[ click for a larger view. ]
Whew! This weekend ended up being a non-stop baking, decorating, and holiday music-listening marathon! I enjoyed every bit of it, though (despite being tired of standing in the kitchen, icing cookies. lol!). I still have a bit more decorating to do, and now have to go through and box cookies up, but it’s truly starting to look a bit more like the holidays around here. (Not that you’d know it was almost Christmas; it’s in the 80s outside!)
[ click for a larger view. ]
I baked–I don’t know how many dozens of cookies. But they all thankfully turned out edible (yay!), and I got my cookie decorating fix for the year. lol! I put out and decorated my little feather tree, made and hung up this lovely garland, made a wreath for the door, and put up a few other decorations. I still have a lot left to do (mostly preparations for Christmas dinner), but I adore Christmas so much, it’s so exciting to have things falling into place! One of the biggest decorating things I have left is the dining room. I have plans to string up some white lights and giant “snowflake pom-poms” (I made using the infamous Martha Stewart tutorial and white tissue paper), and hopefully give the room a bit more of a “winter wonderland” look. I hope it works out! hehe!
[ click for a larger view. ]
I’m hoping to have some pictures of the decorated cookies and my gingerbread house (pretty much my second attempt at one!) in a few days… I still have to put the gingerbread house together, and I’m a little nervous about whether it’ll be successful or not. Although I adored the architectural drafting course I took years ago, working with gingerbread is a bit different than solid walls. lol!
Have a lovely Monday, dear friends!
December 14, 2009 ·
20 lovely thoughts
posted in around the house,casey's musings
· tags: holidays
[ be sure to click the image to see the sources for these lovely photos! ]
Thank you so much for your amazing response to the cardigan refashion tutorial! I’m just so delighted that it proved useful to others! This week’s inspiration week is a bit bigger than usual, partly because I have a long list of exciting links to share, and also because it’s the 100th inspiration week post!
- Lauren shared a really cute 30s hat pattern that you can crochet!
- I discovered this really neat clothing line called Clothespin via a link from a sweet reader (thank you!).
- A great vintage article illustrating how to set pincurls.
- Be sure to check out this fun 1920s fashion movie that Miriam shared!
- Be prepared to drool over the lovely images of gowns from of “The May Queen“.
- Gertie (my sewing hero), posted a really fantastic tutorial on creating a “layer cake” crinoline!
- If you love those little paper houses that seem to pop up around the holidays, be sure to check out these links.
- These faux-cupcake tree ornaments are just the cutest things I’ve seen!
Our plans for this weekend are squarely in the seasonal category: finish baking Christmas goodies (have to send my parents a box of cookies!), decorate our tree, and finish getting all the decorations up. Well, I actually have to finish a few of the decorations I’m making. lol! Do you have any special things lined up for your weekend? Or are you just planning a cozy few days in? Whichever the case, I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
December 11, 2009 ·
12 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,links
· tags: weekly inspiration
[ left: I love the belt she is wearing with this dress; it almost looks like it's a cut-out style. So fun! right: from head to toe, I could steal the entire outfit! especially the big, fluffy hat. ]
At several of the antique shops Mom and I stopped at, I took the opportunity to rummage through the boxes of old photos. I adore collecting old snapshots, and strangely, I have a hard time finding them in antique stores in Florida! So this was my opportunity to stock up (for right now), and flesh out my little collection a bit. One thing I was hunting for were some old photos of sailors from the 30s and 40s, but I couldn’t really find any… Instead I found a lot of photos of women dressed in snappy outfits from the period, which isn’t half bad! I only wished I had snatched up a couple more, as there were a lot in this vein, but it was early in our day of antiquing, and I didn’t want to spend too much too early!
[ left:this picture makes me wonder what the ladies were doing: was it a club? class? just a girlfriend get-together? I love that they are all wearing suits. right: my soft spot for floral skirts drew me to this photo--isn't her outfit lovely? ]
[ left:both these ladies' outfits are quite striking! I especially love their big envelop style clutches. right: doesn't she look so fantastic?! ]
[ left: these sorts of images showing women in work-wear always intrigue me! right: I love her sweet, two-piece ensemble, and those spectator shoes! ]
[ people at the beach is a mini collection I have going... I think I now have a handful of similar photos in my stash! ]
I also wanted to show you a shot of the 40s swing dress I made a few months ago from the Sense and Sensibility pattern! It ended up being one of my favorite pieces to wear on our trip; I think I wore it about 4 times. lol. This was taken the day we took my younger sister and sister-in-law to Washington, DC for some sightseeing. I actually was wearing a warm jacket, but took it off for the outfit photo, hence the slightly peeved expression (it was cold!). lol!
![11.28.09[ sightseeing! ]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2517/4163814847_ec59325ed1.jpg)
[ click for a larger view. ]
December 10, 2009 ·
22 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,life
· tags: happy things, outfits, sewing, vintage inspiration
This post has been months in the making, but to those who were anticipating this tutorial, I hope it was worth the wait! For now I’m just posting all the steps here, but plan on formatting it nicely in a .pdf (so you can print the instructions out and keep them handy!) later, when I have a bit more time.
We all have them lurking in the back of our closets: those cardigan sweaters that we bought because they were “practical” or were 100% wool and on sale for a great price. But they languish because they don’t fit in the most flattering manner; the worst offenders are the large, boxy type cardigans. But you don’t need to banish these from your wardrobe anymore! Refashioning a cardigan into something more flattering on you is easy and only requires some simple sewing supplies and know-how, a small dose of patience and about one afternoon.
I started refashioning and embellishing my cardigans a few years ago when I wanted to recreate the high end looks that I saw in catalogs with the cardigans I had or found at thrift shops. Although much of my learning was trial by error, I have stumbled across a few good resources. My favorite is “The Yestermorrow Clothes Book” by Diana Funaro, published in 1976 (check Amazon and Alibris for second hand copies). It shows a smattering of ways to refashion all styles of sweaters, and I highly recommend finding a copy if you’re looking to explore other sweater refashioning options.
This tutorial is quite easy; I think even a determined beginner seamstress could easily do this. I have developed these techniques from several years of adjusting and altering my own cardigans, but this is by no means the zenith of cardigan refashioning. I encourage you to tweak and modify these steps and methods as you go along to suit your needs.
{ click here to continue reading this post }
December 9, 2009 ·
52 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,tutorials
· tags: featured, refashion, sewing, tutorial
I have been slowly catching up on comments from the past few weeks, but am starting to despair I’ll ever get through them all (and feeling quite guilty too!). One thing I am trying to do is reply to questions that were asked in specific posts (and reply to email questions as well). But, just in case I accidentally skipped a reply, or didn’t see a comment with a question, I thought this would be a great opportunity to do a “frequently asked questions” post! I must admit, this is also my not-so-sly way to beefing up a f.a.q. page I’m also putting together. lol!
Feel free to post a question you have about the blog, my sewing, knitting, vintage clothing… whatever you’re curious about! I’ll do my best to either answer them here, or in a separate post! Just to make things neat and tidy, let’s give the question submissions a deadline of Saturday, December 12. So ask away!
December 8, 2009 ·
14 lovely thoughts
posted in casey's musings,misc
· tags: faq, misc
