Just a couple little things

I don't have any major projects right now, which is starting to make me a little antsy, but I do have a few small things I can post about here.  I did mention my New Year's dress, but I haven't posted it yet, and I'm pretty proud of that.

So, first of all, yeah, I totally fit into my high school junior prom dress. I don't care what anyone says, or who gets mad at me about that, I'm damn proud of that. I've worked freaking hard to get myself somewhere where I could be happy with my body and I'll be damned if I let anyone make me feel bad about being proud of that.  When I pulled it out of the box to try it on, I did the math and realized it had been about 14 years since I last wore it. I put it on, had my daughter zip it up, and about cried when I realized not only did it fit, but I even had just a bit of breathing room in it. There are not many people that can wear something they wore 14 years ago when they were a teenager.

Unfortunately, the only pictures I have of me in the dress in high school are not great ones, and due to the fact that it's silver, it's shininess means it didn't photograph well, but here's what I have to give you an idea of what I was working with:

There you are. High school, 16-17 year old me. Man, I remember that prom date. I had such a crush on that boy, and basically ran a whole campaign to get him to take me to prom. I had literally everyone who knew both of us telling him to ask me to prom. God, that's so embarrassing. Protip, past Jessica. If a boy likes you, he'll ask you out. If he doesn't, you just embarrass yourself by forcing the date. I mean, we were friends, but he wasn't interested in anything else. We had a fun time anyways, but uhg. I suppose if your teenage self doesn't embarrass you though you probably did something wrong.

Anyways.

So, once I'd established the dress still fit, I needed a plan. I knew I wanted to remove the sleeves, and shorten the skirt. After trying the dress on I realized the skirt definitely needed to be widened as well to be more flare-y and twirly. I wanted to incorporate the shawl I was wearing as well.

Removing the sleeves was easy, I just used my seam ripper and then tucked the silver fabric under into the lining, which I also folded over, and then just stitched around the armhole. Super simple. Man, those sleeves were so restrictive, I couldn't move my arms hardly at all with them on there. I knew those had to go first thing.

After that, I put it on, marked where my knees were, and then just cut the skirt off right there. God, it felt so wrong to cut into the skirt like that. This dress cost $130, and it was so pretty, it felt like I was going to ruin it.

The dress had princess seams, going all the way up and down the dress, so after cutting it off at the knee, I used my seam ripper and opened up all of the seams from the knee to about where my hip would hit. I then took the piece that I cut off the dress and cut it into seven triangles as wide as I could make them, two for the front seams, two for the side seams, two for the back seams and one for the center back seam where the zipper was, for maximum skirt flare. I carefully pinned and stitched the triangles into each seam that I opened, basically adding godets to each seam to add width to the skirt. I hemmed it up and everything looked great.

I made one further adjustment, I'd intended to wear a petticoat with the dress, but realized that the bottom of the dress had a tulle ruffle to make it a little fluffy. Of course that got cut off with the bottom of the dress and liner, so I took that piece and had to gather it a bit to fit, and then pinned and sewed it to the liner of the dress roughly around my hips to create a built in petticoat. After that all I had to do was serge the raw cut edge of the bottom of the liner and the dress was done. It was really pretty easy.

For accessories to go with the dress, I took the silver shawl and tied it into a big bow and safety pinned it to the back of the dress. I wanted to sew it in, but the place where I wanted to sew it cut off the zipper too high making it too difficult to get into the dress, so I stuck with pinning it.

I bought another pair of those great cheap ballet flats from Walmart (the same ones I used for Princess Peach's shoes) only in grey this time, and covered them in super fine silver glitter (that I am STILL finding all over my house in the strangest places) and then like four or five coats of spray on Polycrylic, in an attempt to trap as much glitter as I could. I was doing a pair of red glitter heels at the same time for a vague future idea, but I'll cover that later when I really launch the other project. I glued a few plastic jewels to the silver shoes for fun and they were good to go.

I made myself a new necklace and new earrings and a pretty dangly hair piece with a bunch of sparkly crystal ball beads I had, and on the day of the party I covered myself in body glitter, did super sparkly makeup and even sprinkled glitter in my hair and hairsprayed it in place. I was all glitter all the time and it was great.

