Sewing Project #13

Yay to my third dress! I think this one is my favorite though there were many problems with it. This is my second dress with sleeves and I added a collar, which was very problematic. I used this tutorial to draft it but the shoulder area was awkward and it actually overlapped in the front a bit.

This one came out better than the last one and I really think I might revisit the back of my stripey dress. I am now searching for a full skirt shirt waist dress pattern to make. I need a dress for my mother-in-law's wedding in April and I think I may go with a petticoat under my dress! I know scandalous. But the north of Scotland is an odd place and I'll stick out no matter how I dress. But it will definitely have a full-skirt.

Sewing Project #12

My husband stayed overnight in Manchester for business this week so I decided to fill my night with a sewing project. I used the same pattern as my first dress but I used version B and stashed Ikea fabric.

While sewing I channeled my all-time-favorite movie the Parent Trap. I know this movie by heart and ever since seeing it for the first time in elementary school its been special to me.
I was destined to love this movie. One character's name is Susan, hey that's my name. But to top it off the twins birthday is November 12th!! But my birthday is November 12th. It was a great moment when I knew this movie was made just for me.

The clothing is sublime. I went through a phase in fourth and fifth grade where my mom and I went to consignment shoppes to find long fifty-style skirts and I went on a mission to find black and white oxford shoes to complete my ensemble. I want to make every outfit from this movie, especially the yellow dress Susan/Sharon wears on her trip to California.

So this dress is my attempt to live out my fascination with the Parent Trap. Come on, even the camp clothing is amazing!! Whatever you do don't mention the remake. It hurts my eyes to see Lindsay Lohan act.

An announcement...

I am going to be running the Radar Picture Desk! Radar is the music site for the Scotsman (Scotland's biggest newspaper) and it covers the Scottish music scene. I have been shooting for them since I moved to the UK and when this opportunity arose I took it. It should be interesting and we are planning a lot of music-related photostories to accompany the new desk. I spent last night shooting in a rehearsal room for a very loud band and my ears are still ringing.

Website update...

I finally have two new sections done on my website. I have been playing around with embedding fonts and it does my head in but I'm getting there. I have been compiling photos of Edinburgh for ages so I decided to split my selects into the different seasons, except well Edinburgh only really has spring, fall and winter. Summer lasts about a week and for a born and raised Floridian, that isn't really enough heat to sustain me for the year.

http://www.suanderson.com/edinburgh.html
http://www.suanderson.com/amsterdam.html

It's offical, I'm legal!

I did a little happy dance when this package arrived. I got my Indefinite Leave to Remain visa today. It means I can stay in the country as long as I don't pull a bank heist or something. The photo came out really strange. It reminds me of Pee Wee Herman at the end of his Big Adventure when he wore red lipstick while playing a desk clerk. I know random but I don't mind it so much. I just wish I was allowed to smile a little. Next up I have to wait another year or so to get citizenship! It will be weird having passports from two countries.

It was a really good post day...


My friend Natalia sent us a package of photos from her visit in August. I feel really bad because I felt like poo when she was here and Billy had to take the tour reins. I really like this photo from up on Calton Hill (best views of Edinburgh) except that a) I hadn't showered because our other guests had to leave that morning and we did a rush tour b) I was wearing my pajamas under my trench because I literally rolled out of bed and left the flat c) I had a chest infection d) because of a, b and c I was not make-up-ed at all. But I think we look happy. We don't have many photos of us not from our wedding. Thanks Natalia!

Whinging...

I have been doing a lot of housekeeping this week. Our flat was wrecked after the holidays and we finally got the Christmas tree out yesterday (I had to wait for recycling day). I have also been catching up on a lot of work I put off during the holidays. I've processed sooo many photos this week and I had a shoot with a 15 year-old girl (photo above). I have been a good-girl by sticking to my resolution to dun dun dun... exercise. Blah I hate it but I do feel better (when I'm not having back spasms).

Not much else is going on. I've been feeling quite blah this week. I am so sick of this flat but we have no money to move. Mold is taking over the bathroom; after almost being crushed to death but our top cabinet coming off the wall a few months ago, our drawer for our pots and pans completely came off. Its a nice flat in an 1700's tenement building with minimal character but I'm not used to staying in one place for this long.

And to top if off I've been looking at a lot of lovely blogs and been really jealous of some of the apt/flat/house/condos that I've seen. I wish I could live in an unfurnished flat with character!

Resolutions...

Check out my 2010 photo slideshow here.

MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:
Last year my resolution was to only wear skirts and dresses for a year. Well, I made it till August and then I got really nostalgic for denim. I also made a resolution to look more put together so I decided that I would always have my nails painted. This lasted until September when I went off work with anxiety and couldn’t be bothered. But I think those were two very admirable attempts at keeping resolutions. Hopefully this year I can do better.

See my momma this year-
I am a big momma’s girl. She is the most amazing woman I’ve ever known and I am a very, very lucky girl. If she can’t get over here to visit I am going to have to go home.

