PPPIIINNNKKK hair of course

What whaaaaat? Yes, it's pink hair. Thanks to my obsession with the color this has come about. It went well with the sunrise shown here from our resort room at Turtle Bay two weeks ago in O'ahu. I miss that sun........

And, new ink!

Thanks to my super darling bff (she'd totally make fun of me for typing that) Stacey Martin of Dovetail Tattoo in Austin TX gave me some new ink last month. http://www.myspace.com/dovetailtattoo They also have a facebook page, just search 'dovetail tattoo' or my darling Miss Martin.

Go to Texas. Head over to Austin. Get some ink from the best in the west!

Victoria's and GaGa goodness

I swear that Lady GaGa herself had a hand in the Victoria's Secret fashion show that I'm watching right now. The opening walk was RIDICULOUSLY awesome, but why do people make fun of my dear Lady's outfits? That gold lightening bolt explosion on the one that was close to last was PURE GAGA.

So, I've been mia lately because I have NO LIFE other than sewing, work, sewing, Oahu....what's that? Oahu? Yes! I'm heading there soon! But for kicks, here's the Halloween madness I was part of.......Marilyn, Lady GaGa and Jem. Oh yes, JEM. And I can't figure out why the photo sucks. omg the green outfit on Fergie right now? Sweetness.

Health care, flu shots, real sex education

Things that are scary with this health care bullshit- now they aren't even agreeing to keep women's health care a priority. Um, hello? It's how you all got here! It's half the population! And you want to screw us out of care that we already HAVE? Eff that. I'll be writing letters to congressmen and women every dang day until something is done. If you'd like to help you can call or write too. Help out Planned Parenthood by following this link http://www.ppaction.org/network/hcr09callvisibility.html?qp_source=hcr09nyt%5fafty
It will bring you to the call in page and you can also help out by donating.

There was a protest against the flu shots at the capitol the other day but after a paycheck screw up I didn't have all the extra cash hanging around to waste half a tank of gas to drive there and protest myself. I just hope something changes, but I doubt it. It's bullshit.

This week is the week of action for the REAL Act, which is for comprehensive sex education. What that means is that teens should get all the correct information on their bodies, sex and sexuality so that they are able to make good decisions on their own. Many schools do only abstinence only and we all know how well that works! Heck, even Texas (I know, TX?) says it doesn't work! So this is our week to let everyone know what teens in schools need. More information can be found here http://www.plannedparenthood.org/key-issues/fighting-real-sex-ed-25939.htm
I'll be out today in my hot pink tshirt with silver sparkle SEX ED protecting our future on the front. Oh, and I'll be at the fabric shop getting MORE hot pink and pale pink satin for more Jem costumes. I think I'm making Pizzazz today too, w00t.

Sequin Dot fabric tips

Really there's just ONE tip, don't iron it on the dot side. Big duh, right? Ok, well how about you don't iron it on the sequin dot side (the right side) while trying to flip your fat cat over with your foot and then forget that it's the wrong side and put the hot steam iron down on it and then wonder, huh? What's that smell....oh shit.

Dear Martha,
Your hair looks fantastic today! You must have a new stylist because it's got some more body than prior shows and there's a hint that a curling iron was used. Anyho- broadcast in HD would you!?!
Love, Jill

Pledge a Protester!

http://iamemilyx.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-is-what-were-here-for.html

Fantastic blog, fantastic cause, I love Planned Parenthood.

Martha, hands on, though not in HD

Yes, yes..........again. I'm bitching about Martha's new show NOT beging in High Def. That's all I got for today because I'm knee deep in Jem costumes. I'm also late on getting dinner started because someone is at the office and his ride left without him and now I have to go get him, in my pajamas, sweaty from working out, and I'm kinda cranky because of the lack of food in my system and wine of course. Dang it.

Dear Martha,

Please figure it out.

Hugs, Jill

Miss Tattoo USA

I'm gonna do it! I'm trying out for http://www.misstattoousa.com/! Gonna start working out a bit more cause I doubt anyone wants to see cupcake tattoos around a beer belly, and I need some more ink....too much pink showing at the moment. But yes! I'm gonna apply!

I ordered this pattern off of etsy yesterday to whip up some cute Libby inspired dresses to go with some sew on gems and vintage cotton lace. I think Amy Butler prints will work out best, or some other vintage sheets I've got laying around. Maybe I'll get to them after the 4 Jem dresses, Queen of Hearts, Tron, two wedding dresses and the Red Riding Hood costume....who needs sleep? Not me.

I don't want the flu vaccine

I might be mandated to get the flu vaccine because of where I work. I'm so not down with that, and am pretty ticked off about it.

I've never had the flu, I've never gotten the shot, I don't like being told what to put into my body especially if it might make me sick and hurt and cost money.

