Seasonal Reflections and a Tiny Rant!

Dear Minions!

First up, since I seem to never post on a weekly (or even monthly) basis, I've decided to at the very least post on the Sabbaths ( the equinoxes/solstices/cross quarter Sabbaths)! Alright, now that that little promise has been made, on to the post!

'Tis the season is supposed to be a happy sentiment, invoking thoughts of hot chocolate by the fire place on a cold winter night, but more and more I find myself using it in a negative way, ie. comment, "That woman was so mean", response, " Well, 'Tis the season!". I work in retail, and see that with every day we draw nearer to December 24th, people are more short tempered, ruder and stingier. Whatever happened to the season of peace, good will and hope? It seems these days the focus of the season is on getting every toy on a 6 year-old's Christmas list or burying your teenager in the newest electronics and trendiest fashions. It kills me a little inside to see people pulling their hair out because they have 34 people to buy for. For (enter your deity's name here) sake, people were shot on "Black Friday" so that someone else could get the best deal!!! By no means do I want to get into a war over which ideology is right, but where is the God in that?!?!?!?!

When did we lose our grip on the widespread meaning of the holiday? Whether you celebrate Christmas, Yule, Chanukah, Kwanza, Saturnalia, or any other religious holiday this time of year, they all have the same message in their core; being with family/people you care about (sometimes families aren't all they're hyped up to be), giving to those in need, building community, rejoicing in the longer days to come and wishing peace upon those you love for the coming year! Not this materialistic brain washing that is rampant in our society! I found a perfect example of this today on my Facebook feed, a woman I know put up a post asking if anyone had ideas for Christmas gifts for a 4 month old! SERIOUSLY? A FOUR MONTH OLD!?!?! It just goes to show the rampant consumerism of our generation and the obsession with "things" that drives many people to bankruptcy in our damaged economy.

I may sound hypocritical for this 'anti-consumerism' rant considering I work in retail and I don't mean to say that you shouldn't buy gifts for your loved ones, I'm simply trying express that you don't need to buy $100 worth of stuff for everyone in your immediate family, extended family, your cousin's best friend's family's cat and everyone/thing in between! How about we all trim down our lists to buying a few gifts for our immediate family, a small trinket for the extended family closest to us and lovely Holiday themed cards for our friends ( you could even throw a $2 scratch ticket in there!)?

When I was growing up my family wasn't well off financially, my mother had to make a lot of sacrifices for us to have food on the table most days. At Christmas time we would get a new dress, a stocking full of things we needed ( like underwear, socks, travel toiletries for when we visited family), Santa/Sinter Claus (we're Dutch) would get us a few small gifts ( maybe a stuffed animal, a puzzle, a sweater, a new pair of shoes for the spring) and our parents would give us the really special present! The special present was generally the only gift we got from our Christmas list and was always reasonably priced ( usually between $25-$60).  A couple years after my father passed ( sadly  his passing relieved a great strain on our finances) my sister and I each got a Gameboy Colour! Other than a very used Sega Genesis, which was a mostly a gift for my dad, it was the first piece of electronic/gaming equipment we ever got and we cherished them! That year Santa got us each a big pack of value brand batteries that had to last us the whole year.

My best Christmas memories aren't of the gifts I received, they're of the times we spent together as a family. I remember my mom bundling us up Christmas Eve to make the 3-5 hour journey (depending on the weather) to my grandparent's house, whom we only got to see about 4 times a year. I remember sitting around the big table at my Aunt's house chattering away to any grown up who would listen. I remember scarfing down my chocolate letters so fast I got a tummy ache. I remember running around the back fields on the farm with my little sister and playing in the big Elm tree behind the house. I remember making snow angels and tobogganing with my older cousins. I remember sleeping in the great room and trying my hardest to stay awake and catch a glimpse of Sinter Claus, I remember my grand father reading us fairy tales while we ate cookies my grand mother had made. I remember staying up late to watch the Lawrence Welk Christmas Special and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. I remember making little gift boxes out of old Christmas cards with my aunt and uncle for the small gifts I would give to my grand parents and friends. I remember making bird feeders out of pinecones, peanut butter and seeds and hanging them outside on Christmas Day. I remember waking up early on Boxing Day, not for the sales, but to see the cardinals and blue jays eating from the feeders we made as my grand mother made breakfast for us. The novelty of the toys would wear off after a week or two, but the memories I made with my family are still a comfort to this day!

