Beachy Waves - Not Your Mother's® Beach Babe™ Texturizing Sea Salt Spray

I typically wear my hair in vintage styles. This morning I was feeling lazy and last night I didn't bother setting my hair, so I reached for a product that I figured wasn't going to work, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. I've always loved the idea of applying a product, styling with my fingers, and then running out the door. When you're vintage, that never happens. So, this morning I decided I would wear my new tight LBD and beach waves to work. I figured if my hair turned out horrible, at least the dress would look good. I reached for my small bottle of Not Your Mother's Beach Babe Spray, that I received from Influenster. I did not have high expectations. I sprayed it on, scrunched my hair, sprayed some more, then pinned up my scrunched hair while I did my make up. When I took down my hair, I had these lovely soft beachy waves. I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it! This stuff worked when so many other products failed. Now, I have a lazy day product that I can run to. It also smells like coconut, which I find to be a huge plus. It didn't leave my hair hard. It's halfway though the day now and my hair is soft and bouncy. I've been hearing great things about other products in the NYM's line, so I am definately going to check them out now. You can view the full line of products here. If you are interested in just the Beach Babe spray click here. Disclosure: I did receive the product for free from Influenster. However, this is my honest opinion.

Sew Crazy

Finally, pictures of my finished sewing projects this year:

Here is Blanche modeling my Cherry Chaos dress.

Here is my 1950's style wrap dress. I looks much better on me, I promise.

And finally the pictures you've all been waiting for...

BEHOLD! The Weekender Bag, finished and ready to go:

It hangs at about hip level for me. Perfect for throwing over my shoulder or wearing it across my chest.

And here is the spacious front pocket for storing all those items you need at a moment's notice.

Yay!

White Rabbit

This past weekend was pretty good for me....though I've discovered some minor issues with current projects I am working on.

Firstly,
Jonesy (the boyfriend) took me to see Sucker Punch. I had a great time, but I do have a few things to say about the movie.

The costumes, hair, makeup, etc....was simply amazing. I personally happen to think that Zack Snyder's movies are just really beautiful to look at, but that's just me. I don't want to give too much away...so I'll say this, the visuals are good, but the plot is sort of "meh". From what I've read, lots of the plot got cut from the movie for the theatrical release, so I'll pass final judgement after the director's release comes out.
Other than that, I don't want to say anymore to spoil it for y'all.

I'm also a fan of the soundtrack thus far, but that's mostly because I love covers.

A while back, a buddy of mine mentioned I should do a hilarious sewing miniseries on youtube completely drunk, for entertainment purposes. I figured I'd give it a go.

So this past weekend I got stinking drunk on Saturday night in order to film "Shit housed Sewing". I filmed 7 minutes of me blathering on about sewing materials, and then went to bed. I got up yesterday and watched what I had filmed. I guess I was in a mood or something because it came off really condescending and not all that funny. It doesn't help that I was sort of approaching it by the seat of my pants. I've decided that I'm going to sit down and make some base notes, and then film based on that...and try not to come off so condescending. I think I am funniest when I am being sincere about it, and this time, that just didn't happen.

I also realized that this en devour is probably going to destroy my liver.

It's like this whole weekend was a swirling vortex of epic failure, because I've been trying to correct the lapels on my cherry dress, and no matter how hard I worked on it.....it just wouldn't come together the way I wanted it to.

And because the cherry dress isn't completed and wearable, it's creating a back up in my projects that I need to get completed....like that damn weekender bag.

My plan as of current is to get the cherry dress to a wearable state, finish the 1950's wrap dress, and get the bag muslin put together. If everything works out, I should have the final bag completed by mid April.

I've also decided that I am going to go all out and make a 1950's style ball gown for formal night at RVBTO. RVBTO is my Viva, for those of you who don't know. It's not a rockabilly event, it's an internet nerd convention in Toronto, Canada.

I'm thinking, it's going to be this pattern....and with the fabric choice I've already made, I am not fucking lining this damn dress....I'll wear a slip. Maybe in red...maybe in blue...maybe in green. We'll just have to see.

