A Giveaway! A Giveaway!

That's right! To thank all you wonderful ladies for reading my little ol' blog I'm giving away a few pretty things I've squirreled away for such a time. This giveaway is open to anyone and everyone! All you need to do is be a follower and leave a comment here! To make it fun your comment should include your name, your email address/blog link, and three fun facts about you! They can be anything you want! I'm really excited about this! I will pick the winner this Friday, June 4th. Wanna know what you're getting? Well here you go:



-a vintage handmade apron
- a vintage faux pearl necklaces
- a vintage collar
- a pretty little vintage cameo pin
- an amazing vintage bird charm bracelet!












Good Luck!

A Practical Wardrobe

I can go two weeks without doing laundry. I could actually probably go longer clothing wise, but I only have enough underware to last me two weeks. I am partially impressed by this fact and partially horrified by it. I mean I have 29 dresses hanging in my closet, and one in my hamper. I should never have any excuse not to be dressed properly. Not that I ususally am, I'm just saying.... Every two weeks when I do laundry, I go through the same thought process. As I shove my clothes on the rack of my closet hoping to sqeeze another four shirts on the less than an inch I have left on the rod, I think about down sizing. Then I promptly forget that thought because the best solution to this problem is of course to get a bigger closet or move my etsy inventory, which takes up a good 3rd of the closet. Because, i just could not bare to part with any of my clothing. Except I probably could. And then I saw this post and it got me thinking about what my practical wardrobe would look like. Which has led me to some very interesting style revelations. A practical wardrobe for my life right now probably looks something like this:

• Work wear- Office appropriate dresses or skirt/blouse combos.
• Day wear- More casual dresses or skirt/blouse combos for weekends or days off/music gigs
• House wear- dresses or seperates (slacks/maybe jeans) for wearing around the house or for cleaning
• Night wear/Special occassion- A few nice, or more dressy dresses for going out or special occasions
• Rehearsal wear- things that I can move and dance in

It's not a terribly glamourous list, but it would finction very well for my life. I think alot of things in each catergory could probably transfer over to another catagory. Blouses I would wear for work could always be worn as day wear as well, and so forth. Actually I think the first two categories are the hardest for me to seperate, but I'm hoping this will come naturally as I build (or weed down) to the essentials. Since I abhor suits, it might be a little difficult, but eventually it will sort it's self out. But anyways, the point is that my current wardrobe is a modge-podge of confusion (much like the attic of my mind), and doesn't really feel very cohesive. Now granted, I don't think a wardrobe should be so very matchy-matchy, But it would be nice to have shirts to match skirts, and y'know, a geneal rhyme or reason to my clothing? Which is something that comes from my cumpulsive thrifting habit. But it also comes from the fact that I've always had a hard time sorting out "my style" as far as vintage goes. I've written very long winded posts about this before. I have always had a really hard time saying "yes this is the decade for me," because my tastes are so varied. Well I began to realize that in terms of shillouet, and style, the types of clothes I lean towards the most are those from the 40's. So this weekend I'm going to start trying to build a more cohesive wardrobe.

The Theatre, the theatre, what happened to the theatre?

Dress- thrifted,
Leggings- Old Navy.
Flats- Target

Last Monday I auditioned for a show. I don't know why I haven't told y'all about it, but I haven't even really talked about it much to anyone else either. I think I've been trying not to get my hopes up. It's just a musical review, but I'm secretly really excited about the prospect of performing again. I've even been sceaming up fashionable rehearsal wear (which normal rehearsal wear resembles gym clothes and is super ugly), dreaming of bringing my dance shoes out of retirement, thinking about the number of dance tights I will go through, and even considering buying some new black ballet slippers so I don't have to always wear my character shoes. I've been pretending that I'm fine. I'm not nervouse at all! No, of course I have not lost sleep waiting for the cast list to be posted. Jeeze, what do you take me for? I am a seasoned pro. I got this. Don't be fooled by my calm outter; I have been an emotional wreck inside. What if I don't get in? What did I do wrong? Was I not good enough? Did I sing off key? Was my dancing worse than normal? Did I come off as cocky? Was I too bold? Was I too shy? Did I seem fake and ingeniuine? These are the questions that have haunted my nights for the past week.



I think I was more excited to be in a show than I was even willing to admit to myself. I seriously had the worst week of sleep in years. Each night I'd lay awake wondering what they would be taking into consideration. We were told that the cast list would be posted either Friday or Sunday. So I spent my whole weekend compulsively refreshing the website where the cast list would be posted. No dice. Finally the director sent out an email saying that the server was down and they would be posting it Monday. So last night I had another restless night.



Today I woke up and as soon as I was out of the shower I checked my email and then the website to see if it was up. Nope. I got dressed and left for work where I spent the next three hours refreshing the page. And finally around noon, it was posted. I clicked the link. I waited and my stomach flipped uncontrolably. After a few minutes of deep breathing with my eyes closed, and a little pep talk with myself ("It's just a review. It's just community theatre. It's okay if you didn't get in."), I read the list. it was in alphabetical order. I skipped down to the "B's." And there was my name sitting there looking back at me.



MY NAME WAS ON THE FREAKING CAST LIST!



I'm a little excited. Of course I did just realize today that I didn't mark a conflict on my audition sheet that happens to fall on the rehearsal and day before dress rehearsals start, so I'm praying that I can get out of it because otherwise I will kill myself for missing She & Him, The Swell Season, and The Bird and the Bee live. I even already have my dang ticket bought. I hate being senile.

