The Shoe Killer

The code of the merciless shoe killer: All shoes, boots and sandals must be (1) comfortable and (2) super cute and (3) fit in the bottom of half of a small Brooklyn apartment closet, with frequently worn shoes permitted access to the bottom of a small IKEA bookshelf and a single pair of snow boots allowed safe haven in the hall closet. There are to be no off-season shoes in the sock/underwear/utensil/spice drawers, on top of the art supply cabinet, or under the crib.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a shoe killer. Or a shoe abandon-er, anyway. After a lifetime of near-hoarderism (we're talking saving napkins with scribbles on them), something in my packrat soul just snapped last year. Maybe it was the repeated listening to motivational anti-clutter audiobooks, maybe it was Pregnancy Brain.

Either way, I finally lined up my overflow shoes, took a long last lingering look over their straps and buckles, their cute rounded toes, their retro feel, their adorable detailing and sturdy heels... and shot them. For the eBay auction gallery.

• The Victim: Brown Mary Janes with Scalloped Suede Detailing (Kenneth Cole Reaction)
  
• The Motive: Despite love of Mary Janes and sturdy low heels, repeatedly found excuses to wear other shoes instead. Perhaps it was the square toes, perhaps the lack of sock lining.
• Regrets: None. Cute shoes deserve to be worn.

The same cruel fate befell two other pairs of similar kitten heels. Even red top-stitching couldn't save these babies:

• The Victim: Strappy Silver Metallic Almost-Wedding Sandals (Van Eli)
  
• The Motive: I bought two similar styles on Zappos for my wedding in 2007, and these never made it down the aisle.
• Regrets: Eh. I hardly have use for one pair of metallic strappy heels, never mind two. But we had some good times:
  

• The Victim: Chartreuse Wedge Sandals (Born)
  
• The Motive: Atoning for a DSW impulse buy. I'm all about chartreuse everything, but after hobbling around in them at a gallery opening one night, I learned my lesson about wooden wedges and about fake "arch support" areas.
• Regrets: I regret nothing.

• The Victim: Mid-calf Black Leather Boots (Timberland)
  
• The Motive: I can only fit two pairs of boots in my closet--one flat pair, one heeled pair--and the other heeled pair was cuter.
• Regrets: We'll always have my Cavalier-and-Klay-inspired "Luna Moth" Halloween costume from 2004 (sewn up with some random Simplicity fairy costume pattern):
  

• The Victim: Sling-back black Mary Jane heels with patent leather toe (Cole Haan)
  
• The Motive: Um... WHAT WAS I THINKING? Probably something like "I'm so pregnant I will never wear heels again, even really amazingly cute heels that I got on a ridiculous sale and that are both sexy and work appropriate and only slightly uncomfortable and are super awesome pretty shoes that go with everything and didn't even sell for much on eBay and will never come back in my life again..." Crap.
• Regrets: I don't want to talk about it. I'M SO SORRY.

And finally, because this is Polka Dot Overload, after all:

• The Victim: My only pair of polka dot shoes in the whole wide world (Privo by Clarks)
  
• The Motive: When I saw them on eBay, it felt like destiny: red polka-dot flats from Clarks for $14? I thought my feet would love them forever...

  Until they arrived and I realized they had no arch support, made my size 10 feet look like giant boats, and reminded Masheka of Minnie Mouse.

• Regrets: I regret only that I had but one pair of polka dot shoes to give for... Er...

It's been almost a year. As I look back I can't help shed a tear or two sometimes for my shoes gone past...

But it's nice to be able to open the medicine cabinet without sandals falling on my head.

How's your spring cleaning going? Have you given any shoes the boot?

P.S. In my next post: the shoe survivors.

Photo in Wanted illustration by Márta Fodor.

Polka Dots at the Ballet Bar

Lately I find myself defaulting to a boring cold-weather Momiform of spitup and breast-milk-splattered dark jeans paired with a knit top, cardigan and snow boots. Which I replace when I can with the occasional fluted-skirt-and-knee-high-boots look. I've had to stop wearing my beloved collection of cheap bright beaded necklaces, because Baby Z invariably yanks on and breaks them... and the little beads go everywhere which is very scary and dangerous.

