Raspberry Chocolate

Long time, no post! It's been rather silent lately on the ol' blog, mostly as a result of not having a lot to say. My health is still being an issue, and most frustratingly stopping me from sewing/drawing/creating everything I want to. It's been a year without even getting a firm diagnosis, but I'm currently waiting on some test results so hopefully they turn up something! 

To cheer myself up, I decided to give my "new" hat a spin. I picked it up a couple months ago at an antique store, but the weather has been too miserable to wear it. Luckily today the sky was bright and the wind was minimal (I still went with two hat pins, just to be on the safe side!). I'm not very good at dating hats, but this one seems late 1930s/early 1940's to me. Any hat experts out there with a second opinion? It unfortunately doesn't have any sort of label, so I can't research it's origins. 

I'm calling this colour scheme raspberry chocolate. I don't wear brown nearly as much as I should! Black tends to be my neutral of choice, but I'm really loving the brown-red combo. Most of this outfit is modern-ish with a vintage style. The jacket is about 12 years old and the skirt is a hand-me-down from my grandmother (what can I say, she has nice clothes!). The brooch is the compressed heather one I shared a few posts ago, and the shoes were a birthday gift to myself last year bought on clearance from DSW.

I'm continuing my attempts at nail art. I hand-painted some dots and a heart for valentines day:

And tried a swirly thing with my new nail stamper this week:

I have some more nail stamp plates arriving in the mail (hopefully soon), and am excited to continue experimenting. Working with water-based nail polish is a bit different, which means I'm having to invent my own stamping technique. Unlike traditional polishes (where you need to work quickly), water-based polishes seem to stamp better if left to dry for a couple minutes first. 

I've also been contemplating dying my hair. Currently, it's my natural brown with more than a few greys throughout, but I'm dreaming of a deep red, burgundy, or maybe even purple...

I can't use traditional dyes with my chemical sensitivities, but I'm contemplating either a semi-permanent or henna. The problem with semi-permanent is Manic Panic is the only brand I can find that doesn't contain fragrance (I'm allergic), but I've heard awful things about dye transfer. I like to be able to wet-set my hair, as well as wear vintage hats, without worrying about staining! Henna also scares me, as I've read it's difficult to dye over if you hate it. It also loosens natural curls and I'm not sure if my hair would become difficult to set/curl... Anyone had experience with either product? I would love some advice.  

I am also eagerly awaiting the Toronto Antique and Vintage Market at the Exhibition place next weekend. I rarely get into the city and am looking forward to hopefully scoring some new vintage pieces. My friend is going with me, and I have given him strict instructions to keep an eye out for vintage hairstyling tools, clothing, and vintage phonographs (like I have anywhere to put one! haha). I know most of my readers don't live in Ontario, but if anyone else is going let me know and we can maybe have a mini-meetup or grab a coffee or something. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

That's All.

Youtube Videos and Glow-in-the-dark Nails

I finally resolved my technical issue with my HD webcam, and have begun filming youtube videos again! Yay! I love editing videos and it gives me something creative too do when I don't have enough energy for anything else (such as right now, since I've managed to come down with a bad cold). I have about 2 weeks worth of videos scheduled so far, and I'm hoping to find time to film some more. The first one is already up:

I'm usually a little slow re-posting my videos to the blog, so if you want to watch them right away please subscribe to my channel :)

I don't have any outfit shots today, due to the cold I mentioned earlier. However I had my first experiment with nail art a week ago. I really need a smaller brush, as my lettering came out much too large, but overall I thought it was not bad for a first attempt. 

I'm allergic to a lot of chemicals, but I've finally found a nail polish I can use. Piggy Paint makes a really great water-based nail polish. That means they have no toxic chemical smell, are safe to use, plus look really cute. 

And yes, one glows in the dark. It's best under blacklight, which was perfect as I went glow-in-the-dark mini putting with a friend last week. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

That's All.

Buster and his Mash Notes (1921)

 Buster Keaton always makes me smile :)

Repetition

For my first outfit post of the new year, I'm actually sort of repeating the last outfit of last year. I love it when other bloggers repeat outfits, so I'm going to do so unabashedly here! I wore the same dress, but changed up the accessories for a different look. This dress is my favourite at the moment. Ok technically it's not a dress, but rather a vintage nightgown. However, it works very well as a dress when it's styled!

 (Tip: vintage slips/nightgowns are often much cheaper than vintage dresses. They can be a great purchase when you're trying to pinch pennies but still want to wear real vintage). 

Instead of the girly-ballet look I did last time, I went for a more grown up look with my new What Katie Did corset, pearls, and some Victorian-style boots. My friends from highschool and I all met up to go glow-in-the-dark mini putting followed by fancy icecream/coffee. The embroidery on the neckline of the nightgown glowed very brightly under the black-lights, which was very fun!

I've been wearing my corset a lot on weekends and around the house. It really helps my neck/back pain! It's a little too sexy for tutoring in, but great for a weekend out with friends. I quite like the look of the corset and usually wear it over-top rather than underneath my outfit. I've always been partial to Victorian style and nothing screams Victorian quite like a corset (even if they did usually wear theirs underneath)!

This was a very quick photoshoot, as it was absolutely freezing outside! 

I've been leisurely enjoying my Christmas gifts over the last couple weeks. I used a giftcard to purchase Dita Von Teese's new beauty book. It's fantastic! I normally only buy used books, but this book caught my eye while shopping with a friend. It was a bit of a splurge, but well worth it! It's not only beautiful, but also informative and very interesting. 

