today i went grocery shopping, and passing the magazine rack i picked up the new vogue issue and looked through it. i used to have a subscription and looked forward each month to getting mine in the mail. i looked at the lovely photos of the beautiful dresses and thought maybe someday we would be sewing something that would appear in the pages.

we took pretty pictures of pretty models that looked pretty good. (i sewed these dresses)

and some of the dresses did get into a few magazines.

i sewed so many of these dresses it was not even funny! i sewed them five, six, and seven, at a time. i sewed them in pink, and blue, and bronze, and green, and white, and black...well, you get the idea! i think for a time i kept count, and finally stopped counting at like 200!

it was fun for a while, to sew beautiful and sometimes quite interesting dresses. now every so often i sew a special dress for a very special person, or someone who wants to pay a lot of money for a special dress. but i don't really care anymore if what i sew gets into vogue magazine. i love sewing the costuming that i have been doing. not anything couture very often, but i seem to be able to make people happier than before. the couture stuff was just so very fussy. i get a big thrill these days, when a dancer at a hafla or dancing in a restaurant is wearing something i sewed, even when it is just a pair of velvet gauntlets! i had finally realised that the fashion world was a rather strange thing, and most of the people were not very happy in it. almost everyone i know in the dance world seems happy, and for sure they make people happy with the dance.

( except for the ones on the vogue cover, the dresses in this post were sewn for madina vadache couture)

arachnids

Hopefully, the real spiders are gone after last night's wind and hail!

another halloween done and gone...so sad. but it was fun!

Scared Stiff - Martin and Lewis movie trailer

here is another movie that i loved as a kid...i still watch it when it comes on! martin and lewis in "scared stiff". there was another version of it called "ghostbreakers" with bob hope that was pretty good too, but i love the jerry lewis one. here is the trailer, and you can watch the movie on youtube also. i put another youtube clip here that has a funny part with jerry lewis singing...whenever i see this, i have this "mama, mama, yo quiero" song stuck in my head for HOURS!

Scared Stiff - Mamae Eu Quero

this part was soooo funny! jerry lewis dressed as carmen miranda and singing!

rachel's birthday dress

my daughter and i bought this vintage gold sequin dress in a consignment shop a couple of years ago. we thought it was a great dress, and it was a fabulous price, so we brought it home...and no one ever wore it. then, my daughter decided this year she wanted to have her birthday be sequins and sparkle and she asked me for a suggestion, and i remembered this dress still hanging, never worn!

we made a few changes to it, though. we shortened it up in front, took it in at the back and under the arms, and under the front bustline. then, we ruched up the back fabric that remained into a sort of tail thing. we were thinking of another dress i had sewed several years ago, for the designer i worked for at the time. it was a terrifically beautiful red dress, here is a shot of it...

this shot of the red dress got into a magazine, i was pretty thrilled at the time, since it was literally the first dress i had sewn for the designer. and i think the red dress sold in something like two days! the sequin fabric on rachel's dress is really heavy, so the effect was very different, but i think it still looks pretty good...especially on my daughter!

Follow-up... final touches

Follow-up... final touches from the victorian coat project

New sleeves with the old cuffs attached

New sleeves with the old cuffs attached

Lining the coat

Lining the coat

Maureen's victorian coat alteration

Maureen's victorian coat alteration, finished

i blogged about this alteration a while back and had intended to finish up with another post when i finished it. it was quite a fun and challenging alteration! here are some of the before shots of the jacket, before the taking apart phase.

it had some really big, puffy leg o' mutton style sleeves, that were 3/4 length, and we thought it would look better with longer, less poufy sleeves. but the ends of the sleeves had an interesting trim on the cuffs, so carefully i took those off, and set them aside to re-attach on the longer sleeves.

the coat had been lined at some time, but it was so old and fragile, that it had basically just disintegrated! so we also re-lined the coat as well. it has some really beautiful braided trim all over it and those tiny jet buttons were just so exquisite.

dakmar's bustle skirt

my dance partner recently had a birthday, and she pointed out an item we saw recently at the "bellydance superstars" show, and said, "i want one of those!", so it made it easy for me to figure out a birthday present! it was a bustle similar to this, that we saw on one of the dancers, and i had tons of black fabric in my stash, so i came up with this version of a bustle skirt. i posted it on the website cut out + keep too, as a version. i had a similar thing favorited that is also very cute! she has a pattern and directions on her link, so you can make one too, if you so choose! i had forgotten the pattern was there, and just made up my own... it was only a few half circles of fabric trimmed with lace, attached to a waistband. the only thing that mattered though, was my dance partner, dakmar, LOVED it! so happy!

halloweenie stuff...carving pumpkins

i still like to carve pumpkins with the kids...even though they are all grown up! even my mom still carve pumpkins with us. here are some we did last year. we got some of these designs from the website zombie pumpkin. you get a subcription for a small fee, and then you can download and print out design stencils to your hearts content! they have quite a few nice designs, too.

