Cyber Monday

Check out my etsy shops for cyber monday discounts of up to 20% off

www.burnedinthebrain.etsy.com

www.studioviivintage.etsy.com


For NomadicNester readers only enter coupon code NOMADIC for an extra 10% off

Vintage Visions 5: Rita Hayworth singing

Rita Hayworth

So completely gorgeous!

This is what people mean when they say somthing is achingly beautiful.

Wanderlust Wardrobe

Loving this gorgeous red dress from Urban Outfitters

Enjoy



Friday Faves and Raves

I am a total So You Think You Can Dance fan.

This is one of my favorite dances

Danced by Jason and Jeanine, a Travis Wall contemporary dance

Enjoy

Well Thumbed Wednesday

My Grandma's copy of

Sewing Made Easy 1960-ish

This book sat on my shelf for the longest time never being looked at.  I had professional books on couture and construction and pattern making and fitting and tailoring and draping, and so on and so on.  I naively thought there was nothing in this book  but how to sew curtains and maybe a house dress.

When i finally got around to looking at it I found out that nearly every topic mentioned above was all within the covers of this one book.  And i had spent all that money buying "professional" books. Silly Kat.

Not only does it have chapters on pattern, construction, tailoring, a dictionary of stitches, fabrics, cutting, altering (patterns and pre-made clothes),

but it had fun stuff like building a wardrobe, which includes notes on what kinds of clothes you need and for what occasion; how a dress can be modified to go from day to night, the kind of shoes a woman should have in her closet, how to be your own stylist, and fun projects like the make your own turban pictured below.

It's really interesting to get an intimate view into the mind of a stylish woman from the 1960s, and maybe not that surprisingly, she is not so different from women today, nor is the advise that is given to her. 

One of my favorite bits is the introduction to the chapter on building a wardrobe

"The budget-minded woman plans her wardrobe for maximum flexibility: she buys accessories that can be worn with several outfits; she learns the secret of changing the appearance of a basic dress; she chooses her clothes with an eye to the type of life she leads.  But, if she must buy all her clothes, she must still limit her wardrobe to what she can afford.

"The woman who sews knows no such limitation.  Her wardrobe can be far more complete, for she makes her clothes for less.  With the money she saves by doing so she can buy the expensive accessories that other women must pass by."

Ain't that the truth ;) 



Vintage Visions: 4

Romy Schneider

in

Good Neighbor Sam

Gorgeous Romy Schneider, dressed in bright jewel tones, in monochromatic outfits in this movie.  Her character is very fiery and energetic.

I particularly love the red :)

cha-cha-cha

"I know why you want me back"

We're in the money

On another note, Jack Lemmon is my favorite actor, and I love the way he dances.

Enjoy!



Nest: 2

Cool retreat

http://www.designsponge.com/2011/04/sneak-peek-lynne-testoni.html/8_lynne



Wanderlust Wardrobe

Romantic Summer

Angela R from Madrid

Victory Garden

I love gardens, though the things i plant usually have to be pretty self sustaining 'cause i have kind of a black thumb (i always manage to kill my rosemary within days of planting it).

Despite this, i am planning on starting a garden :-)

Vintage Victory Garden posters

I do have a few herbs and some tomatoes started and i'll post those pics later. 

But i am reading and watching as many youtube videos as i can trying to make sure that as this garden grows it keeps growing all season.

Vintage Visions: 3.2

So many of you looked at the white silk dress in the Gigi post

that I thought i would post a video here so that you could see it in motion too.

Even more beautiful in person, right?

Enjoy!

July 4, 2011

Happy Independence Day!



Friday Faves and Raves

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

This friday's faves and raves is a little clip from a rather unknown movie with

Ginger Rogers, who had the talent to be elegant and tomboyish, beautiful and funny, intelligent and wise cracking.

Enjoy! And have a great weekend!



Wanderlust Wardrobe

Citrus Cool



Friday Faves and Raves

A video that never stops being funny.

it's a club at Columbia University that organizes pranks all over campus.

This is by far their best

Enjoy! And have a great weekend!

Slán go fóill!

 

Friday Faves and Raves

The greatest television show EVER

Firefly is the best television show ever (i know i said that above, but i felt it needed to be repeated),

it has the best cast, the best characters, the best/funniest script,

it is a rare jewel of a television show.

I won't go into Fox broadcast company and all of that 'cause otherwise this is likely to turn into a rant rather than a rave. 

 However, i do greatly miss this show, and often while i'm working i listen to the episodes on my zune, causing me to frequently laugh out loud seemingly out of nowhere, which gets strange looks from anyone around me, but it doesn't bother me, it's Firefly!



my favorite shot in the whole series



the kick ass cast

A montage of 35 of the "greatest lines from Firefly" (though it is missing some of my favorites :)

by Jordacar

And a show not only beloved by its very passionate fans but by the cast as well

Five years after the show was off the air, Nathan Fillion opened the halloween episode of Castle dressed as Mal!  It was the first time in my life that i was screaming and clapping like a girl, because i was so excited to see Mal again!  And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

The following are clips of Firefly references:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5hZg2I5M4I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDlrGFfBHCA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPmqTjMPtbY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9iAuw8ZCE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDw9YQ9o6zw&feature=related

See what i mean?  Once you watch Firefly it gets in the blood,

"she'll be with you for the rest of your life."

