We're going to Burning Man. Whatever shall we wear? Part 2

More outfits for Burning Man!

This one's for me.

-Pants from Value Village
-Tank tops and Roxy shoes from my closet
-Goggles from Irving Rivers, painted silver by Chris
-Arm warmers made from a pair of tights I had kicking around


Silky smooth.

-Vest, slippers and shiny skirt from Value Village
-Purse and glasses from my closet

I love the parasol (a gift from Thailand), but I don't think we have room to pack it.


Chris = green man

-T-shirt and shorts from Old Navy
-Mask made by Chris out of left over decorations from our last house party!

Pajama fairies! This might look a little familiar...

me:
-Vintage nightgown set from Ragtime

Chris:
-Housecoat from Value Village
-Pajama pants from Giant Tiger

-Wings made out of garden decorations

Another cavegirl ensemble

-Boots and cuffs made from Value Village fun fur coat
-Children's fun fur vest from Value Village
-Skirt and top from my closet

Upclycled gifts

A big part of Burning Man is the gift economy.

Not wanting to be left out, Chris and I have made a bunch of gifts to give the new friends we’ll meet on the playa.

First up, Bandanas

I’m pretty proud of these. We wanted to make sure that what we gave away didn’t become junk and one of the best ways to do that is to ensure that gifts are useful.

What could be more useful in the dessert than a bright red bandana?!? You can use it to hold your hair back, to wipe the sweat off your face, to cover your mouth and nose in a dust storm or you can soak it in water to help cool yourself down…

So where did we get a bunch of cool bandanas to give away? My linen closet.

My mom is an amazing shopper and she finds the most incredible deals. She’s always on the lookout for red kitchen accessories since she knows how much I love them, and a while ago she found me a set of red cloth napkins and placemats. I love them, but in all the time I’ve had them, I’ve only used them twice. How often am I really going to use a dozen cloth napkins? I don’t even have a dinning table.

But the red material is perfect for bandanas! It was already hemmed and the right size, all we needed to was jazz it up a bit with some silk screening.

This is my favourite part, we printed horns and lips on the bandanas so they can be worn two ways. If you’re wearing it on your head, it looks like you have a pair of devil horns but as soon as you see a storm coming, you can just flip it down and lick your fangs in the face of the blowing sand.

Please forgive these really terrible photos. I didn't want them to look so creepy\lame, I just suck at taking pictures of myself.

We’re going to Burning Man. Whatever shall we wear?

Burning Man is only days away!

Chris and I have been working hard to transform our Value Village finds into playalicious outfits.

Here are some of our finished ensembles:

Outfit #1: Space-age cavemen
In line with the Evolution theme, we're going to rock some funky animal prints and shiny metallics.

Chris:
-Value Village leopard print shirt
-Walmart plaid pants
-Aviators from Ragtime

Me:
-Silver lame bikini from American Apparel (I hate supporting that store, but seriously, where else could I find a silver lame bikini?!)
-Leg warmers and arm warmers made from Fabricland clearance fun fur
-Goggles from Irving Rivers, spray painted silver by Chris
-Silver gladiator sandals from Walmart
-Sparkly purse from the dollarstore

Outfit #2: Can't miss us coupleThese clothes are so bright I couldn't take the picture with a flash!

Chris:
-Yellow t-shirt and board shorts from Old Navy (both only $5!)
-Reflective work vest from Giant Tiger
-Goggles from Irving Rivers, spray painted gold
-Fanny pack from Value Village, adorned with fun fur from a duck blanket

me:
-Value Village vest and pants
-Orange arm warmers made from halloween tights I had in my dress up box

Oufit #3: Bowties & tiaras
Play clothes! This look says "we raided the costume box"

Chris:
-Walmart dress shirt (only $7!)
-Brown bowtie from Young Janes
-Thrifted brown pants he already had in his closet

me:
-Dip dyed skirt from the children's section of Giant Tiger
-Wings made by me and decorated by Chris
-La Senza bikini from my closet
-Tights, tiara and sparkly shades from my tickle trunk

To be continued...

*Title shamelessly stolen from this awesome blog.

The benefits of dating an architectural technologist

Chris, proving that he didn’t go to school for nothing, drew up a 3D model of our future apartment.

We thought it would be fun to move our virtual furniture around…

Looks like we have more stuff than space to play with!

Yousuf Karsh I am not

My former roommate, Jenny, invited Chris and I to join her at the Science and Technology Museum to check out the Karsh exhibit.

The exhibit included a studio where you could take your own portraits.

Yousuf Karsh was responsible for some of the most iconic images of the last century.

We have a long way to go!
I clearly have a lot to learn about lighting.

At least the picture Chris took didn't turn out much better!

We got it!

We signed the lease yesterday.
I'm so excited! I can't wait until we get to move in October 1st.

Not so happy kitty

We gave Chris' cat, Simone, a bath today. She is now less stinky and also less than pleased with us.

Bing it on

Chris and I are apartment shopping.
I still can’t believe that I’m leaving my beloved Hoos, but it’s a done deal. I sent in my two months notice on Wednesday so there’s no turning back now.

When I agreed to move in with Chris I gave him a list of conditions.

