Happy Birthday to Me

I should have posted a review of my cloak by now, or written about my dress. Written about SOMETHING.

But I haven't felt like it.

The cloak at least, deserves a proper review, so that will come later, because right now, I just want to share pictures of my birthday. The days leading up to it were spent creating my dress from the lovely Tutti Fruitti fabric bought with my Christmas giftcard. The dress turned out amazing, but setting up the camera to take posed photos have not been one of my inspired To-Do things. I love the dress though, it's amazing. It will get worn a LOT when warm weather comes back, trust me. You should see lots of pictures of it then I guess.

My actual birthday morning was spent waiting. I was all excited to get dressed, but I should have slept in. Finally, my sister arrived and we went to get our haircut. When you haven't cut your hair in a year, it's difficult to know where to go. I called a lady from work to see where she went, but I neglected to write it down. I remembered 21st and Main St as the location, so I didn't think it would be hard to locate. We found a couple low-cost places right next to each other. Undecided, we went in anyway.

I'm blind without glasses. Am I looking at the camera?

We're cutting off that much.

Writing down the address for Locks of Love. The lady was brooking no arguements about this- not that I objected.

This is the only picture I got at the end- Jessie was being accosted by the other hairdresser.

Perfect timing!

Here is her cut.

NOW. Do those haircuts look even remotely the same? 

The entire purpose of getting a haircut together was that I would copy whatever hairstyle Jessie wanted. Hers is nothing like the picture we chose and is too short. Mine looks like I could have done it myself with a pair of scissors. Everyone tells me it's cute but it's IN MY FACE because my shoulders can't hold it back anymore. I'm going to go try and find some combs on my errand today. I can just barely pull it back into a ponytail- but that's exactly what I did before so what's the whole point? It looks exactly the same as before, only shorter. Bleh!

Jessie's hairdresser.

At least dinner was awesome. I told Jamie I didn't want to know where we were going- I liked the idea of it being a surprise. I wasn't disappointed. Getting there was a real pain in the behind. Boulder SUCKS to drive in. Just argh! I wasn't even behind the wheel, and I was frustrated. We had to go in circles to determine that there was no place to park other than a parking garage which you had to pay to use. Boulder sucks.

We went to The Cheesecake Factory!

I never did get a proper picture of the Hurricane drink Jamie got us while we waited for a table. That thing messed me up! I hadn't eaten breakfast and for lunch I had two small plates of Greek salad. I was hungry when we got in the car to go to dinner, plus I guess I'm a lightweight anyway. I got extremely dizzy just turning my head at the table to talk to people. Luckily, it didn't last too long. I did NOT like it at all. The drink was delicious though.

Pot stickers!

My dinner. It reminded me a lot of woodsman spaghetti that my stepfather used to make when we were camping. I loved it.

Jessie's shepherd's pie.

Jamie's dinner.

Light above our table. The entire restaurant was very dim, I didn't really like it. Even the bathrooms! The restaurant itself looked very nice otherwise.

Aw, it came out fuzzy. Jessie requested her cheesecake to go, so they brought her out a tiny sundae with a candle instead. I don't recall any silly singing.

Guess what kind of cheesecake I got :)

This looked so cool as we were walking back to the parking garage I had to get a picture. Doesn't she look so comfortable and happy sitting in her bench swing carved with hearts?

Jessie and I both got cute little gift bag presents. I remember she got a Starbucks gift card, along with a bracelet that we both received. It is a black stainless steel rope bracelet with a cute sparkly silvery element in the middle like a slide over the rope- only its fixed in place there.
I also received shampoo to go with my new hair, a loofah and a sugar body scrub that I'd been wanting and only mentioned just that morning. I get terrible dry skin every time I take a shower- I figured it would be a great solution. I also got The Princess and the Frog, and Lady and the Tramp movies. Squee!

It was a great night.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

This morning I had a slight disaster, that turned out not to be a disaster at all. Let me explain:

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but my new favorite article of clothing is a pair of tights I ordered from Sock Dreams. They are brown, and 40% wool. I got them for $22, and that's quite a steal for wool tights, even if they aren't 100% (shipping is free!). Normally they cost twice that much. I need another pair!

These things are cozy brown inches of awesomeness. The tights are ribbed so they fit a pretty wide range of sizes. My feet are too small to fully fill out the shaped footies of these tights, but I don't mind in the least- I get shaped footies!. I have finally figured out how girls can get away with wearing short skirts in the winter time. I have discovered that wearing skirts in the winter is MORE comfortable than wearing pants. I need skirts along with my second pair of tights on the wishlist.

These things arrived in the afternoon and I admit, I was too chicken to try them out the following morning at -3 degrees Fahrenheit. I DID, however, try them out that afternoon under jeans. It didn't take me very long at all to fall in love with them after that. Yes, at 14 degrees my legs DO get cold enough to stop being entirely comfortable. But, those of you who were reading along last year might recall me getting painfully-cold legs at 20 degrees with silk and leggings and jeans. This is 14 with only ONE LAYER! The tights feel like softness personified- every time I move my legs in a pedal stroke, I felt coziness at the same time as chilliness. At normal temperatures, these things really shine, though. 32 degrees is downright comfortable in these tights. I've discovered an aversion to my jeans- my most comfortable pants- because they just aren't the same. Somehow the denim transfers cold- and at warmer temperatures that feel perfectly fine with just the tights feel oddly sweltering at the same time as cozy. Did I mention these tights are cozy?

But, I only have the one pair. I also, for comfort reasons, prefer not to wear underwear due to my bicycle commute. They aren't kidding when they say wool is the best material to wear next to your skin, by the way! Anyway, I wash my tights every night. I simply throw them in the wash with other clothes, but I make certain they do not get to meet the new dryer my parents brought. They go over the shower rod to air dry instead, and they are ready to put on first thing in the morning when I want to get dressed.