Of course, the pictures don't really capture the sparkles well. But I looked great, and now I have a super awesome fancy party dress that I'm very proud of.

That last picture I'm holding my little brother's light saber replica, cuz the glowy saber was just fun with all the shininess.

The only other thing I've done lately is some minor alterations to some things. I got a few new tshirts from Kohl's lately because they had some really neat nerdy ones, but only in the MEN'S section. (Angry side-eye at Kohl's. Girls have nerdy interests other than Disney, Kohl's.) So I had to run my shirts through my serger really quick so they'd be flattering. I got a Duck Tales shirt, one with the Nintendo 64 logo and one with the Playstation logo, and one with the Punisher skull on it, because I recently finished the Netflix series of The Punisher and kind of fell in love. Those shirts were easy fixes though, I've done that hundreds of times.

The last thing was something I was pretty excited about. So, I went with Stu to visit his parents for Christmas this year, and his mom always takes him shopping for new clothes while he's there and I got to go along this time. At one store while we were waiting for Stu to try stuff on I happened to spot this gorgeous moto/biker style jacked with a burgundy fur collar, and I wanted it so bad. I was hesitant because, let's be real. We all know there was no chance in hell that would fit me, the sleeves would never be long enough. I tried it on anyways, and I was right, but it wasn't disastrously short. Stu's mom offered to buy it for me and I just couldn't resist. I'd always wanted a jacket like that, but I'd always been too afraid to waste money on something that might not work. But after some sales and coupons the jacket only cost her $17, which is a freaking amazing price for a jacket like that, so I didn't feel too bad.

I intended to go buy some black ribbed fabric to add cuffs to the sleeves and the bottom of the jacket, but I actually ended up stumbling across a long sleeved shirt in a thrift store that was made out of exactly the fabric I wanted. So rather than gambling on a fabric store having what I wanted, I just bought the shirt and cut it up. It ended up working perfectly. I got the cuffs in and took in the side seams of the jacket just a bit for a little curvier shape, and was very happy with the result.

The one on the left is as it was originally, on Christmas morning. The right is after I added the cuffs. I realize the differences aren't super visible, but it looks good and I feel great in that jacket. The fur collar of that jacket is removable too, so I can wear it with or without, and I can use the collar to make other collars to change up the look however I want, it's pretty great.

Well, that's all I've done lately. I'm feeling that project itch though, so I've got to come up with something. I'll let you know when I do.

Hey, look, clothes!

A random clothing post for ya, I haven't had one in a while.  I got in to another of Crowdtap's Old Navy sample shares.  this time it was for dresses.  I only got one coupon to share, so I took Amanda.  I was kinda surprised by our selections.  I thought I would get a sweater dress, maybe one of the cowl neck ones, but then I found this:

and I completely loved it.  admittedly it's noticably shorter on me than it is on the model, but that's what I get for being 6 feet tall.  it's really cute and festive.  I still had a $10 gift card to Old Navy so I bought some cute cable knit tights too.

Amanda, however, did go for the sweater dress, which is really weird, cuz that's never been her taste.  Hers is the one below, except hers was pink and brown striped.  couldn't find a picture of her colors.  but it looked really cute on her with her brown fuzzy boots.   

anyways, we were both pleased.  I love shopping and not spending money!

Yes, they are. not my fault if you can't hear them.

These boots I just bought are telling me I need more skinny jeans.

So here's a little tmi for you: last night things got a little..... um..... distracted with Caleb and I while we were fooling around, and based on the time frame we just rolled the dice on me getting pregnant. Wasn't really planned. Oops. We'll never get to plan a pregnancy, will we? that'll be our luck and it'll take just the one shot to do it. Not even intentionally! well, nothing to do about it now. I figured I'd blog about it, because no one reads this, and it's not something I can really bring up in conversation.

