Miss Merry Mack

Every so often I will do just a bit of modeling work for a friend (and fellow crafter). She owns/runs/designs Verabelle, a vintage clothing revamp shop. "Each article of clothing from Verabelle is a little piece of artwork, original and one-of-a-kind. It's clothing that's just as unique as you are!" Her designs are so cute, and they easily lend themselves to my style, so it's quite fun to play dress up in her latest and greatest.Verabelle clothing is frequently adorned with Amanda's sweet animal artwork. This is Mack the mallard. I think he's just ducky. (lol. I quack myself up.)

This is Mack's Take A Bow-tie Sweater. The little bows just killed me. I simply adore bows, and I've been on a major grey kick as of late. So this brings me to my problem with doing these shoots... not taking the piece I'm modeling home with me!

Top: Verabelle Take A Bow-tie sweater
Dress: (worn as a skirt) Target
Tights: Target
Boots:Vintage
Earrings: Corvidae

All photos in this shoot are taken by Amanda. Seriously you guys, go check her out!
HERE
And "like" her HERE
GO! Now!

Luv,
Vanessa*

Jayna Lee

This is my friend Jana. She's an acrobat. Yes. For real. It's her day job. I just felt the need to take a moment and point you attention in her amazing direction.

She does quite a bit more than just aerial silks but she's been hooked on them lately, and I thought the ones in the snow were just so beautiful! You can see many more performances (including her appearance on Ellen and America's Got Talent) HERE

Check her out Ladies and Gents!
Luv,
Vanessa*

(p.s. I really want her tights.)

Grey Skies Blue Skirt

Well here it is in action. The Clever Nettle skirt I received in the summer, and wrote about the other day. I finally got my act together and finished this post. I also went back and added a bit to the last one, as i just felt it wasn't quite as good as it could have been.

Top- Forever 21
Belt- Thrifted Ralph Lauren
Skirt - Clever Nettle
Tights- Target
Shoes Urban Outfitters
Necklace- Corvidae
Hat and Gloves - SoCo Antiques

Lol! I'm losing my hat!

Check out how beautiful the detail is on these gloves! I'm actually going to need to do just a touch of repair work on them as their age is showing a little, but these are old girls and are frankly in tremendous shape!

The netting is in perfect shape on this sweet little hat. I LOVE the pom poms. this is another of those things that i have always adored that is currently experiencing an online trend. A lot of the other (more well known) blogger ladies have taken to adorning themselves in cute little pom poms. I'm loving it.
This shoot was kinda bittersweet. I was glad to finally get some photo's of the Clever Nettle skirt, but one of my favorite places (to shoot, shop, and be) will soon be gone. Southern Comforts Antiques will be closing their physical doors on the 31 of January. It breaks my heart. It's been a crazy ride for them, and they just can't stay together. I'm planning on helping Wendy with learning ETSY so they won't disappear altogether, but it won't be quite the same. I'll keep you all posted. The good news is more people will have access to their amazing goodies! They will be donating to a special blog giveaway soon(probably mid-end of February, so keep checking back.
Luv,
Vanessa*

P.S. If you would like to support SoCo Antiques with kind words (or just to follow them for updates) you can follow them on Facebook HERE

Clever Purchase

I got a package!Ok, I took these photos about 400 years ago in the middle of the summer. I just never managed to upload them. I bought this skirt from Clever Nettle about five(ish?) months ago and I have worn it multiple times. I'd yet to manage any photos, which changed today. I got a couple of ok shots so I decided to milk this for all it's worth (lazy lazy lazy) and do separate posts.Pretty Pretty Wrapping! I Love how she used an old photo as a note card. I have such a little soft spot for old photos as I have talked about on here before. You can't help but wonder what these guys were talking about before the photo was snapped. I love it. I also adored the soft vintage (?) ribbon wrapped around the tissue. It has made it's way into my ribbon stash.

I love it! YAY! This skirt has all the versatility of a chambray denim skirt with the soft flowy shape that I'm so attracted to.

