I dye

I finally admitted that mustard yellow is one color that should never be near my face, so I gave a makeover to a sweater that was cute in shape but wrong in shade. Sadly, I forgot to take a "before" picture of it, but it used to look very much like this. Here's the simmering vat of kelly green dye water.

 I also threw in a white t-shirt.

Here's the result. I don't know if I didn't use enough dye, but the t-shirt came out lighter than I had hoped. However, I love how the cardigan turned out.

 I stepped outside to get a truer picture of the color. Man, I'm terrible at taking selfies. I'm just like, "Am I supposed to smile at myself? Look aloof? I feel stupid..."

Fresh off my green sweater success, I turned to another couple of items whose design I like but color I don't. Pale, peachy pink and bright tangerine are both great, but not with my skin.

 Here's what they looked like after a dunk in wine colored dye:

Before:

 After:

(It's missing the middle button. I'm working on that.) These last two photos were taken by a child standing on a wobbly chair. But at least we avoided my selfie face.

If you are thinking of playing with Rit dye, I recommend starting with something that's not precious to you, preferably purchased for two dollars at your favorite thrift shop. My limited experience says that the best results come from starting with a light colored fabric and adding a dye in a related but darker color.

Summer motto

Remember this?

I was ready for a change, so I let the big boys paint over it with black.

I've wanted to turn this song lyric into a piece of wall art for a long time. To get the spacing right, I sketched the words on paper and laid them in place. Then I removed one at a time and painted each word on the canvas.

In order to get a slightly different font than my regular handwriting, I painted the letters in the opposite direction that I usually would. For example, I wrote the letter S starting at the bottom rather than the top. You could also turn the whole thing upside down and write your letters that way. (I think that's a forger's trick.)

Don't you hate when you see a sign where the letters don't all fit on the line? Like GARAGE SAle, with the last couple letters scrunched up on the right? I tried to avoid that by writing the middle letter first, and then building the rest of the word around it. It didn't quite work with "friend", but I'm going to let it go.

I hung it in a conspicuous spot, so that naughty boys will see it each time they are sent to their rooms due to fussing and fighting.