Harley is an excellent climber.  He plays with the squirrels and they’ve taught him a thing or two about climbing.  I was on the phone with my friend Julie when I looked out my back door to see Harley scrambling up the tree.  He was up as far as the power lines when I went to get my camera and was a bit lower when I came back.  I told him to get down, because he ripped a claw out already this summer climbing trees and it cost over $200 at the vet to get it looked at and fixed up.

This is his hiding place.

I was sewing up a storm before Chad left.  We got him new pants and they needed to be hemmed.  A lovely shot of my work station with a Bud Light Lime for an assistant.  This is definitely my new summer drink.  I love it and am telling everyone I know to drink it, which is converting a ton of people.  Send me some Bud Light Lime!

Adam is fixing his phone.  He threw it and pieces came off, but luckily we found them all.

Chad loves it when I tell him to look cause I’m taking a picture.

And now photos of my outfit.  Chad is trying to get me to pose and I’m such a non-poser.  Need to watch some ANTM and get my poses down.

This is the “don’t look at me” so I’m not.  I love this shot cause Harley’s in it.  I want to cut him out and put him in all my photos.  He’s like the Barbie cat, you know what I mean.

And then zipped up.  Oh I know, I’m a star.  I totally win the posing challenge.  Ha!

This is such an inexpensive outfit.  I’m a bargain shopper for sure.  Here’s what I’m wearing:

• T-shirt – Hail The Villain
• Hoodie – Urban Planet ($10!)
• Shorts – Urban Planet ($7!)
• Belt – Urban Planet ($3!)
• Tights – silks – free from SO
• Knee socks – Giant Tiger ($3)
• Shoes – DC
• Glasses by Jill Sanders

Chad with his newly hemmed jeans.  Now here’s the “where’s the beach” pose.

And then Harley had to pose.  Here he is after chasing his tail on top of the toilet seat.  Holding on for dear life.

And caught.

I wore this outfit the other day.  This is a business-y look for sure and I was asked numerous times if I was going on a job interview… haha!

I made the skirt, it was reconstructed out of a terrible pair of white pinstripe pants.  It was one of my last sewing projects.

• Skirt – I made
• Pink Sweater – Kersh (bday present from my sister)
• Black tank top – Urban Behaviour
• MaryJane heels – Le Chateau circa 2003 or 2004
• Oversize pearl earrings H&M
• Crown necklace – handmade by atlantis804

Ok, so it’s not really a duct tape suit, but it’s close!

Last night my Inks and I made a custom dress form for me out of duct tape. It took about an hour and my helper ended up feeling nauseous from all the walking in circles to cover my body. It was pretty fun, and a little uncomfortable to stand in that stiff position for an hour. At one point I got the giggles pretty bad, which was very hard, and we did get frustrated with each others taping techniques. My brother helped a bit and thought I was ridiculous.

After I was completely wrapped up we had to figure out how to get me out. The instructions said to cut down the back and step out, but it was much more difficult than that. We started at the neck, cutting down towards my bum, got nicked a couple times by the scissors, and once we were halfway down my back, it was too tight to cut any lower. So we decided I should lay down and it would be easier to cut me out…but I couldn’t bend to lay down! My wonderful bf pushed me facedown on the couch (which was hilarious and awkward) and proceeded to cut the rest of the back down to my tailbone. Then came the “slip out” fun. There were places that the tape stuck to my skin (armpits!!! owww) and it was pretty painful to try and take off. Plus we were laughing even harder by this point. We finally got it off and I started to stuff it, realized I didn’t have enough tape left to close the cutline so I’ll have to finish tonight.

Here’s what it looks like:

This is my first attempt at a dress. I used McCalls pattern M4440, a simple black broadcloth fabric, boning, 12″ zipper and a red ribbon. It took me three days in total and turned out pretty well for my very first attempt.

This was also with my first sewing machine that I got for Christmas. It was a very basic model, a Sharp something or other, and broke when trying to make a coin purse with Alexis (my neighbour). I happened upon a Singer store in our little local mall and there was an awesome one on sale, a Singer 2932. It’s a pretty great machine, with loads of stitch functions, including stretch fabric stiching and surger stiches!

Next I made this pair of pants for work out of a black polyester blend, a polyester lining and 8′ zipper. The pattern is a variation of Vogue 8427. The pockets look so good and I did a really good job on them. The hardest part was sewing the zipper in. It’s not that straight, but luckily you can’t see it. The photos don’t do them justice. We have an old camera and it’s definitely time for a new one.