I guess the whole point of this tirade and fond recollection is that there are many ways to make the Holidays memorable besides spending obscene amounts of money on material possessions. I generally make all of my gifts, it often costs me significantly less than I would spend if I bought all my gifts and my family and friends appreciate the thought, the time and the effort I put into picking out a fabric and making a unique gift for them! My mother always told me that the best thing you could do for your kids is spend half the money and twice the time on them! Cut your Christmas shopping in half, spend less time in the malls fighting your way to the toy section, waiting in line to pay for your insane amount of items and spend that wasted time surrounding yourself with your friends and family! Take the half hour you would spend looking for a parking spot and teach your children that possessions are worth a lot less than memories and fun! Bake cookies with your children to give as gifts to your co-workers, your co-workers and kids will appreciate it more! Take your kids out to the woods and collect pinecones to make bird feeders for their grandparents, aunts and uncles. By not buying so much for your children, you will inadvertently make the gifts they receive that much more special!

If you aren't a talented seamstress or don't know how to knit, there are still lots of ways you can make meaningful gifts for friends and family, the internet is full of craft blogs, cookie recipes, and easy DIY projects that cost a lot less money and take less time when you add up all those holiday line up wait times! It's amazing how quickly someone's expression of mild disappointment can change to sheer elation by simply telling them once they open their gift, "I made that for you"! When you give a truly thoughtful and meaningful gift, rather than a 'Made in China' piece of junk that someone thinks they 'want', it makes a big difference and that thing you made becomes cherished because it shows how much you really love that person. Every year when I ask my aunt what she wants for Christmas I get "Pajamas" as a quick and fervent reply, I've made her pajamas for the last 8 years and every year she's excited!

On the flip side, I know sewing enthusiasts who run themselves ragged trying to make ALL of their gifts while working full time and running a household, you don't have to go to that extreme either, buy a gift and make a gift, do a project that you know you can complete quickly/in an afternoon. START YOUR HOLIDAY SEWING IN OCTOBER! That's the best piece of advice I could possibly give to any new/veteran holiday crafter! Make something useful! Pajama pants/nightgowns are always appreciated, a stuffed toy for a niece/nephew, an iPod/iPad/e-reader case/laptop bag could be good gift ideas for the teens in your life, a little bit of thought goes a long way!

I know this has been a bit lengthy but this has been heavily weighing on my mind since the Christmas music started piping into the store and stirring everyone into a gift crazed frenzy! I hope this has been a bit of a wake up call to some and a reinforcement of values for others. I hope at least a few people ponder on the history of the Holiday Season, no matter what their cultural or religious beliefs, and try to reassert the old adage of 'less is more'. In the true spirit of the season I plan on donating a bunch of stuff to local organizations like thrift stores that donate their profits to local charities, as well has donating to the local Food Bank and Women's Shelters. There are lots of people who have a lot less than I do, that probably deserve a lot more. This is the time to give what you can and expect nothing back! If nothing else, it might quell my stash a bit too :)

So, Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza and Merry-Whatever-The-Heck-Else-You-Celebrate!!!! And don't forget, as always my darlings.......

Keep kreepin'!

Missa Deadlove xoxo

Inspirations and Revelations

Dear Minions!

Sorry for the long silence! I know I say that every time I post, and I am sure it's lost all meaning to any of you who read this blog regularly, but I truly mean it. Sadly I don't have a craft or thrifty little sewing project for you, this post is simply a chance to catch up.

