I fell ovah

About three weeks ago I had my first bike crash. I fell over. At an intersection. When the light turned green. (on my single speed, not my road bike.) Trolley tracks got me! It wasn't that embarrassing for whatever reason. Suspension of disbelief? I fell the fuck ovah and my bag spilled in the street but I did not and do not feel that embarrassed about it.

I know you have to hit the tracks perpendicular but I hit a curved one going not-fast-enough and bitch flipped me. I was fine but tore my pants and got bruises from hell. People saw me, ran over and put me back together and had the shit back in my purse before I knew it.

So my first crash was a best-case-scenario crash.

How did I manage those years riding in scary big crazy busy NYC and never crash? Wow!

Here's more old information- 

I rode in the Halloween bike ride! I built myself some ears and put on an old dress. A lot of people were taking pictures and I was camera-lazy and thought one would surface and never found them so this is about it:

Time for Gloves

I have been feeling- I am feeling like being private about myself, but I have a bad memory and throwing the events into Blogger helps me look back on my life and times so I will carry on.

Monday - The weather is in-between but gloves are nice, and I've been itching to wear these.
My mother-in-law lovingly got them for me on Missoni Madness day at Target in Central Arkansas where I'm certain housewives and truants were ripping each other apart.

This bare-arm top and gloves worked great because my hands were comfortable and I didn't get sweaty-back.

Matt took this picture. He met me after work to do something silly -
We got these at a shady store on 6th Ave. and enjoyed riding home together since I was away for over a week visiting Arkansas.

Tuesday- jeans because I'm busy running around a lot at work this week. Jeans and hot pink sneaks.
The lighting in this looks like fall to me.

Those are real bicycle riding gloves from a bicycle store. That was before I became the creature I am now. Now I know better :)


The fisheye-lids on my compact camera have become lazy, like a lazy eye and that's what's going on with my poor little hard-working camera but I'm not going to leave her. Not yet!



People on East 73rd Street are in an all-out war with Halloween decorations and I am thankful. 




Wednesday - I just don't think the leaves are as pretty as last fall, but I felt like my outfit was so fall and this tree is pretty so I took my picture with her. -And my favorite driving gloves from Claire's.

What's up with this week

Tuesday bike to work - Probably one of my last warm days for this fall.
Gap booties, Forever 21 skirt, Gap top, bern helmet. 

Matt on the way to dinner. Yep- after dinner we were freeezing!

I saw all these NYPD's on bicycles this morning - strange - and later I heard one of my very polite-bike friends got a red light ticket. I'm eager to hear how much or if he fights it-


Tonight I made this for my little niece's Halloween ensemble and my baby modeled it for me.


Back to Monday - I wore this. Sneakers increase my comfort-quality-of-life so much.


I went to see the premiere of Paradise Lost 3 at the New York Film Festival.
Since I'm from Arkansas, I've been hearing about the West Memphis 3 since the beginning. Damien was witch-hunted because of his tastes and the way he dressed and you could feel that kind of judgement in the air in Arkansas at that time - the early 90's.



They did a little question & answer period after the film and that Jason Baldwin is so inspirational, I swear. His future is so bright and he's so grateful for each day. I'm so impressed with him.

I love what a fancy venue this was.



The end!

Halloween Costumes

Jem and Rio - Probably my favorite because we both look cute.
Matt's tan is Sally Hansen spray-on tan for legs.  I sewed my dress and belt. My earrings are foam-core. I dyed Matt's pants and made him that iron-on shirt and spray painted both our hair. I worked at my job at ad production-type place in this. It was fun driving (I had a jetta and worked in Raleigh) to work in this get-up. Talk about Rock Out!

Bride of Frankenstein + Frankenstein. I think Matt wore one of my jackets to be extra-tight. He definitely had some of my pants on.


I loved being scary Carrie. I didn't break character. I broke for a second from delight from this Kim Jong Il

This was easy - I had a thrift store slip and bloodied it in the bath-tub a few days before so it would be dry blood and I wouldn't be wet and freezing, but my hair is wet with goopy fake blood. I'm glad I committed to the messiness. I remember my phone being slimed with blood.

That sweat band has fake flowers on the other side - Carrie's prom corsage!

