most beautiful:::

"...even as we grow old there is always that inner kid in us that begs to be let out."

having fun with polaroid

Yesterday we went antiquing and my sister brought her Polaroid camera with her...







Save Polaroid, please.

jewelry i adore

Part of me thinks this is horrible and part of me thinks this is a very creative idea and lovely accessory. I kind of think it's bad in the sense that they are meddling with historical artifacts. But then, it is so adorable I can hardly blame them for it. Wouldn't you like to wear someone from the mid-19th century around your neck? I know I would.

Going antiquing today with my sister and her friend. I'm on a semi mission. Last week when I got my haircut I walked a lot and it was windy and well...I lost my beautiful earring to the pair that I got for Christmas. Suffice it to say, I'm completely heartbroken about it (okay, maybe not completely, but I'm sad) because they were my favorite earrings. So my mission today; to find something old to make into new earrings. This is one of the reasons I love Erica Weiner's jewelry so much. She tends to use a lot of old pieces that she finds in odd places to make into new and beautiful jewelry. Love that idea. Wish me luck.

it's very late::early

Yes it is me again and guess what time it is? 3:21a.m. Right on the dot. It's been a long day. Filled with lots of things I didn't expect (some not so good; some pretty good; others really great) and a few things I did expect. It's been exhausting. Going to a cupping at the coffee shop in the afternoon and my sister and her friend Jenny coming for a visit. They are fast asleep upstairs, while here I am sewing sewing sewing. I somehow got past my tired point and am totally awake right now. I've been sewing since 1ish. But I felt like sewing so I decided to seize upon this moment and sew instead of sleep. Plus somehow I needed this moment of awakedness to spend by myself. Too much people people going on and I needed some alone time. I'm like that sometimes. Too much excitement and I just need to get away by myself and do something with my hands. I'm getting tired, but I need to get this work done so I figure I will try and squeeze a tiny bit more energy out and then get to bed. Well the iron is sufficiently heated by now, so I'm going to say goodnight/goodmorning to you all once again. Tomorrow I am looking forward to a cinnamon roll and some lovely Rwanda coffee in my little French press. Perhaps that will be enough to entice me into not sleeping into all hours of the day.

::flickr favorites

1. Cargo bike, 2. *smooch*, 3. geraldine2, 4. Anna, 5. me with ice cream, 6. Analivia en la cocina, 7. simple joys, 8. Built By Wendy 3835, 9. Untitled, 10. mi madre en 1967 (4), 11. my new dress, 12. smiley kitty, 13. from the outtakes, 14. Quite a precise message., 15. Mugs teatowel, 16. Mugs teatowel, 17. Mugs teatowel, 18. Mugs teatowel, 19. Mugs teatowel, 20. Danja, in Front of Blue, 21. 01.25.2008-detail, 22. 01.25.2008, 23. NYC Bicycle Commuter, Park Ave. @ 58th St., 24. more, 25. wardrobe remix march 19, 26. 2., 27. what i bought at forever 21, 28. Untitled, 29. blue & white, 30. scissor mobile, 31. 030908, 32. Untitled, 33. Untitled, 34. shorts, 35. nani IRO spring 2008, 36. Untitled

good morning::full of links

I cannot sleep, so here I am at nearly one in the morn. It's not often I am unable to get to sleep, because I always seem to be tired. Nonetheless, it gives me a moment to write on this here blog.

::I feel like being random tonight, so that is what you're going to get::

I used to make cinnamon rolls for the local farmer's market and I had the best recipe ever from my aunt Susan. I am telling you, they're to die for. I'm craving some of those rolls right now. Maybe I will make a batch before the week is over. If I do, I will post the recipe. In the meantime, look at these lovelies from port2port (which is the reason I am craving cinnamon rolls at this time of the night).

I'm quite behind on the "This is..." game. I owe you all a picture of "My creation" and "My demon." Instead of a picture at the moment, which I hope I will be able to post soon, I will tell you what they are instead.

Creation: As I am a seamstress, I love to create clothing. Whether historical or clothing to wear every day, it gives me so much joy when I can take a piece of fabric and form it into something beautiful.

Demon: I had a hard time with this, but as it's a fun game I will choose a kind of silly one. I like to change my mind a lot where hair is concerned. I'm growing it out. No, I'm cutting it. Growing it out. Cutting. Growing. Cutting. ahhhhhh. I hate my hairstyle! So I guess you might say the fact that I always seem to cut it when I tell people I'm going to grow it out, is that little demon in me. That little guy who says "Cut it, Anna. You KNOW you want to..." Ah, well. I guess I have a weakness for different and new hairstyles. My hair needs to grow faster if it wants to catch up with my mood swings.

And if you guessed that I got my hair cut today, you would be correct. And it's short. And I really like it. I think I found a cool place to get my hair cut. Finally. You are right when you say you pay for quality. But that doesn't bother me, as long as I know I am getting the quality. Take a peek at Buzz Salon. They're pretty great. And I think I'll be going back...eventually. After I grow my hair out... :)

::This sounds absolutely delightful.:: {via not martha}

I want to design pretty summer dresses. And so I really must find the time to do it. Yes. I must.

