Lazy Hot Days

Happy Sunday!  It's been super hot here.  I think it reached ninety today, and the humidity was high.  I felt like we were swimming though the neighborhood during our evening walk around six-thirty/seven.  Even Moose was okay with only going for a half walk, instead of making it around the whole outer circle of the neighborhood.  I was going to venture to a different picture place other than my backyard again, but it was just to darn stinkin' hot.    This is what I wore today ...

Dress -- vintage thrifted

Belt -- hand-me-down from my Grandparent's basement

Shoes -- Dirty Laundry DIY lace-ups

I recently took in an inch on each side of the top half of this dress.  It fits just like a glove now.  Before I had way too much room in the chest area, and my already small boobs looked ti-ny!  I also fixed the bottom of the zipper in the back.  It had come loose, and left a gapping hole at the top of my bottom, so I'm glad that's all closed up now.  :)  I love this dress a ton.  I bought it at a great vintage/thrift store in Shoreditch, London. The print, and cut of the dress are perfect for me.   Great for throwing on, and getting things done.  I usually don't wear red, but I love the little red pipping on the pockets, and across the top.  The pockets are super useful.  I end up with loads of random things in them.  At one point today, I had my 75mm lens in one of my pockets!  I love how the blue and white pattern on my belt work with the pattern on the dress, they complement each other well.  I've been wearing either this pair, or my black pair of Dirty Laundry shoes everywhere these days.  I'm not one for flip flops, and these are the most comfortable pair of shoes I have for all these hot humid walks I keep taking Moose on.  

I mostly finished an awesome bracelet I crafted together, but I need to buy a toggle clasp to finish it off.  That's what I spent most of my day working on, and hanging out in the sunshine, trying not to spend the entire day hiding indoors.  Now that the sun is setting, I'm hiding out dreaming of eating popsicles, and watching Lie To Me.  I hope ya'll are keeping cool where ever you're reading this from, and happy DIYing, chris!  

Layer Up! Even in the Spring!

Who says you have to shed the layers in the Spring?  Personally, as a layer junkie, I never stop piling on the layers of fabric.  I love to blend different colors, textures, and patterns.  In the Spring, I am wearing just as many layers as in the Fall or Winter, but now my layers are made of light weight materials. For me layering is essential in the Spring and Summer.  As I move between air conditioned buildings and the hot humid outdoors, and deal with the ever fluctuating weather I like to be prepared.  I'd rather have too many layers on, and have to shed a few due to the heat, than to shiver my butt off.  

This outfit is a perfect example of my addiction to layering.  I have FIVE layers on, not including the leggings or cardigan!  I didn't wear the cardigan for most of the day, but shortly before we went for a walk we had a BIG thunderstorm.  Lots of rain and thunder, which made the temperature drop a few degrees.  I probably could have gone without the leggings too, but I have some unattractive poison ivy I'm trying to cover up.  Plus I don't like shaving my legs, when I have poison ivy rashes.  Thus, the leggings were a necessity today.  

I don't normally wear white.  I'm way too messy for white.  I bought this dress to wear in New Orleans on our Honeymoon.  I got a ton of compliments from strangers when I was wearing this dress.  I don't think I've ever received that many compliments before.  In my life, combined.  Maybe it was New Orleans, maybe it was this dress.  Either way I feel pretty when I wear it.  :)  Before the trip I thought I'd dye it when I got home, but I think I'll keep it white for now.  

I've had these shoes for a couple years now, and they only cost fourteen dollars.  Besides the one hole in the toe, they've held up great!  They even do well in the rain!  Even though everything was soaked, my feet made it through the neighborhood and home dry.  Whenever I go to shoe stores they always try to sell me those little peep-toe socks.  I take personal offense when this happens.  I feel like they are passive aggressively telling me they don't think it's 'cool' to see my socks.  I like my mismatched socks! And no, thank you sales-girl, I would not like to hid my fun socks in my shoes!

 Cardigan -- H&M

Top Three Layers -- Macy's

Bottom Three Layers (blue & pink slips) -- Vintage thrifted in Shoreditch, London

Black Leggings -- Target

Shoes -- Dirty Laundry

You can kind of see all five layers here.  The top three are white, then a blue slip, and on the bottom a pink slip.  I love this cardigan, it's a bit baggy, but I love the color.  It matches my eyes.  Ick! I was just looking at my hair in this photo, and I need those slit-ends removed, badly!  A.S.A.P.