My long silence has been due to a number of things, the first being a time of recovery and healing. Not in a physical sense, I'm totally fine in that respect, but a healing of the mind. I've recently acknowledged that I have a drinking problem. I'm not a drink-three-bottles-of-wine-everyday kind of alcoholic, but I've come to recognize that I can't control myself when I do drink. If there is a bottle of wine/hard liquor, I drink it all, if there is a two-four (case of beer to the non-Canadians lol) present I'll drink until I pass out. Alcoholism runs rampant in both sides of my family and is what ultimately killed my father. It cost me my funeral job and led me to a nervous breakdown, more recently it was a factor in an abrupt end to a relationship and I had to acknowledge it's devastating effect and hold on my life. So since June, under strict guidelines I have only imbibed 4 times, now I'm sure you're thinking "that doesn't constitute quitting", and you're right it doesn't. It's a point of self control that I lack, and by making the conscious decision to limit myself to a single pint on my birthday or my sister's birthday in a pub where the booze is free flowing is the route of recovery that I've chosen to take. A point that I have prided myself on is a bottle of gin that has sat in my cupboard since June with a single shot in it. Gin is my demon, and everyday I look at it and smile to myself that it is still there, no matter how shitty my day or week was, I let it sit there as a reminder that I can and must control myself lest this foul disease of addiction take me over again.

The second reason for my silence is a lack of inspiration/forethought. I've been in kind of a slump the past couple months, brooding over unfortunate situations that I have brought upon myself, being kind of moody when I quit smoking ( I was a right bitch for about 2 weeks), and generally being busy sewing displays for the store and not thinking, "Oh, I could snap a couple photos and make a tutorial". I'm a slacker, and I apologize profusely!

The final reason I've ignored my blog is because I've been in the process of moving for the past month, finally out of my mom's basement. Yay! Only took a year lol.

There was an incident last week that prompted me to write again, nothing bad, in fact something wonderful and long overdue. A friend came to visit me last Saturday, an amazing friend that I haven't seen in a year and a half. The last time we saw each other we were both in very bad head spaces. I was living in Kitchener and drinking too much, he was working himself silly to pay rent on a condo he couldn't afford on his own after the girl he moved in with bailed 3 weeks into the lease. We talked about life and our trials, the things we wished we could change and the hopelessness we felt in our situations. It helped ease our pain a little, and staved off the impending breakdowns we were facing in our lives. When I say this man is my saviour I truly mean it, he was the one who talked me out of committing suicide on my 23rd birthday, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't be writing any of this.  

This visit however, was one of hope and inspiration. We spoke of the progress and positive changes in our lives, for me, my sewing and cross stitch work, which has brought me immense satisfaction and been a form of therapy for me and for him his involvement in a slam poetry team which is taking him to a nation/international (can't remember quite which) poetry competition next week. We discussed the hiccups in our lives that inevitably occur, but the emphasis was all on the positives, the healthy choices we are making, and the unhealthy habits we are breaking. I inspired him through the course of our conversations to write some happy poetry and he has inspired me to update this blog more faithfully, to use it the way I intended when I started writing nearly a year ago. Both of us also found religion. He discovered the merits and is converting to Judaism and I have rediscovered my Wiccan beliefs.

I find it amusing and very fitting that I should realign myself with wiccan practices this time of year, right before Samhain (Halloween). It's kind of funny, I was in Chapters recently to pick up the new Heros of Olympus book ( I've been waiting on pins and needles for a year!) and found myself wander over to the New Age/Occult section where I came upon an almanac for the the Sabbaths. As I casually perused the sections reading a bit of this and a bit of that my soul stirred. Everything I had read as a teenager came flooding back to me and a sense of peace washed over me. I realized that Wicca is, and has always been, my path to peace and enlightenment.

As a teenager (around 12-15) I was fascinated by and seriously studied and practiced Wicca in secret. When my mother came upon my little altar and stack of books she immediately flipped out. I was always encouraged to read up on different religions, but pagan traditions seemed to be right out of the question. The inability to practice my faith drove me to study dark things like Necromancy, Levian Satanism and VooDoo, I guess I figured if she thought Wicca was bad, I'd show her that I could do worse! The years from 16-24 were more often than not dark times for me. Times of spiritual confusion, deep depression and substance abuse.

This past year I have taken lots of time to rediscover myself and how I want to live the rest of my life. There have been ups and downs, times of clarity and times of confusion. The past month or two especially I have reflected, planned and re-planned, researched, changed course and finally decided.

Samhain is the witches New Year and I plan on celebrating it as such, in the coming year I will realign myself with The Goddess, study, worship, practice, ground myself, and now that I have found myself again I will grow, both spiritually and emotionally. I will re-center and fine tune the course of my life.

