Speaking of classes! I was forced to attend a late night salsa/samba workshop for OU's International Dance and Music Week (which was last week or the week before?) and got this lovely jewel:
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Ouchies
I've not posted in a while, I realize, since I am still very busy with my classes.
Speaking of classes! I was forced to attend a late night salsa/samba workshop for OU's International Dance and Music Week (which was last week or the week before?) and got this lovely jewel:
THAT is a blood-blister, my friends. It's still deep in the skin, and will probably be there for the next month. Just thought I'd show you what's up ;)
Speaking of classes! I was forced to attend a late night salsa/samba workshop for OU's International Dance and Music Week (which was last week or the week before?) and got this lovely jewel:
Belated Valentine's Day post
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| First Date 10/20/07 |
As you all know, yesterday was Valentine's Day. Though Devin and I weren't able to do anything for Valentine's Day due to conflicting schedules I did make him a giant peanut butter pie with Reeses cups on Sunday and for Valentine's Day I got a surprise email from him that was so adorable it made me cry. I'll spare you the mushiness and just pepper you with some cute...and not so cute pictures :)
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| Prom 2008 |
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| After-Prom 2008 |
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| New York ATD Trip 2008 |
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| Devin biting my face off Chicago ATD Trip 2008 |
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| Wash. D.C. Trip 2010 |
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| Christmas 2010 |
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| Me and my Mr Darcy :D |
Stash Hats
#1
The past few weeks (well, months, really) I've been on a crocheting kick. It started mid-December with a long overdue project a student in my choir has been bugging me about for the last 2 years. She has told me over and over again that she would like a hat.... A pointy one. It's her senior year and her last year in the group, so I figured I would give in to her pleas.This is what I made her:
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| A very pointy hat. |
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| Just chillin' with my gnomies |
#2
Then my friend Travis came back to Athens for his Christmas Break and told me "You still owe me a hat". I completely didn't know what he was talking about and he informed me that it was mentioned a long time ago that he wanted me to make him this hat: |
| Jayne Cobb, from the TV Series: Firefly |
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| Cunning? Very. |
#3
Last week I was inspired by a lone piece of ribbon and decided to whip up a hat for myself! Yay! The ribbon has some really wonderful blue and green hues and couldn't get idea out of my head. So, I looked through my stash and found some yarns that would go beautifully with that very lovely ribbon.
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| :) Smile, Amber! C'mon, we know you can do it! |
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| This is how I normally wear it |
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| The back... a "hipster snail" as one of my friends called it |
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| ...like a Crown! |
Guess what I'm playing?
I am ever so sorry that I have not been blogging regularly. My reason: piano. The Ohio University School of Music holds a concerto competition every year. Those who enter get out of their jury for winter quarter and the winner of the competition gets to play with the orchestra at a concert; which is a HUGE and cool opportunity for pianist... if they're good enough.
I'm hoping to enter the concerto competition with a piece that I've been playing for 5 weeks. 5 weeks? You ask. My gosh. That'll be easy peasy, right? You say. I say wrong. My track record with learning pieces has been ridiculous. I have been known to spend 6 months on a song that's only 8 pages long. If you didn't know, that's a long time! So this is a brand new breakthrough in Amber's music abilities; to be able to learn, memorize and perform a piece in less than 2 months...a 17 page piece to be exact. Needless to say I'm a little proud of myself at the moment, but hold on folks. We're not done yet!
I plan to enter none other than J.S. Bach's Piano concerto no1 in D minor. The competition is a little over a week away. I've been practicing the darned song every day so it can be sparkling clean by January 25th (the competition).
For those of you who are not familiar with the piece, or you just like to hear the genius that is Johann Sebastian Bach played by none other than the genius that is Glenn Gould. Please, if you are not accustomed to the awesome that is this video, do not press play.
