the gangs all here!

C.R., Alberta, Sam, London, Dr. Dijon, Shugga, Paul, Rita, Alby, Cougar, Mister Crimson, Principal Amethyst, Willy, Kara, Tele, Sally, Marci, Doris, Sylvia and James : THE GANGS ALL HERE! For a murder at the Anonville Manor, that is! That's right the players have come to play as the zoo and I have officially sent out the invitations to take my friends back to the 1950's and treat them to a halloween party in honor of the grand re-opening of the Anonville Manor, a hotel that is known for it's hauntings and ghosts. Hopefully all of my guests are ready to dine and laugh on all Hallow's Eve and keep safe from the ghouls that roam the hallways of my hotel. Wish me luck on throwing my first Murder Mystery Party! I hope it to be a hoot and a hollar!

another job added to my 'dream job list.'

read above and you will see that this color confidential was meant for me me me! did you read above? if not, i'll fill you in on the quick version. basically jcrew is allowing you to discover a confidential job behind the scenes of each seasons collection. this job is nothing short of my kind of amazing! it is everything dealing with color. Ms. Cherie is Jcrew's in-house color librarian! yes, yes, she is in charge of sitting down and gathering her mood boards and displaying hues after hues after hues of what they call "one-of-a-kind palettes." on top of creating the color palettes, she also is the magic maker in giving each color a NAME! yes, a name. I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure i hired myself waaaaaaayyy before Cherie got this job. Of course, I was self employed and I was also under the age of 10 and would take my nail polishes and swipe a swatch of the color into my notebook and neatly in the most organized fashion, rename each and every hue. i freaking love color. luckily, i get to work with it every day while painting so i get my fair dosage, but turning the tables wouldn't be so bad either if i could title myself, "The In-House Color Librarian." I love that she gains her inspirations from world travels and the things around her. It's similar in the way that i gain inspiration for my paintings. in fact, my series of paintings in my painting class right now is all inspired from my caribbean honeymoon, my dreams of new orleans, and jcrew style guide spreads covering their color palettes, textiles and all. this all ties back into my first painting of the series, the tropics. do you guys think that this job would be a load of fun or is it just me? ahh, the life of a color librarian must be grand...

don't make me go back. don't.

just a sneak peek of my trip home to georgia. im still here you know, but im killing time while the parents are catching some zzzzz's and zeke is getting caught up on his south carolina football game that was recorded. i dare not watch because my dad already broke the news to me that the gamecocks loose by 2 points. so... i already know the worst thats yet to come, and zeke might die. so im keeping my distance by blogging in the other room. rut-row.

so far our short, oh so short trip home has been a blast! my parents threw us a really really nice italian dinner party for our open house here in georgia for those who couldn't make it out to utah for the wedding. INTERRUPTION : i couldn't help but giggle when i just heard zeke in the other room yell out, "you idiots." anyways, my mom put in a lot of work to have our house all prepped for our family and friends to visit and she really out did herself. im not surprised though, she does this kind of stuff all the time and enjoys doing it. i love to see her outcome because i am ALWAYS wowed. she blows everything out of the water. she's pretty much wonder woman.

so we have been busy bees helping her around the house. as usual, i have hit my favorite spots for grub. ate bbq, fried okra and hash brown casserole straight from the airport for lunch. then dinned at night at my favorite cajun creole place called roux for some cheesy jalapeno shrimp and grits, gumbo and beignets. i was really bummed we lucked out on the fried alligator bites. they ran out of alligator meat at 5 pm! and they won't be getting anymore until MONDAY MORNING! we leave SUNDAY NIGHT. did you know these fried alligator bites are only in season during the fall? if you do the math, that means i have to wait a whole freaking year to down those puppies. what will i ever do? maybe this calls for a trip closer to the coast. maybe this calls a trip to new orleans to ease the pain... that means my fingers are crossed. its okay though, because today for lunch, i spoiled myself with fried cajun pickles with creole remoulade and a fried green tomato sandwich with tomato jam. im pretty sure you could care less about my menu of food. im also pretty sure every time i wrap up all of my trips to georgia, i tell you exactly what i eat, and i tell you the exact same thing every time. what can i say? i really really love my southern cooking. oh, did i mention we came home to my moms "minnie's chocolate pie?" you bet your bottom dollars that  the zoo ate about 4 slices in one day on top of the beignets and all that fried food. his body couldn't handle it, he got sick. that's what happens when you don't train your body for some deep southern cooking from the soul. zeke was quick to respond to me saying, "i hope you know that mississippi, alabama and georgia are the three states with the most over weight people." sorry, we can't help that we get down in the kitchen... and sorry i asked for a deep frying in our wedding registry, and im sorry that we GOT IT.

