Vintage, Fun, and Black Tie (Optional)

My friend from Graduate School is getting married.  I'm so happy for her, she is truly a happy bride.

Now I'm faced with a slight problem.  As the title suggests the dress code is "Vintage, Fun, and Black Tie (Optional)."  I have looked for a vintage dress but I can't find a good one, and in truth, I can't really afford a new dress anyway (even if it is vintage).  

So I have two options.  One, a black dress that is perfect...except that it is BLACK.  I could fancy it up with a colorful belt and shoes but I'm not too excited by that.  So that leaves me with option two, a pink "Marilyn Monroe dress."

What do you think? Will it work?

There is one problem.  The top is so low you can see my bra.

Even with the pin it does not work.  (I have since sewn it up a little, but I'm not sure that will work.)

The other problem is that my petty coat shows.  (I'm just popping out all over the place.)

Here is one more shot of the whole dress.

What do you think?  Will it work?  Can I go to a museum in New Jersey, where the wedding is held, and not feel out of place?

I do have one more option.  My friend has a bright red strapless dress that might work, but I have to try it on and hope it fits.  

Now comes your job.  I know you can't see the black dress or the red one, but what do you think? Will the pink one work?  Should I go out looking a another vintage dress?   I need help.  Give me advice.


Where I Party:

Stinky Linky Party

A Touch of Blue

I'm working on adding blue accents to my living room.  In truth I'm a bit over all the orange, but because of money constraints (and because not one year ago did I promise my hubby I would NEVER tire of orange) I have to live with it.   In order to freshen up the orange I'm adding blue.

I painted the walls blue (you can read about that here) and now I'm adding some blue accent pillows.  I'm not done, but I made two pillows so far.  I hope to add some more blue accent pillows soon with different fabric and textures.

This is what I did so far.

Two accent pillows of blue satin.  I used a simple envelope pillow pattern and whipped these out in a couple of hours.

I'm still trying to decide where to put them, but I love how they add some light to that orange and brown look right now.

Above you can see the blue pillows with the blue walls.  It is all coming together.

I have some other ideas for this room.  I want to paint the book shelves white with a pattern on the background.  I also want to make some more blue pillows.  I found some extra pillow forms so I don't even have to buy them (yay).  Maybe I will make some with a flower pattern like I have pinned on pinterest.

So what do you think?  It is not that drastic a change, but I'm happy with how it looks.

My decorating changes always take a long time.  I never have a really huge transformation all at once (I guess I just don't have the time for that), but I like that the changes are organic and ever flowing.

Where I Party:

Tag ... I'M It!

There seems to be some kind of chain tagging going on in blogland right now and I'm it.  I was tagged by the wonderful Lori from Bleak to Unique.

Actually this made my day.  I felt so special to have been singled out as a blogger special enough to be tagged.  It is all very exciting for me.

So, here are the rules: 

1. Post a photo and eleven things about yourself in a blog post.
2. Answer the questions the person who tagged you asked.
3. Create eleven new questions for the people you tag.
4. Contact them and let them know they have been tagged. 

Not so hard right?  (I think the worst part will be the picture, I don't photograph well)

That's me..Chance. :)

Eleven Random Things About Myself:

1. I was born in Goa, India, home of the Goa Trance music sensation.

2. I'm a true blond, I have never died my hair in my life (except once when I was 12 I died the ends green and had to get them cut out because it never faded).

3. I hate shaving my legs.  It is a horrible thing and I do do it, especially in the summer, but I don't enjoy it (does anyone?).

4. I owned my house when I was 21 years old.  We had to do a bunch of renovations to it, but a lot of the decisions I made were naive and made from a 21 year old perspective (like blue tiles in the bathroom...why?).

5. My father bribed me to quit smoking cigarettes eleven years ago.  I have never gone back.  He said it was the best $1,000 he ever spent.  

6. I am the second of four children, all born in three different countries (India, Australia, USA).

7. I have been trying to decorate the guest room for more than a year (it is almost done).

8. I don't like chocolate cake (I think it is boring).

9. Every couple of years I have to travel somewhere or else I feel trapped.  (What can I say?  Traveling is in my blood.)

10. I traveled around the world four times before I was seven (see above).

11. When I read other people's blogs I feel like a failure because I'm just not that cool (It is kind of like reading fashion magazines ... they just make you feel ugly. But I love my blogger community and am in constant awe of some of the great stuff you guys make.)  

