World is so cold, Part 1

Just last Sunday as I arrived at my parents' home, the air was warm as I pulled into the driveway to the sound of yard work. Dad, who just a few months ago faced death was alive and blowing leaves out of the walkway with a noisy leaf blower. I felt a sense of gratitude for his second chance at life; for more precious time together.
And these moments like that are short lived, as tragedy can be lurking around any corner.
I feel like I survived a plane crash and as I walked away from the wreckage...I was hit by a speeding train.
To quote the bad guy in the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg movie, The Other Guys: "I think the best way to tell the story is by starting at the end, briefly, then going back to the beginning, and then periodically returning to the end, maybe giving different characters' perspectives throughout. Just to give it a bit of dynamism, otherwise it's just sort of a linear story."
To begin...

It doesn't seem real... The "rest in peace," the " '99-'16"... They say a 17-year-old boy was killed while riding in a car driven by his older brother Justin, who lost control of the vehicle on a highway in New Jersey. Also in the car was Justin's girlfriend and their two young boys. They were on their way back to NH after a road trip to Florida.
The boy who died was my cousin, but I stress that this was not some rando family member I saw on holidays; he was a really important person in my life and I adored him.
I have so much that I want to get out, so sue me if I go 2 fast (timing appropriate Prince reference.)
I woke up on Tues, April 19th to two text messages from my sister. As my barely cognizant brain tried to adjust, I read through the words on my screen...
"car accident"
"Justin, Jesse, the boys"
"critical condition"
"Jesse...is really bad."
Bad news never sinks in right away. It's as if a part of my mind wants to keep me from pain and goes into denial mode, stopping me from seeing the truth. When my dad came home from the hospital in Boston having not yet had surgery, my mind told me "he's coming home; therefore he's ok."
I moved to the couch and frantically typed "NJ car accident" into Google on my laptop, tightly gripping my coffee mug.
I clapped my hand over my mouth as my jaw dropped in horror. Not much for details, but photos of an emergency helicopter, ambulances, and wreckage. Among these pictures was one showing the underside of my overturned 2001 Subaru Outback...the one which had been given to Jesse after I got my new car months earlier.
Critical condition. I got up and threw on some clothes. To me, "critical condition" meant "not dead." I guess I thought that I could escape fate by refusing to acknowledge the facts. If I just go about my day like normal, everything would be all right. In a fog, I got ready for work, and before I walked out the door, grabbed this picture from atop the bureau in my room:

I have very few actual photos displayed in my home and this is one of them. Not a great look for me, I know. In 2002, my sister took this picture of Jesse and I during one of the many afternoons we spent with him. When I arrived, I placed it on my desk at school where it sat for only a short time before my mother called. I excused myself from the classroom to talk in the hallway.
Mom and her brother Tim left in the middle of the night to bring my aunt Jen to New Jersey to be with her sons. My mom was calling me from the hospital.
"Erica," she said in a serious tone. "He's been pronounced brain dead. He's gone."
That's when I finally understood it. I somehow managed to go back into the classroom (I haven't mentioned it this year, but I work with a beautiful little kindergarten girl with select mutism.) I told her that I had to go and gave her the bubbles that I had for her to bring out to recess. I went to the office and told the principal that my cousin was dead and I was leaving, not sure when I'd be back. I dashed out to my car and just made it into the driver's seat before breaking down into heart wrenching sobs. Through a barrage of ugly tears, I made the short drive to my parents' house to see my sister.
I'll stop here for now and continue tomorrow where I take anyone who happens to be reading this back to the late '90s, where this story begins.
And while we're back in time, I've selected a sad af song from that time period as I like to connect blog posts with songs: It's "Gone Away" by the Offspring.

Oh great. When I tried to embed a video, I couldn't use the official Vevo version. Here's a lyrics video instead of the sweet 1997 era vid. This one.

False alarm on the springtime; it got all cold and snowy again

Do you know what happened last week? It freaking snowed. I do hate to discuss the weather so frequently but it is quite relevant to this thing I do. With the outfits and the sewing and such.
A few posts back, I was talking about a blue dress that I wanted to wear, but could not because the temps were around 60.