So this is naylor hall above. one of my favorite homes in the town i grew up. the zoo and i could have had our reception here. it's nothing i like to speak of, sensitive subject really. but aside from that buzz kill, isn't she a beauty? i love how she is framed with all of her lush greenery. we took a stroll this afternoon on our way to grab lunch and she always catches my eye. so guess what i found out friday night? roswell, georgia, the town right smack next to me which i basically grew up in, has ghost tours. why did i not know this? i took my parents and the zoo to the first graveyard of roswell where the founders of the city and their families and their SLAVES were buried. not to mention, president theodore roosevelt s grandfather is buried there too. but slaves?? that's how old this was. while we were walking up to the graveyard, a whole entire ghost tour is stoppin' on by us. my mind was blown. i should have done that tour yeaaarrrssss ago. next time, oh you bet i'll be hitting it up next time im home.

tomorrow is our last day here for the year of 2012. i hope to make it back in the spring so i dont have to keel over and die while waiting until june 2013. i might as well be put behind bars. its just such a long time. but i'll live. my parents are a blast to be around. zeke and i have gained a lot of weight. it was refreshing to see many faces of family and friends ive known my whole life. ive been in hog heaven this whole weekend. tomorrow will be well spent and i can't wait.

goodnight neverland.

its fall break. that's it, im going to georgia.

ahhh fall calls for a much needed break from school. thank you uvu. its offical. i have no school today or the next. so the zoo and i are packing up our small carry-on bags and hitting the skies for my southern home in georgia to visit my parents and wrap up the wedding season. my mom is throwing us a open house at our home where all of the people i grew up with will finally be able to meet the zoo! putting the pressure on him, i'd say.

i just can't wait to be home. though it hasnt been long since i was last home, my parents and georgia never get old. when i go home, im just filled with charm. these photos above were taken some time ago when my parents and i went to madison, georgia. i really can't recall why we went down to madison, but we did and just like the city i grew up in, i loved the homes just the same.

cant wait to leave on that jet plane tomorrow. can't wait to hang with my parents and eat my moms homemade chocolate pie, minnie jackson style. and i cant wait to eat gumbo, fried pickles, fried okra and grits. oh and im really keeping my fingers crossed that the alligator bites are finally in season. yes, i said it ALLIGATOR BITES. and i can't wait to be surrounded by the comforting southern charm. the feeling that i always long for.

sincerely,

"scarlett o'hara"

inspiration : painting II

going into my painting class tonight with these delicious turkish rugs in mind. going in with full blown inspiration! wish me luck!

decade color palettes.

what is all of this you ask? oh, why its color palettes based upon decades. one of my favorite things. note : i love color. i live for color. my wardrobe, my house, my paintings, everything screams with lush hues of color. im currently in a color theory class  and im finding that im really enjoying my time there. we learn the nit-grit of everything you need to know about color. i've been given my color workbook that i will keep for the rest of my life as an artist. it's the bible for an artist, really. understanding color is more difficult than you think. there are so many things to know that sometimes, i find my head spinning. but overall, i can't help but get giddy when i realize my class consist of me painting color swatches and organizing them neatly in a binder. it's so strange that i get such a kick out of it, but i do.

color is very important to me, as an artist. i use it everyday, and i think about it 24/7. when i paint, i choose oils. why? because to me, the pigments are more rich and delicious. you can layer and build texture and create color on a canvas that will make people want to touch and observe. when i paint abstracts in school, the hardest part is choosing your color pallet. for me, i love to tie in fashion, and things that i adore wether it be a photo of a dreamy place i plan to travel to sometime in my life. an abstract painting could be the color palette of the south of france for all i care! lately, it has been pages out of the spread of jcrews latest style guide. this is where and how i gain my inspiration.

so, when i came across this, on instyle's website, my jaw dropped and i was in heaven. they created color palettes based upon decades and when they started with grace kelly, i was sold. aren't these awesome? i may have to take up one and use it for a future painting! we shall see!

mysterious and spooky month of halloween.

my favorite month has arrived. and on a spooky spooky level. the zoo and i have been having a ball decorating our home with skeletons and witches! i love everything about october. sometimes i can't even describe my love for it. but im really excited that the zoo is just as pumped as i am. we'll continue to decorate some more tonight, but the weekend we will have a blow out along with a haunted house attack and more! happy haunting!

adventures in the bungalow.

it's really fun to say that i currently reside in a 1920s bungalow with an interior that reminds me of "The Help." im really having a blast in mine and the zoo's new gig. especially since one of my favorite decades is the twenties as well as the fifties and with the two combined, im having a ball. i love that the house still has characteristics from each decade. i wouldn't have it any other way.

life with the zoo has been quite fun and adventurous. im glad i married a man who likes projects just as much as i. we like to renovate things and bring in the old and vamp with a little bit of the new. our house is coming together slowly, but surely and though i wish i could snap my fingers and have it be done, it's fun to see it come together. zeke has been a huge help and i love his workman ship and the fact that he likes to get it done. he's spent countless of hours painting the walls and spray painting who knows what in the backyard.

this past weekend was a thriller. it involved getting much done around the house. we finally got our new vintage travel posters in the mail that i was thrilled with. i have a HUGE fetish for vintage travel posters. im starting to have too many, we don't have room for them on the walls. im now learning the love men have for football. which is cool and all, but we JUST got a tv that includes the SciFi and Thriller networks (please don't judge , I just really love mysteries and the twilight zone and all things haunted) so when you realize that saturday is game day, and sunday in NFL and heaven forbid monday is Monday night football, i have to put my shows aside and do it for the zoo. happy husband, happy life. so i joined him for as much as i could stand with the football shin dig. dont get me wrong, all i need is my ohio state football game and then im good to go. so i let him be and did my favorite thing, treasure hunting at antique stores with my girl chelly.

chelly and i spent our saturday afternoon digging for some good finds and making way through the halloween warehouses. i think i hit a jackpot when i found two matching chairs for a total of $10.00. yeah i know. they need a lot of work, sanding, painting and definitely reupholstering, which i have never done before so wish me luck. but zeke and i ran out of projects so this one is for the weekend. chelly and I got our spook on and finally im in the zone of all things october and halloween. one of my favorite months and holidays. i really think i kind of want to wear one of those painted masks while handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, which i heard on our streets are really mean teenagers. whooopaaaaa.

that night we lived in the moment of halloween by attending a thriller at the theater, "The House At the End of the Street" or something like that, with Jennifer Lawrence, and i kind of digged it. Weird, weird story line but I was hooked.

lately, our life consists of a new diet after having a field day in costco. SKINNY COWS. the zoo and i probably eat about 2 a day. or maybe just me. but either way they have the word skinny in it so i never feel bad about it. smooth advertising.

and back to the treasure hunting. we have a friend who does metal detecting and before you make your remarks, its actually a really cool hobby. since our house dates back to the 20's we had our friend stop by and metal detect both our front and back yard. it was kind of fun sitting on my front porch and eating my lunch while i watched him literally dig for gold. he found a 14 karat gold ring as well as a mens razor straight from the 20's! zeke and i googled it and it was the exact razor from the 20's. we were loving it! so adventurous!

so life is random as you can tell, but grand and adventurous. we are having a blast and enjoying each others company and now we are really getting ready to party with october in our midst and me letting go of my tropical dreaming. we already starting to decorate our house spooky last night while eating krispy kreme halloween doughnuts and boy was i wired!! post to come later!

have a great week ya'll!

