Benton Park Lake (Or: So Many Parks, So Little Time Left!)

Dreary day. I just realized that we have about two weeks left in St. Louis and still so much to do! I've already got my brand new (red!) moleskine for 2011, so I plan to spend tomorrow creating my planner and writing in the last of the STL touristy stuff and post ideas. I've always found that it makes more sense to just buy a plain moleskine and make my own planner instead of picking up a store bought one, because I'm very particular and the pre-made ones are always ALL WRONG. I like to split up the year in four-month increments and use the space behind for a journal/sketchbook, and then I do the same for the next four months, and the next.

Anyway, enough about organize-y things. The fur coat and green dress are both thrifted, and I've only been able to recently put them together because they were sitting around in my to-mend pile forever. The dress was originally quite a bit longer but I shortened it to a mini. I had every intention of replacing the buttons on this poor old coat but never got around to it-- I think it would look much better with vintage brass buttons, instead of the bright gold.

I didn't intend to get this pair of Gal Stern tights because The Clothes Horse has the same pattern in gold, but I didn't specify on my Christmas list and Jeremy picked them out! Hopefully it's not too copycat-y. I'm just happy to finally have a pair, they're so lovely in person.

Obligatory Jeremy photo:

Thrifted vintage fur coat & dress
Gal Stern tights (Christmas present-- yay!)
thelittlefox necklace (another present, also yay)
Seychelles heels

Fur disclaimer (!): I don't support the fur industry, of course! I would never buy new fur. But I do believe that vintage fur can be okay, since I just found this in a thrift shop for around $5 anyway. I hope it doesn't upset anyone.

The Year In Outfits: 2010

I was going to wait a few days for this but I started having a twitchy urge to post, so! Here is my year in review, brought to you in the form of one of those favorite-outfit-from-each-month things:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

Runner up goes to the Luna costume of Awesome:

August

September

October

November

December

Hmm... maybe I should look at the camera more? Good grief. But the funny thing is that I have started looking at the camera more this year and somehow I still manage to pick the looking-down ones! I'm working on it.

So This Is Christmas..

And what have you done?

Lots of things, I think. Despite the initial graduation panic of Oh god I'm not ready I'm doing nothing with my life what am I doing what is this I can't I'm having a crisis-- I think I battled through it and committed myself to just letting things happen without making it a Super Massive Freakout Thing. I already have a few sketchy plans for next year that I'm crazy excited about, one being to blog more, dammit since I have my shiny new early Christmas present fancy camera lens. (See post below! Everything is so SHARP!)

Click to enlarge, like always.

I think by now the very few friends/family that were sent cards should have received them and hopefully thought it was somewhat cute/not entirely obnoxious because look, I understand that not everyone finds cheesy family Christmas photos endearing, even though I sure as hell do. I only wish that we were wearing matching silly sweaters or something. (Although hey, almost! I guess I was much closer last year.)

Trying to get a decent photo with two humans and two dogs was just ridiculous. Weetzie and I are the least photogenic (I have to take billions of pictures to find decent ones for the blog, you guys, you have no idea. And most of the time I'm still looking down), so it was mostly our fault. My sis-in-law said Weetzie looks like an old woman with her head down who doesn't want to take a photo, and I agree. This is Weetzie's default photo face. To get to the good ones you must bribe her with toys and treats, but our tripod didn't provide that service. George was a superstar in all of them! He's just happy to be here. Jeremy had a goofy outtake that I won't share here, but he was smiling like this :D with eyes like this O_O and said it looked like someone just handed him a dog and told him to be in someone's Christmas card photo.

So anyway, my next post is planned for after Christmas when we can actually get out of the apartment and do something photo-worthy, so I thought I would just drop by and share this and tell you that. And then in 2011: A REGULAR BLOGGING SCHEDULE THAT I WILL STICK WITH! If.. you know.. anyone cares. But I care, because I keep wanting to update more and then never do, and then I sometimes do and then stop, and the whole thing drives me crazy.

There's No Home For You Here, Girl

(I wonder how many of my 145 post titles are White Stripes lyrics? Probably a ridiculous amount.)

