New 30 Day Challenge!

I luuurv music so when I ran across this on Brook White's- 

-Yes, the Brook White for all of you American Idol fans. Can I just geek out for a moment? I am in a wonder that I can comment on her blog and she reads it, simple as that. I mean I've read the whole seven degrees to Kevin Bacon thing, but still, some one who I saw on one of what used to be my fav shows (it died when for me when Paula left, it just wasn't the same any more) and I never though I would get to have any contact with anyone on the show, but now through the blog world I can directly contact one of my favorite artists! Sorry, done geeking out now!-

Sooo, anywhoodle back to the reason for this post! I came across this and decided to do it! I had lots of fun with the last one I did, so come Feb 1st get ready to find out more about my music library the anyone ( me included!) needs and or wants to know! 

For those of you who are super observant you will note that Feb only has 28 days, so I will be doubling up for the first few days to make it come out even, wish me luck!=) 

Day 01 – Your favorite song

Day 02 – Your least favorite song

Day 03 – A song that makes you happy

Day 04 – A song that makes you sad

Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone

Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere

Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event

Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to

Day 09 – A song that you can dance to

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep

Day 11 – A song from your favorite band

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love

Day 15 – A song that describes you

Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate

Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio

Day 19 – A song from your favorite album

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you're driving

Day 22 – A song that you work out to

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral

Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

I ♥ Cherries

  

Shirt/Cami: Jc Penny $16 for both

Skirt: Made by me from an old dress also made by me

Tights- Wal-Mart $5

Shoes-Wal-Mart $12

Necklace: Made by me

Earrings: Won from Polka Dot made by BellaStar

This is the necklace I'm wearing. I made this set from an old anklet that had broken, I sold this set, but had a charm left over and made myself a necklace!

A close up of the skirt fabric, this makes 2 cherry skirts and two cherry dresses.....I may be contemplating another skirt, or maybe a shirt.....I may be a tad obsessed with cherries.....

I could have included this pic because I'm showing off the earrings.....or I could be including this pic because I like how tall and skinny I look.....I will leave you to decide what the real reason is! ;-)

 

♥Wish List♥

A few of the things that hopefully will be gracing my closet soon!

~Kelly Green Trench~

That's right, I've found a kelly green trench coat! On eBay for $24.99, hopefully in 9 hours it will be mine! I saw one At WalMart last year and had it in my hands to buy, but put it back, saddest day ever!

Then I saw Samantha Brown (What?! You have no idea who Samantha Brown is? She is only the best travel show host ever!) wore a Kelly green trench coat on her Ireland trip, and as anyone who knows me knows, anything to do with Ireland has me hooked! I kicked my self to the curb for not getting the coat when I had the chance, they didn't have any more in my size, they had all the other sizes, but not mine. They sat there, no one buying them until they got to the $5 clearance rack, bummer! Keep your fingers crossed!

Have you ever almost bought something, then put it back only to beat yourself up about it later? Or am I just obsessive that way?

~Birthday Dress~

Peggy over at She Hath Done What She Could did a post featuring a dress from ehsatki. All I have to say is bye bye money! I can sew, but know after years of searching that I can 't find fabrics like that and have fallen in love with almost every dress on the site! Go and check it out, but only if you have have a large chunk of free time!

There is a custom fit feature for only $7.50 more. For those of us with um.....hard to fit figures (can anyone say top heavy?) This feature is very exciting! My birthday is in June, but it's never to early to start thinking about what to wear when I turn a quarter of a century! (Maybe a gorgeous dress will take some of the sting out of turning 25 and still being single!)

If I had something to do on Valentines day I would be ordering this dress right now, it is payday after all! But as my only plans so far are working form 7am-4pm I don't think I will be buying this dress! *sigh*

~White Sandals~

Bass Margie

I refuse to spend another summer in white flip flops! But alas, I have yet to find a pair of white sandals that comes in wide and doesn't look orthopedic! I also will spend more then $25 on boots of winter shoes, but it galls me to spend so much on sandals! Hopefully these will fit the bill!

