Jun 11, 2010 | Life
It’s been a pretty awful week.
Our cat Muffin (the one I like to call the Spawn of Satan but in reality I am somewhat fond of her), has gone missing and the past four days have seen me plastering the neighborhood in posters, handing out fliers, walking the nearest 5 miles calling her name until I am hoarse, driving the back roads nearby multiple times, inspecting all manner of roadkill I see, posting on numerous online lost pet boards, calling local shelters (did you know shelters in my county CHARGE a person dropping off a cat $10 and won’t accept a found cat unless they’re paid????!), updating her microchip registration, and wading through thigh-deep fields and brambles searching for a cat that when curled up is smaller than your average rock. Of course (since I used to do volunteer work rescuing feral and abused cats when we lived in Hawaii) I am envisioning all the worst-case scenarios, have barely slept since she disappeared, and am jumping out of my skin every time the phone rings, or rushing outside every time I hear the smallest noise.
I’ve been ignoring all unrelated emails and neglecting this blog and can barely even think about fashion-y stuff or DIY right now.
I’m really sorry – I don’t mean to let you guys down or anything; I’m still here…just otherwise preoccupied.
Muffin, if you’re reading this, please come home!! I’ll even give you a whole wad of nice tissues to munch on, promise!!
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Jun 9, 2010 | Life
Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, there have been a couple things I’ve implemented here that I just wanted to let you know about…
1. Custom Domain
Yeah, I bit the bullet and bought a hosting plan. Blogger is soooooo much cheaper than GoDaddy!! Anyway, chicsteals.blogspot.com now redirects to www.chic-steals.com. No worries, you don’t have to update your links or your feeds; they all should work fine. But if you’d like to in order to save the hassle of redirection, feel free! (And my Alexa rank is thus messed up for a time. C’est la vie:-(
2. Total site redesign and no more Blogger search bar
To those of you who’ve said you like it, thank you! It’s taking me little tweaks here and there, and mistakes galore, but it’s getting there. If the site looks especially weird, please let me know what browser you’re using and I’ll see if I can fix it. I’ve also gotten rid of the Blogger-hosted search bar at the top and relocated it to the right sidebar, but most searches turn up with no results. (Google-powered, my bum. More like powered by a single hamster on a rusty old wheel.) So if you’re looking for something, the Labels links are in the lower left sidebar, or maybe Google it from Google’s home page with “Chic Steals” in the keywords. So sorry but I have no idea what they’re feeding those hamsters over at Google and why this isn’t working properly – I’ve filled out the spreadsheet with Blogger, who say that’s the official way to bring it to Google’s attention. See rant-filled thread here if you’re interested in other users who are having the same problem.)
3. Chic Steals Facebook Page
I’ve also officially created a Facebook page for Chic Steals and I’d love to have your “Like” vote. Please join me there if you enjoying FB’ing! (And please feel free to post your own projects, thoughts, videos, etc.)
4. DIY Blogs Linky-Links
On the left-hand sidebar. If you have a blog that features a lot of DIY tutorials and I haven’t included it in the links, let me know and I’ll add it in there!
5. Advertising/Sponsorship Opportunitites
If you are an entrepreneur, sell on Etsy, have an online store, want to purchase advertising space, or want to donate product, coupons, or giveaways to Chic Steals, please drop me a line! My rates are affordable and small business-friendly.
6. Upcoming Contest
So many of you responded to my survey last month that you wanted a DIY contest. Well, it’s in the works! I’m currently reaching out to online businesses to provide the prizes – so if you would like to donate a prize and get great exposure for your site, a contest such as this would be a wonderful opportunity. Please email me and let me know!
Well, that’s about it! Also, if you’d like to follow me on Twitter and read my random musings you can do so here.
Thank you for your readership, and if there’s more stuff you’d like to see, please leave it in the comments!
xoxox
Carly
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May 20, 2010 | Life
Hi guys – as you can probably tell, my blog’s looking pretty screwy. I just installed a new layout and switched to a custom domain. I’ve also lost all your comments! Arrrgh. Things are going to look pretty weird for a little while until I get it all sorted it – and to tell the truth, Homer’s probably more able than I am when it comes to coding and web issues. Blech!
Please bear with me!
Thanks-
xoxox
Carly
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May 12, 2010 | Life, Score!
Yup, all TEN of ya:
And #37 (vrtish55)…Random.org really wanted you to win, because it picked you twice! (How’s that for weird? Maybe you should go pick yourself up a lottery ticket since luck is on your side today! {or at least Random.org is :-)} Just kidding!) But I promised TEN winners, so I had to re-run the generator – sorry!
So by my calculations the winners are: (emails x-d out to preserve privacy)
#2: EVELYN penguiin.eater@xxxxx
#4: KATHRYN kathrynsprowl@xxxxx
#5: NIIKA face.graffiti@xxxxx
#9: SADIE’S MOMMA ksparham@xxxx
#25: ERIN NICHOLE shortwindedmuse@xxxx
#37: VRTISH55 vickers_73460@xxxx
#40: WENDY13 misswendythirteen@xxxxx
#42: BRANDI
#49: AVO parthgalen@xxxxx
#54: PEGGRADYART peggrady@xxxxx
So PLEASE to help me out a little if you see your name above please please please email me (carlyjcais at hotmail dot com) your full name, mailing address, and phone number from the email you used to enter.