Thankfully for my polka-dot reputation, Z continues to rock enough dots for the both of us. She's pictured above at the Children's Museum of Manhattan in a RTW outfit purchased by my mom, with hand-knit felted booties from my aunt.

I'm hoping to step up my style for spring. I'm going to get a proper haircut and blowdry tomorrow (my first in over four months). And I just discovered I can fit back into my Stop Staring dress (part of the exciting vinage reproduction trend recently "discovered" by the New York Times). Here it is on Valentine's Day 2007:

It's no good for nursing (it zips up the back), but it's all good for the occasional date night.

We will NOT discuss all the sewing and knitting I haven't been doing lately. My latest excuse? I've been busy chasing after a 7-month-old who is determined to walk. (Or at the very least, stand unsupported squealing in delight for minutes on end until she suddenly falls over and I have to catch her.)

Plus I now have to close up my sewing table when not in use to keep her from grabbing all that pointy and chokeable stuff.

Also, she now says "Ma-Ma", like, all the time. I MELT. (Even though she had already been saying Da-Da for months). How could I craft in the face of such cuteness?

Bonus photo: Polka Dot Fire Chief!

There's an adorable knitted octopus in my future...

We kept it light on presents this year (I mostly bought family members charity donations in their names to organizations such as Madre and Doctors Without Borders)... but Masheka and I did get each other a few things. The below gifts from Masheka combined two of my obsessions: reading books, and making stuff. The man knows what I like!

Amigurumi Knits: Patterns for 20 Cute Mini Knits by Hansi Singh. I've sewn a few stuffed softies for Miss Z (well, ok, one, and I still have to embroider on the eyes, and yes, I will photograph it for this blog, and ... ok whatever), but I'd been wanting to try my hand at knitting some as well. I haven't attempted these yet, but flipping through, I'm especially loving the eggplant (and other assorted knitted vegetables), the kraken, the snail and the octopus.

Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris. More of a lavishly photographed humor book than an inspiring craft book, similar in format and style to her previous book about hospitality, I Like You. I laughed so hard reading the first few pages I didn't mind at all that I have no interest in making weird crafts out of pantyhose (which I've seen her do live, with the nylons she wore to the book signing) or fringy-pom-pom anything.

Oh, and if you don't hear from me until 2011... Happy New Year!

Our Polka Dot Christmas

Miss Z and I rocked red and white polka dots, naturally.

"Da-Da" decked the curtain rod...

... and stoked the YouTube fire.

There was a pathetic little tree...

And homemade cookies for Santa.

Miss Z unstuffed her stocking...

Got a baby doll from her Grandmommy...

Sat (sort of) still for a family portrait....

And enjoyed her first Brooklyn blizzard (or snow, really).

And a well-deserved nap.

If you celebrate, hope you had a good one!

Santa Babies

When we finally started getting serious winter weather this year, Z needed an industrial-strength warm hat--one with earflaps and a chin strap. She'd already outgrown the wool hat I knit for her, so my mom bought the below cute RTW purple polar fleece hat with a velcro strap (shown below with her Zadie)...

... and copied it in about five minutes, first in green (shown with some simple no-thumb baby mittens I knit for her)...

... and then in Santa-style colors, with an elongated crown (shown with an kimono-style top my mother sewed, think it's McCall's M4280 but don't quote me on that)...

And when a friend of mine who wasn't expecting her baby girl until New Year's Eve had her little cutie just in time for this Christmas, my mom made a newborn-sized version with a matching red diaper. Which I forgot to photograph before mailing to said friend. But I hope it fits!

Polka Dot Christmas Stocking!

It looks a lot cuter without the name blurred out, trust me!

My first project on my new sewing setup? Baby Z's first Christmas stocking. With appliquéd polka dots, naturally.

