Tuesday, December 29, 2009

It's been too long

I can't believe I haven't blogged since the 20th, but I have a good excuse I swear! I have been in CUBA. Almost no internet there and not a lot of downtime. I took tons of pictures and am in the process of uploading them all, but I'm in Arizona now for my annual family reunion and the internet here is also pretty shoddy. So my next update (full of beautiful vintage cars) will be on January 2nd when I finally return home to Chicago.

Until then I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Finals

Sorry I have been so MIA recently. Finals are getting the best of me. But the other night I went out to dinner to celebrate the first night of Hanukah and exchange some presents. And I wore a dress from the Miley Cyrus for Walmart line. Don't judge! I was at Walmart trying to find an external disk drive (and stocking up on cup noodles) and I saw a very cute dress. So I bought it. And then I realized that it was designed by Miley Cyrus. And now I'm questioning my judgement.

Anyways, I wore it with some tights that I made earlier in the day, from a very easy DIY on Lucky's blog. I love them, but hatman says they make me look like I have a very strange skin disease. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Materials:
*flat back crystals from Joanns
*tights
*glue









Wearing: barney's wedges, diy tights, miley cyrus/max azaria for walmart dress, ralph lauren cardigan

Friday, December 11, 2009

Brrrr Outfit

It's freezing outside but I'm all cozy and warm in the library. I'm trying to power through and finish my final paper. But it's not due for a week. And I can't seem to forget that. So I'm procrastinating, getting together Hanukah presents and trying to figure out what I will need over winter break.


Wearing: line cashmere sweater, zara shirt, blank studded jeans, chanel flats, DIY necklace
This sweater is my favorite for the library. It's long enough that I can wrap the ends around me like a blanket. It's also the ideal plane sweater.



You can't really see it in the pictures, so I took a close up of my necklace, which is actually just the anklets from yesterday! I hooked them together to make them longer, I'm not a big jewelry wearer but I really like this mixed chain look that everyone is wearing.

I just got the Anthropologie December catalog in the mail. So many gorgeous pictures! I'm especially in love with these oxfords.


I tried to photograph the pages which really inspired me, even my outfit today is a blend of neutrals!



I love the sentiment (and the typeface!) of the words on the last picture, "the perfect quite of the season." My holiday season is definitely not quiet. It's filled with family and food and lots of shouting. Sometimes I wish my holidays were quiet and a chance for me to be by myself. But my family is the most important thing in the world to me and I wouldn't trade our traditions for anything.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Study Break: DIY

When the glamourai first blogged about her new idea for anklets I was immediately hooked.



I was tempted to buy a pair from her wonderful etsy store, but decided to try and figure it out for myself. I think they turned out very cute! (And they were incredibly easy to make.)

Materials:
*lots of different chains (I bought mine from Joanns, but you could definitely use vintage)
*pliers
*wire cutters
*closures (also from Joanns)

This project took about 10 minutes, probably less. I measured out chain, cut two pieces to that length (for each foot) and made them slightly varying lengths so they'd fall nicely. Then I used a jump ring to catch all the chains along with my clasp, and closed it tightly with the pliers. Voila!





I lost my photographer midway through this photoshoot and had to get a little creative. But I wanted to show how versatile these are. I tried them with two different boots (black and brown) and my favorite black heels (from Ann Taylor. I am not kidding.)



Wearing: Ann Taylor pumps, diy anklets, assets tights




Wearing: Stuart Weitzman 50/50 boots, diy anklets





Wearing: old (very) brown boots, assets tights, diy anklets, zoe dress, jcrew cardigan

First Snow Outfit

Reading week really throws my schedule off. I woke up late, saw that it was all slushy and gross outside and was prepared to work in bed. But then I got bored, and decided to venture out in search of supplies for some projects (coming soon). So I put on layers of soft white things and started my day. At 1:15pm. Oh well.



Wearing diy headband, uo crop top, uniqlo shift, forever21 ribbed tights, uo socks, doc martens


I went to London last year with my friends for our spring break. We went to lots of museums, ate way too much and shopped. We found some amazing vintage. I bought lots of old buttons and odds and ends to make into headbands. This one is made from vintage blue feathers, and a crystal button.