Questions from My Tagger:

1. How much time a week do you spend blogging?

Lately, not enough.  I have really been slacking on the blogging end of life and hope to change that soon.  I spend about three hours a week (that is one post).  2. How many different states have you lived in, and which one is your favorite? I have only ever lived in one state, New York, but I have also lived in two states in India (as an adult) and traveled to many different countries.  
3. Are you a "half glass full", or a "half glass empty" kinda person? Explain a little. I'm a little of both.  I tend to think that everything will work out, but then I also tend to get a little down on myself and then nothing will work out and I become a "glass half empty" person. It all depends on my mood.   
4. Can you laugh at yourself? Give an example. I think I can, but I can't think of an example, lol.  My husband laughs at me all the time.  He thinks I'm crazy because I wanted my living room to be orange and then a couple of  months after we moved in I didn't like it any more.  He's right, I'm nuts.  (I'm living with the orange right now) 
5. When you lay down to sleep...what do you think about?...or do you just sleep? I never just sleep.  It takes me ages to get to sleep.  I have to read first, then I usually think about everything in my life.  When we first planned to move I would keep myself up at night thinking about paint colors.  
6. Would you consider hosting a HGTV show? What would you call it and what would you do? I would love to host a HGTV show.  I would call it "Designed by Chance" of course.  I would love to redecorate other people's homes.  
7. How many Pinterest pins have you actually done? If so, was it successful? 2656 pins.  I'm crazy about Pinterest.  I think my Pinterest site is actually more popular than my blog.  Oh well, maybe the Pinterest will give me some more traffic.  
8. Does your TP roll over or under?...(Over is the ONLY way:). OVER,  Lori is so right, over is the only way.  Once my hubby and I had a big fight about it, and then we both switched to be nice to the other, but now we have settled on over (He was right, I was wrong.  I have to say that a lot, it is true.)  
9. How many pets do you have?...What are they? I only have one pet, a cat, Rhea.  She is my baby and I love her like no other (she is in my lap right now).    
10. When was the last time you played a board game? What game was it? My hubby and I like to play games with friends.  The last game we played was Apples to Apples at Thanksgiving, but that is really a card game.  In Australia (you can read about it here) my sisters and I played Monopoly (we had so much fun).   
11. Have you bought an area rug lately? If so, what brand, style, color etc. was it? (Okay this one is just for me cause' I'm trying to decide on a rug for the family room).  Hubby and I just bought an area rug for the deck.  I really want to make it like a little extra living space with a rug and pillows (soon to come).  We got it a Lowes.  It is brown and green (like our outdoor furniture) and has a nice modern design.  

Now is the fun part: I get to tag people.  

Here are the blogs I have tagged:

The Cape on the Corner

Type A Decorating

Sew Chatty

Fox Hollow Cottage

Handcrafted by MaryAnne Miller

Natasha in Oz

You're IT!!!

My Eleven Questions:  

1. What is your favorite city to visit and why?

2. Do you blog about craft fails? (You know the crafts that just don't work out.)

3. What do you use to clean you bathtub? (I'm really struggling with this one, I have a resurfaced tub and can't ever get it clean)

4. Tell me something about your childhood.  

5. What is your favorite thing you have made? (food, craft, child, whatever)

6. Tell me about the best day of your life.

7. What is your favorite color right now? (mine is blue and white, ok that's two)

8. How often do you clean your house? (be truthful)

9.  Are you an organized person?  Give an example.

10. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, (go with me on this one) what would you do today?

11. Do you think a facebook page for your blog is a good idea or just more work?  

Alright I'm done!!!  Yay, that was a lot of work.  Hope you all participate and am as flattered as I was.  I love all these blogs, that's why I tagged you.  (but if you don't want to do it I won't be offended, I get it.)

Photo Fun

In the age of digital photos I don't have a lot of hard copies of my photography around the house.  I just don't see the reason to get a bunch of prints made.  The prints would just end up in a big box somewhere.  Instead I make photo books that keep a record of important times.

I love to use My Publisher.*  I really like this company because the software is easy to use but very versatile.  I have made several photo books with them already.

I just got my newest photo book from My Publisher a couple of weeks ago.  The packaging is great and so exciting to open up.

The box left on my doorstep.

The company.

Inside! (I love the "ta-da")

My newest book.  

I wrote about my honeymoon photo book here, you can see some of the page layouts.  But this time, I wanted to show you what a good job My Publisher does.  They have a hotline in case you need it, and they have great customer service (but I have never had to use it because everything turned out great.)  They even have a mailing list and often send out discount codes.

But enough gushing about My Publisher....on to the book I made.

The cover.

The inside jacket sleeve.  

