Thursday, December 29, 2011

Wish List #2

Sewing Patterns I am lusting over

Simplicity 2172



Simplicity 2207


Wishlist - #1

I know it's post Christmas and all, but these beauties caught my eye whilst strolling the University Bookstore.
First up is The Brinkley Sisters, a collection of magazine illustrations done by the Brinkley sisters from 1913 through 1940.
These charming illustrations chronicle the image of a fashionable woman, going from blonde, to brunette, to raven haired over the decades.  Nursing soldiers back to health during World War 1, she then sips champagne and cuts a rug in the 20's.  Great for costume inspiration.



Next is The World of Downton Abbey, which is not, as the name implies, about an Abbey, btu rather about a family on the brink of World War 1 in England.  Deliciously costumed, this book explores the characters (what they wear!), and the world of this well to do family.  Charmingly reminicent of Upstairs, Downstairs, this series also tags along in the lives of some of the servants.


Great book, lovely series.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Things Lost or Broken - Installment the first.

   In this episode of Things Lost or Broken this week, we met up with student, Anna Curtiss to chat about the things lost or broken in her life.  Earlier this week the young costume designer's wallet was misplaced on a bus.  When she discovered the loss, Curtiss wasn't about to run four blocks to catch up with the bus.  "So far nothing has turned up.  The day before Christmas Eve is a fantastic time to be running about trying to replace cards," said Curtiss sarcastically.
   Despite troubling occurances left and right, Curtiss is determined to maintain a positive attitude.  "I could easily look at these experiences and wonder when the next bad thing could happen, or I could greet them as an oppourtunity in disguise.  I was ready for change but didn't realise it."
Yesterday Curtiss' laptop screen ceased to work for no apparent reason.  She knew the computer was on, but not responsive to her verbal plea's for it to function.  Taking it to a nearby service center revealed that the LED screen had simply given up the goat.
   To top things off, Curtiss had planned on spending the day working on a few new shirts and patching some clothes.  Just as she was ready to start sewing, her machine decided it needed to skip every three or four stitches and simply not function.  "I seriously considered the notion that perhaps it is my proximity to these things that is causing these malfunctions," giggled Curtiss during our interview.  "I'm flabbergasted at all this mishap!"
Curtiss is turning to simple chores, and crafts that don't require the use of either her laptop or her sewing machine.  Knitting, for example, has turned out to be very soothing.  She is also in the process of refurbishing a quilt.  "All my laundry is done, and there are patterns cut out for when the sewing machine decides to work again," Curtiss chuckled.  "I am going to see about having that repaired as well."
   What can be taken away from all these events, we asked Curtiss, "Oh, that you should always speak nicely to your inanimate objects!  You never know when your laptop conspired with your sewing machine."

Miss A. Information - Daily News, Seattle


p.s.
I would be posting a tutorial, and chatting about Christmas, but the images are trapped on the invalid computer, so bear with me for a time. 
xoxoxo Anna

Thursday, December 15, 2011

On Mothers and Babies...a wee soap box rant.

Start here:
Children and Breastfeeding

Target Harasses Nursing Mother


Recently these articles have shown up in my Facebook feed and I can't help but grow incensed at the ignorance and rudeness with which American mothers are treated with when nursing in public.  What is so wrong about a woman baring her bosom to feed her baby?  It's normal.  Maybe that is where things went wrong in the first place, though.  America no longer perceives this action as normal.  They see it along the same lines as a stripper flashing a patron, that it is the same vulgar, disgusting act.  Breastfeeding in public couldn't be anything further from a stripper if it tried.  That's what breasts are for!  Feeding babies!

I think not enough parents are open with their children in teaching them these things.  I think that is where the problem lies.  Now in the case of the Target store, that's a really idiotic company policy and I don't think I'll ever shop there again, much less take my future children there.  That is utterly ridiculous.  I can't help but smile when I encounter a mother nursing her wee one in public.  It is so precious, so beautiful.  I admit that I'm never quite sure what to say, so I allow my smile to suffice.

I fully intend to carry my wee ones in a sling, to kiss them and sing to them and teach them the ways of this wonderful crazy world.  And I fully intend to breastfeed in public until the world gets over itself.  Or emigrate to Europe where more of the sensible people live.  Alright friends, someone help me off this soap box...


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The end, the end!


Final week of Final exams, projects, and classes!  Can't wait to greet Friday with open arms.  Also, I'm kind of ridiculously pleased with how the above project turned out.  Scene painting is so awesome!

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Insecurity


  I get anxious about many things.  This happens easily and often very quickly, until it escalates into me freaking out about nothing and dear Nate rationalizing me back into being calm.  Not that I am terribly anxious about it, but Nate's company Christmas party is next Friday and I feel as if I have nothing to wear.  That, of course, isn't true.  I have plenty, oodles, to choose from.  What I want to wear is something chic and fashionable.  What I have to wear makes me feel a little bit like Maria from Sound of Music, going to a ball in a dress you whipped up an hour ago from a perfectly aged bedsheet.  It's probably the softest thing in the world, but I still feel like everyone is judging me, like they would be able to know it's a  bedsheet.  
Now this is what I picture in my head: something adorable and totally vintage ( found here ).  That's really chic right now.
And completely out of my price range.  So, it's off to the basket of UFO's (Unfinished Objects for you out of towners) to piece together something that will be adorable, and it will be so very me.  I just have to feel odd about it first.  Mind you, this sort of worry over how people perceive me no longer happens at college or at my workplace.  Just in places where I am new and people don't know me, or I am unsure if they will accept me for who I am.  The eccentric costumer fiancee of a respectable accountant.  This entire ramble is just for me to pull up my garters and accept who I am.  The eccentric costumer.  I dress beautifully, fashionably, and it's either thrifted, vintage, or handmade from thrifted vintage linens.  So HA!  Take that insecurity!