Now I just need fuck awesome shoes to go with it.

Serging Feelings

So, It would seem I've reached the point in my sewing that I am ready to start thinking about investing in a Serger.

As of current, I already own a Serger that is collecting dust. It was free from a person on Freecycle. It's a decent model of serger (White brand) and it's probably a late 80's model. The only thing it came with was the serger it self, the foot pedal, and a dingy dust cover.

I ordered the manual for it, and attempted to thread the bastard (after a through cleaning...yuck.) and it worked...for a little while. I know it needs to be serviced, and I need to get some different presser feet for it. At this point, I'm not sure that it's actually in working order.....it sort of stopped working...but that could be because of improper threading, wrong needle used, me being a moron at sergers, etc.

Bottom line: Regardless of working condition, it desperately needs to go to the sewing machine repair shop and get worked on. When Doris had her gears replaced, it cost me about $220.00.....now the serger won't cost that much to get looked at, but it could cause up to that to get it serviced. Sewing Machine repairs are not cheap.

Currently, I am trying to decide what I want to do with the serger I have. Should I take it to the repair shop, invest some money into it (i.e. getting the correct presser feet for it and cutting blade for it), or say fuck it and get a new one all together (new one would run about $200.00)?

I've been sitting on it for so long....I need to do something with it. I also need to make room in my already cramped sewing room for it....which is another problem all together.

I have quite a few options here....and I just wonder what the best route will be.

Busted

This weekend was both a bust and a great victory for me.

First things first....I decided that I was going to start a new dress using this amazing anchor fabric.

Clearly, I wasn't the only person who had this idea.
This fabric is totally sold out, everywhere. I was able to snag one yard of it, which will become a purse or possibly a weekender bag.

So, back to square one on that.

Secondly, I found the most nerdtastic Space Invaders fabric and I plan to buy more of it. I bought a yard of it and made a weekender bag out of it. Pics or possibly a video to follow.

As for great victory, I went to the Galleria over the weekend and bought about $100.00 worth of MAC cosmetics.
I got one palette from the Wonder Woman collection, a lip liner, an eyeshadow, a lip primer, and Ruby Woo lipstick.
I know MAC is known for their eye shadows, but holy shit...their lipstick is amazing. And I love lipstick.

I can't wait to get my hands on Russian Red lipstick and another Wonder Woman Palette as well.

Hooray for traffic stopping red lips!

The Travel Dress....Finally.

I started working on this dress in like..November. It wasn't a hard dress to make, I just procrastinated and such....Once I finally finished the dress and tried it on, I discovered that I had gained so much weight I couldn't fit into the damn thing.

After busting my ass for over a month, I've lost 10 pounds, and I can squeeze myself into the dress.

I used the following Vogue Pattern:

If you remember my purple wiggle dress form a few months back, you will see that this is the same pattern from that dress. I chose to go with the main view this time.

The pattern reminded me of a very early 60's silhouette, so I went all Mad Men on it.

I think it turned out nicely...wish the sleeves had come out less puffy, but all in all, I think I will be wearing it to work pretty often.

Achievement Unlocked: 10 pounds down

So, this journal may be a bit early...but on January 4th, 2011...I weighed 226 pounds and some change.

It was the biggest I had been in several years, and I was VERY unhappy about it. I decided to do something about it. Which was really hard. I gave up things I loved (junk foods) and did things I hated (going to the gym).

And today, I stepped on the scale and I knew all my hard work had paid off.

216.6

I still have 1.4 pounds to go before I hit my first goal marker, but I I know I will hit my goal soon. Since my total goal is 175, I figured I would just round to the nearest five mark so for this first goal I actually had to loose 11 pounds, hence one pound to go.

I still have a long way to go, but I know I can get there, one day at a time. I really hope to hit 205 by March 31st. I'm not sure that will happen, but I am going to try my hardest.

31 days till 205. I'm going to have to bust my ass.