Friday, August 27, 2010

I put this out on the web for help

This is the post I put out to several communities asking for help translating/ understand the pattern/ making the pattern. I'm putting it here in case anybody who sees it this way wants to chime in with some help...
Coming soon are my Friday night outfit and cute kitten pictures!

Calling all you seamstresses, or those who can read Japanese (bonus points if you are both)! I've got this magazine (which I didn't scan...  :wink: ) that is full of patterns that you have to draw (draft? is that the right term?) Since I am all for having comfy clothes around the house and I am trying to learn to sew clothing, I thought that I might give one of them a try. Now I did take two years of Japanese, but sewing terminalogy wasn't exactly covered in the courses, so I am asking anyof you ladies and gents if you might be willing to help me out. I've given the pattern my best shot, and now am looking for help filling in the blanks, and for general sewing help.
Please feel free to give any help with the "translation"(I didn't actually "translate" anything, I just tried to sum up what I knew in my notes) if you can.
I've made notes all over the two pages that relate to this pattern, commenting on the sewing and the Japanese...
[img]http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt338/buttons_and_lace/Decorated%20images/042-1.jpg[/img]
Page 1
[img]http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w224/stormsight/Pattern%20scans/043.jpg[/img]
Page 2
[img]http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w224/stormsight/Pattern%20scans/005.jpg[/img]
On left, the completed dress; Magazine's picture of the completed project).
For those of you with any sewing experience, I would greatly welcome any help that you can give regarding this. I've never had to make a complex pattern like this from scratch to use for sewing, so I'm slightly nervous, but you have to learn sometime, right? Any tips/tricks?
Also, the waistband looks really complicated, and I would prefer if the dress was cut as once piece from top to bottom... but I want to keep the drawstring... do you reckon that I could leave off cutting the dress horizontally and just sew the back of the drawstring channel to the inside (does that make any sense?), instead of making the channel separately and then sewing the three pieces (top, waistband/drawstring, skirt) together ?

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Even MORE fabric!

I got new fabric today! My dad came back from my grandmother's house with his truck full of boxes of fabric. Even the bed of his truck had boxes. The bad thing is that I only found out about the fabric about 20 minutes before he had to take the unwanted stuff to another lady's house (she goes to our church, and runs her own sewing business, so the fabric doesn't go to waste) so I didn't have very long to go though everything. My mother was also watching me go through it this time, and if there is one thing in the world my mother hates its clutter, so I had to go pretty light on the pickings anyway. Most of the fabric he had were knits or not suitable to being made into clothing, so that helped too.
I did get a fair amount of scraps for my rag bag:
So bright! I would have loved to find more of the pink plaid and the yellow piece whit the heart flowers! Age appropriateness can be damned, I would make something out of that yellow piece in an instant if I had more- maybe something like a summer dress...
I think that these were supposed to be part of a window treatment, but all I can see is  some really awesome trim on a funky skirt or dress.
A pattern! That I can't use because it's too small... my bust requires a size 14... T_T (I swear that this picture was right side up, but Blogger refuses to show it that way) I'll probably just send it off the next time my dad carries more fabric to the seamstress.
I'm not 100% on this fabric, I might send it off to the seamstress too...but there is definitely enough here for me to make something out of if I want to.
Another iffy one... I'm thinking a dress if I do keep it.
This one isn't going anywhere! I love it. Pink roses... need I say any more? Its not cotton, and I'm going to have to think on what to use it for... it may be that there is only enough to make a skirt out of, so I'll have to check.
Another one I love. The circles remind me of shippo, which are one of my favorite Japanese motifs (you can find out lots more about treasure motifs here, of which shippo is meant to be a representation of seven). This fabric is a nice thick shiny synthetic, more suited to fall or winter wear. I'm not sure if I have enough to make a  dress out of it, I may just have enough for a skirt. Thats ok, because I like skirts, and I have much better luck find tops that I like in stores than I do skirts or pants, so if I end up making a ton of skirts I might just have a good selection to choose from.
 This fabric is completely sheer, and definitely meant to be worn with something underneath. I actually got a pattern in those magazines that uses just such a fabric as a top layer on a dress, so I'll look to see if I have enough to make that pattern probably.
Tada~ just when I needed it, I got several yards of sweatshirt material. I'll use this to make up my first try at the patter that I posted about last night. The picture looks like it was made using a fleece for the magazine, but I think this should be similar enough.
 I also got a circular knitting needle sized 6 ( I didn't have one before, and I had wanted one that size), a snap making tool, snaps, a crochet hook, an embroidery hoop and an assortment of buttons:
 Just some of the random stuff that I got.
By far, however, was the lace! I got a ton of lace! I LOVE the stuff, I didn't choose to name my blog Buttons and Lace for nothing... I just love lace, and though that it summed up my tastes pretty well. 
The bottom lace is a favorite of mine, I just love how detailed and delicate it looks. 

