Custom Seamstress Needed for Special Projects

So that was all the advertisement said in the classified ad, well there was a phone number too. As I am working to promote the brand and get the name out there for all the strange things that I can do this type of ad is practically a dare, a double dare with sugar on top!

I call the number, the voice mail is full, are there that many seamstresses in this town? I leave my number for call back, and after a few hours, I get a call back!

The lady on the other end says she is looking for someone who can help her with making custom items like draperies, dust ruffles, comforters, and various other home decor items. Well la te da! You mean to honestly tell me that all that weird stuff I did with my mom so many years ago is visiting my door step again? When I was 15 my mom (and eventually me) bought a custom drapery workroom, and started making custom draperies and a myriad of other items for designers in the central Arkansas area. When we moved to Florida, mom and I became the designers. I have won national awards for things we have designed and received said award from Mario Buatta, and for you designer types you know he is "The Prince of Chintz".

So I tell a little about my experience, and told her she could see some of me clothing work etc on Etsy. She seemed excited, and I told her that I was a leader in the AREtsy Team. I meet with this woman tomorrow at 5:30 PM. I am really excited, this may be a really good stepping stone for what I want to do.

I love to do so many different things that I hate to pigeon hole my work to one genre. Maybe, just maybe, this will be a great outlet to help move things along.

Now to find pictures of things I have done. I will have to take pictures around the house of things I have made, and I can print pictures of things I have made, but sadly all that stuff done with mom so many years ago I bet there are no records of. *sad face*

Oh well Que Sera Sera! Cross your fingers

Yes, Officer, I was speeding for screws

So on Friday I had this fantastic moment that truly shows my odd sense of importance.

At a jobsite I get a phone call asking when I would make it back to the office. I told them I could leave whenever, and asked if they needed something specific. See I thought they wanted me to pick up plans at the print shop across the street from the office. Well they actually ask me to drive to a bolt and screw store in town and then drive the screws to the office which is about 30 minutes away, they also indicate this is urgent.

So I leave the jobsite, forget I was going to go by the junior high school to pick up my youngest's MP3 player that she got taken away for listening to during a test, DUH EINSTEIN! I go to the the screw store (that sounds so much dirtier than it is). I pick up the screws, and as I am heading back towards the office I get an urgent "MOM I am out of lunch money, and I need $15 for a t-shirt that we ordered and today is the last day" text from the oldest. Well she was lucky since her school was actually right on my path to the office.

So here I am driving down the road, at every stop light trying to put money on my kids lunch accounts using my phone and the intrawebz. Because when in a hurry you get stopped by EVERY light. (realize my youngest is in the red on her lunch account too) Driving down the road, thinking about lunch money, t-shirt money, screws, and DON'T WRECK!

Suddenly it occurs to me there is a police car behind me and his lights are on, well DAMN! Pull into a parking lot, get out the necessary misc paperwork, hit the enter button on the lunch account, roll down the window.....

Cop: Ma'am you were doing 48 in a 35.
Me: Uh ok
Cop: You didn't see me did you?
Me: No I didn't. I was at a jobsite and got a call to pick up screws and get them to our offices in Alma, and then my daughter needed lunch money so I was stopping at Southside and.....
Cop: Did you say SCREWS?
Me: Yeah (hold up large bag of screws)
Cop: You were speeding for screws?
Me: Well yeah we have to get the frames built and they said it was urgent
Cop: May I have your drivers license.

So I finish entering the final information into the lunch account while waiting on the cop, and write a check for $15 in order to speed up dropping that off at the school.

Cop approaches
Cop: Ma'am I have NEVER heard that before (snickering slightly). I have one request. Please PLEASE do NOT speed for SCREWS?! (while obviously trying not to laugh out loud at the premise that screws merit speeding)
Me: Yes sir
Cop: I have given you a warning, but please slow down.
Me: Yes Sir
Cop: Have a nice day and take it easy.
Me: Thank You, you too.

Drive away following the speed limit to the school then to the office.

Moral of the story:
Sometimes the honest reason you were speeding is so much better than some lie or crying or whatever other ploy you may use to get out of the ticket.

Stoopid Interwebz!

So I am going to relay a story but it really is a conversation with myself type story, so try to keep up with the voices in my head.

So last night I am sitting in a Mary Kay party.

Brain: YEAH YEAH Multi-level marketing, snake oil, crazy pink car driving, make-up people.

Me (to person who invited me): I didn't sign up for a cult that required me to hang out in airports dressed in orange towels with a shaved head. 

**play with phone**

Lady Speaking: You should always use a minimum of 3 colors of eye shadow.
Brain: PSYCHO! On a Tuesday with co-workers? FREAK!


**play with phone**


Lady Speaking: So I moved into a commune
Brain: DIRTY HIPPIE! 