♥My Favorite Things♥

~ The First 5 seconds of This Clip~

I just can't stop watching it, over and over and over and over and over and over.....do you get the picture?


~This Hoodie~

~This Necklace~

~Their hair~

(Click here to visit her lovely blog!)

 ~This Movie~
If you have Netflix it's streaming right now! It's this movie that inspired me to get a pair of sailor jeans, unfortunately they don't look quite the same on me!

~This Video~

I bought it on eee~Bay!

I loved this set of eBay commercials, does anyone else remember them?

Obviously they worked to some extent on me, because every few months I will go search for skirts and dresses in my size and bid on the ones I think are cute. After two years of doing this I have NEVER won any of the things I bid on.....until last December where I won everything I bid on! Luckily I had the money and I got some good and some not so good things! Obviously my version of XL (there's that pesky size again!) and some peoples are very different! 

$15 Old Navy Maternity dress. Who knew that Old Navy had a maternity line! It wasn't being billed as one, so sorry pregnant ladies out there that I bid against!

$10, Cold Water Creek Skirt. I shortened it considerably and put a new waistband in. The old one was all weird and stretched out and the skirt touched the floor. I love the trim, I'm far to lazy to add things like that to my clothes, so I was very happy when I won this skirt!

$16 Kohls Apt 9. This dress made me rethink my aversion to black in the summer! I normally avoid black; summer and winter, but within the past few months a few black pieces have crept into my wardrobe!  

$5 Shirt Apt 9 Kohls. I don't like it paired with this skirt, but I do love this shirt! 

$1.99 Kohls Apt 9. Another knit dress, I have found that I looove knit dresses! I'd never wanted to pay upwards of $30 for a dress made out of t-shirt material, so I hadn't tried any yet. I'm addicted now!

$8 Hannah Anderson plaid skirt. I'd been looking for a Christmas skirt to wear to things like the Nutcracker and the Christmas parade. I never got to wear it this year, but I'm super excited for next year! I feel so vintage in this outfit, not really any specific era, just vintage!

$2 Layne Bryant skirt. I love blue and white together and while it's a little less full at the top then I'm used to, I love the way it swishes at the hem! This is another outfit with a vintage feel, but I am unable to pin point a specific era!

 $10 vintage dress. My first real vintage piece of clothing, will I get in trouble if I change it into a skirt? The sleeves are a bit tight and while it's not tight around my chest I just feel like I'm going to "bust" (sorry couldn't resist!) out of it! The fabric is very light and almost sheer cotton gauze. Isn't the detailing wonderful?

$20 North Style dress. I have stalked this dress for a few years now waiting for it to go on sale, it never got down low enough for me to want to risk trying it. This is another knit dress and the few wrap style dresses I've tried on never fit in the bust area so I didn't want to spend $40 on a dress that might not work!

 Lovely twirly skirt, I feel so 40's in this! I'm going to wear this for Easter and as Easter is not until the last Sunday of April I should be able to wear it without freezing!

Yes, another picture of this dress, can you tell what my favorite find was? As soon as I put the dress on I knew I had to pair these shoes with it!

One skirt I shortened and gave to my little sister and the rest got sent to Good Will, the rejects didn't total more then $25-$30, so I figured it all came out in the wash being that I got such good deals on everything! Now, if someone can direct me to an XL Kelly Green trench, my spring and summer wardrobe will be almost filled out! I just need to find a source for shirts that won't shrink!!

I won!

♥Guess who won these darling little beauties?♥

That's right, me! If my foray into the bogging world has taught me anything it's that giveaways are awesome!=)

♥These are a few of my favorite things ♥

I've been meaning and meaning to start doing a weekly post of some of my favorite things, but obviously as this is my first one I haven't! I'll try to make this a regular feature and as I love so may things it shouldn't be hard! ♥ (Obviously someone figured out how to make the little ♥ *grin*)

Convertible Basics Bag
A brown leather bag(or leather like bag at these prices) cross body bag that can also become a back pack or an over the shoulder bag! And it's on sale? I may be adding this to my collection very soon! =)

This has got to be the best oatmeal ever! I made some for the little girl I nanny and tasted it to make sure it wasn't too hot.....then may have proceeded to eat the other two pouches in the box.....or maybe I restrained myself.....or maybe I ate them both.....I'll leave it to you to decide!

