day two hundred thirty-two.

Day Two Hundred Thirty-two 4/17/10
Dress:  Black Vintage "Ice Skating Costume" Dress

Purchased From: Lost & Found
Year or Era Purchased: Winter 2009
Price: $20 but I had a gift certificate so it was free
Accessories:   black tights, green flats, squirrel bottle cap ring
Hair and Makeup:  Big teased crown pinned back, headband with the rest curled, usual makeup with smokey eyes and extra blush and later in the night dark wine colored lipstick
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  Rica said it reminded her of Tammy Faye Baker, Albert made me do a spin and agreed it was ice skateresque when I proclaimed it so, Mary said I looked nice and liked my squirrel ring, Keith asked if I was wearing a bump-it (no)


It was a loooong day, but super fun from start to finish.  I woke up and knew the weather would be good for a black long sleeved dress so I got out my sewing kit and fixed the blown out arm pit area of this dress. It was find in the store but trying it on again at home resulted in some serious damage.  Sometimes the thread in vintage items just can't hold up for me, I'm not super delicate or graceful in my movements.  Sorry.  Throughout the day more and more of the threads of this dress broke and at one point I fixed the entire left sleeve, sewing it while wearing it.  By the end of the night, fourteen hours after donning the dress the entire left  side was ripped open.  Jesus.  I think I need to take this dress to a tailor and have them reinforce every single seam.   Crazy.   Good thing it was free(ish). 





My mother-in-law came down for a visit and we went to lunch at Hawthorne's, a new take out beer/lunch spot with lots of bottled beers available in refrigerated cases.  It's sort of like Philly's Foodery but with sit down restaurant style eating. It was a nice time but my omelet needed some help.  I did have a Cherry Lambic and orange juice, something I highly recommend for brunch or really any meal.  After lunch we headed into center city for some gelato that Michael was craving.  We came home and Michael immersed himself in his computer while we watched some movies.  


Later in the evening we joined some friends downtown at Doc Watson's for our friend Albert's birthday.  It was a really lovely time of drinking and talking.  Once we were all good and liquored up we headed around the corner to Woody's.  Rica, Albert, Mary and I pretended it was 1998 and danced to awful techno/house music amidst a sea of people.  I had tons of fun, the stars aligned for fun, seriously, more than half an hour of dancing to that music or one less drop of alcohol in my system  and it could have been a horrible time.  We left when the lights came on and after a lovely finale of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance and Rica and I ducked into an open pizzeria to get a slice, just what our tummies needed after a boozetastic night.  Hers was filled with gin, mine whiskey.  We're a good pair.  We split a cab home and I passed out soon after.  I'm glad I went with this dress as the night worked out to be worthy of its weirdness. 

day two hundred thirty-one.

Day Two Hundred Thirty-one 4/16/10
Dress:  Mauve Vintage Dress

Purchased From: Sazz Vintage
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $10
Accessories:   Greyish patterned fishnet(ish) tights, black flats
Hair and Makeup:  All day I wore it in two braids with bangs and the top part pinned up into a bow barrette but when I came home and took my pictures I hated it so much so I took it down. Sure this photo is a misinterpretation of my style on this day but as I've said before, it's my blog and I'll do what I want.  My makeup was a few purply/pink shades from the Alice eyeshadow palette plus the usual suspects. 
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  One of the desk guys at a building I go to daily said I "have a different look everyday," I liked that.  One of my clients (the one who called me fat) said I was "looking slim." 



I love this dress. It's easy and sort of classic.  I put it on and only had to struggle with the tights I chose.  At first I went with white but that was way too much like Chloe Sevigny's Big Love character so I switched to these fun pattern tights.  


I spent my day working and then came home to find that our tub and all of its components were intact.  Woot! The boys worked tirelessly to finish the cleanup process as tung oiling the floors is the next step in the finishing process.  I totally sucked and sat on the couch and watched dvr'd episodes of Law and Order.  I can't be awesome all the time you know.  Here's our third floor to distract you from that: 

entrance

landing area

front of the room- bed will be between two windows

side front- probably shelving or furniture.  note the sweet shelf 

above the green wall and amazing window sill storage. 

other side front, white wall will be covered with ikea 

wardrobe/closet solutions

back of room with bathroom 

stairway will have a door or bookcase nailed into the floor to 

create some semblance of privacy and awesomeness. we'll hang a 

tv on the white wall

back of room and bathroom entrance 

sweet awesomeness.  i guess we should name it.

with all of the fancy vintage tub gear.  get it all at vintagetub.com 

After we marveled over the awesomeness for a bit Michael and I drove to Delaware so he could purchase the mac book pro. He's been waiting and waiting and waiting and finally it's out.  We came home and hung out with our friends Steve and Melissa and Arthritis Mike.  We have so many Mikes in our crew and her boyfriend is young and has arthritis while my husband is young and has glaucoma so we now have Arthritis Mike and Glaucoma Mike.  Ha. I guess it will cease being as funny in thirty years.  Oh well.  I made samiches and Bloody Marias and we watched stand up by Daniel Tosh.  I went to bed while Michael stayed up late and played with his new best friend, the mac book pro.   What a lovely day. 

day two hundred thirty.

