Polka Dot Overload in Review: Over 30!

Happy bloggy birthday to me! Whoa! This marks the 32nd post to this here new blog, Polka Dot Overload. I meant to do this with post #30. Which would have been fun since I'm turning 30 in June (which makes Cartoonist Baby, due June 18, my birthday present!) Oh well.

I started this site only a few weeks ago while on vacation with the vague intention of doing one to two posts per week, but I had no idea that blogging and cartooning about sewing and style could be nearly as much fun as SEWING ITSELF. And you all are so NICE! I often get 2,000 or 3,000 visitors a day (or more) to the left-wing political cartooning blog I've been running since 2001, but few of them leave feedback. And of the ones that do--well, let's just say I have to do a lot of comment moderation to get rid of the "I hope U die and rot in hel you uggly dike b*tch + U can't draw" crowd. I try to have a thick skin, but that kind of electronic abuse can really get a girl down.

But the 100-200 readers a day I've been getting here--you LIKE me, you really LIKE me! You leave comments! You like what I sew and you actually care whether I decide to make one pattern or use one fabric as opposed to another! You WANT to read about fabric stashes and polka dots and vintage patterns and cloth diapers with flames on them! Some of you have linked to me on your awesome sewist blogs! I'm crying tears of joy here.

So for readers new and old, let's review the highlights in the brief wonderful life of Polka Dot Overload. Thus far I have:

• Revealed the true tale of "My Sewing Origins."
• Strolled down memory lane with "Some of My Best Dresses."
• Finished my first vintage dress pattern project, the orange silk floral "Carefree" dress
• Storyboarded my overly-ambitious PatternReview mini-wardrobe content plans.
• Warned you about "Your Yucky Body."
• Scouted around for suitable men's shirtings.
• Shared tips for digital stash "management" and physical stash "murder."

And my sew-happy brain has just been bubbling over with bloggy plans, so coming soon you can expect posts on:

• Vintage hairstyling (and hairstyling in general), my complete lack of knowledge of and hopes to better myself in.
• Pattern ambitions
• Spring fashion, Mikhaela-style
• Wardrobe building
• Making the clothes of your dreams--and ONLY the clothes of your dreams!
• Sewing at a Moving Target, aka Pregnant FBA/Tummy Adjustment Overload

Plus many more pattern reviews and a several-part tutorial collaboration I have hinted at here and here!

I have the day off from work today, but I need to lay off the blogging (mostly) and focus on muslin-ing and working on that mystery tutorial.

You might be wondering where I got the sculpture of me and Masheka at the top of this post, complete with iPod and copes of Mad (for Masheka), and tape measure, political cartooning books and chartreuse cardigan (for me), not to mention our cord-chewing little orange cat Riley (the story of how he ate through the foot pedal cord on my Viking AND the cord to my digital drawing tablet TWICE will have to wait for another day). My amazing mom, of course. She made it as a cake topper for our wedding in 2007 (she made the cake, too), but it was a bit too heavy so went next to the cake instead. And she wasn't leaving out kitty number two, we just hadn't adopted him yet.