wish: winter coats

1.Modcloth   2. House of Holland 3. Romwe

 4. Darling       5. Etro                     6. Topshop

 7. Vero Moda 8. Romwe              9. Modcloth

 The rainy season has just arrived in Oregon, which means it's time to go out and get myself a jacket for the upcoming cold, wet weather! I can be a bit picky about jackets. I prefer darker colors like dark or grey, so that it matches everything. Whenever I end up setting out to find a good winter jacket, I'm always like "I won't settle for anything without a hood. This is RAINLAND PORTLAND OREGON!", but alas. For some reason the cutest jackets lack hoods. I tend to love jackets with tweed or leopard print, or faux fur accents. I also love longer jackets that flare at the waist. Wish me luck finding my dream jacket out there!

January in Pictures

Here in Northern Oregon, we got our annual two days of light snow.

Found a detachable Peter Pan collar on Ebay, paired it with one of my brooches. I felt a bit like Wednesday Adams all day, which is never a bad thing!

My new favorite snack: homemade caramel and granny smith apples!

Found this awesome flannel shirt at Goodwill. I actually didn’t realize it had text on the back until I was checking out, but it just made the shirt more awesome.

Went to dinner at Interurban, where the menus come in old-school file folders, LCD Soundsystem flows from the turntable, and the food and drinks are crazy/delicious. I had some delicious polenta croquettes and fried pizza, with some yummy whiskey cocktails. A bit on the expensive side for me, but it was a neat experience. 

Found a stripey long-sleeved dress on ebay with black buttons and a Peter Pan collar! Wore it with a black heart cameo.

And I made some lavender homemade icing (this picture doesn’t do the color justice) and made a mini cake with sprinkles. The icing was a bit liquidy, so I’ll have to adjust the recipe a bit next time. Still delicious!

Sewing Day/Clay Workshop

So I had yesterday off work and decided to do some sewing projects! I hit up Joann’s and got some fresh fabric and some felt to make pretty bow hairclips. I ended doing a lot of mending. I had a huge pile of clothes that just needed buttons sewed back on, seams fixed, or holes sewn up. Just by fixing up some clothes I already had, I added two cardigans, three shirts, and a skirt to my closet! One of these was a leopard print shirt that my dryer somehow tore apart last time I washed it. It had some pretty large, unfixable holes. So the obvious solution: Cut more holes in it!

I cut a heart shape in the middle of the back. I’ll probably have to make some stitches around it to reinforce the shape. I liked the way the shirt turned out! It’ll be fun to wear a bright color or crazy pattern underneath, I’m thinking black&white polka dots or stripes!

I also made one of those felt bows that I’ve been wanting so badly. It turned out pretty well and only took maybe ten minutes! I made just one in red, but I but enough felt to do them in grey, black, and blue!

I also started a Polymer Clay Workshop last night. It meets once a week for two hours. I have kinda mixed feelings about it. For one, the teacher started off the class saying “Polymer clay has been forever tainted by the crafters of their world with their dainty little brooches”. Meanwhile, I’m sitting in the second row wearing one of my polymer clay brooches. Ouch. Other than that, the teacher seemed pretty nice; I liked that he got his start in polymer clay by watching Wallace and Gromit videos (Claymation series chock full of British humor, I used to love them as a kid).  Our class only had four people including myself, three of which are older men. We’ll mostly be doing figures and sculpting, so I’m not sure how much of the class will be applicable to my jewelry-making. It should still be fun and informative though. For our first little project, we made cartoony birds. I liked the way mine turned out, except for the comically large feet.
Detachable Peter Pan collar tutorial
So I had a pretty good day off! I still have some sewing projects to finish up, as I had to stop last night when I looked at the clock and realized it was already two a.m! I bought materials to make detachable Peter Pan collars. I’ve been pretty obsessed with Peter Pan collars lately. I’m just dying to wear them with every shirt or dress I own. I’ll be using the tutorial above, doing some with ribbons as closures, and some with snap buttons. Here’s some pictures of Peter Pan collars that have made me fall in love with them: http://pinterest.com/zombot/peter-pan-collars/
 
(How awesome is pinterest?!) A lot of the dresses on that board are from Modcloth. They have some mind-blowingly gorgeous clothes, especially dresses. If I had more money, I would probably buy every piece they have!