Oh god, even the photo editing couldn't save my face here. No makeup=bad

See that dress up there? I got it at one of the last 50% sales at Savers and it's made out of some (artificial?) woolly material. But don't you like the lumberjack plaid? Here's what's wrong:

Those damn sleeves. Why do I keep encountering them? Stop gathering the sleeve holes, you jerks; I don't want poof sleeves ever. Also, the pockets stick out and there are large belt loops with no belt.
Behold: I messed around with the sleeves and added a shiny vinyl belt with matching shoes. 

Look! It's above the knee! By the way, I did nothing with the pockets because they're fine once belt is added to the equation.

Oh, I did this new thing where instead of taking 100 pics and being picky, I just took a few. So, I'm not as happy.
I got mad blue dresses! This post is a two-for! Two dresses in this post. A short post...and this one's a no-sew.

Look at all that thick blue fabric. So warm...every part of me is covered in soft coziness. I can't wear that though.

That's what I took off with a brand new pair of fabric scissors while sitting at my parents' house. That's all? Let's see what it looks like.

I did it! It's a wearable dress, using only scissors. I trimmed additional material off the neckline, btw. Then the obvious: the ol' belt sash made from the trimmed off length.

But, wait! There's a third thing! It's a goddamn three-for! That necklace! It's a button necklace...
I did not make the button necklace. Ring the shame bell.

First, I got that at Hobby Lobby. I am a feminist, and I don't like their anti-birth control stance. My uncle got me a gift card for Christmas and was like, "use at your own risk, it's a bad company!" Deals before beliefs, we say. Look, $.75.
It's the ultimate in slacker DIY! It looks like something awesomely handmade, but isn't. Also, it's only part of the necklace. If you want to wear that thing as a necklace, you gotta DIY. They also sell a ribbon. Which was also on sale. Which I bought and used.
I did however do a little hacking. One of the buttons is vaguely flower shaped and pink. I changed it out for one in a green color!

Ta Da!

(Bad) Luck of the Irish

Last year, I had this nice green dress to refashion for St. Patrick's Day. It was an 80s, knit number with a cool button detail I was trying to salvage. I don't have a picture of the dress, but I do have this picture from the internet which pretty much explains the way I view a sewing machine.

LOL it's got a "cryhole." Ooh, and a flux capacitor. A bloomin' onion ha ha ha...but seriously, that cryhole was filled with my tears in March of last year due to the dress.
It was impervious to needles...It just wouldn't be sewn. I mean that literally, the material just wouldn't accept thread from the sewing machine. I messed with the settings, I changed the needle and I changed the thread. Each time I put it through the machine, the loopy seams were pulled right out with the tug of a thread.
Here's St. Patty's dress '16.

It's not like I had any drinking events to attend. It's just for work and for blogging about. Got it at Goodwill and it's a spandex-y material. Also, there was something wrong with it.

It was all messed up. Like, the seam was torn, but it looked like it was never sewn together properly to begin with. As I've learned through this hobby, even if it looks easy, everything is so damn difficult.

It looked worse in real life. Look at that mangled mash of thread and fabric. That fix will need to be fixed.

No on the seam ripper, I'm gonna need the scissors for this mess. Oh wait; but first, I used the seam ripper to get rid of the collar thing.
So as you see, I'm now left with a hole. I was in need of a good coverup.

The bib portion of that adorable but too-small-to-be-appropriate top. I've been meaning to take that thing apart.
Nope. The Pride and Prejudice style detail didn't work with the particular dress. Next, this:

That little knotted rope design looks practically Celtic. That's practically perfect.
JK, it wasn't. That's cool, removing those things meant that I just had some more stuff to add the scrap pile. (I kid. That's not cool. Waste of time!)
Finally...

I'm sorry, I'm not wasting time on taking good pics of my materials. At some point during the week, there was a 50% off sale at a thrift store and I looked for a shirt to fill the void I needed. See that article of clothing up there? See what I see?

A beautiful, bejeweled patch! Now to work on the terrible fit! Even though it has a side zipper.

See how I cleverly I pointed it out for you? I did not work and the dress still seemed "off." Zipper be damned, I took it in on the sides anyway. It's a stretch material, no unzipping needed. Just in time for school, I finished and had this:

That's my curtsy pose. I added a thick belt by the way, cuz that's how I do. By the way, I did not get any compliments on this one! Yes, I do this for compliments. 

