Monthly Archives: April 2009

April 27, 2009 · 10:38 am

Grammar Police! Sly, Family Stone Forgotten!

This is driving me crazy. I often see individual people do it, but in the last week I’ve spotted the error on in-store signage at King Soopers,* on a catalog insert from Real Goods, and just now in a banner ad for Philadelphia® brand cream cheese. When 100+-employee-companies do it, that’s just irresponsible. Not only did someone have to type it out, but I’m guessing that in each of these cases, at least three people read and approved it. That’s a minimum of four employed adults in each instance who have forgotten a lesson taught in grade school.

Everyday. Every day. They are two different things, with two different uses. Everyday, as one word, is an adjective. It should be followed by the noun it’s describing. Everyday occurrence. Everyday tasks. Everyday people (yeah, yeah). However, if you’re writing about something you do/have/get every day, it’s, well, every day. Two words. Handy hint: If your sentence or phrase could be rewritten as “every single day” without sounding awkward, that’s your clue to use two words instead of one. Everyday Low Prices, but Low Prices Every Day. Not “Low prices everyday.” Not “Save up to 70% everyday.” Not “Philly makes it easier everyday.”

The Oxford American Dictionary puts it very neatly: “The adjective everyday, ‘pertaining to every day, ordinary,’ is correctly spelled as one word ( : carrying out their everyday activities), but the adverbial phrase every day, meaning ‘each day,’ is always spelled as two words ( : it rained every day).”

Sometimes I’m right, but I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the baker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I’m in

I am everyday people
Yeah, yeah

There is a blue one who can’t accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on, and so on and scooby-dooby-doo

Ooh, sha, sha
We got to live together

I am no better, and neither are you
We are the same, whatever we do
You love me, you hate me, you know me and then
You can’t figure out the bag I’m in

I am everyday people
Yeah, yeah

There is a long hair that doesn’t like the short hair
For being such a rich one that will not help the poor one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-doo

Ooh, sha, sha
We got to live together

There is a yellow one that won’t accept the black one
That won’t accept the red one that won’t accept the white one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on, and so on and scooby-dooby-doo

Ooh, sha, sha
I am everyday people

*A large supermarket chain. You may know them in your area as Kroger or City Market or Ralph’s or Dillon’s or Smith’s or Fry’s or Baker’s or… the list goes on.

4 Comments

Filed under grammar, pet peeves

April 15, 2009 · 7:49 pm

Car Alarms

Oh, were you expecting a post about Viva? Instead, you get the following:

My car was broken into again last night. In my previous car, the thieves had to break a window to get in. Kind of a deterrent, but not 100% foolproof. They took a portable CD player that time, and it cost me $200 for a new window. With my current car, though, the window design allows for anyone lacking a sense of ethics to simply slide a hanger or slimjim in between the glass and the gasket, and open her up. It happens about once a year. “Lucky” for me, the sleazebags around here aren’t so bright, and generally take the worthless stuff and leave anything of value behind. Last night, they missed my GPS but took – get this – my reusable shopping bags. (They once left behind a CD wallet, but took an umbrella. I shit you not.)

While nothing of serious value has yet been stolen, there is always some form of physical damage to the car, from the scratches and dents of uninvited entry to the smashed steering column or last night’s forcibly removed sun visor that costs me some amount of money to repair. On top of that, of course, is the icky feeling of being violated; that some stranger (and a jerk, at that) has been in my car.

I’m thinking that a car alarm may be the way to go. Actually, I would like to wire my car in such a way as to provide a taser-like stun to anyone who touches it against my will, but barring that, a blinkie light and a siren will have to do. One friend tells me that an alarm system isn’t much of a deterrent, because when was the last time you saw anyone rushing to protect a car that was blaring an alarm? He has a point. But what else can I do? For $230 I can get a basic alarm system with remote locks, installed. If I spend more money, I get more features, but what good does a 2-way buzzing remote do me unless I sleep with it in my pocket? And the keychain screen that shows me precisely where my car was violated? What good is that? I can already tell from the damage, and it still does me no good to know.

The install should take 3-5 hours. I wish there was a movie theater nearby.

