My heart is breaking right now. Babies were shot today.

I rarely can take time off to go eat lunch with my youngest at her elementary school, but I did today. It is so poignant to me that I saw children just like the ones that were shot with bright smiling faces, and pre Christmas excitement. Innocents who wanted to know what kind of car I would drive if I could pick any kind in the world? Would I live in a crystal castle if I could? 

No. No crystal castles for me, but a home that is rife with locks, and bars, to protect my children from disgusting psychos like the one today. 

I can’t wrap my head around this. Babies.

Children who’s Christmas program outfits will be their funeral clothes. 

Life revisted

While I am sure my few followers wonder where I went in the past few months, I was here just not communicating. I needed to spend some time self reflecting. I have come up with no answers, but I have felt the urge to communicate again. I still love my clothes and shoes, and I have bought some beautiful pieces this year. But I think I shop to self medicate. I love the thrill of the chase of finding the next new dress, and dreaming about it being in my closet. I love to track the packages, to know I am getting a surprise. I do this not because my nuclear family is bad, but because I feel like I am being blown around constantly by a storm of outside forces. And to purchase make me feel in control. Written 07/07/12

It is now 08/25/12. Bought another dress or two, can't remember. Still lots of outside forces whipping me about,trying to come to terms with them. Since we last talked (in November), my mother and I  became estranged and recently reconnected, relationship not repaired, but radio silence from her for awhile was a welcome respite. Work has become more tense, and I feel much less safe. Home life is blessedly wonderful despite my oldest hitting her stride in teenage angst, but even with that she mostly a spectacular young woman.

I know there is more....can't remember this morning.

A few new things:

I have become fascinated with watching the downfall of Scientology, for more information on that I would direct you to the Village Voice . This is the church that was started by L.Ron Hubbard a science fiction writer. I may write a lengthy post on this later, really it is such a lengthy subject I can't even describe it succinctly or quickly.

We adopted a new fur baby this Christmas, and we named her Rosa Bella Carmella Edith. She is black and white poly dactyl tuxedo cat. She has fit into our family quite well, despite giving Pablo cat herpes, and Tula ear mites. I guess that is what we get for adopting a farm cat, but she has been cured of all diseases, and the other two have as well.

I finally bought two dresses from Eshakti. See Above. I love them both, I bought the straight sizes, as I had heard that doing customized sizing gets wonky, and the straight size I ordered was exactly my measurements.  The green dress I added a traditional short sleeve, and I have to say that is my biggest complaint with the dress, as the sleeves are a bit tight, not so much in the circumference, but in the shoulders. The cream dress is almost perfect too, but the bust is just a smidge too tight for my liking, but I hate all tight things. I got these two as I thought I could style them easily into the fall and winter with black tights, and cardigan. My biggest issue with the company was the shipping time. It took a whole month to get the cream dress, and 3 weeks for the green. I will say this, I got a credit on my card for $17 for the shipping delay, money back is always a good way to get me back on their side. The fabrics, and details were gorgeous, and I get a TON of compliments on these two frocks when I wear them.

My new babies, they still live in their box, I am waiting on cooler weather to come so I can wear them in all their glory!!!!! I have watched these shoes for a year. I bought two other pairs of shoes trying to replace my true love in my heart, and they just didn't compare or fit. Jaded J turned a blind eye and let me buy my lovelies.

I know there is much more I want to go over......but I need to get my youngest ready for marathon birthday parties today. And wouldn't you know this has been the second driest summers on record, and TODAY it decides to finally cool off and rain, and one of the parties is a pool party.....murphy's law. 

Things learned from this Thanksgiving Weekend....

1. Don't use a pot that you normally cook with on the stove-top, in the oven. I have stainless steel pots, and I after cooking on the range, I placed it in the oven to finish cooking. I took it out with hot pads, but when I went to move it to a back burner, I forgot, and grabbed the handle. Holy hell that hurt.
2. If you are in immense pain from a burn, you will be desperate to try anything to make it go away. I had placed my hand in a bucket of cold water for an hour, and when I would take it out, it hurt worse, lots worse. My darling Jaded J left to go get aloe vera, and anything else he could find to help me. In the meantime, with my left hand I pecked out burned hand in Google, and came across this site. Earth Clinic. It had reviews for placing aluminum foil, shiny side in on the burn. So I made myself a foil mitten, and waited. Many reviews said you needed to fight through the first 5-10 minutes of pain, but it would get better. In 20 minutes the pain was gone, the skin was still tender, but I could move it. In fact the next day (Thanksgiving) I had full mobility. I was AMAZED!!!!! Jaded J was amazed, my mom was amazed, the ER nurse was amazed. I had no blisters, no scaring. Yeah Aluminum Foil.
3. Spending the afternoon of Thanksgiving in the ER is not fun. Luckily it wasn't me that needed to go, but my Mom. She has a bad back and she had pulled it out whack the Sunday before, by Thursday she could hardly walk. So after we ate (we did have priorities), I took her the ER. After lots of magic medicine in the IV, we left. But while we were there, I did run my aluminum foil remedy by the nurse, and she had no idea why it worked, but she was impressed.
4. Black Friday brings out the worst in some people. I went black Friday shopping 7 years ago, almost got trampled with my oldest daughter, and vowed never again. Whenever I get slightly tempted to go again, I read the articles about mothers (with children in tow) pepper spraying other mothers to get an xbox. Or people being shot in parking lots to get their purchases. Umm, no thanks.
5. If you decide to do a mid year clean up, remember where you stick the Christmas ornaments. We tore apart our house trying to find the teal and silver ornaments that we sprung for a year ago, no dice. We also tore apart the garage, nope. Luckily because we are pack rats, we had a variety of odds and ends and our Christmas tree turned out beautiful.
6. I still don't know how to cook a turkey. It was OK, but not great. I love to cook but roasting poultry is not my strong point. Still trying to find the definitive method to roast a chicken, and now added to the list is the turkey. Oh well, suggestions are welcome.....
7. The green bean casserole was AWESOME! What a difference all fresh ingredients made. Of course a ton of heavy cream never hurts either.
8. I love spending time with my family. I had 5 days off, and they flew by, and I don't want to go back to work, but I am grateful to have a job to return to. What a dichotomy.

