Quote of the Week- Traveling

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart" - Confucius

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It's all about 1940s glamour! With two lovely new vintage brides.

Dear Reader
Thanks for all your gorgeous comments on the new Dorothy dress, the latest 1940s style from my Heavenly Collection. I'm so pleased you like her...

Today I have two beautiful new brides to share. Both wear original 1940s vintage lace wedding dresses. And both look so stunning - so elegant and glamorous. First Rhiannon...

And now Annie, in a lovely tea-length lace dress. Annie is a professional dancer and really knows how to twirl...!

I'm definitely seeing a renewed popularity for 1940s glamour, so I though I'd do a little recap today of the all fabulous 1940s things we've been thinking about... Just scroll down to see what takes your fancy, and click through the links to see the full posts...

First, some lovely real vintage brides. Here is Lucie, in stunning original 1940s lace...

And Lisa, in sophisticated 1940s-inspired Bette dress, from my Heavenly Collection...

Next some fabulous 1940s style icons. First the sultry and sophisticated Lauren Bacall. What a woman!

And the fabulous Bette Davis... She is of course my inspiration for the Bette dress...

And here's the actual Bette 1940s-style dress she inspired...

On the subject of dresses, don't miss this wonderful original 1940s vintage lace wedding dress and jacket...

And lastly, some ideas for starlet-style hair to complement your 1940s wedding dress...

Phew, I think that's quite enough for now! I hope you'll make time to bring a little 1940s movie star style to your day today... 

See you next week

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

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September Gussing Up Inspiration and What Worked in August

 September Gussing Up Inspiration

When you get to third trimester fashion ideas, you see a lot of things that basically just say get through it and wear whatever still fits, but I love the fall and layers, so I still want to enjoy it. Here are a few things I thought were cute-

from lazy-saturdays.com

 God bless Krista and her beautiful beautiful hair. I have been growing out my hair for childcare purposes, but these pictures make a powerful argument for pregnancy and bangs.

from http://www.stillbeingmolly.com/2013/08/06/believes-love/

 Cotton maxi skirts and t-shirts may be the most comfy prego option without looking like you have given up completely, but I like efforts like Molly's to step it up just one more level. This looks like an actual outfit. I am going to work on this in September.

from whatiwore.tumblr.com

Excited for outfits like these (maybe less cheetah) because scarves make everything a little mor stepped up. My cousin wore a getup like this with leggings to the shower, and she looked adorable. This is how we are transitioning summer clothes into the fall (going to really try to avoid buying more clothes).

And What Worked in August

 

 

Man, looking right while prego is a moving target. I definitely got rounder this month, so I have to really work around the belly. This sunflower dress from Asos gets compliments basically every time I put it on, and it just makes me feel happy. It reminds me of things I wore as a kid, in a good way. On the other hand, it is puffy, so I look like a whole lot of woman, and it doesn't photograph all that well. These 2 pictures were taken a (very expanding) month apart, but you can't tell the difference. I imagine it will stay a staple until the parasite moves out.

  This dress, which was either from Old Navy or the Gap, feels like a t-shirt and looks pretty nice with pre-prego cardigans. It proved to be breezy for the hot weather, and I am not so big yet that I don't love the horizontal stripes.

 This orange dress (also from Asos) has turned out to be a real winner. I highly recommend buying their casual dresses, because they are comfy. My prego fashion all functions on 2 rules- 1. You have to cinch between the nunjas and the baby mountain (life is too short for mumus) and 2. don't get tricked into high necklines. They love selling dresses cut up to your neck, but a V or scoop makes all the difference when you are sort of stubby to begin with.

  I planned on wearing this burgundy number to our baby shower (I feel like it is really grown up looking for some reason), but the day before I saw the belt Aunt Rene made, and I wanted to really show it off.

