A Quick Update!

 

I'm working the LYS Tour again today, so no full post - just a quick update  & sneak peek for the Camas hat pattern release next week. You may have noticed in my recent photos: I cut my hair off a few weeks ago, and I love it. So light and easy and laziness-friendly - and so, so fun to wear hats!

Happy Friday, friends.

<3

Cory

Haircut!

  

For the past month or so, I've been thinking that my head has gotten a little too shaggy for my liking, but wasn't sure what kind of haircut I wanted.  And although I love many things about vintage style, most vintage hair is way too involved for a girl who doesn't even own a hair dryer.  It's been weird, needing haircuts, too - when my hair was long, I sometimes only got it cut once a year, and if I went too long between cuts, it didn't matter because my hair was always up in a bun anyhow!  So after weeks of puzzling, one day last week I woke up and realized that I wanted a cut that was long in front and pretty short in back - just a little modern, and super easy to wash-'n-go.

So today, kind of on a whim, I walked up the street and got my hair cut at our local Rudy's Barbershop.  I was pretty specific about what I wanted, and it turned out just right!

Hallo there!

It's been a while!  There's been a few changes around here.  Mr. Mackie had another health scare a few weeks ago when he broke one of his teeth clean off!  Luckily, the vet determined that he had just "done something stupid" and the tooth would grow back pretty quickly.  It did, and since then he has kept his little butt out of the vet's office.

 

In other news... I cut my hair!  I had been thinking about it for quite a while, and a few days before my dear friend Ondrea's wedding in Oberlin, I decided to take the plunge.  I love how easy it is to care for!  I will admit that it's been a bit of an adjustment.  I started growing it out when I was 19, so long hair has been part of my identity for a long time, and I've found that both myself and others have been referring to me as "that girl who used to have really long hair".  It's a little weird, but I'm sure it will pass in time.

 

I've been taking a bit of a break from sewing and general creative work since the show, but lately I've been dipping my toes back in.  I made my bridesmaid's dress for the wedding, which was the first thing I had sewn for several months.  I've also started going back to knitting groups, and blocking and finishing some of the projects that were on hold while I worked on my collection.  And yesterday, I ran into a friend from Purly Girls and we started scheming a project to work on together - more details on that once it's more solidified!

Hope you've all been well, and hope to see you a lot more around these parts!

<3

Cory

I'm alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic!

Long time no see! It's been a busy couple of weeks. I've taken the shinkansen to Nagoya, gone to Kyoto a few times, gone shopping in Osaka, and survived three exams in a week. The weather is finally cooled down a bit, so I've been able to wear more of my normal clothes. Today is a fun adventure in layers: a basic greenish black tunic under my awesome red gingham thrifted dress (which I'm fairly sure was also handsewn), teal tights, hair flower, yellow kimono fabric earrings, knee-high black boots. I really like some of the fashion here - not all of it, some of it is cray-cray - and I've noticed that it's started influencing the way I think about clothes. It's nice to have a little time in the morning to play with layers and incorporate some of my new Japanese purchases into my overall style.

Last night I went a little crazier than usual after seeing a Youtube tutorial on how to make your hair into a Lady Gaga/Japanese fashionista hair bow. After several attempts, mine was still a little too far back on my head, partially because I have about three bobby pins to my name. I might go get some more and try again this weekend, because this is a mega-cute way to utilize my long hair.

How about you? Any fun styles that you use on days that you don't want to just throw your hair in a ponytail?

Haircut

Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina, colorway Chambray, destined to be a hat. Is it possible for yarn to be this soft? Apparently.
Shirt: H&M Spring 2010
New haircut by Lee Anne Ross, who I've been going to since I was 15. She's given me bobs, purple, blue, rocker chick, pixie, and long cuts, and always knows what to do with my hair - I always schedule an appointment when I come back to Seattle. I also finally bit the bullet and bought a salon-grade curling iron - my hair hates to hold things, and drugstore curling irons run in fear. Salon curling irons quietly beat it into submission while making it think it's my hair's idea.

Dear hair, I'm still keeping score here. Cory: 2. Hair: 0. I'm onto you, sucker.

I have good luck.

Well hi! It's been a while. In the last few weeks, my hours at the museum have been upped from two days a week to four days a week plus Tuesday afternoons at a local private conservation association. So I've been packing for Japan and working a lot, and sneaking in a run when I can. I've also started washing my hair at night instead of in the morning, which sounds like it shouldn't be a big deal, but I'm weird about my hygiene habits, and it's taken some getting used to. I'm doing it for two main reasons: first, in Japan, you traditionally bathe at night, and showering in the morning might be a hassle for my homestay family, and second, with my hair as ridiculously long (for me) as it is, it's nice to have dry hair all day instead of leaving the house when it's sopping wet. What it does result in is the hair in the above picture - my hair is naturally super, super straight and the fact that it's even hinting at waviness is pretty impressive.

So why do I have good luck? Well, for two reasons: first, that last week my coworker at the museum mentioned that she had some 25-year-old Chanel and Dior suits that she was looking to offload. Always a sucker for designer stuff that I can actually afford, I asked if I could try them on. The first was a stunning blue silk suit that didn't quite fit, the second a Dior suit with a gorgeous brown/burgundy/mustard print and a matching burgundy military-style jacket that (tragically!) didn't fit at all, and the third was one that I picked up because I saw plaid and had to at least try it.

Turns out that the plaid suit is a linen Rodier suit with high-waisted pants (much in the same style of one of my favorite pairs of pants) and an oversized jacket that has some very kimono-like touches, between the drape, the large sleeves and long vents at the front panels.


And, although I was going to make an offer, my coworker said, "Eh, I've enjoyed working with you. Take it." (So, so nice!!!!) I wore the pants to work today, and they're really comfy, not to mention perfect to pair with this little capelet I found at a vintage shop in Ohio City for $0.50.


Oh, the details! Puff sleeves! Lace trim! Pink! $0.50! How could I say no?


Look out, Japan: you're about to gain a tallish, non-skinny, frilly foreigner, and she's bringing a veritable banquet of vintage frippery along with her.