Stretching it a bit: MMM13 week 2

I will say the Photo-a-day prompts are helping me figure out how and where to take the pictures. Mostly. Fine. Some are decidedly a stretch. I'm also getting more comfortable with setting up my tripod in public but I still have to gird my loins, as it were, when asking total strangers to take my picture.

May 6

Bixi @ University of Toronto Robarts Library. "Broken"

Stretching the prompt, although I think my views on Bixi and its lack of coverage are known. And why yes, that library is indeed shaped like a giant peacock. I'm wearing another pair of earrings that I expropriated from Aged P. The posts were broken, so I merely slipped the hoop part onto some French loops. I'm also wearing my cream and beige infinity scarf and a dress I bought in Paris last summer, which is neither me-made nor refashioned, but so fabulous.^*

May 7

Fluevog, Queen Street West. "Something beginning with f"

Well, this is handy. Fluevog is having a contest where you could win 10 years of free shoes just by trying on a pair! Or, you know, buying a pair... oops. I'll be eating beans for the next little while. But aren't these things gorgeous? I adore those heels. And they are really, really comfortable. The contest is running until May 14. Hurry!

Oh, what else am I wearing? This is a refashioned shift from Sears. I bought it from the catalogue yonks ago due to a misunderstanding of the difference between sheath and shift and how shifts would look on me^**. I didn't put darts in the front since I didn't want to break up the clean lines and took it in at the sides. Then had to deal with the fact that the bust darts were pointing to just outside my armpits. Flattering, that wasn't, so I put some additional darts in to redirect. It's much better now. I'm also wearing my bruised candy apple earrings.

May 8

Henry Moore Sculpture, AGO. "Shape"

I'm wearing my white Butterick 6582. This outfit elicited a "do you own part of a dress shop?" comment from on of my students - I'm pretty sure she meant it in a good way. Sadly, it appears the Opus needs a really good wash beacause there are a number of smudges on the otherwise pristine white skirt. The earrings are the awesome fuchsia clusters I bought in London in 2010.

May 9

Dufferin Grove Park farmer's market. "A snack"

I feel like today is a bit of a cheat. I bought this tee a few years ago and it was much too long, so I hemmed it. Which doesn't really seem like I did that much of a refashion, but I took off a lot of length. And I've never sewn with knits before, so figuring out how to hem it took a little experimentation. I'm going to use the leftovers to refashion my flip flops. Speaking of shoes... I can neither confirm nor deny that I am wearing new Fluevogs with a wickedly carved heel.

I'm wearing the refashioned teacup earrings I bought in my Coffeneuring trip to West Queen West last fall^***. I used to have another pair of teacup/teapot earrings, but I lost the teacup during the Great Call-in-the-Army-Snowstorm of 1999. I took the little teapots off the new ones and replaced one teacup with the large teapot. I like these better than either of the original pairs.

May 10

Canada's Walk of Fame, King Street West. Sort of. "Stars"^****

The temperature dropped 10 degrees today. Also, it rained. I had planned to go put my name in the lottery to win tickets to The Book of Mormon, and so went home first to drop off my stuff so as not to have to deal with it should I win. But then I checked the rules, and the DC would also have to be there at the time of the draw; at which time he is still working. So, no lottery this week. So then I was going to go to the box office to see what non-$200 seats were available, since the website is useless, and then take my picture next to Dr. Roberta Bondar's star. Just as I started to unlock my bike, the heavens opened up in a serious way and I decided to chuck it. Hence this picture. We'll try for the lottery when the DC takes a week off at the end of May.

Anyway, I'm wearing wooden danglers I refashioned from the same set as the earrings I wore last Wednesday -- except that I lost one somewhere on the way to school^***** and so I had to create a new one from my leftover danglers and decided along the way to change them up a bit (four blue beads instead of three! woo!)^****** I'm also wearing the cream and beige infinity scarf. Again. The dress is not a Tiramisu, I'm afraid. I'm thinking that my earrings and scarves are going to be what gets me through the secret challenge this month.

May 11

Aberfoyle Antiques Market. "A smile."

Another Saturday where we had to get up far too early to be someplace fun. I wrote up this visit here. I'm wearing my as-yet-unblogged black cotton Sorbetto under that sweater under the not-a-Robson-trench (did I mention how cold it's gotten?) and my blue Sunny scarf; the earrings are lovely medieval-style pearl-and-silver things I bought in Jeckyll Island.

May 12

Somewhere in the wilds of Etobicoke. "Mother"

The plan was to finally line and rehem the Easter Parade dress (which is version A of Butterick 6582) and wear it to Mother's Day brunch. The lining did not really happen, although I did manage to move the hem up a bit and take in the bodice. In any case, the plans changed from going out to ordering in Chinese Swiss Chalet^******* and helping unload Aged P's minivan, and I would have been inconveniently overdressed, so I'm wearing a formerly-V-necked t-shirt that I refashioned following this tutorial. I mucked up the left side, twice, and I'll have to redo it again to make it look better, but in general I'm fairly happy with it. It's certainly much more wearable than it used to be.

My earrings (again, carefully hidden by my hair in the daily shot) are stirling silver square hoops that I made - this size is much better for the gauge than the huge ones I wore last Sunday. I'm not sure whether the blocks are silver plate or nickel or what... time (and tarnish) will tell.

Geeky stats:
This week: Me-mades: 6/7; Refashioned: 5/7; Sewing: 5; Crochet: 4; Earrings: 4
Running total: Me-mades: 11/12; Refashioned: 6/12; Sewing: 7; Crochet: 7; Earrings: 8

Previously, on PGOTLMMM13:


^*It is also blue, which fit in with "Blue & White" day to celebrate that the Maple Leafs finally got into the playoffs after nine years. Their playoff dreams at time of writing are hanging by a thread.

UPDATE: A very strong, steel thread. Game 7. Who'd a thunk it?

^**Spoiler: not good. No before picture because I started refashioning it pre-blog. Pre-digital camera, even. Also because it wasn't flattering.

^***Can I count earrings bought on "trips" to other parts of the city as "travelling" earrings? Pretty please?

^****The Friday theme for the Flickr group is your sewing/knitting/creating space. Originally, I thought there was no way to fit that theme in while on King St.; turns out I took this picture instead. It's in my kitchen, where I do a lot of crocheting at the kitchen table. Boom! Accidental theme synergy? Two for two!

^*****What is with me and earrings falling off the ear wire? Argh!

^******And this is why I never throw anything away. Which is dangerous because apparently I'm starting a fabric stash...

^*******Okay, the plans changed several times. We're a flexible bunch.