News Anchor Dress by ModCloth

Swedish Haasbeens – Mimmi in Red (I NEED THESE SHOES!!!)

Vintage 1950′s Mad Men Dress found at Supayana on Etsy

Inspired 1930′s Dance Hall Sandals from Plasticland

White Chocolate Truffle Dress by ModCloth

Oxford Flats by Mulberry

Hope your having a fabulous weekend!

Much Love,

]]> http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2011/01/feeling-like-a-lady/feed/ 2 http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/12/shop-sale/ http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/12/shop-sale/#comments Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:01:35 +0000 Crystal http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/?p=2489 December is well upon us and I have been so busy with moving into our new home and setting up my dream studio/office I have 100% neglected my blog.  But I know you guys must be equally busy as this is a crazy time of year for most people.

With moving I realized I have more inventory then I thought so before I close the shop for the season I want to extent to you a little sale to Thank You for supporting me this year with all your kind words, great snail mail and of course your purchases from the shop.  What to get in on the deal? Just enter WINTERLOVE in the coupon code box at the checkout and it will give you 15% OFF.

The new year has some great things in store for the shop with a large and I mean LARGE amount of home decor coming your way.  So stay tuned!  And of course I will be bringing back Mail Love.  If you need my new mailing address send me a quick email at crystal {at} thehouseofhearts.com and I’ll send it your way.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Day 39 – Cottage cheese perogies & farmer sausage usually one of my first meals I have when I got back home. Mmm…

Day 40 – My hot mom bought a new car while I was out here! She is waving Bye-Bye to the old.

Day 41 – And in with her new Nissan!

Day 42 – A HUGE beautiful wall made up of mini art right when you come into the Winnipeg Public Library.

Day 43 – Out for a walk in Winnipeg. Parliament.

Day 44 – A building that I have always loved in downtown Winnipeg.

Day 45 – Super creepy window that I could not help but take a picture of.  I was kind of expecting a head to pop out of the window while I was taking the picture.

Day 46 – That’s one artsy bear!

Day 47 – What I worn!

Dress – Thrifted (it’s handmade and I love the pattern!)

Shoes – Thrifted

Day 48 – My grandpa and I out for a walk in Dryden, Ontario.

Day 49 – Out on the boat and having total peace is simply amazing! Thanks Uncle Roland for taking us out for a day on the water.  This picture may not look like much but it invokes such inner peace for me.

Day 50 – Oh silly grandpa. He is such a joker and the one whole showed me what true love is. I love him so much!

Day 51 – I had to take this picture of a picture because my grandpa looks so young. He use to race snowmobiles and always won. Crazy how things have changed so much in 50 some years.

Day 52 – My dad, Mandi and I just infront of the house she and her husband are building in the a small French town in Manitoba!

Day 53 – My dad and I!

Day 54 – Out with my ladies Naomi and Nicky!

Day 55 – What I wore!

Top - Joe

Skirt – H&M

Tights – Urban Outfitters

Shoes – I think target?

Well I am finally all caught up with A Photo A Day but still have many many wonderful thinks to post in the shop! Still need to spend some more time with my man Paul as he has been so busy since the day I got back, but there might just be a road trip happening abroad this summer! I’ll keep you posted.

Before

After!

Let me know what you think!

This wonderfully polka dotted market bag was created from some reclaimed raw cotton I picked up at my favorite local shop La Gaillarde.  I then created stencils for the circles and used red and yellow fabric paint.  I also added a bit of orange stitching around the handles and opening of the bag to give it a bit more pizzazz.

This is my favorite skirt right now and I plan to make more because it is so comfortable, functional and cute (C.F.C. my style definition).  I used grey cotton blend fabric which I got for $2 yard and raw cotton for the band which was what was left over from the market bag I made.  To create this beautiful skirt I used the tutorial from Very Purple Person for the Easy Full Skirt, and it was nothing but easy.  I think in total it took me 45 minutes to put this beauty together, that includes all the ironing!

♥ sunnies ~ urban outfitters

♥ tank top ~ joe

♥ skirt ~ me! i sewed that.

♥ brown purse ~ thrifted

♥ market bag ~ oh me me i did that too.

♥ sandals ~ aldo like 3 year ago

I’ve added the diagram from Very Purple Person as it really is as easy as it looks but I personally think a visit to  her site is a must as she has plenty of great tutorials and a great flickr group for everyone who has completed one of her tutorials.

Let me know if you try this skirt I would love to see the finished product!

I need to get something off my chest, I want to be a sustainable, eco friendly clothing designer.  Wow, that feels great and scary to have that out there!   I know I have a long way to go, and I mean a long way. But you have to start somewhere, right?  I am ready to move forward and I know that I am the one that decides if I succeed or fail.

I have already started to make unique pieces for myself to get my skill level higher and to build confidence in selling my pieces to others, which will be mostly dresses & skirts.   I have been collecting tons of fabric from wonderful Etsy and eBay sellers and of course, from my favorite local vintage/local designer boutique La  Gaillarde which has a basement full of re-claimed fabric!  Using fabrics that are reclaimed tickles me pink as I am so tired of the waste that we, as the human race, keep creating.  So I want to take a bit of the load off our land and our ocean.

I want you guys to come along for the ride with me. Some of you might just already be thinking of breaking out of the mold and following your dreams.   ’Hate regrets more than apologies’ say Fat Mike of NOFX and well I personally  don’t want to look back on my life and say to myself I should have done that, why was I so scared?  Just a little food for thought!

{source verypurpleperson bid dress}

I am going to do my best to share my creative process, sketches, designs and well of course the final product.   I have been drawing a lot of inspiration from Burda Style and from window shopping with my man who has an eye for design. Also from Ralph Pink, a London based designer who is creating a step by step video diary, fully detailing his research, design, development and hand production of his first professional clothing collection. Of course I draw inspiration from Very Purple Person, who has an Asian twist to her clothing that I appreciate and wish to incorporate in my work. She also has some wonderful tutorials.

I have been tossing the idea around of going back to school and I have looked into different designer courses, here in Montreal the fashion haven of Canada. I was also looking into Academy of Art University in San Francisco, but I’m not moving to San Fran anytime soon but they have amazing online courses for fashion. For now, I have decided to learn on my own. La Gaillarde boutique offers different workshops from local designers. I am thinking of taking the pattern making course. Since it’s something I am doing already, I thought it would be fun to be around other people that desire to learn as well. I think that is enough for me now.

Thanks for reading everyone! Any advice, comments, critiques and encouragement are very welcome along the way.  I will be launching a new design for my blog as soon as Paul and I can sit down together but have you seen the improvements in the side bar?

I want to leave you with a little eye candy from the Academy of Art University course catalog, it is so beautiful I spent a few days just touching the paper, looking at the designs, images and layout.  Clearly a very well designed book and makes me want to just move to San Francisco and go to school there! .

You are the one that decides when you fail & when you succeed.

October 17, 2010 : I think it is interesting how quickly I have changed my mind on being a designer when I looked into school and all the training and butt kissing that is involved.  I am just going to do my own thing and sew things for myself and see where that goes.

I created this dress out of a reclaimed bed sheet that Paul bought for me and McCall’s Pattern M5787 which is for a top but I made some alterations to make it into a cute new spring/summer dress.  I didn’t add pockets to the dress but I think that will have to be done because to me every great dress deserves pockets!

♥ Dress ~ I made it from reclaimed fabric!

♥ Belt ~ thrifted

♥ Tights ~ Urban Outfitters

♥ Shoes ~German made thrifted shoes

While browsing around for inspiration in Urban Outfitters I came across this great dress which label read:

So two thoughts ran through my head ‘This is wonderful that a huge chain store is choosing vintage and reclaimed fabrics to make some of their dresses!’ and the other thought was ‘Is this really vintage and/or reclaimed fabric?’ The second thought comes to me as I have been on the hunt for large amounts of vintage and/or reclaimed fabrics with not much luck for being able to buy them in bulk.  So how does a huge store do it?  Is it real or are they just trying to follow a trend and pull it off for something it is not? Maybe they are just reproducing vintage fabrics?

What do you think?  Please feel free to prove me wrong as I have not dug into this further.  Looking back I should of checked the tag to see where it was made and that might of just solved it for me.  Either way the fabric was beautiful but the design of the dress was not flattering at all on me.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Have you noticed my new side bar? I just got it up there yesterday so there is all you  need to follow my blog now.  I have put up some of my favorite sites along the side as well, feel free to check them out as I only like things that ROCK!

]]> http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/04/my-first-dress/feed/ 7 http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/04/bloglovin/ http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/04/bloglovin/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:35:03 +0000 Crystal http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/?p=1228 As some of you know I joined bloglovin 2 weeks ago and can I just say there are some really amazing blogs on there.  I figured you should know my top 4 favorite blogs I’m following on bloglovin right now.

1. Q’s Daydream is a super cute vintage blog where Quincy posts great pictures of her outfits which are a wonderful mix of vintage & modern.

2. Stylish Goose by Genya Yodko which is everything fashion but illustrated!  Above is just a sample of one of her amazing illustrations.  What I really love about her work is that by trade she is an engineer but is so talented and passionate about what she does.  A blog worth checking out for sure.

3. Clothes, Cameras and Coffee now this blog blows me away because it is created and written by Roz a 14 year old girl from England with a passion and talent for photography, vintage and all things beautiful.  She is an inspiration to me I can say that for sure!

4. The Blonde Salad which I am sure if you are a fashion lover already know of Chiara’s blog, which is packed with outfit shots, travel and well anything fashion. But what I really love about her blog is her crazy randomness and the love she shares with Richie.  I reminds me of Paul and myself and it makes me happy to see that others share that love as well.

I hope you guys check out these great blogs and if you know of any others I might just like comment me.  I am always on the hunt for a great blog to draw knowledge and inspiration from.

♥ this site? follow me here!

To give you a visual of what I am thinking above are some great examples but, I will not dying my hair as I really just want my natural color back.

1.  Jade from Lowbrow Style she is one hot mama with style!

2. Taylor from Sterling Style with her soft sweet looks.

3. Heidi Klum

4. Random Stock Photo

5. Reese Witherspoon

6. Random Stock Photo

I ♥ your comments!

heart t-shirt ~ urban outfitters 2 years ago

blue cardigan ~ not to sure where this came from

grey skirt ~ this is a top from target that I wear as a skirt

shoes ~ white slip on converse from my dad