2012

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i've been thinking long and hard about my resolutions for 2012, especially since i keep falling off of the blogging bandwagon. what goals do i have for myself in the new year? 

update my look. in 2012, i will be turning 30 and i think it's about time to start dressing as an adult. ok, i don't entirely mean that. i kinda sorta want to look a little more like an adult. but i would really love to mix the stuff i like with more classic pieces for a fun, more updated look. i love old lady style but i don't want to be an old lady yet.

make art/crafts. and i mean that literally. i just want to make. i would love love love to keep a daily art journal, but that seems way more ambitious than i am ready for. but i guess the benefits of doing that daily would be that i can get rid of all of the crappy stuff floating around in my head and finally get to the good stuff. so for now, i'll settle for making art/crafts daily. 

stay inspired. i want to make sure every day is so inspiring that i just HAVE to make something. i guess this resolution and the one above it go hand in hand.

lose 10 pounds by my 30th bday. i have 6 months. i can do this. (and i don't want to hear the - "you're so skinny, why do you need to lose 10 pounds?!?" questions. i would like to be at a healthier weight for my height. BOOM!)

take more pictures. i have a new camera, i should be playing around with the settings and documenting my life. plus, i want to go back to using my old manual camera as well. lots to take pics of.

blog. because, i really want to blog. i just find that "i have no time" or my internet is so damn slow. but blogging has been great for me to see my progression and so i would like to be better at keeping it up.

stop being so damn shy about what i do / who i am / what i know / how wonderful i am. that's pretty self explanatory.

now i'm off to play some board games, listen to music and have some drinks with my buddies before the ball drops. enjoy your NYE and have a wonderful 2012!!

happy holidays!

in my "i'm-way-behind-on-blogging" anxiety, i forgot to wish all of you some happy holidays! 

do it with a nice sized drink (or shot) and a mustache ring, ok?

just don't do it with tequila. tequila and i broke up a few days ago. waking up to an extreme headache is not my idea of a good time.

shoe lusttttttttttt

i want..all of them...can someone at lulus hook me up?

my wishlist (kinda sorta)

i love online shopping because you don't have to commit to buying anything and most everything looks amazing. i love scrolling through items and picking out the things i would buy if i had a bottomless wallet of cash and a very large closet. seriously. that would be amazinggggggg.

so here's my kinda sorta wishlist of things i have been scooping out:

created by fortune turban

because turbans are the new black. duh.

the new sharpie 80's glam ultra fine point marker set

because i need new pens to write with. even though i have a million.

this duck feather crown from artemis

what girl doesn't need a duck crown?!? i would wear this while sitting on my couch reading blogs. seriously.

(i'm bummed it's already sold out!)

these lita platform boots

if you know me, you know i'm a bit of an astronomy nerd. i love the cosmos. so the idea of wearing the cosmos is even more amazing.

the workbasket sewing workbook

i vow to learn how to sew. there are just too many awesome things i could create that would compliment my crocheting. 

the babooshka long sleeve tent-tee

i love to hide my food belly. ok, i don't really have a food belly but when i think i do, i like to hide it. and this dress/shirt thing would do just the trick.

what's on your wishlist? (that i can now add to my wishlist...?!?)

my life lately...

computer and crocheting

damn you, sick tummy.

sick days

i have been home, very sick, for this whole entire week. and not in the "i have a fever and my nose is about to fall off sick" but more of the type of sick where you get stuck in the bathroom several times during the day. TMI? well deal with it. this is what happens when you have cabin fever.

but while i was sick, i was able to look at pretty pictures online and think of things i want to make/buy. my pinterest and tumblr were busy. there are a few updates on there that should make people happy.

and then i came across old love via orchid grey's twitter.

sigh...what great celeb pics of couples that used to be.

some of my favs:

btw--i wish johnny depp and winona ryder would get back together. they were a quirky and cute couple.

phone pics

1. care package for a friend in afghanistan. it warms my heart.

2. thanksgiving wine illustrations.

3. mustache cup. i want.

4. good luck cupcake.

5. crocheting for my nephew.

6. mario land in times square a few weeks ago.

