Halloween inspiration

ARRR! Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! I am attending a Pirate Party tonight in full pirate regalia and that has me thinking of Halloween. Unfortunately most of my thoughts have been on grad school. First semester of grad work and I'm already struggling; full time student and full time job does not equal happy Kelly. Shiver me timbers!

Anyway, posting will probably fall the wayside, so here is a lazy post with some Halloween inspiration pictures from Flickr.

Autumnal wishlist: knits

I like big picture books

I stumbled across this book in doing some google searching for costume making (see prior post) and the cover had my attention instantly. Fortunately, the library had it so I didn't have to continue my recent trend of spending way too much money on books. This book has the most intense pictures of clothing details I have ever seen. It makes me want to sew reproduction historical pieces- I have zero reason to sew an historical garment other than the pure fun and frustration of it. I would love to find more books like this- there must be a series- of clothing from different time periods, especially modern couture pieces. Let the search ensue!

Halloween 2007!

Kodak Moment!
Originally uploaded by ivanaskwith

I'm seriously considering making these costumes for Husband and myself. This pic is from a Flickr member ivanaskwith and was taken at ComicCon.

This is a seriously intense crafty undertaking, I think it's fun to set my ambitions very high, because it's fun to dream and try.

*this will not be the last Halloween entry before Halloween, I do so love it!

Thrifty finds

I've been on a huge vintage/thrift store kick for a couple weeks. I'm thinking about maybe doing some reselling eventually on eBay, but for now I'm just having fun hunting for stuff.

I came across a vintage Diane Von Furstenberg dress, unfortunately not one of her wrap dresses, but silk nonetheless, and $5.99!


I also found a plaid vintage top. I don't think I have the personality to pull it off, but it is very cute. It's by Rio Blouse.



Another dress, there's no brand tag but there's a small tag that says Lot 5. It almost looks homemade. I tried it on after I got home, and again, not sure if I can pull it off...still very cute, though.




I also found 2 pairs of heels. One is a maroon pair of peep-toe Hush Puppies, and the other pair is by Made in Brazil, they are a brown leather peep-toe with a wooden heel. I'm keeping both pairs, for sure.

Long time, no post

I haven't even been that busy not to post. I have no excuse. Well, last week I was on vacation in Sunset Beach, NC. I took zero pictures as it was the same thing everyday, lying on the beach and swimming in the warmer part of the Atlantic Ocean (Sand Beach it is not!).

I made a resolution on vacation that I would get my financials in order, e.g. SAVE MY MONEY, BE ABLE TO RETIRE SOMEDAY. I'm certainly not in dire fudiciary straits comparitively but I could use some stringent budgeting and saving.

But that stuff is no fun to post about...the family Lobster Feed is Saturday, I'm pumped for some good Maine Lobster (especially after an unfortunate Alaskan Crab experience). Last year it was at my parents' house in the country, this year it's at my aunt's house in the "city", so PuppyMan will not be attending. It's a shame as he so loved his first experience with a crustacean:





I have no idea what was going on in his puppy-brain but the resulting behavior was hilarious.

The Sewer-Worker's Wife

Maybe I should change the name of this blog for the summer. Husband is temporarily working for Bangor's Public Works, the Sewer Department, as a laborer. Last summer Husband did the scholarly thing and attended a 3 week workshop on Longfellow at Bowdoin; this summer it's 6 weeks of jackhammering manhole covers and sewer flushing.

I married this man knowing he had a flair for the unusual and I am very proud of him for venturing out of his comfort zone of indoors and non-manual work. Husband apparently loves what he's doing. He's a poet in a hardhat.

For the Love of Vintage

I'm obsessed with, and have always been, Old Stuff. I majored in Art History, that was an amazing four years of looking at and writing about Old Stuff. I like things that have had many owners and "seen" eras come and go. Antique or vintage or ancient I love it all.

I am fortunate enough to have some truly amazing vintages pieces via my late Great Aunt Gertie. I have her wooden ironing board, some of her tablecloths, some of her costume jewellery, her kitchen chairs, a pink dinnerware set, and some dainty teacups. I wish I had more of her Old Stuff. Perhaps this is why I love vintage stuff so much, I miss her and this Stuff reminds me of her. Her Old Stuff was the subject of an entire semester of artwork, the Gertie Series, if you will. Think Wayne Thiebaud and his cakes and pies-ah, he deserves his own post.

