S Is For Sucky Health Insurance

Well, I have to get a crown for my tooth. But I wasn't able to get it Friday. Why not?

Get this. My insurance company could not be reached. The receptionist tried to get through to Member Services first for a half hour while I waited in reception and then continued trying while I was being examined. Yup. Can you believe that? Some message said the department was not available and in a meeting? At 9 to 10AM in the morning. Whaa?

So my dentist will be calling me Monday IF they can get through to this HUGE insurance company and let me know how much it will be. Then we reschedule so I can take even more time off of work ( I get paid by the hour!) to get it taken care of.

So I sat all weekend with a hole in my mouth.

Some good news: I did do some sewing this weekend but nothing was completed. Hopefully soon.

D Is For Dentistry

By the time you read this post I will be in a dentist's office finding out what they can do for a tooth that split apart last night.

The fact is, I was eating cheese popcorn but it happened with so little fanfare that I think it would have happened with anything. There was and has been no pain, I just suddenly tasted metal (my filling) and that was it. It even took a few minutes for me to find the fragment in my mouth. Basically because of the filling in the middle there wasn't much "tooth" left there anyway. Luckily, it was the back half of the tooth so I don't look any different. However, my tongue can't help seeking out the ragged edges of the exposed filling constantly.

I am writing this so that you can wish me luck that this will be a simple and hopefully reasonable fix for this. If not, I may have just bankrupt myself. Merry Christmas! I already hit my insurance cap this year and unless the cap for the dentistry part of my insurance is separate there's no more money until February 1. (VISA card, do you have any room left?)

I think they should warn you when you are getting low on coverage. "You have the equivalent of $300 left for the year, we at Aetna suggest that you forgo that next prescription and just take care of your flu symptoms at home with Advil. Thank you very much and have a nice day!"

Discovery - Rediscovery

Fashion in Harmony patterns - This company creates patterns based on the bias and all their patterns use it towards flattering results. As an owner of a bias gown bought years ago that still looks good despite me gaining a few pounds (or ten) I can attest that a simple bias gown is "a good thing".

Hark! A Vagrant - The comics of Kate Beaton. I first discovered her "younger self" comics where she interacts with...duh! her younger self. Then I realized that she created all these great "historical comics" involving the Brontes, Marcel Duchamp, Queen Victoria, and the like but with a very modern and irreverent voice. Check her site and by the way she has a book available too. There are so many great comics and the best way to search through them is by using her archives here.

Wearable Art

Throughout my years reading blogs; from 2006 to now, I've followed a lot of long-term wearable art projects - from Little Brown Dress, FiftyRX3, States of Dress to The Uniform Project. (I so want a version of that dress!) From a mention at Colette Patterns, I was directed to another project I now want to follow...

The Makeshift Project

It's creator, Natalie Purschwitz, has taken on the task of creating every single item of functional clothing that she wears, from underwear, tights, outerwear, shoes, with a few accessories also thrown in the mix. Check out the great big bag below and the rocking "moon" boots that she made here!

I love her diagonally fastened sweaters and coats; some that criss-cross in the front, and her asymmetrical skirts, especially that draped one with the doubled flap seen below.

It's a very ambitious project, I want half of everything she's made, and those lace-up shoes she created for herself are beyond wonderful! I look forward to seeing her full-on winter wardrobe as I love woolly, sweatery things the most.

Outerwear - love, love, love.

She is now three months in, so there is still plenty of time to get hooked on her daily posts.

Oh and before you ask...she does have a clothing line, Hunt & Gather, where items like this dress (!) are available.


P.S. Doesn't she remind you a bit of Bjork?!

More Holiday Truth...

I forgot to mention the other holiday item I found last weekend. On my drive to my dad's house on Thanksgiving I came across a radio station already playing holiday music. Ugh! I was about to change the station when they announced the next song, Hard Candy Christmas sung by Dolly Parton. I had never heard of it and since it wasn't one of the traditional songs I gave it a listen...and loved it.

You can pretty much always depend on Dolly to keep it real...in song lyrics, that is. (As it turns out, she didn't write this one, but it has her sensibility.)

It's a holiday song for those who aren't too thrilled with the holiday season, their lives, and how they're doing at this time of the year. Here's the song:



And here are the lyrics*.


* Home sewers check out the third stanza!