"to catch a thief" wedding dress.

All growing up, my mom and I created a team for fashion. She was so kind in signing up for a subscription of my favorite fashion magazine, "Harper's Bazaar." I read every months magazine from front to back all throughout high school. Lunch time in the cafeteria wasn't meant for mingling on a break. It was meant to crack down and absorb myself in the latest runway collections. Through this, I'd gained ideas and I'd sketch, sketch away.

My mom is one of the best seamstress' I know. Aside of being today's Doris Day, she is by far today's Edith Head. Edith Head was a remarkable costume designer winning eight academy awards. She worked from the 20's to the early 80's but her most profound work was for suspense film director, Alfred Hitchcock in the 40's and 50's. Hitchcock's leading ladies became Head's muses one of which was my most favorite, Grace Kelly. One of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies is "To Catch a Thief" starring Cary Grant & Grace Kelly. Taking place in the south of France, Grace Kelly's gowns and dresses were absolutely stunning and mind blowing. I believe this movie displayed some of Edith Head's greatest work.

Since I do love all things Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock, and Edith Head I found a fascination with this movie and it is one of my all time favorites. Whenever I watch, I wish so badly that I could have each and every one of those dresses in store for me to wear. The closest I came to wearing the dresses was when I attended The Grace Kelly Style Icon Exhibit in London in 2010. I was in heaven. The Exhibit showcased most of Grace Kelly's most famous dresses and gowns worn in her movies and in the public eye. To see the dresses that I drooled over for so many years, in person was truly a great experience. To me, I'd rather see that then a runway show... for real. It was history of one of the most famous iconic actresses of her time. You don't get to see that every day. I was grateful I was able to view the exhibit with my mom, as we both share a love for this.

Starting in middle school, i began drawing sketches of dresses I wished to of had. My mom finally took one of my sketches to the test and made my 8th grade formal dress. Looking back at it now, I laugh. Im not dogging my moms talent, but I sure am dogging my design. But I still love it because it was the first of many. Starting in high school i'd design all of my homecoming and prom dresses. I'd even bite the bullet and sign up for pageants, which are huge in the south but i didn't care for them. I only did it to find an excuse to design a gown. The judges were far from loving it because I wasn't pageant material. The gowns I was designing and my mom was sewing were more couture which is far from pageant. other projects of ours included designing and sewing my sister's wedding dress and for that I also designed and my mom sewed my bridesmaids dress for that wedding. My dress was based off of an Oscar de la Renta dress. Really, since then, I haven't found a reason to design. It's sort of sad. I was originally hoping to go to an art school for fashion design. Mainly, SCAD (Savannah Collage of Art and Design) but decided I needed to come to Utah. While Utah is in a rut for fashion I continued my studies in the Fine Arts with painting, which I also did all through out High School.

My wedding dress was the key piece that I was so ready for. It took five years of collage to get me there, and this year was finally the year to design the dress of all dresses. So what did I do? I decided this is the only time, for now, that I could have the closet thing to all of the dresses I adore in Hitchcocks "To Catch a Thief." So I did it. I took three dresses from the movie and combined them together in my own rendition of Grace Kelly's To Catch a Thief Dress. The three dresses consisted of :

two toned blue chiffon evening gown : edith head

This is my most favorite dress of Grace Kelly's of ALL TIME. Im talking about all movies combined. This one takes the cake. I love the draping of chiffon, the way it flows in sections when she walks down the halls of the Carlton Hotel. I love the two-toned bodice and skirt along with the knot. From this dress, for my wedding dress, I took the elements of the chiffon material and the two-toned panels.

grace kelly "francis stevens" 2-piece rose crepe outfit : edith head

This dress was shown in the Grace Kelly Style Icon Exhibit. It's more beautiful in person then you'll ever know. And the detailing and construction of the bodice is wonderfully done. This dress consists of a heavy white wool embroidery on the bodice and a pleated skirt, drop waisted. For me, I loved the bodice of this outfit. I am very detailed oriented and so I wanted something similar to this bodice of the symmetrical pieces of embroidery for the bodice of my dress. I would have done a drop waist but for my height, it would have shrunk my size even more than what I already am, and I still wanted length to carry on the idea of the two toned chiffon panels like the gown above. Therefore, I went with the waist line of Kelly's first dress.

