Sunday, October 24, 2010

I Made It!


Lately I've been inspired to try and make my own clothes.  I think it was our trip to a certain antique mall with vintage clothing that got me going.  I saw a pretty little cream and gold shift dress and I fell in love.  I could just envision myself going to my firm's holiday party in it.  I'm on the party planning committee and pretty much the "creative" department for the party, which has an "old hollywood" theme.  It would have been perfect.  The problem:  Well, like I said, it was a pretty "little" dress.  Like three sizes too small.  I didn't even attempt to try it on. (Oh, and thanks to everyone who suggested I just buy it and lose weight!)   Since then I've been feeling the need to find a vintage party dress - and spending time looking at dresses made me realize that I could probably actually make the kind of dresses that I like.  A simple shift dress is all I need in life.  I started thinking about the things I have made in the past, why they didn't work, and what I could have done to make them better.  And my mind opened up. 

This weekend I went to the fabric store to get some patterns and material to practice on.  So this is what I ended up with.  It's a cute little purple tweed work dress that- what do you know - I can actually wear!  And a bonus, it only cost me about $12 to make!  There were a couple of times when something wasn't quite right and, when I normally would have been like "whatever!" and kept going, I stopped and went back to make things perfect.  I still want to find a vintage dress for the holiday party, but I'm very happy with the outcome and proud of myself for actually learning and growing.  I can't wait to make more pieces.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

It's About Time

We bought this vintage starburst clock in an antique mall in Bellingham, Washington. My family finally mailed it to me and I couldn't be happier to have it in my possession.  (Along with my favorite pair of flats that I also left there...boo!)  The clock is so beautiful, we love it so much. 
We hung it in our living room, next to our tribute to Disneyland.
We also made a trip on Saturday to some antique malls in the North County.  They didn't have a ton of mid-century stuff, but I did find a couple of neat things.  These canisters are pretty awesome.  Bummer we couldn't get a whole set.
A set of three super cute little deer figures that I've already distributed around the house.   It's not much, but I guess it's good enough for one weekend. 

Monday, October 11, 2010

First of Fall

 Aside from being the BEST season for clothes shopping, Fall is also the best season for food! Don't you think?  I guess each season has its foods it brings with it, but I love Fall the most.  Everything is warm and toasty and spicy.  Pumpkin spice and everything nice and all that.  So when I got the Everyday Food mail with spice cake recipes it made me very happy!  I was bored and at work and therefore hungry, so I wanted a piece of every cake like right that minute.  My boss's birthday is coming up and I know she loves pumpkin too, so I sent her a couple of options in a very important email.  She chose this Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting.  Well, I can't just make a cake for someone's birthday that I've never made before, so I tested it out on my family this weekend.  The cake was more bread-like, but it was still delicious and I think it could even stand alone as a bread, without the frosting, but the frosting was also very good.  It has gotten my stamp of approval.
On a side note, my Halloween decorations are totally lacking this year.  And last week my friend expressed her disappointment in me for not having done any Halloween crafts.  I don't know what is going on.  For some reason it crept up on me this year.  When I got down my boxes of decorations there didn't seem to be much there. In addition to the skulls that sit around my house all year long, I have a few pumpkins and spiderwebs and I guess I'm calling it a day.   Or a season. 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Maiden Braids


I just wanted to share a picture of my hair up in maiden braids.  I've been obsessed with braids for a while now, ever since my hair has gotten long enough to actually braid.  I rock the single braid "headband" look (a la Zooey Deschanel, my fave!) all the time and I've been desperately trying to learn how to french braid my own hair.  It's pretty hard.  I'm getting better and I'm actually good at french braiding other people's hair, but that doesn't help me out at all!  I've seen people wear their hair like this before and I always thought you had to have really long hair to make one braid and pull it all the way across.  But on the last episode of Project Runway I saw Gretchen wearing her hair like this and I noticed she had it separated like pigtail style, with both braids coming up to meet at the top.  Yay!  My hair is just barely long enough to meet and there are like a million bobby pins holding it in place, but I love it and I think the longer it gets the easier it will be to hide the ends. 

Oh yeah, today is 10-10-10!  That's kind of fun, huh!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Some More

Here is some fun stuff I got while I was in Washington.  This super cute bag is made from recycled material.  It's my new lunch bag. 

Yes, this is cat food scented soap.  How gross would it be if I really used it?  I wonder if anyone would say anything?  I just thought it was really funny.  I haven't let my cats smell it yet.  I wonder if they will like it.
LOTS of owls from the antique mall!  I had to fight my aunt for some. I got a couple "new" enamel brooches too, but they were still in my shoes at the time of this photo.  And two doggy PBNs.  OH, and a really super neat vintage sunburst clock.  It was too big to bring back in my carry-on so my uncle is mailing it.  I hope it gets here soon - I can't wait!
My mom bought me this cute little vintage globe bank.
Some of my favorite souvenirs are free.  Ticket stubs, napkins, bar coasters... they will always remind me of my trip and the places I went and the sights I saw.
A picture I forgot to post last time.  SPRINKLE CAKE.  I don't remember what it was really called, but I wish we would have gotten one.  My aunt Theresa and I were crying sprinkle cake for the rest of the trip. Dang it. It just looks so awesome!

It was a pretty lazy weekend.  Trying to catch up on all the tv shows I missed, ugh.  And spending some much needed quality time with the kitties and pup.  Aaron and I had a movie date on Friday night.  We saw Catfish.  A documentary to remind you there are some creepy people out there.  Or just super bored.