Stories of a life well lived

I attended a funeral visitation yesterday to be with a longtime friend whose father passed away this week. He had suffered from pancreatic cancer for several years, so it wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but it was still heart-wrenching for those left behind to mingle memories and tears. I think the hardest part for me was dealing with the fact that he missed getting to meet his newest grandson by three weeks – my friend is 8 ½ months pregnant with her first child.

As I sat on a rather ornate settee waiting for the visitation to begin, a chatty, heavily-bearded gentleman began to tell me stories of my friend’s father. They had worked together, fished together, hunted together. The stories were all humorous and lighthearted, and all were told with a smile and twinkling eye. I don’t think he was trying to make light of a sad and serious situation, rather, he was communicating the only way he knew how that this man had lived. He had lived, and was to be celebrated.

And whether he knew it or not, this kind gentleman was making sense of his friend’s death – or more so of his life – by telling stories, and helping me make a bit of sense of it all, too.

Thank you, sir. May you live well.

Project Rewear: July edition

If you happen to be swearing off retail clothes for a year, ebay can be your best friend.

I've been keeping an eye out for a J. Crew strapless sundress for, well, forever. And a couple of weeks ago I found one on ebay. $100? nope. $50? nope. $14.99? You betcha.

I've scoured the internet trying to find a picture of the dress to show you, but I don't think J. Crew is making them this season, so I'll have to take a pic of the dress on me soon and post that. Stay tuned.

Project Rewear: June edition

One of the stipulations of Project Rewear is that I can wear any new clothes that I sew myself. A talented seamstress I most certainly am not - curtains and pillowcovers are about as far as I can go. One Saturday, though, I decided to practice my skills (or lack thereof) on an old bedsheet, so I took a simple tunic/dress out of my closet and tried to copy it. I turned it inside out, marked the outlines on some thick paper we have leftover from one of our remodeling projects, and called it a pattern.

Here are a few long-overdue pictures from my pattern-less dress-making adventure:

First, I cut out my tracing.





Then, I cut the fabric to match.





Whoops. I think I got a little spray bottle-happy while ironing.




I basically just sewed the sides together, gave it a hem, and sewed the fabric under at the neck and sleeves. The neckline was the hardest part. It didn't turn out so great.




And, ta-da! Please excuse the lack of makeup and the rediculous pose. While I wouldn't leave the house in it, my bedsheet housedress is pretty comfortable. Hey, it's practice people. Everyone has to start somewhere -- do you think Martha was born with a perfect slipstich? Well, probably, but not all of us are that lucky.

Next time, I think I'll use a real pattern.

Pretty Things

In the category of "Odd things I would collect, if I had the room."

Cake stands.

Like these:

(source)

Or these:

(source)

Or these gorgeous stackables:

(source)


Don't they make the cake look even yummier? Lovely.

Yada Yada Yada, spring edition

Sorry, folks, it's been a while. The semester has been drawing to an end, work got busy, and yada yada yada, the usual excuses.

I never posted an April edition of Project Rewear, but I'm not really sure that I bought or made anything. I'll wrap up a May edition soon after I finally remember to get pictures off of my camera, but here's a teaser - it involves a bed sheet and a showing machine, and a successful consignment shopping trip.

Apart from swooning over each J.Crew catalog that comes in the mail (mmm. . . beautiful and soft vintage prints . . .drool), my year of non-retail shopping has been easier than I'd imagined it would be. I think I'm going to throw a fashion swap party sometime this summer, where everyone is invited to clean out their closets and bring clothes, purses, shoes & accessories to swap. We can donate whatever isn't claimed at the end of the evening. So ladies, start digging through the back of your closests - if you're anything like me, there's a ton of stuff in there that either hasn't fit in 5 years or you've just never really liked anyway. . .

In other life news, one more week until summer hours begin - woo hoo! While I'm still jealous of my teacher friends that get the entire summer off (seriously, what was I thinking majoring in journalism??), it is really, really nice to get an extra hour and a half to each weekday during the summer. That extra time makes a big difference when it comes to walking the dog in the morning, and getting dinner ready at night. It's nice.

