Being bored and OCD.....

Happy New Year Blogland!!!

It's the start of another year!! I don't make any resolutions or such stuff for New Year's because, truth be told, I just forget about them by February anyway.

Lauren and I stayed home for NYE. My back issues (UGH) just didn't allow any partying or such. I went to the doctor's yesterday and I'm STILL going to be off work until at least January 16th. This is so frustrating for me. The muscles are all in a knot about the size of a tennis ball and pressing on the sciatic nerve.  I can't get comfortable or relief for more than an hour or two at a time. We are just waiting for authorization for physical therapy. The holidays have slowed the process down. 

I get periods where the only way I can be a tad more comfortable is to stand. I've been taking advantage of just "standing around" to photograph my wardrobe to catalog it. Yes, I need a life-LOLOL. I've gotten all my clothing, shoes and scarves done. Next up is jewelry. 

Whilst I was photographing I cam upon some thrifted items I haven't worn or shared. I thought I share them in this post as my fashion choices are limited since I'm stuck at home.

DressBarn unworn charcoal pleated skirt-$3

Jones New York unworn  black suiting box pleated hem skirt-$4

Lane Bryant salt&pepper tweed  pleated hem skirt-tags said $59.99--I paid $3

August silk knit cobalt marbled sweater-$3

August silk knit plum marbledsweater-$3

Evan Picone color-blocked sweater-$3

Now I just need to be able to wear them SOMEWHERE-lolol. In dollhouse news- the pictures I posted on Sunday were examples of what it will look like. I am NO WHERE near that. I did a dry(no glue) assembly to get an idea of how it goes together. Now I have to sand like crazy all the parts.

The dollhouse trial assembly.

I've decided to paint the exterior pink with charcoal shutters and roof and white trim. I grew up in a pink circa 1961 rancher on Dogwood Drive. I've decided to call the house Dogwood Cottage.

My dear friend Andrea is coming over tomorrow to undecorate the Christmas trees for me. Lauren has been bringing up the storage bins since Saturday so I can fill them as I am able. Being OCD and having everything organized by room has made it reasonably easy to undecorate the hoard.  There is a method to my madness at times.

I'm linking up with Anne for Spygirl's 52 Pick-me-up: Closet Orphans. I guess the newly thrifted stuff I haven't been able to wear would count!!!!!

I'm off for some meds and a nap. I hope to get around to everyone's blogs and comment later today!!

TTFN

Tamera

Has it reached critical mass yet??

Hope everyone else had a relaxing weekend!!

Hiya Blogland!!!  BBBBRRRRRRRR!!! It has gotten ridiculously COLD here. If it's this cold I want SNOW!!!

I've been busy getting ready for Christmas. I think I'm starting to reach critical mass in the amount of Christmas stuff I have.  These are the containers full of stuff I have YET to put out. This doesn't include the six I've already emptied, all the outside stuff or the decorations for the four large trees yet to go up.  and I live in a fairly small house LOLOL!!

I've also been busy making stuff from my stash!! Here's the kitten ornaments on their tree in the hall bathroom. The tree came from Hobby lobby and I stuck it in a milk glass vase I had. Added the little bells, some vintage balls and a vintage plastic topper.

Here's a picture of the angel variation I made of the kitty ornament. These are on the tree in the master bathroom.

I tried last week to bleach some bottle brush trees I had. I wanted to decorate them up shabby chic style like I've seen on Pinterest. Fro some reason the dumb things wouldn't bleach white!!! The small ones did--I'm going to glitter them up before I show them off. But the big ones didn't even get a shade paler!! I have a set of decorated bottle brush trees from my childhood that are green. I decided to do these up the same way. The vintage one is on the left.

I'm also going to DIY an ornament wreath from a thrifted wreath and some of my solid vintage bulbs. I need to do SOMETHING with them instead of stuffing them in a box as I don't have room for them on the tree.