Library Inspired Etsy Finds

Spending all my time in the library has serious repercussions for my blogging. I want books, books, books. And things inspired by books. I'd especially love a perfume that smells like old books.

How perfect is this vintage book locket?


From the bumbling bird
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBumblingBird

A little off the book theme, but to adorable not to post! (Also from the bumbling bird)



A unused diary from 1953


From hamsterguppies
http://www.etsy.com/shop/hamsterguppies

An advertisement for an underwood typewriter! (I'll explain why this was so exciting in a minute)


From surrender dorothy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SurrenderDorothy

My bf (hatman as he is affectionately known) and I spent the first three months of our relationship apart. Many emails were exchanged. Quite a few skype dates were had. But my favorite thing was when he sent me a song. He has such a good ear, he always picks songs that perfectly capture whatever he is trying to say. He also writes beautiful songs but would probably kill me if I put one up here. Anyways, my favorite song he sent me (and one of my favorite study songs) is The Underwood Typewriter by Fionn Regan. If you've never hear of Fionn, do yourself a favor and download some of his songs.


MusicPlaylistRingtones
Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Monday, December 7, 2009

Exciting News!

Speaking of Decor8, I just registered for her online Blogging Your Way class. I'm so excited, Decor8 was the first blog I started to read everyday, it was really a gateway drug for me!

I'm especially excited to meet other bloggers, and share ideas. My blog is still new and I'm still deciding what I want to include here so I'm sure this will be a great way to further develop this space.

Happy December (late)!

I can't believe it's already December! This semester has gone by so fast, but I'm already looking forward to next semester and new classes.

Decor8 wrote about the most adorable new site where you can sketch on the computer. The colors they have to choose from are the most perfect range of pastels. I'm not an artist but I had to try it.

What do you think?

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Date night

Reading week is upon us. The last moments of freedom before the library becomes my sole place of residence are almost over. For a break R and I went on a romantical date last night. We had both separately been to Sol de Cuba but never together. I remembered it as less than wonderful, he remembered it as pretty good. We decided to give it another try. While the service leaves something to be desired the food was tasty and the atmosphere was just right.

I wanted to look nice, because for the next week I will be living in my Madewell jeggings (don't judge, they are incredibly comfortable) and big sweaters. I also wanted to wear heels. That lasted as long as it took to take this picture. In my defense it was sleeting outside.

Sorry for the blurriness of these pictures, there wasn't a whole lot of light and we were in a bit of a hurry.


Wearing Zara dress/ vintage pearl necklace/ Ann Taylor shoes / Wolford tights

Friday, December 4, 2009

DIY: Stud Edition

A little while ago I posted about a jcrew sweatshirt with sequins all over it (and which I can't find anywhere on their website now). I was hoping to recreate this by buying sequin fabric and sewing onto the front of a plain sweatshirt. Unfortunately I didn't find any fabric I liked, so I decided to combine the two projects (studding and sequins) and make a studded sweatshirt!

My studs have arrived (from studsandspikes.com duh) and I am getting ready to embark on what I am told will be a time consuming and possibly painful diy project.

Materials:
*needlenose pliers
*awl
*studs
*whatever you want to stud (thrifted hanes sweatshirt and black leather wallet)



The black piece of leather laying on top is a headband. I found tiny little studs at Joann Fabrics and used them on a piece of leather trim.

Studding a sweatshirt or fabric is easy because the studs go in without you having to make holes first. The wallet took me much longer because I had to poke holes and make sure they were the right space apart etc. I tried to get pictures of the process but most turned out blurry.





Wearing American Apparel leggings/ thrifted sweatshirt

The Salvation Armys and Goodwills in CT are the best. They aren't picked over and have tons of great stuff. There are four big ones within a ten minute drive of campus, one within walking distance of my dorm. This sweatshirt was $1 and the wallet was $1.99.



I wanted a more interesting design on the back than just straight studs so I experimented until I found a layout I liked.



The headband was the easiest piece to do. I didn't care that much about getting the studs in a straight line, I wanted a kind of haphazard look.




And with that I'm going to sign off. I have a busy weekend ahead of me, next week is our reading week and then finals. I've got two papers and two final exams so it's going to be a library kind of weekend. Hopefully I'll get a study break or two in.

Have a good weekend!