Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  If you read my last post you'll know that this year I made my own flapper costume!  I'm really glad I did too because I can wear it again if I want to since it's good enough quality.  I've always liked the flapper dress look so I didn't want to waste my money on an ill-fitting cheap version from Party City or anything.  I spent about the same amount of money on materials as I would have on a store-bought version.  (I'm not knocking all store-bought costumes, don't get me wrong.  They just never seem to fit as nice as they could, plus you would look silly wearing it out on any other day other than Halloween).

dress: handmade

fishnet tights: Target

heels: Mudd (from the old days of high school band concerts! ca. 2005)

headband: handmade

feather & beads: Party City

lipstick: Revlon- Fire & Ice

nail color: Revlon- Revlon Red

This past Saturday I danced it up at the local dance club, Luna, along with my friends.  It was such a blast!  Saw some great costumes there too, my favorite was the giant Lego man!  I'm bummed I didn't think to take a picture of him!

^Dancing at the local speakeasy!

What were your costumes this year?  Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Boo!

DIY: Flapper Costume!

This year it is decided that I will go as a flapper for Halloween!  Now I realize you all probably have your costumes set and ready to go, but I'm showing you this DIY because I took the time to document each step and put it together.  Just with a busy busy life, projects seem to come together later than planned!

What you'll need:
Black dress
Black fringe
Measuring tape
Pins
Scissors
Thread

1. This is the dress I bought.  I found it at Value World for a whopping...
2. $4.60!  Excellent.
3. Measure and cut the dress to preferred length
4. Resulting dress

5. Drape and pin your first row of fringe to the top edge of the dress.  Make sure the fringe goes all the way around the dress, not just the front.
6. Sew on the fringe with sewing machine!  (tip: turn the dress inside out to make it easier for this top row!)
7. Drape/Pin/Sew on the bottom row of fringe.
8. Measure the distance between where you want your second row of fringe to start all the way down to wear you want the second-to-last row of fringe to end.  Take that amount and divide it by how many rows you have left to sew on.  This ensures that all the rows will be evenly spaced.  The fringe I used is 6" long, so I allotted for 6 rows of fringe for the size/length of my dress.

And there is your dress!  I realize I just made that sound a lot easier than it really was, but those are the basic steps I followed.  Now, I must give a huge THANK YOU to my mother, for she helped me out with the sewing.  I'm not that great at sewing, and really don't have much patience for it.  But my mom is a great sewer so she stepped in to help out.  Good thing she did because somehow I managed to jam my finger in a spot I didn't know existed on the sewing machine.  It was so jammed that I had to actually yank it out because it wouldn't come loose easily.  And yes, it was EXTREMELY painful.  That took me out of the sewing process for I had to ice my finger in order to keep it from swelling up really big.  Ouch.

I plan to wear this costume out on Saturday night for Luna's Halloween Costume Bash!  I'm very excited!  So if all goes as planned, I should have some photos of me actually wearing the dress to post on Halloween.

Some additional things to complete my flapper costume:

Fishnet tights, bead necklaces, a black feather, black eye liner (for some exciting eyes!), and bright red lipstick.  Looks like I'm ready to dance!

And last but not least, I wanted to share a photo from my family's album.  The two in this picture are my great uncle and great aunt.  Now that's a '20s style dress!  I couldn't find any flapper dresses in my family's album, but this style definitely screams 1920s.  Check out the finger waves too, I love it!

Also, take note of the watch hanging from my great uncle's belt.  So cool!

What are you planning for Halloween?

P.S.
If anyone actually plans to make a flapper dress, email me if you have any questions!

Fishing In The Rain

Short entry today...  I just had to share a quick pic of my rain boots because I think they're adorable.  I seriously feel like a little kid because of the amount of joy they bring in the form of giggling.  It sounds silly, but they make me smile.

rain boots: Target

You may not be able to tell in the photo, but the white and red spots are actually little fish.  These boots have been coming in handy lately with all of this rain!

The only drawback is that I've had to be mad at Target lately when usually I love Target.  I ordered two sizes of these to make sure I had the right fit and have yet to even receive the other size, let alone return it.  I ordered these back in the first week of September.  Oh, and they charged my credit card for both sizes.  My attempt at calling customer service resulted in them telling me to call UPS, who then told me to call Target.  After calling Target for the second time they proceeded to put me on hold for 45 minutes until I finally had to hang up because my class was starting.  I've yet to call them back even though I really should get on that.  But who has 45+ minutes to wait on hold?  I know I don't!  Okay, rant over.  They really are cute boots :)

Magic Leaves or Attacking Leaves?