Not much going on now. Shannon starts school next Tuesday. I may or may not be having panic attacks about this. I'm 25. I'm not old enough to have a kid in school. I took her shoe shopping last night (thus the boots) and got all emotional over buying shoes for her to wear for school. I still need to take her to get some new shirts too. Already got school supplies, which was surreal. And we got her a new backpack last night. we were going to use the airplane one my mom got her a while ago, but she keeps insisting she hates airplanes, and her insistance got louder when she saw the Hello Kitty backpack at the shoe store. so, with Payless' buy one get one half off sale I gave in. She's in morning kindergarten, which is what we wanted. But I'm still thinking I'm gonna see if I can switch shifts with the other parttimer at work, cuz I'm sick of dealing with Katie, Caleb's sister, for childcare. she's flaky and unreliable and always a liar. I'm actually very angry at her- she said she was going out of town for a week, so she couldn't watch Shannon, so I frantically made desperate other arrangements, and she didn't go out of town- but I can't actually do anything about it cuz we need her. And I'm tired of needing her and biting my tongue. so I emailed the other parttimer- Ben- and we'll see if this is possible. Of course, if I get pregnant, that loss of afternoon shift is going to be strongly regretted.

titles are boring.

well, my amazon shirts are here. the teal is darker than I though- for a second I thought it was gonna be black, and then I was going to be annoyed. But they're really pretty, and I'll try them on soon. so far everything looks good. Once I have pictures of me in them I'll put them up here.

Also, Marissa and I went and bought jeans yesterday. You know, those free jeans we got from CrowdTap. I did mention that didn't I? Free jeans? the dark pair on the left, the skinny jeans, are the ones that Marissa got. she wasn't sure about skinny jeans, but since they were free she decided to try it. the medium blue jeans on the right are the ones I got- they're called trouser jeans and they're SO COMFY. The jeans in the middle are ones that I tried on at the store, but they didn't have them in tall sizes, so I just ordered those online. apparently flares are back in and I LOVED it. unfortunately, I am 6' tall and regular length jeans just aren't going to cut it. So, online we go.

We bought tops to go with our jeans, of course. The black and white striped sweater is Marissa's- I am HIGHLY ENVIOUS. it looked really cute on her, and really good with the skinny jeans. However, when I tried on the same sweater, I knew right away it wasn't going to work for me. I put it on and leaned just a little back, and it immediately pulls up to show my stomach. way too short. sigh. The brown sweater is the one I got. (Marissa also got a matching one) It's an interesting shirt- it's a loose open weave, totally see through, so I have to put a tank top underneath. So I just pick a bright color to show through the sweater- I'm wearing it today and I went with pink- and it looks really cool. I also got some new pants for Shannon, since she starts kindergarten this year- figured she could use some school clothes, since Old navy had kids jeans on sale. Turns out Shannon doesn't like skinny jeans. I tried them on her and she did not approve. I thought they were cute, but they were for her to wear so I let her pick what she wanted.

I'm actually starting to be ready for cooler weather. I miss my sweaters, and now I'm getting new jeans, that I won't even wear yet cuz it's too warm. We wore our new clothes yesterday when we got home, but we were both woo warm in them. and I am wearing the sweater I got and because of the open weave it's not really a warm sweater, but I think I'm about ready for the weather to change.

Except for floating the river! Oooh, I'm a fan of that. I'd never been before and Saturday before last we finally decided to go. Of course- I had a meltdown the night before- I had planned to wear my navy tankini, but when I went to find it, the top was missing. I don't know where it is. I didn't want to wear my Hawaii swim suit, cuz the seams are starting to rip out. so I tried on my old leopard printed halter top one piece form several years ago. Yeah, NO. It did the most awful pear shaped thing to my body- my bust looked tiny and my belly and hips looks huge. So I had a massive self-esteem crash. it was bad. Crying and sulking and everything. Eventually Caleb found the correct solution to that- tell me to go buy a new swimsuit. So I got up early, and I took Shannon, cuz her current suit was getting too small, and she and I went swimsuit shopping. we started at Old Navy, but there was NOTHING left there but a few pieces of bikinis, which, after pregnancy, c-section, and gaining 10 lbs, that is NOT going to happen, so we moved on. We walked down that little strip mall, hitting Shopko, Marshalls, Ross and even Sportsman's Warehouse, and then Walmart at the end. Let me tell you what, swimsuit selection is not great at the end of July. At Walmart Shannon picked out a Dora the Explorer suit she really liked and I found a blue one piece with ruched sides (thereby hiding any belly issues I might worry about) that I loved. Nearly fought with Shannon over that, cuz there was a pink one I tried on too that she wanted me to get, cuz she likes pink better, but I wanted the blue.