6 Comments

Filed under cars, shopping, tech

April 6, 2009 · 10:09 am

The Skirt

Finally, the skirt that I promised to blog about. This skirt is near and dear to me because it combines so many things that I like: Vintage illustration, thrifting, handcrafting, fashion, recycling, and BALL FRINGE.

You see, this skirt started life as a vintage kiddie curtain-and-valance set. Wonderful old Mother Goose illustrations, and, if I haven’t mentioned, BALL FRINGE. Oh man, do I ever love ball fringe. (Some day I will have a skirt that is tier upon tier of ball fringe, hopefully with a matching box-cut sleeveless top, but this is not that day.)

I saw the curtains in a thrift store, and immediately knew that I would make it into a skirt. Because I am some sort of thrift store goddess, I got the set for $2.48 (plus tax). Step Two would be finding a pattern to match what I was seeing in my head. A simple, high-waist pencil skirt. I went to JoAnn. Butterick had nothing. Simplicity had nothing. New Look, Burda, Vogue, McCall’s… nobody had what I was looking for. And my own drafting skills… well, they get me by for Halloween costumes, but this was going to require better than that. So I sat on it for a while, but I knew that I wanted to make this skirt to wear to the Hooch n’ Smooch event at Viva, and time was ticking away.

Enter: Another trip to the thrift store.

Thrift stores always have sewing patterns, and more often than not, they are a disorganized mess of the worst that fashion had to offer… in the ’80s. And that’s saying something. I usually give the pile a cursory glance, to see if there are any promising yellowing envelopes sticking out, and then I continue on my way. But this one day, at this one thrift store, the stash of patterns was small enough to consider flipping through each and every one. I wasn’t even looking with the skirt in mind, but rather just to see if anything seemed workable for any project. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Without merit. Ugly. And then… skirt! Here’s a skirt pattern, in my size! Three options, one of which is JUST what I am looking for! There were no prices marked, but I took a risk. At the counter, the cashier informed be that all sewing patterns are 49¢. Was I okay with that?

Glee!

Ahem, um, yes. That’s fine. Thank you.

I got it home, and cleaned off the dining room sewing table. I knew that the pattern would already be cut out, but hoped that if it was cut smaller than my size, I could at least estimate up to… holy chit. This pattern is untouched. Nobody has ever cut it, and as best as I can tell, nobody has ever even unfolded it. There’s still an advertisement in it for new, upcoming Spring (1987) patterns. LA LA LA LA LA!

I got busy with my seam ripper, opening up the curtain panel everywhere I had to, and nowhere that I didn’t. I laid out the pattern pieces so that I could salvage most of one of the original curtain seams, thus NOT having to cut the ball fringe in one place. I wound up using just about the entire curtain for the skirt, and a bit of the valance for the waistband. The waistband which turned out to be FAR easier than putting in the zipper, and shouldn’t have slowed me down to a procrastinating crawl. And then I was done! Well, except for the last hook-and eye… hook-and-eye… I have about 300 (okay, 48 and yes I did count) assorted hook-and-eye sets in my sewing basket, and none are the right size. Damn damn damn. A trip to JoAnn and back home, and now I have the hook-and-eye and WHERE the hell are my sewing needles? Oh, come ON. I am NOT going back to JoAnn AGAIN. And then I remembered the emergency sewing kit I kept in my desk at the office, and that my desk at the office was still packed into a box in the basement, and lo and behold, I have a needle.

The end result is a one-of-a-kind, semi-vintage skirt that cost me approximately $4 (curtain, zipper, hook-and-eye, thread) and is, like anything I sew for myself, only a little too big in the waist.

(They’re difficult to see, but the flowerpots full of smiling daisies are my favorite bits.)

ADDITION: Dur, I forgot to post the pattern!  It’s Butterick 4706, ca. 1986, and it looks like this:
dresspattern121

13 Comments

Filed under blogging, cute and fuzzy bunny, fashion, sewing, vintage, Viva Las Vegas

April 4, 2009 · 10:52 am

Weekend Update

A blog post? On a weekend? No, Hell hath not frozen over. Although, by looking out the window on this April morning, you may not realize that. Yesterday was beautiful; sunny and warm, so today? Snow. Welcome to springtime along the Front Range.

