No-when?-mber

Honestly, every time I cracked open the Mac in the past few weeks, I have wanted to take pause and blaaahg away about something on my mind. But life gets crazy. I know that we, the warm bodies of the world, have all gone through a time like this!

Without getting into too much uninteresting detail, I will simple say that work, health, Board of Director duties, and family and friends have all been meaningfully attended to. I'm caught up, un-cancered, newly appointed, loved ones are de-pneumonia'd, and I'm still Zen-ing from a fantastic wellness retreat (albeit a little flakey at times) with my close girlfriends a few weeks ago. Ohmmm. Life is great. Tibetan singing bowls, mmm, I may need to experience that again to get a better opinion.

If any long-lasting effects remain, it will likely be the fact that I have DITCHED COFFEE. Nuts, right? What am I thinking?!? The last time I went longer than 2 weeks without an IV of caffeine to my system (I wished!), was with our 2nd child. Yep. Tea it is...caffeinated of course. BABY STEPS, PEOPLE!

H and M ... we have a store here now. Our daughter is over the moon. She pulls off the Librarian Chic look very well and loves to combine pieces that she thinks no one else would. I hope she always has that fashion attitude.

Charlize Theron, speaking of beautiful blondes, covers the VOGUE for December 2011. She would be in the top 5 best-dressed, gorgeous women for me. The spread is shot in Pennsylvania, illustrating that a locale need not be exotic to allow pieces from designers: Alexander McQueen, Marchesa, and Christoper Kane to shine.

Here's a Runway to Realway from the shoot:

MARCHESA Spring RTW

  

And here's Charlize, sopping wet

in a waterfall...in Pennsylvania.

Aaaand, she pulls it off.

Gotta Go! Enjoy your week!

Eye-Catching Alberta F.

Another soggy October day here. The wind and rain have managed to knock off all the gorgeous fall leaves and the cold weather is creeping in. Yuck.

More reason to gawk, ooh, and ahhh over the wonderful colours and beautiful pieces from the RTW shows for spring I say!

I don't often wear dresses. I rarely have occasion to and yes, I am always looking for reasons to change that. I'm on a mission to set things right when the warmer weather comes again. I WILL wear dresses downtown, to the grocery store, to see movie, to meet my mom for a chai latte, to a friends for wine and to school functions....because whenever I see someone in a dress at occasions like this, I always think: "Wow, she looks great." I never question, "Now, why would she be wearing a dress?".

I am always looking at dresses (irregardless of what I feel I lack in my own wardrobe) as the costume director for the dance school here, and when I saw what Alberta Ferretti had done with the simple tank dress silhouette, I was captivated. The ways in which she layered texture and appliques is stunning...and she achieved this while still keeping the dresses wearable, classic, and uber-feminine. 

Here are 8 of my favourites....

It was in the 1920's when women realized that they could get their game on by showing some more leg, going sleeveless, and draw attention to their décolletage with various necklines as one type of cut didn't have to suit all. We can thank the "Flapper" for moving "The Dress" forward by leaps and bounds in fashion history. Ladies in the 20's were all about individuality.

  

 This ad above is for Lanvin from the 20's.

Gotta Go...gotta sew.

(photos courtesy of style.com)

Bumblebees

At first it was sorta cute...a lone bumblebee had found it's way trapped in beside a bolt of tulle in my sewing office the last week of August. I showed the children, we caught him/her and gently let him free out our front door. Sweet. I've never been freaked out over bugs. Especially fuzzy, slow-flying, rarely-biting ones.  As fall was approaching, I chalked it up to a rebel bee without a care in the world, or he had been transported with some picnic things or camp gear into a strange land called a human home.

Then there was another one, and then another. It became clear that they were coming from my office through a heating vent or was it just outside the window where their nest was? Not sure, but time after time, I would be sewing and hear the telltale distressed buzzing at the back of my neck. Another one had gotten into one of my lamps and been mesmerized by the spotlight bulb, then another one was playing in my notion drawers. Reaching for more serge thread, I was surprised by one bumblebee sleeping inside the spool tucked away on the shelf.

Can't you, like me, just picture a cartoon illustration of this scene?? Awwww.

About 20 bumblebees later, and I have HAD IT! We've done catch and release with each single @#$%ing bee and I swear the next one's last image of it's life will be the bottom of my shoe. I know, harsh. I need to get a grip.

