Dirt Chic

Everything Else: A Weekly Dispatch

I've been lax about writing about anything but clothes, because it's fast and EZ.  I haven't been lax in other stuff.  Stuff.

So I bring you a week in pics.

If you look closely, you will see my favorite street performer, with his trusty Casio.  I prefer his instrumentals, though he has an enjoyable voice as well.  I first encountered him playing The Washington Post March.  This is on my drive home from RMU.  (Also, note OSC.)

I don't have time to cook, but I read cookbooks sometimes, before I go to bed.  This one is vintage.  As if you couldn't tell.  Please note the first sentence.  Maybe instead of going back to cooking, I will take up jade-carving.

Pickled things at Schnuck's.  Shnucks?  Shucks.  Can't remember how to spell it.

I wanted to get this at a book sale.  I might get it, still.  I love these kinds of books.  I don't know who James Kirkwood is, and maybe I should.  I can't resist insider tales of times gone by.  Or mad playwrights.

Playwrights write plays with cast lists like this.  I want to be these three roles.  At once.  Stat.  (Dr. Faustus)

A choice mod wall-art panel at an antique store, too expensive.  But what a dame.

Yes.  (Creative Writing textbook)

In beauty news, Mary gave me this Barbie.  I was and am very pleased, though I'm not a big Barbie person.

I read this and questioned my essential self: "do you have beauty action arms?"

She powdered her legs.  This is from the 80's.  ?!?!  Did she pay special attention to her knees?!?!

Unrelated to anything, Pa Ingalls looks like my dad did about 20 years ago.  Just sayin'.  (On the Banks of Plum Creek)

My sunglasses broke.  I glued them.  They broke again.  I glued them again, and stuck the Krazy Glue in my purse.  However, I tried on my vintage frames again, in the daylight, to see if I could pull it off.  I'm thinking not.

I love my sunglasses.  And I love clothes.  I just do.  And I got dressed today.  In this $8 beaded sweater I picked up at SalArmy the other day, on a quick trip to grab a prize for my friend Jen, because she is glitter-tastic and awesome.  (I thought she should have a DC shout-out as well. :)  I saw this sweater sticking out of the rack.  I'm sort of not super-into sweaters.  I didn't even try it on.

I don't always need to try it on.  

Sometimes, a lot of times, I can just grab stuff off the rack and go.  Take it and run with it.  

Let this be my big, wise, metaphor for life.

But I did pay for it first.  Whatever that means. ;)

What Not to Wear: Dressing Room Losers

Just in case you think everything I touch turns to thrifted gold:

Nope.  Just my shoes. :)

(lol)

Getting Dressed: The Sun Does Come up On Mondays

I don't understand how this outfit happened.  But it did.  It's like pure Vitamin C.  Or, since it's got sun-buttons, and I'm a sucker for theme, VITAMIN D.  ;)

I wore this jacket ($6) last January.  Perhaps you remember.  I had to go out and buy orange lipstick in it.  I remember it was snowing.  Haven't worn this shirt in ages, because it is short.  It's one of my favorite vintage purchases, ever - matte jersey colorblocks.  $18 when I was 18, and well worth it.

(Would you like to buy a watch?  ...Except I don't have any.  I haven't worn a watch... since I was 18. :)

And here is me looking a little crazed.  But in a good way.  Happy Monday.

Getting Dressed: Grapetastic.

It's COOOOOOOOOOOLD outside, and I am not used to it yet!  And it's Friday, and I don't wear jeans!  And my newer pair of favorite boots' soles have disintegrated, and I needed comfort!  So this is what happened: polka-dot casual dress, old boots - and because I needed a shot of color, my purple velvet jacket.

It's a close relative of my pink velvet coat.  This one is actually softer, though.  And a bit more comfy.  I'm extremely fond of it.  I feel like Willy Wonka.  (But only in a very cursory way.)

Can you guess who bought me this coat?!?!  You got it!  My dear mother.  We were antiquing in Manteno, and I we came across it, and I died of bliss. 

People have been asking me more, lately, where I get my clothes.  I largely get them at thrift stores, but some of my choicest finds are from antique stores/malls.  Sometimes there are whole booths with vintage clothes, and sometimes a booth only has one thing - like this coat.  Prices vary, wildly.  You can almost always talk a seller down.  But always, always - keep your eyes peeled, for texture, color, anything that might make you look closer.

Because you could end up with a purple mod velvet coat, in perfect shape, for $15.  (Also, take your mom with you. ;)

Getting Dressed: Sweatered Secretary

Today was another day that taught me that when teaching, it's a bad idea to wear a sweater garment that I can't actually take off.  Like yesterday's brass-buttoned sweater - it wasn't a layer.  And the temp in my classroom majorly fluctuates.  DISCOMFORT.

