Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress . the finale

I finished the Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress a while ago and wanted to wait to show pics of Z in the dress. With Winter, that's just not going to happen anytime soon. One brighter day, I shot this picture of the dress in its current location. It's been hanging there like a painting and will continue to do so until Spring.

If you want to know more, follow the links from this post.

Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress

It's been over a month but I finally finished the Jump Rope Dress from Oliver + S. I had followed along with the sew-along as long as I could but then got really busy and really exhausted. I haven't done much sewing at all lately.

Yesterday was almost like a holiday so I spent the day voting (of course) and working on a few things around the house. I started by stitching the little buttons on the sleeves (vintage), then moved on to the snaps. I wasn't in the mood for buttonholes so I went with these lovely snaps I found at a thrift store. I love the little splash they add.

The pockets are to the other style that comes in the pattern envelope but I like them better. That's the amazing thing about sewing your own clothes -- you can do whatever you want. I'll take some pictures of Zadie in the dress soon.

Project: Soundtrack

I'm not sure why but I have not been into music for a few years now. It used to be something that I felt really defined me. I was all about what I was into. So I don't know why I stopped listening. In fact, when I traded in my Toyota Echo over a year ago, I didn't even bother to put my fully stocked CD case into the newer (used) Corolla.

Yesterday one of my friends posted on Facebook that Alex Chilton died. He was 59. Big Star was pretty much the soundtrack of almost every summer of my college years (it was the early 1990s and they had just gotten back together). I have not been able to stop listening to this album, recorded live.

I actually started listening to my CDs this past weekend. We needed to move a shelf to make room for Zadie's new little table and chairs and it was full of CDs so I started copying everything I wanted to my computer so that I could get rid of all that plastic. I have fallen in love all over again. I think periodically I will post about what I'm listening to. And I promise I will never have anything that plays as soon as you load the page. I absolutely hate that.

Love love love

So my preempted rant post is doing some good! My friend Amanda (that's her dog Bleu up there in a photo of hers that I stole from her flickr) was in a pissy mood, read my blog and got all inspired to write her own post about why she loves her life.

Imagine how much happier everyone would be if we just took a couple of minutes out of the day to think about the things we love!

If you decide to write your own post about loving life, please let me know. Some days I don't feel very effective (or is it affective?).

Etsy love!

Two of my most favorite shops on Etsy are Mamadelic and Tinymeat (perhaps you remember my earlier post about how "Sorry, no pie here" was the inspiration for my own slogan contest). I have just learned that they met on Etsy and now are trying to sell lots of stuff so that they'll have enough money to be together.

Read about their story on Mona's blog. I'm a little teary eyed. Give me a second.

I can't buy anything until the next payday but perhaps you can.
Mamadelic is giving away free Tinymeat card cases with any purchase over 10$!

This checkbook cover was on my Christmas list:
You can buy cool passport cases here too.

And I really need this necklace:
Don't buy this one. Buy something else, like this.

It's true love, just like on The Princess Bride.