The To Catch A Thief Dress : Edith Head

This dress is the most renowned dress from the movie, giving it the name, The "To Catch a Thief Dress" where kelly pairs the strapless white chiffon gown with a collar of diamonds. This dress has been attempted so many times for wedding dresses that I didn't want to do it. Though, I am completely in love with this piece I only want to take one detail from it for my very own dress. I love trains on dresses, I really do. They add a great element of drama. But for me, when I know that I have designed it, and my mom spent countless hours of her summer sewing it, the dress becomes a bit fragile and both my mom and I become overprotected. Therefore, I did not want a train that would drag behind me and snag and pick up dirt from the ground. So this train attached at the top of graces dress, was perfect. We added this back chiffon sash and let it trail off to where the actual dress hits the ground. This detail addition is very regal and old hollywood.

With all of this taken into deep consideration, I drew up the sketches and even did a watercolor sketch of the dress. Now, I am so aware, these are not that great of sketches. To be a fashion designer, you really need to learn the craft of sketching, illustration and learning the precise way to draw the body. I did not learn this at the time, and when I finally took an illustration class, my excitement was SHOT when I realized how difficult this is to do. It's harder than it looks. And I commend designers who can do this kind of drawing and sketching. so please don't judge.

At this time of designing, I was still going with the drop waist. This drop waisted dress was a combination of the three "To Catch a Thief" dresses as well as a Prada dress worn by Gwyneth Paltrow at the Cannes Film Festival. By the time my mom and I began to sew the dress we came to the conclusion that this would not be the most flattering waist line. Therefore, right then and there we went back to the waist line of the blue chiffon dress and began sewing without drawing a third sketch.

The Process in the Construction of Making

Final Dress behind the Scenes of the Wedding

The construction of the dress was unbelievable. My mom is seriously a genius. Every little detail was just as how I wanted it. She knows how crazy I am with my detailing, which probably drove her up a wall in high school but when we were finished with each dress, we'd sit back and ooo and ahh. My mom made my wedding dress into about 6 different dresses. I do not want to do the math but, let me tell you. The panels of chiffon, the taupe and mauve colors are attached to the belt made of the crushed beaded bone trim around my waist. This belt of chiffon panels is detachable. Therefore, If I wanted, the whole skirt of the dress could just be the white silk and the white silk only as seen down below.

I prefer the belt of chiffon panels on because it adds dimension, it's unique, its regal, its screaming grace kelly to me. Now the panels of chiffon are not sewn together. They each hang individually making them pick up and flow in the wind when I walk. This replaces the drama given by a tradition train, which I did not have.

Another element added to the dress was the back panel of the lightest shade of chiffon to mimic the panel of chiffon attached to the back of grace kelly's white "To Catch A Thief " dress. This is also detachable. I took this off during the reception while dancing so that I didn't wreck it and trample all over it. But the way it drapes around me really made me feel like Grace Kelly. It was like playing dress up. I swear, I had so much fun wearing this dress of mine.

Overall, I am beyond impressed with the job that my mom did on my dress. I really don't know how to thank her. Her hands are miraculous and the talent she has is something I envy but am very grateful to have as a tool in my life. It is one of my favorite things to do with my mom, design, and sew. Go to our favorite hole in the wall fabric store in Buckhead, Georgia and talk fabrics and design. My mom truly is an inspiration when it comes to talent. Though she doesn't sew for a living, she fills her time with doing personal projects for herself and her children. For this, I am grateful. I am really going to have to do something huge in return to thank her. She really outdid herself this time. It's fun to see the progression of dresses we have designed and made together through out the years. But this one really takes the cake and is so extra special to me in so many ways. It was a dream come true. Thanks mom for all of your hard work and sacrifice. I really appreciate it and I really really love you.