**play with phone**

Lady: Got married on the summer solstice because the stars were aligned
Brain: That's it your a moron

**play with phone**

Phone: You have a private message from (random AREtsy team members)
Brain: YEAH DISTRACTION!


The message reads, "Some people are saying some really nasty things about you here (insert link) I can't believe what they are saying" 


Brain: YES! My evil plan is working, let's see if it was those people that I pissed off that one time....... 
Daughter: Mom seriously you are not falling for that crap are you?


Click link in email showing text of private message. Just so we are clear that makes it an email of an email. 


Phone: Requesting web page
Phone: Please log in
Me: logging in
Phone: Sorry but you can't do that there must be a problem. 
Me: Damn no distraction

**play with phone**

Phone: You have 14 messages
Brain: WHAT THE HECK!
Phone: You have sent the following message to (14 random people).....


Some people are saying some really nasty things about you here (insert link) I can't believe what they are saying


Brain: DAMN I have been HACKED! 
Me: Well crap! Now I have to change a pack of passwords, apologize to my random followers for having been a moron, and make sure that none of my other junk has been sent afoul of the intrawebz! 


Lesson: Don't be overly excited that you have pissed off enough people that they talk trash about you on the internet.

Cosplay, LARP, SCA For Dummies

So my shop references these strange words and letters that to the average person may mean absolutely nothing. These are specific genres of our diverse culture that are very important to the participants.

Cosplay - To the layman this is effectively dress up like your favorite anime, comic book, or fantasy character and attend functions with other enthusiasts. ComiCon is one of the biggest compilations of cosplay enthusiasts. To the people involved in cosplay, there are a lot more genres that your characters come from, but the non geek community doesn't get it.

LARP - (Live Action Role-Playing) this is where you may dress like your favorite video game character and act out the game. Dungeons and Dragons is one of the first big LARP style games, but there are a lot of them out there, and the characters are as varied as you can imagine.

SCA  - (Society for Creative Anachronism) again to a layman this is really close to LARP, only SCA is more in depth. LARP people choose a character and act it out. SCA creates a character and develops it.

Here is a really good article to explain the difference. These three really unique groups work tirelessly to find suppliers for their attire. I hate to use the word costume as it is similar to the period attire we don't want it to seem too kitschy. I love working with these individuals to create looks that fully represent both the wearer and the character.

One of our favorite cosplay items is the Dalek Dress made for the year long Dalek Project. They can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Formspring. This project is so expansive! She is making some type of Dalek inspired item and posting a new one daily.. FOR A YEAR!!!!

My favorite LARP item is the Renaissance dress. This item I actually made when the girls were little (4 & 2 maybe) as Christmas dresses. They had matching ones and I wore this one. It is so exquisite and I just love it! It has been loaned in the past for special functions and will remain in my archives for many years to come.

I would say that while I have made SCA items in the past I sadly don't have pictures. I made things for people for years and never got pictures because I never imagined myself having a store online. Heck the interwebz were still Weird Science dial-up slow back then. Okay just aged myself a little more, remember I am only 29!

I just think these genres of attire are fun to make and design and create. While I rarely actually dress up for events to this degree for myself, I love to do it for others. I am really good with being the person backstage while the next person shines!

Girl Power!

So technically this is day NINE! Oh well I missed a few days, but in my defense I was not feeling well, and rather than lament my illness I chose to not subject you to my ramblings.

Over the past few days I have had a few things happening that has re-established my faith in girl power! I just wanted to remind girls, women, old maids, etc. that as women we have a code of honor that sometimes gets forgotten when our feelings get hurt.

We grow up getting angry with our friends over barbies, boys, and bologna. We pack up our toys and go home and pout in our rooms saying how we are not ever talking to her again. We get older and fight about boys and even friends. We drive home and talk behind each others backs and say things that if we were not in the middle of an angry tantrum we might not say. We get married and have kids and fight over whether we should stay with a boy (or man) and how we raise our kids, and again with the back stabbing mean words.

As women we carry the weight of the world, we nurture our men to be successful and be our knights in shining armor. We teach our children to grow up to be strong individuals capable of supporting themselves. We fight the primal nature of gender roles in order to prove we are capable of doing whatever HE can do. We care for our friends in times of grief, strife, and confusion. Did I mention what we do for ourselves? Generally we forget that part.

Now before the feminazis get all twisty about gender roles, think of this. Watch a man, watch how they run around looking like gorillas fighting over some girls in heat. Watch how the husband of a pregnant woman walks with his chest a little further forward as he is so proud his off his accomplishment. While we would love to think ourselves evolved, we are still just primal beings stuck in the primordial ooze!