And now on to the outfit portion of this post!! Wednesday I wore a thrifted LaneBryant pencil skirt, Sweater from Kmart(Jaclyn Smith on sale) Scarf from Kmart, tights and the kick-ass laced boots.

 Thursday I broke out some tartan. The sweater is Dressbarn/thrifted, the dark tartan skirt is Alfred Dunner/Thrifted, The wedge booties are HushPuppy/Thrifted, the bracelet is DIY and the scarf is thrifted.

Friday I wore a thrifted SagHarbor skirt that I need to alter a bit, Thrifted Cardigan made into pullover, black tights and thrifted Aerosole maryjanes.

Sunday I helped set-up for a Thanksgiving dinner for disadvantaged teenagers. I'm wearing a thrifted LaneBryant tunic,  thrifted WhiteStag mini-wale pants I made into stirrup pants and my Aerosole boots. Added a little bling with some vintage rhinestone pins. I bet you noticed the hair-cut. I was trying to grow it out but decided it was just too much aggravation. Based on the compliments I've gotten I really need to just rock the Jamie Lee Curtis hair and be done with it!!

Notice MrBill on the poochie pouch bed getting snuggly!! I made the Santa on the TV.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week!! I'll be back later with more DIY reveals!! Safe traveling to all of you who will be traveling for the holiday!!

TTFN

Tamera

Houndstooth and Halloween

Hiya Blogland!!! How is everyone doing??? I'm laying low for Halloween. It's dreary and rainy outside.

I wanted to get a photo of Gracie in her candy corn dress. She isn't the camera-hog the Diva was. She's always bopping around and moving and just busy. I have several shots like this:

This was a frequent view of the Diva when she disapproved of something. Talk to the BUTT!!!

FINALLY I got an adorable shot of her!!

So must cuteness!!

Here's a selection of vintage Halloween cards. Most are from the late 1890's through the early 40's. I love the exquisite artwork.

I adore the pumpkin car in the middle!

Dig the gal on the left's owl hat!

Oh look the terrifying Halloween parrot!!

The one on the left is some weird Halloween/Thanksgiving mash-up.

I'm going to have nightmares about pumpkin gal in the middle!

These are weird. Evil Halloween CABBAGES and Satan making a menu whilst being mocked by fruit.

I was inspired by Gracey of Fashion for Giants Harlequin & Houndstooth outfit this week so I pulled out my houndstooth.

Gracey looking fabulous!

Wednesday I wore a thrifted St.JohnsBay turtleneck sweater, thrifted Aerosole maryjanes, vintage scarf, and a ponte houndstooth skirt from Walmart. I was buying some kale, bananas and almond milk and spotted it. It was love at first sight--although I wasn't sure I could fit in that size. I could and home it came with me!! I haven't been in Misses sizes in YEARS!!!

Keeping with the houndstooth theme I'm wearing a thrifted ponte skirt, thrifted belt, thrifted NineWest flats, Target tights, DIY necklace and bracelet, thrifted hat and LaneBryant top. I had a gift certificate for months and finally found something I wanted to use it on. This was another love at first sight. I just loved the bold graphicness of the houndstooth.

 Here's a close-up of the hat. You can see my new purple glasses! I'm linking up with the always elegant Judith of Style Crone  for Hat Attack!!!

I'm awfully chipper looking for 5:30am!!!

I was looking through some old pictures from last year at this time. WOW--what a change!! The hair color, the size, the style. Last year at this time I only wore maxi skirts or long pants and wore baggy clothes still. now it's short(well, knee-length) and more form fitting tops. Here's what I wore around Halloween 2012:

I'm glad I have a 3 day weekend. I need to get the thanksgiving decor up outside and start organizing the Christmas hoard of decorations. I plan on being a homebody this weekend except for church!! Everyone have a fabulous weekend and I'll be back on Sunday!!

TTFN

Tamera

This is just ADORABLE!!

Back in the classroom.