I love the boldness of the pattern on the top lace, it just demands attention. 
So much! I'm going to have fun with all of it...
As I was putting up the fabric I found a little bag with this stuffed inside. Those butterflies are just darling! The lace is sooo small, I just loved it instantly. The crochet hook gives a bit of scale- I think it must be meant for either children's clothing or for small trim given the size. 
Random rickrack and trim that I picked out. I grabbed a brown bag that had all of this jumbled up inside. I grabbed it for the brown and white ruffles, but the red and white trim could add a fun accent somewhere. The red white and blue... that may be given away. 

Well... I have a kitten demanding attention at the moment, so I should probably end this here and give her some. We went to see a baseball game this evening and she hasn't quite forgiven us for her consequently late supper. 

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Upcoming...

So in my effort to use up more of my fabric stash and learn to sew using a machine, I got my hands on lots of scanned Japanese sewing magazines. I am now in the process of translating/ understanding them (some stuff I get just by looking at the pictures, some I know because of previous experience, and some of it I can "read" well enough to not bother translating). I'm going to post up for help translating/ making sure I've got everything figured out once I get my notes typed on the files, and then once I have everything figured out I'm going to have to draft the pattern. Yes, I did just say draft the pattern! Do I think I can get this right first time around? Not a snowball's chance in hell, but I am going to try. I expect that I will have to try and fail then improve before I get a real wearable garment, but I also expect that doing this will:
 1. Test my Japanese skills, then improve them- after all sewing terminology wasn't covered in my Japanese classes
 2. Teach me me about making up my own pattern from diagrams (I have a sewing technique book that reports that this is actually a easy skill, if you just use a grid to determine how to scale up the piece. We will see about that.)
 3. Test my patience, I like fast results, but this isn't going to be fast or easy.
 4. I'm going to be sewing something more complicated than I skirt- so I have new techniques to learn- like how to sew on armholes.
 Heres what I have my sights set on:
(Left one)
Tada~ roomwear! I actually have a whole magazine full of different roomwear, pjs and comfy clothes! Here is what I've gotten so far on the pattern sheet:
Looks like a bit of a mess right? I still have to make more notes on it and the second sheet, then post it to a couple different boards from help/ feedback. 

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The weekend came and went

How was your weekend?
Mine went by fast!
On Friday night as usual my family went out to eat together, this week it was a rib place. Casual, but not ripped jeans and t-shirt casual, so I wore my beige skirt that I made. Its super comfy!! I didn't take it off until I had to go to bed. haha
Can you tell that I changed my hair style a little? I'm parting the bangs a bit and curling everything for a slightly messy look, not that you can see that in the picture.
I had BBQ that night, and enough left over that I also ate it for dinner on Saturday. Speaking of Saturday... what did I do on Saturday? Hmm.... not much.
Some awesome person scanned and uploaded a TON of Japanese craft magazines on the web, so I nabbed those, and then spent the better part of today looking through them all.
I got sewing magazines that include lots of patterns that can be drafted (yikes! slightly beyond my skills at the moment, but I have them when I'm ready), a magazine on traditional crafts, and two magazines of nothing but how the make your own hair accessories, among others.

Since hair accessories are relatively easy to make, and I have lots of fabric in my rag bag (this is why I have a rag bag in the first place, for small projects like this) I got crafty and made this:
Its just several flower shapes cut out and sewed onto a bobby pin, but I think its a cute little accessory.
The wonderful lady behind Make it and Love it came up with the idea first. I just used a cotton instead, so I had to figure out how to keep my fabric from fraying (with no fray check in the house!) but I think I did ok.
 I now have the instruction on how to make 1000 different scrunchies and similar things, so I'm thinking that by the time my hair is long enough to actually use them again I should have quite the collection. I like my short hair, but its time for a change, so I'm going to let it grow out for a bit. Maybe shoulder length, we'll see... I never keep the same style for very long, and with colder weather around the corner, I don't want it so short now anyways.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Button makes a skirt part1

