Baby Jimi

It's raining. I'm sleepy. I'm lazy.

I just copied and pasted the HTML from my other blog onto here because I dooooon't  feel like retyping all this info. 

Sooooo here ya go.

I was even nice enough to remove the ads and junk for ya!

I think this is without a doubt the best costume I've ever created for my son.

He's been Russel from Up, hipster Aladdin and a hobbit but this one takes the cake - and won him a nice little prize in a costume contest last night!

The city was hosting a fall festival and I was certain I wanted wanted to take my babies. The night before the festival I realized in a panic that I had no costumes ready! I didn't even have a clue as to what they would or could be - and NOT dressing my kids up in a costume would be very unacceptable for me.  As a family we're supposed to dress up as characters from Bob's Burgers but I haven't even had a chance to start working on those costumes. I searched the kid's closet and drawers and all around the house for inspiration. I looked at my son and gave a frustrated sigh... and then I noticed his hair was very puffy and frizzy - like an afro.

Hippie came to mind and then that idea evolved into Jimi Hendrix!

After about thirty minutes I had collected everything from around the house I needed to put this wonderful costume together.  I didn't buy anything to make it and I didn't sew a thing!

All it took was a little good luck, imagination and a hot glue gun.

(Sorry if my pics are little wonky. I'm using a loaner laptop and the screen is all kinds of jacked up. Editing photos is darn near impossible.)

#1 - Fluff the fro

My son's hair is coiled into very tight curls, just perfect for making a Jimi fro. First I added a little bit of smoothing shine serum to his hair to soften it. Then I separated and stretched out the curls by hand. Next I brushed it out very slowly and carefully with a paddle brush, flat ironed it on low heat to relax the hair for more fro-height and then another brushing! Phew! That was the hardest part!

#2 - The headband

I got this sash years ago from a thrift shop for like, 50 cents and I wear it often. It was the perfect addition to this groovy costume.

#3 - The stache and sideburns

Using short strokes and stippling I drew on the facial hair with my cheapest black eyeliner (cheap doesn't smudge) and then set it with dark brown matte eyeshadow.

#4 - The groovy vest

Hendrix was super flamboyant so a super colorful gold embellished vest would totally have been in his wardrobe. River just so happens to own one! This vest is from his "gypsy prince" costume he wears at renaissance faires. The full costume is an authentic Turkish outfit I scored on eBay for $5 - see pic below.

#5 - Jimi wouldn't be Jimi without a guitar...

I used some old wire ribbon I saved from a Christmas present years ago and tied it to the guitar to make a strap. Easy peasy.

#6 - The shirt

This shirt was handed down to River from his cousin. I just simply tucked it in, popped the collar over the vest and left the top the buttons undone - very 60s baby!

#7 - Far out bell bottoms

Besides his hair, the pants took the longest to make. Here's how I did it -

 1. I selected a pair of jeans that Rives has just about outgrown, that way they're nice and tight

2. I cut 5.5" slits at the bottom of the pants on both the inside and outside seams

3. I free hand cut two squares of  material from an worn out bed sheet.

4. Turned the pans inside out and glued the material to cover the gaps and trimmed away the excess material.

5. Last I painted gold stripes down the outside seams for added flare.

I hope you enjoyed my post! Do you DIY your kid's costumes too??

BONUS 

We know what you did last night...

Hey nerds! Ya miss me?

Saturday me and the husband packed up the kiddos and skipped merrily to Texarkana's first food truck festival!! The flyers promised food, fun and fresh produce from local farmers!

BUST!

There were four trucks there.

Let's me repeat that...

THERE WERE FOUR EFFIN' FOOD TRUCKS AT A FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL.

No one was there to even BUY food. There was a crap band on stage that blocked the entrance way, forcing folks to squeeze past their blaring speakers.

The band sounded like they were in the middle of just warming up... the whole set.

There was one bright star out there in the parking lot of big fat suck.

A new Thai-Indian food truck that recently came to town. I fear for them really.

Their food was CRAZY GOOD... but c'mon guys... this is Texarkana. I wish them the best of luck but this town just doesn't do "exotic" very well.

And by "exotic" I mean different.

At the fest, there were no tables or chairs. Nowhere to sit and eat - so we walked to a park and watched dozens of teens in their tiny "formals" and platformed heels posing for photos before a homecoming dance that night.

You guys should come to Texas and see this crap. Homecoming is serious business.

Don't know what a homecoming dance is?

Read about it HERE or just read my description below:

Well, it's like prom... but with football.

It's a celebration wrap-up of a high school's homecoming football game. Homecoming is just a celebration of the school, alumns and the team and students and stuff and all things school spirit.

A queen is crowned and all that jazz - it's a big deal.