7. the whopper burger bar. it was amazing.

week in outfits

i took pics this week! i'm pretty proud of myself...especially since this week was one hell of a week. i'm not sure what was in the water or how full the moon was, but it was so freaking busy/crazy/hectic. there wasn't a single day i didn't go to bed before 12:30, some days i even went to bed at 2am. it was terrible. i need my sleep. and i won't be sleeping this weekend. sad panda.

i tried to look at the camera a little this week and smile (since my sis requested that). eh. not sure i'm feeling it.

this is right before i dropped my camera on the balcony concrete. d'oh. it was not pretty. my friend suggested i get a gorilla tripod and now i really really really really want one. 

shirt - vintage (used to be my mom's), skirt - AA, tights - duane reade (seriously).

 FYI - i didn't wear shoes in this pic because the ones i was going to wear were already at work.

loved this outfit this week. comfy and layered - my 2 favorite reasons for loving the winter.

 skirt - f21, sweater and shirt - h&m, necklace - f21 (got a ton of compliments about this necklace), ring finger ring - my parents gave me that when i was in hs, pointer finger ring - h&m.

awesome wrinkled outfit. seriously, i was super wrinkled. and i refused to iron.

dress - from my sis, turtleneck - h&m, boots - UO, scarf - street vendor.

happy friday!

i missed thanksgiving? whoops....

i'm thankful for a lot.

from ny to cali

this picture means more to me than you can understand. seriously. that's not to say that i don't have dozens of favorite photos of my favoritist people in the whole wide world, but the reason this picture means so much to me tells a story 20+ years in the making.

when i was in 3rd grade and 8 years old, my teacher, mrs. sonnenburg, had us participate in a pen pal exchange with a school in california. I guess my class had the honor of reading generic letters from this other school and then we would have to respond to them. our teacher walked around the room plopping letters on our desks based on gender and i received a letter from a boy who's name had been mistaken for a girl. the very last line of his letter read, "you might think i'm a girl but i'm actually a boy." so my little 3rd grade self ran up to the teacher and got a new letter.

what a difference this letter was - it was written on pretty paper with nice girly penmanship. my memory is poor for details and i can't recall what was in that letter, but it was from a girl named sara who probably wrote about how much she loved music. we spent the whole year writing letters to each other and then at the end of the year we formally exchanged home addresses. i'm not sure what i was expecting other than the occasional letter in the mail (i loooooove snail mail...still love it) but what blossomed is a friendship that spans 20+ years and countless letters.

i still have a lot of the letters sara wrote to me over the years and love to sit down and read them at times. they tell the story of a girl who grows up into a teenager and then a wonderful adult. i'm not just saying that because i think sara is one of the most wonderful people i know, but because i've had the the great fortune of growing up with her. there's so much in her letters about my own life and experiences that i can only imagine what the hell i was telling her. she told me that she still has the letters i wrote her which i would love to someday read.

i've never had the opportunity to head out to california myself but a few weeks ago i received a facebook message that said something like, "i'll be in nyc! we need to try and meet up! you know this fall marks our 20 year." my response was a big fat - "WHAT!" i think my heart was literally jumping out of my body. i couldn't believe that this person who i have literally poured my whole entire soul to would be in ny. so i marked my calendar and waited.

when sara finally got to ny, we made plans to have dinner with some of her friends on the friday of her trip. i think that my nerves took over as i started to worry about this meeting. would she like me? would she think i'm incredibly annoying? would i like her? would we have anything to talk about?
 i'm a worrier. 


but what actually happened was better than i could have imagined. here's a person who i have written to my entire life in front of me, and even though it was our first time meeting face to face, we know each other. and we know a lot about each other. and nothing can really take that away. i think it's hard for people to understand how i could have sustained a friendship with someone through letters for so long, but i feel blessed to have had this experience. to have a connection with someone who lives miles and miles away, who you never get to see in person. it's amazing. it makes you feel more connected to the world and the people in it.

so back to this picture - this is our first picture together! it still feels really surreal to think that we actually met, but then i look at this picture and remember. i feel really lucky to have known sara my whole life and even luckier to have met her in person finally.

new picture taking spot

 my favorite skirt - f21, tshirt - h&m, sweater - no name, boots - via swirl.com

dress - from my sister's closet, turtleneck - h&m, boots - target (i have been LIVING in these boots), turban headband - f21

trying to find a good spot to take outfit pics has taken...3 months? yes, 3. but i think i found a spot i like where i can take some awesome pics - the balcony of our apartment.

if you didn't know before, i moved in with my mom back in august which has been awesomeeeee. she makes me coffee in the morning before i head out to work, salads for lunch and dinner, we go food shopping together, buy hotpants, watch really bad tv at night. and the other day she decided she wants to pick up crocheting again. i love that we can spend so much time together.

hopefully, with this new spot i'll be better about blogging. kinda sorta. our internet still royally sucks.