My 1930s trousers are nearing the finish line. Had to make a few adjustments. But not much. I'm also thinking of adding detachable braces. But we'll see on that. I just want to finish the basic trousers first and see how I like them. Next pair in linen.

The other day I stopped at the antique store that I love so much and came out with 4 1/2 yards of lovely printed lawn and a bunch of cotton lace. I can't decide what to use the lawn for. Cute blouse or cute dress. blouse? dress? It's a toss up.

Things to look forward to this week? Friday. Because I haven't planned a single thing. I have no appointments. No one to meet up with. Just Friday all to myself. Of course that will probably change and I will agree to hang out with friends. But what would really be nice on Friday is one of those feel-good movie, a bowl of popcorn, glass of wine, some knitting and the house to myself. That sounds splendid. We'll see what Friday brings. In the meantime, I had better try to fall asleep, because I have a lot of work to catch up to tomorrow. That means waking up and getting started bright and early.

::Forgot to mention. My friend and I went on a little jaunt today. Snapped a few pictures on some random train tracks. A good day.

::the love of detektivbyrån

Talking with my friend last night about music and flipping through some of my favorites I came upon Detektivbyrån. I almost forgot about this most brilliant group from Sweden. love love love love them. And I find out they are working on a new album! Seriously, if you have not heard of these guys before now, take a listen. They are beautiful.

On MySpace.

Making of::Part4

a few things to be happy about right exactly now

Coffee!! Why of course. It's what inspires me to be the way I am at this time. And if you don't like it, for shame. :-P

Our Mutual Friend. Reading the book right now and it's so funny how similar it is to the movie. Man I love those 6 hour BBC costume dramas. I get in an "OMF mood" around this time of the year when spring is upon us and summer is just ahead.

The reenacting season has just begun! I'm pretty psyched. Next month is Boone Village and who knows what else beyond that. I'm just really excited to be getting out again and to see my lovely friends who live too far away!

Lots of orders to keep me busy. It's a blessing and it's also a lot of work, but that is good! It is getting me to brainstorm about my future. All of which will probably change, but eh, it's good to at least think about it.

Real and true GOOD friends! Yes, it's amazing when you think about it. Those people who actually don't care if you mess up or say the wrong thing or even if you are busy all the time and can't always be with them. Thank goodness for them, because I really don't know what I'd do with myself if I hadn't any. I'd take a few good friends over a million flaky friends ANY day.

few things

Yesterday was not a very productive day. As you can see in the picture, there is not much joy involved in the work you see me referencing in the picture. But I worked on it anyway and got it finished. Still there is much to get done by the middle of the week. I leave Thursday for a little jaunt out of town. I'm hoping I can finish some projects and do some cleaning before I leave so when I return I will be able to start refreshed and rejuvenated. And maaaaybe we will have more snow melting and spring weather on my return?? I keep hoping. I know it will come before long, but I want it now!! Soooo many clothing ideas popping in my head. I'm definitely getting excited about making my own clothes and not buying so much store bought crap. It's not like I have all the time in the world to sew garments for myself, so maybe it's a good thing winter is lingering as long as it is.



Despite a bad sewing day, yesterday was good in the mail department! I got TOAST! It's the house & home magazine, which is fine, though I was hoping to get the clothing issue. However, it still has beautiful photographs and beautiful accessories I would love to have, if the pound wasn't quite so hefty compared to the dollar. I was surprised they sent it to me all the way over here in the US. And the paper is super gorgeous. It's almost as fun to pet it as it is to look through the gorgeous photography on each page. (Okay I realize that sounds really weird, but I can't help but love good paper.)



A few more pictures on my flickr from TOAST.



There is a sewing shop in town that is moving and I'd never been before, so I decided to stop in last Saturday. I could have picked up more fabric, but I was good and resisted the urge. It's a hard thing to do. The middle fabric I'll use for historical sewing and the stuff on the sides I'm not sure yet. I made the mistake of getting the one on the left. It has this large kitchen/fruity border that is kinda yucky. But I'm hoping I can cut that off and make a cute top of some sort for the summer. We'll see. If not maybe I can make something out of it as a gift for someone. The fabric to the right is a 1930s repro print and I have no idea what it's going to be yet. I just couldn't pass it by.



This is the fabric I'm using for my '30s inspired trousers/clamdiggers. I really like it, except it does ravel easily which means it's kind of a pain to sew with. But that's OK. I've worked with a helluv a lot worse fabric than this. Ohhhh lordy.



This picture is just for fun. As you can see, I like to take notes. Otherwise I forget. And notes get piled on top of each other if I don't go through and remove old ones. Woe is me.



Lastly, me in my sewing room. My brother took this with his camera.

this is...

looking out my front door.



