Shameless Self Promotion

I am thinking that I might start a campaign to get myself a 'mommy makeover'. Now if you look up celebrity plastic surgery crap, you might see that a mommy makeover is actually a tummy tuck and boob lift; and while I could certainly go for that, I think I need more. Okay, I don't NEED bubkus. I have all that I could ever NEED, but let's face it...I WANT MORE--and I haven't even started!

Here's my thinking: I've done a good thing for myself and my family by losing so much weight (115lbs right now). I have probably added a few good years and reduced the cost of my healthcare in the future (until I get Alzheimers, but by then I won't know what's going on so I won't care). heck, I've probably reduced the cost of my current health care! So it kind of sucks that the insurance company won't pay for a tummy tuck...after all, they'd pay for all kinds of crap related to obesity--I think they should give me a reward!

But since they won't, I'll go to the public: HEY! I AM SAVING YOU MONEY BY LOSING WEIGHT! Really...it's not just MY health care premiums that I'm shaving, it's YOURS, too! And I'm still paying for YOUR BIG MAC HEART ATTACK! You don't think my bills are going down because I lost weight, do you?

Not only am I saving YOU money by losing weight, I'm doing more for society as a whole! I am more capable of volunteering to help people (not just CAPABLE, I'm actually out there doing it!) I am so much more energetic, that I am capaple of punctuating an entire blog post with exclamation points sometimes!

I eat less overall, so there is more food for the homeless! I eat more vegetables, so I am reducing my carbon footprint!

I don't think it's too much to ask to get someone to pay for a little plastic surgery and maybe a new wardrobe and some makeup tips! Think of how much more energetic I'll be when the anethesia wears off and I can get out there and help save the world without fear of slapping someone in the face with excess skin!

Aren't you glad I am not posting photos with this one?

Happy April 16th!I

I'm so glad I am not the tax person in our house. I would totally be running to get to the other side of the international date line to get my taxes mailed! I would need Superman to fly around the world and spin it backwards to make time go back.

Anyway, I'm recovering from my major surgery very nicely. I had that cyst removed on Monday morning, and by Monday evening I was running up and down the street begging people for drugs. If I lived in a nice neighborhood, there would be more doctors, and if it was a crummier neighborhood, there would be drug dealers. But alas, just regular people on my street!

But today I am better, I'm barely even whining any more. I'll have to find something else!

That's really all I have to say today. I did some spinning the past couple of days, but no pics yet. I have some really delightful brown merino that is very very soft...it smells like maybe it came from the home of a smoker, but that is getting less icky, so I think it's going to be okay. I'm doing a strand of brown/light brown/grey plied with a strand of white. I'm going to make myself a nice stripey sweater for next winter.

Many Congratulations!

Three of the women wearing my suits placed in Figure over the weekend! Tonya placed fourth in her category...her first show ever, and she's MY AGE! OMG...can you visualize ME in this suit? Please, don't try...shudder
Stacey placed second in her category (the categories are based on height), also her first show! And Maja, who placed second in her height class at the Northern KY show a few weeks ago took first OVERALL on Saturday! That is SO COOL!

Now, I realize that this is probably inspite of, not because of the suits, but I can feel pretty good about not hindering anyone's performance!

I spent the weekend putting my workshop back together and making sure that I have the patterns for everyone's suits organized so that if they want more suits, I won't have to start from scratch. I am also making some "standard" size patterns, so that hopefully in the future I'll be able to take someone's measurements and actually know what to do with them to modify a pattern!
I haven't figured out how to turn a picture right side up once it's loaded, but this is Abbie's two-piece. She was smokin' hot in it when she tried it on for me on Friday, but alas, I didn't take pictures in the bathroom at work...

Meanwhile, in other exciting news, I had a cyst removed from my back this morning. I thought I was just going in for a consultation, but they had me down for a procedure. The surgeon got in there and took it out before I was fully awake, which was probably good. Now that I am clocking in, I think this is going to be a little uncomfortable here in a little while. The huge, undulating wound is on my left shoulder blade, so I probably need to take the rest of the week off to recover, since I am left-handed.

Actually, as long as I can wear a bra, I'll probably be okay...if the bra strap starts to be a problem, the administration of the university will give me a free week off. The do NOT want me and the girls flapping around work this week!

T

On to the Next Disaster!

Okay! I have been through the "hell week" of bodybuilding suit designer business initiation. I have made and remade enough bikinis and one-piece suits to qualify for the lycra hall of fame this week. I've glued on enough Swarovski Crystals to require the boiling of a herd of hooves (do they still make glue from horses?). I have missed hours and hours of quality sleep, stuck myself in all kinds of interesting places with various instruments of sewing torture, and managed to grow spiritually along the way.

I now know that I have more things to clarify with clients BEFORE the job starts...hopefully there WILL be more clients! I don't think I totally scared off the women I was working for, but we certainly had some educational moments!

1) do not EVER EVER EVER use pepto-bismol pink wet-look spandex for ANYTHING, especially not a swimsuit. It sucks. I remade the suit about 5 times before we tried it out of a different fabric and hit it on the first try. I was sure her butt was changing shape on a daily basis. I even tried boning in the suit (the stuff used to stiffen corsets).

2) boning doesn't help swimsuits.

3) Go for the thicker elastic...1/4 inch elastic is too wussy to hold a suit on to the buttock area appropriately

4) Poor Phyllis needs a brazillian butt lift. I have to stuff the bottoms of my suits with socks and stuff to fill them out for putting on stones.

but I finished and delivered six suits this week--four of them with 48 hours to spare before the show! Here is the biggest thing I learned:

5) It takes more than six weeks to make a good suit, even though I can make a suit in a day...sometimes it takes five or six fittings to get it right.

although hopefully I'll be better at this and not need QUITE so many fittings next time.

Craft Camp Recovery Zone

Oh, my! What a weekend! Our junior girl scout troop went to spend a wonderful weekend at Camp Judy Layne near Cave Run Lake in Eastern Kentucky. To say we got off to a cold damp start is to say that Simon Cowell is a little bitchy, but we really wound up having a great time. There were lots of adults, which REALLY helped things flow...we were able to keep things moving for the girls while taking turns being "on duty".

Here is Karen's cabin and Stephanie Reynolds setting out to learn how to measure the distance to the bathroom by walking...

We earned 7 badges each! I am really proud of how well everyone did. There was minimal drama, of the 10-11 year old girl variety, but the girls deserve a badge in drama for their self-motivated and self-organized production of American Idol. I am so impressed with that...while supper was cooking on Saturday night, the non-cooking girls all went to the "Thicket Theater" and made up their own version of Americal Idol, complete with Randy, Simon, Paula and Ryan. The other girls did singing, dancing and comedy routines that they just made up there! So cool.

If we had tried to organize them to do something like that it would have never worked.

smiling happy Karen, inspite of the cold and damp!

Unfortunately, my camera pooped out very early on, so I don't have many pictures, but when the rest of the troop shares their pics, I'll post those, too!

playing catch up

Oh, boy--I am in arrears here I fear! I had those suits to finish for the competion on the 22nd of March, and I have several more due in a few more days, I had the flu, the kids had spring break, and so on!

Here are some pics from the Northern Kentucky NPC competition on March 22. Abbie is front and center wearing the tan one-piece:

We love the suit, but it seems the color didn't quite work for her, it's almost the same color as she is! My solution was to add about six hundred million more stones, but we're holding off on that one for a while...I'm in the middle of making a poppin' red suit for the next show, on April 12. Here is the back view:

Abbie placed sixth in her class out of about...alot of women...maybe 25 or so, so I think she did great! Of course, we all want first....

And here is Maja--she placed second in her height class! I'm so psyched for her! I would like to think the suit has alot to do with this, but I'm pretty sure I still have alot of design work to do before I can call myself accomplished in this market...

I have two more women I am working with right now and just when I think I have things worked out, I am pretty sure I am clueless. Hopefully we'll get it straightened out with this next go-round, because I am running out of not only time, but fabric!

My next learning experience here will be working with underwires! I found a website where I can buy them, which is huge--not too many people sell that sort of thing, because honestly...how many people make their own bras, and how many people put wires in swim suits? Well, I'm about to be one!

Stay posted...