Why I don't have a Kindle, Part 2

Despite lots of sewing and no book posts, I am in fact continuing to read.  I "ran out" of books this week and went to Half-Price Books. 

As I returned home with a stack of 9 new books, requiring me to find about 9 inches of bookshelf space, I wondered if maybe I should reconsider a Kindle.  They are getting cheaper, and maybe that's something to add to a Christmas list.  I decided to go onto Amazon and figure out what the same books would cost me. 

Half-Price Books Total: $53.82 plus tax
Kindle Total: $59.15 plus tax

"Look," you say, "it was only a few dollars cheaper at the bookstore, plus you won't eventually have to have an extra bedroom to store all your books.  A Kindle is definitely worth it!"  Unfortunately, you would be wrong.  The Kindle total is only cheaper because 3 of the 9 books weren't available as eBooks! 

Between the expense of books and lack of availability, there's no justifying a Kindle for me yet.  $5.98 vs. $9.86 per book means a 65% premium for eBooks.  That's a bit too much for me to swallow.

Anthropologize

Anthropologize: verb. 1. to modify or augment an item so that it appears to be have been purchased at a usually overpriced store with a fetish for the unique 2. to make something mass produced look handmade through the artful addition of details

This post starts with a story.  Many moons ago, I was offered a job a few days after graduation from college.  They wanted me to start within 2 days.  I talked them up to 5 or so, which allowed me enough time to find an apartment, move a suitcase full of stuff and an air mattress into that apartment (having sent the majority of my belongings home with my parents mere days before while I informally subletted a room in some friends' rented house), and desperately shop for a work wardrobe on a very limited budget. 

One of the things I purchased was this boring green cardigan from Target.  I'm going to guess that I paid about $10 for it; it had to have been pretty cheap because I bought an identical white one at the same time.  I wore it all the time when I first started working since I owned approximately 5 work appropriate tops.  Over the years, I built a more extensive work wardrobe and the boring green sweater fell out of favor.  Why wear this when I could wear a purple or teal or yellow or grey-with-embroidered-birds cardigan?  It was retired to the laundry drawer--the bottom drawer I desperately rummage through at 7:15 on a weekday morning when all my other work clothes are dirty. 

I decided it was time to make something more of this sweater.  I looked through my scrap fabric and cut out some shapes.  I arranged them and tried to sew them on with the machine.  Tried is the operative word, as I used the seam ripper and detached them from the sweater.  I cut out replacement shapes, rearranged, and sewed them on by hand.  I found some beads in a bag of craft supplies and sewed them on as well.

Ta da!  Anthropologized.

I'll admit that I don't love it yet.  I'm afraid the black beads on the yellow look too much like cheetah, especially from a distance, which isn't really my style. I might have liked it better when it was just the leaf shapes.  Any thoughts or suggestions?  No beads?  Different beads?

Even though it's still a work in progress, I feel very industrious in taking something that I rarely used and making it more fun and special.  It's the first real "wardrobe remake" that I've tried, and it has emboldened me.  Next up: "J.Crewifying" a tank top?

Inspiration Fulfilled

It's been a stressful week for me.  However, I am excited to share my newest completed dress.  In fact, it turned out to be fortuitous that I waited to post it. 

If you'll recall, I was inspired by the Anthropologie Grand Island dress and confident I could recreate it.  I was possibly a bit too confident and ran into some difficulties.  Since I was working without a pattern, I had to base it off measurements and clothing I already owned.  This led to the first draft being a giant tube of fabric.  I always think that I don't want it too tight, and so I should add a little ease to it.  I also make sure to remember that I'll have seams.  Then I end up with giant things that would fit two of me.

After significant trimming and way too much staring at the pictures posted on Anthropologie's website to figure out exactly how all the pieces fit together, I ended up with the following.

I don't think it looks much like the original, but I like the end result.  The collar is admittedly difficult, but I think that pinning it into submission with a vintage daisy stick pin is a good solution. 