Guess what didn't happen Sunday? Right- I forgot to start the washer before we went to play Pathfinder. So, I started that last load of laundry when we got home, a bit later than I like to be in bed on a school night. Jamie forgot to swap the machines for me before he crashed into bed a little later, so I woke up to wet clothes still in the washer.

Panicking that I wouldn't be able to get them dry and would have to suffer the day without my tights, I still did not give in to the temptation to toss them in the dryer. Over the shower rod they went. The rest of the clothes went into the hotbox, and I proceeded to get ready for work. I brushed my hair, checked the weather, made some icky oatmeal. In case you were wondering, strawberry jam is NOT a proper substitute for the blueberries that you were planning to use but had mold in them. Finally, there was nothing left to do but take the dogs outside, and I figured I really should be dressed to do that. I put on damp tights (they are never really "wet" out of the washer- always just damp).

Somehow, in the 7 minutes or so it took for my old dog to do both orders of business, I realized that the cold wasn't as bad as I had feared. When I got back into the warm house, I realized that the legs of the tights- damp when  went outside- were now almost completely dry. I was comfortable.

Huh!

So I went to work, damp wool-tighted feet stuffed in my sneakers. My feet didn't get cold either, but they took the entire morning ride to dry- I think they were still not quite dry when I took my shoes off back at home. Oh well, I don't care!!

<3 my wool tights!


In case you were wondering- my other favorite things include my husband, my cloak, my bike, my dogs, my Mooncup. The color green. My cloak, at least, will be reviewed in another post soon- but I'll give you a hint- Every day I've worn the tights, I've also worn the cloak!

Happy Monday!

(No, this wasn't today- it was last week)

A Froggy Cloak and Perfect Sewing Space!

Well, my cloak is finally done! I'm happy with it, but honestly I'm more excited about the presents my mom and dad brought over this Saturday. I have achieved organization!

The dryer we have been renting from our apartment complex people recently developed a very ominous rumble-grinding noise as it spins. It also has a history of violence toward clothing. It will try and eat anything with a string, and/or burn whatever it can't devour. It's sort of a game of roulette with that thing and this was the last straw for me. My mom recently retrieved all of her stored possessions from Florida, so I figured I'd ask if she still had any laundry machines. Of course she did! I was also excited because my dad had found some weird plastic cube-things in a dumpster and when I visited for Christmas, he said I could use them. A trip to deliver laundry machines meant those could come too, and I definitely had a plan for them.

TAH DAH!!!!

And a bonus!

Isn't that just the prettiest sight ever? Everything has a home, now, and it is NOT on the flat surface of my sewing desk. I was really hating my cloak while working on it because of all the stuff that had nowhere to be but in my way while I'm trying to maneuver this gigantic blob of fabric in every conceivable angle underneath that sewing needle. Whatever wasn't wedged beneath that ever-shrinking arm space of the sewing machine was instead wedged up against a stack of sewing supplies- neatly arranged though they were. You can see the stack behind Mia in my Aimee-Day picture showing off Mia in my green jumper dress (because dressing Mia up is flat-out fun!). Now, the only thing on the desk top is my Brother, and it's cover with two greenish canisters on top of it and Thing 2 reclining against one of them. The machine cover will likely find another place to live, too.

The plastic cubes, it turns out, are sold for display purposes as pedestals to "add height and dimension to your displays". They aren't meant to be turned sideways like cubby-holes, but with the opening downwards. They stack rather nicely in any direction, though. With these now providing valuable storage space, I can definitely see the appeal in those modular walls with pull-out totes. That's basically what I've built here- complete with a pull-out drawer just like those! All my patterns are in that green fold-able tote, too. I love it. I may have to order more! Or maybe build some.

Ok, now on to the cloak.

For a reminder- this is McCall's pattern M6446, which is supposed to look like:

 

 

And here is mine:

Please forgive the bathroom mirror pictures- I'm lazy..

The lighting is horrible, and I was surprised to get better pictures without any flash at all. You can tell that the hall light is a yellow old-fashioned bulb, while I have a nice bright daylight bulb in the desk lamp turned up toward the ceiling. 

It looks very wrinkly, but I honestly don't notice that as much in real life. The fleece makes the inside feel very cuddly, although now that I've attached it to the Babyville Boutique exterior fabric, it doesn't floof around me as much as when it could wander freely under there. A couple of the bound buttonholes had to be re-done because somehow the sizing got off. They are a little bit taller than just the slit I was aiming for. You can also see that I've turned the pocket welts upside down. It seemed silly to have pockets which would catch rain or snow or anything else following gravity.

I still need to add the loops for my hands to go through in order to hold the cloak out from me while riding the bike to protect my legs from rain or snow that might be falling. Also, imagine a strip of reflective tape around the hem, at least. I couldn't find the black trim with a reflective stripe in the middle at Hancock's, so I'll have to order some. That is the reason I went ahead and used black buttons and contrast stitching- with that trim being black anyway, why not?

My husband says it looks silly. I think the idea of a cloak at all is silly to him, not just this one. The arm slits throw him off, he says it should either be a cloak with sleeves, or a cape without any sleeves or openings. I'm just excited to wear this thing and see how it does out in the cold. Just trying it on for my parents during their visit, I got hot in it, so we'll see tomorrow morning. The weather-guessers predict a low of 21F. That sound perfect for experimenting- not too cold in case things go badly, but cold enough to give a good test. The high should be 61- so it will also warm up drastically- likely I won't need the cloak for anything but the first ride in before dawn.

Wish me luck!

I love comments, so if you have a thought, please feel free to share it with me.