Tops for tanks...tanks for tops?

What do these 3 garments have in common?

(aside from the fact that they were made in the same factory...)

And no, it's not their supreme uglitude.

They actually make one very spiffy summer top!!!

I believe I bought 1 new piece of clothing this summer, which is a record for me...

She's a Kraft-machine...

...And not the yellow-processed-cheese kind.

Behold, the results of another day where I could not sit still*

*I told someone yesterday that the chief difference in temperament between my mother and me is that my mother doesn't sit still in order to get further in life, whereas I MUST make things with my hands for the sake of creating (as anyone who knows me, I have NOT chosen a profession that brings one further in life...)

I had one too many "belly-shirts" and while I thought I'd just make another t-shirt, I realized I did not have enough jersey to make it pretty...

...but I had a yard of stripey silk, a workshop and hours of time...

Cute, HUH?

I hate Blogger...and NBC...and my slumlord...

Did I leave anyone out???

I hate Blogger...because one wrong keystroke publishes an entry that was in no way complete...yet the only way to take it down is to delete it completely, without the ability to save the post - does that make sense to you? I didn't think so.

I hate NBC because they took all NBC-related programming from iTunes last year, thereby rendering me unable to watch Top Chef or Project Runway (yes, Bravo is owned by NBC.) No, I don't have cable. No, I don't mind paying $2 per episode of TV. Yes, I was watching this season on YouTube, until NBC went and policed that this week, ending my knowledge of current Top Chef competition at Episode 11.

One of the main points of contention between NBC and Apple was the per-episode price of $1.99, which NBC reportedly found to be too low. That same programming is now available on Amazon Unbox for $1.89. Go figure. Of course, it is only available if you are on a PC running Vista, or have a TiVo or some weird personal video payer. Those of us with pretty Apples are just s**t out of luck, I guess.

Question - if you have TiVo, chances are you have full cable. Why on earth would you want to download a cable program onto your TiVo from the Internet? Boggles the mind.

I hate my landlord because they haven't upgraded the electrical service in the building since, oh, NEVER! The building was constructed circa 1920, and the ENTIRE apartment is on the same circuit. So if you are using the microwave and pretty much anything else, you trip the breaker. And the switch is in the basement. I live on the 5th floor. Good times!!!

Now onto what I originally wanted to post:


Another craft project, a table runner made from fabric sample squares, given away by recycling interior designers. This is the second step towards changing the decor of the apartment to a blue-grey scheme from a black-and-white scheme (the first step was painting the living room greying blue...)

Since I had boundless energy this morning (or so it seemed then...) I also made another shirt:


from these sad castoffs:





















I fashioned something a bit more elegant:

Movie time! Crafty time! Free time!

I fell in love with Katharine Hepburn in 1997, when I read her autobiography Me: Stories of My Life.

I can't express in an eloquent manner why Hepburn mattered. Before there was Wikipedia and Google, I spent the summer of 1997 learning as much about Kate Hepburn as I could from books. Her independence, her intelligence, her unusual personal life, her devotion to her family - these were all qualities that resonated with me. Her beauty is being taken for granted for the purposes of this blog entry. I've only ever seen two of her films by that time, but I loved her on screen as well as on paper.

*As it was just pointed out to me by a commenter, a Kate Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is being constructed as we speak in Old Saybrook, CT. I think I shall visit over the summer...

Last year, in honor of her 100th birthday, I wanted to watch all the Hepburn films that Netflix had to offer. Then life interfered, as it often does. So I am starting now - I figure a film a week should not be too taxing, and will take me the rest of the year - there are 25 of them in my queue. Having to report them here should also keep me honest/and posting regularly.

So tonight I watched "Little Women" and while I understand it received an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, two questions stick in my mind:

a) Did people in 1932 interact quite as artificially as they do on screen? Or is that just a film convention from the time period? Or are they trying to be very proper for portraying 1864?

b) Did Louisa May Alcott *write* such a contrived ending for the novel, or was this the fault of the adaptation? I've never read "Little Women", so I can't tell. But I can't possibly believe that Jo would be happily accepting a marriage proposal from Fritz Behr if events proceeded as they did in the film.

OK, now that I've got that out of my system, here's the other part of the post.

About a month ago I have come to the conclusion that I own entirely too many articles of clothing which are ill-fitting. However, I also have the know-how to *make* them fit, and just needed the time to do so. Summer is my off-season time, and here's what happened last week:

LK gave me this cute T-shirt in the winter, but trouble was, it was meant for extremely short-torsoed people (which I am not) - see Exhibit A

Well, when combined with this home-made shirt (ahh, what did we ever do without CafePress?)...


...it becomes quite wearable! and sporty! and you can't see my belly button!

The other one is a bonus. A shirt that was a hand-me-down for a reason (could it BE more shapeless?)...

...with the help of some clever darting becomes quite lovely!

I even wore it to an event and received compliments.

So that makes my other summer resolution - I am going to alter a couple of items a week, thereby gaining new summer clothes without spending any money - yay.

we'll see how long the resolute behaviour lasts (she thought sarcastically)