Dirt Chic

Dens and Living Rooms and Bedrooms of Vice

This picture of Frank Zappa and his parents from an awesome link reminded me of my great love of vintage decorating.  I have quite a few vintage decorating books.  I look at them... when I need comfort.  And why not?  Other people's nice houses are fun to visit.  I like my apartment, but I like to imagine staying in other places.  It's like going to a bed and breakfast... in my mind.  

It's a nice vice.

Such things are comforting.  Comfort is definitely my vice.  I was looking through a lot of scans I made from these books, and I noted the MOST comforting rooms are the ones that might have a lot going on with them, aesthetics-wise, but not a lot of, well, media.  I'm kind of oversaturated with that in my own life and I need a mental break in my little bed and breakfast land.

Apparently, I also need padded walls. ;)  I am CRAVING walls with drapery.

And shag carpet.  Why is shag carpet so comforting?!?!

But you know what is #1 in comfort?  Period?  Fireplaces.  #2: warm lighting.  #3: squishy couches.

(This picture above is what I thought of after seeing the Zappa one.  Purple is underrated.)

#4: the 80's.  I'm a product of my childhood.  I'm also deeply in love with Joan Wilder's apartment in Romancing the Stone, and the above and below pics remind me of it.

But I'm also quietly obsessed with a hippie-esque aesthetic.  This is a new thing for me.

Anyway.  I think I'll watch Moonstruck now.  Italian food and families and Cher also comfort me.

Tricks and Rocks

I promise I do more than just get dressed. ;)  Though I do so enjoy getting dressed.  I started teaching at an additional school this week, and seriously, by day two, I even felt like taking a break from Dirt Chic, like even it was too much.  It's no bother to show you what I wear.  But I was so overwhelmed I just wanted to crawl under a rock somewhere.  It's better today.  

It helps that I am doing things, once again, to remind me that I am a human being.  I've undertaken a new "trick" that gets the house straightened up and me out from under at least some pressure: I set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes and put away stuff as fast as I can.  I usually finish before 20 minutes is up.

I like my house.

I just wanna be in it.  Can't do that if it's a pigsty.

Oh, and Aldi succulence:

Couldn't help it.  I like small things.  I like houseplants.

Anyway.  Moving onward. :)  Have to finish my screenplay, write my biography, teach, GET DRESSED....

Getting Dressed is Only Half the Fun... or 1/4 the Fun...

There is a secret, unsung aspect of getting dressed that is extremely important.  It's how you organize your clothes.  Or, should I say, it's how I organize my clothes, because I don't actually think that often on how other people organize their clothes.  Like, in closets or something?  Dressers?  Piles on the floor, things picked from a dirty hamper? ;)

The main thing, I think, is knowing what you have, and being able to get to it.  The next main thing is that it all is grouped in ways that make life easier - as in, getting dressed easier.  The other main thing is that it makes you happy.  Because.  Getting dressed should be about being happy.  Not rageful.  Save that for technology, other motorists, stubbed toes, etc.

I don't find it sufficient, anymore, to have my clothes contained in a small space - did you know this?  Does this surprise you?  As my wardrobe has grown (through ridiculous amounts of thrifting) I've had to find things to accommodate it usefully, all the while having to morph where things go and how.  (I also use re-organizing situations to filter/purge through stuff.  I'd say I do this twice a year.)  

So.  Some dressing-room tips.  To start: shelves.  Why?  Dressers, at least big ones, are kind of a pain, to me, in terms of keeping daily-wear stuff in them.  You can't see them.  The drawers are often shallow.  It keeps clothes contained, not aired out.  And, shelves are cheaper, easier to lug around, and assemble/disassemble.  I get them at thrift stores - or if worse comes to worse, I buy them new, but only those stackable particleboard ones, because they can be used in a multiplicity of places and are very... what's the word, modular?