Anja has the most beautiful and inspiring blog. She is one of the reasons I started.
Check her out here!--> Clever Nettle

Stay tuned for an outfit post!
Luv,
Vanessa*

Sold and Relisted

This was my very first sale for my new company! I will get more into it later, but Corvidae is Grand Opening in less than two weeks! Just wanted to show off my fancy wrapping skills. The "Cozy" earrings can be purchased HERE <--
Hope you all had a safe and lovely holiday.
LUV,
Vanessa

Cornmeal Thumbprint Cookies

Anyone who knows me knows that I really don't bake. I don't completely hate it, I'm just not very good. I have successfully produced maybe two batches of cookies in my life. Enter my new found social life, and the holiday season. People expect you to bake. You are a lady. Therefore you bake. It's that simple. And while I love the whole Suzy Homemaker image (i'm a little bit more Siouxsie Homemaker if you don't get this joke, you were never goth), I have just always sat a little left of the definition of "lady". I have, however put monumental effort this year into proving my boobs are not phony. My first cookies, Honey Almond cherry shortbread were such a marvelous success, that I didn't have a panic attack when I was invited to a cookie exchange. Instead I turned to the goddess of all things Suzy Homemaker-like and checked my last holiday issue of Martha Stuart Living. I selected the cranberry thumbprint cookies, and decided to make a little change. While Martha would never allow the jam to be store bought i didn't feel quite like a foray into homemade jellies quite yet. Luckily my friend Jessica made me some superb South Carolina grown strawberry jam, so i settled on that.

Vanessa's Cornmeal Thumbprint cookies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 large egg, separated

1)
Preheat oven to 350degrees.
then make the cookies!
Whisk (or mix with a fork) flour, cornmeal, and salt in a medium bowl. (I insist it be a cute one. Makes cooking look better) Beat the softened butter and 1/4 cup sugar in the mixer on med until pale and fluffy(2min- ish). Add orange zest and egg yolk. Mix well. Turn the speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture. I recommend spooning it in. Mix until combined ( at this point I found it to be a smidge dry. I added 1 tbl egg white and 1 tbl water until it all suck together and stopped being so grainy. this is really important in a second)
2)
Lightly whisk egg white. Scoop 2 tsp. of dough and roll into a ball. Dip into egg white and then the 1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon sugar. Place it onto your parchment* covered cookie sheet. ( *or tinfoil if that's all you have in my case) Press gently at the center with your thumb just to flatten the round a tad. Repeat till you sheet is full (12-16 cookies) then use the end of a wooden spoon to add an intent to the center of the dough balls.
Bake for 16-17 min. I found that I went all the way to the 17 min. I probably made my cookies too thick though.
4)
Heat your jam in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. I'm really super specific. You can see why baking is not my forte here. After the cookies are baked and yummy, spoon a bit of the hot(!) jelly/jam/ stuff into the indentation of the cookies. Repeat with second batch. Makes 24-30 cookies.

WARNING!!!! Let the cookies cool FULLY before you attempt to take a bite. The little f*%$kers are extremely hot, and the jam is sticky, and runny. You will burn the ever loving daylights out of your lips. Not that I would know by experience or anything...

5)
Enjoy your delicious cookies.
Luv,
Vanessa*

Cold and Quick

Brrrrrrr! It getting so cold out! Just getting these shots was incredibly difficult! My toes were numb!




Also, Hello winter static. This was a new experience with my bangs. A two inch chunk in the middle of my face spent half of the day sticking straight up, the other half plastered to my face. I have to figure out a way around that. I love how I had no feet in these photos. The tiny hill I was standing on had really soft ground and I kinda sunk into the grass. So let's just assume I was wearing some Loubutins or something.

Dress: Gift from my sister (from JAPAN!)
Belt: Vintage
Slip: Forever 21
Tights: doubled for warmth, Target
Shoes: (unseen, not Loubotins) Vintage Ferrigamo courtesy of SoCo Antiques
Necklace: Corvidae

Here's hoping for slightly warmer weather.
Luv,
Vanessa*

P.S. How do you guys like the new look? I played for a long time to find something I was happy with. Let me know what you think!