Pillowcase Skirt

Oh my. I forgot to smile.

It's not a very smiley day here, it's that sort of miserably humid hot that makes you sweat just standing still. This summer has been one of the few times I have been glad women's dress designs for the last 10-15 years or so have not typically included sleeves, even in the winter. It means I can get away with just wearing a sleeveless shell with this skirt at work and still come off looking professional!

The real star of this outfit is the skirt though, which I made out of a pillowcase after reading Chic Steals post on how to diy this style of skirt. I mostly followed her instructions, but I used this 6" wide elastic I found at Kathy's Lace & Elastic Outlet instead of regular waistband elastic and made regular tucks along the elastic/pillowcase seam instead of using the stretch of the elastic to ruffle the fabric like in the original tutorial.

I love love love love this skirt. It has been the best thing in my wardrobe for those hot sticky days when I have to go to work. It also, because of the unusually wide waistband, looks like a dress. Plus six inch wide elastic does wonders for your tummy rolls. I'm in the middle of making another one and will be done as soon as I find the right elastic for it. Curse you Wal*Mart and your driving other fabric stores out of business.

The best thing about this skirt is I can pair it with a long sleeve shirt and cardigan in cooler weather. I like multi-seasonal clothes!

DIY Clean House

Is that? Is that MY kitchen? Yeeeeeesh...Mom, you may want to look away. Well, I finished training at work and now have a regular schedule, I've dropped my younger sibling off at the parents house, so maybe now I should take care of this bio-hazard. Top goal for today: kitchen clean enough to eat in.

My kitchen and I have a sordid history together, as you can see, it is a hallway. A hallway with a sink and a stove about about 2 feet of counter space total (some would generously call it a galley kitchen). If I want to cook, it has to be clean. It has to be clean if anything is going to go on in that kitchen. You leave one plate on the counter and you can't do anything else.

This means my kitchen is either immaculate or a disaster area. Usually not this much of a disaster though, packing up to move out has been creeping into all areas of the apartment, as you can probably tell by the boxes. Which is one of the things that's been keeping me out of there lately, even if I do clean the kitchen, it's still gonna be crowded and messy.

But at least it won't give me food poisoning. Or, as it seams, maybe it will encourage the pill-bugs to stop using the place as a grave yard. Seriously, piles of them. Everywhere. EVERYWHERE. What did they do? Form a little pill-bug cult? Don't drink the kool-aid little dudes!

Spinach was another thing I found in places it should not be. I always make a huge mess it seems whenever I cook spinach. Or don't cook spinach since it went into a salad. There is no real explanation how it got into ever nook and cranny of the stove-top. If there is, I suspect it has to do with the pill-bugs.

But in the end, I persisted. Today was a good day. Not only did I clean the kitchen, but I discovered that you can cut lettuce heads like an onion. It's easiest to do this with iceberg, but I also got it to work with the romaine, the trick is to work from the leafy side down to the steam.

I also fixed one of my portfolios, did some more packing and made some salad dressing.

And look at that kitchen! Its...still a hallway with a sink. But a clean hallway. Never mind how disaster-rific the rest of the apartment behind the camera lens is. That's a challenge to mount tomorrow.

Why I left Facebook Forever

So as of tomorrow,  I will be leaving Facebook, for the second time actually. It will also be the last time. A friend recently brought to my attention how much she was not enjoying her Facebook experience and was contemplating beginning a campaign for everyone to lie on Facebook. At the time she had brought this idea up, I had actually argued in favor of the now dreaded FB saying you can use it in the manner you want to and personalize your experience. Facebook is the tool, you are the wielder. Which is still true. You can be as open or as private about your Facebook profile and usage as you want.

However, later that night  I was writing a letter to another friend and I came to a realization. Facebook is like empty social calories. It makes me feel like I've had a lot of social interaction. I mean, I know what everyone from my graduating high school class is up to these days. But it does nothing to foster closer relationships, and in many ways, prevents me from doing so myself. I don't bother writing letters or e-mails to friends just to talk to them because Facebook's news feed makes me feel like I already did that. I get my fill of social interaction without any of the nutrition.

So I began making plans to leave, and Monday I'll be using http://suicidemachine.org/ to help me do it. Something that Facebook apparently hates because it might violate a user's privacy. That's just silly. We all know that it's Facebook's policies themselves that violate user privacy (or so some have claimed). Or maybe they're upset because they can't log information about me for advertisers or the government (Ready for a dose of 1984? Watch this video). Guess I'm not the first to jump on the "Get the **** out of Facebook" bandwagon.

I'm hoping that in leaving Facebook, I'll be more focused on keeping up with the people in my life on a more one-on-one basis through e-mail and letters. I used to know what my friends thoughts were on things because we talked about them. Due to Facebook induced laziness I now only know what they're doing. Keeping up with friends individually takes time though, and I still need to figure out an effective way to do it. So I also started this blog here, so that people can still check up on me and see what I'm up to. Plus I'm hoping for the added bonus of keeping track of my projects in a public forum will compel me to FINISH more of them.

So Good-bye Facebook, Hello Blogger.