every little thing

Friday's Hero

 

I thought buying this pen necklace would be a nice way to commemorate my Mad Men addiction, and pay tribute to Joan Holloway (one of my favorite characters.)  Of course, an actual vintage 60's pen necklace would have been much cooler, but I just went for the reproduction one over on Amazon.  (It's one of those things that I probably wouldn't have bought at all if I didn't have an Amazon gift certificate at my disposal.)  I also used the 60's photo filter on Picnik for a more authentic look on my awkward and blurry self portrait.  I'll never wear it as well as Joanie, though.

She would have been a fantastic person to dress up as for Halloween, don't you think?  I'm sure lots of people did this year.  All you really need is a red wig, a retro outfit and, in my case, a big set of falsies.  I've been practicing with the liquid eyeliner too, so there is hope for next Halloween.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Save The Date

 

Bake It Pretty

Grand Opening November 17th, 2008

It's official, the sticker- labels are ready and everything.  The new shop will finally open for business Monday, November 17th - a little over a week away!  The date was pushed back a little bit because a certain kid I know is turning six on November 13th, so we have a bit of partying to do before I get down to business.  I'm finishing up all the photographing of new goods this week, and I promise to share a few teaser pics over the weekend.  Thanks so much for the general enthusiasm and support for my new endeavor.  It is very much appreciated.  I truly hope you guys like the new site!  I can't wait to share it with you. 

~Amanda

PS - There is a link up on the top left sidebar where you can join the Bake It Pretty Mailing list.  Members will receive updates every month or so, and especially around holidays.  I'll be including special coupons now and then too, so feel free to sign up if you are interested!

Anthro Rugged Angel Remix

I was completely surprised to find a rack of Anthropoligie clothes at our local Rugged Warehouse last week.  Now wait, before you freak out and make a mad dash for the mini-mall....let me finish.  It was a very small rack of clothes, only 10 or 15 items altogether.  Most of them were pretty ugly and had large, conspicuous holes/ripped seams/stains/etc.  Normally I wouldn't even have bothered, but it's Anthro, you know?  I looked over every single piece, and found a shirt that wasn't amazing, but was free of obvious flaws and was only $6.  (For those of you who may not know, Rugged Warehouse is a discount clothing shop like TJMax, Marshall's, and such.)  So I bought the shirt.  The first day I put it on, the lace in the front started to tear away in the middle almost immediately.  Darn it, I should have known better.  Since I'd actually grown kinda fond of the shirt, I thought I'd try to patch it up with a little, vintage doilie from my stash and some blue thread.  

 
(acorn necklace from Contrary - was a pair of earrings, but I lost one, so I strung the lone acorn on my gold chain.)

Not too bad.  I'm very happy with the end result, and I like the shirt even better now.  The lace sort of gaped in the middle before it even started ripping, so now it's all fixed, and it even looks a little snazzier, if I do say so myself.  The whole process from start to finish took about two minutes, (it helped that I didn't bother changing the thread color, but the light-blue worked for me.)  I just pinned everything where I wanted it to go and sewed it up, easy peasy.  It is very simple, but I always have to stop myself from adding "just one more thing" when I'm embellishing like this,  it's easy to get going on a roll over-do it.  I'm far from the first person to be embellishing with doilies these days, but it's definitely a trend I can get behind, what with my huge box of vintage trims, and all.  Speaking of doilies, for my birthday last week I splurged on a Dottie Angel creation that I've been wanting for a long time. I think Dottie is probably one of the pioneers of the doilie-donning movement, and she is definitely an asset to the cause. 

 
(photo from the Dottie Angel webshop)

I love this slip, and it's so beautifully made.  It looks lovely peeking under edge of all my dresses & skirts that are, as usual, just a touch too short on me (one of the many problems with being tall.)  I don't know why people think that height is an asset to women.  In my opinion, if you're not a well-paid runway model, what good is being tall?  Clothes never fit, pants are too short, and adorably petite gals always ask you to reach things for them on the top shelf at supermarkets.  It makes one feel like a circus freak. *sniffle*      
(ok, the pity party's over.) 

Well Done

When I was a little girl, I loved the "Sister Suffragette" song from Disney's Mary Poppins.  It was one of those things where I sort of made up my own lyrics in my head, because I was too young/couldn't understand the actual words.  I wish I had youtube back then, they even have a sing-along version!  Even though I didn't know what a "suffragette" was, there was one lyric that I was absolutely, crystal-clear on.  I loved it then, and I love it now:

"Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid."

And that's as close to a political post as you're going to get out of me.

in the open air

   

The weather is mild and lovely again, so we are snacking on the porch.

 

These are the best pickles ever.  We bought them at the Farmer's Market a few weeks ago, and the lady kept saying how crispy they were, like over and over.  So we had to buy some, to see what all the hype was about.  And you know what?  They really are the crispiest, darn pickles I've ever had.  Everything tastes better in Asheville.  It's a strange phenomenon.  This is my favorite kind of lunch: just a plate of fresh bread, whatever fruit is in season, some cheese, and a few wild-card items like pickles.  or olives.  or hummus.

Everything is better alfresco. 

Scary

I'm certainly not getting any mom-awards for this year's Halloween costume.  This is by far my laziest and sloppiest work to date.

  

Assembeld as we were literaly walking out of the door, with two pieces of scrap fabric.  In my defense, I have a head-cold.  Still not buying it?  Oh well, Max didn't care...and that's all that really matters.  He's never been big on playing dress-up, anyway.  For him, the Halloween costume is just the middle-man to the candy.  Though I gotta say, 90% of the Luke Skywalker costume is in the lightsaber (check) and the hair:

  

wow.  That's uncanny.  I still think my favorite Halloween for Max was his third year, when he wore a crazy costume that could only be described as the Ghost of Baby Beethoven.

 

We screw up Halloween a little more every year.  It's a family tradition.