doodles:

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restyled this dress yesterday: i found this fabulous vintage mexican dress at the flea market on ave A & 11th street on saturday, when peter and i were bumming around the city and long island with our friends aaron and nicole. cost me $10. it was floor length, and anything that long looks awful on me, so i chopped out a 1 foot section toward the bottom 1/3 of the dress, and then reattached the hem, and then put in about 5 rows of decorative topstitching toward the top of the reattached hem. i used the scrap fabric to make a belt. the belt buckle is from britex fabrics in san francisco. i bought it when we were out there last month, and had no idea what i would use it for....so it's nice that i've found a use for it.

i really love how the dress turned out, actually...it's a cute length for me now, and the cinching belt is really necessary for my particular topography + i think it gives the dress a cute 50s sort of feel. this mexican dress is different than many i've seen: it's made of thicker, nicer fabric, and the embroidery looks really intricate. the sleeves are even joined with crochet! very neat. i even think it would look quite nice in the winter with thick woolen tights, a soft cashmere turtleneck, and vintage boots, like this favorite pair of mine, thrifted this past winter:

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i was randomly bopping around on the web yesterday, and i came across a description of a mac and cheese dog casserole in 's food blog, and it sounded good, so pete and i made it for dinner yesterday: http://cook-bake-eat.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-dinner-last-night-mac-cheese-dog.html afterwards, we watched the fireworks on the roof of our building.

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i've been kind of feeling lost lately. i am looking forward to moving and getting on with things and getting a job and finding some meaning in my life... there's not a whole lot going on of late and i feel rather aimless and depressed.

i've come around to the idea of living in san francisco. mostly.

i have a deep desire to get the move over already, and this has been exacerbated by the news of at least two recent robberies and hold-ups in front or in our building in the past week. local residents have nicknamed our neighborhood the "ghetto ATM" (lots of rich college-age kids living here, on the edge of the projects are ripe for the picking (off) by locals in "need"). this rash of recent robberies isn't helped by the fact that our stupid neighbors in the building prop the locked security doors open on every floor, as well as the front door(s). thanks for putting us all at risk, ya dipsh*ts.

add to that all the trash and crap in the hallways and on the streets near our place, and crappy graffiti everywhere in the building and on it (see the bit about leaving those doors open, above), and yeah, i'm increasingly looking forward to leaving...

*sigh* i have to say, it's not NYC, really, it's just my goddamn neighborhood/building. bushwick is getting better but it's got a LONG way to go. if we weren't moving to SF, we'd definitely be looking elsewhere in the city. the living in bushwick is wearing me down...

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my plan for the rest of the day includes:

-FINALLY working on my sloper. yes, yes, i've been saying that for a dog's age. today i'll finally DO it.

my plans for the rest of the week:

-sign up for that sweater design class at downtown yarns i want to take, and pick up more addi turbos. mmm, addi turbos. the best knitting needles ever.

-continue frogging some thrifted sweaters i picked up last week. recycled yarn! one's cotton and the other is cotton/linen, both are white-ish. i want to knit new sweaters from them and then hand-dye, maybe even tie-dye(!!!) them. i have idea-rs brewing. this is the first time i've ever done this yarn recycling, and i quite like it.

-knit more on the damn sweater dress.

-do more drawing...work out ideas for sweaters, and some dresses and skirts and blouses for myself.

-perhaps work on my fashion scrapbook. i have a clippings pile that is a mile-high and needs attention. perhaps i'll scan some of my favorites to show you.