I Let the Melody shine, Let it Cleanse My Mind, I Feel Free

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a pretty good one myself. I went to a couple of parties, got a haircut (by which I mean, had the dead ends trimmed, you know how I do) had some friends over to watch excessive amounts of Dollhouse and topped it off last night by watching Julie & Julia with my sweetheart.

The weather has been great. We’ve had the heat off, and last night we took the electric blanket off the bed for the week. We are expecting some temps in the 70s even! I jumped at the chance to wear this tunic again. It was hands down my best score at the swap, and the fact that I also grabbed this jacket, which is the perfect cut to show off the figure flattering cut of the tunic is a great bonus.



I don’t think the light let the pictures really captured this, but those are my latex leggings. I actually need to do laundry and am out of regular leggings. I briefly considered not wearing this combo, but then I thought, why not? Black leggings are black leggings, these just have a bit more pizzazz to them!



That bag is huge, and a great shape, but made from this really natural sort of leather. (Nathan said last night that it feels like skin, by which he means people skin. And as creepy as that is, it does. It is so super soft and luxurious.) But it is like a stain magnet. I have not ever carried it much, because of that. And in fact I think I go on and on about it ever time I DO carry it. Last night I treated it with leather wipes, and it took 6 wipes to get the entire bag really well oiled. 6! But I thought about it and maybe I just need to really commit to oiling it every night for a while, perhaps that way I can speed the patina process way up. Is that a crazy idea?



The necklace I am wearing is a reworking of this necklace



I got bored, as I often do, and removed all the bears from the chain, worked up a pattern with some turquoise beads and had a do over.



The other necklace was more delicate, and maybe more wearable even, but this one feels more fun, and more substantial, and I like substantial.

Jacket, swap
Tunic, Zara via swap
Tank, Target
Leggings, Target
Boots, Steve Madden via Zappos
Necklace, self made
Bag, Hayden-Harnett

Swaptastic Tunic

This outfit is my favorite from the swap.


(I normally crop, but the dog looked so sweet, I didn’t)

That tunic is amazing. It’s a silk cotton blend and I just love it. It had a tiny button and a little thread loop button closure, but it was never going to close over my boobs, so I cut them out.



That little jacket is not something I ever would have picked out at a store but I tried it on on a whim and loved it. A black tank and black leggings with my black riding boots completed the look. I knew as soon as I saw Connie try it on how I would wear it. I could not believe my luck when she put it back!



I didn’t get any jewelry shots. Last night was not a great night. On the way home I was sitting at a stop sign when someone turned left, into my car, head on. I know that doesn’t make sense, and that she should have turned around my car into the other lane, but she didn’t. Anyway. I was wearing my bat skull, my bird skull and an awesome hand piece I made from chain that was sort of like the piece I made for Halloween but toned down. And it broke in the accident. Bummer. I’ll make a new one tonight hopefully. I loved it.

Tunic, swap
tank and leggings
Boots, Steve Madden via Zappos
Bat skull necklace, mrd74 at Etsy
Bird skull necklace, mrd74 at Etsy

Swap - The Recap!

I looked adorable yesterday, but the weather was nasty, and I hate to photograph indoors. So how about we just talk about the Swap instead?

So I’m sure you noticed, but we had a last minute change of plans as far as location. That was…well stressful to say the least. It meant that we had to throw a lot of careful planning out the window and start over with about 24 hours to go. I’m not good with last minute changes and Friday was a really tough day for me. But we pulled it together.

We got to the hotel and they had set up some tables for us. We labeled the tables with sizes (0-2, 4-6, 8-10, ect) and we also had a table for accessories and one for jewelry. Shoes were on the floor.



The tables got piled super high really fast and got really messy really fast once the trying on process started.



We had two full length mirrors available. I was impressed that all 13 girls who showed up were willing to change in front of one another. I was so proud of the level of self confidence in the room! Everyone looked great, and they knew it. The trying on process went really well. LOTS of “that looks great on you” and “you are totally going to rock that” and ZERO rudeness or cattiness.

Because we were in hotel space, we had a limited amount of time, so we had to change our plans regarding tickets and taking turns and instead we used an honor system for how many items you brought in vs how many you took. We still allowed about an hour for browsing and trying on items, then we had swappers select items in groups of 5, 3 items at a time.





We went a few rounds like this and at that point we did a brief show of hands, asking who still needed to take turns, and it seems everyone had that one item they were dying for at that point so we just sort of opened up the floor for free selection.

Of course we also had cake balls, and lots of great food. (Those little chicken minis were a huge hit, Jen!)



We ended up with a pretty sizable donation for charity,



…and everyone seemed to find lots of great stuff to take home.

I am really proud of the work we did, and I am I was so glad to have spent all the time with Tina , planning. She is such a joy and so much fun to be with, she is a great listener, never judgmental and has great style to boot. I may not be ready to take on another swap just yet, but I would take pretty much any excuse to hang out with Tina again.



A special thank you to all our participants
Monica
Kelly
Wendy (who helped with space and was a great co-host)
Maria
Laurie
Connie
Anjolee
Bernadette
Jen Mauldin
Ann
Becky

Less Fashion, More Cake Balls Part 2

*IMPORTANT ANNOUNCMENT REGARDING THE DALLAS FASHION SWAP*

Oh my gosh. Sorry for the yelling. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have moved venues. The new venue is the Crowne Plaza just across the street, so it should not change your plans. The address is:

7800 ALPHA ROAD,
DALLAS, TX 75240
UNITED STATES
Tel: 1-972-233-7600

Wisw words from Tina..."Don't forget to wear clothing that allows you to try on things in a communal environment. (I'm going to wear a tank top and leggings under a wrap dress, so I can just pull off the dress and try on the things over the tank and leggings."

