Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Hypothyroid Outfits

Did I lament about my lack of thyroid hormone lately? I almost fell asleep in the middle of the sentence. Luckily I have not fallen asleep while driving, which is my greatest fear.  I am sadly up to 2 cups of coffee a day to stay awake.  Alas, caffeine interferes with the absorption of levothyroxine. But look, I have successfully awoken at least 8 times in the past few weeks in order to wear the following outfits as well as take photos of them!

1. Sweater: gift from Mom, Turtleneck: JCrew, Skirt: JCrew, Shoes: from Vietnam
2. Sweater and top: gift from Aunt, Belt: JCrew, Pants: JCrew Pixie Pant, Shoes: Banana Republic
3. Sweater: same as #1, Shirt: JCrew, Pants: JCrew Minnie pants in Parsley, Shoes: Calvin Klein
WOW I am heavily representing JCrew in this assortment of outfits!

Here, I demonstrate the addition of a scarf that I bought from a street vendor while visiting Pittsburgh!
Other than that, I am wearing my beloved dress from Vietnam as a jumper.
I am holding Nutrigrain bars.
My boots are Nine West and belt is from JCrew. They have matching studs. 

1. Shirt: from Vietnam, Sweater: gift from Grandma, Pants: H&M, Shoes: from Vietnam, Coat: Anne Klein. I accessorized here!
2. T-shirt: Zara, Jeans: Ann Taylor Loft, Shoes: Sears, Bag: Marco Tagliaferri
3. Dress: H&M, Shoes: Urban Outfitters

This is an oooooold shirt from Gabe's. I am experimenting with a new photo locale in my apartment.
Jeans: Forever 21, Shoes: gift from dear friend Sansrita, Necklace: gift from dear friend Jen
Did you see the artwork in the corner of the above outfit picture? That was by the hand of yours truly. Oil pastel over a linoleum block print.

I noticed that I have a label called "shopping spree" for my posts and feel amiss that I have not composed a post worthy of that label lately. This, of course, is directly related to the lack of shopping spree in my life.  I have been too hypothyroid to shop.

Wedding Invitation Suite, Part Uno

I wanted to do a post on my invitations for a long time.  I held onto them for over 2 years (insane much, anyone?), making little adjustments/improvements every few weeks, lovingly putting them in different orders (alphabetical, family ranking, how much I liked the person), laying them out on my couch, bed, and floor, then storing them in their basket. These were the last few days that the invitations spent in my clutches:

Right: Patrick the Ostrich approvingly gazes upon the invitations.
They are laying on bed to dry (and be photographed) after I calligraphed the addresses.
Left: As you can see they are in their box, ready to be hand stamped and then released into the wanton custody of the mailmen and women who folded them and ran them through some machine that squished them. Grumble.


Early phase, back when we still lived in Pittsburgh.  I was toying with the idea of making belly bands out of scraps.

I arrived at the final design of my invitation after perusing literally hundreds of other invitations online and carefully examining the wedding invitations I had received from my friends.


Ingredients:
-Pocket fold made out of cardstock (Aspire Petallics 98 lb cover, www.thepapermillstore.com)
*The purple color I used for my invitations are currently not available, so you will be linked to pink instead*
-Announcement (printer paper, yes very classy)
-Information card on a different cardstock (Via Felt 80 lb cover, www.thepapermillstore.com)
-Map card on same cardstock as Info card
-RSVP card on same cardstock as Info and Map cards
-Large outer envelope (Aspire Petallics 80 lb text, www.thepapermillstore.com)
-Small return envelope for RSVPs (same as outer envelope)

Since I purchased the paper in bulk, I still have a LOT of paper left for random other projects but I am running out of ideas fast. I purchased a carton of 750 sheets of 6" x 33" shiny purple paper since it was the smallest unit available and it was only $20 something back then.  I probably used 50 sheets for the envelopes and now....the world is my paper oyster.

Left top:  all the different components laid out
Left bottom: the international invitations get placed into a different outer outer envelope for extra protection across the border
Right top: assembled invitation suite and outer envelope
Right bottom: closed invitation

On the next episode, I will discuss more about the design and erasers as stamps and other salient topics.  Stay tuned!