Day 281. 84 days and $85 left to go.

Los Angeles is in the middle of some serious warmth this weekend, probably to make up for the lack of it this past June, July and August.  If Labor Day is all about saying goodbye to summer, this is the best way to do it.  Gimme some rays. Gimme some sun.  Loving this hot. Hot. Heat!!

Day 281 - Before

This muumuu was just the piece that was going to get me feeling cool while still channeling the summer at an afternoon BBQ.

Clearly we’re not going to attend looking as is, so let’s get to fixing it!

Can’t do sleeves, so we’re going to take them off!!

Early stages of total detachment!

Out came the seam ripper and stitches were getting undone!  Off with the sleeves!!

One almost down, one to go!!

I wanted to go short, so I trimmed off a good foot of material from the bottom of the muumuu.

Length trim!

Now we’re really going places!!  My new dress was sleeveless and shorter and getting closer to a wearable end point!!

Sleeveless!!!

I got out my sewing machine to create new seams around the arm holes which now had no sleeves attached.

Fixing Sleeves!!

I trimmed an extra bit of fabric (about two inches from the bottom)…

One last trim!

…which I’m going to be tying around the back of the dress.

View from behind...

I cut the material so there was two ends, gathered the material, and tied a bow in the back.

Bow time!!

My dress was now complete for the day!!

Day 281 - After

It was just the thing to wear on this warm and lovely Sunday afternoon at the S’s.

From the back!!

The back of the dress was my favorite part and even as it got later on into the evening and began to cool down, I tried my best to go without my cardigan cover up.  Ooh, the price we pay (and warmth we feel) for fashion 🙂

Master of the grill RS was wheeling and dealing an assortment of divine and delicious meats throughout the day.

RS and his grill!!

I mean, get a load of this pork that had been simmering for over 12 hours.

Pork!!!

I’ve never tasted a pulled pork sandwich that was this amazing outside of Charlotte, NC.

We ate. We sat. We cleaned…

Clean Up Time...

We couldn’t hit the dessert table just quite yet, so we did a little bottle gathering and dishwasher filling to work up an appetite.

After a little tidying up, we pulled out the desserts to find that the apple pie had a visitor already.  A small finger scoop of this delish treat was what we found missing and everyone was mum about who did it.  In a group of 20 people, everyone had poker faces.

Pie Bandit!!

My guess is Colonel Mustard with the lead pipe in the kitchen.

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Day 280. 85 days and $86 left to go.

It was a super hot day so I was really looking for something to stay cool in.  Wasn’t sure if I wanted a dress or just a top, but I thought this lavender-y, crepe number would do just the trick.

Day 180 - Before

It was light and airy which I thought was great.  Loved the color, but wasn’t crazy about the fit or the top of the dress.  My mind started racing and I came up with a fun idea that was going to bear a lovely, cool top.

But, parting with these was first on the agenda.

Not happening!

I got rid of both shoulder pads in no time!!

There they go!

In getting to the coolest place possible so my sweat-o-meter wasn’t crazily off the charts, I decided to cut off the shoulders on both sides.

New shoulder time!

I trimmed off one and then easily tweaked the other.

Shoulderless time!

I had a little halter-esque project going on, just that my back wasn’t going to be exposed.

Shoulder Exposé

I pinned down the raw edges on both sides, cut off the length of the dress…

Shorten up!

…and stitched everything into place.

Sew it down!

Paired with some jeans, a vintage hanging locket and Havaianas on my feet, I enjoyed the warm weather and made an evening trip to the movies.

Day 280 - After

Fun night to go check out Going the Distance where I immediately fell in love with Drew Barrymore’s wardrobe – fun and casual (lots of stripes and deep backed T-shirts)…

Love the outfit! Love the pretzels! (Courtesy of Life Magazine)

…with some scattered sequined/beaded pieces that I salivated over.

Loved what she wore to her London premiere…

Drew!!

Because I did leave the arm holes larger (when I toyed around with the idea of adjusting, it tightened the top a smidge too much and lost a bit of the drapey/flowy element) I threw on my olive tank underneath which kind of matched DB above…

Fab undergarment!

Let the weekend continue!!

Day 279. 86 days and $87 left to go.

It’s Friday, it’s the beginning of a long weekend and I’m kicking it off with a little Earth, Wind & Fire action with the gang!!  I’m an air sign, so I decided to go with the elements and chose a little blue.