On another note, EC is in one pill form now! AND there is a generic version too! Hooray! Yeah, I know, I'm all over the place this morning.

Today I'm working on a couple of Jem costumes that sold in my etsy shop. Should be an easy task as I sized up the pattern I made up for it last night. What I'm finding hard is finding time to create items for the holiday sales I'm doing in November and December. I also have no interest in making anything that I've made in the past other than fascinators. And hair flowers alone will not pay for that holiday I'd rather forget and not bother with at all. Sigh. I'm a downer today, hopefully that will change with more coffee and a shower.

DAMMIT MARTHA

Martha, Martha......MARTHA. You screwed me over this week. Not only did you not say that you'd be on a different NETWORK, but also on a different TIME and, AND!!! NOT IN HD! WTF Marthaaaaaa!?!

Ok, I'm fine. Kinda.

THIS is fabulous.

Heck yes Rachel!

I have no life

Sick partner, too much travelling for work AND just found out that the FDA doesn't regulate what goes into cosmetics. There's alot of known carcinogens in make-up and lotions and such. WTF?
So, I've been rehauling my make up bag, buying organic EVERYTHING at the grocery store and basically going a little batty.
I hope to be up and running sewing wise again soon........

Long weekend and new etsy outfits

Long weekend full of wedding fun, that ended with a sick husband and not working out. So, I'm pretty boring today.

I did list a couple of items to etsy http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30545533

A simple sundress, great for just lounging around the house in. Also, a cutie of a skirt http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=30546598 in paisley print, and Megan's fab halter, she's ADORABLE! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30544457

Gonna get me a new sewing room!

So I'm waiting for a call back from the realtor to talk selling our home and getting a newer one. Newer meaning this house was built in 1930 and it's kinda drafty and needs a bigger kitchen. How I survived for 5 years with only 2 square feet of prep space is beyond me! My sewing room has also been taken over by totes up to the ceiling full of fabric, dress forms and I have a cutting table under a bunch of junk...somewhere in there. It's time. Time to move on up to a real garage and kitchen islands!

Dear Martha,

Wouldn't it be cool if you came to a housewarming party for me at my soon to be new home? You could broadcast your new show there, in HD of course. And you could even do that silly thing you do at the beginning of EVERY show where you LOOK like you're cooking or cutting or rolling out dough...but we know you're really not. My new kitchen will be perfect for that! Please come on up, broadcast in HD and have a martini with me. We'll be BFF's in no time.

Hugs, Jill

Today's costume idea is Swamp Thing's lady friend. Take any old and/or vintage dress and dye it with blues and green dyes all sloppy. Stitch on some rubber snakes, paint yourself up with green and sludge brown make up and throw on a messy wig with snakes in it as well and ta-da! Hottie from the Swamp. Just don't do what I did years ago.....this was a lovely white chiffon vintage dress that I dumped in the indigo vat. Thought, *thought* I rinsed it enough to wear out. Well............when I came home and peeled it off I was blue too. Nice. Stage two of the costume was 'dead dyed blue girl pulled from the swamp'.

Costume Ideas

I think I'm going to start talking about costume ideas since I listed another one on etsy today. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30222208

Easily someone could be Dorothy, or Alice or throw blood on it and it's a zombie-whatever. Yes, I know it's basically the same description but I'm drawing a blank as to what else you could be in a checked dress with an apron. A square dancer maybe? Throw on a cowboy hat and a big belt, ditch the apron and you're all set to boot scoot boogie or whatever the heck that dorky western dance is. Can you tell I'm not a fan?

This afternoon I went out and used a gift card to Adirondack Quilts that my bff (she'd totally make fun of me if she knew I just typed that) gifted me for my birthday. SHE is AWESOME! I bought some Amy Butler cottons for a dress to wear to a wedding this weekend. It's an outdoor wedding, in the middle of the woods, very rustic. I'm hoping this print won't be too much.

Treasury on Etsy!

So, much to my surprise on Saturday I got an email saying one of my fascinators was in an Etsy Treasury. Very cool! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=66444

It was put together by the lovely Mornin Glorias on etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7745958 who not only has lovely barrettes and brooches but has lovely photos of her creations as well. Now, if because of this treasury someone will actually buy a fascinator? That would be super sweet. I have so many freakin flowers and feathers sitting around here, some have got to go. I had a good run with them at the craft sales I did last year, and I wear the ones I made for myself many places but now it's like you see them even at Kohls, and they are not made well. Humph.

Over the weekend I whipped up a shift dress in honor of Libby Pulitzer. Amy Butler cotton and vintage cream cotton lace in two rows down the front. If I hadn't worn it to a rainy pool party with my disaster of pink dyed bangs...well, there would be a photo of it up right now. I do plan on making more since I'm on the Libby train ever since I watched a Martha re-run all on Libby a week or so ago. That reminds me.......

