fabric!

I found a website that sells fabric pretty cheap. You can order swatches for $1 each, so I ordered a few to get an idea it looks like in real life and what combination I’d like best. The spandex seems like a good deal, but I want to see how thick it is and stuff. It’s really cheap and that makes me nervous. But, I’ll probably have 2 layers of it on my body because I plan on doing a built-in leotard that’s a bit more snug than the outer dress to help smooth out my "curves."

I like the lace, roses and tiger ones the best, but the sequins might be better for a dance dress. Whichever contrast I pick, I can make some sort of decoration to put on my black shoes. I’ll also want to think about making something that my partner can wear like a tie & cummerbund or something. I'll have to check with him what he thinks about that. 

 

 

 

 

 

Lego Photo Recreations

Some classic photos recreated with Legos.

Some of my favorites:

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare




Tennis Girl



V.J. Day Times Square

Tango Dress

I agreed to do a Tango routine and we're shooting for the Summer Showcase, which is August 24th. So, it's coming up pretty fast. We'll see if I can get it all perfected by then. The most worrisome thing for me right now is what I'm going to wear. I'm planning out my dress. I've found some photos online of dresses that I like.

I like the top portion of this dress. I like how it has sleeves and the back is pretty low to show off a lot of skin, but it would still cover up my "trouble areas."

This is the dress I'm going to try to model my creation after.

Here's a similar style dress.

I purchased a few Vogue patterns because there was an online sale for $6.99 each.

I think I'll end up using this one for my tango dress. I'll either just extend the top to be a dress or make the top and a modified version of the shirt and figure out a way to hook them together. Probably the first option will be easier to wear and move in.

For some future creation. I just really thought this dress was pretty and I could figure out a way to make it into some sort of dance dress.

I bought these patterns just because they are so darn cute!

Office Whiteboard update

Well, apparently a new rule went into effect that says our painted-on whiteboards have to be rectangular. So, mine was started today and it's a just boring old rectangle. Here's a couple of photos.






Two coats have been painted and the guy will be back on Wednesday to paint two more coats. I need to bring in my leftover purple paint so he can make some touch-ups to the edges because he said the whiteboard paint tends to bleed quite a bit. I won't be able to use it until Friday.

I may try to figure out a way to tape on additional materials to make it look castle-like. I'll have to think on it and try out some things when it's all dry and ready to use.

The whiteboard from my old office was sitting around waiting to be put up and now that I have a bigger, painted on whiteboard, I won't be using the old one. So, I took some photos of the Punkin's irreplaceable artwork that has been on it. Along with the other work-related stuff that I may actually need in the future.

princess office

As I have posted here before, I painted my office at work purple. Now I have the option of having a custom white board painted in any shape I wish. I haven't put up a whiteboard yet because the place that mine is supposed to hang is blocked by my big bookcase and I was waiting around to get a new one.

Now they are doing this thing at work with some whiteboard paint and I have been told that I can be added to the schedule. I'll have to tape off the area myself, but I can have any shape I want. I joked around about a unicorn, but in all actuality, when I got to thinking about it, I think a castle would be perfect. Then I can truly have a nice princess office, but yet the result after I move my stuff out would be something that a lot of guys would enjoy as well.

Here's my 5 minute MS Paint rendering of what I'm thinking.





It's unmistakably castle shaped, but yet it's a nice mostly rectangular area that actually is quite functional as a whiteboard.

Coolest water slide EVAR!

Lunchbox Laboratory

I went to a place called Lunchbox Laboratory (website under construction and not helpful) on Sunday, May 25th. This place was mentioned in some work email threads and I figured I'd give it a try. It was a beautiful day and a friend was in town hanging out with us for the day, so we took a lovely 15 minute stroll over there.

They have a few choices for the type of meat you can get on your burger, including the standard beef, buffalo, "dork" (which is a combination of duck and pork) and even had at least one veggie choice (I should have taken photos of the menu board!)

They also had a bazillion difference sauce choices for your burger and quite a hefty number of cheese selections as well.

For sides, you could choose fat or skinny fries, tots, onion rings, sweet potato fries or their Mac 'N Cheese Du Jour. You can choose from a few different types of salt for your fries. I don't remember all of them, I just remember the bacon & onion and the one I picked which was rosemary.

I got a buffalo burger as did our friend and Mosquito got a regular beef burger. My burger tasted fantastic. I didn’t get too creative with the sauces, I stuck with mustard and ketchup. Next time I’ll try something a bit more exotic.