Day 279 - Before

This fabric is a great ruched material which I loved, not to mention the sleeves, but there was this weird black lining inside of the piece which was slightly cumbersome.

The lining!!

That was going to get tackled, but my issue, first and foremost, was the length of the dress in general.  I didn’t like the bottom so I thought the best first step would be to remove it.

Beginning to detach!

Grabbed my seam ripper and started to rip it apart.  In no time my piece was now pieces.

Woo hoo it's now in two!!

Now I love wearing eyeliner. but the liner on this puppy had to go. Grabbed some scissors and started snipping away.

Later liner!

I trimmed around all the edges and the black material was gone!!  Woo hoo!!

That liner is almost gone!

I wanted to keep it loose on me, but right now it was still a tad too large.  I pinned the new top in the areas that I wanted to stich…

PIn to take in!

…and I got to taking it in.

Taking in!

After a few minutes under the needle, we tightened up perfectly.

Stitched!!

New top for a night under the “I can count them on my two hands” LA stars!!

Day 279 - After

Let me tell you…we were dancing and slimming all night with the rest of the packed crowd as EWF opened with “Shining Star” and went down the line of other favorites.  Our neighbor behind us shot this pic – what you should have seen was the Hollywood Bowl bandshell and fireworks, but all we got was this…

Fireworks playing to "September" but all you can see is tush!!!

Insert…

“Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away”

…as the fireworks went off in unison to the music in the skies.

Earth, Wind, & Fireworks!

Way to kick off the weekend with awesome friends, fun fun music, and “dancing in September…”

Team EWF!

TGIF!  Happy Labor Day weekend friends

Day 278. 87 days and $88 left to go.

Today’s dress began as a zip front nightgown!!

Before - Day 278

I would have passed over this piece but I ended up taking it mostly because of the below…

Embroidery!!

I loved the embroidery (and the color in general) so I threw it in my bag of gear I found at the pile sale for a buck!!

I wanted to take this down the top road, so I had to get rid of the zipper.

Unzip and Pin!

I unzipped the top and pinned it together as this is where I was going to actually stitch the two halves in place.

Stitching down!

After stitching this down, I cut out the zipper!!

Getting rid of the zipper

After the zipper was out, I cut the nightgown short, cut a strip of fabric from the excess that was going to work as my belt…

Cutting it short!

…and cut the sleeves so that they were shorter.

I headed back to my sewing machine to take in the new top a few inches as well  to make it a bit more fitted.

More sewing!!

Belted, paired with a headband, and worn with some jeans my new top was less for sleepytime and more for hanging time and watching football time!

Day 278 - After

Got to see my fab gal JM…

We like posing for the cameras...

…while I watched my team (USC) beat Hawaii on their first game this season.

Touchdown!!!

I know we’re without a bowl game these next two years because of some shady activity by some folks…

Argh Reggie Bush!! Gets a Super Bowl ring & loses a Heisman in a year...muy frustrante!!

…but I’m not saying any names, Reggie Bush.  I’ll still root just as hard.  And you can make sure that I’ll have some themed gear to accompany games over the next few months as well 🙂

Day 277. 88 days and $89 left to go.

I’m going for an Indigo Girls kind of look today…well less on the band vibe and more specifically on the color to be honest.

Day 277 - Before

This dress had these awesome buttons at the neck and pockets (!!!), however the sleeves were some of those fitted at the wrists/baggy by the arm pits kind.  The dress was gathered with elastic at the waist, giving a baggier look here, so I wanted to contrast that with something that was going to be a bit more fitted on my chest.

First thing’s first though…later pads!!

Pads!

In fixing the top of the dress, I’m going to go the strapless route.  Before we get there, I’m taking both of the sleeves off!

Seam ripping sleeves!

Using my seam ripper, I began unstitching both sleeves around the armpits.  I got one off without a hitch…

Sleeves are off!

…and the other one followed.

They're both off!

In prepping the top for the straplessness that was around the corner, I took off the top six buttons with my seam ripper and then cut a straight line across the top of the dress that hit where the fourth button was just removed.

Buttons off...

I folded the raw edges under to prep for a new seam and sewed up the sides where the sleeves were removed to close up shop.