Also, you might notice that I'm not wearing the dress, yet it is supported by a vaguely human form.  This week my husband and I celebrated the 3 year anniversary of our engagement.  We're dorky like that, because why just celebrate our wedding anniversary when we can have two anniversaries?  We usually do small gifts for such semi-pseudo celebrations--for comparison, I bought him a pretty bowl for ice cream and cereal to replace one he liked that was broken--but Ben was an overachiever, now as ever.  He'd seen dressforms on sale and bought one a month or two ago.  He planned to keep it until a real holiday, like Christmas, but he wanted me to have it now since I've been sewing more.  He also wanted me to have the opportunity to return it in case I didn't like it.  Fat chance; it's fantastic!  I can take pictures, refine the fit, and step back to see how it looks.  Now it just needs a name.  Ben suggested Chesty La Rue.  I thought about naming it Dennis (or possibly Denise) since it is a dummy.  We are taking additional suggestions.

Inspiration

More sewing here.  I guess I'm on a roll.

I have three weddings coming up in the next few months, and that requires some clothing coordination.  I have to drag out the dresses from my closet and figure out which ones I've worn around each friend group--high school, college, husband's friends, etc.  While I know my friends love me no matter what I wear, I'd prefer not to wear identical outfits to weddings where the same people are in attendance.  I don't want it to turn into the Seinfeld episode where Jerry dates the girl who is wearing the same dress every time he sees her. 

This process inevitably leads me to search for dresses online.  Buying an entirely new dress is an excellent way to ensure you're not wearing the same dress.  In browsing different websites, I ran across this dress at Anthropologie. 

I really like this dress.  The neckline is interesting without being strange, and it's so simple and classic overall.   It's a little casual for an evening wedding, but I think I could make this dress in a similar color but a different, thicker, less wrinkly fabric.  In fact, I went to Jo-Ann's to use my 50% off coupon to buy just such a fabric today.  I think I'm going to lose the buttons down the front and just put in a zipper along the side or back--again, an attempt to make it a little dressier.  But not too dressy, because I'd still like to be able to wear it to work....

I'm already picturing wearing it with my yellow patent leather shoes. I might be a little ahead of myself. 

I'm not sure when I'll start working on it.  I've got a busy week ahead, and I promised my sister a yellow skirt so I've got that on my to do list as well.  We'll see how my projects shake out.  I may be in a bit over my head on this one.

Paper Bag Waist Skirt, featuring AMAZING photography

As promised, here's the paper bag waist skirt.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera and had to use my camera phone.  It's a few years old, and it was free.  Needless to say, the pictures are not impressive.  Be prepared. 

As mentioned in my previous post, I was inspired to make a paper bag waist skirt after reading a tutorial on Adventures in Dressmaking.  I won't put together a step by step tutorial, but I thought I'd share some pictures from my experience.

First, I went to the fabric store.  I found the type of fabric I wanted (a cotton sateen, 50% off), but I couldn't decide on a color.  Navy?  Forest green?  Chocolate brown?  After some pondering, I narrowed it down to two choices.  Practical Darci said, "You should get the grey.  It will look nice for work and you can wear it with lots of things."  Fun Darci said, "Hot pink!  Pretty!" 

So I bought both, thinking I could use one for a different project.  Then decided to start with the hot pink.  Practicality is overrated. 

Second, I learned my lesson from a previous disaster and prewashed the fabric.  I know you're supposed to do that, but I never did it consistently until I washed a simple top I made a few weeks ago.  The color ran, the fabric warped, and I nearly lost 3 other shirts that had soaked up some of the apparently water-soluble dye.  I suppose that fabric was in the clearance section for a reason. 

Luckily, there were no laundry disasters this time.  After prewashing, I laid out my materials.  Nermal helped. 

Then I cut out some fabric and worked on installing the zipper.  Nermal continued to be helpful.

Perhaps due to Nermal's helpfulness, the first time I sewed one half of the zipper on backwards and had to rip out the seam.  Such setbacks happen, and it's always better they happen early in the process.  In the end, I ended up with this.
Where's the zipper?

Ta Da! 

Although this tutorial didn't call for one, I prefer to use invisible zippers.  I think clothing calls for a little magic, and where's the magic in this trend for visible zippers?  I didn't like it when whoever it was did it on Project Runway, and I don't like it now that it's everywhere.  It's just not my style.  Call me old fashioned. 

