oh, when the wells fargo wagon is a-comin' down the street

i have ordered a couple [scratch that] few things:

and i am so waiting for the mailman today!! over the past week i ordered some 'necessities' and i can't wait to get them.
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these 'huggie' earrings were inspired by a pair that tink has that i adored 3 years ago when i first saw them. these are stainless steel.
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how industrial!

this is the cover for my new 'free' phone. you voted on this a few months ago. so i stuck with the decision.

this is a delicious parfum that i have lusted after for over a year now. ever since my first visit to sephora when i decided this would be my signature scent. it ain't your momma's bath & body splash.

it arrived on my doorstep this afternoon.

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thanks, ups guy!

pardon me

while i clean house.

new phone!!

okay, so i didn't get the blitz that i was waiting for and even ordered a cover for. however, this rival was FREE with contract renewal. so i didn't pay a thing. i did order a new cherry blossom cover for this one. funner texting. but not whilst driving, of course.

the value of a good haircut

what do you do with a nine year-old's hair that's been growing out for 2 years? you certainly don't go get it all cut off again. i been waiting, saying, 'i can't wait for dot's hair to grow out again.' but she did need a do worthy of a 4th grader. not to mention it's so thick. so i took her to someone with experience doing a tweenie's hair - someone with a 14 year-old.


before




after: thinning and layers

don't worry, this isn't her everyday look. so here's to the first day of school with a conservative ponytail.

the story of the jeans

when i was in nyc on my shopping trip with tink, i scored a pair of lucky brand jeans at filene's basement. we were on the fourth floor. they didn't make me look fabulous, but they were comfy and had that cute, slightly slouchy 'boyfriend jean' look. they were on clearance for $20. yes, $20! there was just one problem.

the left leg looked like it had gotten caught in some machinery and had copious amounts of thick, black grease around a hole that had been torn through the leg. most of the leg had spots of grease on it. we searched and searched for another identical pair, sans grease. no luck. plus, we were going to be late for the ferry to ellis island.

in a last ditch effort, i took the prized jeans to the cashier and showed her the damage, asking if there was anything they could do about the price. 'why would you want these?' she asked, incredulously in the fashion capital of the u.s. (you see, she wasn't there for the countless pairs of jeans i had already tried on. most of which refused to budge past my thighs - even though they were 'my size'.) so i told her the truth, 'because they are sooo comfortable.' so she checked with her manager after muttering a string of horrific words that sounded like, 'he may want to damage them out.' i watched nervously as she spoke to a man. when she returned, she said the best words i had heard so far. 'he said 75% off. [beep, click, click, clack] four dollars and 98 cents.' (these words were better by far than the words, 'oh, this sweater is cashmere, so it's $60, not $40.')
back at tink's apartment, on the sage advise of my mom, we made a paste with baking soda and trader joe's lavender and tea tree oil dish washing liquid. i used my travel toothbrush to scrub and scrub at the grease. i then rolled them up and tied them tightly in a shopping bag.

at my mom's in n.c., we scrubbed some more, then soaked the pair in borax. finally washing them. the result was very pleasing. most of the grease was gone. there was just the holes to deal with.

at a craft store, again on the sage advise..., i purchased some material with the intent to put myself through what became an intricate, painful and laborious process of:

1. cutting out the portions i wanted
2. ironing on an interfacing
3. using embroidery floss to hand stitch over the outline and elements of the design, using multiple colors
4. ironing on a bonding agent
5. trimming design more intricately
6. applying a fray check around edges
7. belaboring where i will now place the fabric on my new favorite jeans
8. finally placing them and ironing them on
9. realizing that too much ironing actually kills the bonding
10. sewing around the design with strong quilting thread and shredding my fingertips in the process
11. noticing that my precious (not gollum voice) lucky brand tag was deteriorating from several washings
12. masochist that i am, deciding to hand embroider the 'l' and 'b' on the tag as it continues to disappear
13. weaving a patch through the holes and then deciding not to cover them after all

here are the pics:

super comfy, cute lucky jeans

increasingly deteriorated lucky tag

holes with grease after intense cleaning

woven-patched hole

embroidered 'l' and 'b'

flower design on fabric

flower embroidered by moi

dragon design on fabric

countless hours later, dragon complete

flower and dragon with bonding agent and fray check

flower applied

dragon applied

yes, i bought these jeans worth over $100 for $5 - 'new'. then i invested hours and hours into the cleaning and embellishing. i hope i never lose these.

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if you don't like the dragon or think i wasted my time, don't waste yours in commenting. i certainly did not share all this with you to be told that my hard work looks stupid.

don't forget, i live in podunkville where people appreciate craftiness.

winner, winner, chicken dinner!

so, obviously, 'a' is the winner. one vote for 'c' and one vote for 'd'.
thanks for your participation!

it's a vote!

new header time!!!
here are my header choices, please vote on which one you want to see 'head up' my blog.



a.

b.

c.
d. the header i have up.

please let me know what you think...

type a personality

thanks for the lesson in close-ups, tink.

just a little vampire humor

my new python

lavender pythons* are very rare in the amazon. as are bloodsucking darcy's.

*not actual python

movies that stay with you

once in a while, you see a film (yeah, film) that doesn't fade away with the credits.

i've recently seen two such examples of cinematography. the first (and i can here shannon laughing) is the fall. i can't even start to explain the effect this film had on me. not since amelie (remember that?) and the darjeeling limited have i been so awed. and i wanted to immediately watch it again. the little girl is so natural, i'm not even sure there was a script for her. it keeps you emotionally involved, and, even though there's a short freaky part that's more of an unconscious hallucination, it has a good ending. i want to watch it over and over. and so should you. by the way, it stars lee pace.

this second selection is a slightly odd choice for me. i saw trailers for this film and was intrigued. it came and went in my mind, and i would wonder about it, namelessly, once in a while. until tuesday night. elizabeth and shannon came over and brought miss pettigrew lives for a day and charlie bartlett. (by the way, miss pettigrew is also one of those wonderful films. lee pace. a must see.)

charlie bartlett is about a high school boy (anton yelchin, star trek's chekov) who, although terribly sweet, is constantly getting kicked out of prep schools. his mother is never mad at him. he starts public school. gets beat up. tries out for a play. sees a shrink. is prescribed ritalin. which makes him hyper.

from there, the plot takes off. charlie starts counselling kids in the boys restroom. taking their problems to different shrinks. getting drugs prescribed to him. which he then sells to the kids who need them. he makes the bully who beat him up his business partner. gets involved with the principal's (robert downey, jr.) daughter. it has a lot of language - particularly from bully and sidekick. but it was thought provoking. and i can't shake the enchanting performance given by yelchin. nor how much downey, jr. has grown on me. can't wait to see holmes.

some shopping success

so i got this outfit at ann taylor loft with tink. she said, 'pair it with a jean jacket and a red beaded necklace.' on saturday, i found this jean jacket at goodwill!

on saturday night, while hubby watched cops and america's most wanted, i made this necklace.
and then i wore it all on sunday. yay!