So, that crisis out of the way, floating the river was really fun. We actually bought our own tubes, cuz renting was only slightly cheaper than buying, and with buying we were able to go again last Saturday and will go again this Saturday and probable every Saturday we can. I very much enjoyed it, and so did Shannon. She will never get to 25 like me and have to admit she's lived in Boise all her life and never floated the river. This Saturday, though, I don't think we will be inviting Josh and Sarah. I nearly slapped her this last time- she has NO patience for children and was snapping at Shannon, just being nasty and mean, and it was upsetting me. So I think this time we won't say anything to them, and invite Caleb's friend David instead. much more laid back. I love floating the river, because with Caleb's job, that has basically eliminated any chance of any more camping trips this summer. we got our 4th of July camping, and that's all. so floating the river gives us something outdoorsy and summery that we can do. I approve.

LOLZ

so, I realized I only feel like posting here when I've bought something I'm excited about. this time it's off of Amazon. These two tops. Now, I was really excited when I first saw them. I took the picture of the red one and posted it on facebook. I was asking for opinions. as you can see, it's a wild shirt. frilly and fancy- I couldn't decide. I loved it, naturally, but I couldn't decide if it was too much or not. Well, based on overwhelming support, I made up my mind that it wasn't too much and I was gonna buy it. However, in the process of my internal debate, I found the teal top. Just as appealing, but without the fancy sleeves. And turns out I couldn't make up my mind. So I bought them both. now, I have to say, I'm a little anxious about what the quality will be like. They are being imported from India. I read the seller's feedback, and only one complains about quality, and that was just a shoulder strap that from the description is easily fixed. If I have to fix something, that's fine. I just want to love them. the other negative reviews were from people who didn't know it was coming from India and was going to take a long time. the estimated delivery on the site says Aug 4-Aug 12. I'm prepared to wait. I'm just so nervous.

Also, once again, on Crowdtap, I have been selected for one of their sample and share programs, this one for jeans. So, free jeans for me! yay!

On a less shallow note-

Things are good right now. Really good. Caleb is so happy at his job. He's working at the prison, in case I haven't mentioned that already. And he loves it. And I love that he loves it. And I have a job that I love. There's a lot of love going around. Of course, my job's not really work, but that's probably why I love it. I'm customer service for a website that doesn't usually need customer service. Which means that I rarely, if ever, do any work. And, based on this, I have Caleb convinced that it's time to start trying to get pregnant. He asked me to give him a month or two to get more comfortable in his job, so I'm aiming at September. Just waiting now...

And again!

Yay! Old Navy loves me again! This time I got free tank tops. Which is AWESOME sine I'm practically living in tank tops now. As are Amanda, Marissa and Sarah, all my shopping partners. I was a little sad that it actually restricted me on the top we could get, but hey. free tank top. FREE. free is good. We me at my house this last Saturday, made the boys keep the girls, naturally. This wasn't a long shopping trip, since we were restricted. We found the tank top style we ould have, grabbed one in every color and took them to the dressing room. in the end we all got the same one, the black one you see here. we all liked it, and decided there was nothing wrong with matching. And then we wore them out to go see the new Harry Potter movie! I felt like a dork, but it was fun.

Whee! Shopping trip!

So, I finally got to go on my Old Navy Shopping trip! There was a little bit of a complication, Sarah called me on Thursday and told me she had forgotten she had to work Saturday. Now, I was upset. I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time. I love new clothes. I believe I've covered this obsession previously. so, well, now what do I do? I don't want anyone left out, so I tried to reschedule. she said she wasn't working Friday, but she'd be out of town next weekend. Well, Friday is Friday Night Magic night, but I already knew that Phoenix Fire, our store, was doing a draft for the first event. I was not terribly interested in the draft, I didn't need the new cards and it costs a little more. Marissa felt the same. However, Amanda had family visiting Friday night. Of course. She talked about rescheduling with her family, but Aarom wouldn't let her, saying it would be rude. It probably would be, but it bothers me when he bosses her like that. So, now what? I can't push this trip bak two weeks. So I figure, I'll just give Sarah her coupon and she can just go herself when she has a chance. I don't like this solution, I feel bad leaving Sarah out. When I call her to tell her, she also sounds slightly disappointed. so.... Better Solution! Sarah and I go shopping by ourselves Friday night! Yes! I like it! I have two gift cards and a Groupon I've been saving for this trip, so I'll just spend those on Friday and use my coupon on Saturday with Amanda and Marissa. Yay!

