The Dressed Aesthetic

18 July 2024

{Review} Shakespeare’s Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing

I was a full-on theatre girl growing up (and why am I speaking in the past tense? I still am VERY much a theatre girl now). But, while these days my world is full of schedules and students and all of the science, I spent so much of my teen years and early 20’s on a stage. There is still something about the smell of a costume closet, or fresh paint and plywood, or the whooshing sound of a heavy velvet curtain that brings me right back. As strange as it may seem, I really found myself in the act…

28 May 2024

{Sewing} Kara in Paris

If you’ve been following for awhile, you know I tend to avoid things that are trending. Usually if something appears on a tv show (hello Carrie Bradshaw blue wedding heels) or is on every Influencer (ie, whatever the new It Girl handbag is), I avoid it like the plague. Perhaps it’s some form of reverse snobbery, but I definitely have an aversion to anything even slightly approaching popular, so deep is my commitment to an original style.

6 March 2024

Staycation Mode

I know what you’re thinking: “What?? An actual blog post?!?” Needless to say, it’s been more than a little quiet around here. So, why am I gracing these cyber pages with a splash of color, you ask? (or didn’t ask. But I have the microphone so….) Because I am officially on Spring Break! When you’re a professor, this doesn’t mean you and your 20 closest friends piling into a clown car headed for Daytona Beach. But it does mean time to breathe, time to sew, time to write a bit. A time where the endless demands blessedly cease and the…

8 January 2024

Something New

Pleated Paradise - The Dressed Aesthetic

Some fabrics are just destined to be pleated. It’s almost as if the print is one thing on its own, but she takes off her glasses and shakes out her pony tail, and becomes something entirely new once she’s pleated. I’ve decided to look at 2024 the same way. You might think it’s yet another year, but just fold and crease and press a bit, and it could turn into something unexpected.

30 October 2023

{Sewing} Checking You Out

There is no rhyme or reason for it, but I have been ALL about the separates lately. Not that making skirts is necessarily a new thing for me, but I’ve been completely enamored with making skirts and a matching top that can masquerade as a dress, but can also be split to mix and match to my heart’s content. With time at a premium these days, I am all for tricks that make my wardrobe serve double duty…

15 August 2023

Girl on Fire

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but I swear summer days move more quickly than winter days. And I don’t just mean in a daylight savings type of way, but more a blink-and-you-miss-it-because-summer-is-much-more-fun type of way. Summer afternoons zip happily by in a fiery swirl of lazy cocktails, BBQs, and travel, without a care in the world. On the other hand, winter days crawl forward inch by frozen inch, reaching for a tomorrow that always feels just out of reach.

29 June 2023

{Review} Wisteria Lane:
The Vendula London Botanist Grab Bag

When most people style an outfit, they probably start with the base: The dress. The skirt. The cigarette pant. They build from the foundation and find shoes and accessories to match. Now, while I’ve been known to be inspired by a dress a time or two, more often than not, I start with the perfect handbag…

31 May 2023

{Sewing} In the Absence:
Roberts | Wood Bow Patchwork Dress

My eyes are definitely always on the lookout for color. I feel most people’s wardrobes are full of basics – the perfect black pant. The simple nude pump. Mine is overflowing with the exact opposite: the statement shoe. The print you can see from space. Call it years of being a wallflower or someone who struggled with confidence for a long time, but I hit a point after college and grad school where I was ready to be seen.

10 May 2023

Hello Spring

There is no season I welcome more than Spring. I love the scent of azaleas and honeysuckle that hits me when I step out of the house. I am here for the sunshine that starts to peek through and hang around until early evening. But, most of all (and I know my fellow educators can relate), I’m pretty sure I wait for Spring with baited breath for the simple fact that I can see the light at the end of a very long semester…

1 March 2023

{Sewing} Strawberry Fields Forever

I’ve always had a bit of a “Life Imitating Art” fascination, especially when it comes to fashion. I don’t know why, but I will forever be enamored with handbags that look like storefronts, or necklaces that look like rhinestone bagels, and shoes designed to mimic cake. Be it edible or not, I can’t get enough of a comestible lifestyle.

{Review} Shakespeare’s Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing

{Sewing} Kara in Paris

Staycation Mode

Something New

{Sewing} Checking You Out

Girl on Fire

{Review} Wisteria Lane:The Vendula London Botanist Grab Bag

{Sewing} In the Absence:Roberts | Wood Bow Patchwork Dress

Hello Spring

{Sewing} Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Shake

{Sewing} Green Gables

New Year, Same Me

{Sewing} Check It Off the List

Lust List #34: Christmas Wishlist 2022!

Black Friday Deals 2022

{Sewing} Kaleidoscope

Slice of Summer

{Sewing} Tiny Bubbles

Fall Forward

{Sewing} The Long and Short of It

{Sewing} Minty Fresh

{Sewing} Outside the Lines

{Sewing} Hopscotch

Greener Pastures

{Review} Spa Day: Vendula London Posh Paws Spa Grab Bag

Blue Skies

{Sewing} When Pigs Fly

{Sewing} Bright Lights, Big City

The Farmer in the Dell

Sartorial Garden

{Sewing} The Devil You Know

Rosy-Cheeked:Wearable Art by Jenny Dame

{Sewing} Silver Bells

{Sewing} Full Deck

Best of 2021: Sewing Edition!

Back to the Future

Rosemary & Time

{Sewing} In Stark Contrast

Lust List #33: Christmas Wishlist 2021!

{Review} Bistro Babe: Bistro de Vendula

Black Friday Deals 2021

{Sewing} Hedera helix

Lolling in the Lilacs

Analog

{Sewing} Daisies at the Ball

{Review} Of Cloudless Climbs: Introducing Petticoats by Lori

Movin’ Right Along

{Sewing} McCall’s #1541: Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Dopamine Dressing

{Sewing} Barbie World

Vintage Ad-Vancements

Just Swimmingly

{Sewing} The Bees Knees

The General Store

Moth to a Flame

{Review} Cherry Picked by Maison Murasaki

{Sewing} Bird of Paradise

Head in the Clouds

{Sewing} Grapes of Wrath

{Review} Sweet Tooth: Introducing Sock Candy

Rejoining the World

The Giving Tree

The Princess AND the Scientist

{Sewing} Making Waves

Flying Sew-lo

Remix

{Sewing} The Foodle Skirt

Muses

Are You A Fairytale?

{Sewing} Be Mine

An Apple a Day

The Joy of Separates

{Sewing} Petal Pusher

All A Flutter…

{Sewing} Checkmate

Biker Chic

2020: A Year in Review

{Sewing} Falling Leaves

Urban Jungle

{Review} Wisteria Lane:
The Vendula London Botanist Grab Bag

{Sewing} In the Absence:
Roberts | Wood Bow Patchwork Dress

Lust List #34:
Christmas Wishlist 2022!

Rosy-Cheeked:
Wearable Art by Jenny Dame

Lust List #33:
Christmas Wishlist 2021!

Lust List #32:
Christmas Wishlist 2020!

{Sewing} Where There’s a Will,
There’s a Way: Making a 3D Belt

Roses are Red,
Boundaries are Blue

Lust List #31:
Christmas Wishlist 2019!

{Sewing}
Climbing Vines

{Review} In Bloom:
White Poppy Multiway Bag by Vendula London

{Sewing} Trompe L’Oeil
Part Deux

{Review} Head to Toe with
Heart of Haute