Emma's Dress

The season of blonde hair is officially over.  I really enjoyed it and may go back to it one day, but, for the present, I have to get my driver's license renewed and these photos last for eight years now instead of four.  I don't want to have to answer questions about why my picture looks so different from my real hair color.  In the mean time, I decided to wear this gorgeous mint dress from The-Other-Sparrows.com.  I bought the dress for one of my girls to wear when she dresses up as Emma from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but since it is an adult size, I thought I'd wear it before I have to tailor it for her size.  I order sundresses from this site in a size Medium so I can get a little extra length out of them, but this is my first time ordering a dress from their "Girly Clothes" selection.  I think this line fits truer to size.  If they had had one in stock, I probably could have ordered a small or extra small and had plenty of room.  The dress is lined and comes with a belt, but has no zipper.  I pulled the dress on over my head, stretching the elastic waist.  The material is a light weight textured synthetic fabric.  I could see this dress getting snags or holes very easily.  However, it is a very lovely dress and I'm a little sad to hand it over, but maybe I'll get it back one day.

Shop the Look:
Tie Waist Mint Dress from The-OtherSparrows.com
Dolce Vita Heels & Matryoshka Purse are old

Amazing Sale At ModCloth!!

ModCloth just launched a sale with an extra 40% off sale items!

I'm so excited for this sale; I'm heading over there now :D

Hot House Dots

Another lost post about a trip to my local greenhouse or "hot house" as my dad calls it.  Just out on a warm day buying a few flowers to plant around the house.  I haven't worn this dress much; it was so very bright I was at a loss as so how to style it.  Pairing it with a neutral denim jacket and neutral metallic sandals really helped to tone down the color and now I love it!

 Shop the Look:

Denim Jacket from Old Navy

Sandals from Target

Yellow Dot Dress from The-Other-Sparrows.com

Garden Party Dreams

    Big News!  I am officially a home & land owner.  After seven months of living on my family's farm, we've found the perfect place for us and bought a little mountain top farm with 20 acres and a cabin.  It's going to take a lot of work before it's move-in ready, which means I have not had time to do much blogging.  Don't be too alarmed if my posts drop off sharply for a few weeks while we're working, I'll be back in the autumn at the very latest with new looks and new hair.  

    In the mean time, here's another lost in the shuffle lovely from early summer.  On this particular day I had dreams of summer garden parties on my mind and challenged myself to turn a standard sundress into something over the top on girliness.  I love the strawberry-citrus colors of this plaid print by Jessica Simpson.  To give a more Victorian vibe to a modern dress, I added this ivory lace top underneath.  

    We often don't think of layering for summertime events, but with its high ruffled neck and buttons down the front, this top completely changed the vibe of this outfit, and its lightweight mesh fabric, kept it cool enough that I hardly noticed the extra layer.  When I stepped out in this dress my girls squealed with delight, so I'll take that to mean  that I've achieved garden party girliness success.  The next step will be to throw an actual garden party. :D

Shop the Look:
Jessica Simpson dress and Worthington mesh top from ThredUp, my favorite online thrift & consignment store.  Use my link to sign up for ThredUp and save $10 off your first purchase (no minimum).
The Zest is History Heels in Navy from: ModCloth

Take Two and That's a Wrap

Paris Print, Wedding Bouquet, Iris Print from Etsy.com

    I'm on a roll with wraps, so I'm donning another wrap blouse today.  They're very unlike me, I gave up on wraps years ago.  For my last outfit, I used a simple push pin brooch to prevent the dreaded wrap-gap.  Quick Review/ Points of Interest:  This top doesn't really have that problem, the fabric stays closed very nicely, but it's also a sheer top, so I'm sporting a camisole underneath.  The ties on this wrap blouse go all the way around the waist and return to make a bow in the front.  The sleeves had some elastic bands in them to hold the shape and keep them in place.  The print is muted shades of mauve and burgundy, and I could see it working well with a pencil skirt or jeans just as well as it does with this swing skirt.  Overall, it's a very versatile top, and I've really enjoyed stepping out of my clothing comfort zone to try something new.