This shelf contains, from top to bottom:
Cardigans/sweaters (had a cabinet organizer "shelf" that I used to kind of bolster the cards) 
Casual & knit shirts/t-shirts
80's cotton-blend blouses/skirts
Black pants/black skirts (and shoved behind, for now - sundresses)
(Shelf: $6 at thrift store) 

I do like to categorize things.  It's just a good idea for me.  I suppose I could separate by outfits but I feel like that would take up more space.  More shelvage:

I had the plastic crates, which come moving time, always transport records, but in my last apartment, I made them modular as well, stacking them into a shelf and holding all the shirts shown in the last pic.  On this shelf:
Sweatshirts/Jackets
Boots
"Red" shoes (pink, brown, red) 
Black shoes
A drawer of casual flats and flip-flops
On the hooks: hoodies, robe, favorite black dress, shawls
(Shelf thing: free from my mom)

If you are short on actual closet space - closet space with a rod to hold hangers - garment racks are the way to go.  So are those hanging garment racks that make an existing rod do double-duty for pants and blouses, but I don't have one of those.  I'm sure you could use one on a garment rack, as well, if the rack can bear the weight.  My garment rack has proved time and again that it can only bear so much.  I try to be considerate of its moderate intolerance for sartorial burden.  Because if I don't - well, see aforementioned rage. 

This rack adjusts much higher, but I have 80's blouses and a few dressy jackets on it, so there's no need.  It also holds my big floppy black hats.  I wheel it around to get to my other clothes - not a perfect solution, but it's very colorful and sequin-y and this is its own happiness.
(Garment rack - once again, free from my mom, bless her)

My apartment has incredibly small closets, and only two of them - not counting the, uh, giant walk-in closet in the back than functions as a kind of catch-all for all kinds of house stuff.  I don't really mind - the alternative is probably those closets that take up a whole wall, and while that's handy (and I enjoyed it when I had it) it is not often as pleasing to the eye.

My wardrobe is more interesting, I feel.  Though in need of some refinishing, I suppose.  (I won't bother.)   

It holds my blazers, and non-formal dresses, which go from winter knits to long-sleeve silks and rayon blends to short sleeves/nice-weather-wear to the strappy and strapless stuff.  I also have stuck some unsightly bits of nonesuch in the large space beneath them - truly seasonal things, mostly, like thick socks.
(Wardrobe, $50 at SalArmy) 

I have one closet.  It is meek and mild.  

Not.  Tucked away in the back are my winter coats, which come wintertime, will all mostly be draped over a chair by the front door.  Next to them are my wacky jackets - blue fur and feathers.  Next to them are my formals.  Underneath are hidden more random bits of things I don't want to think about. (I don't have much by way of that, but what I do have, I don't want to look at - like crappy work shoes and workout shoes and whatever.)  Above is another crate - filled with my fur-trimmed cardigans and fur collars.  This closet is not meek and mild at all.  It's just little.

I believe in using whatever works and is interesting to store things.  I also believe in making use of surfaces.

I have had this blue vinyl suitcase forever, and it is kind of inconvenient for travel, so I store all my soft-side purses in it (LeSportsac!  Lesportsac!!!!!).  Next to it are Samsonites that I use regularly.  And a lovely satin hanger just for fun/picture-taking, and a beautiful pair of shoes that are falling apart but are so inspiring I must keep them around.

I do have a lot of shoes.  And I just got rid of some.  I don't love keeping some of them in crates, but I try to be gentle with them (they get dented and squished and la di da).  It took me awhile to figure out this obvious solution, but I just got cheap-o shoe racks and put them over both sides of the door, since I don't need to close it.

They house my clear, gold, silver, blue, green, and low-heeled black shoes.  The sleeves can do double-duty sometimes, holding more than one shoe, depending on the shoe.
(Shoe sleeve/racks: $10 each)

Surfaces are not just, like, tops of furniture.  

Going along with the door usage, I used a rack as a solution for my black dress pants and skirts (and one crazy huge colorful skirt and I confess, a pair of 80's purple slacks).  It's not my favorite, because I have to peel multiple pairs of pants off to get to a bottom pair.  But it works well enough, for now.
(Rack, another mom-freebie!!!)

We're getting close to the end, I promise.  Free-standing furniture is handy - especially when it has wheels, like the garment rack.  Even the wardrobe has wheels.  My little red metal chest of drawers has been making me happy since guess who bought it for me at IKEA?

