Everything that is awesome and delicious

I haven't been actively seeking garage/estate sales lately, but I do try to stop if I see a sign and have a few doubloons in my pocket. The last two I've been to happened to be on their last leg, which means 50% off!

Thursday I spotted an estate sale sign on my way to pick Felix up from school. On our way home, we stopped, and we happened to have 10 minutes before they were done. I found this beautiful ivory leather coat. It didn't have a price tag.



It's missing a button, which the lady told me popped off that day when someone else was trying it on. I'll be repairing it soon! So anywho, I left the coat on while asking it's price in an attempt to convince the lady that I needed this coat and I needed it for a sweet deal. Then the universe parted the clouds and answered my prayers. She gave it to me for $3!

I had the other night off and chose to focus my domestic energies on dessert. That's right, I said dessert. First I made a delicious vanilla custard to chill in my fridge before becoming delicious ice cream/frozen custard/the best thing ever. Then I got out my super awesome apple peeler/corer/slicer and went to down on a bag of apples, which quickly became the best apple pie ever, recipe courtesy of my friend Mike.

Mike highly suggested the lattice crust top, and that guy only speaks the truth when it comes to apple pie.



I don't have the fancy outer crust making skills, but my pie plate was kind of huge (and I use my Grandma's secret crust recipe- Pillsbury, the kind that's rolled up). The flour/sugar mixture becomes some kind of delicious compote like substance under the crust. Double duty extra awesome, ya'll.

Then I made my man folk grilled ham and cheese sandwiches because that's all the energy my heart had left.

I'm making skeleton key necklaces out of the sweet collection of skeleton keys I risked my life for in Grandpa LeRoy's storage unit. I think he'd think they're awesome. Pictures soon!

Halloween and Unicorns

My owl costume turned out fabulous, if I may say so myself. I used this tutorial for the dress. For the wings I cut out pieces of felt. I interfaced the bottom piece of felt and added a snap and a loop of elastic to keep it in place. I put the other part of the snap on the shoulders of my dress to anchor the top of the wing to the dress. I think bigger wings would have looked better, but it was a last minute idea and I used what I had.



I've been working on painting some of my vintage bags for the upcoming holiday market I'll be participating in. I'm kind of in looooove with this unicorn. Do you think our babies would have rainbow hair?

There is a core, and it's hardcore. All is hardcore when made with love!

I had the bestest time ever dancing my pants off last night with Gogol Bordello at the Boulder Theater. In fact, I predicted this would happen and decided to forgo pants all together!





I don't really take many concert pictures. They never look that good and I feel like I'm wasting precious rocking time when I'm trying to hold still for crisper shots. Anyway, it was mutha you know whating packed in there. I have a big nasty blue bruise on my arm and Chainsaw lost his hat. We saw it fly up into the air at one point. People were wicked sweaty, and we received a dog shake head sweat shower on multiple occasions.

Totally worth the health risks. I wish they weren't sold out for tonight because I would TOTALLY SEE THEM AGAIN. You know?



Here's what I've been working on today. This bag is going to be so cute when it's finished. :D



I was picking Felix up from his girlfriend's house this morning when I was overcome with a sudden agonizing hunger for more sweaters. I stopped at Arc and found a bunch of adorable cardigans. I'd like to wear them all at once. I think this blue/purple one is my favorite and looks brilliant with my boots.

Over and out. CHhhhhhhhhhh (that's supposed to be the walkie talkie noise)

Halloween

I decided to go handmade and NOT SEXY this year, just to shake things up. I saw this tutorial Chelsea from Sea Blanket shared on A Beautiful Mess, and decided I wanted to be an owl. I accidentally spent 4 hours working on this part the other day, and I don't have any pictures of it. You'll have to wait for the final unveiling!

Today I made a couple owl masks to go with my costume.



This one is made using a black plastic mask form I bought at Hobby Lobby because Felix begged me to. It was a three pack, and I have at last used one for good! Unfortunately, it's a little hard to see/breathe and my face gets all sweaty in this beast.



That lead to me making this mask out of a pair of thrifted sunglasses. I popped the lenses out and hot glued feathers on it. This one is much more comfortable although I do need to trim some of those pesky nose ticklers!

This is the first of a few years that we're not hosting our own Butter household Halloweenie party. I usually get so stressed out cleaning and cooking that I have a headache by the time the party starts. Not this year! This year we attend a party not of our throwing.



I love Giant Dwarf's Starlette Crowns so much, but I can't exactly afford them. Therefore I copycatted her in a big way for personal use and felt super cute all night at work.

Scores!!

3 large (several yards each!) pieces of fabric bought for $1-$2 each! Also one awesome vintage sheet!



Pretty throw/table runner. It looks table runner shaped to me but was marked as a throw. I love this so much and can't wait to make some pretties with it!



Flat and fitted Troll doll sheet set! They're kind of girly, but I'm trying to convince Felix that dreams dreamt in a troll wrapped world are the dreamiest dreams to dream.



Scraps of orange upholstery fabric. I have some fun ideas for this!



Brand new fabrics I bought in South Dakota.

I also found muchos dresses that I found for good deals, which is awesome because some don't fit or are actually pretty ugly on my person. Thrift stores need dressing rooms, ya'll. Anyway, I like to promise that I'll share them, but to be honest the ones that fit will probably just get thrown into the wardrobe rotation. Maybe I should start a vintage dress series?

Vintage Velvet Dress

I bought this dress at Shangri-La Vintage in Chicago. It was dead stock, which means it's "new" vintage and in perfect condition. I love it super big time!



I love how luxurious it feels!

Shangri-La was an awesome store, run by a super nice lady. Everything was sorted very nicely, and the prices were very good. I rarely buy anything at vintage stores because it's too expensive, but this place was just right!

Of course, right after I bought this dress I found a whole pile of vintage dresses at a thrift store outlet down the street. Those dresses need a little updating, and I probably won't be showing them off until then!

Kitty Case

I made a last minute gift for our friend Lauren out of an adorable avocado green vintage suitcase. I painted a slightly lazy-eyed kitty and her name on it. I used a sharpie for outlining and details and quick sprayed a coat of sealer over the paint. I hope it holds up!



I sure hope she actually likes it. I know I loved suitcases when I was little!

Wristlet sneak peek!





I'll be adding new wristlets to the shop soon!