I paired my new dress with some of my eBay gold and purple baubles, a lavender belt, and my black Michael Kors kicks (another eBay find a year ago) for my night that included a little hang out action with some friends at La Vida…

Day 277 - After

I ran into the awesome/fab/insanely talented Lauren, Billy and Chike who are A, still rehearsal-ing before the SYTYCD tour starts up in a few weeks and B, making me want to go take a dance class asap because bopping to Cee Lo and Kanye tonight just wasn’t enough…

Just a little hanging with some new friends

…before taking some iPhone pics with my favorite @nyquil32.

Cheese!!

Awesome way to ring in September!! Humpday hang nights rule!

Day 276. 89 days and $90 left to go.

Today was a bold and bright one!  I’m just warning you as this piece is literally fluorescent orange.  No joke. Fluorescent. Orange.  Ooh, and PS…it’s a muumuu too!!

Day 276 - Before

Slightly blinding but exactly the wakeup call…this and my cup of Folgers 🙂

Holy Sleeves!

I grabbed my seam rippers and started undoing the seams right around the sleeves…

Clip the pits!

…until I got them completely off!!

No Mo!!

I didn’t cut the length of the dress but just grabbed a braided belt, put it around my waist, ungathered it a bunch and had a new dress for my day!!

Day 276 - After

Went to grab a little Mexican with some friends and literally enjoyed a carne asada, chicken, and pulled pork trio for $3!!

Taco Tuesday!!

Some tacos, margaritas, and fun company equals the best way to spend a pre-holiday weekend Tuesday night.  Now, this gal loves her some Taco Bell, however tonight’s dinner was cheaper than fast food!!

Margie time!!

I mean, a mid-week margie?  Sign me up…Mexican food is the key to my heart.

Day 275. 90 days and $91 left to go.

I totally loved this blue and white frock that I ended up using for the dress for the day.

Day 275 - Before

The bold palm leaves were what drew me in, but it was a bit too busy right now.  The contrasting striped material was a slight headache as well, but it’s going to definitely get to a non=headachey spot soon…

To begin getting rid of the annoying fabric contrast, I began by trimming out the striped V that sat on the chest.

Trim out that collar!

I really disliked the two toned nature up here, so sniptime was around the bend.

It's gone!!!

In a hot second, the two toned material went from attached to adios!!

Clearly the pads had to go next…

Pads-Be-Gone!!

…and lastly it was all about making this into a top.  I trimmed right below the waist and cut on one of the striped lines that sat at my hips.

Going Short!!

I was left with this excess which I will be reusing in no time!!

Leftover

I paired the new top with an olive green tank, a wooden beaded necklace (thanks to a trip to the Melrose Trading Post Flea Market), and a pair of skinny jeans for the day.

Day 275 - After

I loved the way this looked now – just a few easy tweaks to go from overwhelming to A-OK.

I went to a quick dinner with JS at Doughboys where we went a little splitsville in ordering (always the best because it’s always SO difficult to make a dinner decision) right before she gave me one of the coolest gifts ever…

To share with you guys, I was just featured in this month’s Los Angeles Magazine as their September tastemaker (woo hoo for being in a September issue!!)!

Best Present Ever!!

To commemorate the issue which just came out, JS did a little framing action of page 84 where I was featured…

My September issue!!

Now I’m a total scrapbooker, so clearly this was going to be included, however the whole framing idea was the icing on the cake.

Speaking of icing, a low-key night with the best company you could ask for was just perfect, but this was the kicker…

BOOM!! Red Velvet!!

Courtesy of a lovely picture I found posted by jleighb on flickr, this is how we ended the dinner.  I was overwhelmed by the frosting so I clearly lost my mind in not remembering to document this on my own camera.

There was a total food coma post this treat, but rightfully so and so worth it!!

Day 274. 91 days and $92 left to go.

I have to say that when I saw this top at the pile sale this morning, I knew exactly what I wanted to turn this into!! I’ve got an Emmy party to go to tonight and this costume is going to be just perfect!

Day 247 - Before

Sure, you’re thinking it’s a cheerleading top Maris…you can’t really make this into anything.  Oh just wait…this top is turning into a mini-costume, but one where I don’t have to wait until Halloween to wear.

The first plan of action was to get rid of “Gauchos” written on the front.  They’re the mascots to UCSB, however that is far from what I’m going for today.

Unembroider!!

After a lot of seam ripping, we got the top to look just like this.  Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose right about now!!  (That’s a total Friday Night Lights reference for all you equally obsessed Riggins fans…)

Oh Tim Riggins...

