work in progress

hi everyone! i hope you all had a fabulous valentine's day - mine was very low key, which was perfect. sam insisted on staying in and making me dinner, and i acquiesced - i'm so used to cooking for the two of us, and stubbornly set in my way of doing things in the kitchen, that it's really hard for me to sit back and let someone else take the wheel. fortunately we recently re-organized our furniture, so our sofa has a prominent seat in the kitchen (i finally admitted to myself that, while a sofa in the kitchen might be unusual, it is the place where it will get the most use) so i settled myself on it and watched him mix a batch of pasta from scratch, rest it, struggle with the machine and then proceed to make what was honestly the most divine fettucine alfredo i've ever had - topped with wilted spinach, sauteed mushrooms and crispy prosciutto. lesson learned: i should take a seat on the couch more often.

ever since setting eyes on the stella mccartney resort 2012 collection, i've been smitten. i've googled and ebayed obsessively, hoping to find the (seemingly not even for-sale yet) white dress covered in bows at an audrey-friendly price (i know this will never happen) - and it finally occurred to me that, of all the over-priced designer clothing i've fallen for, this was probably the most easily DIY-able. so i bought a spool of ribbon, picked a well-fitting but infrequently-worn dress from my closet, and proceeded to obsessively tie and pin ribbons onto it.



sadly, i'm a pretty good idea person and initial energy runs high; but after sewing on the first half of the ribbons, i lost steam, so i'm wearing this carefully so's not to stick myself with one of the many pins poking out of the skirt and sleeves.

dress: madewell
shoes: thrifted
bows: added by me

i'm pretty excited with the way it's looking so far. a good cocktail dress is so essential - you can tell i think so, as i have a closet full of them and yet 9 nights out of ten you'll find me at home with sam, wearing comfy pants and a t-shirt. still, i love having a cute, well-fitting dress to slip into - an outfit no-brainer for when i DO go out.

. . . which is where you come in! brooklyn industries contacted me not long ago to see if i'd like to do a giveaway for my readers (another no brainer.) i've loved the brand for a long time - my love for red pants started with a pair of theirs a few years ago, and i've admired their simple but flattering silhouettes ever since. i picked this cute dress of theirs to give away - yours, for one lucky reader who leaves a comment.



so. . . enter away, and i'll pick a winner this friday. be sure to take a look at their new collection, too - lots of good stuff to see.

so much to post, and what feels like so little [free] time. i'll be back soon!

xo audrey

the summer wasting

friday i went out, as planned, with three friends it seems impossible to get in one room these days - 3 years ago, when i moved to the city, we were all relatively new to new york and hung out easily and often, all of us single or practically so and easy to gather up for a night on the town. flash forward three years and we're all living with our significant others, and i got MARRIED somehow. life's funny. so i got dressed up, drank too much, and had the best time out i have in ages.





top: american apparel
skirt: super sale anthropologie
scarf: thrifted
shoes: devotte [who sadly seem to be defunct]
bag: cambridge satchel co

i ordered this bag months ago and had it embossed with my new initials - AEL. you married ladies, how did you make the transition to your new name (if you changed it?) i'm overwhelmed by all i have to do - it's official, on our marriage certificate, but there are still drivers licenses, passports, credit cards, and email addresses to change, not to mention the fact that whenever someone asks my name my auto-response is still "audrey dettmar." when does a workin' woman get to the dmv?! /rant.

after friday's shenanigans i slept until almost noon on saturday and then spent most of the day working on invitations for a shindig my parents are throwing for some friends and coworkers at the end of the summer. yep, my dad hired me to design the invitations! nepotism at its best. i made sure to give him his money's worth, though, working from noon til almost 11 pm to hand sew, assemble, and then decorate each and every envelope. thank goodness it's a small party.







the idea was simply to try to convey summer with some graphic elements, so i made a template of a wine bottle and cut it out of each card, then formatted some type with the who, what, where, & when in illustrator to fill the wine bottle, and printed it on vellum; put the thing through my sewing machine to attach and add a bit of texture, and slipped it inside a little sleeve to hold it in place with the tag line, of sorts, of the party - "where did the summer go? come help us search for what remains." then i drew flags on each envelope, just to make 'em a bit more festive. pretty simple, but i'm happy with how they turned out.

after finishing the invites, i retreated to bed with my laptop and fell asleep watching so you think you can dance. the exciting life on a 20-something in the big city! the weekend was somewhat rescued, though, by a long bike ride to the farmer's market yesterday and a barbecue with friends to end the evening. all in all, not a bad showing.

more from me soon!