Prep-work!


First halloween in NYC! I made this purple flapper from scratch. Really proud of it. I think I still have it. Fringe is the funnest thing to wear.




Remember during the Obama/McCain campaign and that one girl beat herself up and lied and said Obama supporters beat her up? I was her and this was love at first sight.

This 2nd Halloween in NYC was one of the hardest cabs I've ever hailed and almost immediately gotten kicked-out of. I also dropped my first iPhone on hard tile in the bathroom and got the white screen of death, played dumb, and the wonderful people at Apple gave me a brand new one.



2003 - Film camera days!

Raccoon make-up

That's eyeliner, babe. Pencil. Yes- it took some time.

Raccoon suit. Funny story- I worked at the Pat Field store and weeks and weeks later someone called to ask whatever happened to their job application and I was like "We never got that" and the person on the phone said "I gave it to the raccoon." Busted! 


I had a lot of hair for a while and used my hot rollers and squeezed out this Midge:


Last year I went to the Rally 4 Sanity Halloween Weekend and had this get-up going on.

But that was for the Rally, totally not Halloween. Halloween fell on a Sunday and I had a house party to go to and I pulled together this Rachel Maddow.

-But I was at a mostly-lesbian house party and most people thought this was my look.
They were very nice and liked my look but didn't realize that I was being Maddow.

These are my nieces/nephews and a friend's baby but these are more get-ups that I crafted.

Queen of Hearts and her cards or court? There was a Joker and a 3 and an Ace. I made these out of felt and pleather cut-outs glued on. Her tutu has cards and beads and all kinds of stuff attached.

 I'm very proud of this mermaid skirt

I made her brother the nemo fish out of felt and lame.

The Flintstones! This is super cute looking back on it. Stretch vinyl.

This Hello Kitty was hi-tech. It has piping inside and a bag of air to try to keep it up high. Someone had to hold it during the parade. I'd like to try one of these again someday.

I was really proud to knock-off the Pottery Barn Kids witch.

This outfit also had components so she could just wear all black and be a cat at school.

I don't live anywhere near these guys - I've been lucky guess-timating measurements. I'm also too cave-girl to use real patterns. I just put stuff together. I've been on Martha Stewart, but overall I would say I have the sewing skills of a 6th grade girl.

I should have taken sewing/home-economics in school! Imagine if I had been practicing all these years. 

Halloween Rachel Maddow

Sunday night I really wanted to make it to a house-party for a couple who I want to become couple-friends with. I made my niece's costume, then my rally stuff, and I didn't do any preparations for my Halloween get-up.

I had to pull a costume together! I had the goods to make a Maddow outfit and I've got similarly short hair. And fake glasses! And I absolutely adore her.

Maddow is known for her chic sneakers - I don't know of her wearing Pumas, but these are my only Maddow-esque low-tops. (the hot pink isn't very Maddow, I know.) She's typically spotted wearing a brown leather belt and jeans during the broadcast.

The party was lovely and I think I lined-up some couple double dates for us. I also found out Red Stripe Lite is delicious.

Triumph! - Purple Cute Witch Costume

The recipient of this fantastic costume hasn't tried it on yet, but I'm confident she's going to be the super-star of her neighborhood, or wherever she wears this on Halloween.

I knocked it out of the park. This is based on Pottery Barn Kids' Witch costume (green.) I went to see the real deal in person and knew that I could make it purple- her favorite color - and more fun!

I wish I was this into sewing all the time.

My machine's tune-up was amazing. It's working so well now, I forgot it could function this nicely. I've had those Built by Wendy patterns for years and maybe I'll get my life together and do one of them.

This is the first belt I've ever made.


And I'm so impressed with this ruffle I created.



I hand-tacked the ruffle trim onto this cheap-o witch hat.

And I think I did a cute job with this cape. I was worried that I wouldn't remember how to make fabric "ruffle" like this. I made the cape shorter than the PBK version on purpose so it wouldn't cover up her humongously puffy skirt.




I figured out how I'm going to dress myself and there isn't much work to do. I'm going to be a sushi. I'll get to re-use one of my sparkly cocktail dresses. Today was a good day on the creative frontier.