Shop the Look:

HaoDuoYi Women's Chiffon Floral Print Wrap V Neck Top Blouse with Tie $12.99

Forever 21 Burgundy Swing Skirt $7.99 from ThredUp

Use my link to sign up and save $20 off your first purchase.  No minimum :)

Sunnies purchased locally, but I love this pair of Clear Frame Flat Lens Round Sounglasses- $7.99 from: Romwe

New at EShakti

Summer is in full swing and outfit photos haven't been a part of my schedule lately, but I still make time to check the new releases from my favorite shops and I am crazy about these block quilt prints from Eshakti.  I seriously may have to make room in my August budget for one of these dresses and maybe a little tailoring too.  My absolute fave is the maxi quilt dress, but I'd really like to see it in a knee-length full skirt.

eShakti Women's Patch print surplice crepe maxi dress

eShakti Women's Patch print belted mixed media dress

Shopping Miss Peregrine

Summer is the season of comic & cosplay conventions and we decided to try to make it to one or two in the surrounding cities and to do another family costume.  Actually we made the decision last year when Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children hit theaters.  We didn't have the means or time to make anything then, but it's been our goal for this year.  Originally, we intended to make all the costumes ourselves, but, ya know, then real life happened.  Finding my costume was easy.  I did a search and turned up FanPlusFriend Costume Store's Exact Copy of Miss Peregrine's jacket, skirt, and pocket watch.  All that was left for me was to supply the shoes, which I already had in the form of these The Zest is History Heels in Navy from: ModCloth and a pipe which I bought for around $5 on Amazon.  I don't have much to say about this costume and none of it is negative, but I'll do a separate review for each of these dresses in an upcoming post.

Finding dresses for two small girls was much more challenging.  After a fruitless search, I decided to move away from children's sizes and into small adult sizes that I could alter myself.  One of the first places I searched was The Other Sparrows and found both dresses I was looking for.  The first was Emma's blue dress and I chose this Tie Waist Mint Dress in a size medium.  Of course, this isn't an exact match, but it is close enough to give the impression of Emma's dress and with such an important prop as her weighted shoes, I felt we could get the idea across with a less precise match on the dress.

 For Olive's dress we managed to get a much closer match with this Tassel Tie Neck Pink Floral dress and this was available in a size small. I'll still have to make some adjustments to it since it's being worn by a child, but an adult could easily rock this dress for Olive's come Halloween.

And to really sell the look as a group, I bought two white cotton doll blanks, to make the twins, one for each girl to carry around.  I'm not using a pattern for them, just trying to fit some fabric over them to roughly created the twins' outfits.  If it doesn't work, I'll just forget about including them for now.  But, costumes do exist for these characters if you happen to have two little ones who love the series.

And of course, we had to buy wigs for everyone since we're a family of brunettes.  I found all three colors available for around $10 each on AliExpress.com and they arrived within a week.  So, for the next few weeks we'll be hard at work finishing up our costumes and then I'll post extensive pics of all the completed looks with props.
To Be Continued...........

That's a Wrap

Ahhh, modesty.  It can be challenging and wrap tops present one of the most consistent challenges I've ever had.  This white cami dress from Haoduoyi had the problem that most wraps do: a returning gap at the top.  No matter how many times I adjusted and tied, the gap came back.  My solution was a cute little brass leaf brooch that I found tucked away in a jewelry box.  It's very lightweight, so it won't weigh the blouse down and create a new problem, and the simple pushpin back clipped right through the problem spot and held it closed.  No more gap and a little added bling to a basic top.  maybe I should make some of my own and offer them in my jewelry shop.  Hmmmm....to be continued.  

Shop the Look:

hodoyi Women's Sexy Spaghetti Strap Wrap Criss Cross Backless Mini Party Cami Dress $17.99

Anthropologie Lost Time Skirt by Floreat

Made You Look Hat from Wal-mart

Nine West Ankle Strap Heels

It Takes Two

I have to say, I am loving these two piece sets!  I've wanted to make my own for months now, but no patterns have materialized and after my last sewing-without-a-pattern-kerfuffle, I'm not feeling brave enough to try it on my own.  By the way, did you know "kerfuffle" is a real word?!  Yeah, spell-check just gave me the old red squiggly line because I spelled it -el instead of -le.  It's an amazing time to be alive.  Anyway, I spotted this cute Sweet Breeze Top and Skirt Set in Blue Stripe at ChicWish and it is exactly what I've been looking for!  I love it so much, I'm feeling inspired.  Maybe I'll revisit my dress patterns and try to put something together to make my own two piece set.  Dress Review:  This set fits true to size.  Both the skirt and bodice are lined.  The skirt has pockets (huzzah!), and both the top and skirt have zippers, and the top features an additional tie back for added cuteness.

Shop the Look:

Sweet Breeze Top and Skirt Set in Blue Stripe- $54.68 from: Chicwish

Dressed to the Gill Bag from ModCloth

Similar Clear Frame Flat Lens Round Sunnies from Romwe

Similar Chelsea Crew Reserved for Rollicking Mary Jane Heel in Dijon