Dear Martha,

It would be super sweet that if when your new show comes out it was broadcast in HD. It would make your show even more fabulous if it was, so please please please be in HD!

Hugs, Jill

Another idea we had over the weekend was on our halloween costumes. Since the pink dying incedent, I thought about how much I missed having pink hair. What better excuse to do it again? Why, be Jem on Halloween! I'm super psyched about it and already had a pattern for the dress and belt because last year I sold a couple of them in my etsy shop. I just need to find the blinky star earrings, or find my soldering gun and do them myself. OR- if you're reading this and have them for sale please let me know!

Hooks and Eyes and lack there of

So a while back I wrote an email letter to Dritz about the hook and eye packages they sell. At one point when you purchased a package of nickel hooks and eyes you were able to use the whole package because there were even numbers of eyes to hooks. Not so much anymore, andI've been to 4 JoAnn's to see if maybe it was just my closest store or what. Now each package you buy, unless you purchase white ones, you are screwed out of half the eyes. Instead, you get flat eyes that are USELESS really to me and I'm sure other dressmakers who use them to finish off a zipper closure in back. I wrote a letter asking if I could send all the useless flat ones back in exchange for the curved eyes. I don't think they understood, or got my sarcasm that I really wanted to send back over 100 flat eyes for the other. Either that or no one really reads the comments or questions that someone sends them and they are just being aholes about it.

Also today I baked what might be the worst looking cupcakes in the world. This was after I overcooked lentils for a salad (hot squishy mess now) AND effed up my bangs to be some weird shade of pink instead of HOT pink on the tips. Now, it looks like Barbie hair when you tried to color her hair when you were little with Crayola markers. The cupcakes overflowed out of their cups and all over the pans and have dents in them and I'm going to do my best tomorrow to fill them in with frosting so no one notices. And, AND freakin fattie cat is being a total jerk and not eating his food because the antibiotics is in it. Nice. My night had better be good.

Project Runway was ok last night, I'm not into pregnancy or designing for it really. Not really sad to see 'chicken thigh egg boy' go away, maybe he should contact Bjork? I do like her, but I think she's got the 'conceptualism' he's into. I have no clue who's going to win at this point, but am seriously thinking of trying out the next time around. Because the world needs ONE MORE vintage inspired designer, right? Right.

Ten Dollar Salad

Who runs out of grilled vegetables at 2 o'clock on a Thursday? Who only has ONE vegetable panini option? Urgh. I'm tired of having only ONE option at restaurants in town, one measly vegetarian option. At least 10 different other meat paninis, but only one vegetable one and that's the one they were out of today. I was ticked. So, I was left getting a $9.99 salad. Ten Dollar Salad. I felt like I was in the Pulp Fiction movie during the '5 dollar shake' scene. For a ten dollar salad it should of been freakin' amazing, right? It was ok. I've made something similar at home before. Eh.

I'm now watching another recorded Martha re-run and will again give my plea.

Dear Martha, I hope your new season is in HD. It would make that $10 salad so much better. Well, not really. But it would make watching your show so much better. Hugs, Jill

I don't have anything else to post on sewing today, or kittens, or cupcakes.......wait I do! I had a great cupcake from The Bread Basket Bakery in Saratoga last night. http://www.saratogabreadbasket.com/
It was fabulous- dark chocolate filled with black cherry goo and topped with super yum kinda cream cheesy frosting and had cinnamon somewhere in there and a chocolate 'S' for Saratoga. It was fantastic, I wish I had a photo. Much better than other cupcakes I've had in town, and I'm inspired to put cherry goodness in the cupcakes I'm baking tomorrow for a little girl birthday party.

Kitten Pink Cupcake

I found this most adorable catnip toy this morning by typing in the following words into Etsy search: kitten pink cupcake. It is SO freakin cute!

It's from seller spellwell on etsy and the shop is

http://www.spellwell.etsy.com/

These cute little cupcake treats have organic catnip inside (which is great!) and they have some other kinda gruesome catnip toys too (think beheaded fishies with guts trailing out) for sale in the shop. It's just too adorable not to post, and being someone who is a little psycho about her cats, even though the sick fat one is now NOT taking his crushed up meds in food, little jerk...anyways, this was cute and I had to share!

On other news, yesterday was Women's Equality Day in honor of the passing of the 19th Amendment. I spent it doing a Burma Shave in the next town over for women's health care, and we had hot pink signs and hot pink tshirts. Many cars gave us honks and thumbs up, though a couple did do thumbs down and yell "I'm not a socialist!" to which we turned and looked at each other and said "Well, neither are we!". What was cool was how many men honked, though it could of been they were just honking at 6 women in hot pink on the street...

And, because I'm in love with feministing.com I just found this fab cartoon link http://thisisindexed.com/2009/08/all-else-being-equal/

Sigh. I wish it weren't true.

oh Martha......

