Tuesday Vintage Fashion Update: Currently Trending, Jackie O?

UGH! I so love the fasion trends of the 50's and 60's. Dont you?! 

If I had to choose any decades, I would choose the 50's and 60's.  I have been fascinated with the look since I was a little girl.  Watching older movies and seeing pictures of people from these times.  I think the looks are timeless.  Everything from the make-up, to the hair, to the clothes.  Everything.  I think of Jackie O.  Her look is one I can only dream of.  I love everything she wore... so elegant.   The 50's and 60's prove to be more conservative, but in a way that accentuates curves and is very appealing and classy.

Lucky for me, and for those of you like me who so admire the style of these times, the trends are coming back.  Take a look at some recent runway fashions that are predicted for the winter season.

I love the knits, A-line dresses, pencil skirts, wide leg pants (as well as skinny).



Jackie O - My Fashion Icon

 

she simply fascinates me :)


hope you enjoyed todays update :) have a great day!

xoxo cori

Monday Life Update: Leftover Turkey

Happy day-after-four-day weekend everyone!

Yes, as Eminem would say, snap back to reality....back to the daily grind that is our lives.

What a nice four day weekend it was though.  Rick and I were busy running around like crazy but we got to spend quality time together and time with the family as well.

Here is the weekend run-down:

Thursday: I made my foray into Thanksgiving cooking with sweet potato casserole.  I think it turned out to be a success.  Next year I have some ideas to spice it up a little... perhaps some pecans or crust.  Something to make it a little more interesting, more than just potatoes and sugar. Then it was off to the St. Johns for feasting where there was no shortage of delicious foods.

SHOUT OUTS: Thanks to Alissa for her delicious pies (especially the pecan... mmm so good). Thanks to Caryn for her squash soup (though I am not an adventurous eater, trying something new was nice). Special shout out to Clare for her awesome crescent roles (the best rolled crescents I have ever experienced) and thanks to Papa Maffett for washing the dishes :) and I know other people made food but I cant remember who made what! Everything was delicious.




The Thanksgiving Feast

 Friday: We were crazy enough to venture out into the black hole that is black FRIDAY. NO, we were not up at 4AM and we did not camp out the day before. We did however make our way to the mall around 12pm. It wasnt bad at all. I was imagining people pushing and shoving and running each other over.  But we got a parking spot right in front of the entrance!! Now that is a black Friday Miracle. Honestly though, there werent many good deals. Maybe we were just too late? Did anyone else notice this? Cause it didnt seem to me like the stores cared too much to entice us with sales.

Friday night we got to eat some turkey gumbo soup thanks to mama maffett --- it was delicious. Made special with thanksgiving leftovers. Then we saw Love and Other Drugs, which was good.  I was expecting a hokey lovey dovey chick flick, but there was actually some depth to it.  There were parts that were funny, some thought provoking, and some moving. There was an unprecedented amount of nudity, which shocked me.  I am sure this movie set the new bar for the amount of nudity that can be shown in a movie without having to make it x-rated. If you are not into nudity, I wouldnt suggest seeing.  Especially not with your parents or grandparents, if that kind of thing makes you feel awkward (flashback to seeing sex and the city I seated inbetween my mom and stepdad).  Otherwise, I would suggest seeing it.

Saturday: We got to take ALL 3 dogs (summer, jake, and bowden) to the beach.  People stared at us like we were crazy as we got twisted and tangled between leashes and were screaming at the dogs not to run into the streets... The pups had a blast though of course. To dogs, the beach is pure heaven. I would compare it to a night at the breakers being waited on hand and foot with a complimentary massage for a human.

Then of course FSU beat the Gators.  I am still working on being an FSU fan.  I did see some hints of it while watching the game I must say. There were times I wanted to get a little competitive.  I think in a few years I will be a hardcore fan and look back on these times of cluelessness and laugh. At church people were congratulating Rick left and right.  At first we would say thank you and start talking about getting married, until we realized that they were congratulating Rick on FSU's win.