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must keep this in mind.

a chicago story

once upon a time, there was a lovely girl named missDTM who went out to chicago to visit her lovely bff.

 they did a lot of eating during this trip. but a major highlight of the trip was hugging a gray pit bull.

 while there, missDTM and her boo had the chance to visit the famous bean in millenium park.

 they also decided to dress up as an angry bird and the green pig. yes, they really went out and about in chicago in these outfits.

 the night was full of crazy costumes and wonderful friends.

 but missDTM's least favorite part was ripping off the crazy fake eyelashes she was wearing!

the freaking end.

yes, ladies and gents, i made my way to the midwest last week. if you follow me on twitter, you would know that i literally ate my way through the town. no seriously, i ate. a lot. and fell in love with chicago. ny is cool and all but chicago is affordable and cool. those are two things i looooooove.

another thing i love is halloween. why isn't it acceptable for grown folks to get dressed up in crazy costumes more often? and when/how can i host a dress up party of my own every month of 2012?!? definitely thinking about doing that....these eyelashes make me want to do it!

i know i have been terrible at blogging lately but it literally takes about 20 minutes to upload one pic. ok, i'm exaggerating, but for real - 20 minutes for these 6 pics. that's a long time! i've been trying to get the problem fixed but customer service sucks ass.

i will try and be better about blogging in these last few weeks of 2011. for real. the holidays are my favorite time of year anyway so i should be blogging more!

xoxo

where, oh where, has DTM been?

i've been distracted. there, i said it. 

reasons i've been so distracted:

* revolutions.

* ending my relationship with american apparel.

* perfecting my curls.

* dinner with friends at the best burger spot in nyc.

* this britney spears song.

* planning for my trip to chicago (HOLLER).

* creating my awesome halloween outfit from scratch.

* making pirate patches and roaming around the upper west side on sunday.

new hair...kinda

i've been wearing my hair natural and curly for a long, long, long long time - no chemical treatments (yes, there was a time when i chemically treated my hair), no crazy blow drying to make it straight, no gel (alcohol is the devil). but, it means that controlling this mop on top of my hair has been more and more difficult to try and figure out. my hair is definitely dry and so getting products and styling it properly became an obsession of mine. a serious obsession.

but spending money on a good curly hair cut wasn't on my list of things to do right away.

until last week. not sure what got into me but i went on the devachan website and booked an appointment for myself. i think my hair situation was just looking terrible so i knew that spending the money on a great cut was necessary.

the experience was ok...honestly, i'm not into stylists that make faces and make me feel like crying and laughing all at the same time because of the crazy faces they're making. but, the cut is amazing, my hair looks and feels healthy, and they gave me a ton of tips for dealing with my crazy hair.

i have some crazy hair.

D's DIY

i am a super duper huge fan of these boots i saw on mr. kate:

and i had to DIY them for myself.

so, here's my process for making my own version of those.

materials:

cowboy boots

2 belts

bandana

fabric

string

beads

sewing kit

i took a pair of steve madden cowboy boots i bought a really long time ago and folded them over.

i like symmetry so i made sure i choose materials that i would be able to cut in half and use on both (except for the belts).

from left to right:

2 belts from my dad, a really long belt from mexico that i've never worn, a belt from a dress i owned a long time ago from h&m, a red leather string with some skull beads, a bandana and some beads.

 close up:

step 1:

i cut the bandana in half and tied it to the boot.

step 2:

because i'm terrified of stuff falling off the boots, i actually sewed the edge to both boots:

step 3:

i tied the mexican belt to both pairs of boots. i didn't reinforce it by sewing it because i knew there was going to be a bunch of other stuff on top of it (plus - i sewed a little in the next step).

step 4:

i sewed one edge of the other belt to the boots. i mainly did that because after i cut this belt in half, i knew that i wouldn't be able to tie it around the boot the way i would have liked to.

so instead, i wrapped the material around the boot and tied the edge to the bandana:

after i tied the leather string with skull beads, this is what the back of the boots looked like: 

 step 5:

i made holes in the belts because the ones on them weren't at the right location on the belt (i didn't take pics of this process because i used a hammer and a nail and it was dangerous). then i wrapped the belts around the boots twice.

VIOLA! the finished boot: 

i can't wait to wear these out!