Hiya Blogland!!! How is everyone doing?? I'm spending the week at work in a class on Installation Public Works. My head is SWIMMING with all of this information!! This shall be bit of a quick post as I have homework yet to do. I've been trying to keep up with every one's blogs this week even if I'm not commenting (I'm checking y'all out on my phone during breaks in class-lol)

The classroom is COLD so I dressed for warmth on Monday. The cardigan is the new one I thrifted last week for $3. I exchanged it for another teal cardigan I had as this is more interesting with the ruffles. The skirt is my thrifted grey knit maxi and the top is StJohn'sBay and thrifted.  I'm wearing a pair of black boots I've worn many times before.

Here's is a closer look of my brooches. I thrifted these at the mission for fifty cents. A couple small blue rhinestones were missing on the mama turtle. I just used a bit of blue glitter glue to match to fill the spots in.

Tuesday I wore a new to me pair of LaneBryant trousers I thrifted last week for $2. The blouse is Foxcroft/thrifted and the cardigan is LaneBryant/thrifted. I'm wearing my thrifted Clarks maryjanes I dyed black. The necklace was gotten for $1.99 on the clearance rack at Burlington Coat Factory. It was broken and took all of 2 minutes to fix.

Wednesday is SpyGirl's 52 Pick-Me-Up Challenge. This week was Feline Frenzy-we had to wear an animal print. I thrifted this silver leopard Cathy Daniels sweater a couple weeks ago. I paired it with a thrifted SagHarbor tweedy skirt. I decided to add a jolt of color with orchid tights,earrings and bangle. The shoes are Michael Shannon/thrifted. The blur of Gracie is sporting a purple and grey plaid sweater

I will be glad when this week is over. I'm not used to sitting for such long periods of time. Hopefully I'll get caught up with the rest of the world this weekend!!!

Off to do my homework!!

TTFN
Tamera

Neon, emerald, berry & gingham with a side of seahorse

Hiya Blogland!! Autumn has finally returned to Western Maryland. It's like 25 degrees COOLER today than it was yesterday morning!! YAY

I got recalled to work yesterday. Super. I'm not getting PAID (no budget for govt. yet) but I have to report. And basically do nothing as there is no one here on base. The DPW is considered essential to military operations now. So much for my plans to do stuff around the house!

Monday's outfit had a male co-worker say I looked like a colorful rainbow. I replied yeah--the colorful rainbow over crap island!! The outfit is thrifted except for the dollar store socks. The top is a very fine gauge knit--and was a size medium in JUNIORS--seriously--it's BIG on me-- a medium junior size gal would've been swimming in it. This is a great example of not being concerned with the size. I go thru all the racks and pick up stuff and decide if it might fit regardless of the label.  It's rather "trendy"--neon, striped and a sweatshirt type style. I just LIKED it. I'm not sure how well it worked with a pencil skirt but I know it will be cute with jeans. I stuck the socks on with the thrifted Ninewest booties as the ankles rubbed a bit. I liked the slouchy bit of color they provided. I slapped my "Keep Calm and Carry On" pendant as I went out the door as it was appropo for work!!

Tuesday's outfit was inspired by this outfit Sheila of Ephemera wore recently. I love the combo of emerald green, black and white!!

Everything is thrifted except for the boots-which I've had for years. The sweater is LaneBryant. I wear a lot of LaneBryant but their retail prices are INSANE. I recently had a gift card to burn there and had some serious sticker shock!! This sweater was probably $60 new and I paid $3. Funny story about the pants. I had bypassed them on the goodwill rack for about a month. They are a size I couldn't imagine wearing. Last week I decided why not try them on. To my astonishment they fit and fit really really well. They are a cotton/spandex denim. They had the original Sears tag on them for $26.99!!! LOLOLOL  I'm guessing by the tag (no bar code) and the tapered legs they are late 80's/early 90's vintage.  Not bad for $3!! They are right on trend with the narrow ankle pants that are popular--and great under boots!!  I decided that the perfect accessories would be my rhinestoned petrified seahorse pins and earrings.  Because everything is improved by petrified rhinestoned sea creatures!!

