new year ♥

Happy New Year!

Ashley, from You're the Charlie Browniest, wrote a really great New Years post of a letter written to the version of herself that existed one year ago.  I thought that was a great way to look back over the year, so I've written my own letter.

Dear Julie of December 31st, 2010,

     You are so happy at this moment-- hold onto that feeling.  Hold onto it tightly.  Because you will need to draw on that reserve of happiness so much for the next year... but you will make it through.

     There's a man next to you right now, and you are absolutely convinced you're going to be spending the rest of your life with him.  You'll actually only be together for a few more weeks.  But even though you're heartbroken and furious at first, you don't stay bitter for very long.  You've learned how happy and alive you can be, and how deeply you can love.

     April... in April, you lose another love.  I wish I could tell you that you get over it quickly and painlessly.  But it does get easier, and eventually you're able to remember the quietly joyful moments and smile instead of cry.

     When your dad gets sick, spend as much time with him as you possibly can.  Losing him is the worst thing that you've ever experienced and you won't understand how the world could possibly go on without him.

     That still hasn't gone away.  Hang in there, Julibee Roo.

     The year does have some good points, though.  You do very well in school, and you grow up more this year than in any other period of your life.  You learn that having an amazing best friend is an invaluable gift.  You learn to deal with overwhelming grief by channeling it into your art, even if you can't put it into words.  You learn that, as one friend puts it, "there's a tiger hiding under all those ruffles and bows."  You're a strong girl.  Keep trying to find a balance between that strength and letting yourself be soft and vulnerable.

Be gentle with yourself, busy bee.

Love, Julie of December 31st, 2011

start the new year with a giveaway!  click here to enter to win goodies from my etsy shop.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

Hi everyone!  It's the first Fill In The Blank Friday post here on my new site!  Wheeee!

via the little things we do

1. New Years is kind of a non-event for me these days.  I usually fall asleep on the couch, wake up a few minutes before midnight, and stay awake just long enough to say "Happy New Year!" before falling right back to sleep.  

2.   One of my New Year's resolutions will be to stay on a schedule with yoga.  I'm so much happier and more relaxed when I'm doing it regularly.  I'm also resolving to go to bed earlier because I am such a morning person, and I hate waking up late and feeling like the day has started without me.

3.  A New Year's resolution I've made in the past was to keep my camera with me and take more pictures-- and I think I've done that!  I also wanted to go for more walks in the West Village just because it makes me happy, which I have certainly achieved.  I can be found wandering around there pretty much every Friday and most Sundays.

4. The most time consuming resolution I ever made was learning French.  I'm still working on it.  But I have a decent basic understanding of the language at this point.  It's a lot easier to remember during break, when I'm not also trying to do the work for a million other classes.  My friend Lisa would always try to start conversations with me in French during patternmaking class, and I was never in the right headspace, because I'd be too busy thinking about patternmaking.  I can speak and understand a bit, Lisa, I swear!

5.  This year I will be spending New Year's Eve either at my grandmother's house or at my house, depending on how cold it is.  If it's very cold, I'll go home to keep my lovely little cat inside the house and warm.  So...once again, I'll be asleep on the couch at New Year's.  Yessss.  Keeping the tradition alive.

6.  If I could wish one thing for my new year it would be that 2012 be better than 2011.  Seriously, 2011, you have been hideous.  Sorry, I can't have a second date, I'm washing my hair that year.  It's not you, it's me.  Whatever.  Just please, 2012, be better.

7.  2012 is going to be exciting.  I'll be graduating from FIT, transitioning from school into work, hopefully finding an adorable and cat-friendly apartment, and who knows what else! 

♥
don't forget to enter my new-site-celebration giveaway!

new home

Welcome to my new home!

After three years, I've finally taken the big step and created my own site.  Yay!  Now you can follow with Google Friend Connect or subscribe by email over on the left side, or check out older posts and the blogs I read on the right.  I'm still working on fixing some formatting, and I'm sure I'll add some more little features here and there, but I'm too excited to wait any longer to welcome you all to my new little space on the internet.