The photo book I chose came with a cover and a jacket sleeve.  I got to design every aspect of the book, including the layout.

Above are a couple of the pages I made from photos I took.  I loved visiting that castle you can read about it here.

That is me standing on my head on the boat.

The back cover and the amazing glacier we saw.

Now I have another photo book to add to my collection.  I have a vision of having a bunch of these in the years to come, one for each big trip or event we have.  They are really fun to make. Oh and the best part is that once you buy a book from My Publisher they keep a record of it online so you can always buy it again. Isn't that great?

My 3 photo books, the wedding, the honeymoon, and Alaska.

I have some old fashioned photo albums as well but I'm not very good about putting photos in them.  This system is much more fun.

How do you organize your photos from trips and events?

*My Publisher did not pay me or award me anything to say this, I just like them.

Unemployment

I'm unemployed, and I struggle with it.  I like to be honest with you, my readers, and that is the honest truth.  It is why I have not been crafting or decorating and it is why I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning.  I keep sending out resumes and I keep getting silence in return.  It is very disheartening.

A couple of days ago I put this picture on my Facebook:

It is a reminder to myself that as hard as I try something will come out of it. That is what I hope, and that is what I am trying to remember as every day I come home to see "no messages" on my answering machine.

So I know I have been very quiet on the blog front.  In truth, it is just very hard for me to be excited about blogging when things in life are not going so well.

I'm off to see my new nephew, and when I get back maybe I will be fortified to blog more and craft more.  We will just have to see.

If you feel like it, let me know how you are doing.  I love to hear how you handle rejection and disappointment (and if you have any advice I will take it).

All Natural Eye Makeup Remover

I have been looking for a good eye makeup remover for a long time.  I like the ones with oil because they are easier on my sensitive skin.  Most of the oil based eye makeup remover is so expensive and I'm never confident of their long list of ingredients.

One day on Pinterest I saw a local recipe for eye makeup remover.  Frugally Sustainable has a great recipe for all natural eye makeup remover.  After trying the reipe out as is, I added more oil.  This worked the best for me.

One thing I love about this recipe is that the ingredients are so simple.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon Dr. Bronner's Unscented Baby-Mild Soap
1 tablespoon olive oil

Just mix the ingredients together and poor into a bottle (or two).

Shake up the ingredients s they really combine (you will have to do this every time you use it).

I labeled the containers and then got to try it out.

Here is my eye with makeup and after I have removed it.

Before

After

I found that this eye makeup remover works very well.  It took off the waterproof mascara and the pencil eyeliner.  My all natural eye makeup remover works as good as the Clinique stuff I love but can't afford. The extra oil I added made it more effective.

I may just wear more mascara now.  :)

Let me know if you try this and how it works for you.  If possible I would love to implement an informal pole: do you wear makeup every day?  I never wear makeup and sometimes wish I did.  In truth, I'm just too lazy to put in the effort, but I love how it makes me look just that much better.

Where I party: 

My Own Private Paradise

This really is paradise.  I have my own little house and my own hot tub.  Life is good, and who could beat this view?

Coal Bay from my deck 

I really is spectacular here.  I just love it.  We are way up this mountain, but we can hear the waves on the beach bellow.  But, being here is bitter sweet.  My years of coming to this house are steeped with memories of my father.  Even after a year and a half, I expect him to be sitting on the veranda reading a book.  But he is not here and it makes me sad.

Let me take you on a virtual tour of the grounds.  (ha it's not that big)

This is the main house where my step-mother lives.  The bedroom is on the left and the living area on the right.  I took these pictures in a rush so they are not the best.  There is also a little pool off in front of the chairs there.

 There is the pool and the view.  It is just a small pool (they call it a dipping pool) but it is perfect to cool off in.

Here's the rest of the view.  You can see Tortola and other islands.

These are the stairs that go up to my house.  I have my own bedroom, living room, and kitchen, plus two full baths, but I really only use the bedroom.  It is designed for two separate rental spaces.

This is my bed...very romantic don't you think (but no Jeff to join me).  It was great on our honeymoon.  They have the same bed in the main house.

And finally here is my little deck.  It has seating for two.

My step mom and I go the the beach almost every day.  They have the best beaches here on the island.  I almost don't want to say the name because so many people come here already.  It is sad that our secret is out.

The world is getting so crowded.  Ten years ago I came here and we never had trouble finding parking or a spot on the beach, but now that has all changed.  I'll have to find a new secluded island (ha good luck).

Here's the amazing view again.  I hope you all do't hate me.  Just know I miss my husband terribly, so it is not all fun in the sun.