Anyway, with the zipper semi-successfully installed (more on that later), what's left is sadly a lot of grunt work.  Unless you're making something with dozens of pieces, like a quilt, it's surprising how little "sewing" there is in the sewing process.  The good news about this pattern is that it doesn't call for a lot of pinning.  The bad news is that it does call for a lot of pressing.  Have to press the top and bottom hems.  Have to press the belt.  Have to press the tiny little belt loops.  In the end it was worth the lightly toasted fingers (this fabric got HOT), but it was definitely a tedious process.  Oddly, Nermal had no interest in helping me press things. 

 I also have a very technical measurement system.  When something needs a 1 inch hem, I cut out a piece of scrap paper to measure the fold.  Much easier than messing around with a ruler or tape measure. 

It also got a little toasted.

Here's one "action shot" of me pretending to sew a belt loop (right before I actually sewed the belt loop).

I also did some hand sewing to make an invisible hem around the bottom.  I could have used the machine, but I think that if you're not using a professional machine a blind hem usually looks better.

After the hard work, I ended up with this:

I know, it's a terrible picture.  Not only am I using a camera phone and taking a picture of myself in a mirror, I didn't even bother to put on a non-clashing top.  I'll try to post better ones once Ben comes back with my camera.  Here's an equally terrible close up of the top. 

I'm not sure if I am too impressed by my own handiwork, but I think it looks pretty good. 

One thing I learned for future sewing endeavors is that I should have tried it on before I finished sewing the zipper seam.  I bought a long zipper, then thought it seemed way too long when I pinned it to the skirt pieces.  I only used ~7 inches of the 12 inch zipper, and it's a little tight.  I have to put it on over my head.  Oops. 

Still, not too shabby.  Paper bag waist skirts are a trend, and I hesitate to buy trendy things.  I figure if I make trendy items for myself, I can save money AND theoretically be fashion-forward.  Here's the rundown of cost:

• 1 yard of fabric: $4.99 (50% off)
• 1 invisible zipper: $1.79 (used a 40% off coupon)
• Approximately 5 hours of my time, during which I watched 3 episodes of Pushing Daisies and Confessions of a Shopaholic (not as bad as expected, btw) via Netflix Watch Instantly

Total: $6.78 plus tax*

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to find a skirt for less, or at least not until the trend has run its course.  Plus, I never would have bought a skirt in such an impractical color. 

*If we wanted to be technical, I should also throw in a few pennies for thread and amortize the cost of my $7 iron, but I'm going to write those off as sunk costs.  (The iron's probably fully depreciated by now anyway since I bought it 10 years ago.)  The sewing machine was a gift from my Aunt Monna, and my Grandma Mary Lou bought me my nice Gingher sewing scissors when I was a child.  It took a decade or so for a love of sewing to kick in, but I definitely appreciate them now. 

Bad Blogger

So, I pretty much suck at this blog thing.  I've tried and failed and tried and failed.  It might not be in the cards for me.

I thought that having a point to my blog would help.  "I love reading, so I will blog about books!" I thought.  But then books felt like work, and I had trouble writing about books without giving away too much.  So much of my love of books is based on finding out what happens that I'm too sensitive in writing about them to people who haven't read them.  It was much easier in college to discuss and write papers about books that everyone in the class had also read (or should have read) and the professor had read approximately 400 times.

At the same time, I like reading friends' blogs and hearing stories about their lives/babies/projects/passions.  I like the idea of being in that sort of community.  

Thus, welcome to reboot number 3 or 4 (I've lost count).  I've decided I'm going to blog randomly.  I'll post links to other, better blogs or to things at stores I love but can't (or shouldn't) afford. Maybe mention books I've enjoyed or not.  Possibly post pictures of the cats or tell stories about how sweet my husband is.  Hard to say, really.

First up, though, I'm going to try to make a paper bag waist skirt based on a tutorial from a sewing blog I read occasionally.  I promise to post pictures regardless of how terrible the result, so be sure to check back in for possible train-wreck type carnage!  (Although I just realized my husband took the camera on a trip and won't return until Sunday.  You may see pixelated camera phone carnage.  Gritty!  Viral!  Possibly unintelligible!)

However, don't be surprised if a brief period of blogging enthusiasm is followed by a dry spell.  That's how I roll, apparently.

The Big Short

The Big Short, Michael Lewis' new book on the subprime mortgage crisis, was already timely.  The recession caused by subprime mortgages and the multiple bets for and against the bonds created from them is only now officially lifting, and the impact is still being felt with high unemployment and struggling markets.