Sunday: Rick and I hosted the first ever Maffett Family Dinner at Rick's house.  Despite having a bachelor sized array of plates, silverware, serving dishes, etc, we managed to make it work :) We had to improvise a little bit but all in all everyone had a good time.

So, in short, that was our weekend.  Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and that everyone gets a good start to their week!

Peace :)

Cori

Friday: Bible Thumper's Anonymous?

I was skimming the pages of Cosmo recently, and saw something that struck a cord.  Crosses.  They were scattered all over the page.  Some were in the form of major bling, some were bedazzled, some were small and some were large.  They were on the page obviously as a fashionable item. But it occurred to me that what the cross stands for is not considered so fashionable.

Seriously?

What is this twisted image our culture has?  The rappers wear crosses bigger than their heads and then they sing about murder and sex and drugs.  Rockers are not excluded from that.  Neither are Christians, by the way (we are all sinful beings and none of us is perfect).  But what I am getting at is the cultural delusion.  We see people wearing crosses as fashion statements with no idea as to what the cross symbolizes, and then people who carry their bibles with them are made fun of or are thought of as bible thumpers, etc.  Um hello, crosses and bibles stand for the same thing.

What is up with that? Why are "bible thumpers" so uncool? Jesus was uncool too by the way. He was in no way fashionable.  The bible tells us that he looked lowly.  There was nothing attractive about him.  I am not saying that being Christian should be cool, I am just saying that this ignorance has got to go.  You cannot wear a cross and then consider someone who loves Jesus a "loser" or what have you. 

So where did this come from? When and how did crosses become a cool, edgy, fashionable thing to wear? What is going to happen if this trend continues? Will the cross lose it's meaning to society altogether? The way it was laid out on the page of Cosmo leads me to think so.  It leads me to think that people who do not even believe in Jesus will begin to wear crosses because they look good.

Well I am going to stop rambling and hope that what I said above makes sense.  I'd like to hear some other people's thoughts too...

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

xoxo Cori

Thursday: To See Saw...

Yep, I was gone for a while.  More like 2 days.  But I missed ya'll and I missed blogging. This week has been a complete blur.  For reasons that I cannot unveil to you right now (stay tuned), I have been a little stressed but for a good reason (again, stay tuned).  So, I have spent my lunch breaks from work worrying about this stress causing thing, and therefore not blogging.  But now I am back.

And I want to talk Saw, yes I said it, Saw 3D.  Rick and I saw Saw last night.  Has anyone seen Saw yet? It is insane.  I mean, some really sick and twisted person had to write and create this movie.  The scenes are so horrifying.  The weird thing is, they look pretty fake.  The make up on the people who have been brutally bashed is really not good.  The blood doesn't even look real.  So on the one hand you can laugh and say ha ha oh look at how fake this is... or you can let yourself get all caught up and be completely horrified (I was the latter).  Oh and if you were wondering about the 3D part, you can barely tell it is in 3D. That was kinda disappointing since you have to pay like 3 bucks extra for that lovely feature.

Here is a Synopsis:

As a deadly battle rages over Jigsaw’s brutal legacy, a group of Jigsaw survivors gathers to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen, a man whose own dark secrets unleash a new wave of terror...
The first theatrical feature to be shot exclusively on the cutting-edge SI-3D digital camera system, SAW VII 3D brings the horrifying games of Jigsaw to life like never before.

Anyway, what I really want to discuss is the idea behind the movie (sorry to give it away to anyone who has not seen).  The idea is that this crazy killer, jigsaw, goes around and kills people who did/do bad things.  He kills them in ways that resemble the bad deeds they performed, to teach them a lesson, so to speak.  He basically knocks the people out and sets them up in these crazy intense puzzles/traps, where they usually end up dying.  Jigsaw has some proteges, basically the lucky peeps who made it out of his "puzzles" alive.  So on the one hand you want to say, hey, this guy is trying to get a point across, maybe there is a good bone in his body.  But on the other hand you want to say, you idiot, you are killing people because they told a lie? and you want to call him a hypocrite because what he is doing is pretty darn bad.

