Tag: fashion

Independence Day

We grilled a weekend’s worth of meals on Friday so we could mostly stay inside away from the heat without using the oven this weekend. I did have errands to run, so I drove through River Oaks to see flags flying on the mansions of people who can afford to keep their lawns well-watered during the heat wave. Here are a couple of shots I liked:

Unlike certain cooperative Midwestern dogs, Guinness and Margot didn’t want to pose in t-shirts with eagles and patriotic slogans on them. Maybe they’re exercising their right to protest holidays that involve the noise of fireworks.

One night in Bangkok…

Early in June, Mark G. Harris did a post about the late designer Edith Head and her book How to Dress for Success. Included in his post was one of Miss Head’s sketches from her book:

As soon as I saw it, I began my top secret Edith Head Project: to design and sew my versions of the outfits pictured on Miss Head’s models. Lynne said it was an ambitious project, and she was right. And even though it has taken a lot of my time over the past couple of weeks, I’ve learned several things.

*I CAN follow directions when I sew. It still doesn’t always turn out the way I hoped, but I enjoy the challenge.

*The EH Project reinforced my enjoyment of using my blend of my mother’s sewing supplies and my own. It provided a happy means of thinking of her while I worked during this month that marked the first anniversary of her death.

*One night when I was buying small amounts of three trims at the fabric store, the associate asked what I was using them for. I said, “Doll clothes. Barbie doll clothes.” She asked if I was sewing the clothes for an exhibit or for a special little girl. I said, “A special little girl. ME!” That began a lovely conversation in which she told me that she learned to sew as a child by making clothes for her Barbies. A happy gleam in her eyes made me think she might intend to pick up that childhood hobby again.

*When I sew, I work out all kinds of problems in my head. I’ve come up with so many ideas for characters I want to write that sewing has now become synonymous with research to me.

*In the book Marika sent me–11,002 Things To Be Miserable About–one of the items is “adults with doll collections.” When I ruefully repeated that to Lindsey, she said, “It’s not a collection. It’s an OBSESSION.” And somehow, that made it better.

Scoff if you must, but I say a life without obsessions is a life unlived.

Here’s the finished Edith Head Project. For a look at all the designs with comments, I made a public Flickr group. Enjoy!

Thanks to Tom, Tim, Lynne, Lindsey, Rhonda, Marika, and a bunch of dogs, all of whom supported the Edith Head Project in a variety of ways.

You light up my life

I don’t want to belabor this, but back in 2007, when I first met David Puterbaugh, he was near-cocktailed out of his mind. Since he knew full well I’d wanted to meet him sober, he asked what he could do to get back in my good graces. I pointed ceilingward and said, “You must get that for me.”

No, it wasn’t a palmetto bug, even though I always say it’s not a true Southern story of the coast until that flying cockroach makes an appearance. (Which it did, but that was later.) No, what I was seeking was this:

Please click here for more.

Déjà freaking vu

Last September, I posted about how I mislaid all the notes I’d made for a third Coventry book. It wasn’t so much plot details that I was frustrated to lose, it was all my character names and descriptions. Ultimately, I got the proposal together so I could submit it to my agent and publisher. My editor turned it down–blah blah blah–I’m over that.

I’d started writing a non-Coventry novel on my desktop, for which I made copious notes about place names and details and people names and descriptions in a document that lived on my laptop. I’ve gotten to a point where I need those notes–and THERE’S NO SUCH DOCUMENT! I’ve done electronic searches on both computers using key words and phrases–but in the wee hours of the morning, I had to accept it. Somehow, I managed to delete it.

Unless–CONFESS! Which one of you is gaslighting me?

To relax myself so some of those lost details could crawl to shore from my brain swamp, I dragged out a 1964 Simplicity pattern and made Christina Aguilera a new dress. Her name isn’t going to stay Christina Aguilera. Do you think she looks like a very special TV character named Blossom? Tom does. From certain angles, she also looks like Sarah Jessica Parker. No way am I naming her Blossom, but I could name her Jess after a character in Three Fortunes in One Cookie (female, though she was named for my by-choice-nephew Jess), or I could name her Sarah for SJP and my niece, although my niece is way prettier than this doll–and prettier than SJP, for that matter.

