Sliding into insanity: Online Package Tracking

So I mentioned in my last post that I had ordered a new pair of shoes as the BDay present from Me to Me.

Aren't They Pretty?

Shortly after publishing that post I got an email confirming that the shoes had shipped. This email included the oh-so-convenient UPS tracking number. Now every couple hours or so I pull up the UPS website to find my package. This morning while procrastinating getting out of my warm bed I pulled up the route from Indianapolis to Ypsilanti to see approximately how long it would take the truck to get into the nearest UPS distribution center. 

I do realize I'm a little nuts. Possibly more than a little. But this is an issue with the internet. With so much available instantly, we begin to lose our patience with the things that take a while. So this is probably an excellent opportunity for me to exercise patience and contentment. Instead I'm going to hit "refresh" on the UPS tracking page until my package arrives.

Now into the School year

For most of us school started on the 7th of September. Of course before the semester began there were a hundred thousand things to do. Packing, moving, making arrangements with room-mates, catching up with friends, checking the location of classes...etc. Since I rarely do things the easy way I compounded my Labor day/Moving in weekend with working at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Go me!

Despite my mother's insistence to concentrate on the upcoming semester, I can't  not work Festival. Especially Labor Day weekend because Monday our booth manager takes the day off every year and I get to be the boss lady. Plus festival is good for my soul and my confidence. It is only there that I get hit on, and frankly I enjoy getting the high that you get from someone appreciating your appearance. It's probably left overs from being an extremely late bloomer. In the wrong outfit I still look like a 13 year-old boy in drag.

But it's not just the compliments that keep me coming back. Everyone their treats each other like a huge family and we all look out for one another. For example when I had a shitty day I was able to go to my friends at festival and be greeted with hugs and assurances. Even the people I knew only as acquaintances were loving on me just because I had a horrid day. The other reason I love festival is because there is a an attitude of acceptance. No one cares about your race, your background, your family history, or even your religion. It is one of the few places I have seen an atheist, a pagan, and a Christian discuss their individual beliefs without anyone being offended or even annoyed. The final reason I return to festival every year is Men in Kilts

The Guys of Tartanic

In other news my final year of School is off at a ridiculous high speed. Currently I am on top of things and being good. I got all my reading done for the week because I decided to go dancing last night at Cafe Habanas weekly Salsa night! Sooo much fun even though I'm not a great dancer. I can dance but I have a bad habit from my martial arts training that I try to anticipate the moves of my partner and react before they occur. This ends up with me trying to lead but still doing the follower's steps. And everyone ends up confused. Luckily by about 11pm the dance floor is so crowded I can blame my missteps on the people knocking into me.

Another part of prepping for the semester was moving into my new apartment. Hopefully soon I will be able to borrow a camera and post pics of my new room. Not gonna lie, it looks kind of like a bachelor pad since it's decorated with all dark colors (black and chocolate brown) and posters of city skylines. But I brightened it up a bit with silver accents and tea lights. So it works. And I love it. Plus I have a full size bed which takes up almost all of my pocket sized room so I can stretch out when I sleep or have a sleep over with the girlfriends scheduled to come visit me.

Finally it was my birthday over the weekend! I celebrated my B-day all weekend long while working at festival. There is a tradition at festival that if you pin a dollar to your shirt to indicate it's your birthday then people will give you more dollars to add to the collection. I made 18$ and determined that since it was my birthday money I decided to spend it on something I absolutely don't need:

I have noticed that one of the big trends this fall in footwear have been clogs. This worries me since even back in the 90's when all my little friends were stomping around in clogs I only pretended to like them and behind every one's back called them Herman Munster shoes. I'm willing to give these a shot for 3 reasons. 1) on sale for 20$. 2) With the open toe and the heel strap they look a little more streamlined than the old school pump. 3) My rocker style is attracted to the studs.

Hopefully they will arrive next week and be comfortable enough to rock to class and/or work.

I really need to start posting more often so I don't have these ramble-y posts.

I Won!

Most people in the world have luck of one kind or another. Not me. For the most part I tend to be rather luck-less, suffering from neither good or bad luck. However every once in a while I am given a sample of luck (sometimes good, sometimes bad) just so I can have the experience. 