♥

To celebrate, let's have a giveaway!  One reader will receive two of my very favorite accessories from my etsy shop:

the Summer Morning Button Bobby Pin Set, and...

the Raspberry Snow-Puff Brooch (shown here on one of my hats), plus a little extra surprise from me!

♥

Here's what you need to do to enter.

1. Be a public follower of Julie Rose Sews (it's that snazzy 'join this site' button on the left)

2. visit my etsy shop and leave a comment here on the blog with your favorite item.  In the same comment...

3. Tell me your favorite book!

For additional entries, you can:

1. Tweet about the giveaway (just mention @julie_rose_sews so I can see it!)

2. blog about the giveaway and leave me a link to your post.

(make sure to leave another comment for each additional entry)

This giveaway will be open through January 25th, and a winner will be randomly selected on January 26th.  International entries are welcome!

Update:  This giveaway has been extended until February 20th.  Yay!  More time to enter!  The winner will be selected on February 21st.

I hope everyone's staying warm through this chilly weather!

♥

noel

just a few snaps from the holiday weekend...

these adorable knee-socks were a Christmas present from my mom-- aren't they sweet?  the blue dots remind me of little robin's eggs.

and now I'm snuggled under a blanket and watching Sex and the City and making things.  I am a happy girl.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend!

♥

blue christmas

It's Christmas Eve morning... Every year up until now, I've always gone with my dad and my brother to a diner in town for soup and rice pudding.  Each table has its own little jukebox, with Christmas music available no matter what time of year it is, and we always made sure to bring quarters so that we could listen to Winter Wonderland, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, and Blue Christmas.  We'd take a stroll in the park, too-- when we were little, this was so my mom could have some time to wrap Christmas presents without us knowing about it.  I don't know what we thought she was doing-- we always had to wait in the car while my dad checked if we could come in yet.  But he would walk around the park, reciting the first few lines of "The Village Smithee," a poem he had to write a hundred times as a punishment in school.  If he could find a bench to stand on while he was reciting it, he was even more pleased.  Zach and I would tug on his arms-- "C'mon, Dad!  Stop it!  We're cold, let's get in the car!"  But Dad would always insist we walk around the park just one more time.  I would give anything to be able to take just one more walk around the park.

We're having a blue Christmas without you, Dad.  Love and miss you so much.

♥

christmas kitty ♥

It's so close to Christmas!

I've had so much fun playing with this adorable game from Everyday Cute.  It's dress-up Pusheen the Cat!

Here's one of the ways that I decorated Pusheen and her cute little world.

make your own dressed-up Pusheen here.  You can decorate her Christmas tree, too!

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   The best way to spread Christmas cheer is giving out homemade cookies, preferably tied with red and green satin ribbon.
2.   The thing I love most about Christmas is  getting to spend time with my family-- as I'm typing this, Kaleigh and I are 'making a ruckus' at my grandmother's house.  There has been singing and laughing and running around.   We're tired now though, and will probably fall asleep within the next ten minutes.
3.  The holiday season is a time for decorating and hot chocolate.
4. My favorite thing to eat at the holidays is oyster stew.  Soooo good.  And apple pie. Oh, and sugar cookies, of course!  My mom makes awesome ones.
5.  I will be spending Christmas  with my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve and my mom's side on Christmas Day.  It's going to be a weird Christmas and I'm not all that excited about it.  But it is really nice to be with my mom, I miss her a lot when I'm at school.
6.  Tis better to (give or receive?) give... I like finding or making just the right gift.  I recently received an amazing gift and I haven't been able to find something that I feel is an adequate present in return.  Hopefully I'll remedy that very soon.
7.  I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.  C'mon, let's have some snow!

♥

procrastination station

Y'know what I should be doing right now?

Packing to go home tomorrow.

Y'know what I'm actually doing?

Pretty much everything else.  Seriously.  I just darned my socks. 

Alright, so random life updates until I get back in the groove of blogging and can come up with actual paragraphs!

(No, really.  I think this is the result of being on twitter way too much, I'm thinking in 140 characters or less.)

♥ Remember my end-of-semester Anthropologie bonanza?  And how I said I was going to feel silly when the Braided Toggle Sweatercoat went on sale after I paid the semi-ridiculous full price for it?  I wasn't predicting it would go on sale within five days, as did the Mushroom Picking Chemise. So I got an amazing price adjustment even though I was on RA duty and couldn't come into the store because their customer service is awesome.  And now it's sold out!  So instead of feeling dumb, I feel preeeeeetty smart. Yesssss.


♥ I've become slightly obsessed with the blog Eighteenth Century Sluts.  It's so bizarre and hilarious.  Just to give you a taste of what it's like, here are three of my favorite recent posts.

Haaaa.  I've got the giggles even posting these.

♥ I have been making stuff in lieu of packing!  Now in the etsy shop:  two cards and two notebooks.  I have a zillion more cards that will get put up in the next few days, but I'm excited about them.  I'm so pleased with how everything is looking!

I'm especially in love with this notebook...

♥

Alriiiiiight, I guess I should go shove stuff in suitcases.  I'm planning on having one suitcase and one garment bag for clothing, and one suitcase of craft supplies.  That's normal, right?

♥

bubblegum barbie

One of my projects this semester was a tailored wool coat.

I've been affectionately referring to it as my Bubblegum Barbie coat because it reminds me so much of something a 1960s stewardess Barbie would wear.  I actually shortened mine by nine and a half inches from the pattern our professor gave us-- a straight, below-the-knee coat just isn't something that has a place in my wardrobe.  It would smoosh all of my twirly dresses.  But I love it at this length!  It's hard to tell when it's on the dressform, but the shortened version of the coat has a cute little balmacaan shape, it's much less boxy when it's on a real life person.

As for the 'bubblegum' aspect...

The lining is bubblegum pink!  I'll probably wear it with the sleeves cuffed like this because, being 5'7", long sleeves tend to stop about an inch short of my wrist, which is just really awkward-looking.  So 3/4 sleeves it is.  The whole coat is so comfortable, it's made of a slightly felted wool, so it has a nice spongy feeling.  (Ew, I never noticed what a gross word spongy is.  Spongy.  Sponnnnngy.)  Oh, and then there's my favorite part of all...

Are these not the cutest  buttons ever?  There may have been grabby-hands made when I saw them in M&J.  Luckily I had a very tolerant professor who didn't mind that they are definitely not the kind or size of buttons he told us to get.  I just adjusted the buttonhole size, moved them over an extra eighth of an inch from the end of the lapel, and tah-dah!  Flowery goodness.

♥

random end-of-semester awesomeness.

Today was my first official day of having finished seventh semester.  YAY!  Now I have to figure out how to get back into my usual routine of blogging every day.  I'm excited to get back, I've missed you guys (assuming this is being read by anyone.).  But I have so, so many projects to share now.  So what sounds good-- one every day?  One every few days?  Let me know in the comments!

The end of the semester had some fun surprises.  You know how I'd mentioned that I had some art history left to do?  I finished my essay and discussion posts, and then I logged on to take the test (I took the class online) and found this charming little message:

(click on the  photo to make it bigger, if you can't read it)

How cool is that?  I love it when professors give nice little surprises like that.

Let's see, what else... Anthropologie had a pretty amazing sale, and I found one of my all-time favorite pieces at a ridiculous discount:

 ...the Mushroom Picking Chemise!  Oh, I love it so much.  It's so cute and floaty and comfortable.  I also picked up the Braided Toggle Sweatercoat, which is seriously the coziest sweater I've ever put on.

