Friday, October 26, 2012

princess for a day

I'd love for this to be about some beautiful dress that I just sewed up for Halloween. I'd love to show pictures of me waltzing around in some yellow confection of a Belle dress (she's my favorite!).

But...school...and paper...and studying...

So instead, I have a pile of ideas, yet-to-be used ideas that require oh-so-much loverly sewing. One of the ones I really like is Disney princesses in a different era. Say, Belle in the 1950s.


I love the 1950s silhouette with the tiny waists and big full skirts...and that's essentially Belle's dress. The eighties ball gown silhouette strangely has a decent amount in common with the fifties. Who woulda thunk.

The crucial bits to being recognizeable are A. that it's yellow and B. that it includes something slightly off the shoulder. For inspiration, though you can pick any dress with a portrait-style neckline and some nice little frills and furbelows. This one is one of my favorite dresses and one of my main historic Belle inspirations!


This is an example of how you could take the simple fifties dress and add an overskirt to make a slightly more decadent skirt à la Belle's (very eighties) ball gown. 


This is much more late 1940s, but still Dior New Look. It would be perfect for a lovely post-war Belle!


And who saw this 1860s-style pattern without instantaneously thinking about Belle? Big, full skirts with the right lines...I may not be up to such an involved project, but how amazing would it be to make something so completely period and so completely princess! 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

college food: nutella brownies

Can you really improve on the ease and tastiness of microwave brownies?


Yes, yes you can.

This, my friends is a Nutella brownie, made using that magical invention in my dorm room, the microwave. My roommates and I finally got some vanilla yogurt, so we were able to try the brownies out the way that they were intended. And then, because warm brownies aren't enough for us, we added dollops of Nutella that started out sitting pretty on top of the brownie mix but settled to the bottom while they were being nuked.

And oh my gosh, this was amazing. Warm, brownie, Nutella-y goodness. The only thing that would have made this even better is if it had been single serving so I could have eaten all of it in its most fudgey, immediately out of the microwave goodness.




Microwave Nutella Brownies

serves 4-6, all dependent on how much brownie each person wants

4 tbs microwave brownie mix
8 tbs vanilla yogurt
3 tbs Nutella


Combine the brownie mix and yogurt in a microwave safe bowl. Stir until well-mixed. Drop spoonfuls of Nutella on top until you're happy with all the amount of chocolate hazelnut goodness.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes. As a sidenote, if you wait for the to cool, like any smart cook will tell you, you can actually cut them. Or just use a spoon. Enjoy!

Friday, October 5, 2012

fo: getting better all the time sweater

I may or may not have finished this sweater back in mid-August. I know, I am a shameful person fully deserving of whatever degradation the internet decides to shove at me. But in good news, I figured out how to work the self-timer on camera...sort of.

headless Lisa!

Pattern: self-designed

Yarn: Yarn Bee Andes Alpaca 70/30, in Peacock...I think. 

Raveled here.

I based this off a sweater I saw in a Delia's catalog maybe four years ago that I loved. Which probably means that this is not at all fashionable anymore, but it's comfy and warm and cable-y. I love it very, very much. 

What is that lovely thing outside of my dorm window? 

I think it may be a bad thing that I already wore this sweater in complete seriousness because I was cold. It's October, folks. I'm going to freeze to death this winter while my friend from Wisconsin laughs at my internal Texas thermostat. 

In other news, welcome to my dorm room! As long as I stick to the side with the window, you guys will never have to see how messy it can get. It's a fun, messy room. My floor is substance free, so we're not supposed to be drinking on the floor. We can, however, stay up til two in the morning talking over food, something which my room has a lot of. Normally on any given weekend you can find six or seven people hanging out in my supposed-to-be triple because we're the completely sober party room!

Until next time, happy weekend you guys! I'll be studying and staying up late with my floor buddies.

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