Girls get their hair and nails done, their mom's buy them teeny tiny trashtastic dresses and the boys either rent a suit or wear their best jeans and cowboy boots (here). The dance couples spend more time having photos before than dance than they do at the actual dance (some even going so far as to hire pro photographers). The WHOLE FAMILY comes to watch the these pre-dance photo sessions and to see the little couple off as they cry and pray that their baby girl doesn't come home pregnant.

 

 

After our dinner and freakshow we went to top off our bellies at another bright star in Texarkana called Pacan Point. They have these duck fat french fries that just melt in your mouth. Since we are poor people, that's um... really all we can afford.

 

We all split a plate of fries, the husband and I had a beer each and then we finished the evening with some loverly grocery shopping and a little bit of arson.

The end!

In case you sexy beasts were wondering what else I've been up to - I recently launched a new website  (not blog) that took me about three months to develop, I'm still doing my other blog thing and going to medical school to become doctor.

Ok, that last part was a lie, but I am going back to school.

Alright, no I'm not going back to school but I am a genius.

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I'm not a genius.

Shoo. Go away now.

Oh, hello there!

It's October and I'm back as promised!!

Not only am I back but I'm back with a few photos from the faire!

The faire was last weekend, September 26 & 27and in case you're new to this shindig - I'm the owner/director lady and most recently - Daniella Noir the Gypsy Queen!

This year the faire went smoothly enough that I was able to finally contribute to the entertainment. But because of the heat and many many layers of clothing I only danced about four times - but that's still four times more than I ever have in the past!

After getting myself a concussion last month I was unable to continue practicing Russian style gypsy dance. When I recovered from that I pulled something in my back that landed me in the ER (they did nothing to help). So after healing up from that - I had about a week to loosen up enough to wing it (yoga helped!).

At the faire I just tapped into memories of past dance experience, all my belly dance knowledge and all the YouTube videos of authentic gypsy dance I've ever seen.

 Below is my "Gypsy Court" well some of them - featuring beautiful dancers from Little Goddess Trybal belly dance troupe from Dallas and a few local volunteers who also dance, drum or act.

Under my pavilion my "throne" was made of a dining chair, pvc pipe, two folding TV trays, bed sheets, old saris and table cloths. The wind blew everything out of place during this shot but I think it still looks ok yeah?

This year, I wore no hoops, no crinoline, no corset, no girdle... I was all natural under there and I felt great!  I could move! The edges of the velvet ghawazee coat kept rolling in on itself (right under the ties) - I predicted it would happen and intended on sewing the front closed but darn it, the night before the faire, I was just too plumb exhausted to care about preventing wardrobe malfunctions. 

It wasn't until I saw the photos that I realized I was a perfect rainbow from top to bottom! 

Outfit details:

Headdress - handmade by me last year with added 99 cent scarf and $2 necklace from eBay,

Purple Tunic - my own

Blue velvet ghawazee coat - Tribal Bazaar

Green over skirt - Etsy $5

25 yard skirt - eBay bought with Swagbucks

White hip scarf, yarn belt, beaded belt - old

Most jewelry - dirt cheap eBay finds.

Trying my hand at sword balancing! It's tricky! I'd like to get my own sword and practice a bit.

And back where I belong! I love drumming soooo much. The man who taught me how to drum boasts that I am one of the best drummers in Texarkana (high praise indeed but there's only like four drummers in town.) I haven't got to drum in ages but when I picked up the drum everything all came back to me. It  was like riding a bicycle... a bicycle that will make your fingers swell so bad you won't be able to remove your rings that night but... a bicycle indeed! 

Stay tuned for more photos!!

I've still got tons to do to wrap up all this faire stuff so I probably wont have time to visit your blogs until next week. 

Until then, see you all laters!!!

BRB

Well folks. This is it.

I'm taking my first blogging break.

I've got waaaaaay too much going on right now and something's gotta go.

The faire is next month.

I'm building a new website - not a blog. I'll tell you all about that later.

My laptop crashed a few months ago and our desktop monitor went out yesterday evening - I'm using a loaner and I don't want to upload a bunch of photos onto someone else' computer.

I need to focus on my for-profit mom-blog more.

I'm recovering from a mild concussion from a not-so-mild swing set accident.  Er... I broke our DIY swing set my husband made for the kids. Meh, it's not so bad anymore but I still get a bit light headed when I move about too much.

I'm performing at another faire next moth as Daniella the Gypsy Queen for the first time ever and I can't even practice due to the concussion. So I guess I'll just get there and wing it right?

Boo concussions. But hey-

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger gives you brain damage right??

HA!

I'll be back in October!

teeny weeny, tiny whiny

What does a totally casual Sunday look like?

A sweatband.

A kaftan that's been mended a dozen times.

A bra on the brink of retirement.

