Mind.Blown #2

Domus is a gorgeous design and architecture magazine.  English and Italian text live side-by-side; this adds a certain level of sex appeal.  Today in the library I read the special report on hotels (August 2011, I believe), and now feel the need to travel, solely for the purpose of staying in hotels.  The Domus-inspired grand tour would have to include:

• Dar HI in Nefta, Tunisia.  My preference would be for one of the Pill Houses.
• Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, Germany.  Almost unbearably hip, but if I'm fantasy-travelling, then I'm also cool enough to get in the door.
• Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam.  Because it's time I associate Amsterdam with something other than John Irving novels.

Clearly I have a few stops to make after Vietnam and after Russia.  Maybe I enjoy planning vacations more than I enjoy taking them?  No, wait.  That doesn't sound quite right...

Wish List

This weekend I discovered The Summer of No Pants challenge over at Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! and, while I'm not usually a jump-on-the-internet-bandwagon type, I just... had to join this.  It is hilarious to me--and also nicely timed.  Next week I start a new job, and I will not be required to wear all black all the time.  So why not celebrate with a new summer wardrobe of colourful skirts and dresses?  I may even have to buy a pretty pair of heels to celebrate getting to sit at a desk all day long!

The challenge is to sew four skirts (or dresses) in four weeks, and I'm thinking the challenge is really going to be to narrow down all the great choices out there to just four.  Four may have to be a jumping off point.  I've managed to limit myself to free patterns for the most part, largely inspired by links from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!, but have just gone wild picking out pretty fabrics.  If I could make it all--meaning, if money were no object--here's what I'd do...

• This elastic waist skirt or maybe this "fluffy back" skirt in this fabric by Laura Gunn;
• Flirting the Issue Skirt in Innocent Crush voile (with this as a lining) by Anna Maria Horner;
• This reversible skirt in two of Valori Wells' linens: this one and this one;
• Copy one of my favourite skirts--a grey denim one from the Gap, of all places, pictured above--in this wild corduroy with some accents of this corduroy (also by Valori Wells--I guess I'm a fan);
• The Diane Kimono Dress by Kay Whitt in a just-below-the-knee version with these three fabrics: one, two, three;
• This t-shirt skirt, made with finds from the local thrift store;
• This hilarious upcycled jean skirt is too funny to pass up;
• and there are at least two, if not three, dresses in my closet that I could make more wearable by turning them into skirts, pictured below.

All three dresses are spectacularly unflattering--the top two being shapeless fashion-hipped mistakes purchased right here in Dawson.  The third was bought on-line (and on sale) from J. Crew.  All can easily go under the rotary cutter without the slightest bit of worry.  I'd like to try out this ruffle technique on the J. Crew dress, keeping the style of this petticoat skirt in mind.  It's the right kind of fabric and god knows there's enough of it.

And in honour of joining The Summer of No Pants, today I wore my LBD--one of the dresses in my closet that I do like--paired with Converse sneaks when it was warm during the afternoon, and then tights and gum boots to keep me warm in the radio station.  Here's a backyard self-portrait:

Look at that green grass!

Stay Tuned...

Tonight I'm making one of my mom's classic Christmas treats, and will be sharing the recipe during the show on Sunday (and then later a few days later on the web, of course).

I have tons of killer stuff planned for Meat & Potatoes #15.