xo audrey

seeing spots - a DIY

it is no secret that i am obsessed with tights. they are one of the few things i really love about winter, a so-called accessory that basically take the place of pants for me for a couple months of the year (when paired with a good pair of seamless thermal long underwear.) i've spoke of my admiration for bebaroque before, and today i decided it has been way too long since i posted a DIY on here. which, i guess, brings me to thing two i love about this time of year - being cooped up in the apartment leads to forced creativity. i've thought for awhile i'd like to try my hand at a pair of modified tights, and i thought this would be an easy way to test out the idea.



need:

one pair of tights (i used some old ones of my mom's, passed down to me a couple years ago; i know they've held up for 15 years or so, so they have to be pretty resilient to the elements)
some embossing powder
an embossing heat tool (a hot hair dryer might work. . . i haven't tested it, though, so i make no promises.)
stamps or an embossing pen

i'm a major craft nerd, so i have all this stuff just lying around my apartment, leftover from my major card-making days. my original idea was to try some stamps, but when i looked through mine they all seemed way too card-specific: a christmas tree, a star of david, the words "you're invited," (which would just be wrong on tights, i think.) i may try to scout some cool stamps and try again on another pair soon.

start by finding something to pull the tights over - something approximately the size and shape of your leg. i put a lot of my pantry ingredients in big glass jars, so i had a nice long one that was pretty much the exact shape of my thigh. stretch one tight leg over this, paying attention to how far down you pull it, and making sure to draw on the front side of the tights.

so, i just used an embossing pen and drew a really simple design down them - vertical stripes, about 3 or 4 at a time. draw it over a few times, then stop, pour some embossing powder over the ink, and snap the tights a couple of times to free the extra powder - make sure you do all this with a piece of paper underneath, so you can save and reuse the reserve. i swear i've had the same little jar of embossing powder since i was about 12.

continue until you've got it as long as you want, doing a few inches at once, stopping, adding powder, loosening the extra and using the heat tool to emboss it. be careful not to leave the heat stationary on one part of the tights - they are pretty resilient (at least, mine were,) but they'll burn little holes if you give them too much.

and voila! clearly a first-time effort, and far from perfect, but i'm pretty happy with the results. very hand-drawn, to be sure, but the possibilities seem endless. i want to try stamps, and sewing on them - maybe this weekend if it stays this cold.





worn with

marc my marc jacobs tunic, nordstrom's (courtesy of stylefind*)
shorts: mary meyer
tights: DIY'd
shoes: nine west
necklace: blueberi (small store in DUMBO)

(* stylefind is a new site that is kind of gilt group meets net-a-porter: a wonderful selection of clothing, shoes, and accessories, carefully chosen by the editors of instyle. they also offer a daily exclusive discount, and collect special offers from around the web for you to check in one place: what online stores are offering free shipping, discounts, etc. a highly recommend from me.)

i have another idea for a DIY i want to try later this week, so stay tuned!

stay warm out there!

xo audrey

going to the chapel

not me, no no, but in class yesterday we finished up our wedding cake project. the way the project works is that the class below us creates a wedding scenario: in this one, a japanese college student was marrying a tattoo artist, and they had an asian themed wedding. as such, i decided to play to my strengths and pipe a sumi-e style painting on my cake with chocolate. first i had to make the darn thing, fill the layers with green tea icing, crumb coat it, and cover it with white fondant. then i melted some chocolate, rolled a bunch of tiny piping bags ('cornets' to those in the kitchen) and painted a japanese-style landscape on the cake. i was pretty pleased with the result.







life has been absolutely upside-down crazy the last week. i feel like i haven't had a moment to breathe. it's been busy in the best way; things falling into place for the most part, but still definitely falling and i feel like taking my sanity with it. my final exams start tomorrow, i didn't get to sleep until 5 in the morning last night and i have a to-do list of about 88 things before i leave for chicago sunday afternoon, straight from the weardrobe conference. so i haven't been the best blogger. a quick catchup:

wednesday:

shirt/dress: h&m
socks: american apparel
shoes: 80%20

thursday:

dress: urban outfitters
boots: aldo
hat: vintage from ebay

i have been on a vintage hat-buying binge lately. rather impractical but pretty fun.

and now, lovely readers, i gotta sleep. i am completely running on empty. so much more to come.

xo audrey

weekend recap

happy monday everyone! insomnia struck me last night for the second sunday in a row, but for some reason i feel pretty alert today. maybe all the extra sleep on wednesday and thursday are carrying over. who am i to question it?