I hope you will follow me in my adventure, and that my revelations through the coming year can guide you along your path too. May the Goddess bless you with her favour and bring joy and happiness to all of you this Halloween night!

As always darlings........

Keep kreepin'!

Missa Deadlove xoxo

Thrifty Thoughts

Dear Minions!

At some point or another we all must part with garments we love..... You know the ones, the favourite pair of jeans that is now more holes than fabric, the top that fits 'just right' but is covered in stains and has those abhorrent yellow armpit rings. You hate to lose them, but wouldn't be caught dead wearing them in public!

I recently went through my wardrobe on the annual purge and what should I find but my, as a former coworker once called them, 'po' boy capris'. I love these stupid pants to death! And they're just that..... Dead. I picked them up at the local Goodwill for $6 about........ 8 years ago now. I wore these things everywhere! They had a nice cut and that bleached denim look you can only get from 10+ years of washing. I loved them!! Then the fateful day came when I got the inevitable 'thigh rip' that seems to ruin all my pants. However, rather than lamenting too much and throwing them away in a fit of frustrated despair, I continued to wear them over fishnet stockings and patterned tights. To make it a little less devastating I even encouraged my college pub buddies to add a few cool rips to 'punk them up' a bit. The end result was a tattered mess, but it seemed to make them wearable again, at least..... for a while.

My mother just about lost her mind when I came home wearing them under a short dress.  She told me she'd be happy to do my laundry that week, but I learned my lesson from the 'plaid pants incident' when I was 15, no way was she getting her hands on these babies!!! As time passed I gained a bit of weight and the pants no longer fit me well, but I held onto them, and good thing I did!

My sister had a similar issue with a pair of jeans she had loved years ago. We put our heads together for a way she could save them. First idea was to rip them more and cover them in fake blood for a Zombie Walk. They went over smashingly! After that they were completely unwearable in public so we decided to take out the inseam and make them into a long skirt. We dug through my bins of fabric in search of plaid. What do you know, I had about 5 different plaid prints! We set to work using the larger pieces to make panels between the legs and the smaller pieces to patch up the holes we had made. The pièce de resistance was using the wider rips and a few large pieces of plaid to make deep hidden pockets. The concert skirt was born! We call it the concert skirt because you can fit 6 tall cans of beer into each pocket which makes it perfect for the pre-drink bus/subway ride when going to a punk show in Toronto!

So, the time has come to save my beloved po' boys and create a skirt. I found some skull and cross bones knit and some cotton with cute little sparrows on it while raiding my stash one day and set out on my thrifty adventure. The following ensued.....

 Here they are in their tattered glory. You can actually see through them to the table underneath!

 The first step is tearing out the inseam. Leave the side seams intact, we're just adding basically a gusset of fabric to create the skirt. I apologize if it's hard to see but I've off set the front from the back, gives you a better idea of just how shabby these things are!

 You'll end up with two flat legs like this, it's now just a matter of patching the holes and inserting the skirt panels.

 This is the fabric I chose for the skirts panels and pockets, super cute right? I managed to get this for $3/m !

And this is the Sparrow fabric I used for some of the front patches and the patches on the back. The holes on the back side of the pants were very wide and fairly close together so I opted for a cotton rather than a knit to patch them so they would have more stability!

 Next step is to lay the jeans over the fabric for your panels to get an idea of how wide and long you'll need to cut. You should allow about 3-5 inches extra in the length for your hem. I cut my hem on a curve so that the panel would have more drapeyness and not look flat. It gives a much nicer effect. I used a 1 inch hem so that I could turn it under twice for a nice finish.

 Here are the panels for both front and back. The back panel is the smaller triangle.

 For the patches and pockets I simply eyeballed the sizes and cut pieces a little larger then I needed. You'll be trimming the excess fabric off once you sew it down anyway!

This is what the back ended up looking like when I was done patching. I ended up ripping the bum seam out about half way up and sewed it back together in a straight line. This reduced a lot of excess fabric and made the back panel much smaller. It also gives a more A-Line structure to the skirt and a better silhouette. The patches are simply pinned and sewn about an inch around the edges of the holes.

