Work Outfits

I feel like a short and very girly post so it's a work outfits post!

Last week I spend every evening sewing a skirt with a cool material that I found at JoAnns. It was the end of the bolt so I had to do with whatever material was left but I got like 70% off. Sweet! I used it to sew a pleated skirt completely out of my head and I am very proud of the result. I still don't have a good photo of the skirt but I'll get there. Here is what the material looks like. Did you notice that it's not black?

Now back to the outfirts...

Since I started working my fashion challenge was to incorporate the skirts I've sewn in an office-appropriate look. I enjoy wearing the skirts I've made but they have pretty bold prints and they are 100% cotton, which tends to have more of a casual feel to it. So it was a bit of a challenge.

Here is what I came up with. Sorry for the not so great quality of photos but the last thing I feel like doing in the mornings or after work is put a tripod and try and get that perfect shot. As you can see I "recycle" my clothes but never in the same week.

Top - Forever New
Circle Skirt - me
T.U.K shoes and CUE belt 

Top - Forever New
Skirt - me
Aerosoles pumps and CUE belt

Have a great weekend!

Bandelier National Monument

I finally got to edit the photos from New Mexico!

After leaving Grand Sand Dunes National Park we continued our drive to Santa Fe through Alamosa. This way, turning west from the I-25 to Alamosa is longer then going on the I-25 all the way from Denver to Santa Fe but the road is MUCH more scenic and is definitely worth it if you're not in a rush.

When we finally arrived to Santa Fe (we stayed at Residence Inn - Marriott) it was too late to do anything and we were too tired to bother. At that point we didn't have any plans for the next day (it was a spontaneous trip, did I mention?) but luckily there was a book about New Mexico with some great ideas. There is truly a lot to see in New Mexico but because it's quite a large state I reckon it would take a week of driving around to have a good look around, as long as you plan your road trip well.

I wrote down a few ideas for places to see and mapped then on Google Maps. If you plan on visiting New Mexico, have a look at this map.

View Explore New Mexico in a larger map

We had pretty much one day to explore the area so we couldn't drive far, this is why we chose to go to Bandelier National Monument. It is about one hour drive from Santa Fe and has beautiful scenery and archaeology, both things I like. Currently you have to take a bus to Bandelier from a designated car park in Los Alamos. The bus and the parking are free and the bus leaves every 20 minutes so it's quite convenient. I won't expand much about Bandelier as you can get all the information from their website but shortly speaking, there are a few hikes, the main one is called the Main Loop as it takes you around the pueblo. It is quite easy as it is pretty much designed for the general public. Near the end of the loop you can go on another hiked called the Frijolito Trail. This trail is pretty steep and much harder than the Main Loop. You can do the Frijolito Trail as a loop but we just returned the same way we came. I didn't find the ruins at the top very interesting and wouldn't recommend going up just for the sake of the ruins. The steepness provided a good challenge though and the view to the other side of the hill was beautiful.

Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Overlooking the Kiva

Original carvings

View from the top of the Frijolito Trail

View from the other side of the hill, Frijolito Trail.

After the visit to Bandelier National Monument we had a quick look around Los Alamos, a town near Bandalier. The bus driver that took us to Bandelier suggested going to a look-out and this is what we did. Unfortunately I actually don't remember the name of this lake.

Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip to Bandelier! This pretty much sums our trip to New Mexico. On the way back we drove straight up on the I-25 and the views are all the same... If you have the time, find somewhere to visit on the way and to have a proper break from driving. Unfortunately we were in a rush and didn't have the chance.

The small images look really blurry, which drives me crazy! Please enlarge! 

Smart Shopping

As some of you might know, I started working a couple of weeks ago. It has been great getting out of the house and finally earning some money. It's not a career oriented position but after looking for a job for over 3 months and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, suddenly landing a reasonably well paid job (in American standard) makes me really happy.

I've moved so much and so many things have changed in my life since pretty much finishing high school that I'm trying not to worry about not having a career oriented job here or not knowing what I'm going to do when I'm back in Australia. Ideally, I'd like to apply for Doctor of Dental Medicine at the University of Sydney. After the army, when it was time to think about university courses, I didn't think I was smart enough to get into dentistry (or medicine but I didn't want to do that). I still don't know if I am smart enough but I guess I'll never find out unless I try.