Cake Balls have been cutting into my reading time, so I have to get what I can when I can.



But at least I look cute!



So part two of the saga begins with pulling the cake balls out of the freezer, and dipping them in melted chocolate. I melted the chocolate chips (I needed 3 12 oz. bags (3!) for each cake mix) in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes total, stirring every 30 seconds. The white chocolate only took about 1 minute 30 seconds.



Drop the ball in the chocolate and roll it around until well coated, but try and do it in as few strokes as possible so that the ball remains intact.





Set them on a cool surface, on waxed paper to cool. If you are adding a topping, don’t wait too long or the chocolate will cool and the topping will not stick. I did about 3 balls and then sprinkles.





It took about 2 hours I think, to do a 100 cake balls or so. The white chocolate was much harder to work with, I’m not sure why, and took longer to set.



CAKE BALLS!~

Chocolate Strawberry with sprinkles…





(sorry my hands looks dirty, it’s just melted chocolate and sprinkle dye)
Cream cheese carrot cake with white chocolate and a cinnamon dusting…






I had the office test them today and they got a thumbs up. Total time? about 8 hours. I'm not kidding.

Dress, Target
Jacket, Forever XXI
Tights, Target
Boots, Steve Madden
Bag, Thrifted,
Talon Necklace, Talonalia
Book, Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (book two in her tales of the Faeries, and stinking GOOD)

Less Fashion, More Cake Balls, Part 1

Last night I stated the two day long process of making cake balls for the Dallas Swap (This Saturday!~ Please see Monday’s post if you are interested, we would love to have you). Cake Balls are kind of like a truffle, but the inside is a mix of cake and frosting.

Let’s begin with proper baking attire…



The vintage Spice Girls tee is not required, but recommended if available. We ordered this back in 1999, in our first year of marriage, from a catalog. It was $24.99, which was an outrageous amount for us to pay for a tee shirt back then, because we were living off my work study money, but even then I was very devoted to my pop groups. I remember thinking that this was a “fitted” tee. Isn’t that crazy?

The vintage apron was my grandmothers. I love aprons.

I gathered my materials…



Basically, I went with a sort of hybrid of two recipes. But they all start with just a cake. Any cake. I went with boxed cake mixes. I used one strawberry and one carrot cake. My pictures are all of the strawberry cake.

I don’t have a mixer. Well, I will now. My hand mixer, which is an endless source of amusement for my friends has always been fine. But last night it sort of gave up on me during the carrot cake. Which means I need to replace it and I think I will go with a hand held electric this time. I so do not need a big ol mixer like most people have, since I almost never bake. But here it is, one last time for all you kids, my hand mixer…



So you make the cake the same as always. And then you let it cool. I let the cakes cool for about an hour. This way they were still a bit warm, which comes in handy in a bit. After you let them cool, you crumble them up into cake crumbs.





To the cake crumbs, you add one jar of frosting. It helped for them to be warm, which made the frosting stir in easier, I think. I used strawberry for the strawberry cake and cream cheese for the carrot cake, which is not terribly creative, I know, but like I said, I don’t bake.



Just stir it all up.



Now that mixture goes into the fridge. We (Nathan and I) let it sit about an hour and a half.


Then we ran our finger along the frosting jar to make sure we didn’t miss any, and we licked that sucker clean.



P. Bitty helped.



Once the mixture is firm and cold, scoop out melon baller sized pieces and ball them up, just like a meatball. In fact, the mixture itself looks like meat. So did the carrot cake mixture.









Once we had balled up all the mix, we put it back in the fridge. We let it sit overnight and at noon today Nathan will move it to the freezer so it will be nice and cold for the next step, which is when we coat them with melted chocolate for the hard outer shells. Stay tuned!

Dallas Area Swap – THIS WEEKEND

What: A fashion swap for all Dallas areas ladies.

When: Saturday, October 24th at 11 AM

Where: 13154 Coit Rd, Dallas, TX 75240 (Journey Community Church, it's in an office building complex.)

What to bring: Gently used clothing, accessories and shoes

What else to bring: If possible, we encourage you to bring a snack or drink to share. Because we know some of you are on really tight budgets, this is not required.

Why: Fun, Friendship and Fashion

The details:

So we will gather at the address above at 11 AM. You will be greeted at the door by myself, Tina or Wendy. You will sign in, and exchange your clothing, accessories and shoes for tickets. Each item is good for one ticket. Then we will take your items and add them to the rest. All items will be available for checking out, trying on, making notes, ect for all participants. We will have a couple of full length mirrors for you. No swapping will take place yet. After everyone has had a chance to check out what’s available, we will start the selection process. Each girl will get a chance to exchange one item for one ticket. Participants will select based on the order on the sign in sheet, first come, first served. This will continue until all tickets have been spent, or no one finds anything else they want. Some girls will get more turns based on the number of tickets they have, some less. Once we run out of tickets, we will open the floor for everyone to raid the remaining clothing. Please be respectful and polite. Any items left will be donated to charity.

If you have not signed up, and want to come, please do. If you get a chance to drop me an e-mail (erindyan at gmail.com) and let me know you are coming, great. If not, please do not let that keep you from coming. I hope to see as many of you out there as can make it. And I hope you all have fun!~