It's just an IKEA stocking plus the white fringe from a polar fleece IKEA blanket (the rest of the blanket was sacrificed to make cloth diaper wadding) and some felt appliqués (attached with a simple white zig zag stitch). I probably should just have sewn it from scratch instead of using the IKEA base--I was out of practice and trying to maneuver a completed stocking around my machine's free arm resulted in some pulled areas.

I'm working on an item or two to go in the stocking, but I have some purchased toys at the ready in case I don't finish.

Don't worry, she got some Chanukah sewing love too--here she is at her first candle lighting with her first Chanukah gift:

It's a cloth book my mom made her full of photos of her and me and Masheka sewn in with some green polar fleece scraps (that dragonfly on the cover was taken from an IKEA mobile.) She loves it, and flips through it repeatedly at dinner each night before dropping it on the floor.

Miss Z spins a mean dreidel, too:

A Sewing Room of My Own! (Sort of)

Or dimly lit corner of the nursery of my own, anyway. Viking machine + Horn cabinet + IKEA chair found in basement trash room.

Are you one of those lucky sewists with a whole room dedicated to your crafty pursuits? With a sewing cabinet and a serger station and a cutting table and an inspiration wall and a fabric storage closet and a pattern storage cabinet and a dress form corner and a gravity-fed steam iron and ...

OK, I hate you. Or envy you, anyway. But not as much as I used to, because I FINALLY have a permanent spot for the sewing machine. No more hiding my beloved Viking Platinum 730 in a corner cabinet under a pile of breast-pump paraphernalia! No more lifting stacks of this and piles of that and clearing off the dining table before I can sew a single seam. OK, so my serger is still on a closet shelf and I still cut fabric on a cardboard mat on the bed, but... baby steps!

This was part of some serious apartment rearranging and decluttering. We put the crib in our bedroom next to the bed for easy baby access, replacing the cosleeper she outgrew way too fast. We even threw out our coffee table. It was just collecting magazines anyway, and now there's a nice big spot on the living room rug to put down quilts for playtime:

Patchwork baby quilt by my amazing mom, knitted purple diaper soaker by yours truly, and drool by Miss Baby Z.

So far my mother's been doing the lion share of the sewing (baby diapers, baby hats, a cloth book) but I actually made Z a few things for the holidays and maybe I'll even make myself some clothes soon. I also have finally learned to backwrap, so maybe Z can take a snooze back there while I sew and not be able to reach for any pins or sharp stuff. Here we are at a babywearing holiday party:

So yeah, more posts and actual finished sewn objects for you soon!

How about you? Do you have a drool-worthy permanent sewing setup... or do you have to tug your machine out of the bottom of a closet out from under a pile of old shoes and heave it onto a coffee table every time you get stitchy?

P.S. Apologies for dim lighting, but there's so few hours of daylight for blog photos in the dead of winter!

P.P.S. OK, I replaced the dimly lit photo with a better shot and added a few more details.

FO: These socks are made for dancing!

I finally got around to finishing the striped lace baby socks (Ann Budd's Better Than Booties Baby Socks, Ravelry details here) I started while I was in my crazy five-day-long labor. I remember working on these in the waiting room at L&D triage and my midwife finding that hilarious, but I think it was an excellent distraction.

The funny part is, the first sock--Labor Sock, let's call it--is perfect. The lace pattern is just right, and I made no mistakes (except for putting the lace up the sides instead of the front, but whatever).

The second sock--Tired New Mommy Sock--was another story. I was so out of it I had to redo the picot edge twice, and when I got to the near-end, I bound off the toe... and then realized I hadn't actually shaped it first, and had to unbind. The lace pattern is a mess, too. But I could go back on that--I was in a race against Z's fast-growing feet.

But they do fit--barely! Cute, no? Can you tell which is which?

Not that I'm anti-booties. I LOVE booties, especially the two pairs of felted little Mary Jane style booties my Aunt Becky made, black pair shown here.

Baby surprise!