this weekend was short and wonderful. friday night was spent dancing in windows and taking shots with spramps and some of her friends. couches acquired. high-fives given and received. glasslands dance party sneaking. and dancing, naturally. saturday we had brunch and a lazy day spent in the sun, dipping in and out of boutiques, smoking on a roof and then going to a loft party in brooklyn and eating a giant slice of pizza in the back of a tahoe. yesterday i finally slept in, had brunch, then spent the evening sewing and cleaning my bedroom.

the result of some of that sewing is this shirt, which was a never-worn american apparel short sleeved shirt (one of the first things i ever bought at american apparel, i remember the stars in my eyes when i walked out with it.) i cut off the sleeves, hemmed them in, and added this panel of distressed shirt fabric from a tank top i'd unraveled a few weeks ago. ta-da!



shirt: reconstructed by me
skirt: american apparel
tights: same
shoes: pour la victoire
necklace: ebay

class tonight, then hopefully i have more luck sleeping. hope everyone has a pleasant monday.

xo audrey

somebody else's clothes

this is the first bit of sewing i did when i moved to brooklyn. i smuggled this shirt from sam's dresser, spirited it away in my suitcase and, upon arriving in williamsburg, decided that i desperately needed a onesie. it was a quick few stitches, and voila!

of course, this renders it entirely work-inappropriate, so i donned it under a pair of jeans and some boots today for a more rosie-the-riveter sort of look.



shirt: sorry sam. club monaco?
belt: anthropologie
tights: hue
shoes: akira chicago

tonight we made macaroons! they are rainbow-colored and gorgeous and i'll post photos soon.

much love!

xo audrey

i got them back

well, it took several days longer than it was supposed to, but my georgina goodmans are back and right where they belong: on my feet. i may never remove them. being soft leather, they molded to my feet long ago and wearing them feels like going barefoot, only better, because i could walk over hot coals with these babies and not feel a thing.

amanda richards, i don't know if i want to hug you, to throw several scarves around you and accessorize them with big, sloppy kisses - or hunt you down, put you in mom jeans and ugly sweaters and force you to watch lanvin catwalk shows and agnyess deyn montages. because that, my dear, is effectively what you have done to me. you showed me the glamorai and i am now powerless. do you know what i did until 1 am last night, amanda? i stayed up sewing baubles onto a cloth collar. tonight i am having friends over for fish tacos, and do you know what i would rather do? ransack my wardrobe for things to add ruffles to. okay, so i love you. and her. but jesus. if you don't know the glamorai, beware. she is highly addictive.

i've also decided that these myspace, pose-in-the-mirror shots are not acceptable. i'm going to do my best to take shots of myself without the aid of a mirror, but it will be difficult since i don't have 1. a cute hipster boyfriend to take my photo like the glamorai or 2. a huge mansion in the form of my parents' house in which to set up a camera like childhood flames. but dammit, i'll try.



detail of shirt:



shirt: hi-line (american apparel wannabes, from what i gather) beautifully destroyed thanks to childhood flames' tutorial, posted earlier
skirt: american apparel
tights: welovecolor.com
shoes: georgina goodman
necklace: woman on the street
belt: anthropologie

have a lovely sunday, i'm going to go fry some fish.

tuesday evening DIY

good morning! i took a quiet night to myself last night and did a little bit of sewing. i'm actually really bummed because i had wanted to post a DIY - i had the idea to make skirts from a couple of sack dresses i never wear, and i made them and they turned out pretty well (i'm wearing one today,) but i realized once i got home that i had left my camera at work. so, no how-to today, but i'll try to do another this weekend and post that.

planning a trip to portland in a month! i haven't ever been and am soo excited to get out of new york city for a few days. if anyone has any suggestions as to anywhere i should go or anything to do, i'd love to hear it. (amy, don't worry, we'll talk.)

class tonight and then coming home and maybe doing a little more sewing. once i have a couple of successful projects it's all i want to do.



details:

homemade skirt


vintage silk blouse


blouse: thrifted on etsy
skirt: made from an old sack dress i bought in dublin a couple years ago. DIY to come!
belt: anthropologie
tights: anthropologie
shoes: payless.

until we meet again. . .

xo audrey

baguettes

i woke up this morning at 8:55 am. i'm supposed to be at work at 9. so this morning is pretty lacking in imagination.

last night was my first day of pastry II. this means a new chef, a new kitchen, a new way of doing things. i can see that it is going to take some getting used to. last night our chef forgot about my bread and it burned to a crisp in the oven. it's really not a huge deal (well, sort of,) it isn't like i've never had a baguette before, it's just that i hadn't ever made baguettes before and so i wanted to be able to bring them home. and the chef's attitude about it was the most frustrating part; it's her job to make sure that everything is baked properly, or to at least assign someone else to do so, and the fact that she just kind of shrugged it off was pretty irritating. anyway. i hope i learn a lot and i'm sure i'll settle in to it soon, but i am very grateful to have a night off tonight.



