dancing barefoot

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!  I really love today because I am a huge fan of endings and new beginnings!!  I love the amount of focus and will the new year always gives me and I just think it is one of the greatest parties all year!  I had a few options as far as outfits are concerned for tonight, but I think I might go with this!  Painfully simple and so fun to dance in!  An American Apparel jersey pillow case dress (passed over to me by my sister!! Thanks SIS!)  and this pure silk, striped . . . what, tank (dress?)  thingy from the clearance rack at Victoria's Secret!  Its so floaty and fabulous!  I wore it all summer paired with cutoff shorts and my beat up boots, but thought it might just work as a not too stuffy NYE getup.  I might belt it till dinner, then just let it flow!  Since I always end up dancing half naked (not in a dirty way!! I mean it in the goofiest way!) with my shoes off by the end of the night, I thought I would just plan for it this time.  (while I was taking these I was listening to "Golden Years" by David Bowie!  You gotta dance to that!!)

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Wishing everyone the best and warmest wishes for the new year!! Its going to be a good one!!

If I ever feel better

So do you guys know that Phoenix song "If I ever feel better"  It goes "If I ever feel better, remind me to spend some good time with you.  You can give me your number, when its all over I'll let you know."  Oh I freaking LOVE Phoenix so much and guess what!!  I am feeling better!  Good nights sleep!  Sudafed day time!  I am worlds away from yesterday! So today I took my boy on a date to Starbucks.  We have all been home (For SO long it seems) and scratching each others eyes out with cabin fever, so we decided to get dresses up and go eat some scones.  Its amazing what sugar and the smiling baristas can do for moral.

Thank you all so much for your well wishes and tips to recovery!  I was feeling so emotional yesterday and actually got a little teary eyed reading them.

I am always very excited to wear this jacket.  I have to be very careful with it because it is part of a suit set with a matching pencil skirt.  I think its from the 60's and I found it with another little cream crocheted suit set.  I expect that they were from the same donor, similar style, size, era and shape, and that they were her Sunday Best, church suits.  They have been so well cared for and I feel that as their new owner I must be a very careful custodian to them.  You know, out of respect for the little lady who passed them on to me.  I like how you can almost sense the character of the former resident in certain pieces.

nothing special

My outfit today is nothing special.  I slept on the couch last night to avoid sickening my husband (and to covertly get a few extra minutes in blogland ;) Shhh!) and honestly don't think I got a blink of sleep!  Its like you are fine if you suck on a cough drop, but can't sleep with something in your mouth, then when it finally dissolves, you start to drift off and a silly cough erupts!  Holy Jeeze man!   Oh well.  Any way, I went to the doc today and got some really great prescription cough syrup so I should be sleeping like a lamb tonight.  

I wasn't going to post today but there were so many questions about that skirt I wore yesterday I thought it was fitting to show my not so special outfit while telling you about my not so special sewing technique.  I wish I could tell you that I did the waist band myself but that was actually the existing waistband of the shirt.  I just turned the shirt upside down, cut under the sleeves, and hemmed the fabric. Presto change-o.  The secret is that its just a really killer print!  I am telling you, thrift STORES.

OH!  I almost forgot!  Do you guys think I look like a robot because I always pose and turn my eyes the same direction?  Some body called me on it recently (Not here) and I was just wondering if it seemed weird to you guys?

Magic Tricks

Isn't it amazing that with the advent of one new element in your wardrobe, millions of new possibilities erupt! These over the knee socks from J. Crew, for instance, have suddenly made this skirt (Which I made last year from an 80's shirt) completely wearable.  I tried it with opaque leggings before, sheer and textured ones but for some reason, the little sliver of leg showing seems to lend it just the right feel.  I tried to keep the outfit a bit more casual by adding soft layers and a touch of color since I am also utilizing another magic trick, Makeup, to mask the fact that I am seriously sick.  Runny nose sneezing, watery eyes, blotchy skin- ALL of it gone to the naked eye with the sweep of my magic makeup.  And you know something, all the effort actually payed off because I feel a little better having taken the time to shower and pamper myself.  It feels like I am not giving up the fight for my health or something.  I don't know.

Anyway, what have you found as your magical outfit multiplier?  I so enjoy reading your comments and creepy peeping over at your blogs!  I have to admit I don't always comment because I am usually browsing via my iPhone but hope to change that once everyone goes back to school and work!  I am also planning a reconstruction of my blog roll since I have so many more I want to add.  In any case, thank you SO much for commenting here.  It really means a lot to me.

Forecasting

ALL RIGHT.  I am not a fortune teller.  I have no physic ability what so ever and I would never pretend to know what is coming next in our lives.  I certainly have no idea, but I have been asked to make a prediction about the fashion trends of the coming year and, having no ability or crystal ball, have decided to fall on my great talent for resourcefulness (ahem, asking my fellow blogger friends who quite possibly have a way better grasp on this than I do!).  Below is a list of tends I SUSPECT we will be seeing much more of in 2010.  Granted, the trends I have listed have been with us for a while, but I am anticipating (more like hoping for) an explosion of the following.   I have included a few examples above to help illustrate my desperate attempts at verbal picture painting.