Last week I received a taste of good luck: As I may have mentioned the amazing and creative Carly J. Cais of Chic Steals was one the of the bloggers who participated in New York Design Shop's Create Couture Challenge  Since she is a major overachiever and puts my little projects to shame (I have three shirts I keep putting off even though summer and my free time is coming to a swift end) Carly submitted 12 DIY projects within the time constraints of the contest! As a rabid follower, of her blog I voted for her (though ...Love Meagan has some of my loyalty as well). Carly won the contest by what I hear was a very narrow margin (cue applause!) 

Thats where things get a little confusing, at least when I try to explain it. Seriously, I had to tell my mom three times why I was giving my home address to a random internet celebrity. NY Design Shop had a drawing for the voters who participated in the Create Couture Challenge. The winning voter got to choose a prize from the DIYs of the winning blogger. And I won!!!!11!!one!!

The prize I chose was the beautiful Double-Fringe Necklace Which was awesome since I planned on making one anyways. Instead I got to have one made for me by the designer! (Excuse me while I have a complete and total fan-girl moment) 

Of course no good luck comes without it's constant companion Bad Luck. I was sick with crippling allergies for the better part of the rest of the week. Anyone with allergies can attest the the attractiveness caused by swollen sinuses and runny noses. In order to prevent permanently scarring any future generations I avoided all cameras until my face returned to a semblance of normalcy. 

Finally I have a picture of me in my newly won necklace!

I'm freshly showered in this picture my hair is not normally so well behaved. 

I wore the necklace out shopping today and got tons of complements. Even my mom liked it and she prefers jewelery to be understated. I'm thinking I will pair it with my cute navy blue dress and cork wedges for the first day of my final year of school! May as well carry my pinch of good luck into the school year.

Monday Lust - Boots

I love boots. I love the way they make me feel like I can conquer the world. The last pair of boots I got have a five inch heel and little gold buckles. I call them my boots of Doom. If I could find a picture of them I would post them.

But today the lust has been re-awakened by the most gorgeous pair of boots.

Now they look very basic from the front. But the back is where the real beauty is.

The red zipper detail is just the right thing to perk these boots up from basic to sexy. So if any one wants to purchase them for me they are available at Nordstrom for just shy of 275$ LINK


All Images from Nordstrom.com

PS. In case you have never heard of the Blog http://www.chic-steals.com/ she has some of the best DIY's on the internet. Recently she participated in the Create Couture Contest sponsored by New York Design Shop and won! (I was one of the many who voted for her designs. I had to. She did a bajillion projects with the materials supplied) Anyways,  NYDS had a drawing for voters that awarded the winner a creation by the winner of the contest.  Guess what. I won!!!! I never win anything and I'm getting to be getting a beautiful fringe necklace created by Carly. I plan to wear it at every opportunity. As soon as it arrives I'm posting pictures!

Monday Lust - Corsets

Like so many others I have a problem. I long for items I cannot afford. Fortunately, my upbringing has hobbled me when it comes to impulse buys. When I spend money it's when I go out with the purpose to shop for a specific item or I limit my budget severely. For example my spring break shopping trip this year was limited to 100$ (not including my swimsuit).  While this keeps my wallet happy I fall into the occasional puddle of lust.

The point of this is to bring you Monday Lust. Where I post the items that are clogging my shopping list in the hopes that confession is good for the soul (and wallet).

Today (and for the past five years) I have been looking at corsets. Once upon a time corsets were required for women to appear beautiful (and faint at the appropriate dramatic moments), and because no-one had taken the time to invent the bra.* In more modern times the corset was considered fetish or wedding night wear. But recently the "corset top" has become more popular. Is it bad I want to say I was wearing a corset before it was cool? It's true.

Working at the Renaissance festival led to my first expensive purchase. I laid down a good 300$ (a fortune to 17 year old me) for a gorgeous satin corset in black and gold.

Me with Mike from Tartanic

I fell in love with corsets. Suddenly my boy-ish figure looked like a woman. I had curves and cleavage dammit! Since then I have been craving to purchase additional corsets. Next on my list is a simple over-bust corset in black leather (insert dominatrix joke here).  I think with the right jacket I can wear it out in "normal situations" (though I think I will avoid wearing it to church).  One such corset can be found HERE

The other corset I am currently lusting for is an under-bust corset to complete my steam punk costume. Yes I am that much of a nerd and I love it. The problem with the under-bust corsets is that I cannot decide which one I want. Today I stumbled across a company called Dracula Clothing that has really nice corsets for really good prices.  So if anyone wants to help me make a decision for a new corset you can vote for:

A. The Leather Over bust

B.  The Pointed Under bust (Which I would get in black of course)

C. The Military Inspired Corset

Please vote by writing your choice on a memo line of a check (suggested donation is ten dollars). Or remove the choice from my hands completely by purchasing any of the above corsets for me (I wear a size 18).