Then the SEC filed fraud charges against Goldman Sachs this week, and the whole book looks a little different.

The Big Short is about some investors, mostly small hedge funds, who made money by going "short" or betting against the success of bonds created from subprime mortgages.  The fraud charges against Goldman Sachs came from transactions similar to those described in the book, although the specific Goldman trade is covered more thoroughly in Gregory Zuckerman's The Greatest Trade Ever, which I haven't read (yet). 

The ins and outs of the trades can be better described by professionals, but the short (no pun intended) version is that banks like Goldman Sachs packaged groups of mortgages into bonds so that they could be sold and traded.  The thought on Wall Street was that the bonds were not terribly risky because they were made of many different mortgages (or pieces of mortgages) from different areas of the country, meaning they were diverse.  A few investors thought, correctly, that the housing market was being fueled by inflated house valuations, and if house prices didn't continue to go up, people with adjustable rate subprime mortgages wouldn't be able to refinance when their rates went up.  Those investors essentially took bets that the mortgages would fail with the Wall Street banks, and the banks either took the "long" side of the bets or passed that risk along to companies like AIG or other investors, often organizations (like pension funds) that were required to make conservative investments.

The fraud charges from the SEC give the stories from Lewis and Zuckerman another dimension.  One way you can read The Big Short is as the story of plucky underdogs who saw that disaster was imminent and unavoidable and figured out ways to make money from it, enduring mockery until their bets paid off.  The other way is to see it as people who made money at the expense of less sophisticated investors, possibly due to criminal activity.  While Wall Street firms lost a lot of money being long on subprime mortgage bonds, the charges from the SEC say that once Goldman Sachs realized that they were on the wrong side of the crisis, they dumped massive amounts of risk onto less sophisticated investors by deceiving them about the origin of those soon-to-be toxic assets.  What's interesting is the "shorts" who made money as a result of these transactions are not under investigation; Goldman Sachs is in trouble for allegedly lying to their investors about how the specific mortgages were chosen and weren't upfront that the asset was being put together solely so John Paulson could bet against it. 

I really enjoyed The Big Short, and I think I'd like to read The Greatest Trade Ever.  I would recommend picking up one or the other if you want to better understand subprime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps.  The Amazon ratings are higher on TGTE, but a lot of that seems to be caused by a bunch of low ratings frankly whining that TBS isn't available on Kindle*.  What I do believe from reviews I've read is that TBS less scholarly and more character driven, while TGTE is an in-depth, investigative report on one trade by one man--the one trade being the one that the SEC is now alleging was fraudulent.  I'll agree that TBS is not big on technicalities and skims over some of the negative impact, but it's very readable and I definitely understand more about the crisis that sunk the economy worldwide, resulted in billions in bailouts to banks, and led to the unemployment of friends and family.  I think the recession was personal to everyone, and it's important to learn more about how it happened. 

*I highly recommend reading the 1 star Amazon ratings for entertainment value.  Some are legitimate concerns (not technical enough, too sympathetic to opportunistic investors), some are personal (Lewis is honest that he is not an investment advisor, but some reviews criticize him for contradicting something he said a few years ago about derivatives), but many are about the lack of a Kindle edition.  People complain that the lack of a Kindle edition is tantamount to segregation in the American South, that bookstores should set up garbage cans so people can throw away hard copy Michael Lewis books in protest, and that it might as well be published on post-its, written in crayon.  Which then leads to joke bad reviews that it is not published in Na'vi or serially in a magazine like a Dickens novel.  The interweb is funny.

The Remains of the Day

If you recall, I was not impressed by Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans.  I decided to give him another try and recently read The Remains of the Day.  It's a character study of Stevens, an English butler in the mid-1950s.  His previous employer dead, he now works for an American who bought Darlington Hall, the house Stevens ran for many years. 

Stevens takes an opportunity to visit former co-worker Mrs. Benn née Miss Kenton.  With permission, he borrows Mr. Farraday's car and goes on a road trip through Devon and Cornwall.  As happens in all good road trips, Stevens encounters some interesting people and beautiful scenery, stumbles into some comic misadventures, and has plenty of time to reflect on his life.