So this idea of teaching people a lesson, righting their wrongs, by basically killing them, its like this sick jisaw guy's idea of a good deed. I am interested in people's views on this.  Should we be teaching people lessons (not by killing them obviously)? Doesnt everyone tell a lie once in a while, hurt another person, the list goes on? Whose job is it to right people's wrongs? If you believe in God, you have to say that only God can judge people because we are ALL guilty.  But humans seem to have this inescapable urge to let people know when they have done something wrong and teach them a lesson.  What is that all about? We are so slow to forgive others, yet we expect immunity for ourselves.

Luke 6:42:  How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Just some deep thinkage for your thursday afternoon :) hope you enjoyed!!

xoxo Cori

Monday Life Update: Foggy With a Chance of Antique Adventures...

HAPPPPYYYYY MONDAY!!

Yeah so, somehow this morning I woke up in a fog.  I first realized it while sitting at my computer at work.  My boss walked in and said "Hey!" and for a moment I had forgotten where I was.  I looked up from my computer and didn't even realize how much time had gone by since I sat down. I was in a daze.  Needless to say I have been clumsy and feeling mummy-like all day.  This is a day that calls for the beach.

If I am going to be perfectly honest, I will say that I just seem to be at a crossroads.  I have decided that I really do not like working for people.  I want to be my own boss (who doesn't, really?) but I feel this with a deep, firey, irresistable passion.  The problem is, I have no money. I have to pay rent, for a car.phone.water.electric.schoolloans.credit cards blah blah blah the list goes on! I am trying to get this business off the ground but who knows how long it could take? And I dont know how much longer I can walk around like a dummy-mummy at work without getting fired :) I have a job prospect, and I could make good money, but it's so not what I want. But it is what is smart. 

At what point do you drop what is smart and jump into the unknown? If I wasnt buckled with fear, today would be that point for me. what if i fail?end up homeless on the street?cant pay my bills?and on and on and on.

These are the fears and thoughts I must sort out and overcome.  I have a deep rooted insecurity - "oh I could never make it in my own business, who am i kidding!" or "what a joke! im just gonna lose interest and it will be another failed endeavor!"

Well on another note - this weekend was awesome. My lovely Aunt Ricki came to visit.  This was the first time her and I really got some QT together.  We had a girlie night on Friday and watched sex and the city 1 and 2 and ate ice cream. And Saturday, Flamingo park apparently had (an annual neighborhood) yardsale where people all over the hood put their good old junk out for sale! We did ourselves proud and got lots of goodies for the wedding.

We got some mason jars and some vintage vases, we got an awesome old window frame with mirrors in it (courtesy of the lovely mrs. julie tchividjian :)), we got some lace doileys... and I cant remember what else.  All i know is that we literally shopped till we dropped! I love, love, love shopping for old junk and finding hidden treasures :) So hopefully there is more of this to come as we prepare and plan for our wedding.

So, much love to all.. and here's hoping your day is not as foggy as mine :) stay tuned for tomorrows vintage update :)

Friday Things I Love : (My) Vintage Wedding :)

As Rick and I were talking about our wedding, we were trying to think of creative ways to make it fun. We have an idea to use an old typewriter for our guest book (admittedly, I stole this idea from someone's wedding -- I saw a picture of it, so props to whoever that was).  Also an idea to put polaroid cameras at the tables for pictures.  We could have sharpie markers for people to write their names, etc and put them in some really sweet photo album!