*Fun fact: in the early to mid 1800's it was thought that a corset was a medical necessity. The reasoning was that women were the weaker sex and despite having been fine for the past 1800 years they needed the support to stand. (Eve didn't wear a corset) Since girls were forced into corsets as early as 4 years old and were unable to develop the back muscles to keep themselves standing by the time the average girl reached her teen years it became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

New shirt and finished project

My lovely sister went to the Ann Arbor Art fair Thursday and all the boutiques that are normally outside my price range had huge discounts in honor of the event. Knowing I have been wanting a lace shirt she picked up this for me at a really low price:

In this picture I am wearing a flesh tone bra but no undershirt (it was hot and muggy today). Mother was not pleased and quoted her own version of the Bible verse saying not to cause thy brother to stumble, for no reason. The lesson I take from this is if I'm gonna be a ho I gotta do it for real. So no bra  next time!

In other news I finished a project! My friend's birthday is coming up and in true dirt poor student style I made her a present rather than buying something. 

In case it looks farmilar it is my own interpretation of the Chan Luu wrap bracelet. Which is on Amazon for close to 200$. 

 I created it using the DIY tutorial by Ruby Mines. Don't tell my friend but my version cost less than two hundred dollars. Though with how much work I put into it I would charge that much if I thought I could get away with it. 

Eventually (soon) I want to make one for myself with brown leather and jade colored beads, and possibly use a military inspired button. Frankly I love the military trend and plan to hop on it with full force as soon as it is cool enough to wear anything more than a bikini.

Shoes....

Once upon a time I didn't understand why women loved shoes and sunk so much of their hard earned money amassing collections of the things. Then earlier this year I experienced a revelation. I can't completely explain what did it, but right about the time I was looking for a new pair of winter boots I became enamored with the shoe "experience." While not nearly as sensual as my love for food there is a certain satisfaction that comes with scouring the internet for that perfect pair and then seeking it out in the store. It's like a treasure hunt! And it can get even sweeter when the shoe is on sale.

But now I fear that I have gone too far. Thanks to reading the entire archives of The Shoe Girl, I have begun to appreciate (and possibly covet) designer shoes. This appreciation makes my poor college student wallet recoil in agony, since I was raised to believe that everything you purchase should have multiple uses and anything you pay more than 50$ for should last you forever.

Therefore I solemnly swear that I would wear these shoes at every opportunity. I will wear them to my graduation. Even if things go down and I would be unable to complete my degree I will still attend graduation in these shoes. In addition I promise to incorporate these shoes into at least seven (7) years of Halloween costumes, and I will attend a bare minimum of three (3) events per year, excluding Halloween, that would justify me wearing these shoes. So help me God.

That being said can someone spot me $1300?

(Photo from Jak And Jil Blog, please don't sue)

Girly stuff

Remember the skirt I made of men's dress shirts from my local Goodwill?

Well here's me (at least the bottom half of me) in it!

Please ignore my sister's messy bedroom behind me.

Men's Clothes into Cheap Girl Clothes

Being a huge fan of DIY any excuse I have to make something I take. I work at the Michigan Renaissance festival and I love making my own costume bits. Living at home for the summer is so nice since my little sister (Like my little brother only little in age) and her expensive sewing machine are home for the summer too.
My latest project was a skirt made from the sleeves of men's dress shirts. I stumbled across a tutorial on ThreadBangers.com (Video Tutorial)

My skirt wound up looking a little different than theirs:


Eventually I will post pics of myself modeling the skirt. It hits just above my knee and makes my legs look long. And every short girl knows any item that makes you look taller is a good thing. Also since I used white shirts I have to wear a slip underneath it because the skirt is a little see through. Though my decision to use the white shirts instead of colored ones was the tie.



The beautiful shiny forest green with the gold Fleur de Lis just tickled my fancy. I love the look of the Fleur De Lis, and since I am part French I consider it part of my extremely mixed heritage. Upon finding this tie at GoodWill I knew I was going to use it for Something. Even if I didn't know at the time what it was. I wound up making belt loops for the tie out of the button hole side of the shirt. Originally I was going to just tack the tie to the skirt but this allows me more freedom with the colors I can use.

Now I just need a cute shirt to wear with this skirt, on the plus side I already have the perfect shoes.