 So I wore a teal maxi dress from target which had primarily served as everyday wear (it was already pilling from my computer bag and trips to COCA), No one seemed to mind. Looking at pictures, it may not have been the most flattering choice, but really the only way to look good all the time while prego is to never move you hands off the top and bottom of the belly. The color really highlighted the belt, which was always going to be the prettiest thing I wore anyway. It looked like my belly was exploding with life.

My tips for baby shower wear- just wear whatever you feel like you look good in and you know photographs well. And then just hold onto your belly for dear life.

 I also had to pick a dress for pictures, and I think this was my biggest fashion win for the month. The little floral print is nice, the v-neck looks pretty (though I could have ordered it in a slightly smaller size, and I think it photographed well. Also, the belt was probably my best purchase for the whole shebang, It makes everything look put together.

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6 Things for the Last Two Days- My Mailman, Women Listening, and Horse Paintings

1. Getting a scanner at CoCA- This is a huge victory for the Archive Project, and I am genuinely psyched about it.

2. Shirley and Stephanie- We have been watching a lot of Top Chef New Orleans. A lot. We feel prepared for our eating babymoon, but it won't be the same without these two gems of the show there with us. Perhaps we can be excessively enthusiastic and openly neurotic (shocked face every time they find out they have to cook? Really?) to make up for them being there. Or maybe we will see them there?

3.Jun- I think I have written about my love for our mailman before, but on Tuesday I was carrying a pile of sheets when I saw him, and he got excited because he thought the baby was born. Best mailman ever.

Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863- from http://the-toast.net/2014/06/23/women-listening-men-art-history/

4.Women Listening to Men in Western Art History-http://the-toast.net/2014/06/23/women-listening-men-art-history/ Perfect Gift from my Dad yesterday. Go read it and have yourself a giggle.

5. Horse paintings- Everywhere I turned yesterday, horse paintings! Hilarious.

6. SeattleEater.com- Granted, we had dinner at Panera bread last night, but it's nice to read about some of the restaurants in the area anyway. I am sure eventually we will do better.

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Today's Inspiration- Gordon Matta-Clark

Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting 9, 1977- from http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art349213

I am pretty sure Gordon Matta-Clark was not commenting on the horrors of home ownership with this Split piece. But in another way, clearly he was. A classic piece from Matta-Clark's ouevre, which I generally avoid, but you can't deny the charm of cutting a house in half.

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Ten Things We've Learned in our First Six Months of Homeownership

1. Find your Pizza place (or your sushi place, or a Chipotle)- Moving to a new place means that nothing feels like home. You might feel homesick for the weirdest things (I did), but order pizza from a new place every time until you find a good one. Or sushi. Or whatever you do when you just can't handle the thought of cooking or you realize the chicken smells funky. I feel convinced that we only have warmed to Seattle because we found good sushi and pizza. It is worth the time investment, especially because at some points, all you will really want is to get the heck out of your house for an hour.

2.Who you gonna call? No seriously, who?- Oh Roy or Hugo (after Roy ran off with his internet girlfriend). How I miss you. I would complain to you in a tone I tried to copy off your domineering mother, and somebody would show up to fix it the next day. I miss you so much. Now, every problem has a different set of conversations, estimates, and random dudes in my space involved. If you are renting, even to a goober, it kind of makes you want to hug your landlord. If you own where you live, nobody cares but you.

3. Be careful about making friends with Jehovah's Witnesses (because you are making friends for life)- The very first week two very sweet ladies showed up at our house to tell me about Jehovah. I didn't want to be rude, but I tried to make my affiliations clear. It apparently does not matter to them, as they come back to visit every couple of weeks and when they can't catch me during the day, they will show up on weekends. I honestly don't know what to do about it, because I don't even think they are trying to convert me anymore, they just want to hear about the baby. You have to hand it to them, Jehovah's Witnesses are persistent.

4.It's not that something will go wrong, it's that something else will go wrong the second this current wrong thing is mostly ok- I don't think we were so naive to think we would move into the house and everything would be perfect and easy and fun all the time. At the same time, no one warns you that just when you feel like your feet are under you, it must be time to get your butt kicked by a new challenge.

