Out on the Town

 Last night, my husband went out for a night out on the town. We started out with dinner at a nice restaurant. We'd never been there before but the food was great and the decor was lovely. The food had kind of a Mediterranean flair but the walls in the part of the restaurant we were in were covered in beautiful embroidered and beaded fabrics with and Indian feel. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of them. So pretty!

This is what I wore. I decided on Tuesday that I really wanted to make something to wear from my stash. So I pulled out this pretty blue floral quilting fabric that I had originally bought with Colette Pattern's Ceylon in mind but I didn't get enough. So circle skirt it was. I used Casey's tutorial again but instead of a zipper I used four blue buttons as a closure. And on Friday, I made the genius decision to hand sew the hem......It took forever but I got it done.

I also wore my vintage fur coat, new snood and newest Belle Blossom. I wasn't sure what shoes to pair with this ensemble but I went with huge heals since I decided to make a longer skirt. High heals can take a long skirt from dowdy to sexy.

My some miracle I got my hair to do victory rolls. They always give me such trouble and I'm not sure why I decided to try them last night but it worked. Alas, the only picture I got where you could kind of see them was the one that come out really crappy. Sorry. We forgot the nice camera and I only had the old point and shoot to work with.

The show we went to see was Jersey Boys. I'd heard some good stuff about it and while I'm not a Four Seasons fanatic, I do enjoy their music. The singers were great! And the female actresses were amazing! Three girls played all of the female rolls in the show. I was super impressed. It's hard enough to be one character without having to switch in and out of different people all night.

Unfortunately, when there wasn't singing, there was cussing. And more cussing. And more cussing. I know cussing doesn't bother some people but it bothers me. I don't go see films rated R for language and I don't even usually see movies rated PG-13 for language. It even took a lot of pushing to get me to see The King's Speech. So I wasn't exactly a happy camper. During intermission, my husband told me that there had been a profanity warning but that the show had been rated appropriate for ages 12+ due to "authentic language".

I'm sorry but over 100 cuss words with f bombs dropping everywhere is not appropriate for ages 12+. Had I known that there was that much cussing, I would not have gone refunded tickets or no refunded tickets.

So, sewing-win. hair-win. dinner-win. Jersey Boys-fail. Just get the sound track.

CSSA: Teal + Atoms

After one failed embellishment idea, a mini freak out and a lot of embroidery, I finally have a circle skirt to show you! (I actually haven't finished embroidering the back but I'm going out of town this weekend and I needed to take photos today while I had time.)

I decided on a boarder print embroidery in white. I was inspired by the atomic designs popular in the 50s. I'm also a chemist and that really pushed me towards doing an actual atomic symbol rather than the atomic style patterns you'd find on dishware.

Originally, I'd chosen a pink and green color palette inspired by some 50s style atomic print fabric I found at Jo-Ann's, but ended up going with white so this skirt could really go with everything. And I'm really glad I did because I love it!

This circle skirt is a bit longer than the last two I've made and I really love the length. It's going to be a really great fall and winter piece, but it's not too heavy that I can't wear it in the spring and even into early summer.

Today's color scheme was inspired by this lovely teal hat that I bought from the same store as the pink feather one. I wore this out to dinner and to Walmart. I was a bit nervous because it's been a long time since I've been out this vintage anywhere except church (where I have gobs of supportive people to tell me I look great). I realized that there are really a lot stranger (and worse) dressed people at Walmart.

My St. Patty's Day Tradition

So today is national get drunk and be Irish day (better known as St. Patrick's Day). But I have two problems- I don't drink beer and I'm not Irish! So I don't care to participate. I have, however, come up with my own tradition for St. Patty's Day.

I don't wear green! It's a nice foil for all of the rockus green-tights, knee socks, hats, tank tops, capes and tiaras out there...(And yes I did see all of the above on people today).

Outfit:
Sweater: New York and Company
Skirt: handmade
Crinoline: handmade/re-purposed
Shoes: Payless

I also did my hair today using Solanah's tutorial. Pretty good for a first go around.