Through the stories of the past woven into the experiences of the present, we learn that Miss Kenton served as a foil to Stevens over the years they served Lord Darlington.  Stevens, preoccupied with propriety and duty, accepted his employer's word as law; in doing so, he gave up some of his humanity and supported some questionable decisions.  Miss Kenton was more compassionate beneath her similarly high professional standards.  Because of their differences, there are many misunderstandings between Miss Kenton and Stevens, and she ultimately leaves Lord Darlington's employ to marry.  Stevens' road trip is, in part, a trip to see if Mrs. Benn would like to return as housekeeper to Darlington Hall due to the unhappiness with her marriage she expressed to Stevens in a letter.

It's hard not to include spoilers in these posts.  I will say that I found the ending of the book very poignant and definitely recommend The Remains of the Day.  Stevens isn't always a sympathetic character, but by the end Ishiguro leads the reader to an understanding of Stevens' motivations and Stevens to an understanding of his own mistakes.  The ending is surprisingly hopeful, even if there is an undercurrent of melancholy.  In some ways, it reminds me of the ending to The Sun Also Rises.  While Hemingway's book ends with regret, Ishiguro's takes half a step back from the "Isn't it pretty to think so?" lament and substitutes the truth that the past doesn't have to determine the future.

Instances of the Number Three

I picked up Salley Vickers' book Instances of the Number Three mostly because I thought it was an interesting title.  There are better reasons to read a book, but I think there are also worse ones.

In the book, a woman named Bridget connects with her husband's mistress and mysterious young friend Zahin after his death in a car accident.  We learn about Peter through each of them. For example, we learn that much like the protagonists of every Graham Greene novel I've read, Peter is an adulterous Catholic, although only mistress Frances knows of his faith. (I'm not hatin' on GG - I really liked The End of the Affair even if I was disappointed by The Heart of the Matter, mostly because it was similar but not as good.) 

Despite the dark subject matter, it was actually a fun and fast read.  There's a bit of a mystery element to it as the reader learns more about Peter and the three he left behind.  The book shares some theories on the afterlife that I don't think the Catholic church would bless, even if there are some interesting ties to Hamlet. Not great literature, but definitely a step above your standard chick lit. 

I'm still behind - posts are upcoming on The Remains of the Day and The Big Short. 

Grace (Eventually)

I can't justify getting a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or other e-reader.  It's appealing.  The bookshelves are full.  I wouldn't have to use as much valuable luggage space when I travel.   I could carry around hundreds of books at a time.

But two things stand in the way.  One, I am frugal.  The readers themselves are pretty pricey, and most books tend to run in the $8-$15 range.  I can do better at the used bookstore.  Two, there is something nice about having a book that can be shared with a friend, even if they don't always find their way home.  (I'm talking to you, guy at work who still has my copy of Freakonomics three years after I lent it to you.  Too late to ask for it back now without seeming crazy.) 

Recently, I found a third reason.  When you buy used books, they sometimes tell a (bonus) story.

Take, for example, the copy of Grace (Eventually) I purchased.  Usually I flip through all the pages of a used book and make sure it's not terribly marked up, but I forgot this time.  When I got it home, I discovered something interesting.

It appears that this particular book was either purchased at or brought to a discussion and reading by the author.  First, it's autographed.

Second, there are notes from the talk.  Some of the notes seem to be directly related to one or two essays, but others are more generally about being a writer or artist.  The notes cover virtually every blank or partially blank page at the beginning and end of the book.  My favorite is a bit ironic - Ms. Lamott apparently gave the advice to always have a pen and index cards to take notes about things or people you encounter, which would probably be better than scribbling all over your paperbacks. 

As for the book, I think you either like or don't like Anne Lamott.  She writes about Christian spirituality from a very liberal perspective.  Although I'm more conservative and traditional in my faith, I think she's thought-provoking.  Even if I'm shocked by statements that I find borderline heretical, at least it makes me think about what I believe about the nature of God and the promises of Jesus, as well as what the role of Christians is in the world.  She's also good for the occasional belly-laugh.  Although I think I liked her Plan B better (the essays about teenagers and starting a Sunday School are so priceless I marked those two essays for my mom, currently starting a Sunday School and raising a tween and teen, hoping she would skip over the essays that included more colorful language), I found plenty to think about while reading Grace (Eventually). 

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter.  He is risen!