A Sucker for the Bux

yeah...we stopped for Super Secret Hot Chocolate.
Again.

You're digging the Sleeping Beauty Princess Dress, right?



Apparantly, we were supposed to bring Halloween costumes to change into today, not wear them. As The Monkey and I are divesting her of crown, coat and gloves this morning, no less than six little friends of hers gasp indignantly, whirling on their parents screeching "Mooooo-oooom! Sophie got to wear her costume!!!"

I just sort of tossed them all an apologetic look, shrugged, and crept quickly out the back. Before I did? Monkey looked my way with the most triumphant shit-eating grin on her face.

I winked at her.

Unexpected Opportunities

So with the residential fate of The Munchkins still hanging in the balance... and future landing sites still unsure...I've turned to an old standby to help me through the panic and neurosis of planning a move: LIST MAKING!

I currently have four different lists going.
I have a KEEP list
a DONATE list
a PACK ME NOW list
and a PACK ME LAST MINUTE list

I also have subgenres for each list by floor of current house...and again by room.

How do you conquer one neurosis? Clobber it over the head with OCD, apparently.

Also, I'm frittering away my free time daydreaming about all of the new decorative possibilites that come with a new place.

What size will the new rooms be? Should I make all new curtains? Will the kids want to design their own room or will they let me? Can I paint the walls? I wonder how the new place will feel about a wall of chalkboard paint? I wonder how expensive DIY chair rails are? Which fabric should I use for the new throw pillows I'm dreaming up? Will I have room for a craft corner? nook? desk+wall?

And, because I know in the end I'll simply be moving my current decor along with me, this seems a safe place to ponder...

tunes on a rainy day

kind of gorgeous...

Goodbye I'm Gone

~ Another Robot Sunset

The Best Problem

decisions...decisions...

Duct Tape Dress Form: The Follow Up...

Some Items of Note about Making your Own Duct Tape Dress Form:

From now on, when projects recommend the presence of two people? I fully intend to respect that.

I was stuck for just long enough to start to panic last night.

Then I had to pee.

* Saran Wrap is an excellent insulator. I lugged my little space heater up the third floor last night, thinking it'd get chilly when I stripped down to make my duct tape dress form? Nope. One layer of Saran Wrap into it and I was good to go!

* The sound of Duct Tape being unwound from the roll is excrutiatingly loud. I was terrified I was going to wake up my entire household of toddlers with each scritch and scratch and tear.

* One should NOT forgot one's camera downstairs when duct taping oneself upstairs. Stairs are IMPOSSIBLE in a duct tape dress

* I have a great ass. I had no idea!

* I have the weirdest little pooch from having three babies. I mean, I know my pants don't really fit the same as they did six years prior, and I haven't had "abs" to speak of since I was a gymnast... It's like a little pot belly. Sideways. I kind of get a kick out of it. It doesn't look nearly as odd from the front as I feel like it does looking down at it.

* There is STILL a spot right in the middle of my back, just between my shoulder blades that is extremely uncomfortable to reach. I can do it, but not well.

* Saran Wrap + Duct Tape is better at slimming your form than Spanx will ever be. I wish I could wrap up before getting dressed to go out all the time! The time and level of difficulty in getting into and out of this get-up is awfully prohibitive though...

Pictures to Come!

Promise!

Counting Blue Cars...

And sometimes...just when you think it can't get worse? It does.

And you wreck the car.

Into an SUV filled with five 18-year-olds all glammed up for a birthday dinner downtown (where they NEVER GO! And this is exactly why! Ugh!) just itching for a fight.

(To be fair? They did STOP at a green light to make a left turn. Which I would have seen had I not glanced over my right shoulder and clicked my turn signal on to get over to avoid their Daddy's SUV in the first place...)

BUT. The Cavalier will persevere...evenutally.

For now, The Munchkins and I are back to walking to school & work. Which is acceptable because I can do the home --> School #14 --> Shalom DayCare --> work route in about an hour-fifteen to an hour-and-a-half if we're walking College Campus style (that'd be briskly and with purpose, tyvm)

And, the additional walk-time allowed for a quick stop in at the friendly neighborhood Starbucks for a grande hot chocolate for The Monkey and I to split.

And we sat on the stone bench outside the cookie-cutter coffee shop on Mass Ave. and watched the easy ebb & flow of early morning pedestrians, and Monkey looked up at me with a big hot-chocolate mustache and smiled and said: "Mommy? Can we do this again tomorrow?"

So. okay. maybe it's not all bad.

In fact, as dire of a mess as my life's in right now (car-less, apartment hunting, buried in clutter) the stuff that matters (walking to the library, spending the afternoon reading and carving pumpkins, strolling to school hand-in-hand, enjoying some one-on-one time with the youngest) is making it all worthwhile.

Duct Tape Dress Form

I'm biting the bullet.

I have gone as far as I can go in my little dining room sweatshop withOUT a dress form.
However, I just can't bite the $160 dress form bullet.
Mostly because I don't HAVE $160.

So I'm making one.
Out of duct tape.
I found the best written tutorial here:
duct tape dress form

So...yeah...
saran wrap [check!]
two rolls of duct tape [check!]
small roll of colored tape [check!]
stuffing & carboard for interior [check!]

You've all been warned.
If you get a call from me and I dissolve into a fit of giggles it's because I've gotten myself stuck.
If I'm physically able, I'll take pictures.
I have a feeling it's going to be worth having photographic evidence of...