So anyway, today at work people were talking about saving when grocery shopping. I'll start by saying that Americans love coupons and deals and you can get those for almost anything! This is unlike Australia where people "save" be deciding whether Coles or Woolworths are cheaper and sticking to it. While I got to like coupons for specialty stores (like the sewing store where I shop regularly and save about half of the total bill thanks to coupons) I don't believe in coupon shopping in grocery stores. I think you can save without obsessive coupon collection and regular search for deals. And yes, as someone who wasn't working for 6 months and is about to go to Alaska, I am in a saving mode at the moment and thought I might share my simple techniques of "smart shopping".

Firstly, why I don't like coupons? Coupons and deals actually make you buy more, make you buy stuff you don't need and make you buy it in amounts you don't need. In addition, they often give you discounts on the top brands while the home brands might be the same quality but cost half the price at the first place. That's not saving and definitely not smart shopping.

So how do I smart shop?

• I buy what I need for the week (in my case I shop once a week). This means skip on luxury items, don't buy items that have a history of going to waste and don't buy replacements for items until I actually run out. So before anything is going to my trolley, I think twice whether I actually need it that week. To help this rule, I try and plan meals for the week and have a shopping list.
• Experiment with cheaper brands. Many products are quite generic so no matter what brand you buy, you get the same thing and sometimes even better. Also, these products are quite cheap so if the cheaper brand wasn't good you just wasted a couple of dollars but if it was good, you'll save money long term by sticking to it.

Since I got into my smart shopping routine my grocery bill dropped in about $50 a week. No coupons and no hours looking for deals. I think because my techniques are more about smart shopping rather than about saving like mad and giving up on everything you want to buy, they are easier to implement and will work for both, those that need to save on a regular basis and those who want to save for a short while.  

Cheers!

PS - I know I didn't upload the second part of the photos from Santa Fe. I promise I'll get there. I think I need Adobe Lightroom to hurry things up as Photoshop is taking forever. 

Great Sand Dunes National Park

At the Great Sand Dunes

We had a very spontaneous trip to Santa Fe. We decided to go on Monday, hubby got his leave approved on Tuesday and on Wednesday I got a hotel booked and a suitcase packed. We didn't really have a list of places to go to and just decided as we went. I am quite obsessed about planning so this was a truly awesome experience for me!

To get from Denver to Santa Fe you pretty much need to stay on I-25 all the way. It's like the easiest trip ever if you don't count the exhaustion of driving for 6 hours. While driving we decided to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park so at Walsenburg we turned onto US-160 W towards Alamosa. It makes the drive to Santa Fa longer but the dunes are worth the visit and the drive is much more scenic. 

The entrance to the park is $3 per adult. We stayed there for about an hour and I think it was money well spent. The park's main attraction is the sand dunes but there is more to do if you have the time.  

On the way to the Great Dunes National Park

Have you seen the panoramic photo of the dunes from the previous post? If not click here. 

The dunes are spectacular and climbing them is an interesting experience as you loose the sense of perspective. We started climbing the dunes and once we reached a top of a hill (see photo of me on top) we realised that there is a huge drop. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to climb to the top but I'm sure the view from the top is amazing.

For those going to the dunes and plan on climbing to the top or a fair bit up, bring lots of water and closed shoes as the sand is very hot. The walk to the dunes starts with some flat area which looks like a beach except the obvious lack of water or even a fresh, sea-smelling breeze. 

For those interested in the photography, all photos are taken with my one and only camera Nikon D40x and a kit lens 18-135mm. I used exposures of 1/60-1/80 (less than isn't recommended unless you use a tripod) and the closest aperture possible (to get as much of the photo in focus), ISO 100. I love landscape photography and can't wait to get a wide angel lens. 

Next post will be about our wonders around Santa Fe. 

Cheers!

Teaser - A trip to New Mexico

I came back from Santa Fe yesterday and have so many photos to process! I promise to upload the best ones of the bunch once I'm done but for now here is a little teaser for you - a panorama from Great Sand Dunes National Park. They are in Colorado but are on the way to New Mexico and were worth the visit even though we spent there only an hour or so.

Click to Enlarge

Photo taken with Nikon D40X, kit lens 18-135. Exposure 1/60 sec at f/20, ISO 100. 

Mini skirt - Sewing Project

Outfit:
Hell Bunny Demise Top - available on eBay
Los Muertos mini skirt - sewn by me
ZU gladiator sandals

You probably noticed that I like skirts and the great thing about sewing my own skirts is that I can make them whatever length I want. Most of the skirts in store are too short for my liking (I'm obviously not talking about maxi skirts which I don't wear at all) and if you take the smallest size available they are usually even shorter. So I tend to make my skirts just above the knee. This skirt is a mini because I sewed it from leftover material I had left from the circle skirt. I love the Los Muertos print and it's just the right thickness for me. 

