Friends: do you ever have a piece of a project that absolutely paralyzes your ability to make a decision? I don't care if it's a craft-related project, but perhaps it's writing, work, whatever. When it's a hobby however, I personally find it's very easy and sometimes fun to let myself fall down into the rabbit hole of obsessing over making a decision over minute details. Enter my toggle hell. It's the first peek ... Read more »
Light on the bottom
Hi, friends! Before I move on to today's post, I have to stop and say how much I've been loving all your comments on my last post about my new hair color and more importantly, about celebrating yourself. Thank you for all the lovely compliments, but REALLY thank you for sharing all of the things you love about yourselves!! It's been refreshing and inspiring reading what everyone wrote. Honestly if you need a little dose ... Read more »
Blue eyes, black hair, and celebrating yourself
So I mentioned in my last post that I went back to black hair last week. I'm enjoying the much more carefree routine, including using our fancy rain shower head again, woo hoo! Prior to red, I had dark brown hair for awhile, but I've had black hair more often than not over the last decade or more. And I forgot something about it—it reminds me that I have blue eyes! It's the feature I really like about myself, ... Read more »
And then there was Snow White in a glass casket on a dress
At the end of last fall I was really excited about sewing knit dresses. Until I realized that sitting around wearing knit dresses a lot meant I'd gained a few pounds and hadn't even noticed. Whoops! So that kind of soured me on them for awhile. But there's one I never shared that has a great print, and I felt like busting it out recently since I don't know about you, but I could use a bit of fun in the dark days of ... Read more »
My pattern stash interview for Vintage Pledge at Kestrel Makes
Hi everyone! If you sew, you probably already know about Vintage Pledge, which is the vintage sewing challenge being hosted this year by Marie and Kerry. I'm tickled to say that Kerry interviewed me all about my vintage sewing pattern stash, and today the interview is up on her blog! So if you'd like to see a bunch of my favorite vintage patterns, and read what draws me to vintage patterns and the like, pop on over to ... Read more »
Tour of our retro kitschy kitchen!
Ready for our kitchen reveal?? Okay, "reveal" makes it sound like we did a big remodel. We didn't. We really we just painted, hung up some new blinds and installed a new doorbell. But if you've seen my previous two kitchen posts (where we painted and the "before before" photos), you may agree it's a pretty big change! Especially since that old paint kept me from ever sharing the kitchen on my blog. And now, a little ... Read more »
A technical look at my Innsbruck pullover
Hi everyone! I'm back with some details on my Innsbruck ski pullover. Like I said in my first post, I knew I was going to have a lot to say about the construction, so I wanted to dedicate a separate post to it for the folks who like the dirty details. As you may recall, I was initially planning on knitting the pattern exactly as written. It's an unusual construction, particularly for a vintage pattern: you knit the ... Read more »
Kitchen painting, by way of attic insulation
It took 2 years and 8 months of living with a disgusting kitchen color to finally DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. You never saw proper photos of our kitchen before, because I was embarrassed over the paint color. I would literally apologize to new guests about it. Wait, you saw me stand against one of the walls when I posted my Emery dress a year ago, and I even apologized for the color in that post! I filled it with cute ... Read more »
Innsbruck ski pullover
I wanted a comfortable, over-sized vintage ski pullover for winter, and now I've knit one! I have a good bit to say about the construction of this pullover, so I'm actually going to save that for a separate post on Thursday. I knit this from a pattern from a 1956 issue of Bernat Handicrafter magazine. Pretty wonderful look in the magazine, isn't it? I didn't knit the turtleneck quite long enough to double as ... Read more »
Knitting a new version of something old
I thought I'd share a little bit of details on a kind of fun project I've been working on lately! I've owned this red 1950s bolero for at last four years, and it's probably one of my most frequently worn articles of clothing. I wear it in the summer to cover up when I'm chilly or just want my shoulders covered without getting too hot, I wear it in the spring and fall, I sometimes will even wear it in winter with ... Read more »
A “before before” look at our kitchen
We love our little house, built in 1955. I've really neglected posting about the Golly Ranch (as we lovingly call it sometimes) on my blog. I do get asked questions about it and I'm totally guilty of procrastinating about taking proper photos and sharing some of the things we've done. Nothing nearly as intense as our bathroom remodel, but we've had un-blogged painting and decorating and minor fix-it projects. I thought ... Read more »
Joan C.’s flannel skirt
I've been sewing slowly so far in 2015. Thinking about my two coat projects, taking my time, and just knitting more, I guess. But I finally finished up a skirt I've had mostly done except for the hem for nearly 2 weeks! This is my first pattern for Marie and Kerry's Vintage Pledge. I pledged to sew from 5 vintage patterns this year, which should theoretically be easily do-able! This is McCall's 3853 from 1956, a nice ... Read more »
It’s going to be a queue jumping duffle coat!
Sometimes I find a pattern that tickles my fancy and suddenly I must make it nowwwww! Everything else gets put on hold. This is definitely one of those times! When I saw the new pattern from Grainline Studio this week, the Cascade duffle coat, oh my goodness, it was love at first sight. An A-line silhouette on a classic coat style, that still looks feminine. (Did you know duffle coats gained popularity due to the ... Read more »
Mary Rebecca
The first finished thing you're getting to see from me in 2015 is the last thing I finished knitting in 2014! (And I apologize that we've entered the season where you're mostly going to see me stand next to this stack of hat boxes in the guest bedroom trying to get decent lighting somewhere, since it's usually way too cold or snowy/sloppy for outside photos. Not that I don't already stand here half the time anyway, ... Read more »
Two red riding hoods and Alphonso
Over Christmas when Mel and I were at my mom and step-dad's house, I was lucky enough to get in some BFF time with Rochelle, who came to stay the first weekend of our trip with us! Uh, happy faces, anyone? This photo was taken just a few minutes after she got there. :) It was great, because other than an hour-long layover she had at O'Hare this summer, we hadn't seen each other since we hung out in March. ... Read more »
Vintage hairstyle trick to hide bangs
A little over a week ago, when I was at the salon getting my color touched up, I decided to have my stylist cut bangs. By the next day I was already regretting it! They're cute but don't feel "me" and even styling around them for a few days was making me angsty. But it's okay, because I've been there before and know how to grow them out. (Why do I never learn. Whyyy.) So my stupid move is your hair tutorial gain, and ... Read more »