1. World or ethnic print dresses, skirts, sweaters, cardigans, and shirts, preferably vintage or hand printed, or hand woven.  Mostly Navaho, Russian, Batik, and Indian prints. 
2. Sportswear, mesh, loose trousers tucked into boots, sporty jackets, easy shapes, all paired with slick height in the shoe department.  
3. A wider acceptance of headwear ranging from more, bigger bows, hats, headbands, head wraps, you name it.  
4. An explosion of and wide acceptance of leg-wear in every color, texture, form, including rolled fishnet trouser socks with heels, boots and sandals.  
5. Vintage silks and dresses in a bigger way than we have ever seen before.  
6. Hair I hope will be brushed out waves, great volume and texture galore.  
7. Accessories will show the human hand in its creation.  Hand made, intricate metal work, beading, natural stones, earth tones.  

So what do you all think?  Am I way off base here or left in the stone age?  The early adapters have been doing these things for years now, but I expect the rest of everyone to fully grasp what's been going on. Your votes?  Suggestions?  

Happy Day!

Merry Christmas!  It was such a nice day and I hope it was nice for everyone else too!  Things tend to get so busy right before today, and when this evening finally arrives, it feels like it all went way too fast. Crazy. . .

So I got a few things that were on my list!  The herringbone tights and the shawl collar cardigan!  Whooohooo!  I knew I wanted to wear them both today, but had very little time to think about my outfit and things just seemed to look strange on me the past couple of days so I just settled with this.  Took the pictures while the rest of my fam was walking out to the car for more get togethers!  Hope to have a little bit more time in the coming days to play around with my new things!

What a fun day though!  I love Christmas!

Vintage Holiday

My Son took all of these pictures for me!  He is so into it.  He loves to set the timer and run around the tripod to get in the frame with me!  We took about 30 of these but his smile on this one was so hammy I had to include it!  We are on our way to a HUGE family gathering with some family members I haven't seen for years so I am pretty excited!! I hope all of your festivities are going well!  I finally feel into the season, and jeeze, it took long enough!

This vintage dress was something I actually bought from a vintage dealer.  One of the VERY few things I haven't found on my own.  I love it SO much and am so happy to have an occasion to wear it.  I have a pretty hard time with red and green together so I go more subtle routes to looking festive.

You can find me here, this time tomorrow

Just a second quick quickie to very excitedly announce that Krystal from This Time Tomorrow has FEATURED me today!!!  I am beyond excited for SOOOO many reasons since she is the coolest girl that lives in my entire state (and way beyond) and is the very first to seriously feature me with an interview and everything!  I met Krystal when I was shopping at a local Goodwill last month when I noticed her right away as the best dressed girl I had ever seen in real life.  All of you are probably very familiar with her blog but go check it out again anyway (besides she actually happened to snag a few pieces of the Rodarte line from "HER TARGET" yesterday and I am sure will be posting them any day!)  Yippee!  I am bursting!

consolation prizes

This outfit actually started with jean shorts, but I have had this sparkly skirt for a really long time now and just thought, screw it, Its party season, I am doing it.  I threw my furry suede coat over for warmth and couldn't feel happier.  I feel so boho rocker today.  Very happy.  

These tights are my consolation prize after trekking out to "MY TARGET" (meaning out in the sticks Target) yesterday between visits with my grandma to try to get my hands on at least one piece of the Rodarte line.  Well, the highlight table in women's yesterday was $10 fleece. . . not even a hint of anything special. . .  except for these tights.   I am practicing the sour grapes routine, telling myself the stuff probably sucks anyway and everyone will be wearing it so why did I even care in the first place. . . but somehow, I know I am wrong.  This is my consolation outfit.  I can make my own things work just fine.  Silly Rodarte. . . sniff.

Who's half naked?

Today I am announcing the winner of the Half Naked dress (pictured below in much warmer times!).  I was going to write all the names on paper and draw from a hat but I found a more fair, lazier way to do it.

I play Bingo with my boy a lot so I thought I would just use this Bingo ball chooser thingy.  I just rolled it till it pulled a ball number that made sense (I had a little under 40 entries).

Then I counted down to the 12th Half Naked entry.

Yeah!  Amandromeda!  You win it! I will be contacting you to get your shipping info and send you your dress tomorrow USPS Priority mail! Congrats!  Also, everyone be sure to check out her blog.  She renovated the most amazing building to live in and the pictures are amazing!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Doctor. . . you're insane.

Its been so nice to see so many people "Half Naked" and perhaps winning that dress from Thursday's post.  Some of you were really freaking hilarious!  I never expected such funny responses!  Today I am giving these Docs a test run.  I feel like I am not going to wear them outside though.  They are pristine, never been worn, laces still tied by manufacturer when I found them, perfectly "worn" patina.  Even though I found them second hand, I very strongly doubt they were purchased in the 80's.  Therefore, they are less than 20 years old and not eligible to sell on Etsy.  So what to do. . .   I honestly think they are SO amazing but this is the only way I can think to style them.  I am sure there are millions of possibilities, but I am just not a Dr. Martens person.  I DID buy a pair of the all over flower ones in the mid 90's and wore them to the ground (I still have them.  Maybe I'll bust them out next week.)  If you have any ideas or links that could help me out a bit, send them on over.  please.

Otherwise, Maybe I will just try to sell them to you.  Size 8.  Woven embroidered eyelet material on the leg, dusty almost super pale pinky, lavendery,  beigey, creamy leather and laces.  Never worn (but to take these pictures).  I promise this is not the start of some new sales strategy, I just bought them to sell on etsy and now I can't, and unless I figure out how to wear these, I don't want to hoard their beautifulness.  I don't know. . . I mean whatever.  Is this tacky?  I don't know the Faux Pas of blogging.  I think it would be a greater shame to hold on to them for all eternity and not wear them, and ebay feels like a nightmare to me.