If I could save time in a bottle...

Then I guess I would have it saved in jars for times when I needed more of it? Which is all the time. I would surely use "extra" time for blogging.
Hey, I made a big step in a refashion. I connected two pieces of clothing.

One of them is that blue dress and the other is that striped shirt. They are one now. Anyway, I think one of the reasons I don't post as often as I'd like to is because I put it off, thinking I have to make a big production with it. I think I have to "write" all about each experience. I don't.

The dress almost looks like it fits in that picture. For some reason, this plain and boring thing was marked as part of the Halloween clothes at Goodwill last October. At then end of the season, I decided that $2 was a decent investment for this piece. Because:
-Material is a thick cotton for warmth.
-Color works for me.
-Would probably be easy, like this purple dress from last year.

Remember that one?

For the most part, those bullet points were true. So, without any extraneous photos or writing, here's what I did: Took it in from the sides, cut a few inches from the bottom then hemmed, made it a v neck, and made a sash from the extra fabric.
Then, I put it in the drawer and didn't wear it. Because:
-No sleeves; would have to wear a shirt under it or a sweater over it.
-Didn't want to do that because it was already kind unsexy/boring and layering it would not have helped.
-V neck looked stupid because it had a matching fabric "piping" that I didn't remove, just cut a little away to lower the neckline.
Because I apparently thought that for once I should finish something that clearly needed more work, out of the drawer it came! First, that neckline...

I used my seam ripper and detached the "casing." (Seriously, I'm not sure what it's called.) That extra fabric on the sleeve hole--that's what I took off the neck hole. Then I took it off the sleeve hole as well. Much better.
I normally like to keep my refashions as simple as possible. But...what if I tried adding sleeves? It actually shouldn't be hard. I wanted to make this task worth the while, so I thought it would be cool to add stripes instead of just plain black. When I didn't have any striped sleeves in my collection, I actually bought two new shirts. By "new" I mean two cheap thrifted shirts.

I went with the black and white as it matched the dress better. That Superman top actually looked pretty good on me, and no I didn't keep it to wear as is and I'll tell you why in an upcoming post. For now, the tale of the easy sleeve surgery.
I pinned "right" sides together and sewed the first sleeve with ease. Then I did the other sleeve and turned it right side out to see how that one looked. It looked like this:

(Sarcastic LOL) The sleeve is inside out but the dress is not. Yeah, somehow I managed to do that. Ugh...ok, I'll just take the messed up sleeve off and try again later when I have time. Wait, you'll love this part. I re-sewed the sleeve on and...

Jebus tap dancing Christ. Really?! I made a ridiculous mistake and then did it again? It's as if I'm some sort of monkey with a sewing machine but not nearly as intelligent.
Well, I sure as shit wasn't going to waste my time going for a three-peat. To hell with that visible seam that's only on one side, this dress is now asymmetrical. And I may as well go forward with that concept.
The original blue sash that I made from the hem was nice but not very long. A sash from the striped fabric would be cool, but I'd have to sew several strips together to get something long enough. Unless...

I cut some of the length from the bottom of the shirt and made a tiny sash that would never tie around an adult's waist. Unless...

 Ha ha, they're not even the same width. I attached both sashes together. When tied around me, that meeting place seen in the picture is under the knot. Let's see this thing!

I assure you that I am pleased with the finished result! Before you say anything, I realize that I got dressed and then noticed that I forgot to iron the new seams. But what was I supposed to do, take the thing off and get out the ironing board? I didn't think so.

You can't tell from the pictures, but sadly the new neckline is now just a little bit low for work. Even so, I still planned to wear it last week for one of our school theme days. March is Dr Seuss month and Friday was "Red Fish, Blue Fish." I was going to show off my creation along with my red boots from my last post.

I really should be wearing said red boots in this picture.