I'm certainly no purist, though. Anything that even looks vintage or is reminiscent of something vintage gets me too. Take for example my large collection of pink KitchenAid, not actual vintage, but that 1950s light pink...*drool*...or reproduction fabric, I dig it. Here are some of my favorites:

FabricAttic.com





FashionFabricsClub.com


And, of course, ReproDepot.com!
I'd push people out of the way for this fabric...

Living up to my Blog's name

This past weekend I certainly filled the role of The English Teacher's Wife, demure and supportive, as we spent a large portion of Saturday and part of Sunday attending various graduating seniors's parties. These seniors, or maybe 18 year olds in general are always so surprisingly grown up and at the same time so naive. What a strange stage in life.

Earlier on Saturday I went shopping with my mom "for Father's Day". Somehow Mom and I managed to get a few things for ourselves as well. Mom actually bought me a rose toile patterned quilt for our bed and (thoughtful Mom, she is!) a color-coordinating blanket to go over the quilt so PoochieMan could luxuriate without getting hairs all over it. Doesn't he look comfy?




I also made some headway on getting my summer dress made. The fabric is cut out now I just need to find some free time to get it stitched together.

Did I say I was obsessed?

I made this t-shirt to go see 28 Weeks Later...yeah...I did.

Consider it like people that dress up to see Pirates, or Harry Potter. I just happened to be the only one to do it for this movie.

I used this amazing tutorial except I used fabric paint instead of screenprinting ink. In the future I think I will A.) Use screenpriting ink B.) Use a looser weave of fabric.

According to the site from which I got the image: "The first draft of the IR promotional poster was 'too in your face'". Well, considering I almost had to leave the theatre while watching 28 Days Later because I was so disturbed by it I'd say this creepy poster would have been very apropos!

Enemy Territory

It is hard for me to admit this as a Red Sox fan, but touring Yankees Stadium for an Uncle's 60th birthday party was awesome. I married a New Yorker and fortunately he did not inherit the Yankee Fan gene, the rest of this family however...

Two of the more thrilling parts of the tour was being able to sit in the dugout and visiting the club house. This was the weekend the Yankees were in Boston, so I'm not sure if the locker room looks any different when the players are at home. The lockers were surprisingly personal, Mussina apparently reads Field & Stream magazine (Husband remarks, "I read that!"); according to his locker contents Matsui uses Speed Stick deodorant and is a very neat and orderly individual. I really wanted to see both Jeter's lockers, one for him, one for his fan mail, but it was in the back (we were smooshed in a small area separating us from the lockers by means of those nylon "velvet ropes").

Considering the fact that this historical stadium will be torn down soon I am happy I was able to see it. Whether Yankees fan or not one cannot help but be a little bit in awe of the Greats that have played in the "House that Ruth Built".

More dessert goodness

I'm certainly not the cook in our house, not for lack of skill, but Husband is so very good at it. My domain is dessert. This is an Everyday Food recipe from Mahtha Stewaht. These went over really well when we had some friends over for supper last week. On a side note, I had no intention of posting recipes here, but this was too good not to post, from Martha:

MAKES 6
2 packages graham crackers
3 milk chocolate bars (1 1/2 ounces each)
3 cups mini marshmallows
Chocolate ice cream
Vanilla ice cream

Heat broiler. Break graham crackers into squares, and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Layer chocolate over a third of the graham-cracker squares; cover the remaining graham-cracker squares with marshmallows. Place under the broiler, and toast until chocolate is just melted and marshmallows are lightly browned, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Remove from oven, and while still warm, transfer a marshmallow-covered cracker to each serving dish. Add a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Top chocolate ice cream with a chocolate-covered cracker, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Top vanilla ice cream with another marshmallow-covered cracker, and drizzle with hot fudge sauce. Serve immediately.

Zombie Love

Okay, I was hesitant to make this my first actual post as it is quite disgusting, but I feel it expresses my love for homemade things as well as zombies. This was a birthday cake for a good friend who lets me indulge in my zombie fetish and doesn’t call me crazy. He too, appreciates all things zombies so it was only fitting this be a cake for him. I copied the idea from a post on the Craftster forum.

** 10/21/08**Updated picture to my actual cake...apologies to Kate (Craftster author) for using her pic for the last year and a half- I had them both saved on my computer and erroneously uploaded hers and never looked back.

New and Novice

This is an experiment....Welcome! As the title of this post indicates I'm not quite sure what I am doing. There are some really well-done, fascinating blogs out there and I have no intention of ever actually living up to those, but I am willing to give it a go.

This will hopefully be an outlet for getting back into the swing of writing and for other creative endeavors.