Park your butt

My buddy Dawn decoupaged and glittered some kick-ash clear glass ashtrays for her smokin' friends.

Giving a lift to the thrift

So, when gathering glitz and glam for Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke party, I purchased a "gold" multi-chain necklace that worked with the revamped neckline of the shimmery gold sweater. Since 1980's Solid Gold was the theme, I added a big honkin' teardrop shape "diamond" pendant that I found in my stash and rocked it out like I was on "Dynasty".
After the glitter and shine wore off and I unpacked my party shame, I removed the "diamond" and replaced back to the shiny jewelry part stash.
Then my shiny lovin' eyes stared at the multi-chains and wondered . . . . .would I wear that "in real life"? Attached my mom's cool vintage turquoise embellished watch pendant from my recent jewelry grab and decided I liked the mix. Wound the watch and guess what? It works!
Have received a few compliments on my new jewelry find and love that it cost me a whopping $2!

Post-party boot

Tell me, would you have guessed that glitter would outlast paint? Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were right, I shoulda glittered the whole dang boot!

The glitter girls

So, I painted my boots with gold paint and thought I was gonna look pretty daring at Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party that is, until, Dawn and I went to her friends' house to pick up their karaoke machine.

We opened the door to find a demented Santa's workshop with beer and wine drinking females happy at work painting glue on shoes, covering with glitter and embellishing with boa feathers and glitz and glam. The chicks belong to an all female Carnival krewe whose name rhymes with "shoes" and indeed glitter shoes are the special gift handed down during their parade ride. Handed down people, not thrown. Can you imagine getting beaned in the head by a glittered high heeled shoe tossed from 2 tiered Mardi Gras float? Yikes. Now you know why the Zulu krewe has been prohibited from tossing their decorated coconuts after Governor Edwards signed the "Coconut Bill" .
Friends donate shoes to the glitter girls and each krewe member is limited to giving 30 shoes so they set up an assembly station and we were lucky enough to witness the fun. We wondered if we would need to be treated for "glitter lung" and laughed at the thought of future attorney television commercials soliciting for inhalation damage only to later witness the special first aid required when glitter gets in the eye . . . . . Oh, did you want to know the technique? Apparently a really strong puff of air blown into the eye from a close friend does the trick so maybe glittering alone is not safe.

Some shoes were based painted, then painted with glue and sprinkled with the New Orleans shiny magic dust. These ladies had lots of glitter inventory but see if you can spot the shoes with the super iridiscent quality Martha Stewart glitter. That stuff is the McDaddy of embellishment.

Eventually, they let Dawn and I play. Fearing the potential of an eye glitter incident, I opted to brush on glue and be part of the assembly line. Dawn wanted to play glue pen and glitter games. Dawn is a good crafter but doesn't always know when to say when. Check out the letters.

Ease up on the glue, lady.

Glue to glitter ratio: FAIL

Mardi Gras colors and fleur-de-lis

Finally, I swallowed my pride and brought in my country-comes-to-town boots and asked for a dab of glitter. Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were ready to cover the whole dang boot but I resisted, wanting to be subtle and all.

New Orleans Saints theme

Go LSU!

My two toned heel idea as executed by Miss Light Bright

More is more: add a boa accent

Base painted and waiting for glue

Before and after

Shiny Stuff - caw! caw!

Glitz and glitter

As a little girl, I enjoyed ballet dance recitals and feeling glamorous for a short evening but mostly I was a natural fibers girl and preppy all the way through school and beyond. Never a fan of glitz and glam and glitter and have postulated that the older the lady, the more shiny her clothing choices and often joke that those old bingo ladies confuse the planets with their shiny-as-the-sun ensembles. In fact, I'm pretty sure the December 26, 2008 tsunami was caused by female senior citizens wearing their flashy and trashy Christmas sweaters and rocking the sun off its trajectory.

Usually I shun any clothing with a hint of glimmer and yet today I sit in front of you wearing a sweater with a bit of shimmer. Damn it all, I'm getting old. Not yet wearing shiny crap from head to toe but trying real hard to resist, Ringo.

However COMMA Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party preparation brought out the repressed shiny side and I decided I to see how the tackier side of life dressed by revamping my tired cracking boots.



Brushed on a couple coats of gold paint and top coat of glitter paint.

Added "stitched" detail with gold Sharpie pen.

(stay tuned to learn more of the painted boot adventure . . . . .)

Solid Gold

My buddy Dawn had a Solid Gold themed karaoke birthday party so searched for my costume because neither my closet nor costume stash contains gold lame' and such tackiness.

