Fish out of water...an outfit post.

Well its hot here in Southern California and I felt the need for something bright and to keep cool in. I'm wearing the earrings that I posted about earlier.

And my fishy bracelet to match.

Here is the fun tropical print of my halter style dress (its from the '80s).

Comfy wedges that oh so many people I know have (from Target a few seasons back).

A little better view of the whole dress and the fun pattern. Plus you can see all my dry cleaning I need to put away...hehe.

One of my favorite light coverup sweaters. Its contemporary but has a vintage feel with its texture and rhinestones around the neckline.

Talked my husband into taking a full shot...although I was in the midst of giving him instruction so I'm not smiling in this one but it was the best one he got.

The details...an outfit post.

With summer here it means I get to pull out all my vintage and finally wear it to work! Most of the year I have to wear stuff that I don't mind if I get paint, clay, latex, glue, etc on but during the summer I am a supervisor so its not as much of a worry. So here is to the beginning of my outfit posts...hopefully soon to be full body shots when I get my tripod out of storage. For now shots taken with my iphone using Hipstamatic.

My probably absolute favorite vintage earrings.

My soaring bird brooch.

Comfy shoes to run around in since we are still in dress rehearsal

Matching belt! With its fun angled buckle.

My dress is a black eyelet shirt waist dress with built in crinoline. Its very comfy and great for an errand day or when I'll be running around at work. I'm sure I'll get a better, full body shot of it for you at some point.

The fun winged cuff sleeve.

And happily off to work I go!

Never work a day in my life

I'm pretty lucky...I have an amazing job!
I create the headpieces and crafts for the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, California.
Every summer we put on a show that recreates classic and contemporary pieces of art using real people to look like their counterpart in the original piece of work. We take half a year to build the show. Our show runs the entire months of July and August using lovely, dedicated volunteers as cast members, makeup artist, dressers, and in many other areas to help for a successful show.  Then we spend the rest of the year tearing down the show and prepping for the next year. Please check out our website for more information.

We start with a theme and go from there...this year's theme:

The following are images from our press night and other press related events that have occurred throughout this past year. I linked the title of the prints to its original piece if you want to see what they look like.

Headpiece for "Dragon from the Grotto"

Foam sculptor in workshop

Cast member getting makeup done

"The Fairy Wood"

Cast members waiting to be loaded

"Arabian Nights"

Alice in Wonderland members being loaded

Cast members in piece

"Confabulation of Dragons"

The following images were taken from OCinsite.com who did a fashion spread based on tableaus for this season and using our sets: (there are more on the site)

 The adorable knight on the horse for the "St. George and the Dragon" piece is volunteer Katie Moore.

The following images were taken back stage for a Newport magazine. Basically, I wanted to show off me at work. The first two are taken in my workspace:

Then an image I took from the Laguna Beach Independent of Bette Davis talking to a previous director of the Pageant in 1957, where she was volunteering her time to paint the numbers on the back of seats:

So I just wanted to give a little insight as to what I do for a living; and why I might not be blogging so much right now since we are scrambling to get the show ready for our opening on July 7. Hopefully if you live in the area you can make it down to see this fascinating show. If you live out of the area you should put this on your list of future summer vacation spots.

Sources:
OC Register
OC Insite.com
Coastline Pilot
OC Now
John Schreiber Blog

Picnic in the Park

What a lovely Sunday for a picnic in the park in sunny Southern California! Today was a coming together of the wardrobe and headpiece volunteers from my job to celebrate the upcoming summer show. Our wonderful potluck took place at Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest, California. The park consists of four acres of beautiful landscape where four historic buildings have been brought and preserved for the public to enjoy.  The four buildings represent the early history of the Saddleback Valley and El Toro.

 

My day started by being domestic...making tiny sandwiches for the potluck.

 

Darling cupcake ice cream cones!

The Revamp: Grandpa's Flannel Gets a New Look

Recently my grandfather passed. He was a man of few words; but who I knew loved my sister and I so much and wanted nothing but for us to be happy.  My memories of him will always be that of a tall man, wearing flannel shirts, who loved dogs and loved my grandmother dearly. So while I was helping my grandmother clean out their apartment I grabbed a few of his flannel shirts as a reminder of him. Although they were extremely large for me, I thought they'd make great lounge wear or as cover ups at work when I was doing dirty work. Then recently, with my love for refashioning items I already owned, I began contemplating making some of his flannel shirts into something I could get more use out of. I came across this blog to Refashion a Man's Shirt.

So I started with this XL flannel shirt.

Here are my three pieces...I've created the casing on the main body, cut the sleeves down for the ruffle and still have a decent amount of fabric left in the top half of the shirt.

I used some of the extra fabric from the top half to create a halter strap...I have a hard time wearing strapless tops, I guess its a weird fear that it might slip down.

I pulled most of the gathered fabric into the back to give it a fun ruffled tail effect. I also used some of the extra fabric to create a bow for my hair. I did put the elastic in the waist, so I could wear it with out the belt and still have a nice cinched waist.

This was a really fun, easy and quick project that I didn't have to spend a dime on since I already had all the supplies needed in my stash. Plus I can now wear this flannel shirt more often as a nice little reminder of my grandfather.