Lazy Sunday: 8th Weekly Installment

Wow, it's already been two months since I started these. Time seems to be passing by rather quickly!

1. The Theremin: I really want to make one of these. They have such an amazing sound. Maybe one day I can finally start a band with all off-beat instruments.

 

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2. Cadillac Ranch: I used to live in Amarillo as a kid and I've got to say, it is one odd little city that all too often gets over looked. Anyhoo, we used to go out to the Cadillac Ranch quite a bit. This year I'm hoping to go back and take the fella as he's never been.

 

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3. Madeline Kahn: Girl Crush #3. So amazing, so funny, so missed.

 

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4. Monsters of Folk: The Sandman, The Brakeman and Me... just lovely.

 

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5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: This film is such a visual treat. I saw it the day it came out in London, in the main theater at the beautiful historic Ritzy Cinema. I feel as though I have to add that because it really added to the visual aspect of the film. I went alone, as I often do when I go to the cinema, and was literally the only one in the theater. It was great. For 3 hours I just let it wash over me completely alone. The film was just beautiful. The way it was shot, the landscapes, all just amazing. It also had this haunting, ephemeral quality that I couldn't shake for days. I just adored everything about it. Below is a still from the film. For me, it is the most beautiful shot from any film that I've ever seen.

 

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6. The Ritzy, Brixton: There were a ton of things I loved about living in Brixton, but my favorite, by far, was living so close to the Ritzy. I went every Sunday morning for the £3 Early Bird Matinees.

 

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7. Fred Rogers: He was such an important part of my childhood. When he died I cried quite a bit, as it felt like losing a family member.

 

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8. Kale Chips: I cannot get enough of these. They are sooo tasty and crazy simple to make.

 

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9.  The New Mexico Desert: There is such beauty in its vast, flat silence.

 

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10. Murder Ballads: This is probably a strange one for some people, but damn if I don't LOVE a good Appalachian murder ballad. For those of you not familiar with this little sub-genre, they are folk songs about murders and the aftermath created. My favorite is "Down In the Willow Garden". There are tons of versions of this song. I like the oldest one the best, but it is very difficult to find. The one below is the best version I could get from YouTube and still fantastic. Do take a listen.

Conquering a Difficult Skirt Part II

Since the last difficult skirt turned out pretty well, I thought I'd give my other hard-to-wear skirt a go. This time all I did was turn it inside out, wear it slightly higher than it is meant to be worn, and with a tucked in shirt. I LOVE the color of the lining, which was very easy to style. I sometimes wear this skirt turned inside out as a top, but it also looks great like this as just a plain old skirt. When I bought this skirt years ago, my style was slightly different than it is now, so the idea of wearing the skirt higher on my waist never crossed my mind. It all seems so simple, but for me, who has spent the best part of my life notoriously fashion challenged, this seemed extremely difficult. I like it like this and will absolutely be wearing this more as an actual skirt.

Again with the blurry photo, ugh. I need to problem solve.

OOTD Details:

Inside-Out Skirt-Old Navy
Black Top: Gap
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Torrid

Conquering a Difficult Skirt

As some of you may have seen in my previous posts, I own a couple of skirts that I exclusively wear as tops due to their hard-to-wear nature. Well, I think I may have overcome the problem, at least with one of them so far. It looks like it would be an obvious way to style the skirt, but the problem is the wide smocked band along the top. If it wasn't there it would be so much easier. Well, I ended up turning the band inside the skirt and put a belt over it. I turned the belt backwards so it would give me a clean band along the front, (it's the same bow belt in the above link). I like how it looks, the only problem is the smocked band causes me to constantly tug on the belt to get it in the right position. I've decided that once I get my sewing machine, I'm just going to cut off the top of the skirt and add a wide elastic band that looks like the belt. That way I'll finally have the completely viable skirt I wanted when I bought it.

Here are some photos of how I wore it today. My husband told me he really liked it, which surprised me, as usually when I ask his opinion on what I'm wearing he just gives a me a vague, "you look fine."

For some reason I could not get this photo in focus.

 

 I think it turned out looking pretty okay. Before I went out I threw on my favorite spring jacket. It's the absolute perfect weight for slightly chilly days or breezes. 

