Road Trip- New Mexico

Our first stop and second to last stop was New Mexico.  This state is TRULY the land of enchantment.  Really amazing scenery, great food and nice people.  I  LOVED Santa Fe and will most assuredly go back.  Our first stop was in Southern New Mexico at the White Sands National Monument.  This place will take your breath away. We arrived just before sunset and left at the end of sunset.  I think it must have been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.







none of the pictures could do it justice....

Santa Fe came toward the end of the trip when we circled back.  They have lovely food and a quaint little shopping square.  I recommend just leisurely walking around and taking it all in.  Lots of art and culture here.

I really liked New Mexico and my biggest recommendation would be to eat eat eat.  And to take in as much art as possible. And to SHOP. And LOVE the amazing weather.

My Sanity

So this whole teaching thing is a lot of work.  I love it, but it is so. much. work.  If teacher's did not have the summer off, they would probably lose their minds.  Anyone who says it's easy should try it...

Anyway... I have started a new project... one that I mentioned a while ago.  I bought this fifties dress pattern on ebay.  It is a pretty standard fifties dress with a full skirt.  I have spent MONTHS looking at fabric and going back and forth... flowers? solid? trim? aaah! I seriously have spent hours choosing my fabric and notions and FINALLY decided on what I wanted and got a GREAT deal.  At first I was convinced I would go to the garment district in NYC for everything so that I could see it.  Then I found fabric.com (and 3,343 other online shops) and couldn't resist their great prices.  After many shops, many fabrics and many ideas I finally put together my choices today.  I spent enough for free shipping and also found a twenty percent off coupon.  I got my thread, notions, fabric, lace and interfacing for 32 dollars!!  I was very pleased as I splurged on the lace.



My plan is going to be a little complicated... but I chose a cream colored taffeta and black lace for the skirt.  I will add velvet ric rac to the bodice and black pom poms to the skirt to add some funk and flavor.  I hope to wear this to the ballet this winter.  Here is a sketch of my thoughts...

don't be too jealous of my paint skillz.

Busy Busy Busy

My schedule is ca-razy right now.  I student teach from 8:00 to at least 3:10 if not later most days as well as three hour classes twice a week. I also walk two miles to and two miles home everyday.  Its great exercise but I'm basically exhausted out of my mind.  My posts are really all over the place as a result so forgive me...

A couple things I've been doing...
  

  



  

  
  
all pictures taken by me around NYC

Try this out!

This is a fun website and great for good deals- click on the link below and you'll get five free dollars for signing up!

Nice!

Here's $5 to spend at redtagcrazy.com

How Gorgeous Can One Woman Be?

And that dress...

update and more projects.

I was having issues with formatting on the last post so I'm adding a little bit more... I also have done a little research on my projects and therefor have more to add.

First-
for my black dress I chose a fabric.  Its is a slightly shiny cotton sateen from Mood in the Garment District. I chose the fabric online and will go make a purchase as soon as my patterns get here and I know what I need.


I also bought a crock pot on amazon.com for a great price.  I'm a huge stew/soup lover and you can pack a lot of healthy low fat meals into one of those babies. I actually love the idea of of throwing a bunch of stuff in and coming home to delicious homemade soup after teaching.  Mmmmm soup is one of my favorite parts of cold weather and its about to get REALLY cold.



For my final note- for students you MUST take advantage of this deal-
If you have .edu email address you can get a free amazon prime account (a 79 dollar value) for a year. It means FREE TWO DAY SHIPPING on most things (except most used stuff for the most part and some independent vendor stuff). AND only 3.99 for overnight shipping. I've used it for all my text books, my crock pot, an iron, a shopping cart and it is just great!!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/prime?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Some Projects

I'm pretty much going to be a huge busy beaver this semester.  I am starting student teaching and will be working with fourth and fifth graders. Yay!

I know that a lot of these projects will be pushed to side most likely from exhaustion and work but hey- I'm about goal setting and seeing as how its the first of the month I will share my goals.  These goals are more like a goals of the semester instead of just September.

First- My creative side has been OBSESSED with vintage fashion right now.  When I was home in July my mom and I sewed a dress from a vintage 60's pattern.  It was fun and I was able to learn a lot from my mom about sewing garments (this was my first one!)  So I found this really lovely shop on ebay that has the most reasonable prices on vintage patterns I've found after scouring the internet.  I bought three patterns and they even reduced the shipping amount so that all three shipped for the price of one! I think they were all about 2.50 a piece and the shipping 1.50. Bargain!! These are the three dresses I'm going to attempt and will share with you the journey-
http://shop.ebay.com/wilt3914/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
Dress One-

 Don't you just love the girl on the front? So care free and happy in her dress.  I imagine making this in a fun color or maybe a stripe. I think I'll omit the tidy waist bow and maybe create a sash instead? I love the fabric on the cover of this... this will be my in between/afternoon wedding/not to casual but not too dressy dress.  I may also make a sleeveless one in that cornflower blue.  I can't seem to get rid of the underlines on this text. I can't seem to get a decent size picture of the other two so when they arrive I will take a picture of the envelopes. One I plan on dressing down in a jersey knit and the other will be a little black dress.
The other thing I'm working on is getting a solid gym routine.  I bought Jillian Michael's thirty day shred and am hoping to do it in the morning and then make a gym trip after school a few nights a week too.  Back on the wagon for me...