Claus, Coach, Karma and... Shoplifters?

You guys you guys! It was the Santa Claus parade here today. And I LOVE it. Floats and The Fat Man In Red and crowds and freezing one's caboose off. I genuinely heart it.
(We saw our first Santa Claus parade here in Toronto, it just so happens that both apartments we have lived in in this city have been spitting distance to the parade route. Co-ince-a-dink? Yah, but still!)
At any rate the parade always makes me feel a bit Miracle on 34th Street. Which this year meant dressing in a vaguely vintagey way. See:


Not quite 1947, or Maureen O'hara (hellFIRE but that girl was cute!) but I felt in the spirit of the thing. So I'm calling it a win.
I also got to wear my new mustard yellow Cardi, which is actually what I wanted to talk about.
This yellow cardi has been slowly making it's way to me for MONTHS. Months I tell you!
It all started in late September when I saw this:

It was a poster for Coach (the handbag company, not the means of transport) on a bus stop on Bay St. I walked past it then had to turn the kid and the pooch around and stare at it for a while, all mesmerized.

"Look" it whispered, all seductively like, "Winter doesn't have to be totally bogus, there can be thick tights, and cardigans that are awesome and skirts and skipping in exotic locations and stuff. Come on Erin, it'll be funtimes".
"Oooou" I replied.

You guys. It had me. And I'm not easily had by high-end advertising (or mainstream fashion stuff).
Now of course I wasn't going to go out and actually shop at Coach. Heh. That would be crazy. But I did make myself a skirt. This one here:

McCalls M4783, (which is the bomb BTW).
And I've been wearing purple leggings with everything. But the cardi escaped me. I've only just weaned myself of an mostly black wardrobe, and I didn't own anything yellow. at all.
(hoo boy this is a rambly post, I do have a point and I'm making my way to it, honest.)
So, I'd been keeping my eyeballs peeled for a mustard yellow cardi. Or scarf or pretty much anything really. Anyhow I went into Winners this Saturday with a kid-free half hour and a burfday gift card (exempt from WR!) burning a hole in my pocket. And there's a guy standing by the door clutching a gift box of perfume, and I was all,
"Huh. That guy's about to boost that".
And then he did.
So I went and found the security guard and I told him. Because I HATE shoplifters and screw Mr. Paris Hilton Heiress Gift Set.
Anyway, apparently the sparkly unicorn of serendipitous shopping likes a tattle tale because my new mustard yellow cardi was the first thing I saw when I turned around. Karma? Who knows.

Fetch me an Ewok

I have a question and it's a big one. An important philosophical one. The kind of question where the answer defines you.
The question is:

Which of Princess Leia's outfits do you like best?
(What? You were looking for actual philosophy? You might be in the wrong place.)

I ask because today I accidentally dressed like Leia on Endor. Well maybe not exactly like, but I definitely had a rebel forest moon vibe going on (in my head that's a thing!).
See this is what I wore:

If you look behind me you can see Dilly's Ewok-esque buttocks. Heh. Fuzzy.

It really was unintentional, the Leia thing. I had day two hair and a whim, so I watched a video about Heidi braids (this one) then stuck my hair up. It took a couple of tries. The fist attempt looked like my hair had lost a fight with my hands. A bad fight. In a bar. Armed with pool cues and dinosaurs. But then I got it and it was actually super simple.
The outfit choice was totally subconsious. But it's made the day funnerer. I've been doing REBEL laundry and REBEL banking and I walked my Ewok.
Endor Leia has always been my favorite. She rides a speeder bike, she takes an imperial stronghold whilst vastly outnumbered and she wears a poncho. Those are all thing that are awesome.
My sister is also on Team Endor Leia; look how she rolls in a 5 dollar, 1 hour costume:

Completely awesomely. Isn't she beautiful? (Super talented too. We should talk about her cross stitch design some time. It's extraordinary). And her sweetie is lovely.

So, DO TELL!!
Which Leia outfit? What do YOU think your answer says about you? I have some theories, maybe we can compare.
If you're stuck for inspiration check out this. So. Freaking. Awesome.
And just for reference, nope, you're not allowed to choose an Amidala/Padme outfit. We don't discuss those movies here. (Did you see my eye twitch? I have new trilogy issues.)

Handbag Rehab

OK, this is just a super quick one to remind myself that meddling with my hair isn't the only thing in the world. (Dude, it takes actual time! Who knew!??)
So, one super simple handbag rehab.
Here's the before:


Brown, leather, Aldo, free (scored from our laundry-room recyling area). It's not terrible, and I was all "meh, it'll do". But those pocket flaps bothered me a bit. They aren't functional (there's no pokey bit on the d ring) and I think the studs make it look... not awesome. I would have left it well enough alone except I saw a woman in the elevator with a remarkably similar brown leather bag WITHOUT weird hardware that looked completely awesome. And was all inspired to do this:

What I did was, unpick the stitching on the pocket flaps, there was a bit of glue too, but I just rubbed/peeled it off. I was, of course, left with stitch holes in the leather, so I grabbed a needle and some thread. Doubled the tread over and stitched away. When I came to the middle bit I just kept going and joined up the lines, like this:

You might have noticed that my stitching is slightly darker than the before photo. That's because my inspiration bag had dark stitching; and I happened to own a fine-tipped acrylic brush pen in dark brown (I can't for the life of me remember why). So I VERY carefully inked over the stitching in the darker colour (the after picture above isn't QUITE finished).
And lastly I tidied the whole bag up a little, snipped off any loose threads and scuffy bits then gave it a quick wipe down with some leather stuff. Then I stuck all my crap back in it and continued to treat it with wonton disregard. (The fun part about free stuff!)

Oh and I done shared here:

From Hair to Eternity Two

You guys! Today = no ponytail! See:




And thank you heaps for your suggestions and brilliantness.
Just to be clear, I won't be all "HEY! HEY! HEY! LOOKIT MY HAIR!" everyday. I just thought I'd set out some ground rules for myself in writing. In a stern tone of voice. So I'm not tempted to flake.

• From now until January 1st 2011 there will be no ponytails for me. And by this I mean that if I'm dressed then there will be no ponytail. None. nada. zilch.
• No staying in my jammies all day to avoid the "if I'm dressed" part.
• Updos are OK but they should involve a little more thought than "meh, whatever".
• No doing my hair to go out then instantly jamming it back in a pony when I get home.

There are some exclusions, ponytails are OK when:
Cooking, operating heavy machinery, playing with open flames or wrangling baboons (they're notorious hair-pullers). Also during Pilates class or when I'm training (I'm training for a triathlon, did I tell you?)

So those are my rules.
If you want to play along then that would be awesome (you don't have to follow my Sternly McMeanypants rules!) I've set up a From Hair to Eternity Flickr group, (mostly just to keep myself honest) and you're entirely welcome to post your non-pony dos to it.

From Hair to Eternity - Wherein I attempt to ditch the ponytail

Hey guys? I've had me a hair epiphany.
See, I was checking back on my wardrobe remix photo's and came realise there's a ponytail (or sometimes a smooched up bun - fancy!) in EVERY SINGLE photo.

Which would make sense because that's the only thing I ever do with my hair. I seem to have a permanent hair bungee dent and my idea of complicated grooming is occasionally running a brush through the mess before sticking it back up in a ponytail.
So I was pondering that when I found THIS. Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! is calling a moratorium on the Ponytail. For the rest of the year. Which seems like forever away but totally isn't.
So I am IN! I'm calling it From Hair to Eternity. Because I am nerdy. And 46 days of no ponytails seems kind of like an eternity.
Last night I worked up some determination, gave myself a stern talking to and stuck in some pin curls. (while singing The Other Woman by Nina Simone - awesome, but TINY BIT bleak).
I heart me some pin curls, they make me feel all vintage sassy. Like ZIZ:

And here's how that worked out,


Brushed out and pinned up a bit. (Huh, I look pretty cheerful for a woman who's in the middle of asking a toddler if that's poop she can smell)

But this RIGHT HERE is where I run out of inspiration. SO, I kind of need your help. I'm looking for suggestions, favorite tutes or just inspiration. I can't afford a kickass new haircut, I can't just give into temptation and have another crew cut (like I did when I was 14) on account of Maid Of Honour duties. But I might be flexible on colour. Maybe.
Help a girl out?
x

Monday Linkage

This shiny, not-so-sucky monday I'm doing a bitta linking. Specifically to here


And here

who are you linking too?

Raspberry Lemonade Mittens

Hey are you guys keeping up with Grosgrain's Embellish Your Knits Month? So awesome and she makes it look super easy. You might remember how I was having a hard time with some cardi refashions (and a unicorn)? WELL, I like to think I'm an adaptable sort of girl. I figure if life gives you lemons, then you make raspberry lemonade martinis. And then whine loudly.

So in the spirit of THAT I decided to use some sweater refashion leftovers (read "collateral damage") to make me a set of THESE:

Mitties!
They were super-simple, gratifying and ridiculously quick. AND these might be the girliest things I've ever made; even though this sweater used to belong to my sweetie, (yes it's pink, but he's plenty comfortable and confident enough to wear pink. And look super hot. Really. Yum.).

Anyhow, I think they'd make pretty good gifties. For guys too, if you made them out of a not-pink, rugged, marled, lumberjack/fisherman/bear-wrestling sweater and trimmed them in something manly? Like iron fillings and shark teeth maybe?

Either way, here's how you make them:
First you'll need a felted sweater (I just hacked the arms off of this one and stuck them in the hot wash and dry with some towels. Job done.) One with ribbing at the cuffs or the bottom works best but it's not essential.
Then you'll need to turn your sweater arms inside out and figure out the shape of your mitts. Like this:

Mark the length you want and the space between your pointy finger and your thumb.
(You can totally make them a tighter fit by drawing more closely around your wrist and sewing new seams instead of using the existing seams. I wanted mine pleated so I didn't.)

Your markings should look something like this:

Next you cut along the blue line there (but not along the red one).
Then you sew along the red lines. I reinforced the join of the "v" by sewing over it a few times.
Now you should have something that looks like this:

Next you carefully snip the V shape out (as far down as you can into the valley of the V).
If you're making new side seams it might be an idea to turn them right side out then try them on before you sew up the new shape.
Here's what that might look like:

If you're making a version for guys you could stop here. Or maybe finish off the tops with some manly manly blanket stitch or um, barbed wire or something.
I hand stitched a little pleat into mine. Then popped a button on the pleat. I also added a bit of dollar store cotton crochet lace, (same stuff I used on my duvet cover rehab). And voila, warm paws and girlyness.

Unbreakable

Today I had to do something unbreakable. Not like the movie. I'm kinda "meh" about that movie; and I am both a super hero fan and an M. Night Shyamalan apologist, well, except for The Happening. That was brutal. Seriously? Naughty trees? SERIOUSLY?
Wait... where was I?

Oh yup. So today I had to get me a super quick fix of something unbreakable to try and regain my mojo. Over the last two day's I've irrevocably pooched two cardis in attempts to make them more awesometastical (it looks so EASY when Kathleen does it).
So, I needed easy (really really easy) confidence-boosting, instant gratification.
Enter this guy:

It's a shirt see?
With kind of a ruffly bottom and a ribbon belt tie. (Also a weirdly cropped photo. I have a messy house and hair that looks like it was styled by angry monkeys).
I of course forgot to take a before picture (been that kind of day) but I do have an example of what it was like.
The bottom had elastic shirring like this:

Which can look the cutest. But not on me. On me it makes a shirt look puffy. And ball shaped. And rounded. And completely undefined. Which is not my best look ever.
So I Just unpicked the 'lastic thread (and actually I managed to get it all in one piece, so a shirred scarf is next on my list).
I ironed the newly un-elasticated ruffle bit.


Then I tried my new shirt on. It was still a little shapeless, so I stuck a belt around it; but that squished the center ruffle. So I grabbed a couple of pieces of grosgrain ribbon and stitched them on under the ruffle,and voila, new shirt; nothing broken, no wet kitty poop.

Missing...

Um, guys? Has anybody seen my craft mojo around?
It's pink and it looks like a angry, misshapen unicorn.


If you see it will you ask it to come home please? Because for the last two days everything I touch is turning to wet kitty poop. And that is NOT useful for getting stuff done.
Fanks.
x