as wick as wick can be

Today would have been a perfect day to start on rose garden plans with my sister, except that the stores and nurseries have pretty much nothing in stock right now. Hurry it up, Lowes. Your gift cards, they are burning holes in our pockets! Better get big plants this year. Last time, all the seedling flowers were eaten by the ten gazillion neighborhood squirrels. (That's what I get for feeding them in the winter.)

Went shopping at the mall yesterday and picked up a few accessories so that I have options that are not sandals this spring. Sales, I thank you.

And now for a nice, awkward animation, courtesy of GIMP's animation tools and my boredom:

Yep, I am clearly the epitome of grace and elegance here.

skirt: unsure of origin

tank: probably Charlotte Russe

shoes: Charlotte Russe

belt: F21

cardigan: New York & Co.

sunglasses: gift

Photos by my sister Laura

Bad photo editing by me

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the rain came down, down, down

Today was another one of those Connecticut days where the weather can't decide what it wants to do. "Shall I crank up the humidity to hair-frizzing levels?" I imagine it considered. "Shall I lull everyone into a false sense of security about the temperature? Or open up the sky with random downpours and freezing hail every few hours, then let the sun come back at the end of the day like nothing ever happened?"

The answer, if you were wondering, was yes to everything.

My little sister hates this outfit, and kept cracking up about it on the drive home from her college. I'll admit that it's not my usual thing, but I wanted to do something with the Grimace arm warmers. There's definitely something missing, though.

My brain tells me it's a big, wide-brimmed hat, but I must resist these hat impulses! I never end up wearing them.

skirt: Forever21

tank: Charlotte Russe

sweatshirt: altered an old one

arm warmers: altered

boots: walmart (I think)

awesome Sailormoon umbrella: gift from a friend way back in HS

P.S. This was probably one of the worst photoshoots I've ever done, modeling-wise. Loling forever at the squinty, angry faces I made! Someone's gotta remind me next time that my eyes cannot handle the glare on a day like this...

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project restyle: the girl, the muumuu and grimace

I have a pile of unwanted clothes from my mother's closet that I thought I might be able to rescue, so I've joined in on A Beautiful Mess's ongoing group DIY fest Project Restyle over at Flickr. The idea is to take old or vintage items that can't be used in their present state and remake them into something beautiful. Here, I did a pretty basic restyle of this big, shapeless dress just by adjusting the sleeves and hemming it into a minidress. Much better proportions for me, no? Here's a cropped closeup.

Sorry for the blurring. Camera did not want to focus indoors today, nosiree.

I also took pictures of a restyle-in-progress. This sweater tunic is the color I like to call "Grimace purple" (does anyone even remember who Grimace is anymore?) It can probably donate parts to a few different items, like arm warmers or something. Here's what happened to the skirt piece, which also incorporated extra fabric from the black dress above. Please excuse the missing shoes; I seem to be lacking variety in that area. Hoping to snag a few new pairs for summer soon, but for now I'm pulling out my empty pockets like a cartoon character...!

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