Fall is here, Illinois.

Last night it was too cold to be outside with a hoodie and jeans on. I know it is basically September -- But it is still August. This is not August weather. Usually I am so excited for fall weather. But not when it is this fast.

I tried to capture the reminding life in my backyard from this summer.











I bought a leather jacket the other day -- I'm going to fuck up this town.



Hahahahaa -- Also got new shows and this dainty little flowered dress.

Leather Jacket-- Forever 21
Dress-- Forever 21
Shoes -- Bakers (new)




A girl I sit in front of in my French class bought the same shoe in brown the same weekend as me. Hers are just as cute.


New headband I made this week. Connected with elastic. I am thinking about making more and selling them through MustahCholé on my etsy account. Let me know if you are interested -- I will put it on top of my list then.


What are some great cameras? I have been saving all summer to buy a SLR camera. Any suggestions -- or places to stay away from?

Can someone tell me why my pictures are getting cut off? Is it because I need to switch to stretch on my template? Ahhh, I need to learn blogger fast.

Bat for Lashes

This weekend Christopher took me to Cosley Zoo!

(A zoo-- it is not, But that's what they call it.) They take in injured or abandon animals and nurture them back to health or give them a home to stay in, and hopefully one day they can make it back into our forest's.

They had three different species of owls! I could not be more excited. They had this one couple of Barn Owls (Same kind of owl that is in the above photo) The one was missing an eye, poor thing. But he was still a lively fella and very adorable. He kept stretching out his wings for us between naps. :)

Sadly-- I did not get any good pictures of the day, I am so bummed out. (Above picture is NOT mine) The zoo is free to the public, and all donations go to the animals.

Left over material -- only leads to another project.

After my Earth Friendly reusable Folder. (And made out of recycled cardboard!) I had only a little bit of the lemon material left, and considering how much I liked it I thought I should make a reusable sandwich bag for my school lunches.


The inside is lined with plastic from hobby lobby that you can buy by the yard on rolls right around the fabric section. (My mom bought some to throw over spring table clothes during my brothers Graduation party.)

Needless to say, it was an extremely cheap project for me and now my non-reusable plastic sandwich bags wont be finding there way in landfills anytime soon!

A gal I have been admiring for the past month or so is the head miss of Bat for Lashes; Natasha Khan. I originally was going to gather photos of hers to show all of her gorgeous head bands she always has, but ended up just gathering a couple pictures I really liked of hers.

(^some of her art)

My two favorite songs by her is Daniel and The horse and I

Since I haven't talked about myself other then fashion and handmade related, I thought I'd post 4 things about myself.

1. I used to be very alive and outgoing. Over the past couple years I have quiet down and stayed to myself and those I felt comfort around. Yet lately I feel as if I'm adventuring out again.

2. I adore vintage, organic and unique handmade items.

3. Half of me wants to move into my first love; Chicago (when I am older) The other half of me thinks for my career it be best to go to New York City, yet I feel I would really want to go somewhere I could be close to water, forests and lots of green areas.

4. I love zoos, a lot!

ALSO; I need some help on learning this blog. Is there any site with excellent tutorials for blogspot? (Or is it too simple for that?) Also, I feel like everyones pictures can be so much bigger than mine, do I need it on a certain setting. I would love help/advice :)

Sugary Flannels, and Eco-Friendly fish

School is in session (sadly) once again. Having myself thrown into such a non-Eco friendly environment for 7 hours can be really heart-breaking. (No one recycles during lunch time, our teaches have us write three sentences on a single piece of paper and pass it up, my math teacher dose not have an over-head, so she uses paper and a pencil to do a million problems with us... every day!) Things really start to add up, and i know. I know... Recycling: Isn't it the same as not using it in the first place?!? Sorta... but there is still wasted energy and labor in the mix, plus so many kids do not recycle. (But that's just ignorance.)

So.. I decide to make an Eco-friendly folder!

(Yellow lemon pattern, purple and white flannel, and a brown based vintage floral pattern)

Made out of cardboard that my brothers night stand came packaged in and material. To make I used an folder from last year. (Note: I made my material folder larger then average size so I could also fit notebooks in)

(^ in the process)

RANDOM NEWS!
I have an adorable Friend who I am extremely close to.. who honest to god has a sugar addiction. She does work in a bakery, and attends TCD Culinary School for half of her High School - school days, and she has her own little business on the side selling her own delicious makings. She thought that her love for sweats went to far after indulging in 12 donuts at once! After a bit of google-ing, she now has to eliminate sugar from her diet completely until all of the withdraws are over! I never, imagined that this could really happen, but your body starts to crave sugar after a slightly higher then average amount of it for a while. ( and when I mean crave.. I mean CRAVE!)

