There is no time that you miss the city quite like during a global pandemic. It started small: a twinge, a mild craving for the bright lights. It grew to invading my thoughts, with taxi cabs and bustling streets dancing before my eyes. And, much like when you tell yourself not to think of pink elephants, suddenly Pepto-Bismol tinted pachyderms are the only things stampeding through your brain: I need me some bright lights, big city!
In a chat with some of my best friends, I’ve come to realize we have all hit (or are very close to hitting) a breaking point in recent months. The reserves that we had a few months ago to power through what we hoped would be temporary circumstances have been depleted, leaving us all with a sense of helplessness and a stress that just won’t quit. The only possible response to this seems to be to find ways to escape – even for a few minutes a day – or to use the dreaded F-word on repeat (and the F-word…
You know how sometimes there’s a certain phrase or tv show or new app that you’ve never heard of before, and then all of the sudden 5 people tell you about it in one day? Well, I had been navigating my life and circle-skirt-making-mania very pleasantly, until one day I heard about the Cricut. Suddenly, without warning, came the deluge of readers and followers asking me if I had one and the hours upon hours of hand cutting I would save. And with a few simple clicks, I fell down the rabbit hole…
I have a dark secret to share with you, which is likely to be a very unpopular opinion, particularly in the vintage community. Trust me when I say this confession has raised many an eyebrow and the gasp is often heard around the world. There are memes about my truth. It’s resulted in a bar brawl here and there and I’ve lost friends over it. You may decide to stop reading my blog altogether once you hear my terrible secret. Brace yourself people….
This is always the part of the semester where the exhaustion kicks in and you start counting down to fall break, visions of sloth-like movie watching and catching up on sewing projects dancing in my head. However, given this is no normal semester, I pretty much started the academic year already exhausted and, with fall break cancelled, there is no end in sight. The sloth-like movie watching and sewing, however, I still hope to fit in….
I’m not sure about you guys, but I’ve never been much of a hat person. And yet, I find myself wearing a lot of different hats lately. And not just the hats on this most amazing vintage dress from Trunk of Dresses. I have my Exhausted Professor hat. My Disillusioned with the World hat. And I’m sad to say, my Eternal Optimist hat has been languishing on a shelf, not worn for months.
There are some dresses that are befitting a love story. Those who you spot across a crowded internet and fall in breathless, immediate love with. This dress, appropriately named the “Embroidery Dress: Summer Love 1951” captured my heart the moment I clapped eyes on her and is likely to be a love story for the ages…
In a discussion awhile back with my fellow vintage maven Mimosa, we came to realize that we immediately associate certain prints or design details with certain people in our community. Almost as if they don’t have a name. Cat prints = Blue Wren Vintage. Floral = Jamie. Cactus prints = Rose. And (no shocker here), I am synonymous with trompe l’oeil. I’m not sure I even need to justify that one, as my heart literally faints when I see prints that trick the eye into thinking they’re actually leaping off the fabric…
Despite the fact that it’s 90 degrees outside, the minute the fall semester starts, my brain immediately clicks into autumn mode, and my wardrobe quickly follows suit. I think it’s been this way since childhood – whether the crisp temperatures have caught up or not, there is just a feeling that comes with a new school year. Without fail, late August always brought with it shiny new trapper keepers and as-yet-unused pens. Fresh fears and new possibilities. You can practically clock the smell of the academic anxiety as clearly as a you can identify the smell of new box of…
This past week was a pretty big one in the Dressed household – Mr. D and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. This level of togetherness usually involves a fair degree of extra (especially because the Mister and I are no strangers to going ALL out). However, circumstances being what they are, we had to scale the celebrations down several (thousand) notches. But, perhaps that’s the measure of true love – when you’re just as happy with a quiet night in as you are with fireworks and fanfare.