 OOTD Details:

Red Tank: Old Navy

Skirt: Target

Cropped Cardigan: Torrid

Backwards Belt: Torrid

Brooch & Earrings: Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry

Grey Jacket: Old Navy

A Beautiful Drive Through Texas

I had the most lovely President's Day. My husband and I took a drive out of the city to visit the tiny Texas town I lived in when I was a kid. My grandparents lived there for decades, so no matter where we moved, we always came back, making it the only place I could ever really call my hometown. I always have to fight back nostalgic tears when I go, as it brings back so many great memories. The whole day was fantastic. We visited antique shops, went to flea markets, and ate lunch at the famous Blue Bonnet Cafe, which is always so tasty. It was just perfect. We've now decided to start getting out of town more often. We want to explore a little more of our part of the state.  I took a few photos to share with you and have an OOTD as well.

The antique store in the above photos has been there for years. It's fantastic. They've kept the antiques room appropriate, so it's like walking through someone's house, seeing their collectibles gathered through a life time. There is always so much to look at. Plus, the little older lady that runs the place is so friendly and willing to tell you her life story. Ah, it was so great. Plus I got 2 little vintage frames with convex glass for only $10.

On to my OOTD. The dress I'm wearing is actually a romper that I got from Torrid last year. Although I like rompers on other people, I felt like a little kid in it, so I cut out the crotch and made a dress. It's great for summer as it is 100% cotton and super light weight.

OOTD Details:

Romper as Dress: Torrid
Belt (turned backwards): Torrid
Cardigan: Target
Leggings: Lane Bryant

Lazy Sunday: 7th Weekly Installment

Here we go!

1. Eagle vs. Shark: It took my husband and I forever to finally watch this, but when we did, we watched it twice in a row. Sublime.

 

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2. Hilda: Seriously, how cute is she?

 

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3. Sweet Potatoes: I could eat them for every meal. I don't care how they are prepared, sweet or salty.

 

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4. Ryan Bingham: He's an amazing songwriter with a voice that is unreal; years older than it should logically be. Plus, he's from my birth town in New Mexico. It's sweet too because his dad went to high school with my mom and his grandparents were friends with mine. He's best known for winning the Oscar for the song The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart, but all of his stuff is amazing. Plus, when he won the Oscar he told his wife that he "loved her more than rainbows"...how do you not swoon from that? If you haven't heard any of his stuff, take a little listen.

 

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5. This Piece of Street Art: It's been my desktop wallpaper for months.

 

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6. David Gilmour: I don't read a lot of fiction, but when I do, I always read David Gilmour. My favorite of his books are Sparrow Nights, Lost Between Houses, and Film Club.

7. 30 Rock: Sooooo funny!!!

 

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8. Battersea Power Station: This is my favorite building on Earth. There are none more beautiful to me than this ruin. I had the pleasure of living in Battersea for a few years and this building was always my favorite part of the bus rides to and from work.

 

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9. Sweet Tarts: Gosh, I just love these. Last Halloween my mom, unapologetically, bought $40 worth of Sweet Tarts that she did not hand out to trick-or-treaters. 

 

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10. Kristen Schaal: Girl Crush #2.

 

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Double Chins & a Beautiful Woman

This is just too cute!

 

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I had to add this too, because it's so beautiful...

Chunky Brown Dog and Little Pink Flowers

Today I took Penny to the vet for her semi-annual check-up. It couldn't have been at a better time either, as earlier this week she caught a squirrel (she didn't kill it, she just grabbed its tail and scared the shit out of it) so, I was hoping she hadn't caught some sort of dirty squirrel disease. Luckily, we got the all clear. Well, except for the fact she is now 3lbs over weight because she's been sneaking cat food, which apparently can cause pancreatitis, so that's not good. Now Penny is on a special diet where she gets apples and carrots, which has made her quite happy. Other than that, nothing interesting today. I did like what I wore though, so let's get on to that.

OOTD: Details:

Dress: Given to me by a co-worker
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Torrid
Stud Earrings: Gift

Oops, forgot to wear shoes for the photo. Oh well, I just wore men's, dime store flip-flops anyway because I'm classy like that.

