I can't turn left!

I must have slept with my head at a strange angle last night....I woke up this morning and couldn't turn my head to the left...I am the anti-Zoolander!!

I've been taking a break from sewing for a few days....just need to recover from the holidays!  But Big Ol' Betty will be put on her stand this weekend so I can start work on my overalls...again!!

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year!!

Gummy Bear Addict!!

Well, I have survived Christmas!!  Took a bit of a beating from my family last night regarding my son and my ability to parent him correctly.  But I will survive.  My son is a good kid who acts like most 18 year old boys...he has a smart mouth and he'd rather skateboard than do his homework.  But he's not in Juvi, he doesn't have a criminal record, he doesn't do drugs, hasn't knocked anyone up, and he hugs me and tells me he loves me in front of his friends.  I think I've done alright by him.

My addiction

Sourpussclothing.com...go there!

My husband spoiled me rotten for Christmas.  He snuck in quite a few presents for me....lots of rockabilly clothes and a purse from sourpuss that I LOVE!!  My kids were happy with their gifts.  Our oldest daughter came home for 3 days which was very cool.  She lives about 5 hours away so we don't get to see her very often.  She fed my gummy bear addiction...she bought me a 4 pound bag AND a giant green gummy bear!!  *L*  He is sitting on my desk at work.  I just can't bring myself to eat him...where do you start?  A leg?  An arm?  An ear?  His face??  So, he sits on my desk in his little plastic wrapper!  I will save him for an emergency!  *L*  Gummy bears are sort of disgusting and actually make me quite queasy and give me bangin' heartburn....but I just can't stop eating them!!

So, I am sitting at my desk at work, eating gummies and tums, popping throat lozenges for my sore throat and drinking seltzer water!!  Doesn't it sound disgusting??  *L*

I'm chock full of complaints today!!

I still have accomplished nothing over the past few days.  I'm just not all that interested in sewing for some reason.  I'm mostly interested in sleeping.  I'm tired all the time, I alternate between way to hot and way to cold (never a comfy in between), and every joint in my body aches.  It kills me to walk the stairs to work lately.  I thought I was getting sick, but it's been about three weeks and I've not gotten sick, but my aches and pains haven't toned down either!  I think it sucks to get older!!!  *L*

I got a haircut yesterday....not totally sold on it.  I have never ever gotten a bad hair cut from this place before...but yesterday not so good.  One side is longer and it makes me look like I have a giant hair bubble sitting atop my neck!!  *L*  I'll give it two weeks...grandma always said the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks....so we shall see!!

I think my 18 year old son is smoking, but he won't confess to it.  He just comes up with the absolute stupidest lamest excuses EVER to "go for a walk".  Oddly enough, the thing that bothers me most about the smoking....I built those lungs...took me 9 long bloated months to give him a perfect working pair of lungs....and the thanks I get?  Wrecking them by smoking!!  How ungrateful!!  *L*

I look like THAT??

Got a lot of things accomplished this weekend, but didn't blog about it!  It's so much easier to write when I'm at work sitting in front of a computer all day! *L*

I love stripes!!

Perfect Hair!

I went with my mom and my friend to my tattoo gal and had a big piece done on my right thigh!!  It's a chubby pinup girl holding a cupcake.  I'll post a picture when she's done!  We just did the line work and some shading.  I'll be going back after Christmas for the color!!  I am in love with her.  She was going to be a red head, but I am now leaning towards giving her bright pink hair!!  My hair was PERFECT on Friday...so perfect in fact, that I took pictures.  *L*  I also ordered pink hair dye...FINALLY!  Should be here next week!  I get a hair cut on Tuesday then pink hair here I come!!

I started working on my 16 year old daughter's Christmas present.  She is leaning toward Visual Kei/Gothic Lolita styles...so I'm making her a kimono style dress out of some blue and gold fabric my grandma gave me.  I will post pictures when that is finished and sized to her.

Oh Betty...you're so big!!

I haven't been sewing much for me lately because I have been wanting to make a duct tape dummy.  I'm a big gal with lots of bust goin' on and I have to modify EVERY pattern I buy.  I've been sort of winging it forever, but the disaster of my overalls prompted me to get rolling on the dummy!  SO...last night my husband spent quite some time wrapping me in duct tape.  I asked him to painfully careful with the shaping....once it was cut off and stuffed, I was SHOCKED!  I know I'm a chub...but geeeeez.....seeing it in all it's glory in silvery duct tape was a whole lot of reality!!  So, in true Shannon fashion, I decided to embrace my chub and started covering the whole thing in leopard print duct tape and named her Betty (I name everything Betty *L*).  I'm going to mark the shoulders, waist, and such with hot pink.  She should be done tonight!!
We will be building a stand and she will become a working "art" piece for my sewing room.  Still startling to look at but it will be a great help in making my clothes fit better!!