(Some of her amazing creations she brought to our fourth of July bbq. Unfortunately the hamburger cake got smashed by her mini grill on the car ride over.)

Yesterday at a Second hand store, I stumbled across this little number. It may not be flattering or fitting to my body but I love flannel, and I loved these colors! Just for $2, I brought it home and went to work...

Before:

Results:

(I love the long length, usually flannels have my skin showing without another shirt underneath.)

(^Tucked in and buttoned closed)

Sadly, that is not what I was planning for. I may have mentioned in my cluster of words that forms this blog -- that I really want a dress, fitting flannel that I can wear with a pair of black leggings and boots. So yesterday I thought this one was the winner. I used a yellow tight- fitting sweater (that I wear with a pair of leggings), to help me size this piece. Unfortunately I had it way, way to tight by my hips. (the sweater is extremely stretchy and able to stretch over me, where the flannel (a non-flexible material) can not. Ahhh, what a shame. I'm hoping to try again, next time with a dress to help me fit it to me.

Christopher and I went fishing this evening, before it stormed.

Cloe: 2 fish

Chris: 0 fish

( Couple pictures I got real quick when Chris was setting everything up for me.)

Reconstructing our lives

Christopher loved his new PillowFriend and named him Mr. Truffles.

Fall is slowly coming, but considering I start school in a day I needed to go back to school shopping. While scanning threw my cluttered closet I found a couple pieces I no longer wear or didn't fit quite right, and thought I needed to change that.

Shirt: I bought from Chollet Russe years ago when I was still in Jr high. It's now is way to tight for me, and makes me look like a chub-ball.

Goal: To reconstruct it into a vest of some sort.

Results:I love it, it was fairly easy also. I cut the shirt apart, hemmed the new cuts (hem showing), redid the collar, and I also sewed on an owl on the back. Tell me what you think.








Dress: H&M clearance rack. As you can see its way to wide and puffy. It looks like a ferternity dress from the side.

Goal: Re-construct it to make it more fitting.

Results:







Dress: A clearance dress at Forever 21.

Problem: Way to wide, not fitting, pushes out in the back, bottom flares out too much also.

Result: Taken in.. a lot! Way smaller bottom too.




I found the perfect backpack for school;

Pac Sun ( I wish they had cuter pictures on line of what it really looks like, not werid angles. But it reminds me of something from the 90's)

Half Pillow, Half Friend

Christopher asked me to make him a pillow a while back, I always looked out at fabric stores for a great piece of material that would go with his room. But everything was so boring or way too girly. So for are two year coming up I ditched the idea of the pillow… And settled on a Pillow Person.

It all started with a couple of sketches, a couple of borrowed ideas, and a few of my own

I found a cute brown fleece like material at Walmart that I thought was perfect. ($1.25 for a half yard!) (How exciting!)

...And the construction of our new little monster-friend started.

(I was very proud of myself because half way through I ran out of stuffing, and instead of driving and wasting gas -- I road my bike all the way to Hobby Lobby)

Half Pillow, Half Friend

(I tried to take some cute pictures of him airborne but failed -- this is the only decent one that came out. He had fun being thrown around though. hahh)

Christoper came home from Canada very late last night. I of course was working that day/night and fell asleep early and exhausted. But this morning he came over at 7 to say hello! (Which I was thrilled about) Sadly I had work all day again today, but tomorrow is a new day. And then the day after that is our two year -- which I am so excited for so I can give Chris all the nice things I've been collecting for him :) I love little holidays.

On an off subject -- I am somewhat getting excited for school to start. I am taking an independent study with our foods teacher. (My sad excuse of a school dose not have any, i mean any, sewing/home ec. classes. But the foods teacher is a great sewer, and I think that's what she originally wanted to teach. So for a class I get to hang out in her room and sew! Also when she has time for me (because she will have another class already in there, she gets to help me out and teach me new things.) I already bought a very large tote bag to transport all my fabrics, projects, books and tools back and forth from school. I love the bag, its by BlueQ.

Dear Monday --
Please come a little faster.
Love Cloe.