As an hourglass-shaped girl, I have a hard time finding thick sweaters that don't make me look...square, so this A-line cardigan is just right.  It'll probably go on sale, and then I'll feel foolish, but I've already worn it enough to make it worth the (kind of ridiculous) cost.  I'm considering it my end-of-semester treat to myself.  Oh!  And I had the chance to meet the lovely Sian from The British Anthropologi(e)st.  She's so sweet, and it was fun to discuss Anthropologie with someone equally obsessed.  So that was really fun.

Other awesome end of semester stuff:

• Two of my residents made me an adorable jar of green and silver origami wish stars for Christmas, topped with a massive candy cane.


• Another of my residents gave me lovely and delicious chocolate truffle bars.  I'm such a spoiled RA!


• I have time to get back to yoga!  And my room is finally clean now, so I have a space for it, too.  Hurrah!

And I believe we have come to the end of this rather disorganized blog post.  Let me know in the comments what you think as far as how often you'd like to see projects! Oh, and there will be big doings in the etsy shop over the next few days.  Think...paper goods.

I hope everyone's had a lovely and relaxing Monday!

♥

 

fill-in-the-blank friday!

Hiiii, hi hi hi!  I have emerged from the fabric-strewn cave that is my room with my projects finished and the semester complete!  Ok, well, I still have some Art History work to do, but that's no big deal.  I'll be posting photos of various projects soon, but in the mean time, here are this week's blanks!

via the little things we do

1.   My most favorite "little thing" is waking up  without an alarm.  It's so jarring to be woken up by a sudden noise, even if it's just the tinkly little ringtone I set as my alarm on my phone.   But waking up slowly is awesome, especially if it's nice out and sunlight is filtering into my room.

2.   I'd give anything to bring my dad back.  Obviously.  Short of that, though, I'd do anything to be able to make my mom's life easier, especially at the moment.

3.  I can't believe that I'm going into my last semester of college!  How crazy is that?  It cracks me up that I've pretty much had the same group of friends the entire time I've been here, too.  I knew I wanted to be friends with Brittany when she used "Trekkies" as her theme for a project based on a subculture of our choice.  She was friends with Andrea and Josh.  Kathie and I met in our first semester classes, too-- her Ninja Turtle halloween costume was awesome.  Jes and I only started hanging out a lot this semester, but it feels like it's been much longer.  I guess we all just kind of found the people we liked early on and stuck with them!  And I'm so glad.  Being a fashion design major at FIT is a pretty intense experience, but having a great group of friends makes it much more bearable.  ♥

4. The one thing I'd like to achieve today is finishing my art history reading and at least a few discussion posts.  My brain has already gone into vacation mode, eeeeek!  Oh, and cleaning my Very Scary Room.  The most dangerous offender of messiness at the moment is a piece of tulle that has been laying next to my door for something like three days now.  I don't know why I keep refusing to pick it up.  Since it's tulle, it's almost impossible to see, especially in the dark (y'know, like most things are when it's dark), and I almost slip and break my neck every single time I leave my room.  But no longer!  My room will be cleaned right up!  Starting now.     ....Ok, I went and picked up the tulle.  My neck will survive another day.

5.  The last thing I want to do today is ...my art history work.  I'm hoping having a nice clean room will help me focus.  It's probably mostly a procrastination technique rather than an actual study strategy, but whatever, fine by me.

6.  If I were writing my own blank today, it would say "What was the last thing you bought that makes you really happy?"  Mostly because I just want an excuse to blog about the two things I bought today that I love so, so, SO much.

7.  My favorite candle scent is:  Y'know, I'm not actually that into candles.  I love my little battery operated ones, but since most of my work deals with highly flammable stuff, paper and fabric, actual flaming candles make me a little concerned.  I do like when I can have one safely in the bottom of a mason jar, though, I like the pretty flickering light.  Scent... hmmmm.  We had this enormous blueberry-scented candle growing up that we only used when the power went out, and it smelled SO BAD.  Just completely artificial and nothing like actual blueberries.  I wonder if there are milk-scented candles, I generally like milk-scented things.  Cucumber-melon is nice, too... a friend I had growing up had cucumber-melon scented candles on her porch, and thinking of them made me remember that so clearly, even though we haven't spoken in something like five years and I haven't been to her house in at least 7 years.  Isn't it interesting how remembering a smell can bring back so much?