Dear Martha,

I wish you'd broadcast in HD. I think I'll start every correspondance with you that way, ok? Anyways, I'd like to say that I think you rock because not only do you do awesome crafts and cooking on your show, you had a re-run of your show with QTip on this week. THAT is awesome. HE is awesome. A super sweet day of AWESOME. :)

Love, Jillery

Finished this dress today and it's ready to whip up for you on my etsy shop!

Martha, please do your show in HD!

I keep hoping and hoping that I'll see the Martha Stewart Show in HD. I know they are in reruns right now and the new show doesn't start up until September 14th, but come on Martha! Why aren't you in HD yet? I've emailed the show, they claim "We will also be sending this email to Martha herself" which I'm sure is bull. There are some of the crappiest shows in HD, I just don't get why hers is in low def. So in order to watch it on our 56" projection tv on the HD tier, you have to stretch it and it gets even more blurry. Frustrating to say the least for someone who is really into the show. Maybe I'll just post about it every day until it happens? Be that annoying squeeky wheel?

Onto other things- yesterday I decided it was time for a new style for white eyelet sundresses. I'll be posting the photos later today and the dress in my etsy shop http://www.cherrypievintage.etsy.com/ I had to think of something new because the older style with ties all over the place, facings, lining....wasn't worth what I was charging or driving around trying to find the eyelet.

Warmed up cat food really stinks

But it's the only way he'll take his meds. Yesterday, my fat cat was acting odd. Walking funny, howling and just being more of a lazy bum than normal. Off to the vet he went for a day of monitoring and waiting for him to pee. Yes, $120.00 to wait for him to pee. Finally got a call 6 hours later to find out he's got an infection. So now I get to crush pills up into microwaved wet cat food that smells like the worst chicken casserole on the planet. Sooo glad I don't eat that stuff anymore. The chicken, not cat food. Well really, not either.

I'm guessing he'll be back on my feet in the sewing room and lying on the sewing machine pedals so each time I get up to iron my machine still magically runs as he rolls his fat self over it. Today I'll be working on a new wedding dress design and am thinking of starting up some ready made Jem dresses for Halloween. Last year I did at least 4 or 5 Jem outfits so I've got the dress down.

no sewing today.....

My fat baby is at the vet. Not sure what's wrong. Sad day.

Kelly's Sundress

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28427714

This is one of the sundresses I had in a fashion show in June. A fashion show/competition that was well......I think I was there more for 'show' not really much else. My dresses that were painstakingly whipped up over a month and a half, fully lined, wearable, with petticoats and shrugs, french seams and pleated by hand...where did they end up? Coming in THIRD to bikinis and outfits glued together from garbage. Yup. I guess that was my charity donation for the year. Bitter much?

Anyways, Kelly looked amazing in this dress that I had actually made for myself to wear to an Ani DiFranco concert. Then thought I'd be over dressed if I wore it to the concert and decided to put in the show. It fit her perfectly and nothing needed to be changed, it's just adorable if I do say so myself. So adorable that someone should buy the darn thing and wear it to Sunday tea or the track because everytime I look at it hanging on the garment rack I think back to the show and how it was a waste of time. Big sigh, right?

Oh, and obviously I sell on etsy. I effing love it.

can haz

Totally got this awesome idea from flickr user KateDW and followed her instructions with great success! I added some lettuce to mine, green dyed coconut flakes.
NOM NOM NOM

A great read and PR

I am in love with this book, as well as the site feministing.com. I am however getting more and more mad about some things that I really didn't think too much about before. But, Jessica Valenti has become quite the heroine to me (as well as Sarah Haskins, more on her later) and after reading her other book 'He's a Stud, She's a Slut' I was totally hooked.

Another thing that I'm in love with and am totally going to try my hand at is making a vintage style bathing suit. I SUCK at sewing stretch and lycra (horrible sweat shop experience back in the day) but I've ordered some custom made suits and they were not what I expected quality wise or fit wise. I did buy a cute little bikini from a new designer on etsy.com that I will totally post photos of when it comes in. Maybe this one will be of better quality and fit than the other one? I hope. I wasted over $200 on suits that don't fit this summer, I'm sure money could of gone other places. Not that I even swim, or tan......so why the hell am I buying all these?

And...........PROJECT RUNWAY IS ON AGAIN! I effing love this show, love it love it love it love it!

For kicks

Because everyone needs just ONE MORE thing to read about online, right? I sew alot. So much that I felt the need to start a sewing blog to show all the dresses I whip up, all the techniques I've tried and what I think is just sooo super cute and feel the need to tell others about.
And of course super sweet tattoos that my friend does because I love her to death, and cupcakes...and kittens....and feminist views that I feel the world just needs to know and be pissed off about as well. Fabulous.