV shows like Mad Men and Pan Am

 I was asked last week if I could make a bow tie out of a neck tie, why yes I can!

 Since last December I have become the proud owner of some AMAZING shoes! These I ordered from Bakers! They were on sale! They are the most gorgeous shade of purple.  I just had to have them.  I did get something for my hubby since I was buying shoes.  He got a Green Lantern Snuggie and a Doctor Who t-shirt from TeeFury.  

I saw this in an In Style magazine while waiting at the urgent care for my son, he sprained his wrist, nothing serious.  I love it but not the colors. I'm thinking green/brown or blue/orange. 

So that's my little catch-up post. I do have some things to blog about regarding November but right now I need food and I need to finish laundry.  I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  I loved Halloween and Thanksgiving.  I especially enjoyed watching USC trounce UCLA in football last year. By the time Christmas rolled around it was just icing on a great holiday cake.  

 Terri

Yes I am dressed as Zombie Snow White. I stopped dressing like a pretty princess for Halloween when I discovered little girls I didn't know liked to touch me with their sticky hands! Yuck! 

A mans shirt and 2 hours. What kind of trouble can I get into?

Here is an idea I got after seeing a friends board on Pinterest and I thought, "I can make that." So I did.

What I'm referring to is the green camisole.  Now I can make one identical to it but that would have required me leaving the house, going to Joanns and buying fabric, buttons, matching thread, you get the picture.  Since it was near the end of the month and most months you run out of money before you run out of month, I decided to search the stash and see what was available and I this is what I found.

My husbands old shirt from Nordstroms that he was planning on getting rid of.  It had this amazing pique weave and was 100% cotton! Not only that, you have to admit that good mens shirts are made out of the best cotton!  So let's get started.

To do this, you will need:
Man's Shirt -make sure it's not your hubbys favorite
Sewing Machine
Scissors
Seam ripper
Matching thread
Bias tape
Pins
Fabric marker or chalk
Ruler
Elastic
Safety pin
Ribbon or a man's tie
Iron
Ironing board

To get started measure up about 2 inches from the third button, mark, using the edge of the placket square a line across the shirt arm hole to armhole.

Like this then trace the armhole on the inside of the seam

 

Going from the mark at the bottom of armhole repeat on backside of the shirt, this will be your cutting line. If the shirt has a pleat or pleats on the back don't worry about them you can straighten the back after you cut.

                                  Back or shirt

If you would like, at this point remove the pocket.  I should warn you that the scar from the pocket stitching will be slightly visible, it's up to you if you want to remove it.  Just be careful since the stitching on mens shirts is very tiny and fine.

Cut along the line you made

I didn't have bias tape to match the shirt so I decided to make my own, if you have bias tape skip this step if you want to make bias tape to match read on.  I found out it would have been easier to cut the sleeve open to do this but kids were coming in asking for dinner.  I fed them yesterday! How could they possibly be hungry again?  Anyway bias is 45 degrees from straight of grain, it is the stretchiest bit of woven fabric.

I drew it out for you, find the straight grain line in the fabric and then make the bias.  You will need bias that is about an inch wide and enough to finish off the underarm opening

Since I wasn't smart enough to open the sleeve before marking and cutting I had to piece my bias tape together. Ignore my blue marks from the pen, they rinse out.

On right side of underarm opening pin bias tape

Sew a quarter of an inch removing pins as you go

Press bias tape and seam out clipping curve as needed

repeat with other armhole

Fold over twice to inside and press

Pin in place

sew, removing pins as you go

Finshed armhole edge. Repeat for second armhole

This part is optional. Attach a zipper foot to machine

Sew center placket down next to buttons

 Sew down the other side of buttons. Sew in same direction from top to bottom or the fabric will ripple

 Serge or zig-zag top of shirt along cut edge repeat for top of back.

Fold over 1 inch press, pin in place. This will form a casing for the ribbon.

Sew repeat for back edge

Your shirt should look like this now.

Attach safety pin to ribbon and insert into one of the casings you just made.

Feed ribbon thru casing exiting other side

Starting at right front casing feed ribbon thru

 exit casing at left front

 Enter left back casing

 Exit Right back casing.

Adjust gathers and tie ribbon where it's comfortable for you. Now you can call it done here but I still had one sleeve left and some elastic

 Marking between the 2 bottom buttons, this is where my elastic casing will go.

 Ignore the blue line at the bottom, that was an oops. I marked 1/2 inch above and below my original pin mark all the way around the shirt.

Cut open the left over sleeve along the seam line 

 Mark and cut 2 inch strips the length of the sleeve, you will need about 3 unless your shirt is huge. Sew strips together and press edges under slightly less than 1/2 inch. Sorry no pictures, my camera didn;t save them. :(

Turning shirt inside out, don't worry you should still seen your markings or you can mark on the inside of shirt intead, pin the casing you just made to shirt starting at side seam. Follow the marking all the way around pinning as you go ending at side seam you started at.

Make sure to tuck ends under

Sew into place removing pins as you go

Repeat on the other side sewing in same direction. Trust me this is imortant.

Follow the safety pin procedure for ribbon with the elastic.  To determine elastic length stretch around waist so it's comfortable and add 2 inches.

Insert into casing and feed thru adjusting gathers as you go. Make sure the end of the elastic stays out of the casing or you will have to do this again.

Pull safety pin edge of elastic out and remove pin, overlap the ends together.

Pin and zig-zag in place.

Adjust the gathers on the shirt and elastic will settle into place

And you're done!

Here's a variation I thought of the next morning. It would probably work better with a skinnier tie but I raided my hubbys closet for this one.  I will have to go thrift store shopping to find skinny ties.  Also if you use purchased bias tape one of the sleeves may be used to create the ribbon tie or even one of those new drapey scarves.  The extra sleeve can also be cut into strips gathered and sewn along the front placket, just like the camisole that started this whole thing. Just use your creativity!

That's all for now! Happy Sewing,
Terri