Enjoy!!! (and wish me luck) ;D
I'm hoping to enter the concerto competition with a piece that I've been playing for 5 weeks. 5 weeks? You ask. My gosh. That'll be easy peasy, right? You say. I say wrong. My track record with learning pieces has been ridiculous. I have been known to spend 6 months on a song that's only 8 pages long. If you didn't know, that's a long time! So this is a brand new breakthrough in Amber's music abilities; to be able to learn, memorize and perform a piece in less than 2 months...a 17 page piece to be exact. Needless to say I'm a little proud of myself at the moment, but hold on folks. We're not done yet!
I plan to enter none other than J.S. Bach's Piano concerto no1 in D minor. The competition is a little over a week away. I've been practicing the darned song every day so it can be sparkling clean by January 25th (the competition).
For those of you who are not familiar with the piece, or you just like to hear the genius that is Johann Sebastian Bach played by none other than the genius that is Glenn Gould. Please, if you are not accustomed to the awesome that is this video, do not press play.
Enjoy!!! (and wish me luck) ;D
Bodiced Petticoat: Finished.
Finally, I'm getting around to posting this! I finished my hand-stitched petticoat right before Christmas and took pictures on Christmas day. I'm set with the undergarments and am ready for the real dressmaking now!
The entire garment is stitched by hand and made of a white cotton bedsheet from a hospital which was bought from a thrift shop.
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| side view |
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| me being goofy |
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| ick, I look very ticked off. but here is the front. |
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| Back view |
The entire garment is stitched by hand and made of a white cotton bedsheet from a hospital which was bought from a thrift shop.
Rebel Symbol Scarf
YAY! I finished something this break! A Rebel Symbol Scarf!!!!!!!
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| Awwww, isn't he adorable?! |
Christmas 2010!!!!
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas equipped with all the festivities, family and fun. I had a very blessed time with my family and I got a lot of awesome things this Christmas that I'd like to show you all :)
BOOKS
The past couple of years, I have been receiving books for the majority of my presents. I have an Amazon Wishlist and from it I received:
BOOKS
The past couple of years, I have been receiving books for the majority of my presents. I have an Amazon Wishlist and from it I received:
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Fashion in Detail by Susan North
and
The Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail by Lucy Johnston
Both these books are from the Victoria and Albert Fashion Museum collection and are really fascinating. I love being able to see individual stitches, minor flaws (that make me feel better about my work), and simply the wonderful detailed photographs/descriptions of the garments. The only thing to make them better would be to have photos of the whole garment instead of really up close ones. The book is great though. I'm soooo glad I have them now!The Cut of Men's Clothes: 1600-1900
and
Corsets and Crinolines both by Norah Waugh
These books are just wonderful. I got a used/older version of the Cut of Men's Clothes and a new version of Corsets and Crinolines but I couldn't be happier. These are definitely must-haves.
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| Isn't it pretty? |
Lawn Dress
It's long past due for a new post. My Red Dress is fitted, now only the sleeves need put on. The Regency Bodiced Petticoat only needs buttons. The Darth Maul Amigurumi hasn't been picked up yet. I haven't even thought about my quilt. But, I can post about an old dress I bought a while back at an antique store.
The dress is called a Lawn Dress. I have pondered the reasons why it would be called such; wearing it for garden parties (on the lawn. harhar), the fabric being called lawn, or some other crazy reason that no one would ever have thought of? Well, I've never really found a good explanation, and don't know enough about fabrics to say if it is in fact lawn or not.
Regardless of my prattle, I'm sure you want to see some pictures, right? Yes, you do!!!! So, here is the ca. 1910 Lawn Dress snatched for $60 at an antique store.
Disclaimer: Yes, that is me wearing the dress, 3 years ago, the day it was bought. At the time, I had never read anything about human oils deteriorating antique fabric. I was very careful and only wore it for about 15 minutes.
The dress has a lot of rips and tears. It used to have a lot of stains, but my mom read up and found a way to clean antique fabrics without damaging them. It worked like a charm.
So, yeeeah. There's a new post !!!!!!!!