Day Two Hundred Thirty 4/15/10
Dress:  Green Shirt Dress 

Purchased From: Circle Thrift
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $5
Accessories: Squirrel necklace (thanks rica!), brown tights, black flats, big black sunglasses
Hair and Makeup: Hot roller curled hair, usual makeup with some green eyeshadow from the barbie MAC collection
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  I can't remember. 




So I woke up on Thursday and after my coffee I went to the third floor and applied a second coat of blue to our two blue walls.  We now have three green walls, two blue walls and four white walls.  I dig it.  

I spent the rest of the day working and then stopped at Benjamin Moore for a quart of flat white paint to finish the white wall.  I came home and cleaned the living room and then painted the wall on the right above.  I then made a dinner of blackened tofu over a tomato and artichoke white wine saute,  a side of dirty rice, a salad and some yummy bread.  It was a lovely day.  I love when I'm super productive.   I drank a bunch of Pinot Noir too.  Lovely, really lovely.  

I loved this dress. It's so easy to wear and it has a boat neck, something I'm a huge fan of as I have sort of wonky shoulders and I think this neckline is flattering on me.  I think once I get my sewing machine going I'll give this style of dress a try.  

day two hundred twenty-nine.

Day Two Hundred Twenty-nine 4/14/10
Dress: Black Cotton Pocketed Dress

Purchased From: Circle Thrift
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $5
Accessories:  Electric Blue tights, black on black Converse, black cotton belt, black hair flower, mahjong bracelet 
Hair and Makeup: Braids with some down, partially curled with a hair flower, usual makeup
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  One of my clients complimented my bracelet and whole outfit and called me "dressed in vintage" which I wasn't, so that kind of rules. 




So I probably only bought this dress because it has pockets.  The pockets aren't even that great as they bulge out a bit and make ones hips appear larger, hence my hands in them for the photo.   It also billows out in an unfortunate way so I tied a cotton belt around my waist for some definition.  I haven't been so great with my diet in the last week and it's definitely showing.  Stupid diets.  Since this dress was boring I paired it with some crazy electric blue fishnet style tights.  They have a fancy seam line in the back that kept floating all around and I finally gave up.  


I spent the day working, made a quick trip to Whole Foods and stuck to my budget and managed to only spend 23.75!!!! That never happens!  I came home and made a Sopa de Tortilla from the Horizon's cookbook with a green sauce to go with it.  It came out really well.  Here's the recipe:


Ingredients: 
32 oz (1 carton) Vegetable Stock
2 cups total of diced celery, bell pepper and onion
1 cup corn kernels
1 container of Seitan 
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. cajun seasoning 
1 hot pepper of your choice, diced
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup chopped tomato
1 avocado, sliced for garnish
Vegan or regular sour cream for garnish
12-15 tortilla chips


Green Sauce: 
1 bell pepper of your liking- grilled or roasted
2-4 tbsp. onion
1-2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 bunch fresh cilantro or if you hate cilantro use parsley and add a tiny bit of dry cilantro and suck it up
1 lime, juiced
salt and pepper
dash of cumin


Do Ahead: 
Grill seitan (brush with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill it until it has grill/char marks)
Cook rice
Grill pepper for the green sauce, if so desired roast garlic for the green sauce
Make the green sauce  (roast the pepper and garlic then blend all ingredients together in a food processor) 


Directions: 
Sautee the garlic, celery, pepper, hot pepper and onion in a little bit of vegan butter or olive oil for a few minutes
Add the corn kernels
Add the stock 
Add the cajun seasoning
Let it simmer and let the flavors mingle together for approximately 5 minutes on medium low heat
Add the tomatoes and mix together before serving


Plate:
Arrange tortillas along the perimeter of a bowl, in the center of the bowl/tortillas add a nice portion of rice
Top the rice with a bit of the broth from the vegetable medley 
Top with 1/2 of the grilled seitan
Top the seitan with a large dollop of green sauce and 
Using a ladle, spoon a large ladle of broth and vegetable mix into the bowl, right on top of everything
Top the dish with a dollop of sour cream and a few slices of avocado


It's a pretty involved dish but you can make a lot of stuff ahead of time.  I modified this a bit and combine it with another recipe to try to emulate the Horizon's Sopa de Tortilla they used to serve. It's close.  I suck at photographing food but here you go: 

After dinner and digestion Michael and I ventured to the third floor for painting.  I mixed an old super light blue color with a tiny bit of our bathroom aqua.  It came out to a beautiful sky blue.  I'm enamored with it.  I painted two walls blue while Michael painted flat white on two others.  We retired to bed full an tired.  It was a productive ass day.  

day two hundred twenty-eight.