So, a theme in this post is "not enough time." Also, remember when I said that this dress was a thick, cotton knit which would be nice and warm?
Well, whaddya know; early March in New England and already around 60 degrees. This dress would probably not be a good choice for work in an active kindergarten class. I guess it's springtime now.
Before I put this long-winded post to bed (and this is why blogging takes so long) I wanted to ramble about something.
I had to say goodbye to my little angel. He's the boy written about in My School Story and if you read it, you'll understand that "angel" is unlikely word choice. To sum up, I met him in September of 2012 when he was a five year old kindergartner that I was charged with helping as he had special needs. We formed a close bond and I cared about this child through the years. I was assigned to work with him during the '14-'15 school year which went ok. However, by May I was beginning to think that we, as a school were not going to be able to meet his needs. His violent outbursts were very concerning.
Finally, he was accepted into a program for children with emotional issues at one of the other city schools. This is what I knew he needed and he knew it too. By now my "baby," as I teasingly called had just turned nine years old. I wrote up a short letter, telling him how much he meant to me and put it in a folder of black construction paper on which I used a white crayon to draw a skull and crossbones and the words "I will miss you".
He gave me a big kid hug and he left school for the last time. This will be so much better for him. I sure am going to miss that "jerk." His word, not mine!
While looking for some important document or something that week, I came across this in a stack of papers.

The coloring isn't even finished! I remember that he had a jack o' lantern shirt and seemed to like the color orange. Therefore, I started calling him "pumpkin." When music class was done, the kids were told to put their papers in their cubbies. Not wanting to walk across the room, he passed it to me and smiled, "uh, I made this for you!"
Sure you did, B. If only you were still that five year old...Goodnight Sweet Prince! (LOL, that's a meme. And not one that applies at all in this situation. I just like saying it.)

I made a big production of this post. Let's wrap this up.

Paint jobs

Creative title, huh? Whatever, you guys.

Remember when I showed you these old boots that I rescued from the bins at the Goodwill Outlet? You don't? Whatever, you guys. Anyway, I got some red shoe polish on Amazon.

 

There's a picture of my boots in the process of being polished. It actually worked out quite well. 

See? The boot on the left is "before polish." I actually considered a DIY on the other problem:

Look at that heel. The bottom of it is not there. Could I wear them as is? Could I MacGuyver it with some kind of material? Well, there is an old-timey cobbler down the street.

Look! They put brand new heels on both of them! For about $10! They're just so great.

Remember Valentine's Day? For V Day, I also painted something. This:

So, that's a Funko Pop. They're little dolls with large heads, black eyes, and no emotion in the image of your favorite characters from everything. That one's got some weird French name and is from the TV show, True Blood. Did you know that people customize these things? Because I thought that French doll beared a resemblance to former WAW wrestler, Christian Sain.

(Sorry, no pic, I'll find one later.)

So, here's what I did...

I painted it. He's got wrestling tights now.

Here's Chris! As a Pop! Look at the back:

I drew Chris' tattoo with a Sharpie! Happy Valentine's, *bae.

*Bae is a perfectly acceptible term when used ironically.

Valentine Girl

Title courtesy of one of my favorite New Kids on the Block song Valentine Girl.
I feel like I may have done a post like this, but I'm pretty sure I just wanted to but didn't. This post is a tribute to the over the top style of Betsey Johnson.

For years, I worked at TJ Maxx, usually in accessories or at the jewelry counter. I used to love it when we got Betsey Johnson handbags and such. I tend to wear a lot of black, but I had a strong appreciation for Betsey's prints; specifically the roses.

So, here's the starter:

For a Valentine's day at school (so, Friday the 12th) I took out this nightie that I bought at GW because the large rose print reminded me of the fabulous Ms. Johnson. So, how do I turn a satiny nightgown into clothes? Answer: by wearing it with shoes and going outdoors in it.

Of course, it had a hole in it up on the shoulder seam. I sewed some lace binding on it so that I could legally call this a refashion even though it's really just a restyle.

See? Lace shoulders. I fancied it up. By the way, it was colder than...um, a place or thing that is known for being very cold. Write your own hyperbolic metaphor, I got nothing. I had to layer this thing good. Here's the after shot, taken at the end of they day, not much makeup.

I put my nightie over some fleece leggings and a long sleeved top. I belted it and put my boots on, even added a sweater (which I didn't need). I got several compliments. No one knew it was sleepwear! Suckers!

Cool label, huh?