A year ago today was the first day of lockdown (and working from home) caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. And what a year it’s been! Stress shopping led to me buying a couple of those awesomely horrible (or horribly awesome) Target dresses that spawned the #targetdresschallenge, and I decided to wear it to highlight all the finer things of pandemic life. This is as much for your enjoyment as it is for me to look back on this time and remember it fondly; not as a dumpster fire year of canceled plans, lost time with friends and family, lost loved ones, and an absolute trial on my mental health. I do hope it makes you smile, dear reader, as much as it made me cackle like a crazy person while taking these photos.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Target dress challenge, just google it and enjoy this odd pandemic trend that quickly emptied stores of these 1970s inspired maxi dresses. As trends go, I don’t tend to follow them. But my idea would be to show pandemic life from my perspective, and I managed to snag not one, but two of these farm-fresh dresses in my size. They’re super unflattering but oddly comfortable, and they have pockets. So here’s a summary of my pandemic life during this past year…
Working From Home
The biggest shock to my system was the sudden working-from-home situation that we naively thought would only last two weeks…and here we are a year later still working from home. Thinking it would be temporary, I dressed in costume every morning for 100 work days before I ran out of costumes and patience. In our 3-story townhome, I work on the first floor in the craft room/guest bedroom and my husband works at the kitchen island on the second floor. The dogs love this new normal and even attend meetings by playing with their squeaky toys as loudly as possible.
[Related: Quarantine Costuming: Working From Home Outfits of the Day]
Cleaning
Taking advantage of extra time at home, and fearful of everything external, we deep cleaned the crap out of this house. I even cleaned the corners of the stairs with alcohol and q-tips (like what else was going to get in those small spaces?). And toilet paper problems? Not here! We were well stocked before the pandemic even started. We even scored several Clorox wipes and all-purpose cleaning spray. What a strange time to be alive!
Exercise?
With the gyms shut down and every race on the schedule canceled, we were forced to improvise or gain a ton of weight. Maybe I did a little bit of both. I began walking almost every morning before work and we started going for bike rides on the weekends. I even switched to FaceTime sessions with my personal trainer and just used what I had around the house. It’s not enough, but it’s something.
Sewing & Costuming & Blogging, Oh My!
Remove the commute, travel plans, and social engagements from my life completely and I had so much free time on my hands! I made a baby quilt, finished costumes I started ages ago, started a bunch of new ones, repaired and reworked a few costumes, jumped down a Regency rabbit hole, and made over 200 face masks. I also took this opportunity to catch up on blogging, sometimes posting a costume tutorial or wine review every day! Check out some of my favorites below.
Little Coven on the Prairie (pictured above)
Fantasia Inspired Boho Toadstool Mushroom Costume
Making My Loblolly Pine Cone Dress
Virtual Everything
I’ll admit I was pretty salty about everything going “virtual” last year, especially costume conventions. But I do enjoy virtual happy hours with friends, virtual wine tastings, and access to virtual classes I may not have had time for otherwise. Y’all better prepare yourselves for hugs when we can all see each other again. I miss hugs!
Shopping Online
Amazon, Etsy, Total Wine, and Ballard Designs have shut up and taken my money. Spending an entire year+ at home not able (or willing) to brave the stores redefined my spending habits, as well as my impatience for deliveries. Now I understand why dogs pace and bark at delivery trucks! Christmas has never been so easy…I just shipped everything directly to recipients! And spending so much more time at home allowed me to really think, stare at, and obsess about the current decor…so you know I changed things up a bit when furniture and other items started to really annoy me. I bought new rugs, new media furniture, side tables, a pouf for my feet, and a shit ton of baskets to store our unsightly “stuff” in.
[Related: From Suburbs to City: One Year Later]
Socially Distant Socializing
Sewing kept me from going insane, but driveway and back yard happy hours gave me life. I just thought I was an introvert, but I need to see my people regularly to recharge my batteries. And don’t ask me how much pizza I’ve had during this pandemic. We attended a driveway Canadian Thanksgiving, hosted a driveway Oktoberfest, road tripped to Fredericksburg for hiking and wine tasting, and attended a Regency era picnic in the country. We bought picnic tables and accessories for this very thing! I had no idea how much I needed to do those things until we did them!
[Related: A Socially Distanced Regency Picnic and Becoming Comfortable With Social Distancing and Visiting Fredericksburg During a Pandemic]
Wanna Go For a Ride?
Sometimes the walls would just close in on me, my husband, and the dogs. And usually not at the same time. Jerome made a habit of going to the coffee shop to listen to his podcasts, and sometimes I ask him to just drive me places. I feel like one of the dogs, and that’s okay!
Organizing
Like cleaning and sewing things, I also took this as an opportunity to organize/reorganize just about everything in and around this house. The biggest hit area was the garage, and while it still might look like we have too much shit, at least we know where everything is. I reorganized the costume closet as well and even tossed two full black trash bags of crap I didn’t need or would never wear again. Felt good!!
TV Watching
Yeah, it’s like this: we have watched ALL THE THINGS including all the Star Wars movies and shows, all the Marvel films in event order, Bridgerton, and even that stupid Tiger King shit show. When we’re allowed back into the wild, I could probably walk away from the TV for a full year (except Disney keeps releasing some really stellar material so…).
Drinking…Lots and Lots of Drinking
Stress drinking? I’ve done it. I’m doing it. And I have a lot of wine calories to walk/run off when all this is over. I even started drinking White Claw, albeit a year after white claw summer, whatever the hell that was. Booze just pairs well with dread and television watching, you know?
DIY Salon
If you haven’t cut your own hair, do you even pandemic, bro? And so what if I messed up, which I did, and cut things a little too wonky or too short? It’s not like we go anywhere. But this long into the pandemic, I’ve figured out the length I like, without massively screwing it up. And I continue to do my own gel nails too. But the dogs…well, they do have a mobile groomer that comes to the house. So I guess I’m not actually saving any money. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I hope you and yours are well. We’re doing just okay, and that’s okay. It has been the shittiest of dumpster fire hold-my-beer years, but we’re not going to dwell on that. Nope. I think the best thing that came out of this is spending extra time with our dogs. They’ve spent at least 7 dog years of their lives with their favorite hoomans at home with them 24/7 this past year. That may be my favorite thing. How will you look back on this time and remember it fondly?
Sheila, this is so much fun! Thank you for sharing!!!
Cindy McWhorter
Thank you Cindy! What a year!
Your journey has been a riot! And I love it cause I’ve been on the same journey too – haven’t we all! I especially love seeing you hanging out the car window… I could never understand why our dog loved that so much – until now. 🙂
Thank you for mentioning Ballard Designs. I am a marketing manager at Ballard and have loved being part of everybody’s home re-do’s. And now, thank goodness, our new sofas and chairs look better than our Pandemic dresses!
Awe thank you Ann! We love our old Messina dining table, and just paired it with the 3 piece Tuscan media. I’m in love. Hope you have a great weekend and year and hang your head out the car window with pride! ❤️