If you follow me on Twitter (@ampersandwich) you know that I was sewing a skirt the other day, and even hinted at a blog post about it, but suddenly stopped talking about it. Here’s the deal: it’s coming out really well. Seriously. The first evening of sewing went off without a hitch. The initial fitting is just about perfect (as with anything I sew for myself, I could have cut it a little smaller). The only thing I have left to do is the waistband, which I’ve been putting off because I’ve never done a waistband before and I don’t want to screw up an otherwise excellent sewing project.

On the other hand; without the waistband, it’s unwearable. So there’s that.

Also, I desperately need to finish this skirt because not only will it be fodder for an interesting (I hope) blog post, but because it’s a planned outfit for Day One of my annual pilgrimmage to the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender, and Day One is getting very, very close. So close, in fact, that while I certainly miss the income that comes from being employed, this is the last weekend before the big event and were I having to head to the office on Monday, I would be FREAKING OUT right now.

Which brings us to Viva Las Vegas. Vivaaaaaa Las Vegas. In past years, I have spent the month or so before the trip planning and plotting and packing with local friends. This year I’ve been on my own, although with the supportive buzz and hum of assorted online “friends” whom I expect to run into down there. I suppose I should be more assertive (eek!) about getting people’s phone numbers, so we can actually coordinate general times and locations. It can be difficult to find people in the sizable crowd even when you DO know what they look like in 3D. I was planning on spectating from the safety of The Boyfriend’s arm, but it turns out that he has a handful of friends who will be there, and he’ll want to spend some time with them. My last attempt to make friends with his friends didn’t go so well, so I think I’ll bypass this “opportunity” for now. (It wasn’t their fault. It’s just that, even when you explain social anxiety to folks, they think that once they say “hi” and the sky doesn’t fall down, that I’ll become a normal person. But it doesn’t work that way. This, apparently, leaves them feeling inadequate. Or something.) A couple of my own friends recently decided to go as well, but they’ve been keeping to themselves lately and I don’t want to interfere with whatever they’ve got going on. So I guess I’m back on my own again, for some events. As a result, if you’re down at The Orleans and see a ’billy girl hyperventilating quietly in the bathroom, that’s just me, freaking out about having to interact with other, live, human beings. Please move slowly, bring me something to drink, preferably liquor, and I’ll be okay. I have already put the schedule of bands I want to see into my iPhone, so if you can help me calm down enough to operate it, I’ll know where I need to be next.

As for now, I need to busy myself with finishing the skirt, creating three more hair flowers, researching spray tans so my pasty glow doesn’t blind people poolside, getting my hair color touched up (appt is on Wednesday; nothing like the last minute!), making a new necklace, and figuring out how to fit 8 dresses, 8 handbags, 8 pairs of shoes, plus all of my toiletries and whatnot, into ONE suitcase and ONE garment bag. If I have time left over, I’d like to sew my Standard Oil patch onto the back of my jacket (Suggested company motto: ‘Squishing a dwindling supply of dinosaurs for over 100 years’) and paint flames on the cuffs of a pair of jeans (although I’ve been saying I’m going to do that for a year).

Today’s agenda: Finish skirt. Glue flowers. Make trip to Walgreen’s to exchange the Almay Moisturizing Eye Makeup Remover pads for the less drippy Almay Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover Pads. Seriously, I think Almay took all of the oil they WOULD have used in the oil-free pads, and added it to the oil in the moisturizing pads. Dipping a cotton ball into straight mineral oil would be less oily. I went through two tissues before switching to a washcloth just trying to get the excess oil OFF of my eyes. I’m all for moisturizing the delicate eye area, but come on. Oh, and the gal who will be doing my hair on Wednesday asked if I could stop by her shop today so she could take a look at what she’ll be dealing with. And, um, post this. So, step one begins… now.

3 Comments

Filed under blogging, fashion, friends, nostalgia, sewing, vacation, Viva Las Vegas