I hope finals are going well for those of you who have them!

♥

 

fill-in-the-blank friday! ♥

Helloooo!  I'm taking a (very) brief break from schoolwork to fill in some blanks.  And this week they're about love.  Hunh.  This should be good.

via the little things we do

1.   Love is life-altering, even when it isn't the forever kind.  Love saved my life a few years ago and even though that particular love ended, I'll always be grateful that it started.

2.   Being in love feels like being able to face the world and handle anything as long as you're by that person's side.  For me, it feels like waking up happy and excited every day.

3.  My favorite quote about love is  actually a lyric: "You know I dreamed about you for twenty-nine years before I saw you.  You know I dreamed about you, I've missed you for twenty-nine years."  It's from the song Slow Show by The National and I just think it's so beautiful and romantic and true.  I'm an absolute believer in love at first sight, that feeling that you've finally found what you've been searching for and that nothing is ever the same after that first glance.

4. The most important thing in a relationship is  empathy and communication and passion.  ...Okay, so that's three things.  But I think it's so important for partners to be able to put themselves in the others place, to understand what they're feeling.  And as a very private person, and a perfectionist, sometimes I have a hard time communicating what's going on with me that's making me behave a certain way, partially because I'm afraid I'll get hurt if I'm that open and vulnerable.  But people are so much more forgiving and understanding than I give them credit for.  If two people can get that communication going both ways, it makes for such a steady base for the relationship to stand on.  As for passion... well, if that isn't there, what's the point?

5.  A "deal breaker" for me in a relationship is if a man's natural scent doesn't appeal to me.  I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's true.  I like when a guy naturally smells a bit warm and spicy.

6.  The way I show love in my relationships is by making things.  If I'm constantly giving you little gifts that I've made, it indicates pretty strong feelings.  Also, obvious as it seems, I show love through physical affection.  I'm not naturally a touchy-feely person, so if I'm touching someone a lot, I probably love them.  And using names in conversation-- for some reason, I am SO UNCOMFORTABLE using someone's name in conversation when I'm talking to them, but that goes away a bit if I'm in love.

7.  I love ...my cat.  I don't know.  I'm not in love at the moment.

That was so much less bitter than I expected!  Yay.

Stay tuned over the next week or so, I'll be posting some photos of my final projects for the semester.

♥

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   The holiday season is one of my favorite times of year.  I love all the twinkly lights, and the carols, and candy canes, and making presents for all my favorite people.

2.   Snow makes me excited and happy and cozy.  I like going out in the snow, getting cold, and then coming in and getting warm!

3.  The best comfort food to eat when it's cold out is soup and tea!  Or dried pears.  That's how I spent a lot of happy hours when I was younger, sitting on the love-seat at home and looking out at the snow and snacking on dried pears.

4. Winter is the best time for woolly socks.  I love them.  I have to get my winter boots re-soled because I walk everywhere, but it makes me so happy to put on woolly socks and boots and a scarf and a winter coat.  But even when I'm not going outside, I love wearing woolly socks.  In fact, I am wearing moss-green ones right now.

5.  I can hardly wait for  winter break, so I can go home and be with my mom and my brother and my grandmother.  I got spoiled by Thanksgiving break, when I got to be with my family all the time.

6.  When it comes to holiday gifts I prefer to make gifts for people.  I love making presents!

7.  If I were to rate my excitement about the holiday season on a scale from 1-10, I would say I am at about a 6 or 7?  I love the holiday season, but it's going to be a rough one this year since it's the first one without my dad.  I really hate that.  While I'm at school, it's easy to pretend everything is normal at home, and I hate that it actually isn't.  But it'll be good to be with my family.

♥