Spring has sprung

Easter is the perfect opportunity to wear one of your louder hats (just so long as it's warm enough! Last year was quite chilly!).

This year, I opted to build an outfit around this stellar floral 50s topper!

A classic circle skirt and a pastel green sweater were just the ticket to balance the loudness of the hat.

Other outfit details include coordinating brown ribbon, vintage beaded white gloves, pearl earrings and a great pink lipstick.

I also wore my largest crinoline for perfect twirl-ability!

I had loads of fun with these great white beaded gloves!

I actually really like how this hat looks like with a pixie. I can't imagine how loud it would be with a mass of curls exploding out from under it. If I had longer hair, I'd probably style it with a low bun and maybe some curly bangs.

Did you wear a fabulous hat for Easter? Do leave a link in the comments so I can see your Easter hats!

A Pear-fect Outfit

We all have our vintage wardrobe wish list. One of the things that has been on my list is a hat with fruit on it!

Generally fruit bearing hats have cherries and are quite pricey due to the popularity of said cherries.

So when I spied this darling pear hat over in Poppycock Vintage's etsy store, I had to snap it up.

Originally, I had planned on saving this hat for Easter to wear with a green sweater but when I pulled out this vintage dress to wear, the pear-ing of hat and dress was too perfect to pass up!

The hat is made from a green straw type material and is decorated with some netting and the pear.

Given the extra awesomeness the pear adds to the usual fabulousness of hats in general, my husband naturally thought it was very silly. *sigh* Men.

But hats and fruits and blooming flowers have me all pumped for spring, which has mostly arrived here in Ohio.

And Easter is coming up this weekend and I now have to pick out a new hat to wear!

Back to Basics

Sometimes, it's great to just have a bunch of basics that you can throw together into an outfit. And by sometimes, I mean all the time.

And that's just what happened with this outfit. Basic green skirt, basic white shirt, basic blue sweater and basic(ish) tan hat.

The blouse is Advance 5900 that I made last September.

The hat is a recent find from a local vintage store called Feathers. I just love all of the beading that is still in mint condition! I'm sure I'll get loads of wear out of it! (Those of you who have already started following my brand new instagram will have seen it already.)

The pullover is a new knitting FO. I actually finished it right along side my Knit for Victory project but haven't gotten a chance to wear it until now. It's the Sport's Sweater from A Stitch In Time Vol. 2 although I can't imagine actually doing sports in this sweater (or really any sweater....). It was quite fun to knit but I got side tracked when it came to picking up all of the stitches for the ribbing at the neckline. Two things I do not enjoy knitting....

The skirt is McCall 7032 which is a basic gored skirt with a pleat in the front. I was inspired by Rochelle of Lucky Lucille's lovely basic green skirt and I just *had* to have my own. (and I may or may not have had the exact same fabric she used in my stash.....) I need to go back in and re-enforce the pleat a bit more but I can see this getting loads of wear!

My green check conure Kiwi posed with me for a few shots. I blew him kisses.

And he gave me kisses back! Love my baby!

What are your favorite basics to wear?

It's a Wonderful Life

This weekend, my hubby and I and some friends went out to see a play of It's a Wonderful Life. The play was really great! They did it like a radio show with four actors doing almost all of the parts. There was also an a capella quartet, a pianist and a sound effects guy. I'd never seen It's a Wonderful Life but I really loved it.

It was quite fun and I never pass up an opportunity to get dressed up!

I love this dress! It's a black taffeta with a velvet "print" on it.

Since everything goes with black, I choose to pop the outfit with pink accessories! (Well, actually, I picked pink since this hat went best with my hair.)

The hat is vintage but the earrings are lucite repros from Sparkle Lux. I love them! I also got a great blue pair too.

Also, I finally got my new glasses in! They are actually a very pale pink. I love them!

It was quite a fun night! And they did a great job with the costuming too. The main actress who played the wife Mary had a fabulous dusty rose dress and a great hat! So wanted to steal it!

Navy and Maroon

 There are many places to start when building an outfit. This outfit started with the hat. I really wanted to wear a hat so I picked the one I wanted to wear first and then started accessorizing my accessory.

 

This 50s hat is one of my favorites! I really need more navy blue in my wardrobe so I can wear it all the time!

I love using accessories as a pop of color so I added a blue cami and gloves to a rather maroon outfit.

For jewelry I went with classic pearls and a cute pin with pearls and blue stones.

I had a really hard time picking out a purse since I don't have a navy blue one and I didn't want to use black either. But then I remembered this cute purse with maroon flowers.

I've also been pondering getting Bettie Bangs again (if you didn't guess this from Monday's post). So I opted to try a rolled bang instead.

Alas, I remembered why I don't like rolled bangs on me! They are super tiny and sit way up by the hairline, accentuating my long forehead. Oh, well. Guess I'll just have to keep pondering about getting bangs.

In the Navy

Well, in navy at least....... I love a great classic outfit and this is a favorite!

Outfit:

Hat & crochet gloves: vintage

Blouse: Banana Republic

Skirt: me made

Earrings & faux pearls: vintage

 I just adore this navy hat! Too bad I have two navy hats and this blouse is the only navy thing in my wardrobe! Must fix this soon!

I love this brown circle skirt. It's basic but super nerdy with the atomic symbols! (I'm a chemistry grad student.)

 I opted to wear this outfit without a crinoline in the ballerina style. This style was popular in the early 50s before crinolines were in style. My skirt is a bit short for the ballerina style since they were usually ankle length or so but it's a nice change from the crinoline.

I've also been loving my new coral lipstick (Coral Crush by Red Apple Lipstick). Such a great color for summer! Not as fussy as red but still a lot of color.

Do you have a favorite go to outfit? Do you style it the same way every time or do you like to switch it up?

A Bit of Irish Fun

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I have a thing about St. Patrick's Day and all things Irish. It's not that I dislike them. I just don't go crazy over them like most people do. Maybe it comes from not being Irish....Idk. But every so often, I can be in the mood to enjoy it.

 

And it just so happens that the Dayton Celtic Festival is far enough away from St. Patrick's Day that I'm in the mood for it again.

 

 

In keeping with my St. Patty's Day tradition, I wore no green and instead opted to rock out the 50s.

I had just enough fabric left over from my BBQ dress to eek out a sleeveless top!

Fabric: Micheal Miller BBQ fabric ($5.50/yd)
Pattern: Advance 8511
Year: 1950s
Notions: buttons ($4)
First worn: June 2013
Wear again? I've wore it loads already! It looks super great with my Freddies of Pinewood capris too.

I love getting to watch the Irish dance groups!

Maybe it's the marching band nerd in me, but there is something about feet moving in unison that makes my heart go pitter patter. And the fact that most types of dance aren't actually that much in unison.

There was a wide variety of Irish beers available, but since I'm not a beer fan, I stuck with wine. This year, they had cute little one serving cups!

Outfit:

Blouse: me-made Advance 8511

Skirt: me-made circle skirt

Shoes: Payless

Purse, Hat, Earrings: vintage

Necklace: Forever 21

There was loads of great music from more traditional tunes on bagpipes to modern groups like Gaelic Storm.

Are you a die hard Irish fan or are you more a casual partaker like me?