A frown on a sunny day

I have a sore lip at the moment so I can't smile, it leaves me with a stupid look on my face most of the time, and it often looks like I'm frowning when I'm not.

I moved my sewing machine into the lounge room to be near the heater to save on bills (running two heaters is a waste) and it was the best thing I could have done. I was able to finish a skirt in 3 nights with out having to really set aside a bit chunk of time.

 

The skirt was Simplicity 2698, I found the pattern at Salvos in Coburg for $3 which I was very happy about. It has about 5 different skirts and 4 different waist bands to pick from. It was confusing at first, but once I worked out I wanted Skirt J and waist B it worked like a normal pattern. The only problem I run into was that I forgot I wanted waist B and cut out A.

 

 

I think the skirt turned out really well, I even lined it which was not included in the pattern. Not sure about my fabric selection, I love the fabric and the pattern but I you can’t see the details of the skirt because the fabric is so busy. I think this skirt will work really well as a solid colour, and maybe different colours pockets. The fabric I might get more of but really can’t work out what pattern would suit it.  Looking at the photos i think its a bit longer than i would like but in winter thats not a bad thing.

The photos are a little sunny but it was the best i could get!

Lost + Found Market

On Sunday I had went to High Tea for my birthday and then after we went to Lost + Found Market on Smith St. I had never been before but loved it. I was really lucky and found a shirt and two dresses.  I wore one of the dresses to work today, I'm guessing its forties but i don't really know. I think I will  need to be take up just a little, to knee length and it will be perfect.

 

PS: It's really embarrassing to have your photo taken in the middle of a lane when people keep walking past. 

Secret Toy Garden

   

So I have a little garden of cute toys, after thinking about it they seem to be gifts from my awesome friends.

Hagu (Hagumi Hanamoto) 

When: June 2009

What: On display in my figurine book case

Why: Alison gave it to my for my Birthday, I had looked everywhere when I was in japan for one, but didn’t find any. She ordered it of eBay and surprised me with it

Want: I <3 it so much!

Soft Owl

When: 2008

What: Cute little fabric owl!

Why: My friend Jessie made it for me.

Want: Yep 

Kiki

When:  2005 .

What: Kiki from Kiki’s delivery service

Why: Leo brought it back from her trip to Japan and the Ghibli museum

Want: Yep

Little Japanese Doll

When: 2008

What: It looks cute on my shelf.

Why: Gift from Jessie

Want: Yep.

Small Owl

When: 2009 Zoo Trip

What: its a cute little owl I found at the Melbourne Zoo, it also doubles as a mini for when I play DnD 

Why: Because I like owls and it was a souvenir from a fun trip to the zoo.

Want: Yep. 

Gray Cat

When: 2009 Japan

What: Cute little gray cat one day evil monster in DnD the next.

Why: I found this in a little shop we found Nara after we followed a small hidden path.

Want: ^_^

Tiny Kitty

When: 2004

What: It looks cute on my shelf .. sometimes the head falls off too.

Why: I made it with polymer clay

Want: Yep.

Live in LaLa Land I do

Over the past two years I have taken a big interest in fashion, sewing and vintage inspired clothing. It’s not something that came out of the blue, I have always liked pretty dresses but I was just never very confident of my looks so felt they didn't suit me or I was over dressed.


 Working in a corporate environment I was able to eased out of my jeans and band t-shirt combo, into something slightly more dressed up and as I grew more comfortable I was able to experiment with different styles (of black of course). This flowed over to my everyday clothing and now I'm happy to put on almost anything and not feel over dressed. I think this is something everyone goes through, for some it happens when they are teenagers for others its later.  


It took me a while to learn this but my motto is you have to “own your look.” Sometimes you leave the house looking great but other times you realise too late your wearing a something not so great. When this happens you need to except it and walk around like you look great anyway. If you spend the day head down shoulders slumped because your don't like the way you look by the end of the day you're going to feel terrible and your confidence will be rock bottom. Whereas if you spent the day head high, shoulders back without a care in the world, you may be wearing a sack but you owned your choice and while in your eyes the sack wasn't the greatest choice, at the end of the day you will feel much better because in the end no one matters but you.