Since I'm still learning how to sew, I prefer to try something new in every project I do. This time I was experimenting with pleats. I saw a few YouTube videos about how to sew different pleats and even found this tutorial for a box pleat skirt and really wanted to give it a go. The thing is that I don't really like pleats in my clothes as they can be a pain to iron and I just didn't seem to have the patience to do them this time. Then I remembered another tutorial I saw for a full skirt. As far as I'm concerned these are cheat pleats. They are so much easier to do and I prefer this look to real pleats.

This mini skirt has hidden pockets (see hidden pockets tutorial) and an invisible zipper. This time I used the proper Husqvarna Viking clear invisible zipper foot and it was so easy to sew on! I definitely recommend investing in an invisible foot to fit your sewing machine. I also put a waist band instead of an elastic and this time strengthened the waistband material with fusible interfacing. You simply iron the interfacing onto the material and it gives it more structure. I made the waistband of the Skull Skirt without interfacing and I can definitely tell the difference. 

I also experimented with anorak snaps. I didn't want the zipper to go through the thick material of the waistband and decided to use a couple of anorak snaps only on the waistband. I have a skirt that has that combination of zipper and anorak snaps and I really like it for both comfort and looks. I bought Dritz mini anorak snaps together with a set of special tools and it was an absolute nightmare to use! Stay away if you can. It took me forever to work out how to use the tools and then they just didn't work properly! I went through 8 out of 10 of the snaps in order to put 2 on, not to mention that it made a huge hole in the fabric and I ended up using some of my hubbies tools in order to place the second snap in place. Don't waist your money on this stuff. Next time I might try a different brand and if it doesn't work I'll just use buttons. 

Happy sewing!

Skulls Gathered Skirt with Pockets - Sewing Project

Outfit:
Top - sewed by me from a rayon and spandex knit fabric using an old tank as a pattern
Skulls skirt - sewn by me from a heavy cotton fabric
Shoes - Dr Martens Rochelle
Belt - CUE 

After sewing the simple elastic skirt and the circle skirt and gaining a little bit of sewing experience I really wanted to sew a dress. I saw this black-white-pink skull print cotton fabric at JoAnn's and couldn't get it put of my head so I went back and got it for this project.

While looking for dress tutorials online I found a few on how to sew a dress that consists of a bought tank or t-shirt and a skirt you sew yourself. It seemed like an easy enough project for a beginner like me but unfortunately none of the tutorials were clear enough so I decided to improvise! Do you see where this is going?

The first try failed miserably. I used too much material and the gathered part of the skirt was very thick and unfaltering. The conclusion is that it is very important to match the fabric to the pattern. If you plan on gathering a thick material around the waist, use less material so it's gathered less frequently and doesn't create the bulky look. If you want it really gathered, use a lighter material. The cotton I used was very thick, you might even tell by looking at the photo above.

The second go was much better as I knew how to fix my mistakes and took greater care at planning my next step. So for the final result skirt I used a few techniques including: sewing hidden pockets, gathering material and attaching a material waistband and installing an invisible zipper plus hook and eye. Here are a few links and tips on those techniques.

Gathering Material - gathering material is very common in many projects and the good news is that it's easy to do. I found this tutorial and this one from MADE to be especially good. They both present a few different techniques for you to chose from. I used the "gathering with a straight stitch". When gathering a thick material use a thicker thread for gathering, like the heavy duty thread, as your normal one is more likely to break when pulling.

Hidden Pockets - I think pockets are a useful addition to many garments. The skirt I made has 2 hidden pockets which I made based on a great tutorial by Angela Osborn.

Invisible Zipper - there are many tutorials online on how to install an invisible zipper and the zippers themselves usually come with instructions. Try this tutorial one for example.

Husqvarna Viking clear invisible zipper foot VS. Coats plastic invisible zipper foot

To install an invisible zipper you pretty much have to buy an invisible zipper presser foot to match your sewing machine. My local dealer didn't have any in stock at the time and somehow I managed to sew in an invisible zipper with a buttonhole foot but it's not recommended. I still went back to buy the real thing. They are pricy but much better than Coats $2 plasticy stuff which takes forever to understand how to assemble (I gave up on mine) and then takes half the time to install.

So as you can tell I learnt a lot while making this skirt. I also sewed the top but decided not to attach it to the skirt. So yeah, no dress this time but I'm very pleased with the skirt.

Cheers!