If you can believe it, this gold sweater was waiting for me at a local thrift store! WooHoo! It was a $4 kind of shiteous but who cares - it's gold!

UGLY, before

Tried it on and realized the fold-over "collar" drove me nuts. I cannot tolerate "fussy" clothing. Y'know, things that don't lie flat, need constant adjusting, etc. It's the reason I rarely wear lightweight scarves and love tailored clothing. To party all night long and have that collar thingie riding up would have brought on a huge case of monkey nerves with a very probable ending with my drunken gin and juice fueled sawing off of man-made fibers with a borrowed pocket knife. Not good. So, a revamp for the sweater tramp was attempted. No biggie if I ruined it, right? Could a gold shimmer sweater with lioness tassels be ruined? Is that possible? I mean, a big red wine stain would be an upgrade.

Folded up the collar or cowl neck or whatever it's called.

Looked at a scoop neck t-shirt and guessed at cut line. I cut it, I tell ya!

Puzzled over the next step. Right sides together? Join edges to outside or inside? Collar seam inside or outside? There was no way I was gonna fix it if I sewed it wrong so pinned, unpinned, re-pinned.

Serged the edges. I had taupe thread but too lazy to change 4 cones of serger thread plus the finished edge would be hidden so no dark thread would show through sweater weave.

Here 'tis!

UGLY, after

From UGLY to STILL UGLY but more comfortable. Because that's what's it's all about: I'll suffer for pretty but ugly? No, ugly needs to be comfortable.

(Check out my gold multi-chain necklace worn with the gold "pearls" I strung!)

Word of the day: Craft envy

My friend Dawn should be credited with originating the term "craft envy". While crafting with others, invariably the feeling of "damn, I wish I had thought of that" occurs, thus craft envy.

Reading other's blogs is interesting and sometimes I think "that's cool but not my bag" or "why the hell would someone spend 7 hours making that crap?" or "way cool, I am so gonna copy that" but the blog entries that chap my ever lovin' ass are the very same ones that cause craft envy. Ideas or creations that are in my mind but time hasn't allowed me to create OR just the germ of the idea that someone beat me to OR made something even better than I could have imagined.

So, the source of craft envy is use of twine (which I blogged about in November) by the ever talented and creative Cathe Holden.

Don't wanna post her pix without permission but click HERE for her fabulous and much coveted images featuring TWINE and retro images, dammit to hell.

And, I love retro. If I didn't love Cathe Holden's style and blog, I might just pout but instead I'll direct you to her site so you can see her fabulous creations.

My Retro image embroidered on tea towel,

. . . thinking she needs a twine rope now . . .

Holiday market booth

Got a wild hair and placed a deposit for a booth in my small town holiday market. It was a whim to see if people liked the stuff I made and if they would purchase said stuff. With a piece of chalk I mapped out a 10' X 10' space in my garage. Then I started making stuff like galvanized aluminum magnetic boards (shiny stuff!), cigar box valet boxes and handbags. Mom painted watercolor fleur-de-lis and Dawn fabricated tons of glass magnets.
My fabulous aunt offered use of her modular "walls" and Kay loaned me her ill-begotten table skirts (don't ask). The decor was kept simple and shiny! Caw, caw!

Here are some before and after photos:

Here are some holiday or craft fair pointers:

• Arrive early to claim your spot. Even if previously assigned, an early bird may be able to trade or upgrade space. I overhead a trade conversation with the phrase "don't tell anyone but I'll move you to their space".



• Bring more electrical cords than you think you need.



• Lighting is key.



• Decide ahead of time if you will accept checks. I accepted from personal acquaintances and folks that appeared to be good risks. Yes, I profiled but I have years of retail experience.



• Don't even think about keeping a cash box. Stash that money in your apron or deep pockets.



• Bring your boombox for ambient music.



• Let your product explain itself. Some folks are shy and just want to browse.



• Hangtags denote quality.



• Mark each item with price. Some folks will not ask price because they are afraid that the price will embarrass them. I know it sounds stoopid but hey, some folks are stoopid.



• Market coordinators may ask you for a door prize to promote the show. Luckily I thought to write a gift certificate on some of my logo paper. You want to draw folks to your booth.

People give me stuff, part 3

Dawn gave me a box of earring parts consisting of big 1980's style earrings like pageant girls are wont to wear. I knew I would eventually find some use for them and finally did. WooHoo! It is a double People Give Me Stuff! Mom gave me the big ma'am-a jamma crystals and I combined them with the Dawn earring parts for fabulous suncatchers, Feng Shui crystals or Christmas tree ornaments.

Reduce, reuse, recycle - repurpose in the SkitzozLeezra way!