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Girl on Fire

Girl on Fire - The Dressed Aesthetic

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.

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

{Sewing} In the Absence : Roberts | Wood Bow Patchwork Dress - The Dressed Aesthetic

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.

Hello Spring

Hello Spring - The Dressed Aesthetic

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…

Strawberry Shake

Strawberry Shake - The Dressed Aesthetic

Personally, I’ve never identified as a trend-setter or a trend-follower. I sort of always have done my own thing (which, unless you’ve only happened upon me, you know to be a serious bent toward 1950’s Dior New Look, with a twist of sky high heels and a heap of glitter). This has afforded me the luxury of being somewhat impassive when it comes to the new “It Girl” accessory or must have handbag.

New Year, Same Me

Face Off - The Dressed Aesthetic

You always hear that the start of a new year is supposed to imbue you with a renewed sense of impending possibility. Of hope for a new beginning. Now, as a glass half full kind of person, I can confess I’ve definitely bought into this a time or two. Despite knowing intellectually that New Year is just a time-honored construct of “endings” and “beginnings”, it still does help to have a mental model of leaving things in the past. But, this year I’m trying something new. This year, I think, instead of a “fresh start”, I’m going to tentatively sidestep…

{Sewing} Check It Off the List

{Sewing} Check it Off the List - The Dressed Aesthetic

Despite the fact that a calendar year is really an arbitrary block of time, there is something about an impending new year that gets me motivated to check things off the list. Be it a sewing project or the never ending To Do list at work, I always try to make that final push to put projects behind me, add one more tick in the Done Column. Almost as if, in doing so, I will truly feel as if I deserve a break. (Note to self: You deserve a break anyway)

{Sewing} Kaleidoscope

{Sewing} Kaleidoscope - The Dressed Aesthetic

Have you ever had an idea that, when thinking about it in retrospect, you realize if you had known then what you know now, you never would have started it? (the wave skirt comes to mind…) That’s a long winded way of saying my latest sewing project started as a sketch that seemed very doable, and yet took more hours and more steps than should ever be humanly possible.