So, Sarah and I meet at Old Navy Friday night. since Caleb and Zach are playing Magic at ABU Games, (They didn't want to play in the draft either) I have to take Shannon with us. Not the end of the world, I suppose. I'm surprised by how much fun Sarah and I had. We browsed, and picked out random things to try on. I found the shoes I'd been eyeing online for a while online in the color I wanted and my size. Since I wasn't using my coupon yet, I had them hold them for me. Sarah got some really cute multi colored shorts, which were labeled several size smaller than her normal size, so she was happy when they fit, and a t shirt and some flip flops. I got two tank tops and the khaki colored shorts you see above. Crazy comfy, by the way. I think I'm in love, and I may end up buying the other colors. I felt bad, checking out, cuz I was using a Groupon for the shorts, which had to be one transaction, and a regular giftcard, which was another transaction, which I paid the difference with my debit card, and then a $10 reward card from my old navy credit card and a 15% off coupon, both of which I had to use my card to get, but since I don't carry my card anymore, they had to look it up. I took forever. but I only spent $10 for all that. I can live with that.

Afterwards, we went over to the smoothie place across the parking lot and had smoothies. It used to be a Jamba Juice, I forget what it is now, but it's still smoothies. Naturally, Shannon didn't like the one I got for her, so I got to finish hers as well as mine. But it was a lot of fun. I don't hang out with Sarah as much as I should.

Saturday was a little stressful to begin with. Caleb didn't want me to leave Shannon with him, cuz he wanted to work on our car, and Aaron was helping a neighbor dig a trench, so he wasn't keeping Eloise. Taking both kids sounded like a nightmare. Luckily, we were going in the early afternoon, since there was a Legend of the Five Rings (another card game we play) tournament that night. And, Zach didn't work until five. so, Zach got to babysit. I only got Shannon to agree to stay home by telling her Zach would take her and Eloise to the park. Still, glad we didn't have to take them.

At the store, Marissa was a little hesitant at first, cuz she doesn't shop like Amanda and I did. So we had to encourage her a bit. She was comfortable enough to go into the dressing room with me and Amanda like we usually do, sharing one big one so we don't have to prance around the dressing room in whatever. We changed and gave opinions and helped eachother pick what looked best. Marissa nearly go herself in trouble worrying about her belly hanging out over too tight shorts, when she was in a room with two women that have had babies. Yeah. that girl's so skinny she's got nothing to worry about. The clothes that Marissa picked out were so cute that Amanda and I seriously jumped up and down and squealed when we saw them on her. The whie apris are hers. She was hesitant about the white- white is SO stressful to wear- but they looked so good it had to be done. Amanda and I just got denim shorts and brightly colored tank tops. It was awesome. I got a whole outfit, and nothing Caleb could yell at me for, cuz I didn't spend any money to do it! I love clothes!

Finally! Old Navy loves me!

so, I finally got in to an Old navy hosted party through crowdtap.com. Incidentally, if you’re not familiar with crowdtap.com, you should check it out. Great way to earn free money for little effort and to get a shot at free stuff! Nothing wrong with that, right? anyways, I’m supposed to be blogging like crazy about this, so this is your intro to it. you’ll get more info when I do.
Went to Spokane for Memorial Day weekend. Caleb had a cousin getting married. as a result, I missed my favorite cousin, Kaitlin’s wedding reception. I’m not terribly happy about that. But Caleb got to see family and we went to Riverfront Park and rode the carousel and the gondola. Shannon loved it. although, her favorite part was probably the pool at the hotel.