So I got lots of fabric last Wednesday, and over the weekend I started on my plan to make some skirts.
I choose to go with a gathered skirt, as it gives a nice shape. I just loooove poofy skirts... so I love how full these are! My mom kept telling me to press the gathers to flatten them out, and I did on the beige one, but it just killed the poof, so I left the pink one alone. Any extreme poof will be flattened by the squish of my closest anyways.
I wanted to use the teal and purple fabric, but it was so sheer and see through that my mom advised against it. She though that it might not hang right or be modest even if I double layered the fabric.
 I think I'm going to try and wear the pink one tomorrow when my family goes out to eat tomorrow. I'll have to see what will match with it... I think the place we are going to is rather casual, so I don't want to be over dressed again. The fabric is like a linen, so it will need to be watched for wrinkling, and I'm going to have to wear a slip under it to make sure nothing get seen that I don't want seen.
I used the surging machine and the sewing machine in making these! The beige one I made first, and I wasn't quite able to make straight seams and hems, but on the pink one I did much better.
I used a combination of Gertie's gathered skirt pattern and Ikat Bag's gathered skirt.
I mainly used the sizing from Gertie's blog (but shorter, cause I'm shorter, and didn't want a deep hem (mine is 1 inch)) and to sew two pieces (a front and back). From Ikat's tutorial, I used the waistband and hem allowances (though I am also hand stitching another skirt, and this one I did use pretty much her whole pattern, sized up to fit me, I didn't want to stitch two side seams).
Here is the beige one hanging up, so you can see how it ...well... hangs.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Series: Do "off-brand" beauty products really work?

I'm back with another cheap beauty product review!
This time its Lantern's Herbal Formula Active Softening Essence.
Supposedly its full of natural ingredients that will help your skin become baby's butt soft. I threw away the box  it came in that had all the ingredients listed on it, sorry *_*;;;
I would give this one a 6/10
I know 100% for sure that this does have lots of aloe in it, I cam smell it every time I put it on. I like the smell, but it does get slightly annoying to smell aloe everywhere you go- although it kinda makes me feel like I'm at the beach.  It does feel very good on sunburnt or dry skin, but I haven't really noticed that it has softened my skin any.  All in all, if you happen to see this product and you need something for a sunburn in a pinch go for it. If however, you don't, then you can just leave it on the shelves. 
You can try to find out more about the Lantern here, but when I visited the page it had a few bad links. 

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Don't you just love free stuff?

I got quite a surprise today~ my grandmother sent me loads of fabric! I've been wanting to learn how to sew on a machine for a while now, and now that I have all sorts of fabric to work on, I can really get to work. My mother just had one condition: she has to supervise everything until she is comfortable leaving me on my own. Since it is her sewing machine, I can understand that.
 Butter soft knits, seersucker prints, vintage prints, polka dots, ginghams, even trim, I have lots to choose from now! I might even try to hand-sew one or two pieces, but we'll see about that. I was able to pick out lots of scraps for my rag bag and for small projects too.
I know 100% I want to make at least a few bell shaped skirts for a sweet lolita-ish look, and make at least one dress out of the lot, but... idk, I have to learn to really sew first. Being able to reattach buttons and do a basic hem and sew small projects are one thing. creating a dress or skirt from scratch is a completely different thing.
The two on top are wonderful muted colors, I think they might become skirts, the print on both just scream skirt! to me. Maybe not anything for a lolita outfit, but the brown one might become a work skirt. 
Can you see the super light/ muted pattern on the fabric? The base color is a pale grey/blue and then has cream, coral, and baby blue in the print. I LOVE them. It looks bit too mature to be for a lolita skirt, but I'm going to sit on this one for a while and figure out the best use of it.
 Another two fabrics that I love. The small rose print will 100% become a bell shaped skirt, possibly with ruffles or lace. The larger of the two prints is too small a piece to become a skirt, but I think that I might do something unexpected with it, like turn it into bloomers. That way, I will know that I am wearing something super cute, but nobody else will. Kind of like wearing lacy underwear to feel sexy, but in totally different way- more like the lolita version to feel cute and sweet.
The blue flowers in the back might become bell shaped too, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. 
Look Christmas fabrics! I love Christmas, so I pulled out a few pieces. I like the idea of making a skirt out of the smaller print to use at Christmas time.
Flower prints. The dark green at the top will become something for casual wear, a shorter skirt probably. 
The teal fabric at the bottom is going to be my test subject. I like the fabric, but I don't love it, so if I screw up on it, no huge loss. This is the one I'll try to make first. 
This is a knit fabric, and I have yards and yards of it! I think I might make a casual dress out of this one. 
These two fabrics are just different colors of the same material. They are a sweater-ish, blanket-ish type of material. I think I might try to make a loose bolero type sweater out of the pink one to wear around the house, maybe. 
This is just part of what I brought into the house to sift through! My dad had gone to help my grandmother to sort out stuff that she is getting rid of, and he had my car packed full of boxes stuffed with fabric. I just grabbed anything that looked interesting out of the car and brought whatever I liked inside to sort out for condition and size. It was SO hot outside that I was dripping (literally) sweat in about 10 minutes. I ended up sorting all of that out as either stuff in bad condition (that got thrown away) or stuff I didn't like (that was given away to a lady who attends my church).
I also have several knit fabrics that I'm thinking of turning into shirts or something. I actually have a whole ROLL of blue jersey knit that I'm going to turn into a nightgown. I've been wanting a new one for a while, and once I saw it I knew that was going to become one. I'll probably still have plenty left over, so I feel that lots of blue jersey pieces will be making their way into my closet in the future. I think I have the stuff to make a crinoline too, but I'll have to double check on that. I do know that I have the material to make a petticoat or two to help give a bit of body to some skirts, a nice super stiff cotton (blend? not sure). 
 I think I will be getting more fabric in the future, my grandmother hasn't even gotten into her sewing room proper yet. She doesn't sew anymore, she has a heart condition that leaves her easily tired, so she has decided to clear out her home of much of the stuff she can no longer use. I think cleaning out the sewing room is the hardest on her emotionally, because she used to sew for a living, but she gets some satisfaction knowing that the fabric and such is going to people who will be able to use it. 
As for me, I'll probably go see her in the next few days and take along roses from the garden to thank her. She will love the roses, but just going to spend time with her is what really makes her happy.


