To Mangle a Mockingbird

What a brill weekend. Really. Started Friday with a dash of inspiration and a spot of mad refashioning. (And got another-post's-worth of awesome from there).

The inspiration part came in the form of THIS tute from Grosgrain (Kathleen is all about the inspirational stuff; have you seen her sew-alongs? So awesome).
She calls her's The Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird Dress, and as I have a tiny fraction of her sewing skills mine is the To Mangle a Mockingbird dress.
I love the embroidery on her shirt but I don't happen to own anything half as cute. But I did happen to own this fellow:


It's... wrinkly. And WAY too big. I bought it from the Gap ages ago (two years maybe?) and it had this little 'lasticy waist thing going on. It was... "puffy" on me, and totally unflattering so I unpicked the 'lastic and wore it as is. A lot.
It's now too big but I love that ruffle so I planned on doing SOMETHING to it.
I did this:

Kathleen's tute is really easy to follow (and holy cats is her baby ever the sweetiest!)
However, I didn't do a circle skirt like she suggested; mostly because I hadn't enough of the blue print left over from the Sundae Frock. In fact I had to use some piecing together and swearing to get the skirt out of what I had left.
I also put my zipper in at the side rather than the back. (I always do that, even if it means hacking the pattern a bit. I just prefer side zips).
This would have gone together about a squillion times more easily if I had a dress form. I think maybe it's time to try making another one. yeesh. scary.
Anyway, here it is as I'm wearing it today. I'm pretty happy with it.


I shared over at Melissa's place. (And have you seen what those clever girls are sewing up next month? Eeep! Upciting!)

The Gaelic Shrug*

*because I bought it in Ireland, see, see!

Turns out the cardi/shrug thing I was wearing in my last post is HUGE.
It was actually pretty big when I bought it two years ago. But it was on crazy cheap sale at Monsoon. And I was nursing at the time (so had bigger boobs). And I was fatter. And it was summer in Athlone which means COLD. And I am a sucker for a grey cardi. And did I mention that it was cheap?
So I bought it. And I've been wearing it since.
Without really knowing how huge and kinda saggy it looked. Because I don't usually take pictures of my outfits ( something that I am in the process of changing, but that's for another post).

So I fixed it. Took seconds, literally, and I think it looks tons better. Here's what I did:

It's pretty self explanatory really. I laid the cardi flat and used a zig zag stitch to sew up the line where it says sew sew sew. Then I went over it again just for good measure. Then I snip snip snip'd.
And that's it.
You might have noticed the surplus of chickens in the picture above. and also the marker pen doodle. Guys, that's what my coffee table looks like. And I kind of love it. Even if I have broken all my fingernails picking fowl off of the floor.


Anyway. Here's the "after" of the shrug:

Falling off the Wagon

Today I fell off the wagon. I need to talk to my sponsor, but 'cause there's no Fat Ass Anonymous I don't have one. So you, faceless interwebs people, get to hear me talk it out

Today, I handed my bear an Animal Cookie, "Hey look, a camel! Watch out, they spit!"
Then I fished out another one and shoved it in my mouth "mmmm lion". Then a bear, then a buffalo, a hippo, one of those weird little dog creatures, a few more lions.
One after the other, (and sometimes two by two) I shoveled them in. A dozen or so Animal Cookies met their grizzly end in my maw. Straight out of the package, do not pass GO. Frenzied? Moi?

I stopped, put the package down. Blinked through the cookie dust.

After the first cookie I don't think I even tasted the next 11.
This isn't the first time since mid-July I've had something not strictly South Beach approved; but this was different from scoring a (single) scoop on Friday night ice cream dates. On those Fridays, I get to stroll and sit with my sweetie and The Bear, and go "mmmmm snarf mmmm" over each mouthful, and share with my two favorite guys. Fun times.

Mindless eating and subsequent guilt, not so fun times.

I actually feel that maybe this was one of those enlightening moments and I guess this right here is step 4. Now I better go find my brother and apologise for the Pecan Pie Incident (that would be step 5).

Image from here.

It's Like Swimming, But Fun..

So, You might have seen in the last picture posted that I have rather a superfluous of chins. I am over chinned, and unfortunately folks, since having my bear, the problem is not confined to my lower mandibles.
So, exercise and not eating my own body weight in pies. It's my new thing.
With that in mind I have joined the Y. Now the Y hasn't moved at all, it's been in exactly the same super-close spot since we moved here two and a bit years ago. But it's taken me this long to get around to joining, on account of the lazy.

But no more! Today I went to an aquafit class, I figured "aquafit, aerobics in water, beloved of old ladies, how hard can it be?" And that was sort of the case. Sort of.
There were older women sure; but they, and I don't say this lightly, KICKED MY ASS. I was huffing and flopping like a steam-powered fish, they were gliding around with grace and style. I actually didn't feel too bad about it as there were three girls in their late teens, with bodies that they obviously did nothing to deserve, hacking and honking like 50 a day smokers.

So the class. Fun. remember how swimming used to be fun when you were a kid? Instead of swooshing in a boring straight line back and forth, back and forth; it was more
"ok, I'll race you using nothing but HANDS. Oh and we're mermaids, beauuuuutiful mermaids!"
Well, aside from the mermaids part (though that's totally what I was thinking) that's a bit what aquafit was like. I am a fan.
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