Valentine's edition of What to Wear?

I love going on Valentine's Dates!  I love wearing something festive, because...why not?  It's fun!

1. here $57.99 2. here 3. here$74.99 4. here $49.99 5. here$32.80 6. here$47.99 7. here 8. here $137.99

These are some cuties.  In all reality if I were in the position to buy, number 2 would be mine!

Why not add a few sweet accessories while we are at it!

1.$3.80 2.$34.00 3.$58.00 4.$24.00 5.$24.80 6.$3.80 7.$3.80 8.$24.00 9.$3.80 10.$3.80 11.$3.80 12.$34.99 13.$62.00 14.$38.00

1.$24.80 2.$29.80 3.$21.80 4.$62.99 5.$74.99 6.$154.99 7.$58.00 8.$16.80 9.$69.99 

it's here

I'm looking forward to wedding season this year... Check out the new collaboration with anthropologie and  BHLDN.

If only I had neices....

I went to a friend's baby shower last week.  She is having a girl!  Everyone in my life for the past 5 years has had boys.  So for boys I can only crochet so much; an animal here and a blanket there.  I always thought if I knew someone with a girl I would sew cute clothes.  So this was my chance to try it out.

I went to Hancocks and found this fabric first.  I found a pattern for a romper that was only $1 (awesome).  This fabric was on sale too for $4.  What a great deal!  I had thought in the past that only Amy Butler had cute fabrics and places like Hobby Lobby, JoAnnes, and Hancocks have 90s style fabrics and nothing cute at all.  I was SO wrong.  There was a ton of great choices.  I probably stood in front of the woven cottons for 12 minutes before I had one of those thoughts "If I'm having so much trouble they would all be good choices so JUST PICK ONE."  I kept seeing fabrics that would fit perfectly with some of my favorite couples styles.  So if they ever have baby girls  I'll be able to make clothes I know they would love.

I know my friend loves owls.  We worked together as fashion merchandisers so of course fashion and our fashion influences was something we talked about often.  She told me this very endearing story about her grandmother.  Her grandma has themed bathrooms in her house.  One is filled with owls and another is filled with tiny mirrors.  My friend had always loved the owls and the idea of collecting something and making themed bathrooms!  I saw this fabric and thought it was kind of expensive the first time around.  After I found out that my $11 pattern was only $1  I went back to get the "expensive fabric" that I knew she would love.

I couldn't help but crochet something, too!  I found this pattern for little tiny baby girl headbands.  They button at the back so it can grow with the baby.  I made all of these flowers and put them on safety pins so that they can make any combination of colors.  I made these while at work which was an awesome use of time!

I was so glad to finally make something for GIRLS!  I had a ton of fun doing it.  Too bad I have 3 nephews and probably only one more eventual child on my side of the family.  Luckily I'm about to marry into a family with 4 sibling-in-laws that haven't even thought about kids yet.  So I still have a big chance for nieces someday.

Weddings are all about love.

Well, I've been looking online at dresses for the past few months.  (I still haven't dared to try any on)  I have fallen in love with one.  I looked up the closest retailer and it is in Lebanon, MO.

When do you get to the point where it is okay to drive over 5 hours in one day to try on one dress?  Because I might be there.

The funny thing is that I've "fallen in love with a dress" at all.  I did my internship at a bridal shop.  Ever since then I've always told people that wedding dresses are over rated and usually consultants talk you into buying their favorite dress.  (That's what I did!) I also always thought that I didn't have the personality of someone who would look at a pile of fabric and think, "That's the one!"  I never felt that way when looking at prom dresses.  I usually just found a dress that worked for the time.  But I've really fallen for this dress!
I really want to show everyone too, but I have to leave a little bit of mystery!

PS.  I got a cake.

Stirring up Emotions

Is there a word for the act of planning a wedding? Because I keep wanting to say that I have been weddinging.

So I've been weddinging all week. I bought a few vases for center pieces (more on that later). I went vendor shopping. I make at least one phone call every day on my lunch to get more information and make appointments and such. The good thing is I'm learning to make decisions. the bad thing is I still don't have a ceremony or reception site or date. I think this will be done by the end of next week.

So tonight I organized all the information I received at the bridal show and started looking at dresses on etsy!
I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy this whether or not I wear it at a wedding event.

If this came in my size it would be a serious contender.

I can wear yellow in my wedding...right?

I LOVE this. I get tingling feelings looking at it.


