New photo backdrop WHO DIS?! Your city girl has gone country mouse for the summer. I've never been a fan of taking garment photos in front of greenery....but after a 6 month long, heady cocktail of New York winter, pause, isolation, and quarantine, GIVE ME ALL THE GREEN.
So. I meant to get right on keeping my promise of showing up here more often, but the last several weeks have been, sing it with me, a rollercoaster ride. Is anyone *not* on a rollercoaster ride at the moment? Be sure to scream inside your hearts, please.
I’m screaming with happiness, but keeping it in my heart and head, as I’m typing this at 6am. Apparently, I’m an early morning riser when there’s a front porch to look forward to. The only signs of life at the moment are butterflies, bees and squirrels. And hummingbirds! Our first morning on the porch, Rob whispered, MARCY, and I looked up to see a tiny winged blur hovering about 6 inches from my face. Little guy thought my hair was some new species of treat. As I moved slowly from side to side, he followed my fro.
I’m gonna stick some flowers in it one morning and see if I can get him to land.
TWIRL POWER.
Our new Arkansas oasis is in the familiar surroundings of Rob’s hometown. I fell in love with Fayetteville the first time I visited, it's a beautiful college town with an open-minded outlook. We ran a gauntlet of rental car, hotel, two airports and two airplanes to get here, and after a self-imposed quarantine, I'm happy to say we're a-ok. As much as anyone is a-ok these days. Hey side note! LaGuardia's new Terminal B is gorgeous. But if you're connecting through American Airlines Charlotte, NC, and have a little time before your flight? STOP AT THE TRANQUIL ROCKING CHAIRS. GODSAKES, STOP AT THE TRANQUIL ROCKING CHAIRS. American had the brilliant idea to throw all of their flights into one tiny corner of a concourse, and it was a sea of humanity in various levels of masks. Most of which could only be called chin guards. Good times.
Happily, not the case here! Here, we’ve met our neighbors from 40 feet away! Here, every store has a "no mask no service" sign! Here, even the outdoor farmers' market complied without complaint! Fayetteville was one of the first (if not the first) cities in AR to adopt a mask ordinance, and now the state has followed suit. Our beloved home away from home really seems to be doing it right. And although it's easy to take a walk outside without seeing a soul, we've got our masks at hand. At neck? In pocket? Do you think we might need a conjugation of the verb to mask?
Oh yeah the dress! I made the dress. In fact, this might be the last dress I made before escaping New York. Since then, I haven't made a single wearable thing. Almost three weeks without a finished garment, that has GOT to be a record for me. Someone left the bobbins for her machine back in NY. Smooth move. The issue has been rectified, and I do believe sewing is happening today, right after I film a mini fabric haul for Ye Olde YouTube. Though I'm on the fence about YouTube vs Patreon. But really I just need to get off my ass and upload something. Because now that we have space and time, the year-old promise of a channel is another thing I mean to make good on.
Speaking of space and time, I was intending on writing about why we took a break from NY, but honestly, I don't want to spend the energy right now. I'll probably wax poetic on it at some point, but suffice it to say: it had been 6 months of watching the world turn upside down from behind barred windows, and it was enough.
DANGIT THE DRESS. (I say things like dangit now.) This dress is a modification of a self-drafted pattern, and the fabric hails from one of my favorite NY wax print joints, which now sells online! This print is gone-zo at the moment, but they have a boatload of beautiful things. The fabric is perfect; the dress, she is not. Her downfall: sitting. She's fine below the waist, but sitting in any other mode than posture-perfect-high-tea-with-the-Queen is a peep show of tatas. I'm no stranger to standing-room-only dresses, but I like to treat my summer maxi dresses rough! I'm thinking of adding a crisscross pattern of rouleau ties up the front, or maybe thin horizontal bands permanently stitched down, sort of like latticework on a pie crust. HOW SOUTHERN IS THAT ANALOGY.
Well y’all, I hope this finds you at the start of a good and safe week. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see filmed or blogged or whathaveyou, as I aim to bring some happy, and hopeful, diversions for you while we’re here. Yes, there will be some serious talk too, but I think in the midst of...all this...bringing some happiness is what I’m good at 💗
What a compliment to have a little bird choose you to hover near! Your dress is perfect for twirling! I look forward to seeing your modifications to modesty-ify the front bodice.
ReplyDeleteI love thinking of that as a compliment! I certainly felt amazed 😊
DeleteGood for you! You’re almost in my neighborhood. I’m in Bentonville, which was slow to adopt the mask rules, so we were happy about the state guidance. I hope we don’t slow you down too much. And dang it is ok, but if you start hearing “vittles” come out of your mouth, or find Rob cooking squirrel, it’s time to go back.
ReplyDeleteThe dress is awesome. I heard something about wax prints the other day and wondered about you. I’m glad you have something fun to show us.
Yes I was reading about Bentonville, we know a lot of folks there too! Hope things are going well there 💗
DeleteAnd the squirrel bit made me spit out my coffee 😂😂😂!
So good to hear about your new setting, and that people seem to be Doing Right there! Also, that dress is amazing, and the style is almost identical to a pattern that’s been sitting above my ironing board, daring me to make it, since I was pregnant last summer! 😅 And it would probably have the same issues, so thanks for the warning about the tatas (I have a LOT of tats going on right now! 😂)
ReplyDeleteOh PLEASE make it! I wonder if your tatas would actually hold it more in place! If I dare you two than you are now double dog dared. Which means you have to do it.
