It's a girl!

Meet Sister Mary Margaret:















We'll be calling her Midge for short.
Last Friday we went to Maine's annual rite of autumn, the Common Ground Fair. It's pretty cool for many reasons, but my favorite part is the rabbit barn. Picture it: an entire barn filled with hopping bundles of adorability. Who could resist such a thing? Obviously not me, since one of those bundles is now hopping around my house.
Morris was obviously in need of a friend since he had taken up his compulsive licking thing again*. I had been planning on getting a bunny from the shelter, but I was having a hard time finding one on their websites that met our needs and was within a 2-hour drive.
I kept telling myself I wasn't going to buy one at the fair, and I was still telling myself that when I asked if I could just hold that adorable little lionhead. How was I to know that the previously struggling little bunny would just melt into my arms as soon as she was placed there? I ask you, what kind of person would I be to ignore such an obvious sign that she was meant to join our family?
She happily snuggled in my arms for the next 3 hours as we meandered around the fair and then took the long drive home. I actually started to worry that she had no leg muscles, but when we got home she started racing around the house almost faster than my eyes could keep up with her. I think she's going to make things pretty interesting around here.


*It would appear that he's a caretaker by nature, since he will "groom" inanimate objects when he doesn't have another bunny to take care of. The windows were open, and I wonder what the neighbors thought when they heard me yelling, "Stop licking the couch!" after I saw him licking a big wet spot onto the cushion. Do they look at Davis strangely now?

Jackpot 2: Vintage Boogaloo

Yes, there was another cache of treasure at the Free Store this week! Some more McCall's Needlework mags from the 1920s-60s, plus many fine vintage crafty booklets. I promise to share some pictures from them, but first I need some time to look through them!

In crafty news, I did finish the Over-the-Knee Socks. I have to say that a better name for them might be "Over-the-Knee Socks Until You Actually Take A Couple Steps, And Then They're More Of A South-of-the-Knee Sock". I suppose that might be little long though.
I don't think I went with the best yarn for the job either. It's a little too wooly to show the details along the back. Of course, that might be all for the best, considering they keep getting twisted around due to all the tugging that needs to be done to keep them up.

Jackpot!

Look at what Davis brought back from The Free Store! More than 30 vintage McCall's Needlework magazines ranging from 1923 through the 1960s.
There are lots of fabulous knitting patterns to be had (especially if one fancies making themself a skirt and matching jacket on size two needles!). Sadly, the sections on sewing seem designed to taunt me, since they require that I send away for the patterns. Call me a cynic, but even if I doubled the 25 cents that they're asking, I doubt that they'd send any to me.
The best ones are from the 30s and 40s. Things took a bit of a dive in the 60s when they added the "& Crafts" to their title. I'm not one for the glued-spool arts, and string pictures have always left me cold.
In other fabulous-finds news, I recently found several very cute vintage aprons. I'm only going to post a picture of one of them for now because the other pictures I took really showcased my craptastic ironing skills.


edited to add: Is it just me, or has blogger's "preview" option become even less representational of where pictures are going to end up?

It's Fashion Week!

I'm a sucker for Fashion Week. Fashion magazines put me to sleep, but give me a runway show and I'm like a kid at the circus.

Up here in L.L. Beantown there isn't a whole lot of hype for the event, so I usually realize it has occurred a week or two afterwards. But not this year!
Thanks to the Fug girls I'm soooo on top of it. I'm thankful not only for their reminder that this is THE week, but also for their very entertaining updates from the trenches tents for New York Magazine. That's also the place to see photos and videos of the various catwalks. Did you read me? VIDEOS! It's fabulous! You can also get similar info at Style.com but they seem a little slower to update, and I'm only seeing a paltry two videos.
So why do I get so into this when I can barely afford the Isaac Mizrahi line at Target? I think it's the eye-candy factor combined with the thrill of being able to pretend that I'm at least in the know (if not in the posession) of what is the cutting edge of high fashion.
Now I like wearability as much as the next gal, but since I won't be buying anything what I really want is entertainment. With that in mind, I beg you to check out this video of the Heatherette runway experience. While I'm the last person to suggest that cardboard cutouts of pineapples make for a fine garment (well, actually I'm sure I'd offer it up as a possibility long before, say, my dad, but you know what I mean), I would love to have been at that show. It so fun to watch that it even made me (almost) think kind thoughts about the star model, Paris Hilton (though not so much for the lackluster Nikki, I'm afraid). And the music! It's had me bouncing in my seat every one of the 17 times that I've watched it. Does anyone know what it is?

And now I have something of interest for Project Runway fans. If you go to the schedule you will find shows for:
1. Malan Breton (Tuesday) hmmm....
2. Jay McCarroll (Friday)
and
3. Project Runway (Friday) - Does this mean we'll be able to see their collections way before that episode airs? NYmag shows the collections of most other designers shortly after their runway shows. Here's the page that shows the Project Runway collections, including the decoy one for Kara Janx.