Another rainy day in Michigan today.  Only perk was wearing my rain boots.  They have fish on them and they make me smile!  This week has been crazy hectic.  I basically don't get a chance to breathe between Monday and Thursday.  Right now I'm MAKING myself breathe and pause from homework for a cup of tea and an outfit posting.

My backyard doesn't have any bright red or orange trees, it's mostly just brown.  So this is my best fall leaf shot so far.  I need to go stand in someone else's yard with their pretty trees.  Who's that weird girl taking pictures of herself in our yard?  Oh, that's just me.  Don't worry about it.

The above two pictures make me laugh.  The left one looks like I'm conducting magic with the leaves and the right one looks like the leaves are attacking me.  Hehe.  Leaf photo idea failure I guess!

And then I accepted the fact that it was actually too cold to be without a jacket:

dress: H&M (SO COMFY!!)

trench coat: Delia's ca. '06

leg warmers: vintage/my mother's

boots: Civico 10

bag: Delia's

scarf: Wet Seal

Now I'm off to finish my cup of tea (green tea in particular, yum!), finish reading assigned chapters in my Typography textbook, and continue reading The Love Of A Good Woman by Alice Munro for my Women in Literature class.  I must chop chop!  Time is a ticking.

Adventures In The Apple Trees

A few weekends ago my sister and I went to the apple orchard!  I hadn't been to the apple orchard in ages (well, that's not entirely true... I had gone the weekend before these pictures were taken too, but before that I hadn't gone in ages!!)

Great place for some outfit photographing, of course.

It was also the first time wearing my new riding boots.  I love love love these boots.  Plus I had super coupons at DSW so I got them super discounted, even better!

striped sweater: Forever21

scarf: Wet Seal

jacket: LC Lauren Conrad

jeans: American Eagle

boots: DSW

purse: Target

It was fun to take part in fall-related activities.  Fall is such a short season in Michigan so you really have to do these things while you can because you never know when the cold weather will strike and stay for the winter.

One thing I'm disappointed about not having in any outfit shots yet are the beautiful Michigan leaves.  Living in the southeast corner of the state, it takes a little while for the fall leaf colors to make their way south from the Upper Peninsula and the upper portion of the Lower Peninsula.  Right now as I look outside my window I still see a lot of green.  The problem is, it's been rainy, cold, and extremely windy the past couple days, so a lot of the colored leaves have been stripped off the trees already!  Not fair!  I hope I'll get an opportunity to pose next to a bright-leafed tree!  I LOVE fall!

This weekend I've been prepping my Halloween costume.  Stay tuned for a DIY post coming up!  I love this season!

 

By the way, I'd like to point out that Cup of Tea is now officially at 40 Google Friend Connect followers!  Yay!  It seems like just yesterday I was reporting on 30!  This makes me very happy.  Thank you!

blueblack denim

Go Tigers!!  Okay, now that I've got that out of the way:

lace shirt: Charlotte Russe

jeans: American Eagle

jean jacket: American Eagle

necklace: gift

hat: American Eagle

shoes: Steve Madden

So I didn't realize this before typing the above ^ but I guess this is a AE-hefty outfit.  Not intentional.  I'm looking for every opportunity to wear my jean jacket these days.  I'm not 100% on board with wearing the jacket with blue denim jeans yet (I'm working on it) so I took the opportunity to mix it with black denim instead.

How do you feel about wearing jean and jean (as in jean jacket/shirt with blue jeans on the bottom)?  Lovers?  Haters?  Do share... I'm interested.

Now I'm back to my homework.  This week's Woman In Literature book is Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich.  Very very good.  Hope everyone's Monday went well!  Michigan has been enjoying a heat wave this past week.  Peak hours have been in the 80s!  I sense the weather will turn on me soon though... as in Wednesday :(

Until next time!

P.S.

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments lately!  They've been so nice to read, especially on all of the stressful days I've been having lately.  Thanks, readers!  :)

Featured On LaurenConrad.com!

If you know me, you know that I am in love with Lauren Conrad's line at Kohl's.  Seriously.  It can get dangerous if I walk past that section in the store because I'll just want to buy everything!  If you've been following Cup of Tea closely, you'll see that a lot of my outfits involve something LC Lauren Conrad.

Anyway, today I was so surprised and happy to see that Lauren chose one of my outfits to feature on her website!  You can see her post here!  It was all about business casual, so I submitted a pic that I took one day after work, and there I am on LaurenConrad.com!

This is the look that was featured:

shirt: Forever21

black tank underneath: H&M

pants: New York & Company

shoes: Nine West

necklace: gift

That definitely brightened my day at work today!  Anyone else a big LC Lauren Conrad clothing fan?

Thanks Lauren!