(cuz honestly when I agreed to do this giveaway it didn’t occur to me that ten people to follow up with is a
major undertaking…yikes!!)
Edit 5/15: I’ve now heard from everyone except Kathryn, Wendy13, vrtish55, and peggradyart. Please let me know your info!
I’ll be cross-referencing everyone else’s information with your comment etc. so I make sure you’re the same person (at least to the best of my abilities) and then I’ll forward your info onto to the Afaze rep so you can get your bracelet!
Thank you everybody for entering!
xoxox
Carly
P.S. Sorry I had to delete multiple comments – and if any of the winners cannot provide a U.S. address (as stated in the entry requirements), another winner will be chosen in her stead. Thanks for understanding!
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May 3, 2010 | Life
I’m back! (Kind of.)
Thank you, all of you, for helping me out by responding to that poll I posted regarding the content here. (Almost a full fifth of my followers responded!!) Thanks to your invaluable feedback, I’ve begun re-tool (insert Beavis & Butthead-y laugh here*) this site and the content for you guys. Hopefully I’ll get back on track soon, with a site RE-DESIGN and a PLAN.
I’ve come down with cold #4 in the meantime.
So I’ve really tried to rest, sleeping about 16 hours for three days in a row.
Not on my computer, to tell the truth.
I’ve stayed away from my computer, as much as possible.
I’ve had my doctor test for a whole bunch of stuff.
And, of course, have come up with a big, fat, ZERO.
But since I’m finally on the mend and the bronchitis and the cold are getting better, I figured I should lay off the tests and just see what happens.
So I’m tentatively returning to the online world, but trying to keep it limited.
I’ve also launched my own personal webpage (www.carlyjcais.com) as a general portal to everything that I do, including Chic Steals. (So you may have to click through that page first to get to this blog, which may have surprised some of you a little.)
I’m also putting together my animation/illustration/art blog from my main site above (under the /blog heading once I get my FTP protocol set right), so I can finally have an online portfolio for unrelated-to-fashion-art stuff.
And for Threadbanger my Tuesday tutorials are only going to be every other week, and in-between I’ll be doing DIY round-ups or something similar for them. But I’ll still be doing tutes here, so don’t worry! And there hopefully will be a lot more cool stuff on the way….
So thanks for sticking with me, guys and gals!
xoxox
Carly
Okay, you caught me. I find cats cute and amusing.
(photos from Icanhascheezburger.com, wowfailblog.com, good-times.webshots.com, images.clipart.com, blogtown.portlandmercury.com)
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Apr 29, 2010 | DIY, Life
I received this question awhile ago from lovely reader trashywriter and I’ve been remiss about answering it. (Sorry!)
Carly, I saw an ad in the latest Vogue, absolutely LOVED the top worn by the model and have finally located it in a catalog. It looks elegant even though it is a casual material and I was wondering if it would be terribly difficult to DIY?
Here are some more photos of the top in question:
You sure know how to pick them!
In the same vein, a similar twisted Burberry skirt DIY showed up on Anywho.dk awhile back, and summarily made its way around the ‘net. (Click above for the tutorial.)
Now, as to this shirt…This top is elegant and sexy, to be sure…but it looks like a pain to DIY.
By best approximation, you could:
1. Buy a slim-fitting V-neck long-sleeved shirt (preferably RAGLAN sleeve seams) that has some stretch to it, and about 1 yd (60″ wide) of similar fabric (stretchy fabric – so important!).
2. Remove front from shirt, using a seam-ripper to preserve the seam allowance.
3. Cut fabric in half width-wise.
4. (If you have a sewing mannequin, pin shirt back together on mannequin. If not, you’ll have to place the front piece flat and pin fabric to it.) Place pieces on top of the shirt-front, gathering at the sleeve seams, pinning there, and twisting at the front in a knot. Secure the other ends of the fabric pieces with pins at the side-seams of the front piece.
5. Pin front to back again, and try it on. (If you have a sewing mannequin that is the same size as you, you probably don’t need to try it on, but you do need to get that front knot tight and conforming to a 3D shape. You can’t pin it flat and then just sew the seams back together as in the shirt tutorial, since there’s too much shape to the front half of your body.) Reform the knot to get it tighter, and re-pin to front piece.
6. Now sew the front piece back on to the shirt. If your material is S-T-R-E-T-C-H-Y enough, you should be able to wear it without needing that back zipper!
As you can see from the original, the front knot is so unfailingly tight (and I believe the shirt is a cashmere blend), so the original requires that back-zipper to get into it. I believe if you choose a material that is not cashmere but has some stretchy manmade fibers in it, you’ll be able to conform it to your shape without having to add that zipper – and without having the seams fall apart or rip when you wear it. If you can – OVERLOCK those seams for extra strength!
Hope that helps – and sorry I haven’t made an example for you; I’m a little under the weather lately.:-)
Best of luck, and please share if you make one!
xoxox
Carly
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