It's been really rainy here lately.  I feel like every week for the last month has been overcast and damp, and the weekends have been sunny and humid.  I love thunderstorms in the Spring.  We get a lot of residual rains from the hurricanes in the south.  The wind changes frantically, and there is a yellow/greenish haze to the sky, then all of a sudden the rains rush in, and you can taste the ocean on the rain.  There is an energy in the air that can't be described, but it's thrilling, and whenever I'm away from the mid-atlantic area I miss this weather.  Hope everyone is have a great week thus far!  Happy DIYing, chris.

What I Wore ...

On our mini staycation two weekends ago.  

Dress -- H&M

Sweater -- T.J. Maxx

Tank-top -- H&M

Leggings -- American Apparel

Sandals -- DSW by Mix No. 6

Bag -- Jo Totes

I mentioned in Sunday's post that Aaron and I took some outfit pics on our mini staycation for our anniversary.  I'm wearing the same dress from this outfit post, but I've paired it with different layers.  I've also worn that sweater a ton, maybe a bit too much, as seen by my header ... I love layering!  Aaron makes fun of me for how many layers I usually have on, but I love mixing colors and textures!  The color and pattern of this dress is so girlie and cute, but it's super low cut, and short in the skirt, so I'm always pairing it with things to cover myself up.  This pair of leggings and tank top match perfectly, and there are bits of this color in the dress' flowers.  American Apparel calls this color Evergreen, I would normally think of evergreen as a darker color with less blue.  I'd call this color dark teal or aquamarine.  Whatever color this is, I love it!  

I wear my hair down all the time, but sometimes I like big curls in my hair.  I'm not one to spend too much time on my hair, so this is how I achieve that look.  I put my hair up in a messy bun while it's slightly damp.  To make it cute for our little anniversary date, I wrapped a vintage cloth belt around the bun.  I've kept this belt since I was a kid to use solely as a hair accessory.  I found it on a dress in my grandparent's basement when I was probably about seven.  Not sure what happened to the dress, cause it didn't fit me at the time I didn't pay it much attention.  

This bag from Jo Totes is amazing.  I can't rave about how awesome it is enough.  I love these leggings too.  I got them more then six years ago, and they've held up well.  The little white buttons are just perfectly adorable.  I'm not a foot person, and I generally like to keep my toes covered, but I couldn't resist the flowers on these sandals.  Plus strappy grecian or gladiator style sandals are my favorite.  

Yay for jumping, the beach, mini staycations, Aaron, nice weather, and the ocean!  Happy DIYing, and have a great tuesday, chris.

Wedding Anniversary Present

This is the outfit I got as a present for our one year wedding anniversary.  I wore it on Tuesday, it was super hot here in Delaware.  For this Saturday Blogger Love I wanted to try out Diversions' technique with cloning myself in an outfit pic.  I couldn't be more thrilled with the results.  It was way easy to do too!  I took my outfit pics with a tripod and self-timer as usual.  This time I tried to move around the frame and pose myself differently in each photo I planned on layering together.  In GIMP I layered all the photos together.  Erased the parts of the top layers that covered me up in the lower layers, and then there were four of me!  This photo definitely reflects my current mood.  I've been feeling cut adrift.  Caught in this strange dream space.  I want to do this cloning thing again!  Thanks Diversions!  

I bought this dress at a cute little local store at the Rehoboth Beach, called Super Kind. Which is where Aaron and I went for our anniversary.  I'll share some photos from our little beach adventure tomorrow. I love the colors and the pattern on the dress.  There is a silk slip attached as the bottom layer, and it makes me feel so girlie and pretty.   You can also see our two raised 4x4 garden beds.  The bed closest to the camera has four tomato plants, a Pink Ponderosa, Anise Noire, Cherokee Purple, and Riesentraube.   The back bed has a couple varieties of lettuce, some spinach, some chard, a Red Rock Mammoth Cabbage, and a broccoli plant.  

I love all the pretty flowers that are blooming right now.  It smells so good walking and driving around.  I love the smell of gardenias, and I can't wait until the honeysuckle starts!  

Love these colors together.  They matched perfectly with my dress, and I didn't even plan it!  

I usually hate photos of feet.  I'm not a foot person, but I had to show off how I painted my toe nails the color of the dots on my finger nails.  I love the feeling of grass or moss under my feet.  

One last photo of my nails, don't mind how awkwardly posed my hand is.  You can see my completed friendship bracelet in this photo.  I braided the end, and added some beads to finish it off.  Totally love it!  Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!  Happy DIYing, chris! 

Happy Easter Bunday!