So not exactly the prettiest sight to see, but that's what I see when I walk out my front door. At least I am happy the snow seems to be melting. *crosses fingers* I have a feeling we will be getting another large blizzard and ice storm. gahhhh... But one can only hope. After all, I live in Iowa. You Iowans know what I'm talking about.

It's been a lazy weekend. Good and lazy. I am just not too happy about losing that hour of sleep today. As if I don't already have to get up early enough. Well one nice thing is that losing that hour of sleep means spring is coming and summer is not far off. We will soon be driving on clean roads (full of potholes, I might add) or rather, roads filled with puddles and mud splashing our windows. Here's to a new week full good things I hope.

1930s trousers::inspiration::images

More inspiring clothing collages to come for spring/summer.

this is...

my inspiration board.

I realize this is not exactly a board, but I don't have one. This is the closest thing to my inspirations which are compiled together. I also have a sort of scrap book of fashions that I have started, but unfortunately haven't really kept up with it. I'd like to make a new one for my spring/summer ideas. One more thing to do I guess. You might also check my flickr favorites for more images that inspire me.



And to be honest with you, these are just the pictures that inspire me for modern wear/living. I am also totally and completely obsessed with historical fashions, so that would be an entirely separate inspiration board. (Though you will notice a few historical images I have included in this wire.)

this week's "this is" postponed

I woke up early this morning with a terrible headache and a sick stomach. I'm wondering if I got food poisoning while I was helping out with a fundraiser dinner. It could have been something else that didn't agree with me or perhaps it was a mild sickness setting in. I have no idea, but I never got around to taking a picture of this week's theme. soo.... hopefully tomorrow I will feel better and be able to take that picture. Hope everyone is having a nice Sunday afternoon/evening. I've been lazy all day. Sleeping, reading, surfing the net. I hope whatever it is I have will be away from my body by tomorrow. I've got sooooo much work to get done.

::happiness

Do you ever feel just really really happy for no particular reason? Well, duh, I'm sure you have or maybe you're feeling that way right now. For some reason I woke up today kind of happy, then I got happier. And now I'm sort of in a blissful state. I sometimes think it's just the coffee I drink so much of. It's a Saturday morning, it's quiet, I've had about an hour to pour over my daily blog-feed and I'm listening to some soft music. I really like quiet mornings to myself. I'm not really a morning person, so it's hard for me to want to talk and have a conversation with someone. I tend to keep to myself in the first few hours that I wake up. I don't always get that, so it's nice when I can enjoy some quiet solitude in the morning.

Recently I've been in a bit of a funk. It's been hard to keep up with everything and then I feel overwhelmed with work. But in the last few weeks or maybe even few days, I think I am beginning to get back into my regular ole self. It's been awhile since I've really been me. Sounds weird maybe, but I always blame it on my age. You know that awkward time in life where you are just not sure what the heck you are doing. It feels odd for me to post that here in my blog. (I constantly go back and forth about how personal this blog should be.) But I think I can honestly say life is fine right now. It's not the best it could be nor is it the worst. I've realized a few things in my life. A few things I've been dwelling on that could never be and not concentrating enough on the present. Perhaps it's the spring air that I can almost feel. I get a little antsy when it has been snowing like crazy and am definitely ready for warmer weather. I am actually looking forward to rain, though I am the type who usually hates dreary rainy days. (Or maybe it's that plaid umbrella I picked up at a thrift store that I'm just dying to use...)

Oh how life can be so unpredictable.

I've been purchasing leather for those bags. So far I've purchased one hide that will work and three others that will work for other styles. It's still not exactly like the leather I used on my bag, though. I'm continuing to search for the right leather. I don't know much about the stuff, so it's hard for me to pick the right kind. We really don't have any leather shops around here, unless you would count Tandy Leather, which is NOT my favorite place to go. They always seem to jack up their prices and I know I can get the same quality leather other places for a lot more reasonable prices. I can be a bit of a bargain hunter (though most of my bargain hunting is done in the comfort of my own home, sitting behind a computer screen). The leather I got was in a warehouse in Minneapolis that my sister found while we were fabric hunting a few years back. I'm wondering if I might be able to send a scrap of leather to a supplier and see if they can't find something similar.

On the sewing front, I've been scheming up my spring/summer wardrobe. I'm planning to sew most, if not all of my clothes. The other day I altered a pattern (rather drastically, I might add) for a pair of wide-leg trousers. I'm picky when it comes to wide-leg pants, because I'd rather they don't look like they are from the 1970s. I LOVE the wide leg pants from the 1930s, though, so that is what I'm going for. Mine will have a few pleats on the front and they'll button on either side to give a sort of "sailor pants" look. I have some bone buttons that would look marvelous, though I might save those for a linen version of the same trousers. If I don't go with the bone, I'll probably use the mother of pearl buttons in my stash. I saved a picture I found online of some 1930s clam-diggers that I'm basing my trousers off of. Mine will have tabs at the bottom so I can roll them up and wear them long or short, depending on the weather. I'm really really hoping this will work out. I didn't make a mock-up of the pants before I cut them out, so let's hope I don't screw this up.