Hello May?

I wasn't going to post today, but this is pretty post worthy.

Rain and HAIL in So. California on May 23rd. Click save because you'll never see this again.

Pretty Projects

In an effort to get through all the projects I've got started, or built up in my mind, I'm going to start posting DIY's or sewing projects on Saturdays. So to kick it off, here's a two-fer of some springtime headwear.

The first is this little straw boater type hat I bought down in Long Beach. I wanted to dress it up a bit so here's what I did:

you will need:

• hot glue gun
• hot glue (don't forget this like some of us did)
• scissors
• matches or a lighter
• various trims
• needle and thread (optional)

After you've chosen what trims you'll use, begin by gluing your ribbon on the hat. You can sew it on, but the hot glue is stronger. Once you've glue the whole thing on, light a match and hold it close enough to the end of your ribbon to melt it, but not to burn it. This will prevent fraying.

Now make your bow. I made a loop and glued that together then glued a small piece around the loop. You can also sew this if you prefer, but again the glue is stronger. For the tail of the bow I used one long piece and folded the middle into a funky triangle thing and glued it to the back of the bow.

Now attach it to cover the seam of the ribbon with some more glue! Easy peasy! Make sure to glue the ends of the bow to the ribbon also. Once you've done that cut the tails of the bow and melt them with another match. I like the tails cut at alternating slants, but you can also do little "v's" if you prefer.

And now you have a pretty boater hat! I ended up using black velvet ribbon from Joann's. I think it was about $1.20 a yard, and I bought 2 yards and ended up with about half a yard left. The hat cost me about $3 and it took me about 15 minutes to complete the whole thing!

For the second piece I made a pretty little headband using some ribbon a few fake flowers and needle and thread. This is super easy! Simply cut a piece of ribbon long enough to tie around your head and make a bow (I used the same method as above sans the tails). Stitch the bow onto the ribbon a little off centre and then glue on the tiny fake flowers! See easy as pie!

And now I have two very pretty new hair things! Happy crafting!

A softer side

Lately I've noticed a stark shift in the aesthetic I find myself drawn to. Usually when I'm out and about thrifting, I tend to gravitate towords "ugly" things: bright colours, garish designs, and just plain ugly things excite me. I cannot help it, I just like ugly.

But lately I've also been more attracted to softer pallettes and colours, and general pretty things. This isn't to say that I've never liked pretty things before, because I have. But as of late those are the things that attract me. Maybe it's the warm weather that's got me dreaming of lace, white cotton dresses, bare feet, picnics by a creek, and soft lighting, but whatever it is, I'm enjoying it very much.

Do you find the seasons bringing a shift in what you're drawn to?

Now I am off to go watch my little sister give her senior thesis! Congrats Bri! I'm so proud of you!

All images from here, and here.

"I think you're 14 and you're an idiot; you took a roofie from a priest."

There is a very good excuse for my absence. Remember Mark Twain and that quote about fish and family? Well one or the other was at my place all weekend, and I needed a break. Anyways, on Sunday I went to the Redlands Bowl Shakespeare Festival to watch Romeo & Juliet along with Bri, Jessica, Sarah, and Sarah's mom. It was a really nice day (and the weather wasn't too bad either), and we had a really lovely evening! We dove out to Redlands through the canyon, which is an oddly pretty drive even if it is mostly desert.

I really like winding roads!

Jessica and Bri think finger gestures are hilarious.

Redlands has a ton of really beautiful Victorian and Craftsman houses. The yellow one has always been one of my favourites.

We had a lovely spread of food and drinks and our spot on the grass what right at the foot of stage left. Perfection!

This is so good! The perfect picnic drink!

There was a pre-show of a flute chorus. It was pretty good. I'm not big on the flute, but it was nice background music to our shenanigans.

I love this picture!

I also love blackberries!

Hat, sweater and dress- vintage, sandals- target

I've decided this is the best picnic dress ever. I'm going to live in it this summer! And thanks for the photos Jess!

I also love this picture!

heeheehee

Charissa decided to join us via telephone!

and Jess got ahold of my camera.

There were some little girls who Sarah started a feud with. She almost threw our bottle opener at them.

This was our view of the stage. Pretty good!

This stuff is amazing! I bought it at World Market.

Then the show started. It was... interesting. I wasn't a huge fan of this production on the whole, however, I really liked the guy who played the priest. He was excellent.

The sword fighting was pretty cool though!

and the costumes were also well done.

Romeo was pretty good too. A little campy at times, but he's Romeo...

However Juliet could not die soon enough. She was SO annoying. She played the character like she was actually a modern 13 year old at a Justin Bieber concert. I was ready to "happy dagger" her myself about ten minutes into the show.

This was an invention of mine. One bottle of champagne, plus two of those big jugs of cran-rasp. juice, plus four limes. This photo was supposed to simulate the effect of too much of it...

We were both plotting Juliet's demise.

Then there was more sword play.

And finally Juliet died. Not soon enough I tell you. Her giggle was enough to make me want to rip out her vocal chords. Good gosh!

Anyways, over all the night was a huge success. The Shakespeare Festival goes on for another two weeks and they are also performing Hamlet, and A Midsummer's Night's Dream, which we're going to see this Saturday. If you live locally, or semi locally, definitely go check it out. If anything you can sympathize with my dislike of Juliet. As for the title of this post enjoy this video (which is actually only funny if you've ever been in theatre):

I sware these videos are the only thing that gets me through some work days!