Geez, can't there be any good news?

'Traspasar os sete mares, espellismo tatuado, labirinto de consciencia e nacen cantes.'

Just about a year ago, I was madly working on two giant freelance projects about Barcelona and Dubai. And even though they took up every waking minute of my spare time for about five weeks last September and October, I look back on the time fondly because I discovered all sorts of fantastic things about both Barcelona and Dubai in the process. The lyrics in the title of this post are from a song called "Todo Tiende" by Ojos de Brujo, a Barcelona-based hip hop-flamenco band (with quite a few other influences as well). The group and song are just one of the gems I discovered on those projects. Among some others are a Filipino pop group popular among the expat set in Dubai and Pink Sushi, a fabulously awesome Emirati designer, whose quirky handbags are unfortunately only available in the Gulf.




But all this is just an aside to the main purpose of this post: to showcase my new -- OK, new-ish -- Barcelona skirt. I made this on a whim back in the summer. I'd gotten some cute Free Spirit fabric at Ipso Crafto and already had the pattern from my apron overlay. So I cranked out the layered skirt. I love the frayed look on the unfinished edges, though it could use a few more washings for an extra distressed look.

Suspense

I'm nothing if not good at keeping you in suspense. At long last, here are the some pictures glamour shots of the lacy dress in action. And yes, I realize it's way too late after Labor Day to be wearing white, but I'll hope you'll forgive when you think how long this thing took to make... (Special shout out to Richele for being my Tyra.)




(And no, I don't know why my eyes look even squintier than normal in these pics. They don't look like this on flickr.)

This is what I like to see

'Some days go on forever, sometimes the weatherman says rain'

1. Isabel, 2. Ivan, 3. Cindy, 4. Katrina, 5. Rita, 6. Ernesto, 7. Humberto, 8. Fay, 9. Gustav

Tomorrow is a special day. It's my blog's first birthday. It's also the day that Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to douse the eastern seaboard. One of the biggest pitfalls of living in subtropical paradise was the likelihood for violent storms to roll through the region, wreaking havoc, flooding my apartments, leaving death and destruction in their wakes. When I left New Orleans in the spring, I was quite happy at the thought of getting out of Dodge before another hurricane season. And with Gustav's pummeling the region earlier this week, I can see that I left not a moment too soon.

But now, come hurricane season, I've been lulled into a false sense of security on the east coast -- thinking I'm safe and secure in my high-ish ground, miles inland position. Yeah, not so much. I should have known it was too good to be true. Hurricanes have been following me all over southeastern coastlines -- and inland mountain valleys (thanks, Isabel '03) -- for the past five years.

So now it's time to batten down the hatches and hunker down. Here's hoping this apartment doesn't flood!