sweater: anthopologie, ebayed
dress: american apparel
tights: american apparel
shoes: pour la victoire
new purse!! a better view this time

and now. . . the great experiment.



i loved these shoes. clearly, a little too long and a little too hard. they are hand-painted leather shoes that sam brought me from italy, and today i am going to put my cobbler to the test and see what can be done with them. the other shoe is even worse; it has a huge hole in the toe, and the leather is filthy. i'll take after pictures and see what happens.

**update: dropped the shoes at the cobbler this afternoon. there was much head-shaking and turning over of the shoes, but he assured me they could fix them: "this is what we do," he said. a final run-down of the repairs needed:

replace both soles
replace both heels
new leather on the inside
full cleaning
repair two holes on the left shoe

the total cost was $65 (!! but the shoes are handmade and were expensive, and a gift, so i'm okay with it, as long as they fix them. . .) and will be ready a week from tomorrow. we shall see.

got a little online-shopping happy yesterday so i have a couple of things coming my way this week that i am very excited about. hope everyone enjoys their tuesday. . .

xo audrey

uno

good morning and happy monday! i woke up this morning before my alarm and got to work a bit early, because THAT'S how refreshed i feel after this weekend of sun and fabulous weather. i went to anthropologie after work on friday and picked up this skirt for $20, despite the fact that it was about 2 sizes too big for me and kind of looked awful. i liked the idea of it and figured it wouldn't be too hard to take it in on one side since it was an off-center skirt to begin with. and it turned out great!



i ended up sleeping at a penthouse in the upper west side that some friends were housesitting, so this outfit lasted me most of the weekend. i kept hoping i would run into the sartorialist; i finally felt worthy. the full thing:



shirt: an old slip i thrifted years ago, turned into a shirt
skirt: anthropologie, tailored to fit
belt: anthropologie
tights: anthropologie
sweater: old, thrifted
shoes: payless
new purse!: cool antique shop on the lower east side

and for this morning, back to drab; it's pouring outside and the temperature has dropped to the low 50's (which, frankly, still sounds really nice to me.)



shirt: anthropologie
necklace: erica weiner
skirt: american apparel
stirrup tights: american apparel
shoes: thrifted from etsy

i just posted a ton of photos from the weekend on my facebook page and don't particularly feel like pontificating much here, so maybe i'll post more later! hope everyone had as good a weekend as i did (although it seems unlikely.)

xo audrey

99 ways to cut, sew, and tie your t-shirt

is a book i have wanted every time i've seen it in the last 3 years or so, and i thiiiink today i'm just going to break down and buy it. i'll try to post one every couple of days if they jump out at me. maybe i can get myself sued for copyright infringement!

until i obtain said book, however, here is an amazing way to alter a shirt that i stumbled across on that blog i mentioned yesterday, publicpersonae. the girl in the video has a blog of her own: childhoodflames.blogspot.com.



she acts like i imagine i would if i posted a video tutorial: awkward and stoned. i find it charming.

edit: upon further exploring the girl's blog, i discovered that she is only 16. HOW IS IT THAT ALL OF THESE CHILDREN CAN AFFORD THIS STUFF?!? regardless, i take back the "stoned" comment. although it is certainly possible.

enjoy!

xo audrey

my little pony

i used to be obsessed with these things. one of my clearest memories from childhood takes place when my family and i lived in student housing in los angeles; one of my neighbors was a friend of mine, but kind of a bossy girl, and told me that i should trade her my favorite my little pony for two of her dumb ugly ones. she bullied me into doing it, and i cried for hours until my mom went over and made her give it back. anyway.



my dad remembered how much i loved them as a kid and put one in my stocking this year. it was a really sweet gesture, but now i just have this my little pony standing awkwardly on my already cluttered desk in my apartment, and so, i think i want to make it into a necklace. like a nice long one. some my little pony bling.

what do you think? too weird? i strive to get the looks i used to in chicago here and brooklyn, and maybe this would do just the trick. it would be so easy. one trip to the hardware store would do the trick. hmm.

frock swap

i have a vague idea that i'd like to put into action. i have lots of clothes that are beautiful, but not on me. i'd love to post photos and size information for stuff i'd like to get rid of, and have other people do the same. maybe you could sign in and do a guest post? would any of you out there be into this idea? yay? nay?