holiday shop open!

I just listed the items in the shop! Thank you so much for all the comments on my holiday collection! I'm just so grateful to my brother John who was able to take pictures last minute for me! Hopefully every year I will be able to have a little holiday shop. They are so much fun to put together! Thanks again for all of your support! It really means a lot to me!! xo

: : H O L I D A Y S H O P : :

holiday 2011: lookbook

I worked all day trying to update my website and various things on the web. It took me forever to upload the lookbook! Something that should have been incredibly simple turned into hours longer than I planned. Oh, well. I got it uploaded anyway! Next I'm going to be working on my shop and will open it soon, so be on the lookout! I might surprise you with an earlier shop update. I hope you enjoy the photos of my holiday collection. John did a simply fabulous job. He has a way of capturing exactly the feeling I am going for. I was a bit worried that we wouldn't find any color among the grey, but you know there is a lot of color in nature during this time of year, you just have to look for it!

This year I wanted to do something really special and festive and one day I got the notion that I would like to make something in silk velvet. I've heard it is a rather troublesome fabric to work with, but I was determined! It's absolutely gorgeous. The color in this velvet is so intense, I knew it would make even the simplest of designs sparkle. I picked a beautiful rust for the top and a very deep dark black for the dress. The fabric is not easy to work with but with a few tricks, it's definitely manageable and actually, I find working with this fabric quite rewarding!

Btw, I updated my blog banner today as well and cleaned up a bit. It has been awhile since I've updated here. Hope you like it! xo

Photographs by John Allen

holiday 2011: coming soon!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday! At least for those who celebrate it. Jed and I came home yesterday and the journey was a bit more exhausting than usual, complete with pouring rain. But we finally made it home, safe and sound in our cozy little apartment. Thanksgiving was really a wonderful time and quite relaxing! But now is the time to get back to work and get a lot done before our next holiday! I'm going to be opening the shop again on December 1st (at least that is the plan), though I admit I'm itching to open it before then. Starting tomorrow, I'll be sharing some pictures of the new things I will be selling. Everything will be made-to-order so if you are interested in anything, plan on an extra 2-3 weeks from date of purchase. I hope you will enjoy my little festive collection. xo

photo shoot for holiday 2011

Yesterday John and I went out to photograph my holiday collection and we were able to accomplish the whole shoot in about 2 hours. Pretty good I'd say! It was cold and rainy, though the rain stopped by the time we started shooting. I was glad to have it done, but it really was fun spending the afternoon with my brother! He knows his way with the camera. I only wished I had a camera to take a few shots of him taking photos. This season I didn't have time to rope someone in to model for me, so I did it myself. Sometimes it's just easier, since this was pretty last minute. I'm very pleased with this collection and am super excited to have something for the holidays this year!

These photos are all "blooper" shots (however even John's bloopers look awesome!). I wore grocery bags over my shoes and oversized rain boots when walking around since the ground was so muddy. The first one was taken just as the kitty was about to jump on me, before John stopped him, thank goodness!!!

So far our thanksgiving break has been marvelously fun. I hope you all are enjoying the holiday! xo

WHEW!

Well, it's been one completely CRAZY few weeks here! I've been working like mad on my new winter/holiday collection! But guess what happened last week just as I was finishing a sleeve? My serger broke!!!!!!!!! Well, the needle on the needle plate broke. So I was frantic to find a replacement online. I found a place (I THOUGHT I found a place, that is) so I went ahead and ordered the part and paid the extra twenty some dollars to have it by the next day. I knew it was the weekend when ordering, so I didn't think I'd get it til Monday. Well, I had this sick feeling that it might not get here in time, so I looked online to see if I could track the package. I hadn't heard anything as far as a confirmation shipping number, so couldn't track it. I did some investigation on the company and guess what I found? It was a fraudulent none-existent company by some crazy guy in TN who apparently keeps opening fake sewing part shops online. So when I found this out I decided to go find another company that sold the needle plate. I found one, or so I thought! It had good reviews and even noticed Design*Sponge had them as their friend on Twitter, so I thought what the hey? And guess what? When I got my PayPal invoice back, guess who's name was on the bill? THE SAME GUY!!!! Arghh! So not only was I ripped off once, but twice and both times I paid for express shipping! Gahh! Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter/longer we got in touch with PayPal (via phone) and got my money back by the next day! So I've learned a few things through this whole ordeal. One, don't order sewing parts online and be very leery about ordering anything sewing machine related. At least be certain who you are ordering from. The only times I've been ripped off had to do with a sewing machine on eBay and now this. Second, PayPal rocks! They were awesome. If you ever have a problem like this, don't wait around doing the online form, just give them a call. And third, if you ever need a part for your sewing machine, call your local sewing shop!

So after all that, I decided to take a trip down to my local Vogue Fabrics and I brought in the broken needle plate with me to show them. They told me I could fix it by ripping out the broken needle (it was hard, that thing was really stuck in there!) and then super glue another needle back in there (sewing needle that fits in the slot and cut to size). And guess what? It WORKED!!! I am so thrilled! I was able to finish my collection and all the seams are beautifully serged! They are also ordering me a new needle plate, since my little makeshift plate probably won't last forever. But it's nice to know I can fix it if it ever happens again. Btw, I took pictures while working on it, so I hope to do a bit of a tutorial on how to fix a needle plate if it ever happens to you. It was pretty hard to find any information about it online, so hopefully this will help someone out there!