These boots from Amazon. I've had the same Wal-Mart pair of boys snow boots for at least 4 or 5 years. I'm pretty sure it's time for an upgrade!

This Cardigan form Cold Water Creek. It's on a really good sale and I'm thinking it would be a good fit for recreating this outfit!

Yes, more food! Food will be a regular participant in these posts as I am a big fan! As a chai fanatic I have been searching high and low for the perfect blend of spicy-milky-teay goodness. I have finally found the PERFECT cup of chai, hot or cold! (Hmm, blogger does not like the word chai!) I put off trying the wet mix(Boy that sounds yucky doesn't it? Wet mix, no wonder I hesitated to try it!) I finally tried the dry mix and it was okay, but tasted of dry milk which was off putting.

Then I saw the three pack of the wet mix at Costco and decided to go ahead and try it. Boy, am I happy we did! I've got my Mom and sister both hooked on it too, though I'm pretty sure I am responsible for the lions share of consumption! If you are a fellow chai fan and can get your hands on this mix, you will not be disappointed!

Pay It Forward!

I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds like fun! 

Here's how it works:

The first FIVE people who leave a comment will get something hand-made by me.

They in turn, must commit to doing the same thing on their blog.

Please include your e-mail address so that I can contact you re: address, etc.

1. Ashley Nicole

2. Tonya

3.

4.

5.

I will add the names and blog links of the five as I receive them.

Now, were did I put my macaroni and kite string..... ;-)

Huge Giveaway!

See that purty new button on the top left of the screen? Click on it to enter to win one of 26 (yes you read that right!)  beautiful prizes! =)

Or click on this THIS LINK!

These are a few of my favorites!

Last Day!

Day 7 of Natasha's modest fashion week. I can't believe today is the last day, it's gone by so fast! =)

More teal, can you tell what my favorite color to wear is? hehe

Shirt- Jc Penny $7.80

Skirt- made by me from an old jumper

Boots- Naturalizer $140

Necklace- Etsy $50 (Yes, I paid that much for a necklace, what can I say? When you fall in love all reason goes out the window!!)

Autumn Kiss Necklace check out the rest of the things that she sells, there all beautiful!

I'm an Early Worm Today!

Day 6 of Natasha's fashion week!

What? I'm getting my post in before dinner? Is that allowed? Maybe I should just wait.....

No to much effort, the remembering that is! I'll just do it now, I hope. I'm pretty sure I put a link back to Natahsa's blog on day 5 instead of my own.....maybe I should go check.....oops!

 Sweater- Jc Penny $15

Dress- Kohls Apt 9 via ebay $15

Tights- Wal-Mart

Shoes- Wal-Mart $12.50

Earrings- Made by me



~Pop of Color~

Day 5 of Natasha's modest fashion week!

Yes, I am a day late, what can I say? Besides....um.....I like cheese! (weren't expecting that, were you?) 

The sweater used to be a v-neck, but it shrank.Not liking the belly sweater look (odd I know, but my belly likes it privacy!) I cut it up the front, refinished the edges, re-sewed it about halfway up and added buttons.

Sweater- Jc Penny $15

Tank- Jc Penny $3

Skirt- Coldwater Creek via ebay then shortened $10

Boots- Naturalizer $140

Necklace- Wal-Mart $5 



Maaaggie and the Ferocious Beast

Day 4 of Natasha's fashion week!

Does anyone remember Maggie and the Ferocious Beast? I love that show and today my polka dot dress made me feel like Beast. Come to think of it, I also share his charming absent minded naivety and propensity to mispronounce words!