Day Two Hundred Twenty-eight 4/13/10
Dress: Grey Thick Weird Dress

Purchased From: Circle Thrift
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $5
Accessories:  Black tights, green hunter wellies
Hair and Makeup: Double buns with a headband fashioned from the dress, usual makeup
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  none


So I liked this dress a lot better in the dressing room.  I got it home and realized the belt and belt loop flat in the front were in weird spots and made the dress bulkier and weirder than needed.  I decided to cut them off and make one into a headband.  The dress is not flattering and it's thick and weird.  It was cold and rainy so this dress worked and I wore it with a cardigan and raincoat to stay warm.  Oh well.  I spent the day working in the rain, made a quick trip to the grocery store and came home and made some soup.  I attempted to make the soup a health version of my gross cream of tons of vegetable soups and I think it worked.   Michael and I did some work on the third floor while the soup simmered.  I painted two walls while he did some other stuff to some other walls, something with joint compound and smoothing maybe, I don't know.     Boring, rainy day. 

day two hundred twenty-seven.

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Seven 4/12/10
Dress: Red Pin-up Style Polka Dot Dress

Purchased From: Sazz Vintage
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $10.00
Accessories:  Black tights, super high top chucks, baby blue cardigan, kurt halsey bird necklace
Hair and Makeup: Curled and in low pigtails, usual makeup
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  I think like ten different strangers commented on my shoes



My body was still mad at me all day.  It does not like bad food or intense amounts of alcohol anymore.  I woke at 5am with what I like to call poo contractions.  Not fun.  I went back to bed and woke up when Michael and Orsborn were leaving to go stand in line for standing room only tickets for the opening day at home Phillies game.  Bless them.  I went back to sleep in an attempt to sleep off the sick. It sort of worked.  I finally got up and hurriedly dressed in Phillies inspired gear, a red dress and light blue cardigan.  The dress was a little bit and sackesque so I added a matching red polka dot waist belt but my belly was aching so very much that I took the belt off and left it at home.  Fashion lost the fight.  


I worked and then headed to the stadium to meet up with Michael, Orsborn, my sister-in-law Colie and her boyfriend Mike.  The game was good and the Phillies won.  Nice.  I attempted to find ginger ale but that wasn't happening so I tried a coke.  I'm not a big fan of soda, in fact I find it sort of disgusting in theory and I wish it didn't exist since it's one of the things making Americans turn into the characters from Wally.  Anyway, enough soda ranting.  I broke down and bought one hoping the bubbles would help, not so much. At least I got a new plastic Phillies travel cup to put ice water in on my daily travels. I am such a nerd. 


We came home and I took a nap, still belly aching.  It helped a bit and I got up and made some leftovers and dvr'd it up on the couch.  Monday felt like an extended Sunday.  It was weird. 

day two hundred twenty-six.

teehee

Day Two Hundred Twenty-Six 4/11/10
Dress: Pink Vintage 80s Dress

Purchased From: Sazz Vintage
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $10.00
Accessories:  Black tights, black flats, black awesome Big Buddha vegan flower bag, black flower clip, leopard print cardigan
Hair and Makeup: Brushed and down with a black flower clip in it, usual makeup
Comments/Compliments/Complaints: Jody loved my bag




I think I rolled out of bed around 10:20, knowing I had eleven o'clock plans for vintage shopping with Jody.  I got up and hurriedly made myself look human.  When shopping for vintage clothing in a warehouse setting, as I knew we'd be doing, it's always best to wear something form fitting or something with a slip under it so you can try stuff on over top of your slip or clothing.  Quite often in these instances (and even in some thrift store settings) you will not be privy to a fitting room.  This is a lovely piece of information to keep in your thrifting/vintage clothing shopping arsenal of knowledge.  So I wore my newish pink dress with a pink slip beneath it.  I also donned by new fabulous leopard cardigan.  A friend of mine once said you can measure how crazy a woman is by the amount of leopard print in her wardrobe.  I guess I'm certifiable. Blargh. 


Jody and I arrived at the new Sazz Vintage warehouse, excited for the $5 for anything sale.  I was a bit disappointed as for some reason I expected more and maybe better stuff.  Oh well.  I managed to score a few dresses and few other weird vintage items.   There were several sheets of torn plastic on the floor housing piles of vintage clothing.  In order to find treasures we had to dig.  I dug for a bit and filled a box then found a quiet corner to try on my finds.  There was no mirror so I had to rely on the kindness of Jody and strangers to set me straight on the good, the bad and the very ugly.  


Jody and I parted ways while I headed out to feed a turtle.  That sounds like code for something but really I was just feeding a turtle for one of my clients.  I then met back up with Jody, her manfriend Mike and my manfriend Mike and headed to Memphis Tap for some brunch and drinks.  I ate good foods, had a beer and a bloody maria, two things I did not need to put in my body. Later we headed to their house to watch the footage that Michael recorded of our Friday night drunkenness.  I so wish that did not happen.  Ugh.  Good thing I can laugh at myself.  Michael and I came home and since I was bellyaching I ate some plain pasta while he had leftovers and then we headed to bed.  Eating and drinking all weekend certainly caught up with me and I'm going to need to join my new gym post haste to get this extra grossness off of  my frame.  Ugh.