Oh, the possibilities

Dress possibilities, that is. I've almost finished the dress, but I can't decide exactly how to place the straps. Can you help me decide?

Possibility #1:

Dress possibility #1

This was my original idea for the dress -- dove at the center front, with straps attaching in the back. When I actually put it together, though, the dove looks a bit large for that position. Other times, when I walked past it from a distance, I really loved it.

Possibility #2

Here's the most conservative possibility -- dove in the back, with straps attaching up front. While this solves the problem of having a big honkin' dove in your face at the front of the dress, I worry that it leaves the front too plain. I could add beads or other decorations to the ends of the straps to hang from the front of the dress, but I just don't know if that's gonna cut it.

Dress possibility #3

Finally, I just gave up, threw the dove on my dressmaker's bust and went to dinner. When I came back, I found the dove positioned just like this -- and I kind of liked it. But is it delightfully quirky, or just kind of random and gross?

I've looked at this dress so long that I can't decide. Maybe I should just make a few of each? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Oh, and while you're mulling it over, have a little inspiration: "Runnin" by Heartless Bastards, yet another selection from the Little Black Dress playlist.

05 Runnin

Heartless Bastards

Such a tease

I know I promised more songs and dress updates for this week, but I got all caught up in day job deadlines and apartment paperwork. The good news: deadlines met, apartment officially secured! Starting October 15, this will be the new Ciara Loves You HQ:

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1450 Meridian Ave, two blocks from Lincoln Road, three from Espanola Way, with a dishwasher and cute interior features like a faux fireplace and vaulted ceilings. Much of my free time this week has been spent browsing the Ikea website and dreaming up all the little ways I'll make this place my own. So excited!

I've been slacking on the dress, but yesterday I made up for it by putting together some cute new cat toys for Halloween. I'm sure you've all see the original Kitty Monster -- but are you ready for spoooooky kitty monsters?

Halloween monsters!

Just like the original, these little ghouls are made of felt and stuffed with catnip, plus they're all dressed up for trick-or-treating in Frankenstein and Ghostie costumes. But if yarn's more your thing, I've also rolled out these Witchy Kitty catnip toys in the shape of witch's hats:

Witchy Kitty catnip toy

The crocheted hat is loose enough to let the catnip slowly fall out over time as your cat bats, chews and tears it to pieces. Plus, the loose ribbons (secured to the hat) will keep kittens busy for hours -- trust me, Papi's been obsessed with his test prototype since I gave it to him days ago. So cute!

Today I'm hoping to make some serious headway on the dress -- I ran into an issue with the straps (the same design that looked great on paper looked awful on my dressmaker's bust), but I think I've come up with an even more creative and pretty solution. I'll of course still be listening to my "little black dress" soundtrack. Here are a few more songs from that list:

Rilo Kiley's "The Moneymaker" is just the kind of dark pop song that this dress was made for -- energetic, but a little bit sinister, too. "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. is also along those lines -- an upbeat dance song with gunshots that give it edge. But there's definitely a rock and roll influence in the dress as well, hence The White Stripes "There's No Home For You Here."

Stay tuned for photos of my progress on the dress, and of course more songs!

thisclose

That's what I am to scoring a super-sweet new home for Ciara Loves You (and the kitties, and the boyfriend, and, uh, me). It's so close, in fact, that I don't want to talk about it any more, for fear I shall jinx it.

I've been hard at work these past few days on a little black dress, Ciara-style. It's still in the formative stages, but it's definitely the most complex garment I've undertaken yet -- no pattern, no real training, just me, a dressmaker's bust, and a very forgiving lycra jersey. So far, I've been able to make it look pretty much exactly as it does in my head or when it's sketched out on paper. Here's hoping that trend continues.

For inspiration while I work, I made a playlist of songs that sound sultry, strong and sensual -- exactly the way I want this dress to look at completion. How very Project Runway of me, I know. I'll be posting them all week long (and maybe longer, depending on how long this dress takes to finish). First on the list: Drive by Melissa Ferrick, the ultimate seduction song. Visit http://ciaralovesyou.vox.com to listen.

Weekend already?

One of the downsides to working from home is that the distinction between work and play tends to get a little fuzzy. For example: how in the hell is it Friday already? While most of my friends are looking forward to a few days out of the office, I'm looking forward to ... well, the exact same thing I've been doing during the work week: brainstorming new crafty projects, planning patterns and cranking out pieces for Kraftworks II.

Oh, did I not mention Kraftworks The Second?

KRAFTWORKS!

Kraftworks is the kick-ass show featuring young designers, musicians, artists and other creative types from all over South Florida, and its inaugural event in July was so great that I have no problem referring to September 29th as the second coming. I'll be setting up alongside EtsyFESTers like beanblossom once again, so please do stop by and say hello!

Moving and shaking

Well, it's official -- Ciara Loves You is moving headquarters. We're going from the high-priced high-rise with the great view to, well, somewhere else. Moving is the worst, but apartment hunting is, dare I say it, awesome -- especially when the places you're looking are several hundred dollars less than what you're currently paying. FisherBoy and I fell in love with an apartment not too far from Lincoln Road yesterday; here's hoping that comes through for us. I'll be sure to keep you posted on address changes and what all this means for the store. (Most notably, all the new crafty projects I can do with the cash I'm saving on rent!)

Aside from apartment hunting, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the upcoming Halloween season. I'll be in Morocco (!!!) for the actual Halloween holiday, but still want to celebrate with festive products in the Ciara Loves You shop. In coming weeks, you'll be seeing spooky new catnip toys, gothic inspired accessories and maybe, just maybe, a few naughty little things to be worn under your costume. Stay tuned!

They've seen it all before

So here's the thing: I've never had exhibitionist tendencies, and I've had consecutive monogamous relationships for the past, like, 80 years. So yesterday, during my third massage in three days, it occurred to me that more people have seen me naked this weekend than in any other 3-day period in my post-adolescent life. I'm off to number four in a few hours before flying home. What happens in the DR stays in the DR, I guess.

That light blue Malabrigo hasn't seen the light of day since I've been in the DR; in my defense, this trip has been more heavily scheduled than I'd thought it would be. Scheduled with spa appointments, sure, so no complaints here; still, I can't exactly whip out my crochet hook mid-milk bath. What I'd really like to do with it, actually, is replicate another project I'm working on in FiJi (whyyy did they discontinue FiJi and its jersey-like goodness? Waaah), but the skeins I ordered weeks ago haven't arrived yet, so I don't know if the pattern I devised is actually going to work out yet. Sigh. Sit tight, my little Malabrigo.