19

Uh, hi, guys. Remember me? Remember that one time I called my hiatus "brief" & then skidaddled my way out of the state? Yep. About that... classes are so crazy that I haven't had time to do much else! But you know what? It's a good kind of busy. Because a lot of my busy revolves around fabric types and seam finishes, pressing techniques, Vogue assignments, street style, and considering studying abroad at the London College of Fashion in a few years. I can't complain about that!

Honestly, as heavy a workload as it is, I couldn't be more ecstatic that this is what I'm studying. This is what I'm going to do forever and I don't know if I could possibly be more head-over-heels with it. (Not so head-over-heels for Fundamentals of Speech, but even English Composition & American Government aren't too bad.)



Oh, so, today is my birthday. I'm not planning on doing much--probably sleeping (after staying up until 12:30 to finish my outfit & then having to get up at 6:30 for class), convincing a friend to watch the Blues Brothers with me, & indulging in the adorable Hello Kitty cupcakes my darling roomie got me. (For serious, she's the best. She's leaving this weekend & felt bad about missing my birthday, so she got cupcakes & made a fabulous door decoration & gave me a present in a glittery-rainbow-winged-horse gift bag. Aw.) I'm okay with low-key. 19 isn't a big deal (though it's my last year as a teen, that's weird), and I'd rather focus on the whole year ahead than just one day. Also, I'm planning a mutual birthday party with a friend for two weeks from today & am inviting my favorite people, so I don't need to celebrate beyond that.



My gift to myself was a new outfit: this super soft t-shirt & ruby red skirt. I whipped them up last night (woefully, without matching thread... something to fix someday else). Nothing beats a brand new outfit! Everything was basic, except that I inserted pockets in the seams! Molly (roommate) & I studied a store-bought skirt with seam inserted pockets, figured out how they were put together, & then I kind of winged it. I am so excited! The only problem is that I made them a little low so the zipper would fit in okay, but I'm really happy we were able to figure it out.



Note--I wrote most of this post in the morning after class... had a good, lazy, not-too-homework-filled day. Now I'm off to maybe socialize, we'll see. :)

necklace / gift | shirt & skirt / handmade | shoes / vintage, wonderwardrobe.etsy.com

Movin' Out

Just an explanation for any hiatus from posting, replying to comments, leaving you a note, or, you know, internet life in general. I'm headed to the land of cows & cheese & my favorite football team, leaving tomorrow morning at 8. My petticoat doesn't want to fit in any of my totes, and I'm bringing too much, as usual. Ah, back to packing. Have a beautiful Labor Day weekend, darlings.

Memory Lane

My computer cable died, so I'm using my slow, decrepit Dell to get my internet fix. This also means that, in between jumping up to clean/pack, I am looking through all my old photos on here. It's fun, reminiscent, sometimes cringe-worthy (awkward phases, braces, etc.), and it makes me a little nostalgic. I bought this computer in fall of 2006, and used it up until April 2009, so there is quite a range of photos on it. While digging through old files, I found a couple things of interest.



This makes me smile. My braces! Goodness. This was from May of 2008, right after I opened my original Etsy shop. My dad came out & took photos of me in the gear I stocked up on, & I had no idea what I was doing. This suspender top was the first thing I'd ever sold, & it went to a gal in Germany! I remember the day I got the email notifying me... it was the best feeling ever. That someone liked my things enough to buy and wear them was so gratifying! It still is, but nothing beats the glee of that first sale. The skirt I'm wearing was purchased by my now sister-in-law (!), & she actually wore it to the wedding rehearsal & groom's dinner last week. :)



Haha. This was from April 2007, taken on the tail-end of a family vacation. We always stop for ice cream cones once on our roadtrips, and I think we'd almost forgotten or something, and were already in Minnesota for this. That's my brother, Paul. He's pretty much the coolest person I know... I'm going to miss going to school with him--I was so lucky to have class with him last semester! Oh, & this is relevant to my train of thought, because this was one of my first t-shirt surgeries. I think it came out of that book by Meghan Nicolay. I was so proud of this, and I wore it all the time. I hope I still have it somewhere!

It's nice to see how much I've improved from the beginning of my sewing adventures. Looking through my archives on this blog & seeing the learning curve I had is kind of rewarding--I had so much fun learning, & I started this blog as a way of recording it all, sort of as a portfolio. Everything was a stepping stone to where I am, just as what I'm doing right now is a stepping stone to where I'll be next year, and so on. I really like that there is always something to improve on, and new things to learn about sewing and design. Life would be so boring if one knew everything!

Do you document things so as to reflect later? I think internet makes this so easy--facebook photo albums, blogs, livejournal, and even twitter archives can all show where we were at a point in time, and how much we've changed. We're a part of a generation that documents rather obsessively, putting everything out there and being raw and utterly honest on the internet. I think these things are invaluable to viewing our self-improvement, even when we borderline on over-sharing. As I surely tend to on this blog, haha.

LBD

I feel like this is my 60's film noir spy dress. I should get a wicked trench coat to go over it & go hunt down thieves or murderers or kidnappers, don't you think?





It's hard to photograph a black dress, but this is simple, so there aren't really details you need to see. It's a lot like one of my blue dresses, but this time I added sleeves & a built-in belt, and took out the v-back. It's out of nice black cotton I got in a bin of fabric from a sweet friend, & it's so comfortable I want to wear it all the time. Sleeves on dresses are the best. I forgot to add pockets, though: an unfortunate oversight! Next time, eh?



I actually made this dress last week, but it's been such a whirlwind of a weekend that I never got a chance to post it until now. I wore it to a bridal brunch on Friday for my brother's (then) fiancee, & then later that evening to the wedding rehearsal & dinner. I have photos from these events (& of course the event that followed the next day) just waiting to be edited & posted.





necklace / dazeoftheweek | earrings, bracelet / gift | dress / handmade | shoes / ebay



So, I'm not used to wearing this much makeup. At all. My daily maximum is just concealer, powder, and mascara. Putting on eyeshadow and liner is so foreign to me! I tried to do a slight smokey eye, but I have no idea what I'm doing so I don't know if I succeeded, haha.