Manic Pop

Fun little mini photoshoot with Max today.  Originally we had planned to seek out a crazy, striped mural downtown but we were losing time for natural lighting. I like this mural we found anyway. Something crazy to go with my bright, cartoon-y, mod dress.  Lens flare is a joke and a nod to Max - haha! I had a super-small colorful water gun in my bag. It was about 84 degrees today. Shoulda filled that up and ran around the neighborhood! Sloan tote bag! I originally found out this bag existed by googling a photo of Flight of the Conchords one day. There is this photo of them running through the airport with it. No idea they were Sloan fans. They have been my favorite band for about a decade now. They're primarily considered the "Canadian Beatles" but their sound is so much more than that. The height of their career was really in the mid-to-late 90s, but as a huge Sloan fan they still have awesome albums after that and shouldn't be written of...

Today I was teaching Brian to use my SLR. We had it on full auto really, but he's getting the hang of it. We both had the day off today and wandered around as it was 80 degrees yet again! After today, I kind of love this dress. I think it must have been an old, 70s bridesmaid's dress at one point. It used to be a maxi dress but I hemmed it to a mini because the maxi just looked outdated on it. See the transformation I did last summer here . Much more sassy short, right? It's also my favorite fabric - polyester! (No, seriously!) There are all these flowering trees all over our neighborhood and I liked the gentle, subdued contrast of them compared to the dress. Still breaking in my Franco Sarto platform shoes. I did end up wearing some shorts underneath this dress. It was quite windy and I didn't want to take any chances! Not sure what I'm laughing about here, but you can really see my thread-art earrings I bought at a li...

Just in time for the weekend! Here is an excerpt from the Complete Encyclopedia of Crafts from the 70s with a how-to on pop-up cards. Feel free to test your own designs out, using these as a template. I might attempt a rainbow/psychedelic-ish one in the coming weeks.

So Tuesday was PERFECT weather-wise! (But not as awesome as Wednesday). Perhaps I was pushing it by walking around in a sleeveless dress a bit, but I had a jacket with me so I was fine.  Me and Brian went to the Bongo Room for brunch, then wandered around downtown so I could pick up a roll of Holga photos I had developed at Central Camera.  Of course, I find colorful settings for photos to be taken of me - I love the colorful boardwalks we found within a (dead) garden near Grant Park. Nice contrast with the stripes of the dress too. These are actually Brian's cell phone camera photos since the battery on my point and shoot was still dead (ugh!) but they still have a nice effect to them. I amped them up a bit in Photoshop.    I love the orange and yellow trees by Lakeshore Drive. I had photos taken here with my friend Jane in Fall 2010. (Funny, that photo Jane took I am also wearing something I made, just li...

It's 81 degrees today in Chicago. I don't know how that makes me feel about how warm it will be this summer as it's only March and we usually see a day like this starting in May, but I guess I'll take it and not complain. This made it slightly difficult to select an outfit since I have so many amazing polyester dresses from the 60s/70s but I decided to play it safe and wear a polyester short sleeve and my favorite orange skirt. I've had this skirt for probably more than 2 years now and it's held up beautifully. I'm meeting my aunt who is in from Connecticut at an Italian place downtown later. Should be nice to see her, especially in my city!  I'm also excited that I get to wear these platform wedges I found at Famous Footwear back in January. They were super on-sale and I always need new shoes as I destroy pairs in about 3 months. Didn't think I would be able to wear them this early on though!  Back of the shirt. I have a mustard-col...

After a long hiatus, I am back!  Now that the weather is nicer I have been taking more adventures and taking lots more photos.  (Arthur is still kicking, by the way. Brian always jokes that he's "the only cat that's ever learned to live with cancer". But he's not pretty anymore and sort of smelly. He's still in quite active condition and having fun though.) Last Thursday, Brian decided we should go tour the Frank Lloyd Wright house and studio in Oak Park. For those of you just being introduced to Frank Lloyd Wright, he was an American architect who also did interior design as well as a lot of the stained glass work you see inside his houses and buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright designed around 400 structures including his most famous, Fallingwater which I have seen on a television program some years ago. Wright is known for incorporating organic elements in his architecture such as a waterfall and live trees growing through houses, such as the one w...