so i went down to my great aunt's house wednesday morning to take her the damaged goods. my grandma took me, and my little nephew tagged along cuz he took a sick day from school. now, my great aunt has been a seamstress for some 45+ years, so of course she knows her sewing, and she knows great craftsmanship quality. she has made countless dance and wedding dresses, costumes and pageant gowns in that time. i stress, she knows her stuff. so i presented 'esmeralda' to her. not quite esmeralda..something like her broke down sistah to' up from the flo' up if you know what i mean. lol the first words she produced were "oh my". and not in a good surprise kind of way either, unfortunately. she said "this looks nothing like a gypsy. and you paid for this? how much did this cost you?" i was pretty embarrassed. she told me that a halloween costume out of a bag from the costume store looked better than this. isn't that pathetic? turns out she had a gypsy costume pattern in her possession already, and asked if i would like her to remake the entire thing for me, so without a moment's hesitation i accepted the offer. this is the woman who made me my jasmine costume by the way, ladies and gents. ^_^ she pulled out the hunchback of notre dame vhs from my cousins' video collection, dusted it off and popped it into the vcr. we watched the entire movie, and she would watch esmeralda, observing the make of her outfit. all of the technical aspects. the details. the little things that make such a difference, which i absolutely did appreciate. things like "it looks like there's boning in the corset" and "oh, there is a collar on her blouse, that's different". things like that. after the movie, we sat at her house and looked at pics of my cousin's beauty pageants and baton twirling adventures, and said our goodbyes, as she reassured me that esmeralda was in capable hands, and that she would be buying the fabric at the first possible chance, despite her innumerable other projects she had yet to complete. she is a remarkably busy little seamstress. i felt pretty bad for coming and crying to her and sticking her with yet another project.

*long story short, i will hopefully be returning the broke down esmeralda costume i paid for and recieved from china for a full refund, and be getting one expertly made by my very talented aunt.

**LONG STORY SHORT (haha ^^) unfortunately, no pics in esmeralda for me tomorrow.

BUT FOR SURE, katara pics with the jasmine photog in the same location coming this Tuesday, fortunately. ^__^