whining because I’m ornery

As a lady of leisure these days (and by leisure, I mean that I work retail part time and apply to grad schools) I have a lot of time for extracurriculars. And while my time would be much better spent at the gym or learning French or something, I bake. Pumpkin chocolate chip bread, banana nut muffins, chocolate orange loaf cake, and soon to be something ambitious involving a pomegranate that I could not resist at the market.

For research, I read a lot of food and recipe blogs, and I’m noticing a worrisome trend involving swiss chard. As far as leafy greens go, I’m a spinach girl, and I just can’t get behind collards and ramps and all those other etc roughages. But I figured out what bothers me so much about swiss chard. It doesn’t sound like a food. It sounds like a type of boat or something. “Oh yes, while vacationing in Geneva we took a Swiss chard out on the lake.” Or something like that.

my hair hurts

I have the flu. And I am a horrible patient. At this point, I’m feeling really grateful for that whole ‘unconditional love’ thing my mom and I have going, since I spent the day whining about how tired I was and how much I ache. And she spent the day making tea and checking my temperature and making soup. But really, nothing helps like a cool hand on a hot forehead.

Normally my overloaded DVR intimidates me, but today I was really glad I for all those episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and Private Practice.

PS – Currently reading This is Where I Leave You and loving it.

Daring to design

I’m all about trying new things, right? Well here’s something I’ve never tried: designing clothing.

Shabby Apple makes really wonderful dresses (and fitness clothing, and accessories, and kids clothing), and they’re holding a Dare to Design contest. So, I decided to take a shot.

Dress designs for Shabby Apple Dresses:

RSVP Dress

I’ve always loved a sweetheart neckline, but not the strapless dress that so often accompanies it. I wanted to do a dress with a sweetheart neckline with sleeves. Christian Lacroix did a dress with a sweetheart neck and long sleeves for Fall 2009, in gold and lace, so I thought why not try? The neck and sleeves would be laser cut as a nod to lace. For the body, I see a watercolor print fabric, with the top in a solid. The ruching at the bottom would reveal another peak at the solid color, tying the dress together. For color, I thought some color bright colors would be great for a party dress, but it could work in black, grey, and white as well. This could be done in cotton, or even a brocade for a little glitz.

Friendly Skies Dress

My inspiration for this was actually vintage uniforms, from the Girls Scouts to flight attendants. I think the collar is what makes this classic shirt dress interesting. I’d love to see this in an open plaid fabric, yellows, oranges, and tans to keep things light. Done in something breezy like a cotton poplin I think this would be a great every day dress. It makes the menswear and plaid trends easy to wear.

Petal Dress

I spent four years in DC for college, and even though the Cherry Blossom is the flower most people associate with that area, there are also tulips planted all over the city. This dress was inspired by those tulips. The body of the dress would be a deep lavender, with a lighter lavender at the tie and collar. Pale yellow would back the dress, peeking out when the dress moves. The sleeves repeat the petal overlap at the bottom, as well as the collar. For this dress, I think a cotton jersey with some stretch would work well.

Obviously I’m not a designer, but I really enjoyed taking on this challenge. All the dresses are simple, but they have a little something that makes them special and unique. I always love when a classic design has fun details, and that’s what I tried to do here.  Below, I’ve included some photos that acted as inspiration while I was drawing. None of the photos are mine, their original sources are listed.

From: http://belladia.typepad.com/bella_dia/2008/04/watercolors.html

From Style.com: Christian Lacroix F09 Ready to Wear

Peter Castleton's tulip photo on Flickr