Sunday, August 8, 2010

macaroons~ from Australia with love

So I got it in my head that even though I totally FAIL at baking that I was going to make some macaroons.
I spent several hours searching the web for various recipes, before finnally finding  Violet LeBeux's version. Since she is the master of all things crafty and sweet, I decided to use hers.
However, I still had a problem, Violet lives in Australia, and I'm in America. Our measurements and ingredient names were all mixed up!
I spent more time googling to figure out what the US equivalent of some of the ingredients where, and then commented on Violet's tutorial to make sure that I had things right. She was super nice, and really helped me out, so I set off in search of all the ingredients. I'v decided to post up both her original recipe (right off her blog, so there is less room for confusion) and what we figured the US equivalent was. The only thing that I didn't change was the measurements, because hers are quite accurate, and I didn't want to fuss with changing and risk losing accuracy. You will need a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients, most retailers with a kitchen section should have them (we got ours at Target).


Ingredients for chocolate macarons with chocolate filling-
For the outside bit:
  • 65 grams Almond Meal  Ground almonds or you can grind them yourself (I couldn't find superfine ground almonds, so I used my food processor to get them as fine as possible).
  • 80 grams Icing Sugar Powered or confectioners sugar
  • 40 grams  Caster Sugar Super fine sugar (I actually used regular granulated sugar with ok results).
  • 1 table spoon Cocoa Powder
  • 50 grams Egg White at room temperature
  • Oil spray
  • Pinch of salt

Utensils-
  • Scales
  • Sieve
  • Aluminum foil
  • Mixing bowls
  • Electric beater
  • Baking trays
  • Spoon etc
  • Piping bag/Small plastic bag
  • Violet cooks her shells at 160 degrees C, the Fahrenheit equivalent is 320
Doesn't she just have the cutest colors? I'm also in love with her heart bullets. Her original post is in pink, my comments are in blue.
Please do use Violet's tutorial to make your macaroons, I don't have near enough experience to tell you how to make good macaroons. 

