Flower headdresses are everywhere, and as spring approaches I predict we’ll see more and more of them. Luckily, they’re spectacularly easy to make.
What you’ll need:
Ta-da! You’re ready for the debutante ball.
I get some of my style sense and most of my wacky theatrics from my mom Carolyn. She’s an incredible writer, a junior Italian chef, a budding painter, and the ultimate “mom’s mom,” showering me and all my friends with love, advice, and more pasta than we could eat in a week!
She’s also found me a sampling of her signature looks from decades past . If anyone’s wondering where I get that big hair…
The obligatory embarrassing prom shot with my future godfather Joe. That fabulous beehive puts us in the early 1960s.
Lake Tahoe, California circa 1975
She’s also a talented seamstress and imaginative costume maker. When I was a kid, we had an unbelievable collection of dress-up clothes, and I’m lending friends capes, kimonos, and corsets to this day.
My Fair Lady, 1980
Aye, mamacita!
The bar wench, 1981
She was a costume designer, props mistress, and all-around “stage mom” during all of my high school (and a few of my college) productions. She’s now sewing for Stockton Civic Theater in her spare time, and hopes to someday step up to the stage.
Mama Carolina, you’ll always be a star.
1988 Amabile Family Reunion. I think I’m a bun in the oven!
Coming to you straight from Honestly…WTF (with a few tweaks): the chunky hex nut bracelet.
What you’ll need:
First, knot the twine and embroidery thread together, leaving 2-3 inches of slack. Pair up the pieces of thread and twine and start braiding. Pause when the braid is about 4 inches long.
Then, thread a hex nut onto the left-most strand of the braid, push it up against the base of the braid, and cross the strand over the middle. Repeat on the right: thread a hex nut onto the right-most strand of the braid, snug it up to the base of the braid, then cross the strand over the center.
Keep going—left, right, left, right, left, right—until you’ve used all the hex nuts.
Continue the braid for another 4 inches and then, again, knot all the strands together, leaving 2-3 inches of slack.
For bonus points (and to keep the twine from fraying) you can clamp the ends with crimp beads.
Honestly…WTF is a treasure trove of great ideas like this. I’m dying to try the friendship necklace, the woven chain bracelet, and the no-knit scarf.
How I long for a summer vacation…
As their slogan says, Litograhs are whole books—in 2-D. Printmaker extraordinaire Danny Fein has found a way to fit the text of entire novels on 24”x36” posters and, more incredibly, to screen print them legibly on cotton shirts.
With help from Kickstarter and a team of artists, Fein has put more than 70 classic texts on posters, and he’s made half a dozen of the most popular into tees.
For me it was an easy choice. The Great Gatsby was my high school favorite, plus and I need something worthy to wear to the premier of Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby in May.
In addition to being an artful, totally unique homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Homer, Darwin, and Poe, Litograph shirts also of (semi-) practical use.
The text is so clear that I’m sure with enough time (and some clever contortions) I could read the entire book while waiting in line. Next time I go to the DMV…
But the absolute best part of owning a Litographs product is the fact that, through the International Book Bank, each purchase sends a book to a child in the developing world.
Did you know there’s a worldwide network of clubs for tall people? Tall Clubs International (TCI) sponsors social events, trips, and conventions for women 5’10” and above and men 6’2” and above.
“As tall people, we know we are ‘vertically gifted’ and fabulous”—that’s an “About Us” message I can get behind. TCI spreads “tall awareness” by campaigning for more legroom on airplanes, fundraising for Marfan’s Syndrome research, etc. Hilariously, the local Bay Area chapter is called the Golden Gate Tip-Toppers.
I’m not a member of TCI, but I came across their site when I was applying for college scholarships. Every year, they give two tall students $1,000 awards during their senior years of high school.
They also conduct an annual beauty pageant called Miss Tall International to appoint a spokeswoman for the organization. The people who enter are the kind I always hope to see in beauty contests: actual human woman. Pageants for the less “altitudinally fortunate” should take note. (Pretty sure I just invented a shiny new word.)
Real life has barreled into the blogosphere and landed right in the lap of yours truly. I’m sorry I haven’t been updating nearly as often as I should, but allow me to make it up to you with a trip back in time to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in Daly City…
You know me, name a lit-themed convention where period costumes are required and you can bet your bustle I’ll be there in mine (see: the 2013 Edwardian Ball). Fair planers transformed the Cow Palace into a miniature Victorian London, complete with sooty chimney sweeps, mince pies, and carts full of sweet, warm nuts.
Highlights included custom corsets from Dark Garden (model and cupcakes not included), Whirlwood Magic Wands, a performance by the Royal English Opera Company, and perhaps most of all unbelievable leather masks by Mitchell Walker.
What’s that I hear? The tinkling sleigh bells of a new holiday tradition?!
