I’m finished… or am I?

I sewed what I thought was my last stitch on the slip of my dress. It fits and I hemmed it and I did a little dance! Then I thought to myself, “Hey self! Maybe you should tack the facings to the dress so they don’t pop out.” So, I did that and then wasn’t too happy with the result. I was planning to tack the facing to the lining, but unfortunately, there were a couple spots where I went all the way through to the slip. Actually more than a couple. I ended up pulling it out in spots. I also wanted to take it to get professionally pressed/steamed/whatever. Then again, that is a process I’m taking very seriously. You know, you always hear about these cleaners going out of business and then some poor person has no dress and it’s the day before the wedding and then… Okay, I’m being paranoid. But this dress represents hours and hours of work. I don’t want to have to sew all night before the big day because someone lost my dress.

I also began embellishing, in earnest, the outerdress. I was looking at my inspiration and started sewing patches of lace onto the dress. It is tedious and you have to hand sew because, well, it’s lace onto tulle-like fabric. I looked at it after I was finished with the front and didn’t like the position of a couple pieces, so I used a seam ripper to carefully remove it. I will re-position later.

A few weeks ago, I had written in my blog about my dad passing away. He died on January 9 and my brother and I flew down to California to spend a few days with my mom. We returned home on the 13th. On the 14th, I was walking with Mike and tripped over a bit of uneven sidewalk and landed on my face. Yes it hurt, and I possible broke my nose in the process, so I looked pretty hideous for a few days. I have a side biz that really isn’t a side biz, but I use the product, so I’m my best customer. Anyway, I sell Monat Hair Products. One of their products is called Rejuvenique. It is a magic oil for your hair. I use it on my skin as I do not like putting oil in my hair. I first discovered the benefits when I accidentally got sunburned and used it on my burned skin and it healed me nearly instantaneously. It was amazing. So, after my spill, I used it exclusively every day on my poor face. The next week after this unfortunate accident was the Inauguration. This story is going somewhere, believe it or not. The night before the Inauguration, the President-Elect and Dr. Biden and Vice President Harris and Doug Emhoff were pictured in front of the Washington Monument. We had hit over 400,000 deaths from COVID-19. And my dad was one of those candles at the Washington Monument. It was a very touching picture. I wrote about it and posted a photo. Also, I posted a photo of my face the day after that picture was taken. I had makeup on and you could hardly tell I had that unfortunate faceplant.

Last weekend, I got a letter in the mail from some organization that does not give legal advice. They said I needed to remove the photo unless I had permission. Well, the thought didn’t occur to me that I would need permission. I mean, I had seen the photo hundreds of times on social media. Heck, I posted it on social media. But somehow, posting it on my little-known blog without permission was not proper. I will leave it at that. I’m still dealing with the fallout.

There was a lot going on last weekend. There was Mother’s Day (and I am blessed with one beautiful daughter and two step-sons). We have been trying to figure out the whole business with cannolis and macarons for wedding towers at our reception. I know I am making this a longer story than it needs to be, but my daughter is blessed with two bonus moms — one was a long-time girlfriend of my ex-husband; the other is the ex-wife of my ex. It may sound weird, but I have more in common with those two than one might imagine. Candi is a good friend and loved my daughter like her own kids. Anyway, Candi’s niece has a business: Morgan’s Macarons. I sent her a message and now she is doing Macarons for one tower and filling cannolis for the other. I’m an English teacher and I know the plural of cannoli is cannolo (or vice-versa), but I like the sound of cannolis better! Anyway, here is a shoutout to Morgan! I’ve seen photos and they look fabulous! I bet they taste fabulous too. The best thing is, she lives close, so this should be a breeze. I’ll post some of her pictures soon!

I’ve lost 20 pounds, which feels great! I would like to lose 10 more, but am not stressing over it. Last weekend, being Mother’s Day weekend, and this past week being our last week of school (and Graduation), I decided to go a week without weighing. I weighed myself yesterday and didn’t gain and didn’t lose either.

The bad news was, one of our band members (keyboards and vocals) cannot stay for the reception. I found out on Wednesday morning and nearly burst into tears. I was in class, so that was not a good thing (although probably no one would have noticed). I ended up scrambling and hopefully (fingers crossed) finding someone else. I’m still waiting to hear the final word, but it looks promising.

So, back to the dress. It is 76 days out and it looks great! I realized today that it is 11 weeks. Things are coming together. Brenda is on top of everything because, well, she is amazing! Shout out to her too! She said she will finally relax when everything is done, so August 2!

Stay safe everyone!