Women are women, we have skills and talents that cause us to behave in different ways then men. We need to embrace those. It does not make us less feminine it makes us more powerful as women. We need to stop being ugly to each other! As a whole we can control the world and it would smell a lot better than what these smelly boys are leaving in our paths. However we can never accomplish this if we continue to undermine each others abilities, skills, and talents. We each bring things to the table that will make others better. However you have to understand that if we don't accept we are fallible and imperfect we can not accept where other women's skills fill in the gaps in our own.

Men will never accept this, their egos are too big and generally too proud to ever be wrong. We have to take the "bull by the horns" and get this done!

I say all of this in a very generic way because as women we each have our mountains to climb. Children, spouses, politics, religious, whatever and whatever that mountain is will be our "bull".

Let's get 'em girls!

Day Six! Those discouraging/encouraging days.

So, I skipped a day which was less about not having anything to say and more about holy cow Murphy's Law is too mean!

I get home Friday night and try to use my dishwasher only to discover the latch broke with the dirty dishes in it! So we pry it open, breaking the face in the process and now we hand wash until I can decide what dishwasher I want. It is good for kids to know how to wash a dish or two, makes 'em stronger!

Then while getting ready to go about my day on Saturday morning and I realize the toilet in the master bath is leaking water all over the floor, BUT FROM WHERE!!!???? So that began a process as well.

All has been resolved with the toilet, notice which failed equipment gets fixed quickly and what doesn't? So today I am doing basically nothing. I am playing nerdy video games, skyping with my friends to see their new house, and supervising hormonal teenagers. That last one is a chore, I forgot those hormones!

I have received requests for spring clothes for little girls. I need to finish an order (that isn't due for two more months but might as well get it done) and I have a ton of things to get ready for grad school! No pressure!

Anyway I have one thing to discuss ....... PAGEANTS!!!!

Yeah I love them! They are full of pretty girls in pretty clothes, and after having truly been involved with them for a few years I have a different opinion of them than the feminazis. These girls are usually going for Masters and Doctorate degrees, they are well spoken and intelligent not to mention GORGEOUS! They have causes that they legitimately work to help others, not just pay lip service to world peace. Plus most pageants give out THOUSANDS in scholarships. Miss America 2011 was given so much in scholarships she will be able to go all the way through law school without any debt at all!

Anyway yesterday I helped one of my girls (not offspring but acquired pageant girl) look for a song to sing in a preliminary. She was having a lot of trouble making a decision and I had to remind her that sometimes it isn't about how phenomenal of a singer or dancer that you are it is about how well you can sell it onstage. Let's be honest Britney Spears is not all that, but she sells it! We found a song, and she can sell it, the pageant girl not Britney!

I just want the world to take the time to maybe get to know a pageant girl or two. Find out their story and I will venture to guess that your opinion might just change!

To ALL my girlies! I love you, and now that Miss America is over we will be in the throws of finishing the season. OOH I am so excited for the summer!

Day Four! Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice!

So as the mommy of two big obnoxious smart aleck teenage girls I have lost sight of those precious moments when they would prance around in cute summer dresses and be amazed at their shadows. I purposefully choose to black out the screaming fits, punishments and obstinate moments of telling mommy "NO".

However as part of my wonderful adventure in the world I have precious little girl clothing with ruffles and polka dots and bows and lots of fun fabrics. Little girl clothing should look like little girls, not like little girls dressed up like big girls. They will have more years in jeans and t-shirts and all that other stuff we wear our whole lives. They need to have those years that mommies can look back fondly on, especially when teenage boys show up at the door.

In order to keep your Sweety Darlin's as unique as we know they all are, we only make no more than 5 of any one dress in the same fabrics and style and usually in 5 different sizes. I know that sometimes you may like a fabric and want something special in another size, and IF I am able to find the fabric again I am always willing to do that, but rarely have I been able to find fabrics again. I am a one woman show, well with the girls too sort of, and I don't try to mass produce things like Hula Mula and other children's lines. While I love those lines and think they are too cute for words I am not trying to be their competition.

Here are some of our favorites!

Thanks to JMartin Photography and Mickey Fender Photography for their services and to The Martin's and The Smith's for the use of their too cute Sweety Darlin's. 

We have done flower girl dresses, play dresses, aprons to match mommies, and a ton of other things for little girls. At some point we hope to MAYBE do little boys clothes as well, but they are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, and I hate snakes. BUt little boys should look dapper too, so maybe eventually or on a one off basis, but not just yet.

Day Three? Happy Halloween!

I get it, Halloween is in October, and this is January. To those of society that are as disturbed as me we start to think about Halloween on November 1st. My oldest has already selected her costume. A half white and half black platter tutu costume to be both the black and white swan from swan lake. For those who don't know a platter tutu is one of those things ballerinas wear that stick straight out. For the record those are NOT an easy adventure to undertake, and her argument is that I have one whole year, thanks honey I love you too!

So Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! SERIOUSLY! Better than Christmas and all observed drinking holidays. Before you get twisted I have a very cynical and sarcastic sense of humor with regards to drinking, drugs, and other generally socially frowned upon things. When people ask me to do things that are irrational or overly difficult I ask them to share their drugs. As a long time construction professional there is a joke in our industry that to survive one must have a drinking problem. Some of us actually do, but most of us unwind with a singular beverage at the end of hard days. So please don't get all twisty about the debil's drink. (thank you Bobby Boucher mom)

Okay back to Halloween. I have a theory of why it is cooler than Christmas. At Christmas some old dude sneaks into your house in the middle of the night and leaves you gifts. You are not supposed to stay up to see him or talk to him, and he has all the sidekick helpers that show up at the mall for you to talk to in hopes he brings you what you want, but you might end up with coal or a sack of switches.

Halloween you get to dress up like ANYTHING and based on some of the outfits for women that is a scary prospect, run around your neighborhood or any location of your choosing and harass your neighbors and perfect strangers to give you free candy, which we all like. No one thinks you are a special ed kid either when you act like a raving lunatic and do this either. HOW is that not cooler? Think about it.

So for years when the girlies were little the would do themes with me, then they got older and they wouldn't, then we did themes again for a while, but I think this year I will be out again. (sad face)

Since my short people no longer think it cool to hang out with their smelly mommy I have peddled my services to the masses for their use on this holiday of all holidays. Some of my photos are shown below from the Ghosts of Halloweens Past.

This last year we were the Blue Man Group, but they all went different directions and we never got a picture (sad face again)

I had a lot of customers for Halloween too, and really enjoyed making the crew from Monster's Inc. of Mike, Sully, and Boo! We had an Ursula, and I recreated again the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, and Thing Two. I figure this year I will start with the costumes about July maybe even June since I want to take a lot more orders this year than last year. Now I am all twitterpatted just talking about it.

Day Two! Period Clothing

So here I am on day two of the blogging lifestyle, and still very newbie to the process. I wasn't really sure how to title a blog, but I wanted to discuss one aspect of my passion.... Period Clothing.

This is the proper politically correct term for making historical costumes. People who re-enact civil war battles in full period dress, and other periods of American history, as well as other eras and regions. This is a passion that developed after years of making halloween costumes and discovering so many interesting sewing techniques that have been lost since everyone could have a sewing machine.

Now sewing machines were first invented in 1755 and it progressed steadily through the 1800's however they were not something that every lady could have in their home, so a large percentage of handmade clothes were still sewn by hand. CAN YOU IMAGINE?! There is a large group of historical enthusiasts that are of the opinion that if your clothing is not hand sewn it does not properly reflect the period. Some are of the opinion if you are close enough to me to realize that my clothes are made on a modern machine then you are too close, as the living history events like to be viewed as a whole rather than really up close and personal.

I believe this... while I would love to hand sew something that is way too time consuming and I would get too bored with a single creation and never finish a project. Yes I am a product of the I want it now American society. Below if a photo of a period dress made to emulate a late 1800's dress for the Fort Smith National Historic Site. The photo was taken in the original prison discussed in the book Hell on the Border, and movies like True Grit and others. The gorgeous model is my offspring, so I might be a bit biased on her beauty.

Now I also do civil war clothing, renaissance, edwardian, victorian, elizabethan, tudor, regency, etc. there truly isn't an era that I have not made something for. This Etsy endeavor is a new adventure after 20+ years of sewing, so now that I am on this path I am kicking myself in the bum that I didn't photograph ALL my work for so many years. 

This is an important part of remembering the strong and varied history of our nation. Because as George Santayana said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." As time goes on we start to select what is and is not included in history books and how much we teach our children about it, we must fill in the blanks that our educators are forced to leave out. 

If you need anything strange or unusual for some event, keep us in mind as we will have more fun helping you create your dream come true than you can imagine! 

Welcome to the Circus!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin So here it is my first post on my fancy blog. I figure I will have a lot of miscellaneous things to get set up and it will be a real learning experience. I decided after much thought that one of the best ways for customers and miscellaneous other people to get to know me and the strange things I design is to blog about it!

Yeah I know this is the new fangled way to express yourself, and in reality I do not like the idea of sharing too much but I love to talk about my really cool adventures at the sewing machine, so this is a venue to do that!

I am 29 years old (don't ask the truth), I have two daughters older than I am comfortable with, and I love no LOVE to sew. I make anything and I do mean ANYTHING that can be put through a sewing machine. I don't like to limit myself (even though Etsy suggests people specialize) to a single genre of attire. I probably and the most excited about costumes and period attire but I love to make clothes in general.

As this is only my first post I don't want to give away too much, so stay tuned for more!