Ahhhh, Christmas is just around the corner!

So I did nothing even sort of creative last night!  My husband, our boys and some of their friends played cards last night.  My craft room cutting table also doubles as a gaming table...I was all stiff from my fall down the driveway yesterday so I settled into my chair with a blankie, my laptop, some aspirin and a can of Almond Roca (so much for the diet).  I was in bed and asleep by 9!  I did manage to stay asleep all night, which is a rarity for me....Feeling pretty good today!

I do have sewing plans...but I am finding it hard to be all motivated when I get off work at 4 and it's already dark and cold outside.  During the winter I find that I'd much rather cuddle on the couch with my husband and hot chocolate then sit in my sewing room.  However....Christmas is just around the corner...a little more than a week!!  I promise myself every year that I won't be getting things together just days before Christmas!  I don't think I've EVER kept that promise.  The other problem I'm encountering is when I finally do manage to drag myself into the craft room I can't seem to concentrate on Christmas gifts...I'm far more interested in making things for myself.  *L*

Do you like my fluffy pink bird?
He's my work pen!  *L*

So no Victory rolls today...just too lazy for hair and makeup.  So I have pigtails and a completely makeup free face!  I am wearing the denim skirt I made for myself out of jeans I never wore.  It's so cute...probably too young for me, but this my year of "I don't care what people think".  *L*  Leggings, brown sweater and brown socks with my super cute tennies!!

I think today might be a good day!!

Stupid weather!!

So for those of you that don't know, the house we bought sits on a hill, making the driveway to our home a snowy, slippery deathtrap in the winter.  It's been snowing off and on for the past week or so, then yesterday...rain....followed by a freeze...turning our driveway into an ice rink.
Now, imagine me, unaware of this freeze, in tights, mini skirt, cute new pink sweater, Doc Marten boots casually strolling down the stairs then BAM WHAMO I'm sliding down the driveway on my tush after giving my arm a good whack on the cement stairs.  Hmmmm....I'm pretty sure the whole neighborhood knows the color of my panties today!!  *L*
I'm fine, just got my new pink sweater dirty...which kinda burns my cookies since I just sewed it all together last night and am wearing if for the first time!  *L*  My neighbor did stick her head out the door to ask if I was alright since I had to sit and take some personal inventory of my limbs before gather all my crap that went flying to the four corners and trying to walk all dignified-like to my car. I said I was fine but was thinking "OH GOD, please don't send your teenage boys out to scoop my chubby butt off the cement!!"  She didn't!  *L*

I was fairly productive last night.  My husband and I went to the high school's Winter Concert...and I actually kind of enjoyed myself!  Got a tiny itty bitty little tingle of Christmas Spirit listening to all that Christmas music!  It's gone now, but it was there for a moment!  *L*
When we got home I dug an argyle sweater and a white dress shirt that I haven't worn in years out of my closet and combined them into one fabulous shirt that I love!  You will have to wait for a picture of it until I can get someone to help me...I couldn't get anything but a huge picture of my chest area....and not at all a good representation of how cute this sweater turned out!!
Now, I'm sitting at work all alone, enjoying some 25 calorie hot chocolate, listening to Christmas music and planning my next sewing project...of which I have many!!

My husband is so talented!!

I managed to get my hair in victory rolls again (it's always a crap-shoot whether they work out or not)...and I'm sporting the cutest hair clips EVER!!  My husband made them for me!!

Couldn't find a thing to wear!!

Well, it's Monday, and I couldn't find anything cute or interesting to wear.  So I have resorted to wearing a giant sweater and my "mom" jeans.  I made myself a mini skirt out of an old pair of jeans, but I wasn't really feeling it when I got dressed this morning.  I think I need more clothes *L*

  It would seem that blogging over the weekend is a bit more difficult than I anticipated.  It's not that I don't have the time.  I'm lazy.  I spend quite a bit of time with my laptop, well, in my lap on the weekends, but my addiction this weekend seemed to be The Sims 3.  I don't so much play the game as much as I build people and houses.  Don't get me wrong...I love the game...I love all that power I can wield over my town full of little people who must obey my every command.  *L*  But I also like a good cheat code that gives me unlimited money to build and buy whatever I want.  All my little people are fatties, all unemployed, and all fabulously wealthy.  *L*

I managed to get in some sewing on Saturday, but not much.  I made a hat for my nephew but it has to be all picked apart and redone because I managed to get the size wrong.  Sad day!  I didn't do anything crafty at all on Sunday...just vegged around the house.  Spent time with my husband, went to a meeting for our local medieval recreation group that I and my family are involved in.  Ate some gingerbread cookies....ate some more gingerbread cookies.

