Oregon Jamboree 2012

Playing catch-up now to show you these beautiful photos of the Oregon Jamboree merchandise booth. Our friend Dave * caught the last of the evening light and the evening crowd. You can't see the thousands of people, or feel the extreme heat of the day here, though I remember both clearly.

A shot behind the scenes on the first day.

I still have trouble believing the number of people with the foresight to buy sweatshirts in the heat.

Be sure to click on the photos to see them larger.
* Photos courtesy of Basset Studios

The Holy Grail

Shopping for jeans is Hell. We all know this. You spend the entire day trying on every single pair of jeans in the entire mall, and you come home feeling tired, depressed, unsatisfied. Not a single pair looks as good on as the pair that you are actually wearing, which are threadbare, and have a hole in the crotch, and they don't make them anymore, or they changed the design and added SPANDEX. I swear there is not a pair of jeans in all 31 stores that does not have spandex, and if it does exist in the back of the women's department next to the granny panties, and the reason that it is there is because the waist of the jeans goes up to your nipples.

This being said, my primary shopping mode is thrifting, and while thrifting I have found many pairs of jeans, that I like and wear, a lot even... But! I have never found that perfect, that beautiful, that Holy Grail of favorite jeans.

The only place, that have ever found the perfect pair of jeans, is Buckle.com. I get a little quiver of relief just thinking about it. Buckle has roughly 1,000 separate styles of jeans for women alone. This may seem daunting. However, someone invented the most wonderful search engine and each category narrows your search, bringing you closer to possible perfection. Simply by choosing "non stretch" the choices jump from roughly 1,000, to exactly 131. I kid you not. Hit a button, and the jeans all flip over and show off their rear ends. That's right, so you can rule out all of the pants with those stupid flaps over the back pockets that will never again lie that flat, but will instead, curl up all over the place, and completely ruin your line.

My last pair of favorite jeans, succumbed last Thursday to a fatal hole, from which there is no return. Today, my new pair of favorite jeans arrived in the mail.

Unfortunately, I failed to realize that the 20 inch leg opening meant flare jeans, and I hate flare jeans. I have no one to blame but myself. Back they go, this time, remember to choose the 18" leg opening.

If this post seems shallow to you, slip into your favorite pair of jeans, or better yet, toss them out, and then you tell me.

Of Peachy Pink, and Silken Drawers

I have been feeling distinctly unbloggy lately. Not uncreative, or uninspired, but creative in a furtive, comatose, planning sort of way, not in a contemplative, finishing projects to post sort of way. This sort of creative has a distinctly sartorial edge to it, and involves alternately rummaging through a foot high stack of fashion magazines with a pair of scissors, retreating to my bed with a book that I have read a million times, pulling everything out of my closet, and as a last resort stretching out with my favorite episode of the Gilmore Girls (yes, I own them all.) My favorite episode is on disk 2 of season 5 and involves Rory researching a secret society of wealthy students called the Life and Death Brigade. As a part of her research she ends up at one of their secret parties which happens to involve linen tents, crystal chandeliers and candles in the woods, with everyone dressed in 1930's period attire. That is so my kind of party. There is also a great quote which I only caught just this viewing (that means the I have somehow missed it each of the previous 4 viewings). Rory steps out of the tent, to see Logan freshly dressed for the day in a tux.

"Another day, another sartorial adventure," she quips. Isn't that a great line? And sort of a theme of mine at the moment. She also has really great hair in every single episode ever made. I am intensely jealous of this... though not so jealous that I am willing to sacrifice the extra 15 to 20 minutes of sleep in the morning that would be required in order to actually blow dry my hair.

Clothes. They have been on my mind more than usual lately perhaps because I have been involved, during working hours, in the rather intense process of designing a line of shirts for an event. Fun, yes. Also a bit well, intense. Especially as it has to be designed, approved, printed, photographed, described, and up on the website as much before July 31st as possible. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, I mentioned pulling out everything in my closet. I did, and you will be relieved to know, that I put it all back again; but not before trying on most of it and separating out a rather large pile (roughly a third) of clothes that no longer fit, or are simply unacceptable.

Why did I put them back? I have decided that they just need some readjustments, or in some cases a complete rebuild, and in some cases, they just have great fabric, and I can't bear to get rid of them.

So that is my project. There are holes in my wardrobe you see. And they are holes that I have been unable to fill because either:

a. the particular design I crave is simply unavailable

or (more often)

b. the particular design I crave is unaffordable.

So, I will try. I continue to read, and I do love to share. But if you don't hear from me, just figure that I am trying to decide the best way to add black tulle to my wardrobe.

Two Red Coats

Not always, but sometimes, and more often than you might think, it it all about a red coat.