Someone at work complained about the meat being raw in the middle, but I didn’t have any issues with feeling like it was too raw and I didn’t specifically ask the other two, but certainly no one was complaining. However, the burger juices did start to make the bottom bun a bit soggy, but I don’t see that as any particular problem as I just flip the entire thing over so that the relatively dry top bun can support the burger just fine.

As for the sides, I got the sweet potato fries with the rosemary salt and they were excellent. My hubby got the tots with bacon and onion salt and our friend got the onion rings. I wasn’t too fond of the onion rings, but the tots were really good. I also splurged and got us a side of the Mac’ N Cheese Du Jour, just because we didn’t quite have enough heart attack inducing food. It was hickory cheddar and Gorgonzola and it was amazingly yummy but way too rich to finish, even with 3 of us working on it.

Our friend and I each got a Nutella shake and my hubby got a vanilla chai one and they were so good. I really can't remember what the other choices were, but I do remember someone who worked there recommending the buttercream.

I’m definitely going to go back and next time I’ll take the Punkin, who didn’t get to go since she was spending the weekend with her dad.

Tactical Pants

Are you looking for great tactical pants? What about gun holsters or good, sturdy boots? Well, you really should check out LA Police Gear. They specialize in gear for police officers and security personnel, but the gear on their website has been made available to anyone. They offer a nice selection of tactical gear, including top of the line flashlights.

The company was founded in the Los Angeles area by police officers and has an excellent reputation for selling high quality merchandise. And with LA Police Gear, you can always be assured that your online purchases are handled in a secure manner.

Medal Ball

Yesterday was the Arthur Murray Spring Medal Ball. It was a lot of fun. Since Mosquito was in San Diego running his marathon, The Punkin was my date for the day. I danced in two heats -- cha cha and tango. I slipped a bit on the slippery floor during my crossover breaks in the cha cha, but recovered fine. Other than that I think I did well. I have to schedule my consultation with the judges to see what they had to say. I'm still registered for Bronze 1 even though I've been giving the green light to test out and move on to Bronze 2.

My dress got several comments. I wish I'd taken before pictures. I did quite a bit of altering to it. I just can't bring myself to wear strapless or even sleeveless dresses. I just have way too much loose skin that hangs out in really strange and not attractive places. So, I have come up with some creative ways to add sleeves to a sleeveless dress. The last medal ball I just wore a shirt under my dress and safety pinned it all together to produce this:

.
It looked great from the front, the back didn't look all that cool.

So, this time around, I actually made my dress into a sewing project. I really wish I'd thought to take some before photos of the dress and the shirt I started with and photos of the process itself. I was in such a hurry to get started that I didn't even think to do it.

The top was just a satiny V-neck babydoll top, similar in style to this one, but in a green/white/black animal print mixture.



I removed the stitches to take the top and bottom of the shirt apart. So, what I ended up with was sleeves and a neckline with the bulk of the fabric removed. I found the middle of the back and cut the top in half. so I have 2 pieces, each with a sleeve and half of the neckline.

The dress was a strapless dress in a light icy blue color. It had some ties in the back that I carefully cut off. I pinned one tie to each of the top halves, following the neckline in the front and folded over the raw cut edges of the back of the top and pinned it to the satin tie. Now, I pinned each sleeve to the dress itself, matching the front opening with the front seams in the dress and in the back, I angled the satin ties a bit right next to each side of the zipper so that it made almost a V in the back. The ties increases in width and I used the narrowest part in the front and the wider part in the back. I ended up doing some tucking in the front as well. But I think it looked great. I had to hand sew the entire thing because I was attaching it to areas that would show. So that took a while. The dress also has gathered satin at the waist that was the same material as the ties I had cut off. I had intended to use some of the excess material from the top to create a couple of stripes within the waistband, just to help tie the dress and top together a bit better, but by the time I was done with the sewing it was after 4am and I was falling asleep. So, if I decide to wear that dress again in the future, I'll think about doing it then.

Here are some pictures taken at the Medal Ball so you can see the dress in action. I'm very proud of the creation I made. Especially since it was all so very last minute. I bought the dress and top at Nordstrom Rack around 2pm on Saturday and had the dress modifications done in time to wear the next day.


This was a very delicate cha cha crossover break after almost falling on my butt during the first one.

Tango shadow rocks. Do you like my serious tango face? haha My right arm should have better styling also.


A shot of the back of my dress.