The front was completely empty (woo hoo) and in just the condition to do a little ironing on.

Gone!!

While the iron was heating up, I went through my letters and cut out the eight that are going to be placed down.

Letter time!!

I took my letters and carefully placed them down in a straight row.  The iron got hot and I began to go over my letters for about 30 seconds.

Press it Down!

After a short cool down, I began to peel the paper backing from the decals.

First the C…

One down...

And then the HEERIOS…

CHEERIOS!!

It’s my total GLEE inspired Emmy’s outfit for the night!!

Watch out, or else slurpee in your face!!

Just like Brittany, Santana and Quinn, I was totally rooting for Jane Lynch to win the Supporting Actress Emmy.

Day 274 - After

My teammate JMT provided a viewing of the awards show, and we totally broke down some routines in-between commercials.

Yay Jane!!

Honestly, I think we’re looking more like this right now…

Woo Spartans!! Ready, OK!

…however, in our hearts, it was all about the GLEE tonight.

We literally cheered when Jane won…

BE AGGRESSIVE. B. E. AGGRESSIVE

Sue Sylvester would be proud!!

Day 273. 92 days and $93 left to go.

I was just rewatching Swingers again for the 47th time so I totally had in my head a vision where this piece was going.

Day 273 - Before

Right now it’s all buttoned up and stuffy, but this crepe dress is going to be looking money in no time!  It’s so money and it doesn’t even know it yet!!

First thing I did was remove the solo shoulder pad that was situated in the right shouler area.

Outtie 5000 Shoulder Pad

Next I hit the sleeves – I grabbed my seam ripper and began unstitching each arm to make the piece sleeveless.

Going armless...

Once we got the sleeves off…

Later sleeves!!

…next came the collar.  I wasn’t feeling any of the white trim, so I just pulled it all off.

Collar Removal

I cut strips off of the leftover arms for two reasons.  First, I sewed a few of them together to make a sash, woo!!  Second I wanted to have some matching material to wrap on top of safety pins and hide them, which you’ll soon see.

Fabric Strip!

Out came the sewing machine to finish up the edges of the arms and collar as well taking it in a few inches to make it a little more fitted.  It’s going to be ready for all the “beautiful babies”.

Almost last step!

I grabbed some safety pins and pulled a little “pinch and cinch” action but used the extra material I trimmed off to tie on top of it.

Did the signature "pinch and cinch" but had to cover it up!

It was more about gathering as much fabric as possible which made it less clean looking.  The fabric on top did just the trick.  We are totally money now.

Day 273 - After

This dress was super reminiscent of the last scene in Swingers where Jon Favs (as in Favreau) meets his dream girl doing a little bit of swing.  All I need is some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in the background and maybe a trip to the Dresden to see Marty and Elaine to completely channel this look.

Swingers!!

If I only coiffed my hair the same way, then we’d be cooking with gas!!  That will have to just wait for “Vegas baby, Vegas”!

Day 272. 93 days and $94 left to go.

My ensemble for the day came from this hand painted puppy below…

Day 272 - Before

Check out all the detail up close…

Love the details!

I was obsessed with this fabric paint that was used and loved the colors and the design but as it was it felt a little too polka dotty.  I wanted to make the rest of the design pop, so I figured I’d go tunic and make it short.

First step was cutting it right at the edge of the design on the bottom.

Tunic Time!!

I’ve got some amazing leftover fabric that I will most definitely be using again!!

I prepped the bottom of my new top for sewing a new hem which will be happening oh so shortly…

Inside out!!

But first, I wanted to change up the sleeves a bit.  Because I wanted the design to be the focal point, I began trimming right beneath the florals on my shoulders which is going to work perfectly in giving them a dainty, handkerchief feel.

Sleeve Trim!!

After I trimmed, I pinned!!  I took in the top just a few inches to make it a little more fitted and then got out the machine to tie it all up.

Take in top!

Le fin??

Day 272 - After

I paired it with a vintage gold link cuff from eBay, some jeans that I rolled up and some black flats for a quick jaunt downtown with my gal LP.

We parked and hopped from place to place mostly for the music themed photo ops.

LP got hers at the piano…

LP and her keys...

And I got mine at the jukebox…

My BFF the jukebox

TGIF!  Happy weekend friends