We left St. Louis last Thursday for a week long trip home to NC for (fake) Christmas, since Jeremy always works on the real day. It's been fun-- lots of family and presents and a visit to see our brand spankin' new nephew! (Spoiler alert: he's adorable.)

Today we went on a day trip to Wilmington, which isn't my hometown or anything but feels very much like home to us. We have so many good college memories of this place, and I just love so much about it-- the beaches, river, art, music, film. It's lovely, and we hope to move back after our Great Traveling Adventure is over. This city was my young adulthood, and maybe it's silly but I worry that there won't be a place for me as a grownup. What if it doesn't feel the same when I move back? I don't know. I'm sure we'll make new memories and it'll be fine. It feels like home, and we do miss it.. when we say "wilmington," it's always with a little sigh, and my instincts tell me that we need to settle where it feels right. But that won't be for a little while, anyway.

This outfit is almost entirely thrifted! I haven't done that in a while.

Thrifted vintage sweater
Thrifted skirt, boots & vintage coat
F21 sweater tights

What I'm Making: Stockings

I promise I'm not morphing this into a knitting blog! Things should chill after the holidays. In the meantime I hope you guys don't mind all of the craft-rambling.

Christmas stocking-apolooza project: check!

I think Weetzie and George's are my favorites. I tried to make them very bright and silly to match their personalities.

Here is the link to the pattern again in case anyone wants to give it a go. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in a billion different colors and each one took me a few days to finish. They aren't perfect and there were a few hiccups, but overall I'm really happy with the result. I think they're much more fun than our old boring store bought ones!

Etsy Love: Velvet Holiday Dresses

Lately I've been obsessed with finding the perfect velvet dress for the holidays, preferably with lace and/or tartan. I'd like to thrift it instead of ordering from Etsy-- any other time of year it seems like I would find tons of velvet dresses-- but haven't had any luck. Last week we went downtown to see a production of A Christmas Carol and I saw a little girl wearing one of those red velvet dresses trimmed with fluffy white and kept talking about how I wanted one like it, age appropriateness be damned!

absolutelyriveting


MillsDesignCo


Dollyrocker


VolenskaVintage


mylovedone


VeraVague

Adventures on Cherokee Street

(thrifted sweater and skirt, F21 purple sweater tights, vintage '70s boots from ebay)

This outfit feels a bit "Look mom, I can dress myself!" but oh well. This kid's sweater was recently thrifted and I love how soft and worn it is, and because it was actually warmer today I could wear something with shorter sleeves.

We've been meaning to go to Antique Row on Cherokee Street for a while now. It's kind of a weird thing-- it's one of those shady-areas-turned-hip-places-to-be, except it's still a little scary in certain parts (hence the quick and uneventful outfit photo). We just went to a few places: Ruth's Vintage Clothing, The Purple Cow, and the Shangri-La diner, but they were all really neat.

I didn't take any pictures in the vintage shop because it was small and that sort of thing makes me pretty nervous, but their prices were awesome and I picked up a pretty necklace. Jeremy has been looking for a super warm winter coat, and I swear to bob he walked right into the store and found the perfect one within the first two minutes. Guy luck.

Next we went to the Purple Cow, and honestly it's exactly the kind of shop I would love to run if I didn't have to worry about money or anything. Just lots and lots of interesting antique/vintage junk with plenty of humor thrown in. It reminded me a lot of Bottom of the Barrel Antiques in New Orleans where we found Chuck, the flamingo planter. We bought an old metal sign that says "Except Sunday," which I love because it has no context at all and we could put it anywhere. Above the toilet! Next to the shower! So much potential for guest confusion.

The smaller sign said: "Open one of these days."

"Possibly $1 each," "More like .50"

The Shangri-La diner is like something straight out of a Francesca Lia Block book, which you know I appreciate. It's a little veggie/vegan place with very delicious Strawberry Lemon-Limeade (I can't comment on the rest of the menu since we only had the Nachos Muchachos, but I'm sure it's all just as yummy). Lots of pink and aqua, barbies with butterfly wings, pink flamingos, good music, beaded curtains, the name itself and the fact that it's on a street called Cherokee-- the owner has to be a Weetzie Bat fan! I think I'll ask the next time I go.