No Excuses.....

I have no excuses for my long absence....none. I just didn't have the urge to write. I am like that, I get all excited about something, and then I peter out. Hence my sweater project, it is all done except one arm, and putting it together. Go go crochet, then nothing.

I did get an iPhone, and that has taken inordinate amount of my time, because it is so DAMN cool.I even have Blogger on it, but have not yet tried to post anything.

I have also been pondering the direction of my blog. I love fashion, but I don't buy much during the year, because we don't have the resources. And so.....I don't feel like I can blog about fashion trends when I wouldn't be able to try them out.

I have tried to keep my political leanings out of this blog, as I am sure many people would not agree with me. Unfortunately, those feelings and ideas make a big part of me. As I watch the deterioration of United States, I inch closer to making this more political. So I have been thinking and thinking on that change.

So I leave you with this....I am thinking of making this for Thanksgiving, homemade green bean casserole. Sounds so good....

Green Bean Casserole

Anyone else have other suggestions???????

Pin Head.

I have a love/hate relationship with hats. I love hats, they look like complete crap on me. For instance:

1. Baseball hats-I look like a pin head. Not flattering.
2. Stocking Hats-I look like a pin head. Not flattering, and itchy.
3. Cloche hats-I look like pin head. Not flattering, and hard to find.
4. Bucket Hats-I look like a pin head. Not flattering, and remind me of Woody Allen.
5. Fascinators-Never actually tried one on, assuming the pin head trend would continue, and quite frankly, they look like hats that are trying too hard. (No offense Duchess Catherine).
6. Hats with flowers-I look like pin head. Not flattering, especially with a garden growing out of my head.
7. Beret-My favorite hat, I look less pin head, but still have the potential.

I wish I could wear hats, and they would look decent on me. Oh the bliss of throwing on a baseball hat and walking out the door, cute, fashionable, and functional.*SIGH*

Do you have something that you love, but doesn't work well on your body?

Oh and my favorite pin head of all time (said tongue in cheek, a show that I have a love/hate relastionship, can't stand him, but love to mock him.):

ZaK Bagans from Ghost Adventures.

Projects?

Gah, I have had writers block lately.

I have been crocheting a new wrap for winter, because the inner geek in me loves the one that Duchess Kate was shown wearing after the wedding to Prince William. I love the color especially! Anyway, the color of mine is more olive, and truth be told looks nothing like hers, because I was too lazy to do a triangle, and the ruffle on the outside is beyond my skill set at the present time. Mine is probably better classified as a glorified scarf.

But......

I am going to try to expand my abilities with starting a crocheted sweater. I actually found a pattern that was sized from xs-5x, so I won't have to try to adjust a too small pattern (which I know I am not up to). I found a fellow crocheter (is that a word?) at work, and she is going to do a crochet a long with me. YEAH! I have been trying to learn how to knit, but so far it eludes me. I get the knit stitch, the purl stitch....ehhhh not so much. My mom has been trying to teach me, and apparently I knit too tightly, which is frustrating for her and for me. So while I struggle with the knitting, I wanted to do another project that would keep me off of the computer.

Behold:

Ok my promise to you my readers:

If this turns out and is somewhat presentable, I will not pose in my new sweater with a smug smile. That model annoys me, but the sweater is dang cute! I also need to find my yarn selection, I am hoping to find a iced blue green, or greyed blue green. *SIGH* There I go again with the grey, oh well.

One other project I have been working on is trying to rework this shirt to fit me

Unfortunately it has been a bust. The neck on this thing was HUGE. So I tried to sew the collar back together. That didn't work. Next I tried to make the neck smaller, but taking the neck part in by making the sleeves smaller, that didn't work. My sewing machine doesn't like knits, and by the time I finally got two decent seams in, and tried it on it had been an hour. To have it still not fit or work just frustrated me more, the shirt is going into the rag pile. Oh well at least I tried.

These have been some of the things occupying my time. I have also had my girls start school, and work has been busy. I have had no great ideas for posts, my little blog has suffered. Maybe with rediscovering my crochet, etc. this will lead to more posts. I hope so, because I love reading comments.

Bad Blogger Friend...ME!

I am not blogging as much as I had planned. I don't have any really good excuses except, I often times don't have much to write, my life can be boring.

I have been looking at the fall previews coming out, and I am getting excited about fall clothes. I generally don't like summer, or summer clothes. I am not fond of my arms being bare, nor do I like excessive heat which causes any amount of clothing to seem too much. I don't like sweating, just walking to my car. I don't like sweating period.

Above are some of the things that are catching my eye at Lucie Lu. Wish I had lots of disposable income right now, but it is the beginning of the school year, and my Sara's birthday, and Jaded J's birthday in September. So I will have my private lust list, and drool for a few more months.

My favorite items are the forest skirt and the dahlia skirt. I don't have many statement pieces in my closet, and these spot on perfect to me. Besides I love grey, we have discussed this before, so the dahlia skirt is totally calling me.