The dress is called a Lawn Dress. I have pondered the reasons why it would be called such; wearing it for garden parties (on the lawn. harhar), the fabric being called lawn, or some other crazy reason that no one would ever have thought of? Well, I've never really found a good explanation, and don't know enough about fabrics to say if it is in fact lawn or not.
Regardless of my prattle, I'm sure you want to see some pictures, right? Yes, you do!!!! So, here is the ca. 1910 Lawn Dress snatched for $60 at an antique store.
Disclaimer: Yes, that is me wearing the dress, 3 years ago, the day it was bought. At the time, I had never read anything about human oils deteriorating antique fabric. I was very careful and only wore it for about 15 minutes.
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| These are the only two photos of the entire dress |
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| stupid look on my face.. I know |
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| torqued off Amber? Maybe. |
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| The details are much better seen in Black and White |
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| CrAzY picture of my face |
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| the back of the dress is pretty too! |
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| and this is a cool pic of the sky I happened to take that day |
So, yeeeah. There's a new post !!!!!!!!
Devil in a blue... I mean RED dress. Oh nevermind
Hooray! I am happy to say that I am officially done with Fall Quarter 2010 and am off to my wonderful 5 week break. I received 3 A's and 2 B's for the quarter (of which I'm quite surprised to see I did so well).
Now that my break has begun, I'm delving into new projects each day. Right now I'm dealing with a red dress that's being fussy.
The dress is a performance dress for the choir I am the accompanist and assistant director of. Our school colors are Red, Black and Grey; which was all I had to choose from. I bought my red dress from a consignment shop for $19 bucks and I figured I could just alter it to fit me, add some sleeves and be done with it. At the time I was a size 6 (the dress being a small 9/10 wouldn't have been that hard to alter) Well, not to toot my own horn, but I've lost a little bit of weight, bringing me down to a solid size 4. Oh goody for me. As you see in the picture, it is now quite gappy in a few areas.
I also want to add sleeves to the dress since I am technically a representative of the school and probably shouldn't be too revealed. Though, I'm not sure what kind of sleeves just yet. The girls in the choir said I should do a sleeve like this:
Yet my mom says I should do something more like this:
but maybe bigger drape thing like this:
What do you all think I should do? I'm at a loss
Now that my break has begun, I'm delving into new projects each day. Right now I'm dealing with a red dress that's being fussy.
The dress is a performance dress for the choir I am the accompanist and assistant director of. Our school colors are Red, Black and Grey; which was all I had to choose from. I bought my red dress from a consignment shop for $19 bucks and I figured I could just alter it to fit me, add some sleeves and be done with it. At the time I was a size 6 (the dress being a small 9/10 wouldn't have been that hard to alter) Well, not to toot my own horn, but I've lost a little bit of weight, bringing me down to a solid size 4. Oh goody for me. As you see in the picture, it is now quite gappy in a few areas.
I also want to add sleeves to the dress since I am technically a representative of the school and probably shouldn't be too revealed. Though, I'm not sure what kind of sleeves just yet. The girls in the choir said I should do a sleeve like this:
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| the sleeves would be slightly smaller in width |
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| A much more matronly look |
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| EVEN MORE MATRONLY :D |
What do you all think I should do? I'm at a loss
*insert HUGE sigh of relief*
Finally, my 1780's Servant Ensemble is done and turned in! I don't know what the grade on it will be, but I'm anticipating a high B or low A. BUT!
~Behold~
The bodice went together pretty well, I'm very proud of the back:
The class this is for is Costume Pattern Tech. The goal is to create your own pattern for the garment based on a rendition provided by the designer. There were 15 people in the class; all making the same dress; in different fabrics. Since we each created our own pattern, there was a lot of variety in style lines. In the entire class, there were only two people who created a more complicated back to the bodice. Though I love the style lines I hate that I did the piping on each piece. It created a lot of bulk in one spot and made the piping uneven, but now I know what not to do.
And so you can see the cute bump at the back :)
And now, I have 3 more final until I am officially on my 6 week break! Woo. Wish me luck, the sooner those get done, the sooner I can work on more of my projects for you to see. YAY
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