I would only move out of my fabulous apartment if the new place had

• cheaper rent
• space for a studio/sewing room
• at least one balcony (I can’t very well go from 3 balconies to zero)
• a big bathtub (I love my claw foot tub)
• room for the washer and dryer (I don’t do laundromats)
• hardwood floors
  and
• a location within walking distance of work

So we’ve been searching Craigslist, Kijiji, Used Ottawa and all the rental company sites for the last few weeks. Which brings me to the lame pun in the title.

Bing Maps is awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I love Google and everything they do, but until Street View comes to Ottawa, Bing’s bird’s eye view is the next best thing. It saved us from wasting time going to view so many places that we could tell we didn’t like from the aerial images and got us to pay closer attention to some places with little info in their ads.

We’ve sent in our application for a cute 1.5 bedroom in this old house that meets 5 of my 7 requirements. The price is just sweet enough to make up for the missing two. The landlord is going to let us know if we get it today.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I lied

So I lied.

The Death Star clock is, hands down, my most requested record.

I just sold another four today.

Something to do with all those extra records?

How bizarre is it that I was just thinking about how layered records would make a great scale effect when this popped up in my google reader?

Street art by JAXPAC (jacksonville public art coalition)
via Wooster Collective

Partying in our PJs

Our Midsummer Night’s Dream Pajama Party was so much fun. We transformed the living room into the site for a magical slumber party and enjoyed spiked watermelon juice well into the early hours of the morning.

What we wore: I found a beautiful 1960s nightgown set at Ragtime; very Betty Draper, even though I only wore the gown since summer has finally hit Ottawa. I started the night with my fairy wings on, but it wasn’t long before they were gracing the backs of other party guests. Chris paired his donkey ears with a swinging smoking jacket we found on our big Value Village spending spree. My roommate Mike rocked a housecoat and a pussy willow circlet he made himself. Our guests joined in on the sleepwear fun in varying degrees of undress.

Most popular drink: Am I really going to mention the watermelon keg again? Sorry. It was just that awesome.

How we set the stage: Most of the furniture was moved upstairs in order to clear the way for the queen-sized futon that dominated the living room. It was the perfect place to curl up with a stuffed animal and read vintage Seventeen magazines under the star-shaped twinkling lights and fake flowers.

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Like a Rolling Stone 1

Mick Jagger

First of a set of Rolling Stones records for a coworker.

Watermelon on Tap, take 2

After our successful trial run, the hardest part of putting together the watermelon keg for our Midsummer Night’s Dream PJ Party was finding a big enough melon downtown.

We eventually found this beauty at Hartman’s.

The stand was created by placing an Ikea bowl on top of an inverted casserole dish. It was a perfect fit!

Brad, our very own Vanna White

Magical fairy walk

Chris and I had just enough time before the party on Saturday to take in a little bit of the Lumière Festival. I'm so glad we did!

There were awesome upcycled lanterns...
stilt walkers...
with bubbles! And so many cute kids in costume.
There was also some cool art.

Gargoyle by Tick Tock Tom

Next year we'll have to go back when it's dark.

Look familiar?

I have a sneaky suspicion that whoever is behind the fabulous new window display at Canteen is also responsible for my favourite Ottawa street art.

The poor little bunny had no idea what was coming

Aww… isn’t this stuffed bunny we found at Value Village cute?How about we cut off his ears!My roommate Mike watched, horrified, as I took my sewing scissors to the top of Mr. Bunny’s head. He didn’t believe me when I told him we could put the ears to better use.It was so worth it. Just look at Chris making an ass of himself as Bottom at our Midsummer Night's Dream PJ Party!

Plus they'll be great for the Billion Bunny March at Burning Man.

Even easier wings

While I was happy with the fairy wings I whipped up late last Friday night, the straps didn’t really work with the vintage nightgown I wanted to wear this weekend.

Enter an awesome Giant Tiger find:

“Country Garden” butterfly and dragonfly for $1 each.

All I had to do was pop off their heads and bodies.

I attached the butterfly wings to a magnetic name tag I had kicking around from my days working part time in a shoe store.
Now I can easily add the wings to any outfit without any straps!

Hot or Not? Totally hot.

My little melon is making the rounds.

That's my hand pouring delicious spiked watermelon juice on Apartment Therapy’s green page, Re-nest.

This is probably the closest I’ll ever come to having my apartment featured on AT.

They like me, they really like me

In my inbox today:

Hi!

Your Instructable "Tap a Watermelon! or How to Make a Watermelon Keg" was just featured by one of our editors!

Look for it on the Instructables homepage within the next 30 minutes. Being featured means we think you are awesome. Keep up the great work!

http://www.instructables.com/

Yup, there it is. My little watermelon keg is on the front page.

Value Village Shopping Spree

Chris and I went a little crazy in Value Village yesterday.

We went in looking for costumes for Burning Man and, $200 later, we left with all of this.

It made for a fun bus ride home.

I’m always amazed by the generosity of strangers.
The contents of our shopping cart would have cost us $50 more if the wonderful woman in line behind us hadn’t offered us her coupon. She wouldn’t even let us pay for the earrings she was getting.