i found a couple other websites recently that you can check out...i have not tried them out yet, though. if you do, let me know how you like them. there is the pumpkin lady, and spookmaster pumpkin carving patterns. then, if you don't want to deal with the mess of carving a real pumpkin, here is another virtual one!

bloody finger mail

send someone you like (er, or don't like?!) a message!

send bloody finger mail!

ouija

a couple of nights ago, i watched the old 80's movie "witchboard". it is kinda dumb, but i guess interesting enough, since i had seen it before, and watched again!

i find the ouija board really interesting, i like the way it looks, and the idea that you can contact a "ghost". i have one, but never use it 'cause it seems kinda scary, and a little dangerous to mess with...in the movie, they bring a malevolent spirit into their lives, and that just seems too creepy! i had one when i was a kid, my grandmother bought it, and we used to "play" with it a lot. she always insisted she was not moving the planchette (the little triangle thing that spells out words)

and i know i wasn't. the one i have now is the same as the one grama bought, a parker brothers "william fuld" style, but i got mine from a yard sale, and it is from the 70's. it has a plastic planchette, and i think the one we had as a kid had a wooden one.

i have this website bookmarked, the museum of talking boards, and it has lots of good info about ouija boards, and a gallery of old ones that is just fascinating...some are just gorgeous works of art! here is another cool site by vampirahna, that has some more interesting information regarding "witchboards", and more photos too. (that is where i found the planchette photo, and so then her website.) someday, i may paint one for myself, just because i want a beautiful one that is wooden. i wonder if that gives it some good energy to make one yourself? i sometimes play with the idea of painting it onto my coffee table, it would look pretty there, but hopefully it would not make any spirits angry!

Horror classics tribute

i love old horror movies, and one of my very favorites is "the phantom of the opera"! i have about four or five versions of the movie, but my absolute favorite is the one with herbert lom as the phantom. and it has this music that i just adore. i had looked for it to get it for my cell's ringtone, but i did not know what it was named! i only knew it was phantom of the opera music. (it was also on the old "rollerball" and the "tales of the crypt" movies from the 70's....so sad that i know that!) then, i was watching one of my favorite shows, "castle" and his cell phone rang, and his ringtone was? you guessed it! well, i decided to do some research, and to make a long story short, (yeah, i know...too late!) i found my song is called "toccata and fugue in d minor" by bach. so now i have it on my phone! but it is for the rest of the year...for october until halloween, i have something "spooky"!

grape harvest

this weekend we went out and picked all the grapes...my son helped me, since some of them were up very high in the tree! he used to help my grandmother pick her grapes like this and she used to make them into grape jam also. she makes the best grape jam...it isn't grape jelly, (which i am not at all a fan of) all clear and the consistancy of jello, it is thick and dark and delicious.

heh, heh, it looked like a grape tree! there were several bunches of grapes that were completely empty, so some of the woodland critters that inhabit our neighborhood were helping themselves. that's okay, we had plenty! i made three pints of grape jam, and i still have enough juice that i put in the freezer for about the same amount. i ran out of sugar! tonight i will have make some biscuits or scones to give it a try...not that i didn't taste it quite a lot while making it!

i murdered the mutant!

i finally cut up the giant zucchini we found lurking under the leaves at mom's house last weekend. he was one of these mutants that i brought home...we ate up all the "smaller" squash and the weirdly shaped carrots. he was the last to go...

i made him into zucchini bread, and it smelled the house up with a fabulous smell, and warmed it up very well, too! i thought i would have had tons left over, but i just have enough to make little fried zucchini cakes for dinner, too!

do you have mutants lurking too? wanna make some zucchini bread? here is the recipe i used, from beard on bread by james beard...i put raisins in half of it though. 'cause only half the family will eat it with raisins!

carl goh's zucchini bread

3 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated, peeled raw zucchini
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup coarsely chopped filberts or walnuts

beat the eggs until light and foamy. add the sugar, oil, zucchini, and vanilla and mix lightly but well. combine the flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and cinnamon and add to the egg-zucchini mixture. stir until well blended, add nuts, and pour into two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. cool on a rack.

makes two loaves

Now i am here!

this is how close we were to the field in our seats...cool huh! we got to watch the game from greg perry's suite, he was kind enough to let us come in and hang with him and his family. we got to meet 'hawk daddy', an interesting fan with 'mini hawk' a doll his wife made. (amazing work!)


and we got to pet the actual seahawk mascot, the live hawk. here he is with his handler. it was the coolest thing to touch a living hawk! he is sooooo soft! we got to see my hubby hard at work in his tough job as manager of field security, (isn't he so handsome?!)



and we got to get photos with blitz, the mascot in the furry suit. it was a very fun first seahawks game at qwest field...would have been even better if they would have won!

my beautiful daughter rachel with blitz the mascot

I am here!

I am here!

Chloey bratz with pink hair!

i love these little bratz dolls, i have several of them, and i have some for the babies to actually play with. but this one i found with pink hair...i had to get her because my oldest grandaughter is named chloey, and she has pink hair too, and she is a musician. she even has a guitar too! but the bratz dolly spells her name cloe.