In other news, I'm heading back home tomorrow for vacation which will include a highschool performance of Pride and Prejudice, a photo shoot with my brother, lots of coffee with good friends, hopefully a bit of shopping in my favorite little Mt Vernon town, annnnd lots of Thanks Giving! I think we have two Thanks Giving dinners to go to next week. It sure will be full! And that's a good thing too, because we've been living off of one week of groceries for the past two weeks and we are ready for some down home cookin'! :) See you all when I get back! Have a super duper holiday! I have A LOT to be thankful for, that's for sure! xo

p.s. lately i've been doing this to my hair after a shower. works so well and so easy too!

3 day sale! {all sold}

Edit: Wow! Everything has sold out! Thank you guys! That was fast!

I updated the Big Cartel shop with items from a few past seasons that I'm selling for 50% off! Today through Sunday. All of the garments are in size small. Anything sold will ship Monday. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

***SHOP***

it's getting darker...

It's getting darker now with the time being an hour earlier. Took these quick photos after finishing a sample dress. Will make a few changes to the design, but I'm pretty happy with it! It's quite twirlable, I'd say. ;)

happy hallowe'en!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! It always seems to go by much too fast, doesn't it? Although I am not planning anything too special today, I thought it might be fun to post a list of a few fun Hallowe'en movies I like. I am thinking of putting on a few of these tonight and maybe get some knitting in. Perhaps make a batch of caramel corn for a little Hallowe'en treat!



One of my all time favorite movies to watch growing up was Arsenic and Old Lace. We used to show it to our friends on Halloween. I could watch this movie over and over again and not get tired of it. Of course, a movie with Cary Grant in it really doesn't need much explanation. I'll just leave it at that. ;)


The next one I always like to watch is The Great Pumpkin! I'm sure you've all seen this one before, but I just love Charlie Brown. It makes me so nostalgic. If you haven't seen it, go watch it now! You can see it on Hulu for a limited time.


Another one, that isn't quite Hallowe'en related, but we still considered this a Hallowe'en movie growing up, is Meet Me in St Louis. It is one of those movies you can watch for Hallowe'en and then again around Christmas. There is a fabulous Hallowe'en scene in the movie that always gets me in the mood. It's just a really classic movie. Starring Judy Garland. I just can't get enough of her and yes, I totally sing along to all of the songs! (The Boy Next Door is my favorite!)


You'll Find Out is a silly one and not a very well made movie, but I got it years ago for a party I threw and it worked out to be a pretty good flick. It stars Helen Parrish, who I love. She's not very well known today, but you may know of her if you've seen many Deanna Durbin films. The movie also has Kay Kyser and his band along with Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Here's the trailer if you are interested in checking it out.


The Invisible Woman I happened upon a few years ago and I'm so glad I did! It stars Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore and John Howard. I don't think this movie is well known and I'm not even sure that it's on DVD, but it's really a delightful little film. It's about a scientist (John Barrymore) who discovers a way to become invisible. John Howard is a rich playboy who is helping finance the scientist, but is starting to lose hope since his "mad scientist" friend hasn't come up with anything yet and he is losing money. Well, finally Barrymore thinks he really has discovered a way to become invisible and puts an ad in the paper to see if anyone is willing to test out his formula. Virginia Bruce is a model at a local department store and is sick of her mean boss Mr. Growley and wants to get even with him. So she responds to the ad and decides she could get even with Growley if only she became invisible. The plot isn't all that wonderful, but it's fun and of course there is romance between Bruce and Howard! There's also some gangsters involved in the plot who are sent to steal the formula, which make for some silly slapstick scenes. And you may also notice Margaret Hamilton, who played the witch in The Wizard of Oz! Do try to find this one and watch it. You won't regret it.


The Uninvited is the last one I'll write about here, though I admit it is one I haven't seen in a long time, so I won't say much about it. I do remember it being pretty scary and very well made. Plus it stars Ray Milland, and you pretty much can't go wrong with him! Do check this one out if you can. And be sure to make some popcorn and grab your favorite snugly blanket (or in my case a snugly Jed)!

There are probably many more Hallowe'en flicks out there, but these are some of my favorite. I also enjoy some of the Abbott and Costello films (Hold That Ghost, The Time of Their Lives, and Meet Frankenstein are a few favorites) and there's also some fun spooky movies starring Paulette Goddard (The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers) that you'll have to check out as well.

I hope these have inspired you to watch some old classic Hallowe'en films this year! And for those of you who need a last minute snack, here's a really easy recipe for Caramel Corn found in The Tightwad Gazette (Mom used to subscribe to it!).

Easy Homemade Caramel Corn

3/4 cups brown sugar (use white if you plan to use molasses in place of corn syrup)
1/4 cup butter
3 Tbsp. corn syrup (I used honey, though it gives it a distinct honey flavor if you do this - I bet molasses would work really well! edit: just made it and molasses works wonderfully!)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. vanilla
8 cups popped popcorn

Combine first four ingredients over low heat until butter is melted. Cook without stirring three minutes. Add baking soda and vanilla. Pour onto popcorn and mix until coated. Spread onto greased cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes at 300. Let it cool for a bit before digging in!