Slán go fóill!

Vintage Visions: 3

Gigi

This past Sunday TCM ran the movie Gigi,
while it has a couple songs i just don't like, it is a beautiful film, filled with beautiful gowns.  My favorite of which is the white silk gown with black feathers and crescent moon hair pin worn by the
beautiful Leslie Caron

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful in your life?

my vintage copy of Gigi, 1958

Slán go fóill!

Itchy feet: 3

Spain

I traveled to Spain one spring when i was seventeen and immediately fell in love, with the architecture, the gardens, the atmosphere, and especially the people.  I absolutely have to go again!

A favorite part of the trip was visiting some of the most beautiful gardens in the world, unfortunately this was the time of film and I've lost several rolls of film from that trip.  Unbelievable!
So i want to thank all the photographers who take pics of these beautiful gardens, and let me share them with you here.  Enjoy!


Real Alcazar Gardens

Alhambra Palace

Spain is by far the most beautiful place i have ever been to, as well as one of the friendliest.  My spanish is rudimentary, but the people in Spain are so friendly and helpful (just beware the ones that seem too helpful, or the ones carrying maps over their arms on the metros, i nearly had my pocket picked, or the Gypsy's handing out springs of rosemary - they present it to you like a gift, but once you take it they demand a very large payment in return and you can't get them to take it back if you don't pay, you just have to pay). 
But don't let any of that put you off,
these occurrences are rare and the people of Spain are simply amazing,
 it is just important to exercise caution where ever you go.
Spain is a place not to be missed by any traveller.
And in my completely biased opinion, Barcelona is the greatest city in the world.

Slán go fóill!

All original work is protected by intellectual property laws. No copyright infringement is intended, images are used soley for entertainment purposes

Friday Faves and Raves

Ohio boys, The Black Keys and their video for their song Tighten Up

Very Funny!



Slán go fóill!

The Hobbit

I have wanted to go to New Zealand for the last 15 years, so i was a little miffed when the Lord of the Rings movies sent hoards of fans there in the wake of the movie releases.

It's selfish, but i liked it when i told people i wanted to go to New Zealand,

and most of them just looked at me with a vacant expression

and asked "why?"

I never get the question any more.

I was planning on going again, thinking things had calmed down enough and there was enough distance from the movies releases to give me a look at New Zealand that i wanted to experience.  So, of course, things went in motion to make The Hobbit into a movie.  URG!

But, of course, i did become a fan of the LOTR movies too, so i can't get all that upset.

Anyway, now that that little vent is over, this time around Pete Jackson is releasing a series of video blogs for The Hobbit, tease, and the first was sent in April, he's just trying to out do Ian McKellen who kept blogs while he was making LOTR:-) 

And if you watch the video below, all you BBC Being Human fans will catch glimpses of Aidan Turner (aka Mitchell) fully bearded. 

It's a little funny, he started off with all his hair on his head, now it's all cut off and sits on his face instead, Ha!

Enjoy!

Slán go fóill!

Well Thumbed Wednesday

Tales of the Otori, Book One: Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

Being a bibliophile and not having a favorite book usually seems a little odd to people.  So, when someone pushed me the other day to name one, i thought long and hard about it, and i picked three books! Ha!  The Otori Tales are a trilogy, a sequel and prequel were added later.

  The prequel is good.

The Otori Trilogy is my favorite because it had everything in it that all the great stories have; action, adventure, romance, politics, assassins, magic/superpowers, love, loss, revenge, mystery, power struggles, war, secrets, clans, and a few more that i can't remember right now ;) it's epic, it's intimate, and is told in beautiful detail.

 You may not believe that one story could have all this and still be a great story without the reader getting confused in made up languages and peoples, but it's actually an easy read (There are no made up languages in these books, just to clarify:)

It is followed by Grass For His Pillow

and Brilliance of the Moon

 Read them, they're amazing!  Hope you like them! Enjoy!

Slán go fóill!

Vintage Visions: 2

TCM is playing the Young Philadelphians this Wednesday

at 5:30pm (E), with Paul Newman, and who in the bloody world doesn't love Paul Newman?

I was talking with a friend the other day who pointed out to me that Paul Newman is the only actor in history who never made a bad movie, which had a lot to do with the stories that drew Paul Newman to a picture as it did with his innate magnetism.

Slán go fóill!

Vintage Visions: 1

Paul Poriet

The visionary of the 1920's

I often find myself wanting to live in a 1920's movie or image,

just to wear a long dress in a beautiful Parisian style garden.



And then there was the vogue spread decades later that celebrated his work

Gorgeous! Don't you wish you had an occasion to wear something like this, just once in your life?

Slán go fóill!