And yet, this dress is so, so comfy!  All sweater!  The soft kind!

I kind of normally hate black-red-white-grey combos, but this is one of few exceptions.  It's so graphic, and proportionate, that I think it works.  I love the bubble skirt.  I love bubble skirts.  When they are truly vintage. :)

Dress: $6.  Belt: $2.

Getting Dressed: 80's Military

This weather (cold, rainy windy, generally gross) calls for sartorial reinforcement.

I need a) warmth b) protection c) comfort d) the color black.  But not too much.

Hence, green-and-blue double-breasted sweater (do you, like me, find the phrase "double-breasted" to be something that drives you straight back into grade school in terms of maturity level?  I want to say "heh heh" whenever I type it), $6.  Hence, black denim skirt and newer favorite boots, free and $90.  Hence, leather jacket, $7.

In other news, I need a haircut.

Getting Dressed: Silver Circles

Gotta get going.  But I'm dressed, and not at the last minute!

Silk French Connection shirt: $16 (new w/tags, at antique mall of all places).  Orange jacket: $15.  Mod shoes: $3.  Silver ring: $4.

Getting Dressed: The Right Kind of Schoolmarm

This dress is very structured and covers a lot and what it doesn't, my tights cover and what they don't, my coat covers and the rest, such as my face and hands - well, it is only fall, not icy-evil-blasted thick-of-winter, so I don't mind if they are showing.  (I don't have any ski masks, anyway.)

Mary found this dress at SalArmy and I tried it on and it was mine.  Because my mom bought it for me. :)  It was under $10, no doubt.  (I've had too much caffeine and I feel like I sound like a very bad ripoff of Hemingway, perhaps.)

I love dresses with pockets.  Love.  And I love older vintage that is still highly wearable.  This is probably from the 40's, but I suppose it could be from the 60's.  The faux-jet beading detail on the satin collar-tie throws me off.  And the metal zipper on the back and side.  But it feels more poly than that cool-to-the-touch rayon from the 40's.  I probably don't know what I'm talking about at all.  (It's the caffeine talking.)

Note: majestic beaded bracelet.  I've had it for years,have never worn it, but have never been able to part with it.  It's hard to find stuff to wear it with.  Rainbow items are like that.  I usually have to wear them with black.  ($?) (no more than $5) (I think) ($:0)

And the pink tights and shoes made another appearance ($6, $4), and the pink velvet coat ($7).  If I haven't told this story already, let it be known that my dearest Anne tipped me off to this coat while we were sitting in class at CCU, back in the day.  She had seen it at the DAV and I promptly went there after class (who knows, I might've even skipped my next class.  Sheesh).  Love it.  It is truly an Anne coat.  :)  (Good thing I'm an Anne, too...)

Lounging Like Whoa

I don't know.  I just had to share this.  Do you ever have weeks where you wish someone would descend upon your life and give you the option of curling up on a hotel bed?  Does that sound HORRIBLY RISQUE?!?!  Wasn't meant to.  :)

A hotel bed, even if you are stuck watching CSI - the one about sex crimes where you didn't know it was solely about sex crimes - while your sister reads Twilight and thus invests in emotional porn?!?!

I accept.  Novelty should not be undermined.  Ever.

By the way - Getting Dressed is getting a run for its "money" in the delicious Junebug (thanks for the awesome pic, Abi :).

Getting Dressed: Happy as a Clamdigger

It is my Friday night, since we have "fall break" at one school and never any classes on Friday, the other.  So what am I going to do?  Go buy coffee and detergent, since I got some coupons (I don't use coupons unless they are for things I normally buy...).  This pleases me to no end.  And then, I'm going to read and read and read s'more, because it's my job and this is a good thing.  And then, I'm going to finish my screenplay.  I AM.  Mark my words.

I'm wearing my favorite Old Navy utility pants - thanks Mom! - that were $30 many years ago.  I really, really love cropped/rolled black pants (amongst other varieties of blank pants).  I miss them.  I don't have a lot that are good for rolling (which I prefer more than cropping, actually).  I'm also wearing one of my favorite 80's shirts.  The sleeves are long, but there are loops and buttons to hold them up, exactly like my pants.  Shirt: $3.  Last but not least, my neon-pink never-worn microfiber Keds.  $3.75 at SalArmy.  THANKS MOM!!!!!  They make me so freaking happy.  Never thought, after 5th grade, that I would wear Keds again. :)