What I can tell you is that you don't have to go out and search the local specialty grocery store for your ingredients. I got most of my stuff at the local Food Lion, but they didn't have any ground almonds, so I had to go to Walmart -which I hate and I spent forever in the checkout line and I just wanted to get out of there.
  For the caster sugar, my mom and I figured that the base of the shell was pretty much like a meringue topping, with other stuff folded in, and since we usually use granulated sugar it should work here too. I'm sure that as a result the "batter" was probably not quite as fluffy or smooth as one made with caster sugar, but it did work fine.
  My ground almonds weren't as fine as Violet's, since I had to grind them at home, but I didn't really see too much adverse effect. I'm sure that they were more lumpy than normal, but I'll have to figure that one out as I go. I'll have to search the web and see what I can do about that. 
Here are my shells waiting to go in the oven. 
In the end, I didn't use Violet's filling recipe. Hers calls for baking chocolate, and I had none available (I thought I did, but it was reserved for another recipe) so I ended up making my own, using the the recipe for chocolate frosting on the Hershey's CoCo box. Here it is:

3/4 cup Hershey's Coco
3 cups powdered sugar
1 stick margarine
1/3 cup milk

Just mix the coco and the margarine together, then add in the milk and powdered sugar a bit at the time. It seems like it is too dry in the beginning, but as you keep going it all come together. I ended up with way too much frosting, so you may want to halve this, or do a double batch of the shells.

Speaking of shells, I ended up baking mine about 15 min longer than the recipe called for. They turned out kind of chewy too, but where still slightly gooey on the bottom... I'm going to have to play around with this to get it just right. I fail at baking regularly, so it doesn't surprise me that they didn't come out 100% right the first time. I do however think that it was a really good try, and definitely want to try again. 

The tops look sooo perfect in the shot, all round and crinkly on the bottom.
A couple of the finished one in the container.
Slightly more sideways view. 
Final verdict? Violet makes a mean macaroon, and I'm still figuring mine out. Thats ok though, I'll get it right in the end. Once I do, I'll be sure to post a new recipe for it. What I really want to try is a strawberry one... yum! 

Series: Do "off-brand" beauty products really work? & Weekend in review

Hello! Hope everyone's weekend is going great.
I've had a pretty slow weekend, my sister's friend has come to stay with us for several days, so I have to actually look like a human being for a few days.  Usually if I am just at home with my family I will wear whatever comes to hand and matches first. I DO NOT dress style over comfort at home... so I look kind of ehhh, not great. Since we have a visitor though, I kind of need to look decent.... 
But enough about that. 
I have been baking!~
How awesome do they look? I'm so proud of myself for taking this picture! 
Now if only they had tasted as good as they looked...
My next baking project is either going to be mochi or macaroons. Big dreams for someone who can't bake worth a darn... but I want to try! 

I've got another product review for you too! 
This time its Venus' Wrinkle Preventing Super Moisturizing Cream.  You can get it here (just to cover my backside, I've never shopped for that particular store before. I have however shopped with other stores on the Amazon website.)
It works on the basis that it is a product specifically targeted at young people, to give their skin all the good stuff it needs to stay beautiful before any age/ sun damage can occur. 
I give it a 9/10
I really do love this cream. It DOES super moisturize your skin, and I thought that I could see improvement in the little lines on my forehead and around my eyes and mouth. I do have skin that it just beginning to settle into ageing, and I'm trying my damn hardest to prevent it from happening.  I would use this everyday except for one big problem:
This stuff will clog your skin up!!!!!
Seriously, if I put it on two days in a row I get several bumps and pimples. Its sucks because for me, this product really does work, so I have to use it carefully. 
I think I paid about $4 for the jar, it is a medium sized jar I would say. The scent is really nice to, a light sweet citrus.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Friday night

Its Friday night! That means that my family and I are once again out and about searching for great food!
This week we went to the local hibachi type place...... and it was SUPER AMAZING AWESOME GREAT FOOD!!!!!!!!
First, what I wore:
Look ma, no pants! I really did feel a bit naked with such a short hemline... but I was wearing modesty shorts underneath.
The food... it was really great tonight. My sister and I split a bolgogi order and it came with the meat, a shrimp, large serving of rice, noodles and a salad and soup! It was an insane amount of food. The bolgogi  (is that even how its spelled.. idk) and shrimp was the only thing that we truely split, everyone else got two shrimp- and we got one each and then the beef was split. Oh, and we also split a spider roll. So wayyyyy too much food in total. Normally I'm known as the girl that ALWAYS has room for desert, but not tonight!

When we got home, I got my dad to help me set up the VHS/DVD player. I recently switched TVs with my sister, so I had to get another DVD player. The good thing about updating technology is that we always have an extra of everything laying around, even if it is slightly outdated. When we got a Blue ray player recently, it freed up another one so I can use it now.
Of course, the real upside for me is that I can now watch my favorite childhood movies in my room.
Yep, my favorite childhood movie is The Last Unicorn! 
When I was a child, I would rent the tape from the movie store so often that my mom finally just asked them to order a copy so she could buy it! 