 

Today I'm wearing a black dress I found at savers on the weekend. I loved it when I tried it on, loved in when I put it on this morning but by the time I got to work today I was a lot less fond of it.  


  

  

 

Dress: Savers (table eight) // Cardigan: Barkins // Bag: eBay / Cape (in my hands) Dotti // Shoes: Mountfords  

It felt too small and too short, I fixed the too small part simply enough. Winter is so cold here that I had put a long sleeve black top on under it, after I took that top off it fit again. Its still too short when I'm sitting down, but I can live with that. 

The only real drawback is that my knees are cold!


I even went to the trouble of getting photos taken only to discover my camera phone turned all the details of the dress into a black blob!


For the DITP I picked the Cardigan: 

When: 2010 or 2009… I don't remember. 

What: It's my comfy extra cold day cardie. It's a bit big but had pretty buttons so that balances it out. 

Why: I needed a black cardigan that was a nicer than your stranded basic. 

         It was also back when I didn't wear skirt on my waist so I needed one with a bit more length 

Want: Yeah, it's good for the extra cold days  

Wishing for Spring

I have a cold and its truly starting to be winter in Melbourne.So I'm longing for warmer weather already, but I have months to wait. I'm packing away my summer clothing and I'm finding I have very little clothing suitable for winter. I keep trying to remember what I wore last winter, but all I can remember are jeans and jumpers and that I hated that I could never find jeans that fit. 

 

 

 

Why:  Since I lived in Newcastle I’m no longer a winter person, I feel the cold all the time. Last year I was impatiently waiting for spring because I knew it meant summer, we had moved house in July and were attempting to put out stamp on the new place. Michael agreed to buy me four (they were buy 1 get on free) cherry blooms as they were a sure sign of spring and reminded me of Japan.

What: They are in my backyard looking very sad. They have been infected with Cherry Tree slugs again and the spiders have moved in as well. I think they need to go in the ground. But I don't have anywhere to put them.  This weekend I'm going to give them a good spray to get rid of the pest and see if I can find somewhere to plant them.

When: September 2011

Want: Yes but I don't think I'm giving them the best home.

Hunting: is settling on the not quite right product better than finding the perfect item.

Do you ever get the feeling your want something and then it moves from a “hmm I'd really like to have [random item]” to “I need [random item], Now!” and then the hunting begins.

Sometimes it a normal hunt, you keep your eyes out for it when you happen to be shopping and that is the extent of your looking. But then there are the times when you look in every shop you can thinking of whenever you have a free moment and it becomes quite frenzied. 

I get struck with this more often than I would like. It can range from shoes to jackets and even household goods. Murphy’s law means as soon as I decided to want it I can’t find it anywhere. The longer it takes the more I want it, and my expectations raise as well. Two recent items that sent me slightly nutty were needed for my trip to Japan. One was are a good pair of cute ballet flats for walking, the other was a match everything I own jacket. I started early because I had a deadline, but slowly time slipped away and I hadn’t found either.

I then started to get frantic.  With the shoes, I started to think of alternates to what I had decided I wanted, I looked at outfit photos online and decided I could handle a pair of loafers. This sent me on another whirlwind tour of shops to no avail. In the end I purchased a pair I had seen at the start and at the time of purchase as far as I was concerned I was settling.

The jacket was different again, I found plenty but they were never the right size, shape or colour. Until I saw a photo of exactly what I wanted and when it came in it was perfect. The only drawback was the price, for the make and materials used I felt it was a bit costly. I purchase it anyway because in my eyes it was perfect.

The results ended up being slightly backwards. I love the shoes and live in them, they are the best shoes I own and I will be getting another pair soon, These are the shoes I “settled on”

While the jacket ended up being less adaptable than I felt it should be, I wear it but not in the way or amount I had planned when I imagined it.

It makes me wonder where does this frantic need for something come from? Is it really a good indicator of something I will use frequently or are those random chance finds just as good or better. Did the shoes turn out so wonderfully because I didn't have high expectations for them?

The Cute Mouse gets the Cheese  

     

Why:  It was too cute!

What: It sits on the a shelf, I have used it once or twice but I keep thinking it’s too nice to use. This is a bit weird for me as I think something only has real value when I use it.