Wednesday's outfit is my Spygirl 52 Pick-me-up: Tone Poem inspiration. We were to mix a bright color with a darker shade of the color. I chose some bright pink tights(Merona/Target) with a thrifted darker raspberry cardigan.  I paired it with an aqua Lane Bryant tshirt and grey Avenue skirt (both thrifted).  My earrings and the ticket brooch are from sweet Desiree.

And the funny thing is this outfit was also inspired by an outfit of Sheila's:

This week is also Shoe Shine at Citizen Rosebud's.  I recently thrifted these Aerosole mary-janes for under $5!! I love the wing tip detailing and the lug-like soles. Plus they are SUPER comfy!!



We are expecting a lot of rain the next few days--which we desperately need. It's gotten rather raw and chilly (amazing considering it was 90+ on Sunday!!) so I'll need to put a sweater on Gracie. She was shivering in her dress this morning! I have tons of inside projects to do(CHRISTMAS!!) I'm hoping to get all the pictures I took of our friends fabulous home from this weekend edited and the post up on Friday.

TTFN

Tamera

We need a bit of whimsy this week

Hiya Blogland!!  It's the start of another strange and wonderful week!! We are supposed to have some much needed rain all week-which will probably cut down on Miss Gracie and my walks a bit. We will have to expend that energy indoors with some fetch and sock-wrestling!

I just feel like this week needs some weird and whimsical to brighten us up! And what could be more weird and whimsical than The Munsters as a rock band?? Dig Grandpa on the guitar!!

So I've raided my stash of strange to share with y'all for some giggles!! Anyone who's checked out my Pinterest can see I have eclectic tastes in pinning stuff. Which is a nice way of saying I pin weird stuff.

As creepy as the picture of dolls in suitcases at the airport  Anne of Spygirl posted this week is,  I think this vintage picture is WAY creepier. Nightmare-inducing material here folks!!

I could totally see Sarah Misfit or Vix rocking this fabulous jumpsuit!!  What a fantastic print!

You can be fashion-forward when your attempting your next bank robbery!!  FREAKY!!



This must've been one awesome party!! That one poodle is a bit possessive  of the human!

What's not to love with styling lizards?? And what happened to their TAILS?? Wait... are they DEAD??

 

This is just one STUNNING vintage advertisement -the colors are FABULOUS!!

This picture says it all!!

 

And now to outfits!! Monday's outfit was built for comfort!! Everything but the shoes are thrifted. I recently got the Lane Bryant cardigan for $4. The total of this outfit was $9!!! New this outfit (Lane Bryant Cardi-$59, Denim & Co Tshirt-$39, Jessica London Maxi-$59) would have retailed for $160!! The bracelets are thrifted and the necklace is a gift from the always wonderful Vix!

 

 I had planned on wearing my 52 Pick-me-up outfit today but it was too cold, rainy and dreary!! I pulled out some thrifted Lee boyfriend jeans, blingy jewelry, my peep toe platforms and this new Jessica London trapeze T shirt I just thrifted for $2!! I feel a bit tres chic and French-LOL. I've really been drawn to black and white print tops lately for some reason. Almost ALL of the print tops I currently have are black & white.

 

Miss Gracie and I met up with our buddies Smokey & Dragon on our walk. We walk by the barn they live in a couple of times a week or more and they always come out to greet Gracie!! They are two adorable boys!! Their momma abandoned them as kittens and the people who own the barn took them in!! Gracie managed to find a groundhog skull while she was there!

 

Here's a picture of MrBill and Gracie this morning trying to catch a few more ZZZZZZ!!

 

I've been altering clothes like a crazy person lately- I think I can see the bottom of the pile finally!

I'll be back later this week with my Spygirl 52 Pick-Me-Up outfit, my Fashion for Giants Literary Stylings outfit and I believe this week might be Bella's Shoe shine!!  i enjoy these challenges because they force me to think outside my box!

 

TTFN

 

Tamera