                             

This shot shows where I stitched around some of the worn denim above one of the holes and gives a better idea of how far from the frayed edge I sewed.

Here it is! My newly improved 'Po' Boy Skirt' ! I turned the cuffs back up and tacked them down along the side seams so they would stay up. The cuffs were one of my favourite things about these pants and I didn't want to lose them! As you can see the skirt panel has a sort of wavy drape because of the triangular cut and the curved hem. It also gives me full range of motion so I can still kick some ass if need be!

 Here is a shot of the back panel, you'll notice the back seam is sewn down about 5 inches from the bottom of my bum. The drape on the back is a little fuller than the front but this can be remedied by narrowing the triangle you use for the back panel.

 And here's a picture to show the 'hidden pocket'. They're indiscernible from the other patches when you look head on, but I'm sure they will come in handy! I sewed the pockets in after patching the lower hole and then simply sewed around the top of the pocket hole, down the sides and below the lower patch for the bottom! They may not be able to hold 6 tall cans but I imagine I can sneak a mickey of gin around :P

There you have it! How I saved my favourite pants using fabrics I already had! I used about 1m of fabric for the panels and the patching, and when you think about it, it cost me nothing for this project since I had the pants and all the fabric for a few years already. If I were to go out and buy the stuff for this project it would cost somewhere around $10 (even less if you hit up the thrift shop on a sale day and raid the remnant/clearance area of your local fabric store!).

Times are tough out there and it helps to use every resource you have. Necessity is the mother of Invention. My nostalgic need to keep these pants out of the rag pile prompted me to create something new and fun. Hopefully I'll get another 8 years of wear out of these ol' po' boys :)

As always my darlings.........

Keep kreepin'!!

Missa Deadlove xoxo

Cheap Tricks That Make Your Life Better

Dear Minions!!

How long it has been!! So sorry for my silence as of late, lots of laziness on my part, I must admit! I have been virtually internetless recently and just haven't had a chance to bring you guys nifty projects/ ideas, but I've got a great one for you today!!

I recently bought a new pair of flats and endured the inevitable heel blisters that come with breaking in a new pair of shoes :( I know you can buy stick on gel pads that stop the back of the shoe from rubbing against your heel, but I'm Dutch.... So I'm cheap!! I was looking around the sewing room and my eye spied upon a piece of scrap fleece..... And it hit me! Make my own Heel Savers! Here's how I did it!

 So, you'll need some scraps of fleece (if you don't have any scraps, you're local fabric store should either have a 'remnant bin' or give free 1 inch wide samples) and some heavy duty glue. I personally love Beacon 'Quick Grip' glue, it gets tacky quickly and given 24 hours to dry creates an amazing bond. You want to make sure you use something stronger than craft glue since the fleece will get a lot of wear in your shoes!

 First off, I took a chunk of fleece and folded it in half. I stuck it into my shoe where I want the pad to be to see how much excess I'd need to cut off. No one will really see this so it doesn't need to look amazing when you trim the excess, it just has to be functional :)

This is just to show how I cleaned up scrap, I trimmed the sides even and cut the bulk out of the bottom of the heel.

 Unfold your fabric piece and start gluing!

I used a liberal amount of glue on the lower half of the fabric scrap, you want enough that it'll stick together well, but not so much that the glue bleeds through the fabric when you fold it and apply pressure.

Then fold your fabric in half and press it firmly together so the glue smooshes a bit and the glue starts to bond.

Next step is to apply glue onto the back side of your fabric pad.

 Gently place your fabric in, glue side to the shoe heel and give a firm press in. I positioned my pad so that the folded edge is a couple millimeters above the top edge of the shoe, just to make sure there would be no rubbing!

And, Viola! Your shoes are all comfy-fied!!! No more rubbing and a good way to use bits of scraps! You could always try this with flannelette scraps, but the fluffiness of the fleece makes it feel like your heels are being hugged by kittens. And it doesn't get much better than kitten snuggles on your heels, am I right??


Coming soon, how I saved my favourite pair of jeans from the garbage bin! But until then my darlings........

Keep kreepin'!

Missa Deadlove xoxo

Ghosts, Ghosts Everywhere! And ALL Of Them To Eat!

Dear Minions!

