makeover

before:

I bought these boots on etsy with a bit of money sent to me by my grandmother for the holidays. I suspect they are new old stock from the late 80s, as their thin crepe soles show no wear whatsoever. They are really slim, which is great: for once, it'll be a good thing when the leather stretches/relaxes a bit.

... but I thought they could use a few minor changes...

I had a shoe repair man take the back seam in a little (easy to do, since they are exposed, and there's no lining) so they would fit my ankles and not flop around.

I polished them with cordovan shoe polish - a rich purply brown, that I knew would get into the leather's texture.

I replaced the original laces (one was torn, anyway!) with the last bit of leather thong I had leftover from an old Halloween costume.

After:

ta-da! better, no?

he's my valentine

and he does things like make beautiful greek salad, bringing it to me while I work through a pile of books and readers. This one has tomatoes, cucumber slices, olives, and a little feta on greens, with a lemon dressing. It's from Field of Greens, the second Greens restaurant cookbook. So nice and fresh, though it feels like cheating to eat this in winter, as it's definitely a summer salad.

I couldn't help but think, as I failed to even make it through half of this, that Sal probably could have managed it easily.

In thanks, I made sure that he finally got the haircut he's been asking for, even if I had to do it at midnight. It's kind of a low-key romance, but I think these are the things that matter most of all.

turning turning turning

Depending on your calendar, february 2nd is the start of spring. In our northen clime, it's when we turn the garden, feed the soil, prepare to start the cycle over again.

This is when we clear the house of any remaining vestiges of winter, and prepare for the onset of spring! We also cleared out the over-wintering garden: carrot soup and roasted beets with kale and spinach salad for dinner, we feed ourselves with the legacy of last year, bringing to light the roots that have been hidden under snow and under wet black earth, growing in the secret dark of winter.

Next weekend (I had papers this weekend, ack!) I'll finish weeding the garden and turn it, and add coffee grounds. Then we'll plant peas. Just like that.

Tonight we have candles, but before too long we'll have lingering sunsets painting a summer sky; tonight we dream of green budding sprouting growing things, but before too long we'll have a harvest.

What plans are you laying?

drama

let's start with a suitably dramatic shot, shall we? I got a button-up crinkled silk blouse in a clothing swap in November or December (can't quite remember), and reconstructed it over break. Well, I changed some of the trimmings, really. It's not like I fundamentally altered the structure of it all that much.

The original blouse had long sleeves, a collar in the same fabric, ruffles on either side of the front placket, and a single ruffle trimming each sleeve hem.

(love that colour, no? glorious! - the winter sunshine doesn't hurt, either)

So I removed the placket-ruffles first. Then I removed the fold-down collar by using my seam ripper to open the top of the collar's band. I took in the sides a little (just a little), and shortened the sleeves (just cut them off).

I used some sari fabric my aunt gave me (it has three different patterns in it, I just used two so that I wouldn't have to cut right through the middle to get at the third pattern) for my trims.

I made a little tube of fabric and pleated it. I stitched down the pleats and then hand-stitched it over the button-placket, only tacking it on one side where the buttons were (so that I could still get at the buttons, yeah?).

I took another strip and pleated it and tucked it into the collar band, and hand sewed the band shut, so that I had a ruffled stand-up collar.

Last but not least, I used the ruffles from the sides of the placket to trim the new sleeve hems. I hand stitched another band of sari fabric over the seam, pleating it as I went.

ya dig?

scrappy

after I made that leather braided necklace, I had several inches left of each of the three stuffed leather tubes, and after all that work I was NOT going to let them go to waste. So I braided them together, stitched the ends closed around a bit of leather thong. I tied the ends on one side to create a loop, and made a big chunky knot on the other side to go through the loop. Now I have a bracelet. I've worn it more than the necklace, actually. Maybe I should put the necklace on leather thong; I like it better than chain.

hopefully tomorrow I can post a silk blouse recon I did over break, too. I'm staying home while Cass goes skiing with his pops. This weekend has been a mess. We were hit by a negligent driver Thursday night and we both have whiplash (mine's a bit worse - no steering column to brace against), and my lower back was messed up again by the impact. sigh. At least the xrays cleared my spine: no fractures, and no damage aside from the preexisting degeneration in my lumbar. However, I've spent most of the weekend unproductively, sleeping whilst heavily medicated. I'm pretty stressed about the coming week and getting back on my game while still on valium. argh.

Welp, almost midnight and in the spirit of catching up, I have some homework to be getting to.

first canvas of 2009

breath. oilbar on canvas. 22 X 28. 2009.

darker patches are still wet. I tend to put these up on the wall to dry; they're out of the way and likely safer. Better pictures in a couple weeks, when I take it in to be photographed.

Olivia Bee is my hero. I'd love to do another, if she'd let me.

new earrings

I whipped these up last night, between bites of dinner (below: gorgonzola-stuffed pears and dressed arugula with bacon, yum). Ever since I got these volcanic stone beads, I've been thinking of making something like the luna scribble earrings. They kind of make me think of an eclipse, you know? Or perhaps they should be called the dark-side-of-the-luna-scribble earrings. It was nice to get to wear them today!

We cleaned everything yesterday, washed the floors, rewired an antique floor lamp for our living room, I filed all last quarter's schoolwork, the works. It was nice. I lit candles in the bedroom and we sat in the living room and enjoyed the soft flickering coming from across the way. It was my last free night, and Cass worked on a car body he has to paint and I made earrings and read about Philip IV of Spain, and we listened to Christmas carols and watched the beautiful snowfall collecting, in our house that feels surprisingly spare and empty without the glittering tree. (I am always very sad to take down the tree. Don't you wish we could have them all year round? Or at least, all winter?) We drank cava and toasted a goodbye to our quiet holiday.