On top rests another chest of drawers, which holds cheap-o but plentiful plastic bracelets, 80's jewelry, lipgloss, and lipstick.  Next to it is my stretchy bracelet tray, and on top of that, my box of pins/brooches.  In the red guy, by drawer:
Black socks (another picky thing of mine - don't have white, don't need them, don't want them)
Tights of many, many colors, and two pairs of elbow-length gloves
Long scarves that are pointless to fold
Scarves, long and square and irregular, that are easy to fold
Colorful belts
Black belts (ha) and gold "snake" belts
(Answer: my dear mudder)

Finally, there is my vanity.  Centerpiece of the dressing experience.  Why?  Because it makes me stop and consider.  And despite my best intentions to create stunning portraits of my daily get-ups, it is the site of most of my clothes-photography.  I sit here, and put on makeup, and put on perfume, and select jewelry, and sometimes - I just sit here, and think, and maybe even talk to myself a little bit, and remember that for all my pursuits, lofty or otherwise, putting on clothes and makeup and perfume and jewelry and feathers and sequins are a few of the many wonderful things about being a human, and I shouldn't forget enjoy the process of acting like one. ;) 

In/on vanity:
Underwears
Nightgowns and PJ's
Perfume
Random cosmetics
Small bags for travel (mostly mini LeSportsacs, what can I say)
Make-upmake-upmake-upjewelsjewelsjewelsTHE END 

TTI: Boudoir Opulence.

I was in a terrible mood the other day.  I need to start doing something more constructive when in terrible moods, besides heading to the thrift store.

Oh well.  These improved it:

 
Vintage is so great.  The textures.  The colors.  The artifact-ness of it all.  I feel like I'm taking home cultural texts.

 
Mmmm.  Texture.

 
And more texture.  And color.  

79 cents each at SalArmy - 15 total.  (Goofy cashier lady informed me she couldn't sell me three of them because there wasn't a sticker on them.  Duh.  So I went back and pulled the stickers off whatever they were stuck to.  Including my hair.)

I admittedly don't know what to do with them, though.  Maybe when I have enough closet space to hang up my nightgowns.  I thought about putting my formals on them, but I need some hangers with hooks.

For now, they are in an appropriate place - my heavily pink office.  Just let me say, it was wonderful, carrying a huge armload of pink yellow red velvet and satin hangers around the house... it was like I was hugging them... maybe I should go do that some more....

In My Room

I was feeling kind of meh the other day, and decided I needed a change of scenery.

So I moved my Base of Operations from the living room into my "office".  (Sorta.  Most of my ongoing project stuff is still in the living room.  But it's not like it's hard to get to.)

It was either that, or re-arrange something, and I have no desire to re-arrange anything.  Everything is well arranged. 

I think perhaps, that it was just Fall coming on, and I needed some brightness.  And where else to find it?

 

It is always bright in here.  Even at night.

And of course, it is ever more so in the day.  (It looks like heaven is perhaps outside my window.  Perhaps indeed.)

I tend to avoid my desk.  It just draws attention to my laziness.  I prefer to be reclining in some form.  Hence, projects surrounding couch.  Hence, bedroll as true Base of Operations.

It is comforting.  Biff on one side, all this business on the other.  My rummage sale animals.  My ribbon quilt.  My Harper's Bazaar's.  My slightly-risque Harvey Milk concert poster.  (But hey.  It's Harvey Milk.  All is well.)

I have a potentially harrowing rewrite to accomplish this weekend, and I need all the richness I can get, wherever I can get it, because my creative mind feels pretty thin regarding this project.

And I need to get it done.  Just 'cuz.  And, because I am wanting to jump back into the novel.

I have this open for inspiration.

It is predominantly Avon stuff.  Makes sense.

I am not precisely collecting anything - but I have picked up these little sample cases.  They are most beloved Research.

Sadly, most of the little lipsticks are detached from their bases, due to being stored upside-down.  I'm hoping to right this.  (Ha ha, pun intended.)  But here is Clear Red (?how is red ever clear?), which has clearly been sampled.  (Resting comfortably on my finally-transcribed novel how-to notes.)

I don't really need to collect anything, as long as I have Media.  AKA catalogs.  This is my Way of avoiding buying my old childhood toys, too.  Just buy the Sears Wish Book, and all is well.

I'm ready to get at it.  I think.  Perhaps after I go and groom.

