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Tee and Sandals- Target

Skirt and bangle- Vintage (ish), thrifted

Earrings- World Market (every time I go to that store I come home with about five more pairs of earrings)

On occasion I fall prey to the lure of a trend. Usually what happens is I see something on tons of other girls that looks wonderful and charming on them, buy a piece for myself and then go "oh, so that's why I didn't wear this before. I look horrible in this." Enter the Midi Skirt. Okay I have issues with the name, it just sounds stupid, and a passionate hatred for it's long counter part (Maxi is an even stupider word!), but I keep seeing ladies all over the interwebs popping up in these not quite long, not quite short skirts, and I admit, I love the look. On them at least.

The other day I was in a really awful mood (don't even ask!), and decided to brake my golden rule of thrifting: never thrift in a bad mood. In the end I found a few things including this skirt. It's an old White Stag skirt, I'm putting it at about mid-to-late 70's. At first I was attracted to the print, it was not quite tropical, not quite safari, not quite autumnal, and totally vintage looking. So I picked it up, and it happened to be my size, and it happened to have the belt still with it. When I first touched it I figured it was some sort of mock linen polyester, but it is in fact a cotton linen blend! It's got a very rough weave, but I kind of love that. So I picked it up and went to the mirror and what do you know, it was a midi skirt on me! So I bought it for a measly four dollars, took it home, tried it on and realized why I don't wear skirts that hit me past my knee. So unflattering!! You would not believe! My calves looked about twice their size! It didn't look too bad with heels, so I figured I'd wear it like that until I finally got this stupid trend out of my system and shorten it a bit. Bust after wearing it out last night and being told by several people that I looked like a home-school mom, I shortened it a tiny bit. I didn't bother hemming it yet, but this length is much better! Still midi-ish, but not as awful looking on me!

Styling this was kind of fun because I got to play around with a somewhat 70's bohemian feel which y'all know I love. I used this tutorial for my hair today and love the end result (even if I do have dirty hair)! Which might have a little something to do with the fact that it is in the 90's today...  But this was a great little outfit to go running around doing errands and kept me fairly cool! The shoes are new too. I know I have mocked the shoes at Target for a while, but for some reason when I was there earlier today, I saw them in a new light. I like the 70's-does-40's vibe of them, and they are also really comfortable!

A side note: I GOT A NEW TRIPOD! Maybe this one will be indestructible! But I feel a bit out of practice taking photos, so I apologize for the wonky expressions.

Easter Sunday

Our Easter was really wonderful.  We'd intended to go to the beach for a picnic, but Sunday morning was cold and drizzly. We'd already prepared everything so we opted for a local park. By the time we got there the sun was out (enough to give me an annoying burn on one arm), and a nice breeze had set in. We ate too much, played a riotous game of croquet, performed ridiculous tricks, and had just a really, really wonderful time! But I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

freckles and polka-dots

Iranian pomegranate cakes (back) and my mom's delicious lemon cakes!

Hello red.

this photo cracks me up for some reason.

croquet mallet jousting is all the rage these days

We're bring back bustles

This pretty much sums up their relationship: Bri does something ridiculous, Michael watches in confusion...

The adults were far more entertained by the bubbles than most of the kids...

I play a mean croquet game. This is my kind of sport.

Finding bugs

and then this happened...

Yummy dessert

pretty sister

Delaney has some mad football throwing skills

I hope your day was as equally wonderful as ours was!

The April Showers Dress

Guys, there are very few things you really need to know about this dress and they are as follows:

• The buttons are vintage and cost me a quarter
• The fabric was on sale at Joann's for $2.99 a yard
• PASTELS!
• I used a vintage dress placket zipper, and am now a slave to these kind of zips.
• There ain't a thing wrong with the construction of this dress.
• I. Freaking. Love. This. Dress. So much so, that I wore it again to go Swing Dancing yesterday. I want to have this dress's babies. We will live happily ever after, and all will be good in the world. I really, really, really, love this dress.

I learned a very valuable lesson while making this dress, well two technically. I learned that when it comes to sewing I am more of a Hare than a Tortoise, and rush through, not really reading the directions. Turns out, if you take your time and read the directions! your dress will come out looking like a million bucks. Even my mom said it looked incredibly well made. And if my mom said that about one of my sewing projects, you can bet your bottom dollar that it is well made, because she is not usually my biggest fan when it comes to sewing. My mom is an expert seamstress, and while somehow I have managed to disillusion you all into believeing that I am as well, I am not. At best I am an okay seamstress. Seriously, I make mistakes all over the place, rush through, and settle for less than perfect work. Well not anymore. I have another dress (my Swing Dress) that I made where I really took my time, did everything right, and it really shows, and that dress only took me about two days to put together. This one took about three days of after work hours stitching. Truth be told, when I rush through projects, it usually takes me longer because of how many times I have to re-do something, but if I give myself time and get in the mindset that I am not going to rush any of this, things turn out, pretty dog-on good.

The pattern is one I've had since sometime in 2009 and is the Collette Patterns "Parfait." This pattern is an absolute dream! The instructions are very clear (though in my instruction book there is a big typo, however Collette patterns send out an errata email back when I bought it), and easy to follow. I love it! Next time I make this I'm going to adjust the bust a bit because it is a tad large on me under the shoulders (those weird proportions of mine...). I also might lengthen the skirt a bit if I were to make this for more of an everyday dress. I was glad I had the forethought to wear shorts underneath on Sunday! But I love the versatility of this pattern too! It is a great year-round dress! I'd love to have this in a tweedy wool for winter, or some fun plaids for autumn, but it is equally charming in a lightweight cotton. I'm dreaming of making this up in a yellow eyelet or swiss dot. All I know is that if  I could marry a garment of clothing, it would be this dress. I even do have another one in the making (in a most uncharacteristic colour at that!!), and it seems that I don't look too bad in pastels!

Dress- Made by me
Cardigan- Target
Earrings- Made by me
Necklace- Chinatown San Francisco

Headband- J. Crew Factory Store

Shoes- BC Footwear via Nordstrom Rack