 Dress-Old Navy via e-bay $10 The tag says it's a maternity dress.....oops! It wasn't billed as a maternity dress and I didn't even know Old Navy had a maternity line! But, it fits really well and is very soft, go knit!

Tank- Jc Penny $3

Boots- Jessica London $60

Jewelry- Made by me! The necklace is exactly the same as the earrings.=)



Introducing the Penelope Coat!!

After I saw this movie in 2008 I was in love with the clothes, but it was the coat that caught my fancy the most. I immediately began looking for a pattern and fabric but couldn't find anything just right. CLICK HERE to see the journey from the beginning! (I just linked myself*grin*) Just this summer it all came together and after years of searching and months of planning and cutting and crying and sewing here it is!

Obviously not me, just a few reference pics to start! I loved the seam detailing and the color contrast. 

A close up so you can see the pointy cuffs (one of the things I changed) and the cotton floral lining.

 

My fabric is a very soft hi-low wale corduroy. I changed the fasteners from buttons to clasps, why you may ask? Well a few reasons, one being the fact that even though the muslin looked like it fit, the coat ended up being to big. I did not want to redo any of the piped seams, so I just took it all (literally) off of the front! I already had taken in the muslin an entire size and ended up taking about 3-4 inches off of each side of the front, this pattern runs big! It didn't have shoulder pads either, for which I was very glad, I hate shoudler pads!

It also got me out of having to learn to button holes on my new machine, it's a 5 step button hole-er, not an automatic like I'm used to! I also thinks it makes to coat look a little bit less costume-y.

Yes, I know I copied it from a costume, but I don't want to stick out to much. Though considering the uniform for where I live is ratty jeans, fleece and puffer jackets, I stick out like a sore thumb anyway, not wearing or even owning any of those things!

Here are the major differences between the original and mine. The color combo, mine is berry and purple. Penelope's is more navy-ish with red. The fasteners, mine clasps, hers buttons. The cuffs, I knew I would trail the longer ones through stuff, I'm like a little kid in that way! The curved hem, I didn't want to mess with drafting a French curve on a princess seam pattern and the shorter length should keep it out of the snow and mud.

A close up of the clasps and the collar. The underside of the collar is the lining fabric, it's like that in the movie too, I don't know how to take screen caps and I can't find  pic on the Internet, so you'll have to take my word for it. Hers is a little pointier, but I couldn't figure out how to pipe a point cleanly, so mine is curved. In studying the movie I'm pretty sure it's just two separate pieces of flat piping, one overlapping the other. I stole the collar pattern and the cuffs from a Vogue pattern, I had to change the lines a little bit but it was much easier then drafting my own! 

I love it! I was all done, but the hem was all bubbly looking on one side of the front, I was about ready to cry but then my wonderful Mom (who made me do everything on my own, she knew I could do it even though I wasn't so sure!) said ironing would help. I didn't believe her and had plans to rip out the hem (which had taken me 3 hours to hand sew! This is my first project with lots of hand sewing, I thought I had terrible hand sewing , but it's not that bad.....) but when I came home from work the next day it was all perfectly flat and ironed,  thanks Mom!

Puffed sleeves, Anne would be proud! It has inseam pockets too, piping around the pockets took a few tries, but I got it so you can't tell there is a pocket there. Unless my hands are them, of course! =)

I love the lining! I am going to make a skirt out of the extra.

 *Sigh* Why oh why would anybody want to wear a puffer jacket? Okay, before you get mad at me, there is a time and a place for puffer jackets, but please not all the time!

The back (obviously!)

With the teal scarf I got for Christmas, I knew I was getting it and was waiting very impatiently too see how it looked with the coat, perfect!

 I had to do a few pics with it wrapped like this!



I hope you all enjoyed taking this journey with me! It was certainly a roller coaster ride for me, but I couldn't be happier with the results! Thank you Penelope for be your inspiration with your beautiful clothing choices. Hmm, what movie wardrobe should I become obsessed with next..... ;-)