I also bought myself a little Christmas gift: a compressed heather brooch. Yes, the "gemstone" is actually bits of dyed Scottish heather stems that have been compressed and polished. It's really stunning and was surprisingly inexpensive. I wore it a lot over the holiday season. 

I've also managed to finish a few knitting projects now that the holiday rush is over. The first one is a shawl/scarf from this beautiful yarn I picked up from a local yarn shop. I made up the pattern as I went along, as I couldn't find anything quite right on Ravelry. Instructions can be found on my Ravelry page for the project. 

I also finished another pair of socks. I hate knitting with dpns and find the magic loop method a little awkward, so I always knit my socks flat using this free pattern. Sewing them together at the end is a bit of a pain, but they work up quite quickly and I can knit both at the same time. 

I'm hoping to continue this trend of productivity and finish some sewing projects in the upcoming weeks. My sewing room is a mess with half-finished projects at the moment, so it would be nice to get at least a couple done. I'm also hoping to get my hd webcam fixed soon so I can make more youtube videos. There are more videos coming, it just might take a while as I sort out the technically difficulties. 

I hope everyone is having a great week!

That's All.

Party Dresses (1914)

Happy 2016 everyone! I figured I would start the year off right with some pretty dress illustrations I found in an old magazine. It's actually one large picture, but I've cropped it into 3 smaller pictures so I could put them in a frame in my sewing room. It felt right to post some new inspiration images for the new year. Even though my model has moved away, I'm still hoping to add a bunch of new garments to the shop by the end of the month. Not sure how I'm going to photograph them yet, but I'm sure I will figure something out! Sewing more garments is not quite a "new years resolution", but it is certainly a major goal of mine for this year. I even started the year by sewing a dress after the new years countdown!

I hope everyone is having a good start to the new year!

That's All.

Dancing Bears

Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas! I hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely few days. I've been crazy busy over the last few weeks, and haven't had time for much of anything. I was way behind on Christmas prep due to the colds I had earlier in the month, and on top of everything my best friend is (unexpectedly) moving to the other side of the country. Between spending extra time with her, planning and cooking Christmas dinner (I go all out), decorating the entire house, and shopping/making/wrapping gifts, I have thoroughly worn myself out. It will be lovely to spend the next week just relaxing and finally getting a chance to enjoy the season. 

Before the holidays, another friend treated me to dinner and The Nutcracker in Toronto as part of my Christmas gift. The ballet was lovely and the restaurant was really good as well. It was a lovely day out, even if I was rather tired and almost fell asleep during dinner. 

Of course I had to go in costume to the ballet. I would have loved to go as the Mouse King or Sugar Plum Fairy, but I couldn't find a suitable outfit in my closet. In the end, I decided to go as Marie (who is sometimes also called Clara. She was Marie in this production). I wore a vintage light mint-green nightgown and turquoise bow in my hair (plus matching waist-tie). I put on a pair of flats that look like ballet shoes for the photos, but I actually wore a pair of boots as they were more comfortable for walking around in. The dancing bears were much more graceful then I will ever be, but it sure felt fun to dress up as a ballerina for a day.

I had a bunch of compliments on my hair from random strangers. I originally had wanted to have my hair down in ringlets, but pinned it up for practicality. I may post a Youtube tutorial for this style as it is super easy to do, if I can get my webcam working again (it's having issues at the moment...).  It's such a great holiday style as it lasts all night and looks ok if it gets a little messy. 

I haven't had a chance to photograph many of my gifts and I was neglectful in taking photos of the gifts I made for everyone. However I did manage to snap a couple quick photos of my early Christmas gift to myself. Can you guess what it is?

Yup! I bought myself a corset from What Katie Did!!! It was a fairly expensive purchase, but since I wanted it mainly for back support, I figured I could justify it as a "health expense". I am basically using it as a pretty back-brace, and have no intention of tight lacing it, but I admit I love the shaping it gives. I bought the Lily corset, as it was supposed to be more comfortable for sitting in. I'm still "seasoning" it, but here is a snap of what it looks like on:

Isn't she pretty? I tend to wear her on-top of my blouses instead of under, as I am loving the Victorian/Steampunk look it gives. I was quite surprised how heavy it is compared to most "corsets" I've tried on before. You can definitely tell it's properly made, and not just a costume piece!

One other gift I did manage to snap a picture of was one of my homemade chocolates for my mother. I made her a bunch of different chocolates, but this one looks pretty neat. Actually my first attempt was better, but I made it too thin and it broke. Try two wasn't quite as good, but I think you can still tell what it's supposed to be:

It's a chocolate Buster Keaton! He is a little rough around the edges, but I thought it was pretty good for a first attempt (well, second attempt..) at a chocolate portrait. My mom loves Buster Keaton as much as I do, and she really appreciated the effort.

I haven't taken many photos of my decorating either (yes, I have been very neglectful with my camera), with the exception of my Christmas village. I've always wanted a Christmas village, but am waaaaayyyy too cheap to pay hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to create one. Those cute little buildings are so expensive! So instead, I found some vintage printables and made my own from paper. I added in some little trees and lights from the dollar store, plus some white feather boas for "snow". I love the final result!

 

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

That's All.

Wave Clips and Soft Hands

I've finally been healthy long enough to film a couple of Youtube videos! Yay! For those of you who were curious about my 1920's/30's wave clips, I made a video demonstrating two different types of clips. I also posted a super simple Edwardian recipe to keep your hands soft. Enjoy!