Florida’s Two-Day Winter

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Diana

Every year in Florida, we never really have a “true” winter. Instead, we get sporadic days of weather below 50 degrees, after which the temperature will go back up to the 70s. Seriously. It’s 40 degrees outside as I’m writing this. Saturday is set to have a high of 74. So, when we actually get truly cold weather here, I milk it for all it’s worth. I break out one of my two coats, I resurrect my hand-knits, I wear cashmere and boots like crazy. Because I know that before we know it, winter will be gone from Florida again.

This is my, “I’m trying to smile even though I’m really cold” face

The key to days like today is lots and lots of layers. I layered wool knee socks over tights. I layered a slip, long sleeve tee, sleeveless dress and cashmere sweater for the rest. And then coat and scarf after that. Most Floridians, I’ve noticed, don’t get cold weather dressing. I see people trying to get by with hoodies or cotton turtlenecks. Everyone complains so much too. But it’s really fantastic if you’re prepared for it, and it doesn’t have to be expensive if you search for good winter pieces year round.

At first I thought about belting the sweater, but the dress has such a strong pattern that I really wanted to let it shine. By using the tie from the dress as a belt, I brought the attention back to the beautiful pattern.

How do you layer for winter? What’s your winter climate like?

Dress: Mlle Gabrielle (thrifted)
Sweater: J. Crew (via eBay)
Long sleeve tee: J. Crew Factory
Tights: HUE
Boots: Keen Bern Baby Bern
Watch: Fossil
Coat: Target (2008)
Scarf: Handknit by me

“Thrift, thrift, Horatio!”

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Diana

Well, I seem to be getting into a good groove of posting once a week. I’ll try to add back the Etsy and Bento posts once I start getting better at actually managing my time. For now, once a week is still better than nothing.

About a month ago, I had one of those magical thrifting trips one only dreams about. I went by my favorite local thrift shop on a whim after work. I was looking for tops specifically, but I ended up deciding to look at everything else while I was there as well. I didn’t end up with any awesome tops, but I found 1) a pair of perfectly fitting jeans (which you saw last week), 2) this amazing, flattering black and white dress, 3) the cutest, flowing summer sun dress. This was thrifting karma at its peak. The dress is these pictures is by Mlle Gabrielle. I own another dress by this brand, but it’s gotten a bit snug, and I’ve always had issues with the sleeves. The new dress is sleeveless, and fits perfectly.

You’ll be guaranteed to see that sundress soon. I’ve already worn it at least four times, and I’ve discovered that, with proper layering, I can totally wear it to work

Dress: Mlle Gabrielle (thrifted)
Cardigan: New York and Co (thrifted)
Shoes: Dansko Sally
Necklace: Express
Bracelet: Vintage

Quote: William Shakespeare

“Sylvia Jean lived in a dress-up world”

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Diana

This dress is destined to be one of my new favorites. I love how easy it is to change up a black and white dress into a new outfit. For this one, I decided to punch up the dress with some bright green and yellow. This was so much fun to wear!

I wish I took a close-up picture of that button I’m wearing. It’s a cute little bird face. It came as a freebie with an Etsy order, but for the life of me, I can’t remember who the seller was. I love how it adds a pop of color and a pop of cuteness at the same time.

How do you add pops of cuteness and color to outfits?

Dress: Mlle Gabrielle (via Revolve)
Cardigan: J Crew (via eBay)
Sandals: Dansko Sela (via eBay)
Headband: Target
Earrings: Garage Sale
Pin: Etsy

Quote: Sylvia Jean, Drama Queen, by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Oh, and thank you so much A Typical Atypical for the blog award!

Before and After: Mlle Gabrielle Dress

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Diana

Before

Sometimes an alteration will dramatically change the look of an item. And sometimes it is more about making something more comfortable. Today’s post was more the later. I adored this dress as soon as I tried it on at Revolve, but while everything else fit just fine, the sleeves were painfully tight. As in, I really couldn’t move my arms tight. I decided to take my seam ripper to the task, and see if I could make them work. If I couldn’t, I was going to make the dress sleeveless.

This is the sleeve inside out. When I went to alter it, I noticed that the sleeve is gathered at the hem. I decided to take apart this section, using my trusty seam ripper.

Turns out that the sleeves had what I will call hem tape, because I’m not sure if that’s the right term. Because of the bias of the fabric of the hem tape (maybe this is bias tape?) it made the sleeves have less give. It also revealed the gathering stitching. Gathering can be a lot of fun in some areas, but here, it is making the sleeves fit tighter.

I took out the gathering stitches, and pressed the sleeve with my iron. You can already see a noticeable difference between the altered and unaltered sleeves.

The hem tape wasn’t long enough to cover the newly altered sleeve, so I folded over the hem twice, pressed the heck out of it, and stitched it down with black thread.