Or I could pretend I’m Janet Evanovich, only instead of letting y’all compete to name my next book, you can name my doll with a prize to be determined. Maybe I could name a character after YOU in my next book.

Um…what was your name again?

Hump Day Happy

Those of you who’ve been reading here for any length of time know about the plastic lime slice coasters that Tom and I received as a wedding gift and passed back and forth with Lynne for years–then Lynne’s daughter-in-law Laura got thrown into the mix. (I don’t mean we passed Laura back and forth. I mean sometimes, Laura got the coasters, too.) Eventually I upped the shock value by adding such items as lime slice candles, glasses, and melon and lemon slice coasters–and it was on. Lynne and Laura have been gifting me in kind for about five years now.

Last Christmas, Lynne stunned delighted me with a set of fruit slice dishes. Actually, they were kind of cool, though I didn’t want to admit it. I just don’t have room for more dishes. My dilemma was solved when I realized that Marika loved the dishes. With Lynne’s okay, I regifted them, taking them to Marika when Tim and I went to New Orleans.

I got the BEST thank-you card from Marika. I’ve included it on the upper left of the picture below. It’s all lime-slicey and glittery. I love the chick on the card, and I actually plan to frame this and hang it in my office. There’s a margarita recipe inside the card, and that’s how I chose the name for my most recent addition to The Compound Mattel Top Models, who’s pictured wearing a new dress I made just for her. She’s the Summer doll with the green streaks in her hair. I’m calling her Rita for the margarita card, as well as for Rita Hayworth, who I think was one of the most gorgeous actresses to ever pass through Hollywood–and if that’s not enough, Rita is a character in a Beatles song.

If you comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, lovely Rita will find something in this book for you to be happy about.

 

 

But I haven’t been idle

There isn’t much I can do when I’m in the grip of a days-long migraine. I try to maintain, but all I really want to do is take medication and sleep in a dark, cool room. I can read a little bit. I can’t focus enough to write. I try to cook for The Compound. I get a lot of doggie nuzzling; it makes me feel better.

And over the past few days, I used tiny increments of time to sew, because I’ve found that I think a lot about writing when I sew. Even if I can’t write, I can plan things. I got these Barbies–I don’t know who they are or what recent year they’re from–with a group of dolls I purchased from eBay some time back. [ETA: Thanks to Mark, I now know they are Hip 2 Be Square Barbies from 2000.] I love their red hair, and my first thought was how good it would look against a green plaid fabric I’ve had for a long time. I made these overall shorts and the yellow blouse using a 1993 McCall’s pattern.


I’m kind of bummed that Mark G. Harris won’t be able to make it to Saints and Sinners this year. After I finished the first outfit, I decided to make the red plaid shift from a 1991 Simplicity pattern–just so I could feature these fantastic shoes that MGH sent me last fall. Aren’t they amazing?

Hmmm. I think I need to dust when I’m feeling better.

Hump Day Happy

Sometimes I forget what I’ve posted about on here before, but it’s not like you all remember every word, right? RIGHT? (Other than you, Mark G. Harris.)

I don’t have many favorite memories of ninth grade Home Ec, but one of them involves Lynne’s mother, Elnora. I was finishing my sew-something-at-home project, and my mother agreed to let me spend the night with Lynne for the only time ever on a school night so Elnora could teach me buttonholes. Now I know my mother, who sewed all the time, certainly knew how to do buttonholes. Either she was tired of me and my fabric (Why did I choose brown?), or Elnora’s machine had a buttonhole function and Mother’s didn’t. In any case, Elnora taught me how to stitch buttonholes by hand, and I remember finishing up late at night when everyone was asleep, my eyes blurry and my fingers stinging from numerous needle sticks.

I thought about that incident last Friday when I was sewing–badly–deep into the night and getting frustrated. More than anything in the world, I wanted to call Lynne, wake her out of a sound sleep, and shriek, “I CAN’T MAKE THIS YOKE WORK!” She’d have deserved it, too, because of that time she threw The World According to Garp at my sleeping body in the middle of the night, but that’s a different story.

When Timothy, Mark, and I were sewing for Runway Monday, we made our own patterns. In my infinite quest to frustrate myself, I bid on and won some Barbie fashion patterns on eBay. Here, my model Faizah is wearing the result of my Friday night dementia. It doesn’t look exactly like the dress on the front of the pattern, but at least I overcame my Aries nature and FINISHED it. That makes me somewhat happy. Comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and Faizah will find YOU something in this book to be happy about.

It’d better not involve sewing.

 

 

Monday morning you sure look fine

Sitting here all haggard and bleary-eyed after a serious lack of sleep. A certain dog whose initials are Guinness was having some kind of issue that meant she paced or walked in circles all night. She was still doing it this morning, but now seems to be okay. I’ll keep an eye on her today, just in case. What I don’t get is: WHY do dogs always get actin’-crazy-sick in the middle of the night, forcing a refrain of emergency vet? wait it out? emergency vet? wait it out? to run through people’s minds for hours when they should be sleeping?

Guinness’s ordeal gave me time to look over some of my favorite photos and think of some of my favorite moments from last week. Even though I was sick most of the week (nobody took me to the emergency vet, either), it was still a good time.

This is just a photo I took while I was downtown watching the mad rush at the post office on tax day. Houston is a fun city to shoot at night, because though we have skyscrapers, there’s lots of space between them.

It was a week of wonderful things for some friends. venusunfolding moved into his new home with Matt. I’m looking forward to photos as they get settled in. And I’m wondering if our torrential rainstorms over the weekend made their move a soggy adventure.

davidpnyc finished his MFA thesis! One day I’m sure I’ll be buying the novel that will come out of it. Congratulations again, David.

Lila looks like quite the little rock star in these glasses that the Easter bunny brought her. Lynne got some great photos of Lila eating her chocolate rabbit, but my favorite image of the day was when Lila got her first swallow of a Diet Coke. Her eyes got all big, she immediately wanted more, and Laura shook her head and said, “Crack in a bottle.” We Southern girls do love our Coke, and after all, Lila’s grandmother was born in Atlanta, home of Coca Cola.

more behind the cut

Hugh Hefner, eat your heart out

Saturday evening, I began to think about Easter dresses, maybe because it’s been ten thousand years since I was forced lucky enough to pose for photos like these:

The Easter Bunny has made an appearance on this LJ before, and I decided to break out my needle and give him a reason to come back. Or six reasons, really.

For a look at the individual frocks designed by Becks and other Easterish shots, as well as to be up-to-date with my Top Models’ names (to differentiate them from look-alikes you may have seen on other designers’ LJs), check out the full photo set at Flickr.

Oh, and the Top Models want to remind you that although they chose other shoes for their photo shoot, white footwear is perfectly acceptable now that Easter has passed.

Crafty!

As many of you know, my 200-plus members of the Barbie family are individually wrapped in tissue and stored in my attic. This is because I’m not Anne Rice and can’t afford to buy and restore an old orphanage to house and exhibit my doll collection. On the day that I can purchase such a place, if it’s anything like St. Elizabeth’s, I’m moving in first. The dolls and I will then negotiate.

In the meantime, I need to keep some of my dolls at hand. By all accounts, the dispute over Project Runway has been settled, and the most recent season will finally air this summer on Lifetime. I don’t know if Mark G. Harris, Timothy J. Lambert, or anyone else will be interested in doing PR’s weekly design challenges for the Mattel Top Models. Even if we don’t, I still enjoy designing for special events (the Oscars) and holidays. But the dolls and everything they need were overunning my office and cluttering the Spoil Debby and Sometimes Lisa Guest Suite.

I needed a more organized solution. Lindsey and I were shopping in Texas Art Supply one day when we found a wonderful kit for youngsters who might be interested in sewing and designing for dolls. I didn’t get the kit, but it did inspire a PROJECT.

After some shopping around, I found this cabinet, deeply discounted, at Michael’s:

It’s divided into three cubes:

And then what happened?