So, I was checking out the Paris shows yesterday, and found some lovely bumblebee colours to soothe my anxiety. The first four are from Elie Saab, and really the first time that I can appreciate this particular mustard/gold yellow. Beautiful.

The second group of lovelies in black are pieces from Valentino....

 And the LAST photo is a QUEEN BEE herself, in a piece from 

Sarah Burton's Alexander McQueen show...

 Gotta go gotta sew!

My M Board and Armani's M Of Pearl

 I was made keenly aware of our attachment to my Mac yesterday morning, when without warning I received this visual reminder that machines can fail:

Faced with the decision to repair the Mother Board (so sexist!) for $900 or just get a new Mac, I chose the latter. For a few brief moments, I was struck with panic as it was suspected that all data might be lost forever. Ackkk! I gotta admit, I welled up a bit. Pathetic really. I am sure that this has happened to other people. We're Mac loyalists and so I sit here this morning on a brand new MacBook Pro. Bitter$weet.

The event simply reconfirmed with a sharp clarity that, with the exception of my family, our cats, some journals, photos....and our Mac (which contains a visual running account of our awesome lives)...all of our belongings could burn to ashes in a fire and all would be fine.

Mother Board Shmuther Board.

Giorgio Armani's Spring RTW collection from Milan featuring a different kind of mother....Mother Of Pearl. Silken, luster, and liquid brushed metals added to the organic flow and feel of his show.  

As Tim Blanks reviews "his signature show shimmered with the translucent glow of the moon on the sea".  

The fabric, the jewels, the accessories....including clutches that looked like giant clams.

What I found most interesting, were the slits up the sleek silk pants. Armani never fails to have a detail that initially stretches beyond logic, and then our brains catch up to realize how stunning it is.

Here are a few of my favourite pieces.  If anything, the show made me want to sew some showy silk pieces! 

Gotta go Gotta sew ... blackout lining on window treatments. 

How dreary on an already grey and rainy day!

photos Style.com

Christopher Kane ... Extremely Lovely Lines

Not too much to say about Mr. Kane's show except that he did his research. So far his designs are UNMATCHED when it comes to new "lines" for the spring.  

Practical? Not sure.  Who cares.

The characters he was thinking of were, he said, "the girls you hate at school," hanging out together, bullying boys as much as other girls. It's a curious vision of feminine strength, to say the least, but it's hardly the first time Kane has taken such a dark, tricky tack.

Tim Blanks, Style.com

Gotta Go!

Corde Du Roi

Chances are, some of you think that my title here is the origin of one of my favourite fabrics for fall in winter in Canada: corduroy.  In french "corde du roi" would mean "cloth/cord of the king" and that would make perfect sense as the etymologies of many of the names of fabrics find their roots in France. 

 

BUT....Corduroy actually originates from the English for 'cord" (speaks for itself) plus 'duroy' which in the past referred to the wool from sheep produced for meat so their wool is more coarse. 

The raised 'cord' is technically created in a kind of neat way (yah, probably only to me). In weaving terms, corduroy wefts span several warp, but the cut weft creates the familiar high raised lines or 'wale'. 

More simply put, corduroy is made by weaving extra sets of fiber into the base fabric, jumping over several at a time, to form vertical ridges. Then the extra fibers are all cut to reveal a lovely soft pile / fuzzy feel. Genius! Velvet is made using the same kind of technique, and may have been invented in 700 a.d. in Baghdad,  but who came up with this corduroy stuff? over 300 years ago? The British.

Corduroy today is made from cotton and is often mixed with Lycra to make the fabric easier to wear and retain shape. Found in several wale widths, it often has other names such as corded velveteen, elephant cord, pin cord, and even Manchester cloth as it was produced as a Manchester cotton textile from where the name suggests. Whatever you call it, corduroy is a classic: In clothes, accessories, and home decor.

My first pair of cords were rust ultra-flares in 1979 and were a hand-me-down from a beloved cousin.  I remember this because I used to finger-pick mud and spilled paint from the ridges while Mrs. Geddes was teaching. Ugh. 

In high school one year, I tapered several pairs of Levi cords myself so narrowly that I could hardly get my feet through. I laughed when I saw this ad today for GAP. I haven't bought in to the skinny jean look, and now skinny cords are in the stores...in rust no less...what to do, what to do. Perhaps it's best to hold off until I get further into my 10k running course next month with the hopes of acquiring a back end a little more like this girl's!

Gotta go

Sources: wikipedia, GAP.