Moving is never very fun. It's expensive, it's complicated, it's hard work. In short, I hate it. Last weekend I did a purge of all my belongings and hosted a yard sale. I managed to get rid of a lot of superfluous items and what I didn't sell, I donated to a local church for their annual yard sale. My week at work was spent training my replacement for when I leave. It's always nice to know that the transition will go smoothly when you leave a job. In my line of work, the design staff can seem indispensible, but fortunately for AMT, one of my current staff members is going to be the one to step up to the challenge of filling my spot. I know things will go well with her in that position, so it's a little easier for me to focus on the other aspects of my big life change!
As if grooming my replacement and packing my apartment in half the time I thought I'd have weren't enough to think about, this week I also managed to catch a horrible case of viral conjunctivitis in BOTH eyes! I don't know if you've ever had this type of condition, but it is miserable! I initially thought my eyes were just irritated from stirring up dust and dirt at the yard sale, but when it didn't relent, I finally went to the doctor and that was when I discovered I had pink eye. I felt like a dirty little elementary school kid when I heard the news. So to add insult to injury, when I'd like to be spending time with the people I'm saying goodbye to here in PA, instead I'm stuck in quarantine with piles of moving boxes and some Netflix. I ordered a pizza and I'm going to indulge in some ice cream, too. Yes, I eat my feelings. Don't judge me. Did I mention that because of the conjunctivitis, I had to THROW AWAY all the eye make-up I used while I had the virus? Yup. That's a LOT of eye make-up. Shadows, liners, mascaras, not to mention the brushes I used to apply and blend and whatnot. If that's not tragic, I don't know what is. I'm more upset about the make-up than I am about the brand new pair of contact lenses that also went into the trash.
In the meantime, I got a fun text message from my friend Brance. I had a little fun with fabric last week and made him a set of bow ties for an upcoming tour. He's going to be playing the role of Papa Who in the tour of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." How fabulous is that? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to send him some great ties to wear for the various opening nights he'll have while on tour. I packaged them in a pretty little Christmas tin and shipped it off to him. He sent a text with a picture of him wearing all the ties.
It was a far better photo than the ones I snapped:
Left to right: Multi-colored cotton stripe, black and white seersucker, blue and white polka dot poly-satin, brown and blue polka-dot corduroy, blue silk dupioni, brown brocade, cream silk dupioni. Not pictured is a gold poly-silk blend.
If you look closely, you'll see there are seven ties in the top photo and eight ties in the tin in the bottom photo. I guess I was careless with my picture-taking on this project. I was far too focused on selecting fabrics, I suppose. I wanted to do polka dots, stripes and a set of "formal" fabrics. I kept the formals pretty simple, using just one brocade and some amazing silk dupioni for the solids. If you ever have the chance to sew with silk dupioni, DO IT. It is one of those dreamy fabrics that is simply amazing to work with. And it makes a beautiful bow tie, to boot. Unfortunately, it's also quite expensive. It's not too big a deal to make something small like a bowtie, but to make a dress with it, then the price goes up a little more because the yardage goes up a little more. I really enjoy making bow ties- it's simple and relaxing. Unlike my reversible dress, which was a bit more complicated and a lot more time consuming. If you have a gentleman in your life who would like his own custom bow ties, feel free to visit my Etsy shop or email me to order one or a set.
Right now, my sewing machine is packed in a box somewhere in my apartment, so there won't be any sewing for me this week. Once I get settled back up in New Hampshire, I'll break it out and get back to work. Until then, the blogging I do will have to be focused on other people's fashions. And considering it was Fashion Week in New York this week, I'm going to have a lot of other people's fashions to focus on.
Did you check out any of the runway shows last week? Do you have a favorite? I've only seen photos from a couple of shows so far, but they've all been pretty thrilling. Leave a comment and tell me about what you've seen and what you loved (or hated)!
I wore the white one to my niece's graduation yesterday (at 8AM, thankyouverymuch) and it was a HIT! and then I wore it through both the Panama City and Atlanta airports. Going through security I kept beeping (it was my cell phone) and the woman behind me says, "Maybe it's his bowtie!". CONGRATS to you, Miss BowTieMaker!
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