How's life? Thought I'd share my latest baking adventure with Monster, Ghosty Cake Pops! Delicious!!! So! Here's how we made them!

 Here are all the ingredients you need! For our cake pops we use rainbow/confetti cake, chocolate frosting and white chocolate. Also pictured are the eggs, oil and water that the cake batter calls for as well as lollipop sticks.

 Preheat your oven while you prepare the cake batter. Follow the directions on the back of the cake box. This particular cake mix calls for egg whites only. If you don't have an egg separator you can always use your hands by spreading your fingers just slightly and letting the egg whites seep through your fingers while the yoke stays in your hand.

 Once the egg whites, oil and water are added mix the batter with an electric mixer.

 Before pouring your batter into the pan make sure to grease your pan. You can either use cooking spray or butter. I prefer butter since most cooking sprays contain butane, and I'd rather not consume even trace amounts of it myself :) I've found the easiest and tidiest way to butter a pan is to use a piece of paper towel wrapped around your index and middle finger. Simply scoop up a bunch of soft butter and spread it around. Voila! Greased pan and clean fingers!

 Pour your batter into your greased pan and bake for the time specified on the back of the box. The best way to tell if your cake is done is to insert a toothpick into the center of your cake, if the toothpick comes out clean you're done! If not bake for another 5 minutes and try again :)

 Here is our finished cake!

 To speed up cooling time cut cake into quarters and remove from pan to a wire rack.

 After washing your hands start crumbling up your cooled cake.

 Now that the center of our cake is all crumbled into small little bits.....

 It's time to eat the crispy edge bits :)

 Soften about half the jar of frosting down by popping it in the microwave at 10 second intervals. You want to soften the frosting, not make it runny. We had it in in for 20 seconds total.

 Add the softened frosting to the cake crumbs and mix with a spatula until well coated.

 It may look like poop now, but I promise it's delicious!!

 Grab a chunk of batter and make a ball about 2 inches in diameter.

 Form the ball into a bell shape with your fingers.

 You've made your first ghost shape! Yay!!!

 Now, just make about 23 more! Once all your ghosties are formed and placed on a cookie sheet put them in the fridge to firm up for about 2-3 hours.

 To melt the chocolate down you can either put it into a microwave safe bowl and melt it at 30 second intervals but we prefer to use a double boiler method since the chocolate can get too thin in the microwave and make it difficult to coat the ghosties properly. A double boiler is super easy to make, fill a small sauce pan with a couple inches of water and bring to a boil on the stove. Put the chocolate into a small metal mixing bowl and place on top of the sauce pan.

 Stir the chocolate regularly to help it melt.

 Once the chocolate is melted dip a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate about 1/4 of an inch down.

 Once the end is dipped insert it deep into your ghostie, about 1/2 - 3/4 of the way into the ghost to keep it on the stick while dipping.

 Take the chocolate bowl off the boiler and coat the ghostie in the chocolate, you'll want to have let it sit for a couple minutes after inserting the stick to let the chocolate glue set the ghost to the stick.

 Let excess chocolate drip off.

 Stick the lollipop sticks into a styrofoam block to allow them to dry without touching a surface. You'll want to do two layers of the chocolate coating in order to completely mask the brown chocolate insides.

 Here's a bunch of our dried and double coated ghosties :)

 If you can get a hold of it, edible ink pens are the best option to draw on the faces, but we have yet to find them for sale in our area o we use decorating gel to make our faces!

 Here are the eyes......

 And the spooky mouth.........

Voila! A tasty, tasty little ghost! They're just like eating chocolate coated tim bits! Very sweet and highly addictive :)

Also, if you run out of chocolate for coating you can always make reverse ghosts with white chocolate eyes and a milk chocolate body :) Still just as tasty :)

These make a lovely halloween treat for the kids (and grown ups too!) While Halloween is months away I thought I'd share this now to give you plenty of time to "practice" *wink wink* before the festive season is upon us :) The Monster and I are planning to use the same method to try our hands at some Dalek cake pops in November for the premier of the newest season of Dr. Who, I promise to post pics of that little adventure :)

Hope this post gets you salivating and baking! So, until next time my darlings........

Keep kreepin'!

Missa Deadlove xoxo