Happy Easter Bunday!  If you don't celebrate Easter, then Happy Bunday Sunday, and whatever holiday you may or may not celebrate! :)

Let's pretend this is what we wore today.  I wore this outfit earlier in the week, and Aaron wore the bottom half of his outfit today.  They would have been brilliant Easter outfits!  

Aaron's                                                        Mine

top:: cowboy store in Idyllwild, CA                      sweater:: H&M

jeans:: Levi's 514s from Urban Outfitters             dress:: H&M

shoes:: DC                                                            slip:: vintage from London

bunnies:: Pier1                                                     tights:: Target

                                                                             boots:: cowboy store in Cowtown, NJ

                                                                             hair pins:: Handle & Spout

I kind of have crazy eyes in this photo, and my neck is at a weird angle.  We had a couple better ones, but the sun had moved to make some terrible bright spots.  I love these sunny days, and they make me think it's a great day for photos, but it's so hard to deal with all that bright sunny contrast!!!  I need to get better at photographing in the sun.  

This was Aaron's idea.  Isn't he cute?  After taking the photos he told me he had fun, and that it actually made him feel good about himself.  I think we might do more couple photos.  If it does good things for both of our self-esteem, it can't be a bad thing!  I think most normal people need a little self-esteem boost from time to time.  It's important to be happy with who you are, and what you look like!  

I love my cowboy boots but I rarely wear them.  I only own flats, and even though these don't have much of a heel I feel so silly clomping around in them.  It's  not easy to be sneaky with clunky heels on!  I even wore flats on our wedding day, even though Aaron is a whole foot taller than me!

Hope ya'll had a great weekend, happy DIYing, chris!

Owlbow Patches and an Outfit Post

This past fall I noticed elbow patches were coming back in style.  Urban Outfitters has a cute yellow sweater with yellow patches, and ModCloth has a casual grey cardigan with faux leather elbow patches.  Then around Valentine's Day I noticed these heart elbow patches going around the internet, and they got me thinking ...  I want some elbow patches! 

BUT I wanted something different from what I was seeing out there.  I had this little idea in my head so I googled it "owl elbow patches", and the first hit I got was The DIY Mommy's elbow patches for a little boy's cardigan.  Cute, but not exactly what I was looking for.  Then I dug a little deeper into the interwubs, and found Bugs and Fishes' stuffed Felt Owl.  Though I didn't want to make a stuffed owl, I loved the way she designed her owl.  She has a great printout template, but I made my own instead.  I changed the nose up a little, but otherwise I kept him the same.  

I love how they turned out!  You can definitely tell my embroidery skills improved with the second owlbow patch.  Ha!  To see my beginnings you can click here.  I had a little trouble getting the first one in the right spot.  Which I didn't realize until I was just about finished stitching him in place.  On the second one I had a little trouble with bunching, but this didn't require me to remove as many stitches.  Aren't they cute?

What I'm Wearing:

*necklace from American Eagle (one of my favorite lady pal's gave this to me!)

*top sweater (with elbow patches) from Boscov's (it's a local department store, I bought the sweater for work.  The flower is covering up my work's logo)

*bottom sweater and dress from H and M (and you can't see, but I have a tank top on from them as well)

*slip is vintage

*I have two pairs of stockings on, and I'm not sure where either of them are from.

*boots from Bed Bath and Beyond (crazy, huh?)

*white flower pin is from Claire's, it also doubles as a hair clip.  I love it when I own something that has dual purposes!   

Happy DIYing, chris!

A little green for the holiday ...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I'm not Irish or Catholic, so I don't do much for this holiday, but I do enjoy an excuse to wear bright green!  So I have another outfit post for today.  I know I've been doing a lot of post about myself lately, and not so much on the DIY front.  I guess I've just been inspired by the bloggers I've been following.  

Here are two more blogs I started following this week.  I found Diversions over on Elycia's blog.  I love Stef's style, great combination of colors and patterns!  Plus she always seems to have her nails painted and super cute rings on.  The other blog is Fine & Feathered, and I found Josie on craftgawker with her post about covering your lappy with contact paper.  She executed it perfectly, so I decided to poke around her blog some more, and I really enjoyed her other posts!  She has cute style, more muted colors and patterns than I usually go for, but she's so pretty and her photos are inspiring, and she has fun DIYs!  I'm excited to see what these two ladies put out there in the future.  