Get back to my pre-wedding weight-
I have already downloaded a bunch of workout videos to get me started until it warms up. I plan on taking the bike out a lot and riding along Billy as he runs. I sing the theme from Rocky to him to keep him going. The thing is, I HATE EXERCISING. It is so boring and I can’t keep it up for long periods, so once I get down to my target weight I will stop. Oh and if someone ever says that going to the gym won’t kill you don’t believe them. I almost died in a car crash whilst on my way to work out at the gym!

Make almost every new item of clothing I get-
I am pretty skint right now and I can’t afford much fabric or wool so this may be difficult, but I would really like to make most of clothes. I want to a few versions of my last dress and a bunch of dirndl skirts.

To get over to the continent this year-
I know I have said this before, but we are skint right now but I would really like to get back over to Continental Europe this year. Paris is pretty cheap to get to and though we’ve both been a few times, we’ve never been together. We would also like to go back to Spain or maybe Portugal. We’ll see what deals we can get.

Bye Bye 2010

My lovely husband is sick with the flu like most other people in the world so tonight is a quiet affair, no crazy street partying for us old farts.

Instead I thought I'd take a moment to recap my year a bit:

*A year a go today we were flying back from the states so that means it has been a year since I saw my momma :( ...

*I had a horrible job that made me physically sick and gave me nightmares. I was a forensic photographer for the police and had to photograph crime scenes and assault victims. It was horrible seeing murder victims, suicides and the worse was dead babies. I'm not sure how I will recover from such a scarring experience as that but I'm off to a good start. I quit my job at the end of October which was incredibly liberating, but at the same time losing that amazing government salary was really sad. But my health comes first as my incredibly supportive husband often reminds me. And I am happy to say I haven't had a nightmare since I left that place.

*I started my own freelance photography business! Eek that is quite scary and as I am still in the process of getting it going I don't want to jinx it by saying something too optimistic.

*I have sooo many ailments in my life (I am not a hypochondriac, I am just unlucky) here were the top five of 2010:

-I sprained my groin in July at the T in the Park music festival by getting my wellies stuck in the mud while the rest of me carried on and I had to go to the hospital
-I sprained my ankle in Amsterdam
-I have had a chest infection, a ton of migraines, bad acid reflux and nausea.
-Chemicals splashed in my eyes at my forensic job and I had to be taken to the hospital in ambulance and had 3 liters of water poured over my eyes that were pried open by an evil nurse (think the brainwashing scene from A Clockwork Orange).
-I had severe anxiety attacks that felt like I was going to die (yet another perk of my old job).

(This is an honorable mention: I am lactose intolerant and I ran out of pills in Madrid and I had to through a chocolate ice cream cone away without eating it on the hottest day ever)

*Billy and I went to both Madrid and Amsterdam this year.

*At the end of our Madrid trip I was almost mugged. The escalator going down to the subway was broken so we had to walk down carrying all our luggage. Billy was in front of me and I was struggling to get my bag down when I turn quickly to see a 18 year old woman with her hand in my purse. I yank myself away from her while my luggage fell down the escalator (breaking my new boater's hat) and the guy who was with the mugger caught me before I fell down the escalator myself. The girl who tried to mug me did the catholic cross the heart thing because she was afraid and I was in shock and couldn't do anything but stare at her. In that moment I was so confused I couldn't even talk.

Everyone was staring at me and I couldn't say anything (a very rare thing for me). I eventually turned and got down the steps and they scurried off. She didn't get anything from me and hopefully she learned her lesson but I was so horrified that I didn't say anything. I still bothers me to this day. Now when someone walks too close to me I get paranoid.

*I built my first snowman (Phil) this year.

*Our 3 year-old niece made me her best friend. She calls me Auntie Zoo.

*I gained 10 pounds which are about to go bye bye.

*I won Scottish Music Photographer of the year in a competition judged by the iconic photographer Harry Benson.

*I bought a sewing machine and a fold-up bike.

*I made my first dress.

*I watched many World Cup games. Go USA!

*And finally I started this blog.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Next... my resolutions.

PS MY PHOTO OF SCOTT FROM FRIGHTENED RABBIT IS THE LAST PHOTO OF THE YEAR ON THE SCOTSMAN'S RADAR SITE.

AFI Top 100 List

Billy and I love to get comfy on our couch and watch a film on a Friday night. Our Love Film queue shows that most of our films are foreign, most star Penelope Cruz and most are independent. So in order to stretch out from our usual subtitled fare, we decided to watch all of the film's on the American Film Institutes' 100 Years, 100 Movies list that came out in 1997. Another list came out in 2007 but it took out Rebel Without a Cause and that caused me not to choose that list.

We are going to blog about the movies and rate them. Billy in not happy about the musicals!

We started yesterday, which is Boxing Day here in the UK and a national holiday and we are going to try and watch them all by next Boxing Day. Billy writes for a living so it isn't really fair to put my malarkey next to his. I got "A's" in all my journalism classes, but I am not a natural writer. It takes work for me and usually I don't have the patience but I think it will be fun.

I am enjoying a very stress-free Christmas morning. The monkey bread is in the oven, I am waiting for America to wake-up so I can skype my family and I have the Radio Times in front of me filled with Christmas TV choices. This is going to be a nice day. Merry Christmas everyone!