Then I was looking, or rather googling, for more ideas and I realized that what I want is a vintage wedding! Duh, I love everything vintage.  Why didn't I think of this before? I am really excited about the possibilities. So my colors are very muted -- orange, mustard yellow, melon, and turquoise... the orange yellow and melon are very blush colors, they are not bright... think of a really romantic color combo and that is it.  The turquoise is going to be used as the highlight color... hopefully it will make everything pop.  On the tables we will have ivory tableclothes with lace runners (dont know what color yet).  These blue mason jars will serve as the centerpieces with flowers and candles in them. 

Dont misinterpret, this is not going to be a tacky vintage, it is just going to be a regular wedding that is vintage inspired.  Very classy and elegant yet simple and vintagey. And I think I want the dishes to be vintage too -- I have to check into this.  Maybe go to Goodwill and see what kind of dishes they have (depends on pricing).  It doesnt matter if they dont match... I think it will add character and would be cute (havent discussed this with Rick yet :))

Well, so far that is what I have for ideas for my wedding! I dont have any clue how it is all going to come together, but I have to have faith that it will.  Oh and FYI, we have changed the date, but this time it is not going to change again!! APRIL 16TH! April 15th marks our one year anniversary so we thought it was appropriate.  Not to mention that my lease is conveniently up on April 15th :) How well does that work out?

I hope you all enjoyed my wedding inspiration!! Have a great weekend :)

xoxo Cori

Wednesday Inspiration Station: Haiti's Reality

Sometimes I get caught up in my everyday life.  I gripe, I indulge, and every once in a while I manage to find contentment.  And then I hear about things that are going on in Haiti (and around the world for that matter).  I tend to forget that I spent a whole week in Haiti, and living there was no piece of cake.  It is rough. 

There are few or no paved roads (driving in Haiti can give you whiplash, a hernia, break your back, or all of the above, and I am not exaggerating).  Water is scarce, you are lucky if you have running water let alone filtered water in your home.  There are no microwaves or ovens. There is no economy.  Life is hard to say the least.

When I heard that our friends who we visited in August had been affected by the flood, my heart dropped.  Rick and I were talking about it on our way to Whole Foods.  In our nice comfy car, on our way to buy food that most people only dream of. I felt helpless. I wanted to do something, but all I could do was keep driving and eventually have my Whole Foods dinner.  But our beautiful friends in Haiti are suffering. 

Maybe I don't watch the news often enough, but I really havent heard much about how hurricane Tomas affected Haiti.  Maybe it is underreported, I dont know.  But the reality is that it has hit them - and this is where I am going to show a picture (courtesy of Bruce) and a letter from Pastor Maula (also courtesy of Bruce) with whom we stayed when we visited Gonaive, Haiti. 


Hi Bruce! My internet signal was down because of the storm. I just got it back in order. Thank you very much for  your words, your prayer and support. Since more people were aware of the storm, many came for rescue in my house.There were a lot of rain and wind. The city were flooded but not as bad as the last one. Water rose up to a three feet level. When it came to a point to cause death, it was pushed away to the ocean direction by God. It happen that way because of Christian prayers. I went to church this morning to praise God for His Mercy. Most people could not attend the church because of the bad condition of their house. They have been throwing water away from their house. The sad news is that it is reported that an higher rate of people died of the epidemic cholera after the storm. It requires a strict level of hygiene to prevent it. Which is what I'm trying to do with them.


Blessing, Maula

The Flood From Tomas

I cant imagine what the people there are going through.  We are talking about people who literally live in cardboard boxes.  In tents with no floors, or metal or concrete homes with no roofs.  They didnt have running water to begin with, so what are they to do?  And now the Cholera Epidemic is grown worse.  I keep getting flashbacks of Sam, one of my favorite favorite kids I met there. He clung to me like I was his mom everytime I saw him and I totally adore him.  I hope he is safe.

My Precious Sam

 

How dare I go on living my comfy life? But what do I do about it? The question that pops into my head is "so what am i supposed to do, give it all up?" Maybe.  I feel so apathetic and lazy.

I encourage everyone to read more about what is going on there.  What are you gonna do about it?

xoxo Cori