I booked a ticket to LA this week! I'm going to go see a dear, dear friend in June, and I'm so excited! I've never been to LA (ok, I went to Disneyland when I was 6, but that doesn't count), and I probably wouldn't choose it as a vacation destination if my friend didn't live there, but she's a local I'm hoping she'll know all the cool places to visit, eat, etc. Maybe I'll have to look up some cool consignment shops while I'm there. . .

I like eplipses . . . :)

My summer projects are going to include art (I hope to work on some more pastel drawings, at least), learning Illustrator (I found some good tutorials online, I just need to make the time to do it), and . . . applying to grad school! Well, at least getting ready to apply to grad school. If I can get my thoughts gathered enough to write a kick-ass statement of purpose and application, I may apply for the fall semester, but otherwise it might have to wait 'till spring. I'm hoping for fall - I want to get started as soon as I can, since Im just going to try to take one class at a time (online) while I continue to work. I took the GRE about two years ago and I'm trying to avoid taking it again. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I'm not a very good test taker. I studied for the stupid thing for months, but the longer I studied, the most anxious I got. When I finally went to take the test, I didn't do nearly as well as I should have because it just freaked me out. So, I'm not sure it's worth it to put myself through that all over again. I hope the admissions people understand, and my GPA helps make up for it.

Sorry for the stream-of-consiousness post, kids. I just had to get something out there in the bloggosphere, before I gave it up all together.

My Constant Companion

Yep, somehow I managed to get poison ivy on the first yard work day of the spring. And I even kept myself busy potting herbs while Lee and some helpers did the dirty work of pulling out a bunch of old fence and brush, just so I wouldn't touch any of the stuff. But still, it found me, via Lee or the dog or some clothes. Ridiculous. I spent most of Easter weekend on ice like an oyster, cleaning and slathering my wounds with Caladryl in an attempt to avoid a doctor visit and the inevitable steroid shot (overused immune system suppressent! aak!). My avoidance turned out to be in vain, though . . . after I started to swell up like a balloon and could barely move, I gave in, and am now altering between jittery from the 'roids and sleepy from the copious amounts of benedryl i've had to take. Fun. Times.

Oh well, I'm started to heal today. As much as I like to forgo traditional meds in favor of natural alternatives, sometimes it's helpful.

Project Rewear : March Edition

I figured I had better add a March installment of this series before March is gone completely, so here it is.

Avoiding retail clothing this month was quite simple, mostly because my sweet and thoughtful husband gave me a J.Crew gift card for our first anniversary (that's right folks, 1 year!). I happily shopped the J.Crew sales (remember, gifts are ok) and made out like a bandit with a super cute navy cotton taffeta skirt, a salmon-colored cardigan (one of my 2 favorite colors), and a black sleeveless sweater with chiffon rosettes (I love J.Crew's embellishments).

In other "non-retail" shopping news, I have been on the lookout for a pair of brown/tan gladiator-style sandals that wouldn't break the bank (actually not hard to find in this economy, as cheap fashions are popping up everywhere), but would also be good for my feet. Enter Dansko!

Now, I nursed a mild hatred for the famous clog company for some time. You see, I think clogs are ugly. Clunky. And hard to walk in. And even though Danskos were supposed to be marvelous for your feet and back and such, I figured there had to be cuter ways to take care of yourself. Then, I discovered that Dansko made other things besides clogs! Who knew! In fact, they made some very cute non-clog footwear. Now, there was comfort I could get behind. I found my first pair of Danskos, black strappy sandles with a slightly chunky heel, on a clearance table at a local shoe store. Cute? Check. Comfy? Check. Cheap? Check. Tongue tied? Yep. Then, I found the illusive cute and good-for-me gladiators a couple of weeks ago on ebay. Score! Here are the beauts:

(photo couresty of ebay seller theshoemart)

So, if you're in the market for some shoes, can't spend much, but still want something a little more durable than Payless, try ebay. These were one of last season's styles, but, um, really, who's going to know that? And they were less than half of the retail price. The moral of this story? Don't be afraid to look for clothing and shoes through venues you normally wouldn't think of (ebay, craigslist, etc.). You might be surprised at the selection and price, and you're preventing the needless manufacturing of an item that may already be out there floating around someplace.

Coming up next month: New outfits, old clothes.