Tonight there will be no sewing again.  Our youngest two kids are in high school, one Sophomore and one Senior.  Both are in the band and/or choir and the school is having their annual Christmas concert tonight.  It is about 3 hours of hellish torture.  They one or two bright spots for the night are the Jazz Band...who play all swing style music, and the Advanced Choir...which is full of kids who had to audition to be in so they can actually sing.

I look so disgusted *L*
And my hair is a strange color!

On a fashion note, I managed to get my hair into actual victory rolls (good job ME)!!  It's been a while since I've been able to do that since I cut my hair off several years ago so I could dye it strange colors.  I miss the hot pinkness of my hair.   My hair is telling me it wants to be pink again....no matter what color I dye it, the pink always peeks out!!

Oops...missed a day!

Well then.  I already missed a day of my "I'm going to blog everyday"!  *L*  I was otherwise occupied in the craftroom.  I made myself a denim mini-skirt out of a pair of jeans that I've never worn....I LOVE it!!  I haven't worn a mini skirt since I was in high school, and that was quite some time ago, let me tell you.  *L*
I worked on my 40's-ish overalls....they were an epic failure.  Despite measuring the crotch was too short so it ... um....rode up??  *L*  It was soooo not flattering!  However, I am determined to make a pair of overalls that I can wear...so I will use the disaster as a learning experience and I will measure twice this time.  Fortunately I have a lot of this beige material.  The silhouette of the overalls looks good, so I'm happy with they idea of the pattern I made...just needs some modifications.

Big Apple Red

I did manage to make an appointment for a haircut.  Can't get in until December 21.  The girl who cuts my hair is great and always always booked for weeks.  But it's worth the wait.  I also managed to get a few Christmas presents sewn AND I managed to give myself a fresh new manicure!!

I am cute today!!

It even glows in the dark

Onward and upward on my blogging. I discovered this morning as I was putting on my makeup that yesterday I glued my false eyelashes on wrong....left on the right eye, right on the left eye.  I didn't think it would matter...but good heavens I was picking at them all day!  Uh, yes Shannon, they are tapered for a reason!  So not only did they drive me crazy, I kinda looked cross-eyed all day!  *L*  Today....they are on correctly...my hair is perfect, and I'm wearing a cute purple sweater with skeleton hand barrettes (that I LOVE)....Today..I feel good...and damn if I don't look good too.  *L*

 I didn't get any sewing done last night.  My craft room kept calling to me, but life likes to interfere with my play time.  *L*  I went to the high school with my 16 year old daughter to a glass bead making class.  Glass beads are something I already do, I just wanted to see if the teacher was being safe...and frankly to worm my way into his good graces so I could get some torch time and maybe learn how to do glass fusing (which we will be doing next week)

My overalls are still sitting, all cut out, on the cutting table...tonight is the night I'm going to start sewing.  I plan on going through my closet this weekend is pulling out what I don't wear and making a pile of things that I can modify more to my liking!  In the middle of all that, I need to work on Christmas presents for my family!  No rest for the wicked!  :)

Today's ratty manicure

I think today I will make an appointment for a haircut so that my "do's" work better...and perhaps I will re-do my nails...they're getting a little ratty.  Still cute, but almost time for a fill!

Time to make a change.

I have always wanted to dress a particular way...a mix of vintage 40's, rockabilly, and a whole lot of psychobilly.  I have been rather reluctant to do it because, 1) I work for a lawyer and it didn't seem appropriate, 2) I am not as young as I used to be and thought maybe it was time for me to dress my age, and 3) I'm a big girl (size 22-24) and I just didn't think the clothes I love would work with that

However, this is the year I will be turning 40...I'm not getting any younger...there is no better time than now to do the things I love.  So, today I have on bright red lipstick, black eyeliner and false eyelashes.  My hair is in victory rolls and I'm surfing the net for patterns to make the kind of clothes I love.

My Inspiration

I've been dying to own a pair of 40's style overalls.  This is not something sold in my size...pre-made or patterns.  So, being all DIY, I am working on making myself a pattern.  I'm having to morph a few patterns into one...the pants of one pattern, the top of another pattern, the back of another pattern with a few of my own modifications thrown in.  I also see a dress form in my future!  My husband is a bit excited about wrapping me in duct tape!  *L*

I have some beige fabric that I've been toting around for years...seems workable to me.  So last night I started measuring and cutting!!  Tonight I will start piecing it together and keep my fingers crossed that they will be flattering!

What to say...

I'm making a few resolutions.  I don't believe in waiting to make a change until the first of the year, so I will start now!!

1)  I will continue to strive to be a better person.
2)  I will continue my exciting adventure in trying to be a healthier version of myself.
3)  I will document my crafting.
4)  I will blog about it every day!!  If for no one other than myself.  That's 365 EXCITING entries about my life!!

Those don't seem too difficult, right?