Day 46 - green shoes

I can't believe it - my shoes actually match something that I'm wearing! I'm not sure exactly why I made green shoes to wear everyday. I guess I just thought I would have time to make another pair right away. Next time I'll know better.

Day 45 - Reminder

Today is the last chance to sign up for the Super! Surprise! first edition. Thank you to everyone who has signed up already!

Day 44 - Self Saboteur

Some of you may remember this skirt from my Greatest Hits album, "I'll never sew in another zipper", from (circa) 2002. The sweater is another old favourite from my more recent (2006?) release "I still avoid zippers at all costs". On the other hand, even though I only made these shoes in September, they're really starting to feel old after wearing them everyday for a month. I really need to get going with the shoe thing. It's incredible how quickly things are being added to my list of "things that I need right away" in comparison to how slowly they are getting crossed off. And I would like to stop depending on clothes that I made in the past but this is proving to be a difficult task. I continue to dig deeper into my dark sewing past only to find increasingly embarrassing garments and - I often can't believe this - wear them! Such is the life of the self-saboteur.

Day 43 - Conspicuous Coveralls

My fall uniform saves me yet again. So far it has worked in many situations since it is black (generic) and it is in the form of coveralls (suggesting that I'm working. Or just finishing work. Or just about to start working). The one place that I did feel conspicuous in this suit was at the Toronto airport. I wore it thinking it would be easy and comfortable but as soon as I was in the security check line-up I started to feel like what I was wearing was somehow inappropriate. I just started to feel uneasy. People were staring and and luckily I had my giant leather bag as carry on to sort of bring my outfit back into the realm of fashion. Then security asked me to take my shoes off and put them through the x-ray which made me even more uncomfortable since they are handmade and have hand-cut aluminum shanks inside the soles that probably look a little suspicious. My fears were for naught, thankfully, but I continue to consider what kinds of signifiers were being identified by the people around me. The most obvious, in retrospect, was the worker signal. Why would anyone wear a work uniform to the airport unless they were working at the airport? Otherwise, the combined oddness of my outfit, (handmade, black coveralls being worn by a female who isn't working and is carrying a giant leather bag) is what really must have triggered the what is up with her? look that I wasn't imagining. I now understand that it was just a weird outfit and that's the real reason people were staring. So is the lesson here that not standing out is the key to comfortable travel? If that's the case, what kind of signifier set makes up the idea of normal? Is it even possible to identify this set? Or is it on such a subconscious level that we only recognize it as a hunch. More on this later...

Days 41 and 42

Day 40 - A Quintessential Canadian Afternoon

Gosh it is nice to get out of the city every once in a while. Especially when you can go for a short walk and see some idyllic Canadian scene at every turn, to the tune of birds chirping and chestnuts falling from trees. I actually find it almost funny that I witnessed all of the following scenes this afternoon.


A family of deer enjoying some herbage.


A large tree that had been felled and abandoned by a beaver.


Some wormy apples growing wild and providing treats for the deer at large.


A few Canada geese floating along the lake shore.


A bird's nest safely resing in the branches of a Maple tree. It's almost too much, isn't it?

Day 39 - new jumpsuit

I'm not completely convinced by the design of this new jumpsuit. I think it could use a bit more tweeking. But for now, as the weather gets progressively colder, it'll do.

Thanks to Sunny for reminding me about stockings and garters! After my lengthy tights-tirade the other day, my friend Sarah (Sunny) happily suggested stockings as an alternative. Oh right! I even have a waist-garter pattern that I made a couple of years ago and forgot about. The tights were an interesting challenge but I'm over it.