Frugal vs. Luxury: Who Wins?

Ok, this is potentially an ironic post, but whatever.  (I don't know if I ever will completely grasp the concept of irony, much like Alanis Morrissette.)

So I went to K-Mart today.  If you know me well, you know I don't do Wal-Mart.  I just don't.  This means that I usually hold out for Target.  But, some days I just want to pop over to somewhere close, and that leaves me with few choices.  So sometimes, that means K-Mart.

I have a love-hate relationship with K-Mart.  I have fabulous memories of going there and buying Muppet Babies Colorforms and rhinestone tennis bracelets and begging my dad to get me Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth perfume (which I recall as smelling quite good - though my memory might fail me; I just smelled Exclamation "perfume" recently and it is odious).  It is just kind of expensive, and the selection isn't that great.

But.

But.

They have Hershey's and York-scented candles.  For $9.99 each.  This seemed hideous to me, when I first encountered them a year ago.  (No, they have never gone on sale.)  But, a Yankee Candle of the same size is 1 million dollars.  Ok, $25.  That's a lot.  

So I went nuts today.  I bought them.  I also bought a Color Juice for FULL PRICE (K-Mart is the only place I've found that still carries the whole range, though they are probably all, like, 3+ years old), and some Coty Airspun powder (not to use, ew, but as research and inspiration - I'm not kidding - for my novel, which I will resume in October), and this:

I was out of bubble bath, so it made sense.  But CHERRY COTTON CANDY bubble bath?  Shoot me.  (That child is too excited.  I don't look like that when I bathe.  ...Except that I probably do.  But even more so.)

I think I may have been converted to K-Martdom today.  It didn't hurt that my cashier went nuts over the candles.  She was almost like the SNL Target lady.

Anyway.  To answer my own question: sometimes luxury wins out over frugal.  It pretty much always does, when it comes to candles.  I am extremely fond of candles with scents that I like.  I must light one when writing.  I am also extremely fond of baths.  And lip gloss.  And writing.  Maybe these are all luxuries to some.  But they are... well... necessity around here.  

At least I didn't buy new pants at Old Navy yesterday.  So there's that.  :)

I Get Older, I Get Closer to the City...

I didn't get very far into Chicago (the band, on vinyl).  I will later.  It made me think of this:

Yeah, this was when I was 23.  I feel like I look older here.  I feel like I was older here.  (This is not a good thing, or a bad thing.) (Check out The Uptown.  And, in frugal news, I was just wearing this scarf yesterday.)

I love Springfield.  I loved walking for a long, long time in Washington Park, tonight, looking at the houses/structures, working on my loooong monologue, trying to get off-book in order to not look like a lame jerk tomorrow, when we do dress rehearsal.  It was muggy, and dark, but I was still wearing my sunglasses, and talking to myself.  Good thing I didn't look like a bag lady today.  :)

But I do miss the city, a city, most any good city - it will be easier for me to get to St. Louis at this point, than Chicago.  By the time I get to Chicago again, I will be craving it so bad that I might even forget about how much I hate driving through it, most of the time.

I don't think I will be able to live, permanently, far from a city.  I hope Chicago becomes a place where I can spend more time, when I'm older.  (Or when I just look older.  Oh wait - I already did that, when I was 23... ;)

Apartment Before & After: Bedroom

The bedroom, in this apartment, is not very decorated.  But, it's better than this:

 

As well as this hideous mess that was the room in-progress:

Now:

 

 

Due to the small closets, my clothes are in 2 different rooms.  Ah well.  Maybe I will find a solution for it later.  It's only annoying when I have to put stuff away.

Apartment Before & After: My Office

AKA Writing Room. :)

Finally, I get to put up my pink curtains.  And I didn't have to go very far to find "tie-backs":

I couldn't get that many Before pics of this room, either:

But that's ok.  I don't even think the previous tenant used this room.  I do.

 

It's less messy than it looks, believe it or not:

And also FINALLY get to put things up on the wall instead of prop them:

 

More or less like I've had it at my last few places. :)

Up Next: Bedroom.

Apartment Before & After: Dining Room

Ew:

 

Rad:

Clutter:

Woodworking majesty:

Lame lamp:

Peter, Paul & Mary:

Side view:

Next: My Office.