5. Kill the Spiders- Spiders make more spiders. In worst case scenarios, you end up with one really big spider under your bed in a way that should only be reserved for children's nightmares. The Boy is sometimes merciful, but Washington is wet and spidery, so I have quickly abandoned my mercy. I am not James. There is no peach. If you are a spider and you come in my house, I will kill you.

6. Donations, Plastic Bins, Shelving- The only way to keep things clean is for everything to have a place. The only way for everything to have a place is to maintain a healthy ratio between what you have and (real, the floor does not count) places to put them. You would think that most of the donating would happen in the "moving out" stage, but it is crazy how when you move things out of their context, they sometimes become so much less necessary. We gave up car loads of stuff already, and every time we give things away, I feel like a weight is lifted. You need less than you have, and somebody might need it. Plus those piles only make homes for spiders.

On a similar end, I think under bed plastic bins might be the key to a happy home. I love buying decorations and things to make our house warm and homey, but decor is like the skin of your house. For the whole thing to work, you need the organization muscle, all the stuff behind the scenes that keeps the machine working. Our old apartment was a lesson in organization, and we reorganized multiple times just to avoid a move. I think we will master the same art here, and we have started on the right foot for that.

7. You are never done, but you should take (1 day!) breaks- Six months in, our to do list remains epic. In fact, on the actual six monthiversary, we discovered a leak in our roof, so we have to call in someone for that. It is ok to decide you are overwhelmed and take a break. We had more than our share from hiding from the world weekends. But if we played Mario and watched TV all day on Saturday, you better believe we were back at it on Sunday. Momentum is half the battle (having a plan and flexibility when the plan fails is the other half). Just like with a good friendship or relationship, sometimes you can have basic maintenance phases, but a lot of the time you have to put genuine work in. So take your day, but have a plan for tomorrow.

8. Take the help- My in-laws were awesome about this in their move (also this year, just the worst!), because they had so many people come help them move their furniture. My mom says "it takes a village." If you are completely new to that village, this can prove a challenge, but we were surprised to get the help when we really needed it from the Boy's coworkers. Many hands really do make lighter work, so if someone offers to help with your project this weekend, let them and make them a really nice dinner.

9. Wait for sales, be stingy, know that whatever you are spending now is probably not the end of it- Wow, moving into a bigger place is expensive, and it often feels things wait to break until after you have just spent a bunch of money on something else. The bright side? Home Depot, furniture places, they all love holiday sales. You should never stand too far away from a sale, so if you can wait out a jank appliance or an air mattress until you can buy it on sale, crown it an adventure and go for it. Because something else with absolutely come up. On the other hand, don't try to wait out a problem, because things do not fix themselves by you ignoring it. EVER. You can have a slow game for a solution, but no solution is too dangerous a game.

10. It will be alright. This is the nicest thing I can tell you, as you pine away for your renting days. I am sure there are people out there who would say they are so glad they did it and it is so worth it, etc, etc, etc. Whatever. Owning things doesn't seem like all that impressive of an accomplishment to me, but I do feel genuinely proud that we haven't backed down, we keep working at it, and we still like each other most days. If you feel pride at owning stuff (which is cool, each to their own), owning a house will make you feel really good all on its own because it is a lot, but I notice that you can find a lot of joy in realizing you have figured out how to do something new (weeding! stripping the deck! buying a refrigerator!) because you have to. You learn all the time. Also, except for the money part, you can't mess it up as bad as it feels like you are messing it up all the time. The punishments for not having your shit together is mostly just having to deal with the shit until you figure it out, but you can live through that. Eventually (I am not sure we are there yet, but I have faith I am not lying here), you can look around and just feel fine about things. Plus, you get to do your laundry in your house, which is genuinely great.