My Outfit:

headband -- from Target

sunglasses -- from Urban Outfitters

necklace -- from Urban Outfitters

sweater -- from T.J. Maxx

yellow & grey tank top -- from ModCloth

peach tank top -- H&M

pants -- Delia's

socks -- Target

shoes -- DIYed Dirty Laundry

Most of the photos my husband took, except for the close-ups I took those.  Hope ya'll enjoyed, and are being safe this holiday.  There is no rule that says you have to drink until you're green (or at all for that matter)!  Until tomorrow, happy DIYing, chris.

Happy Spring!

With all these sunny beautiful days I had to try another outfit post.  I also got my Wacom tablet working!  Turns out it was just the pen that wasn't working.  Well I'm still not able to use photoshop, but Gimp isn't so bad.  

I love this dress.  I bought it when I was studying abroad in London back in 2005.  I found it in this amazing vintage shop in Shoreditch.  I'm pretty sure it's handmade.  

The blue jacket is from Heritage 1981, and I love how soft and comfortable it is.  The little red sweater is from H&M.  The yellow bracelet I inherited from my step-grandmother.  

This is definitely my favorite yoga pose, and my outfit looks pretty cute in this shot!  My stockings I got for Christmas, so I'm not positive where they're from.  The shoes are a pair of Dirty Laundry shoes I DIYed.  My hair bow was a free gift (with purchase) from ModCloth, they give the best gifts.  Their lil' presents just encourage me to buy more things, to see what I'll get for free!  

Happy Spring Everyone!!!  Hope ya'll are enjoying some sunny weather too!  Happy DIYing, chris.  

Photo an Hour

I've been seeing people doing a photo an hour for a day around the internet, and I thought that was a pretty great idea.  It's a fun exercise to get you in the practice of photographing the little stuff in life.  I decided to make this a little more of a challenge for myself, and finally switching my camera over to Manual Mode.  Another rule I made for myself was to only use the available light, no flash all day long.   I also pushed myself to use gimp to edit the photos together.  That way I didn't bombard ya'll with 15 individual photos.  Though I still used preview to add text, how terrible is that?!  I took these photos this past Sunday.

7AM- I love this little giraffe I keep my toothbrush in.  My husband has a lil' cow.
8AM- I was pretty pleased with this pic.  Makes me want a cup of coffee right now (even if it's almost 10PM)!
9AM- I wore a dress and little sweater from H&M, and my leggings are from American Apparel.  The duvet is from Ikea.
10AM- After reading Delightfully Tacky's post on using her self timer for self portraits I decided I *had* to get back into the habit of photographing myself.  This photo is my first attempt.

11AM- We needed to go to the mall to try to buy some new clothes.  I always make sure to give Cricket a snuggle before I go anywhere.
12PM- I talked about this on my post on Sunday.  I always have a terrible time finding black pants for work that are the correct length and width for my short legs.  I can't imagine these pants would look any good if I just had them hemmed.
1PM- My mom got me this camera bag for Christmas this past year.  It's from Jo Totes, beautifully made camera bags for stylish ladies.  The inside of my bag is padded, and black & white houndstooth!
2PM- I bought a cardigan and a pair of fingerless mitten gloves from Forever 21.  They were on sale, and I couldn't pass them up!  My husband got a pair of shorts from JcPenney.

3PM- Cricket begging for her dinner.  She eats at five.
4PM- Another attempt with the self timer.  I changed outfits too!   Now I'm wearing a sweater and tank top from H&M, and my jeans are from Urban Outfitters.  My shoes are converse slip-ons.  I love that you can see my mismatching socks in this pic.
5PM- This wacom tablet was a pain in the butt!  Turns out the pen was the problem, but I still can't get photoshop to work!  I must be tired too, because I just realized I add text to that photo that says 'wacom tablie'.  Opps!

6PM- All those wacom issues made me need to do some stretching.
7PM- I know this is a terrible thing, but I ate a WHOLE bowl of cereal AFTER dinner.  I guess there are worst things I could be eating at seven in the evening, like a double bacon cheeseburger!
8PM- Zoned out watching TV.  My PJ pants are from Target, my sweater was a gift from my husband's mum.  Melinda is a lovely lady, and I feel like I'm getting a big hug from her every time I wear this sweater.
9PM- I know I'm a wuss.  I feel asleep shortly after I took this pic.  If you can't tell I am sleeping with  a stuffed animal.  It's a soft bunny from Pier1 Imports.  My husband loves stuffed animals as much as I do, and it's kind of dangerous that he works at Pier1, because the stuffed animals are our favorite items there!

Well I hope ya'll enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed photographing them.  I'll definitely be doing a photo an hour again!  Not only is it a great way for me to work on my photography, but it's a great way for you (my readers) to get to know me better.  :)  Happy DIYing, chris!