No, no, I'm not having another one just yet, it's just that I finally photographed Baby Z (asleep) in her Baby Surprise Jacket:

She's fitting better into her February Baby Sweater, too:

How most of my sporadic posts have become about knitting, I do not know. Someday I will rectify that, but I'm still cutting myself slack in the sewing department. I'm not even beating myself up about running out of time to sew a baby Halloween costume last month, and that's the one thing I ALWAYS sew for every year.

Luckily my Aunt Elissa and Uncle Damien came through with a cute RTW lion costume. I wore her out in a carrier but she wasn't allowed any candy:

GRRR!

I do still make a point of wearing something handmade every day, even if it's just my boring purple hat, shown above, or this old Simplicity 5914 skirt I sewed with some $2 polyester polka dot woven from a discount store (shown here in 2005, since I haven't photographed it lately):

OK, bonus photo: Farmer Z!

Do you have more fabric than, um, actual clothes?

A lovely cotton stretch woven print purchased at either Mood or Paron's a gajillion years ago and never made into anything... YET

Cause I do. Thanks to some ruthless post-pregnancy closet curating (aka purging) this weekend, I realized today that I might have more storage space devoted to sewing and knitting supplies than I do to actual wearable sewn, knit and RTW items. I now have eight small drawers and half a closet for all of my clothes and shoes in the entire universe (including off-season clothes, special occasion clothes, etc)... and six very large drawers and a sewing cabinet full of fabric, yarn, patterns and suchlike.

And remember, I live in an 850-sq-ft apartment with my husband, a baby, two cats, and my mom (she stays with us during the week to watch Z). So my definition of ruthless purging might be different than yours... Also remember: this is AFTER a series of similarly harsh fabric, pattern and yarn destashings.

What does that say about me? That I'm forward-thinking, and ready to accept lovely new clothes into my life? That I'm living in a fanciful future, and not the actual present? Hmm....

It certainly makes getting dressed easier, since my options are so limited--most of the pre-preg clothes I didn't donate away are just SLIGHTLY too tight now to zip up.

And I'm really getting some serious wear out of that reversible skirt... even though I sewed it 35 lbs ago! The black swiss dot side is one of only two solid-color skirts I own that fit, and I'm kind of digging the patterned edge that accidentally peeks out at the hem, though it annoyed me at the time.

(Apologies for evening flash photos and my messy hair--I had my mom snap these when I got home from work as I don't have time for morning shoots these days).

How about you, dear readers?

Pink Lacy Cardigan on Parade

Remember the pink lacy sweater I made Z WAY back? She's almost fitting into it!

And I still don't have any closures on it.

She's also fitting into the "Maine Doggies" hat and sweater set my Aunt Becky made her (in reference to when I was walking in the woods with my grandmother as a toddler and wanted to go pet the giant bear I thought was a big "doggie"):

Sadly I didn't have time to sew a Halloween costume this year, but luckily another one of my aunts got her an adorable lion costume. Which is fitting, because thanks to her squirming, pinching, scratching and punching... nursing Baby Z is rather like wrestling a really cute little lion cub. Like I said, with her little fro-hawk, she's a natural punk rock baby... Grrr!

("Anarchy in the Pre-K" onesie we got from Rockstar Revolution at a street fair--not affiliated in any way, just thought it was super cute!).

A Simple Piece of Cloth

Me and Baby Z in our new Girasol Tropical Sea Wrap, originally uploaded by M1khaela.

Not much sewing going on here lately, what with working full time and being a new(ish) mom ... but I've been playing with fabric in another way in the meantime!

Last month Z and I attended our first babywearing meetup, and after learning some simple carries (well, one simple carry) I bought a used Girasol baby wrap in "Tropical Sea" colors. Here's my first attempt on wrapping Z in a front wrap cross carry. It was super comfortable (Z is over 15 pounds, so the more support the better) for both of us--I walked around and did some light housework, and Z took a relaxing nap.

More on this later, with more photos and useful links. I just needed to break the blog silence!