an ode to the late wesley willis

i cut my mullet.

stylist for a day

This thread from wardrobe_remix is still going strong with no sign of letting up any time soon. Yesterday, zoo_gal wore the outfit that I put together for her and it turned out better than I even imagined it would.



I knew how I wanted the dress to look under the blouse, but I wasn't sure if it would turn out right. It really is hard choosing combinations of clothes that you've only seen photos of. I'm ridiculously happy with the end result.

When picking out this outfit I completely felt like I was making up for some lost time from my childhood. Although I owned several dolls and Barbies when I was little, I was more likely to hack up their hair or pull their limbs off instead of dressing them up in preperation for some imaginary date with Ken. I even despised the color pink until I was about 18 years old. Thank you zoo_gal for being my grown up Barbie for a day.

duluth for a day

The night begins innocently enough with a little punk rock in some kid's parent's basement.


The show gets done by ten (since it is a school night and all) so we start making our way to the seediest bar in the midwest...


The C-Gull turns into a creepy leprauchan after rail whiskey shots the size of a juice cup.


Kyle can now die a happy death.


Jason decides we need to leave after he hears music actually die in some guys mouth.


We then make our way to Pizza Luce to consume more beverages.


Who's the lady? Who's the tramp?


Abigail's childhood officially ends when she learns that unicorns aren't so lucky.


Hotel room? Or jail cell...


Nothing's better the morning after than a bloody mary at the Anchor Bar.

styled for a day

This thread from wardrobe remix has become somewhat of its own phenomenon. The idea is to look through another user's wardrobe remix photos and come up with a newly remixd outfit that the said remixer will then wear and post in the group and subsequent thread.

The above photo shows the outfit that softspoken styled for me. First off I have to say that I love the outfit. The dress she chose is pretty light and summery and wouldn't have been something I would have generally worn in October, but her addition of the grey tights (another thing I wouldn't have thought to choose) and hooded sweater definately gave the outfit the 'cozy' element I like my fall outfits to have.

Softspoken posted about this idea of "stylist for a day" on her blog. She mentions that although rifling through other people's virtual closets is fantastic, the missing aspect of touch makes the task at hand a lot harder than she originally thought. Now that I have reciprocated her favor and picked out an oufit for her in return I have to wholeheartedly agree with her. Textures play a much larger role in my daily wardrobe decisions than I realized. It was really hard going through her photos and trying to figure out what to combine. This is probably one of the reasons I haven't jumped on the online shopping bandwagon. There's something about walking all the way around the rack of t-shirts with my hand grazing each one until I find the softest shirt of the bunch that I need as part of my shopping experience.

craft night

I usually try to spend at least one night of each week getting my crafty juices flowing. I've found during busy times in my life that if I go for more than one full week without creating something with my own two hands I turn into a grumpy old lady (and who wants to hang out with a grumpy old lady??). Some nights I'll dive into my ever expanding 'to be altered' pile and get to work with the sewing machine while other nights I'll get cuddle up on the couch with my latest knitting project and a good movie.

Recently I've been having more craft nights than usual. I recently taught myself to crochet from some books and with a little help from a co-worker and I haven't been able to stop since. So far so good:



These arm warmers were incredibly simple to make. So simple in fact that I taught my roommate, Saumer, how to make them the next night.

Arm warmers are all well and good, but what I really love about crocheting (versus knitting) is THE GRANNY SQUARE. There's something about the granny square that is the epitome of CRAFT in my mind. So last night I popped in Kill Bill vol. 1 and started searching for granny square patterns on the Internet. I soon came to realize that I am awful at following patterns (both knitting and crochet). I am way too impatient for them. So after many attempts I finally made one that looked half way decent:



Now I only have a hundred or so more to go until I can crochet them together and make a blanket...
Now here's a question for all you crafters out there: How do you get your granny squares looking tight and compact? I feel as though my singular GS is very holey and loose. Maybe that's because I haven't had as much practice as an experienced GS artist, but maybe there's a trick or two out there that will help me for future GS craft nights...

Here are my first unsuccessful attempts:







Even though these aren't official 'Granny Squares' I think they'll look pretty good sewn onto a wool scarf or cardigan. I love the colors I used and plan to make the entire afghan with fall colors.

channelling my inner Agathe on wardrobe_remix

I have a confession to make: I have recently become obsessed with wardrobe_remix on flickr and the world of fashion blogging. It's an unreal obsession stemming from a very real place (my increasing dislike for my job). Reading about other people's lives seems to make my eight hour day of data entry drag by a little faster.

Trisha, of Bits and Bobbins fame, created wardrobe_remix and if it wasn't for her I think I'd be a lot more productive (yet unhappy) at work everyday. At first I was just another w_r lurker. Every day I would go online and look at all the creative, interesting, and totally ballsy outfits people wore. I was completely inspired. Soon one thing led to another and now I consume over 30 blogs on a regular basis.

My favorite blogger as of late is Agathe from Style Bytes. I can't remember how I first came across this Norwegian style maven, but boy am I glad I did. This morning I decided to pay my respect to Agathe: