Cajun Style

Aside from blogging, wearing pretty clothes, and working on my thesis, I love good food especially from local restaurants.

We hit a local restaurant on Saturday called Jimmie's Ladder 11 which is located in an old fire house. The theme of the dinner was Cajun and was sponsored by a Louisiana beer company. There were five courses and each course was accompanied by a beer sample. I don't drink beer so I can't say yay or nay on any of them but on to the food!

First course was gumbo which was delicious! Not too spicy with lots of meat.

Salad was nothing special. I do not like fruits or nuts on my salad and this one had both. But it gets points for feta.

Paisano past chips-deep fried pasta covered with cheese and topped with sun dried tomatoes, onions and green peppers. Nom nom nom.

The next course was a chicken over pasta with a vodka tomato cream sauce, but I forgot to take a picture of it. :(

Lastly was cheesecake with strawberry sauce. Again, yummy. 

I wore a 50s vintage dress for this evening. It's a smidge too big, but that's a good then when you're going out for a five course meal!

Overall, it was quite a nice evening!

Bird Day

Guess what? I was gone on vacation all last week! Yay for the magic of scheduling postings! Anyways, we went camping the Pigeon Forge. Alas it rained every single day. Boo.

On the one sunny morning we had, the hubby and I visited Parrot Mountain. Birds galore!

I just adore birds! There were birds everywhere.

I wore the Mexican peasant blouse that I got in Epcot last summer. I sewed furiously before vacation to get my patio dress skirt done. I also plan on making a matching blouse but that didn't happen.

I had such a blast looking at all of the birds!

Birds doing cute things!!!!

There was a huge area in the center of Parrot Mountain where you could hold and feed the birds.

Some of the birds could talk and every once in a while there'd be a "Hello" or "Goodbye" from one of the birds.

The weather did not agree with my hair so it was mostly straight after just a few hours. And one night my wet set didn't even dry! Ack!

Another fun part of the bird sanctuary was that they had baby birds for sale and you could hold them! Ahhhh! Baby bird!

And they had the two types of birds that we really want to get, the African grey (above) and sun conures! Alas, no new babies for us right now.

Back to the skirt-Some friends of mine recently moved and weren't two excited with the yellow curtains that the old owners left in their new house so I adopted them! I've been wanting a vintage patio dress for forever and this bright yellow was just the perfect color for it! I also used a bunch of vintage trim I found at Sew Dayton including the tiny gold ric rac! Score! These skirts use HEAPS of trim so I did have to add a few packs of red ric rac from Jo-Ann's to the mix but I love shopping local!

And I felt just as beautiful as the birds in it!

Youtube: 3 Minute Makeup Challenge

How much makeup can I get on in 3 minutes? Watch to find out!

Born on the 4th of July

Not really but I did watch Yankee Doodle Dandy this weekend. I didn't get to wear my patriotic dress until Sunday (more on why later this week) but here it is.

Tada! You may recognize this fabric if you've been reading my blog for a while. It was originally this dress, then I lost 30lbs and had to finagle it to sort of fit, but I wasn't happy with the fit. So this year, I decided to completely re-work it into a new dress.

I had really wanted to make the blue gingham version of Simplicity 2357. (I'm highly susceptible to pattern cover designs.....) But I had a blue gingham dress already! Since both had a circle skirt and the wrap dress meant extra fabric, I was able to squeeze it out of the original dress.

One thing I really do like is that there is no red actually on the dress anymore so I can wear this dress without having to be over patriotic.

Plus I can also wear a crinoline under it for extra poof!

I even used a stash zipper so this project was completely free. Yay! Maybe one day I'll make a peplum to go with it.

But for right now I love it with a red belt! It's so comfy with the kimono sleeves and gathers.

Due to fabric restraints, I wasn't able to match plaid as much as I'd like but with only a few pattern pieces, it's not too noticeable.

What did you wear for this patriotic holiday?

It's all in the details

Having a great dress is nice, but to really get that great look, you need to have all the details!

I love, love, love this BBQ dress!

But since I was wearing it to church and not a BBQ, I needed to glam it up. 

First up, a great vintage hat! This light weight black sun hat is great! The velvet ribbon is an added bonus.

Jewelry is also a great way to add glam to an outfit. I choose my vintage crystal necklace and my newly converted to post back confetti earrings!

This black velvet belt is probably my most used vintage accessory but oh so important to this look!

Lastly, I added a new to me pair of vintage black gloves! It's amazing what a pair of gloves can add to an outfit.

What's your favorite vintage detail in an outfit?

Saturday Morning Adventures

My Saturday morning started off by seeing a post about an estate sale on Facebook. Despite the fact that it had already been open for several hours by the time I got there, it was quite nice. I wasn't sure what to expect since it was my first estate sale but I really had a really nice time talking talking to some of the daughters of the lady whose home the sale was at.

My big score was some darling vintage gloves.

Orangey coral

A darling light brown with cut out details at the wrist.

Navy blue with darling little buckles.

This black pair has the most adorable scalloped and embroidered details at the wrist.

And a pair of long dark brown gloves.

I had a lovely time chatting with the ladies. They even showed me their mom's gorgeous wedding dress and the most amazing velvet bathing suit! This is why I love vintage! It helps keep a connection with the past alive.

Post estate sale, we stopped by Fazoli's. Nom nom nom. It just happens to be located right next to a thrift store so we popped in. I found this lovely vintage pale pink blouse. I think it's late 50s/early 60s but it's just too cute! I also found a green belt, which I've been looking for for a while.

Fall and Winter Sewing Plans

I know it's the middle of summer, but fall will be on us before we know it! My husband and I have a busy fall wedding season and then we'll be moving so I'm hoping to get a head start on my chilly weather sewing! Here are some things I'm hoping to sew!

Blouses! On an unrelated note- check out the tiny watch hanging off the blue skirt on Advance 8511

 I love a slimmer skirt for fall and winter to keep your legs warm!

I could not resist this adorable 50s pull over pattern! I need one in plaid flannel!

Another great winter pattern! I've got some teal corduroy for this!

I'll be pulling out the Wearing History WWII Home Front Overall pattern to whip up some jeans! :D

I've got some great brown plaid suiting with tiny orange stripes and I want to make a matching dress and jacket!

What things are you dreaming of for fall?