Just because it's AWESOME! If I was rockabilly this would be my wedding dress hands down. It makes me think of my eldest sister. If she were getting married today I would try to convince her to wear something like this. Can't you picture it on a curvy girl with purple hair and brightly colored tattoos!

What the What?!?!

I'm pretty sure Becki Newton was wearing the same dress my sister wore July 2, 2009 at a Marchesa. How faux pas! Photo found on the cut.

The Smocking Guild

My mom has always worn many hats throughout my life. The first one that I can remember would be the sewing mom. My mom sewed a lot of my clothes when I was a little girl. She smocked most of them too.



My parents had a picture of me in this little romper when I was four. I probably wore this 89-90. I loved it! What is really funny is that my hair is the exact same as it was in that picture. It's long, parted on the side, and my bangs are being held back by a barrett.
Check out the skill! This is amazing detail of this mouse on the smocked romper! My mom and a few of her friends joined the smocking guild. They met in the library. (All I can remember is that there were a lot of really old ladies in it, and I wasn't sure what they did in the meetings. But afterwords they would go to Apple Bees until 2 am and drink lots of Diet Coke.... and laugh) The only thing I knew was that when the smocking guild ladies came over to the house I couldn't sleep because they were laughing too loud.
How thoughtful of my mom to make this a romper for a little girl who ran around all day. I have another memory of this fabric too. My mom sewed on a skirt out of this fabric to a black t-shirt of mine that we decorated with puff paints. There may have even been some iron on crayons on that T-shirt too. I still love crayons.
This was made in 1994. My mom even won the opportunity to have it photographed for a sewing magazine. Of course my little third grader self got to be the model. It was awesome.
My mom embroidered the alphabet in herbs around the hem of the skirt. How cute is that?

Of course she made me all of the appropriate accessories too.

So the lesson learned is that my mom had an interest in sewing and thought it would be cool to join an old lady sewing club with a few of her friends.....gee that doesn't sound at all like me. It's not like I want to start a crocheting club or anything (anyone interested?)

This is just a post about how awesome my mom is and how much I love her. There might be a few more like this later on this week.

Vintage Thursday

So while I was with Betty yesterday we also went shopping! I got this awesome dress and this green suitcase. The dress fits me really well. It buttons up the back with quarter sized white buttons, and it has pockets! I'm also wearing a belt that was my grandma's and vintage pearls from my great aunt Irene. The suitcase is actually in really good condition, the lining is intact and a bright green silk. I love it! So here is my Sally Jane Vintage inspire photo shoot.

Day 5

I made it! I wore a dress all week.

Then Monday and Tuesday I happily wore my jeans...who knew how much I loved variety.

Day 4

Just relaxing by the pool in my fourth day of wearing dresses. It was an interesting day to say the least...lets just say the dress pictured got to be in a quasi renegade fashion show today.

Day 3

Another shirt dress. I really was on my computer even though it looks like it's not on.

I thought I would love wearing a dress everyday but I think I just love the option of wearing a dress everyday. I dress on emotion, and I definitely don't feel like wearing dresses everyday but it's still fun.

Day 2

Meeting my girl friends for a cup of tea in the early evening.

A Dress for Everyday

I'm wearing a dress everyday this week...when I got up this morning at 5 am it was really hard not to put on a pair of jeans, but the silky zebra print prevailed.

left overs

So today I decided to catch up on my magazines. I had a couple of months worth of Vogue, Lucky, and Elle magazines. While reading these wonderful magazines I got very motivated to sew.

Sew I decided to make a bubble dress and I made it way to long. whoops.

Here it is folded under.



Here the bottom part of the dress is folded under at my waist to make a top. I added jeans and it I know it looks like the above picture but take my word for it, that it is much shorter.



So I have an idea for another dress I really want to make and it is coming soon. Today I just decided to make this dress with some left over fabric and it took an hour, so no big deal.

Martian Child

I've been taking a break from my Project lately and doing things that I really love. This would be stalking craftster.org. I came across this today and decided to make one of my own. I walked out the door went to Walmart and bought two dollar fabric. I came back home stuck in Martian Child and started to cut and sew.

It is a convertible dress, sometimes called an infinity dress. It is basically a circle skirt with two long straps that you can tie any way you want.

This is me in the dress and I'm wearing it crisscrossed in the front. (Martian Child is on the TV in the background)

One of the ways to tie it. Yeah, I kinda got that 90's floral feeling too.