I took pictures of my hair this morning before I left for class and I'm sure glad I did. Look at how much it had flattened by the end of the day! It was pretty windy today and it just killed my curls. :(

And I wore red lipstick all day! It wasn't as much drama as I thought it would be. I just have to leave it be and not bother with it every five minutes.

The Floral Circle Skirt

I wore my circle skirt today and it was so much fun! I want 10 more circle skirts! :) And I curled my hair with sponge rollers and it was super curly. My curls stayed in all day too, even thought it was 88 and I was outside most of the day. woot! My hair was a bit frizzier at the end of the day (when I took pictures) than at the beginning of the day. Such is life though.

I'll do a bit different set next time I use sponge rollers but they made prettier, stronger holding curls than pin curls ever have for me. I wasn't Shirley Temple but I think I could totally get my hair to do that using the tiny rollers. I can probably also start playing with second day hair (after I get some dry shampoo!) which I could never do with pin curls. They'd always end up just giving me lots of volume but no curl.

Enjoy!

Skirt: Handmade by me from a vintage pattern
Lacey tank: ?? I don't remember
Sweater: Ann Taylor Loft
Shoes: my trusty brown wedges from Payless
Earrings: Express

The front of my hair curled very nicely into a pageboy type style (after some rather vigorous brushing). The back didn't behave so nice as a couple of the rollers fell out while I was sleeping. Guess I need to use smaller ones till my hair gets longer. The back also fell a lot during the day due to humidity and my sweaty neck.

My skirt!!! I was so happy with it and I got loads of compliments. I haven't been out this vintage in a long time. I also introduced myself to the wonders of lip liner for giving red lips staying power today. It worked really great! By the end of the day, I did give up and just throw on some gloss, but I'm still learning all the secrets.

Sewing and Cooking Fun

Yesterday and today I had off school and dove into all things domestic! My first project was my circle skirt!


Here's a close up of my fabric. It's a really pretty floral that is sort of stiff. My other circle skirt is stiff too, so hopefully they'll lay the same.


The skirt was simple and easy to make. I've finished except the hem and the hook and eye on the waist band. The vintage pattern I got from Casey's Elegant Musings says to let the skirt hang 48 hours before hemming. I'm assuming that this is to let things settle. (Anybody have any thoughts on this?? Because without this step, the project would be a super easy weekend project.) Although, it's probably a good thing that I can't finish till Saturday because I'm planning on wearing it on Sunday, but it's so cute, I want to wear it right now!

The most difficult part of the skirt was putting in the zipper. Never having put in a zipper before, I didn't know you needed a special foot for your sewing machine, which of course I didn't have.... I made it work though. The zipper is in-functional, if not super pretty. But it's on the side and I don't care if it's pretty. I will, however, be getting a zipper foot before I do any more zipper projects.


I also started some Christmas present projects for people. I'm not posting the finished projects, but I loved this fabric so much I wanted to share with you. I know I'll have to find something cute to do with the leftover fabric. Any thoughts?

Today, I cooked some freezable breakfast burritos for my hubby. (I might have to steal some though.) They were super easy.


1. Scramble eggs.


2. Cook breakfast sausage (or bacon, if you prefer.)


3. Build your burrito. Add cheese. You could also add peppers, but we didn't have any.


4. Wrap in foil and freeze. (I forgot to take pictures of this step...oops!)

A missed opportunity

Today, I managed to walk out of the house looking cute and modern and even wearing heals! (I don't wear heals often during the week as I have to walk to school and all over campus all day.) All day, I walked around feeling chic... until I happened to think that today was a great day for a hat with nice hat weather..... and I had the perfect hat to add the right bit of vintage to my chic outfit. bummer.... The next time I went out was to the gym so no hat today. :(

But I've already decided what I'm going to wear tomorrow and it will include a hat!

On a side note, I've decided on my next sewing project-a circle skirt. I have two days off next week and what better to do with my time off than sew! So excited! I hope to be able to whip it up and wear it on Sunday.