Re-mixing My Closet

Hello folks! As many of you may know I was ill for about 2 and half weeks this month, which meant I couldn't go to work, which now means I am super, super poor. Of course I've never been much more than poor, but this is just a whole new level of poor. A very deep level. But, chin up! It could be much worse, so I should be thankful for what I do have.

Being unable to spend any money on anything is making me very resourceful in the clothing department. I've spent a while staring into my closet to find things that I haven't worn for a while to hopefully find a new way to wear them or remix them. As many of you may know I am very keen on the whole skirt as a top thing, and I think this is going to be my ticket to remixed outfits. I've come to a realization that most flowy cotton skirts don't work for me as I can NEVER find a top for them. I feel like the tops need to be fitted to offset the flowiness (I'm just making up words as I go here) of the skirt. The problem is I don't own any fitted shirts, because I like my tops to be kind of loose and flowy. The best skirt for me is the good ol' denim mini or slightly penciled skirt, because then I can add my looser fitting tops. Ugh, that seemed long winded.

Anyhoo, here's what I've done with a hard to wear skirt...

A wonky stance and the return of shiny tooth!

I always really wanted to love this skirt, but alas, it fell into the hard to wear category. It does make a damn great top though!

Here's some print detail...

Because the print is so bold, I opted to not wear a necklace, but instead pair it with some simple owl earrings.

OOTD Details:

Skirt as a top: Old Navy from years and years ago
Cardigan: Target
Skirt: Torrid
Belt: Torrid
Leggings: Lane Bryant
Earrings: PrettyPennyMae

I think the outfit turned out looking pretty decent. I'm going to keep digging through my closet to hopefully find some new outfits, so I'll keep you posted!

Love, Love, Love, Love, Crazy Love

Happy Valentine's Day to all. I wanted to share a photo of my Valentine, as well as some of my favorite vintage Valentine's cards. I also added a little Crazy Love from Van Morrison at the bottom of this post for your listening pleasure. Hope you have a beautiful day to celebrate the ones you love.

Lazy Sunday: 6th Weekly Installment

Hello all! Let's get started on my random interests!

1.) The Memory Palace: I learned about this program while listening to NPR on my way to work and I instantly fell in love. I'm a history nut and the more obscure, the better. The Memory Palace fulfills this need in the best possible way. They tell short little 3-6 minute stories about lesser known people or facts in history. It's really great and they have a website too. Check it out!

 

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2. Mystery Science Theater 3000: I mentioned my love of B-Movies on my previous Lazy Sunday post. Well, this goes along with it. I honestly do enjoy B-Movies, but sometimes you just have to poke fun at them and who better to do it then MST3K.

 

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3. Wax Museums: The photo below is of the one in Hot Springs, AR where my grandparents are from. When I was a kid, we visited this one quite a bit.

 

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4. Topo Chico: Yumm, Yumm, Yumm! They have all sorts of flavors, but I love their simple sparkling water, it's like a drug to me. I literally cannot get enough of this stuff. The only problem is it's like $8.00 for a 12 pack, which sucks. It's kind of treat for me, but when I have extra money, I stock up!

 

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5. Barnaby Beaver: Barnaby was a birthday gift last year from my parents. Let me start off by saying that I had an immense childhood fear of taxidermy that lasted until I worked for the Natural History Museum. Now I'm okay with most it (I hate trophy pieces, I'm good with museum pieces). Barnaby is a Victorian museum specimen, which is cool, he is also actually a female. But, I like the name Barnaby so we kept it. She's also pretty big at 2 and half feet tall and 3 feet long.

6. Away We Go: I saw this movie for the first time last year when my husband and I found it on Netflix. I fell in love. We both really related to this film in a fairly tangible way. I think we need to own it.

 

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7. Airports: I miss the days where you used to be able to just go and sit in the airport and watch the planes take off. I found this amazing photo online of the gate where I once spent so much time (6 times a year). It made me feel super nostalgic. Hello Continental gate E19!

 

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8. Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre: I know Sartre was on my first post, but this book came at a really difficult point in my life, it made me contemplate and dwell in it, but also sort of helped. It is now my favorite.

 

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9. Family Photos: I just love family photos. Here is our little growing wall.

10. Bobby Hill: I know he's just a cartoon, but I hope when I have children, I have one as cute and sweet as Bobby Hill.

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