When: Feb 2011

Want: YES! Have you seen how cute the mouse is

Hoot Hoot

 

Why:  Because it was cute and it was an owl. I even withheld for a while… then couldn't hold out any more because I loved it so much

What:  It sits next to the stove holding the utensils I find I need all the time, scissors, Tongs, two spatulas... you get the idea.

When:  Feb 2011

Want: YES! 

What happened?

 So after over two months with no update, I thought it was about time to post something.

This blog came to a grinding holt for a few reasons, the first being I got busy. Life took over and Internet time reduced to 5 minutes here and there on etsy or Facebook.

The other was that while the plan to reduce my spending had started with good intentions it was heading down a dark path and I was unhappy.

I know what your thinking, over reacting much? It's just shopping.

But it was like a diet, I was starving myself and only eating grapefruit. So then I would crack eat a whole block of delicious, delicious chocolate(large expensive purchase) and then beat myself up over. I even started to think Michael was really angry at me every time I brought something. In the end I had become a mess of guilt and unhappiness. 

 I had to just let go for a bit, it amounted to a bit of shopping but not as much as expected, it was slower and more controlled but naturally not forced. I still understand my dependence on buying thing to be happy is not a good, but I will work on the over time.

 I also gave myself time to sit down and sew, I was getting hung up on wrecking my nice fabric but I knew there was no point in keeping it around. Once I let go I found making things was fun and rewarding. Some of them have turned out different to how I imagined, everything has turned out too big, but it’s fun to nut out how to fix them. I have 3 new skirts, that cost me under $50. I have a dress and another skirt in the works.  Because of these new skills I now go to a store, and think “I could make that for Under $20 and you want $XXXX for it?”

 As for where this blog will go, I still like the idea of focusing on things I own,  remembering why I have something was a good lesson. So I think I will keep going but maybe I will post an item a day instead. I also think Daily Outfit post would help remind me of clothing I own and how I have worn something previously. My only problem is I find having my photo taken unpleasant. But we’ll see.

Edit: I should add Michael was not annoyed with me at all, it was all in my head.

Biker Chic... I don't even own a push bike

 

Why:  I had always wanted a leather biker jacket, going to gigs over the years I had seen them on girls and they just looked cool.

What: I think I wore it 3 times in total and one of them was for these photos. Every time I put it on I felt bulky and very masculine, I was already unhappy with the lack of femininity (is that even a word or did I make it up?)  I had with my clothing and this just compounded it. This was a few years ago when I think I owned 2 skirts and maybe a dress. It sat in storage until  the start of this year, when I thought maybe it would be OK over a dress or skirt.  I put it on and it does look ok, but I just still can't bring myself to wear it.

When: Feb 2008

Want: Nope! I think I'm going to put it on eBay, it is a really nice jacket… and will look awesome just on someone else.

Playing around with things I don't wear

One new addition which has been the drive behind all my shopping trips the past few weeks is the shoes in the photos above. With the holiday to Japan approaching soon I realised my trusty brown shoes were not going to cut the trip (the holes gave it away).  I remembered how sore my feet were after each day of walking last time and realised I needed something with support and cushion.

You would think it would be easy to find shoes, but it wasn’t it. Being a size 10-11 already reduces the range, but no matter where I looked, high price range to low, nothing looked good. At one stage I even contemplated getting son CROCS, I know sounds bad but they have one niceish pair.

Then after I just about gave up I realised maybe I was the problem, I had boxed myself into an idea of what shoes would look good on me and didn't try any other style. I live in ballet flats, as aside from being cheap and comfy, they add no extra width or length to my feet.  They also had to have a rounded to, as for some reason I'm drawn to round toed shoes.  With this mindset I had pretty much ruled out a lot of shoes.

So to break out of my comfort zone I picked up pair of shoes which had a chunky feel to them, with a non-rounded toe.  It's been about two weeks, while I wouldn't say I LOVE them, they have been my shoes of choice most days.

  

I'm trying to wear different things in my wardrobe at the moment. I tend to get stuck on the same outfits and wear them to death. Summer never really happened here so a lot of my summer clothing will be following me into winter with layers over the top hopefully without too many new additions.

I had a day at home and picked out some of the some things I don't really wear that often to give them a second (in some cases first) chance to win me over.  Paired with the new shows I don't mind what I came up with.