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Series: Do "off-brand" beauty products really work?

Good morning! (or at least, it should be when this post goes live...)

I mentioned in the lolita at work post that I've been planning a series of posts on those cheap products that you can find at many discount retailers for seriously low prices, about if they work or not. Here is the first in that series!

I'll start with the product that I have been using the longest, Elizabeth Arden's Deep Cleansing Mask.

Now Elizabeth Arden isn't a unheard of brand, in fact, it has been around for longer than I have been alive, I think. Despite that, I don't really know where it is usually sold, or how the brand is perceived by those who are really into beauty products, but I was happy to pick up this mask to try out.
I purchased it at T.J. Maxx for less than $10, I can't recall the exact amount. 
Since my face is oily/combination and congested (dead skin and such clogs my pores, ultimately leading to breakouts) I love anything that promises to get down deep and clean out my skin.
I would rate this one an 8 out of 10.
My reasoning behind the rating: I do feel that my skin is much less oily after using the mask- its like it just sucks up all the excess oil, without leaving my skin too dry. As for actually cleaning the skin... meh, it does ok. I usually use this mask first and then follow behind it with a wash to get the maximum cleaning. It does help to stop my skin from continuing to break out during a flare up of acne, and used regularly, it helps to prevent my skin from getting nasty. 
Probably for those with normal skin, or skin not prone to congestion, it would be a great cleansing mask on its own. For those with oily skin, or congested skin like mine, you may want to use it with a wash for the ultimate clean. 

One big concern over this product: I think that it may be out of production now, which makes me sad. I couldn't find it listed on the website when I tried to figure out the normal retail price for it. 

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Shopping

So in the wake of all those clothes from yesterday, I just couldn't stay home today and do nothing... so I went shopping! I actually was quite good, I only bought 4 things, and I spent about $14 total. 

Rue 21 was having an awesome sale, I got a cami for $2, and a onepiece for $1. I was slightly on the fence about the onepiece, but for $1, I think I can make it work. 
I love the print! The colors are just perfect for the end of summer and into fall. It came with a big belt, but it was way too big for me, so I'll just use the one I already have.

I also went by Ross, my favorite cheap place for new clothes. I didn't spend near as much time there as I usually do, sometimes I go and I can spend 2 or 3 hours in there, sifting through stuff and trying on things. Ross can be quite junky, different sizes all mixed up, and hardy anything runs a normal size, so I have to try everything on.
Today I was in there maybe 20-30 min, because I felt a bit off all of a sudden and cut my trip short, but once I was out of the store, I instantly felt better... maybe somebody was wearing a perfume that I don't agree with or something.
Whatever happened to me, I still managed to get two shirts, one for my eventual job, and another that might work at work (pun not intended)  or it can just be a super cute everyday top.
I promise that this is 100% cuter in real life. The collar has ruffle roses! Don't mind how fat I look either, its just the angle that I used to get the pictures. Ross' dressing rooms are not that large, and the partition between them is quite low, so I was limited on how to get pics. 
See how low the partitions are? I'm only 5'3''! My face was kind of scary here, sorry. I didn't wear much make-up because I didn't want it to rub off on the things I tried on... so I looked super washed out under those nasty lights. 
I love that style of shirt so much that I have three of them! One in red plaid flannel, one in teal and black plaid cotton, and now this one if grey cotton. It really flatters me, I guess- and it looks really cute with a ruffle skirt underneath! I'll probably be pairing this one with my black lace and ruffle skirt. 
A group shot of my mini haul to show the true colors of everything. 

Monday, August 2, 2010

How to look at work, as told by me

Since I am currently seeking employment, I spend quite a chunk of my day online sifting through help wanted ads and various employment websites. When I'm not doing that, I am doing any number of other things, but searching out cute office fashions is a hobby of mine. I love the idea of combining some of the frilly lolita brands to create a super feminine look that stands out in a crowd. I see so often on other blogs that folks feel that they can't wear what they really want to to work just because it came from a lolita brand and it makes me want to jump up and down and yell yes you can! You just have to choose the right pieces. Sure you probably can't bust out your  favorite Angelic Pretty jumper skirt at your Micky Ds part time, but you can work on your office "casual" attire. Some uber strict workplaces probably won't be happy with any thing short of a full on suit, but for those that allow some personal creativity....