Delete*too. For real, autocorrect?
DeleteBeautiful as always and so happy to see you twirling!
ReplyDelete😊thank you!
DeleteI am a watcher from the sidelinesI and live in Texas. It is HOT and we are going through our everything is brown and we watch out for lightening that start grass fires phase. Simple, clear, basics an Aline dress, top, skirt. . I have body fat below my waist. Can i use quilt cloth? Oh and a tank dress!
ReplyDeleteGet out of that heat and get sewing all those things 😅!
DeleteHumming birds! We don't have them in Oz. How I woukd love to see one. We have little honeyeaters - two in our camelia Bush as I type. But humming birds! How wonderful. And the dress is so beautiful. Enjoy your new home.
ReplyDeleteHoney eaters! What a cute name, I have to google that. You have so many fantastic creatures there, though. I fear the hummingbird might be food for some of your fine friends 😅
DeleteAnd I just went to that site and two fabrics jumped into my cart. Your dress is lovely, I can see you twirling.
ReplyDeleteTheresa in Tucson
Isn’t it crazy how the fabrics there will do that? So rude of them! 😂 When I put the link in the post I had to hold myself back from filling up a cart!
DeleteI'm envious of your home with a front porch. I want a house with a porch! Or a veranda. Regarding Patreon - I'm outside of the US, so having a monthly fee plus whatever exchange rate isn't something I'm signing up for. The 'private' content isn't enough to sway me either. I have found whenever a YT creator asks their community about paying for Patreon, the resounding answer is 'No'. On the flip side, I do understand being compensated (even nominally) for the content you create. And should you achieve a hummingbird in your locks, please post a photo so we can all share in that amazing-ness!
ReplyDeleteA *veranda.* Now THAT is fancy! I may have to call it the veranda from now on, whether the square footage fits the bill or not!
DeleteRe:Patreon, that is SO good to know, thank you. I was hoping there was a free subscription tier for viewers alongside the paid tiers; I think it's a great model to have access to both free and paid content. YT gets on my nerves because of ownership--as far as I can tell, they can splice together a commercial from creator content (like the recent "mask making strong" YT compilation video) without compensating the actual creators. But it's hard to suss it out! I've got more research to do for sure.
You might check out the sessions of CoCoVid (a costuming convention moved to YouTube by a bunch of costuming YouTubers calling themselves CosTube) about what it takes to be a sustainable YouTuber with sewing content. The most accomplished filmmaker is called Bernadette Banner, and she's a fellow New Yorker.
ReplyDeleteThey do also address Patreon. You want the Technical and Behind the Screens sessions. All sessions went up this past weekend.
DeleteOooh, love BB, thank you! I hope I get to viewing those talks they have up till tonight!
DeleteHi Marcy,how great to have a backyard and the opportunity to take walks without dealing with crowds, and the fact that in that city everyone is trying to do the best against coronavirus looks like it's the best place to be. We're having a second wave now here in Greece so mandatory masks and restriction measurements are coming back,I have a little garden but it is impossible to spend time there because of the mosquitos, every time I have to water the plants I come back inside like I was in a battle :) I hope you don't have the same problem overthere.
ReplyDeleteJust subscribed at you you tube channel, look forward to watch whatever you decide to share with us.
I know the mosquito battle all too well!!
DeleteI hope y'all are able to quell that second wave. I think we're all in this for longer than we bargained for. Maybe your garden will provide some respite with the right bug repellant? I've found that slathering myself in citronella oil works pretty well. I add it to my moisturizer--candles just don't cut it!
oh, i've tried so many mosquito repellants spray or spirals, some that could even kill me that's how heavy the smell was but i'll try the citronella oil, maybe it works!
DeleteBeautiful dress!
ReplyDeletethank you, Susan!
DeleteVery nice! Waiting to hear from you and your adventures in Fayetteville. In my country, so many people have fled cities during the pandemic, that the school system had to extend the inscription period for some extra weeks, so many kids coming to small villages from the cities.
ReplyDeleteSome small inverted triangle with the same fabric or lace at the neck opening bottom should prevent undesired tits parades.
That's wild-- and there's been such a mess here with kids being told to they have to go "back home" if their colleges go online.
DeleteI'm sitting here in this exact dress, with some darts safety pinned in, and it seems to be doing the trick! I think I had the balance off on those bust "cups". Now I just gotta take it apart 🙄
Oona, you brought happiness in my life in a time when everything seem to go ascrew around me.
ReplyDeleteThis brightfully pink dress, your hummingbird attracting hair, your smile, your testimony that there are some place in the world with a bit of common sense, your energy,...
You made me smile girl! (and cry a little bit, but in a good way).
So thank you!
Oh, and the dress? Smaaack! (Italian chef handkiss appreciation move style!)
I’m so glad to give you some happiness, and you made me smile right back. Thank you!
DeleteYou are in Fayetteville, Arkansas?!! [screaming] I have lots of relatives (mostly in-laws) who live in Arkansas. None in Fayetteville but I have been in Fayetteville myself lots of times. Great little city.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love the dress.
Oh wow!!!! So you’re telling me one of these covid-free days in our unknowable future, we might meet up in wax print 😉? YES PLEASE!
DeleteLove your dress. The hummingbird recognized you as family. Go to Crystal Bridges if you feel safe enough. It's great.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be hummingbird family 🥰. Yes, I love Crystal Bridges!
DeleteThis is beautiful a what pattern did you modify
ReplyDelete