I am a nerd

Long before I loved vintage, I loved nerdy things. In fact, if I hadn't discovered vintage, I probably would have started wearing lots of nerdy t-shirts.

But since no longer have regular t-shirts in my wardrobe, I've not been able to show off my nerd spirit in my wardrobe too much. Super nerd undercover as a fashionista!

But nerds have gotten classy and we have our own nerd bling. A lot of pieces are very obvious but I liked the understated elegance of this necklace.

It goes very well with my favorite 1950s vintage dress which I have been wearing a lot lately.

It's oh so perfect for twirling! And I love that it works equally well with a small work appropriate crinoline and a super huge fabulous crinoline.

I don't wear a lot of yellow gold jewelry since I prefer white gold or silver but I dug deep in my jewelry box for these simple gold hops that I've had since high school. I've never gotten rid of them since they are real gold and thus "nice jewelry".

 I really don't have a lot of nice jewelry and it sometimes makes me feel nervous wearing it but earrings are up and out of the way so I'm not as worried about them.

This necklace is the symbol of the Rebel Alliance in the original Star Wars trilogy. I like the fact that it's very elegant and looks just like a cool shape to the average person. But fellow nerds will know what it is!

I purchased this piece at Hollywood Studios in Orlando, FL and I'm not sure if it's available elsewhere. They also had the Empire logo and some other fun things but this is the one I really liked.

 There's definitely a lot of excitement in the park due to the upcoming new movie and the Star Wars land. I imagine there will be more Star Wars jewelry coming out as well (and probably also ending up in my wardrobe!).

 Do you have any nerd jewelry or outfits? If you've blogged about it, please share a link so we can all see the nerdiness!

Spring.....or not

It seems like for the past several months, the gorgeous weather has been all on the weekdays when I have to work and it's either rainy or cold on the weekends and this weekend was no exception.

So I pulled out one of my favorite winter dresses to wear! Just goes to show you that you can never really rotate your closet if you live in the midwest.

I've been loving the cute 50s do's my hair has been cooperating with lately!

I also wore a new (to me) pair of vintage confetti earrings. I've never felt any desire to have bakelite jewelry because it's sooooo expensive for plastic costume jewelry but I'm in love with these confetti earrings.

 

Accessories can really make or break an outfit so I'm excited to add to my vintage jewelry collection.

Hopefully, this is winter's last attempt and spring will be here for good!

Renaissance Dress FO

Today, my husband and I went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival! It was quite chilly (~60F) which means it was perfect for my new dress!

Please excuse the terrible photo quality. We only brought the little point and shoot this time and had really forgotten how crappy the pictures were. Never fear, there will be more (better) pictures of another Ren Fest outing.

Fabric: ~9 yds of red and gold, ~2 yds green, ~2 yds gold underskirt, ~1 yd felt, 2 yds canvas, >6 yds cotton broad cloth, ~1 yd jaquard, ~1 yd for veil
Pattern: Simplicity 2589 + Simplicity 2621 (supporting garments) + self drafted draw string bag
Year: contemporary/Tudor-esque
Notions: boning (12 yds), bias binding, grommets, ribbon, 3/4" flexible pvc piping, and a vast array of trimmings
Time to complete: practically the entire month of August and several weeks in July too
First worn: September 2011
Wear again? Of course! This was a major investment in time and treasure so this will get many years of use. I'm sure it will become more embellished over the years plus I'm already envisioning a cloak for those chilly days like today!

Total cost: you don't want to know

It's still a bit awkward in the chest area but I am a bit bustier than the average Elizabethan lady plus I didn't want to show off cleavage to all the world. Other than that, I really loved it. It was surprisingly comfortable even with the corset. Sitting was a bit awkward with the hoops. I took up a lot of space horizontally.

I also whipped my husband up a monk costume this weekend. After months of saying he didn't want a costume, he decided to tell me Friday that he wanted a monk costume. I was going to Jo-Ann's Saturday anyways so I said why not.

Fabric: 6 yds linen ($5.50 /yd)
Pattern: A McCall's nativity pattern and a McCall's cap pattern (heavily modified) because that was what was on sale for $.99 and no one had a monk pattern
Year: contemporary
Notions: thread, hook and eye
Time to complete: ~3 hours
First worn: September 2011
Wear again? He says yes. I say you better!

Total cost: ~$40

Best part of this project: We picked up 9 yds of this linen since I wanted 7 yds and they only had a 6 yd and a 3 yd piece so we got both. There was really nothing else even remotely appropriately. It was $9 /yd but I had a 40% off coupon. I only ended up using 6 yds so now I have 3 yds for the stash. I think perhaps a pair of pants are in order.

We did quite a bit of shopping and "costume accessorizing".

In addition to the staff and belt my husband has in his picture, he got these two cross throwing daggers with sheath. He really wanted to buy what I affectionately call sharp objects last year and didn't. So I kind of bullied him into getting something. He passed these lovelies up the first go around but couldn't part with them when we went back later in the day.

This is my haul minus the green bag which I made Saturday after realizing that I didn't have anywhere to carry my phone etc.

I picked up this lovely book locket at a corset store of all places. A lot of the jewelry there is more fantasy but this was one of the few pieces that could pass for at least semi-historically accurate looking.

I never thought that my husband would convince me to buy a sharp object (I'm more of the shiney things type gal) but when I found out that this "dagger" was actually a pair of scissors, I had to have them!

I got the choker on the right last year and went back to the same shop to get a matching piece and I ended up with this lovely bracelet. It's made by a company called Stillwater Chainmaille. Their pieces are lovely and the man who runs it is very nice and obviously passionate about his pieces. I'll definitely be back to buy matching pieces in future years. They're very good about doing custom color combos. The owner made this one from scratch for me today!

It was really lovely and we're planning on going back at least twice more this year. It was very busy and we didn't make it to hardly any shows or even all of the shops! Plus we're just nerds like that.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend! See older Renaissance dress posts here.

Vintage Jewelry: Earrings

I love jewelry, especially anything shiny! My husband's grandma gave me some of her old jewelry and I thought I'd share with you. I'm don't really know much about dating jewelry so if you spot something you can place, let me know.


They all came in this cute jewelry box! I love the floral print inside the cover. I got two pairs of clip on beaded earrings. So cute! One pair is clear and the other is opaque.


Black danglely earrings for a professional look. Heart danglely earrings that are very juniors. Floral studs in two tone gold. Gold swirls. Nice, sophisticated amethyst studs. (Too bad it's not my birthstone!) Rhinestone earrings with a yellow center and two orange ones on each side. Also a great pair of Rhinestone earrings. Check out how the danglely part can be removed from the stud and worn with another colored stud.

There were also some odds and ends. A mouse earring! Seriously! I wish the other one was there! A wishbone. A blue danglely earring. A white flower. A red stud. A pink flower. So sad that there's only one of each of these. I have worn the pink and white flower together for a modern mismatched look.


This is perhapse my favorite pair-screwback flowers with a Rhinestone center! I've never worn them as the screwback makes me nervous. I'm afraid they'd fall off! I feel a bit crazy but I'm sure I'll wear them eventually.