Yoga pants.

99 cent sunglasses.

No shoes.

No jewelry.

No makeup.

Zero desire to do anything but wait for the barbecue to finish cooking.

 

I had taken some melatonin waaaay too late Saturday night and woke up feeling like I had been drugged at a frat party. Not only was I crazy drowsy, my allergies were going berserk like someone had rubbed a hundred cats on my face. 

I'm super allergic to cats.

I'm pretty darn sure a cat broke into my house last night and slept on my face. 

Needless to say, church was completely out of the question for Sunday morning. Sooooo, yeah. No fashion to feature for today. Oh, boo hoo! Right? So instead, here are some cute kids for ya.

Cedar will be ONE next month. 

Holy mackerel Batman.

Well, now it's time to go see what you fiiiiiine folks have been up to.

LATER HATERZ!

cheddar cheese and dog training

I'm not feeling this outfit.

What kind of look is this?

 Bohemian soccer mom?

The trendy yoga instructor?

But behold. My second pair of pants in years!

 I got these pants from Ross Dress for Less a couple days ago. I love them - they're all tribal and baggy and stuff. They're long pants, supposed to look like harem pants but um... I fill them out too much. So I just hiked them up at the knee and theeere ya go.

Since I'm not a fan of separates -you know tops and bottoms kind of stuff - I didn't really have a top to go with my pants. I've um... "outgrown" a lot of my clothes (like you haven't noticed). So all I've got left are a few tank tops and this boring shirt I got from my first trip to an H&M during my first (and only) voyage to New York a couple years ago.

So why so fat lately? Well...

Our second car is down... again so I've got no transportation during the day. Every time we get one car fixed, the other one goes out. This has been going on for a year! So, I spend most of my time in front of the computer planning the faire, blogging and... not cleaning the house. To combat my sedentary lifestyle I've taken up learning Russian gypsy style dance (that's not one of my random jokes, I really am learning Russian gypsy dance). I'm trying to learn the dance so I can perform at my faire and hopefully other events. I've been dancing for a couple months, I practice almost every day and I'm losing weight but I've got a loooooong ways to go.

I don't really mind being fat - I just hate that I'm outgrowing some of my favorite dresses.

Hooray for priorities! 

 I've pretty much had to hang up my belly dancing shoes though - not that I wear shoes for belly dance. I've got this weird sciatica thing that's been kicking my butt since I was pregnant with Cedar. Belly dance is a guaranteed trigger for a pain party that can stop me in my dead tracks my like a drunk elephant.

Drunk elephant? Well, I guess I mean if I saw a drunk elephant I would stop dead in my tracks?

Or maybe I mean, a drunk elephant can't walk well, so  it would stop in its tracks?

Whatever. Later, chicks.

Time for me to go blog on my other blog while I think about starting a new blog about my other two blogs.

freak of the weak

Is it a dress? It is a blouse? Who cares! It's long enough to cover by butt.  I don't think this is a top I would have bought for myself, but my mother was cleaning our her closet and figured I would like it.

I love the sleeves and the length, I'm just not really digging the super busy pattern. If I wasn't going to church today I would have tossed the leggings, put on some sandals and gone totally swinging sixties - shown aaaaall leg. Cellulite, jiggle and all. It's so hot here.

So what have I been up to? Hermmm....

Well I finally realized that I need to finish my gypsy queen costume for the faire. I've decided to add in other colors beside just the fiery reds and oranges. Sticking to those colors makes me look more fantasy-ish and less gypsy... ish.

So I've added color and working on adding more trim and sparkly things and authentic vintage Turkomen and Kuchi tribe stuffs. 

I added some of these Indian cowrie shell bell thingies to my yarn tassel belt and my crown in on its way from China! Squeee!! I'm getting a crown!!

I've given the outfit a test drive already and it turned out to be quite spectacular. I'm super proud of it and super excited to flounce about in it come September.

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I ordered some of this tassel trim from eBay for maybe a dollar a yard (?). I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it when I bought it - I just knew I wanted it. I decided to jazz up this ugly lamp in the corner of the living room.

  The trim is an electric melon color and is very, very eye catching. I rescued this vintage lamp shade years ago from a houseful of college guys - the poor thing was about to make its way to the trash so I snatched it up and put it on a bare lamp stand at my then boyfriend's (now husband) home. We've had this weird lamp every since. I had gotten so used to looking at it that it just because a part of the wall.

  And here are some pics from last Sunday. I managed to get out of the house to distract myself from bleeding to death and being a bit hungover for the third time in my life.

  

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And a few "just because pics". 

Cedar is 10 months now and River is 2-1/2.

Crazy times, folks. Craaaaaazy times.

▲ If you're into parenting and kid stuff, please check out my other blog. Thanks! ▲