Rework

This dress and I have had a rocky relationship. It started off fitting perfectly and I was going to leave it as the 70s vintage piece that it is. However, two mishaps at the dry cleaners later, including all the buttons disintegrating and serious shrinkage of the sleeves, and I'm ready to rework her into something new. I don't really care for the top half of the dress so I'm going to go to town with my seam ripper and whip up a whole new look on my sewing machine. I'm thinking this sketch below, inspired by the beige and red peplum dress via Vanessa Jackman. 

What do you think?

Bottoms Up!

Anthropologie blackbird shorts, Elizabeth and James striped shorts, J crew paisley shorts, Madewell yellow silk shorts,   JNBY drop crotch shorts, Modcloth red sailor shorts, Ferris Wheel Print Carnival Wall Art - Nice Day For A Ride 

Summer time is beautiful but brief in Vancouver making shorts an item of clothing that only make an appearance for a couple months of the year. Therefore, I like to have fun with my shorts, forget plain cut-offs! The ones above caught my eye because of the variation in cut, colour and print.

Mommy Musings

I thought it was time for another vlog. Because it's fun and the kids are napping : )

Go here to enter the contest for passes to the Vancouver International Children's Festival and here to find the designer of the lovely necklace I'm swinging around in the video.

Celebrating Children: A Giveaway

Happy Mother's Day! This year, Mother's Day landed on Levi's third birthday. It was his little life that made me a mommy in the first place. Part of the joy of knowing your child is realizing how they are geared and celebrating that through whatever means are at your disposal. Levi has a tremendous imagination so I took great pleasure in bringing his love of dinosaurs to life through a dino themed birthday party. There were terrariums inhabited by little dinosaurs for the kids to make and a volcano cake. I've made one other cake in my life so it was bit ambitious to attempt, but the end result was rather epic.  I can't take credit for the how to, but I will take credit for the hours spent labouring in love to make Levi a cake he'd remember.  

The idea for using dry ice to create an exploding volcano is from here. The base of the cake is a simple carrot cake with dyed green, cream cheese icing. I'm not sure who appreciated the dry ice more, the kids, or the dad's who played around with the left overs. 

It's rather timely that on a day when I'm celebrating my child, I get to announce a great giveaway of passes to the Vancouver International Children's Festival! Elasticpantcity reader's have the opportunity to win a family 4-pack of Site Activity Passes to the festival, taking place May 29 to June 3 on Granville Island. The passes are good for one day and allow your family access to a world of art and music in three activity zones. To check out all the fabulous activities available visit here. To enter the contest simply leave a comment below and tell me why you'd be excited to take your children, grand children, nieces, nephews, etc. to the festival. The winner will be randomly selected on May 24th and announced on Elasticpantcity. Passes will be available for pick-up at the Festival Box Office on Granville Island.

Bits and Pieces

Things around Elasticpantcity have been crazy busy. I blame it on Pinterest. If it weren't for this virtual pin board of inspiration, kid's birthday parties would be simple, theme free fetes. However, I've been drinking the cool-aid and despite the extra work of creating a theme party, I'm super excited for Levi's Dino-themed, third birthday. And so is he. We're going to build terrariums instead of having goody bags. The one below is a practice one I threw together, but I can't wait to see the kids creating their own little dino worlds. All the decorations and supplies for the terrariums came to just $40.

We've been letting Levi experiment with our old digital camera. Most of his pictures are blurry but I imagine at the pace three-year-olds move, the world is often blurry. He loves this new activity. I'm considering blowing up this Levi original for our wall.

I picked up this old brass framed mirror at the thrift store and decided we needed some neon in our lives. I think I'm going to love it. If not there's always more spray paint.

Can we just pause for a minute and acknowledge how incredibly cute these rice babies are!? They are on the top of my toy wish list for my little guys and any sweet little girls I know. I saw these rice babies up close at the Got Craft? event and fell in love with all the itty bitty details. Yes, the girl and boy on the right are sporting tattoo sleeves!

The Only Cig I Like

Last night was the 2012 Costume Institute Gala (CIG) at the Met Museum in New York. Although I'm more inclined to browse personal style blogs for fanciful fashion the CIG is my favourite event for gahing over gorgeous gowns (Couldn't resist the alliteration). I narrowed it down to a few of my favourite looks.

Of all the dresses, this is the one I can envision wearing. Let me count the ways I love thee: long sleeves, floor length hem, cinched waist, subtly sexy collar, burnt orange, vintage feel, RODARTE.

Kirsten Dunst 

The cut on this Prada dress goes from simple on top to Ms. Gertrude McFuzz on bottom.

  "But she knew to approach him would probably fail, because who'd notice a bird with a one feather tail?" - Suessical

Diane Krueger

Another Prada number that captures my adoration. If Zany and Classy were to have a baby, it would be this dress. 

Angela Lindvall

Confession time. I watched all the Olsen Twin tween movies (When I was not a tween) because even then I thought they were fashion mavericks. Fast forward 10 years, The Row is a clothing line by the duo where each season I eagerly await their latest collection. 

Mary-Kate Olsen 

To sum up what I look for in a fancy dress: long, mostly monochrome, classy but zany, subtly Suess.

*All photos via Style.com

Turn For The Weird

You know those old photos where people always had to look angry? Well, I thought I'd give it a try. I've never seen the horror flick, The Birds, but the print on this dress brings to mind what I imagine the film to portray, people being flocked by, well, birds. And if I was being attacked by birds I think I'd be angry... do you see where I'm going with this? Nope. All you're thinking about is Angry Birds. Fair enough. 

I realize I've taken a turn for the weird. But honestly, I love this quirky, vintage dress (And yes, my legs really are that pale).