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Bumpwatch- Week 28

Ack! I thought I posted this two days ago. Aunt Rene, I am sorry!

How Far Along: 28 Weeks, so hello third trimester! So far, the only differences I see are that Summer Sanders is much nicer on the work out video, and when I see myself in the mirror, I feel like a blimp of a woman (I don't know if it works this way for everyone, but I mentally think of myself as the same, then I see myself in a mirror or a picture, and I am still surprised). Also, Bumbo Baby all the sudden seems much bigger, not in a bad way, just in a "wow, you can really see him move from the outside" kind of way. According to the bump, this is because he is an eggplant.

Best Moment of the Week: The Baby Shower! My mom and cousin Shelly put on such a fun party for us with the planning of my Aunt Ann and decorating from my Aunt Rene. Everybody destroyed their jobs, so the food was awesome, the decorations were actually steampunk travel themed (who knew you could even really do such a thing!), and I felt like the games were genuinely fun. Also, The Boy's mom made a baby out of fruit. I was so touched that my family put so much time and effort into our party, and I was even more touched at how many people came to celebrate with us. Having a co-ed shower might seem like a stretch, but lots of our guy cousins and other gentlemen relatives came and enthusiastically played the games. Melissa traveled all the way from Colorado, and Shelly (and her angel friend Amber) drove up from Tennessee for this, and that means the world to me.

 I just felt really blessed, but even more, I felt excited that our baby has a lot of genuine love and enthusiasm around him. When you are going to raise kids so far from family, nothing feels better than seeing so many people who will put in the effort and who will show up for your family, and I hope that I am one of those people for your families as well (if not, kick my butt into gear!). Bumbo Baby Gort is going to have such a strange, hilarious, and wonderful collection of people around him, and that has to be one of the biggest, most beautiful revelations around the baby shower. I feel in a weird way like I know this very sassy dancing eggplant parasite living directly on top of my bladder, and I really can't wait for these caring people to meet him too. 

Most Interesting Prego Quirk:  Baby shower gift opening is cuter, but also more pressure. To be honest, this part feels like so much pressure, because you can't seem too excited for one gift and not excited for the next. I just freeze up, but the nicest thing was that the gifts themselves are entertaining in their adorable babiness, and The Boy was there, so at least all eyes weren't on me. I don't know how to sidestep this challenge of the shower, but at least for the first time, you can kind of lean on the impending cuteness of your child. The speculation becomes concrete in the forms of onesies and baby hats, so you don't have to talk about the name or the gender for a minute.

I Would Really Like Some: Something other than the anniversary cake I made, which is no good. It feels like a shame when we have an excuse to eat sweets and they aren't even good. I mean, what kind of nonsense is that? I have been asking over and over again to go get seafood ravioli's (just like a lobster ravioli in a cream sauce, doesn't that sound good?) but thus far it has fallen on deaf ears both to the Boy and to the universe, because forbidden cheeses always get in the way. Curses!

 

Bizarro Thing No One Warned me About:  This is a small but remarkable thing, everyone buys you clothes for the first three months of the baby's life (let's face it, they are cutely small but not cutely cute at this age in most cases). You come out of a shower with a seemingly endless supply of 0-3 month clothes, and you are sure you can trade some of it in for your baby once he or she grows, but according to my mother, they need a lot of clothes. How this can be true is beyond me (I mean, can't you just wrap them in a blanket?) but I know I will learn. Janet says keep it all.

And The Boy?: I think he really enjoyed the shower, though he seems convinced the baby doesn't need much clothes. Please let my son be as cool as his dad about going to "girl stuff" and wearing a big ribbon the whole time. You have to love a man who is pumped to get his own gussed up business. He did not win the games, so he felt disappointed about that.

Looking Forward to: Leaving for our babymoon! This is the last big thing to look forward to before we are just stuck in the house, waiting to empty out this uterus. I am way excited to go to New Orleans (we have never been) and to eat lots and lots of delicious food. 

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