SCRATCH THAT.

this is where you can find me from now on:

http://twelveoclocke.blogspot.com/

BABY COME BACK.

I've recently realized that I should probably started blogging again here because sometimes Tumblr just feels too cold and teen angsty and there's all of those gifs of galaxies and anorexic people smoking and it's all just too much for me! Also, sometimes I worry that "Quirky & Co." is a stupid name, but I am learning to embrace the choices of my eighth grade self and so should you!

So here's some exciting things going on in my life: I am done junior year, I waitress at an old folk's home(LIVING THE DREAM!), and I started an Etsy shop to sell vintage because I have been hoarding stuff that I find at thrift shops that is aweso

me, but doesn't fit me and it was only a matter of time until my mom called A&E to come help me.

NOW, what I have been doing with my summer, in iPhone pictures:

I made a crop top out of this awesome fruit themed tablecoth I found at a local thrift shop. Tutorial forthcoming! No patterns required! (FUN FACT: My mom

informs me that the thrift shop where this was purchased is on the same compound as a drug rehab and in the 1970s, while shopping, a patient tried to steal

some tube tops from her hands!).

I successfully made donuts from scratch for the first time. I have now learned how to deep fry donuts and french fries and home and my life is so much better.

I turned a Mrs. Roper muumuu into a slightly shorter Mrs. Roper muumuu.

Got my hair cut. Look how windswept and cool I look! It's like you can't even tell that I'm sitting in the outdoor eating area of Chipotle!

And, finally, some hot young adult fiction to read.

How is YOUR summer going? I want to hear all about it!

something from nothing

Artist/Blogger extraordinaire Olivia Mew refrained from buying clothing for a month and created miniature felt versions of dresses she wanted and sewed them all together to make a wearable shift dress.

This project is so inspiring! Imagine how therapeutic it'd be to make a miniature version of a Miu Miu dress you could never afford in a lifetime.

WORN: Issue no. 11

When the lovely folks at Worn offered to send me their newest issue, I was bogged down by schoolwork and having one those weeks where you look into your closet and suddenly feel temptation to just give up and become a nudist. I felt like Ali Larter in that scene in Legally Blonde when she's in prison and Elle comes to her rescue by bringing her, among other things, "the bible" a.k.a. Cosmopolitan. Except Worn is basically the antithesis to every ridiculous, Cosmo-like rag I've ever read.

Worn provides intelligent commentary on fashion and its surrounding culture. You will not find articles like "How To Find the Perfect LBD That Will Make You Look Skinner, Younger, and Find You A Man In Just 15 Minutes!" The magazine discusses the historical and social influence of fashion from a feminist perspective and embraces personal style, with a voice that is funny and sincere. Not to mention that it's 44 pages of eye candy!

Some of my favorite parts of Issue 11 include:

+A look at the evolution of the airline "stewardess" uniform and culture.

+An excellent guide to buying vintage glasses frames, as well as a glossary of various styles throughout history. I wish I had this a few months ago, when I invested in a pair of gold vintage cateyes!

+An informative piece on textile conservation that made me scold my mom for storing vintage dresses in our damp basement.

+An editorial featuring a real live Zebra! The perfect antidote to every mainstream editorial featuring a designer's exact runway look against a beige background.

I cannot recommend Worn Journal enough. I have never encountered a magazine that made me wish that I could just play dress up and hangout with its staff.

For more info on Worn, go here! To subscribe, go here!

P.S. What do you guys think of my pom pom necklace? I made it hastily last night and I can't decide if it's cool or looks like I got into a knife fight with Fozzy Bear!

i'm still here post 4 of 949

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive and well! BECAUSE I KNOW YOU CARE. One month without blogging turns into four before you know it. Junior year is scary and frightening and every myth you heard about it is true. To quote Daria Morgendorffer, "If I had to do it all over again, I'd have started advanced placement classes in preschool so I could go from eighth grade straight to college."

I am working on some new projects, so stay tuned!

i hang glide on a dorito.

I don't care if you've already seen this, watch it again. I feel like I can relate this half shell so much more than I have ever with mankind.

DIY Couture

Have you ever been to a party where you see a girl in a cute dress, you tell her you like her dress, and she responds "Thanks! I made it myself!" and then you go sulk in a corner and are like "WTF, self, why can't you do that?" I WANT TO BE THAT GIRL!

The problem is that sewing brings out my inner rage. Sewing patterns are basically written in Japanese to me. Most sewing guidebooks seem to be written by a stern grandmother who is trying to teach you how to sew with "tough love." There's just too many rules, so many ways to screw up! I basically get halfway through a project, throw spools of thread in agony, and then go watch the Food Network and never finish it.

Clothes made using DIY Couture books.

Imagine my excitement when the folks behind DIY Couture offered to send me a few books. DIY Couture makes the sewing process easier for beginners and experience seamtresses alike, by offering zine-like books with illustrated, step-by-step instructions on how to create a garment. Instead of speaking in another language, these books teach you visually. Instead of dealing with complicated patterns, the book gives instructions on how to measure and cut fabric using household items and your own measurements, creating a completely unique garment from start to finish!

I was sent the books on how to make a pleated skirt, a cloak, and a gathered dress. While tempted to make a Little Red Ridinghood style cloak, I opted to save that for the fall and try out the pleated skirt using some grey cotton I scored for $1 a yard. This was the first time I've sewed something I actually want to wear! It feels good to create a piece of clothing, from start to finish, for $2 instead of shelling out money for a basic skirt somewhere like Urban Outfitters.

"Inspired by the thousands of invisible pairs of hands around the globe that make the clothes we buy, DIYcouture hopes to inspire people to turn off their screens and get up to their elbows in the 3-dimensional world of creation. It supports the slow revolution. Helping people to produce garments that are precious, rather than disposable, this is the antithesis of fast-fashion."

The book includes instructions on how to create multiple variations of the skirt, including a maxi version that I plan on trying. The killer thing about these books is that one can be used to create infinite garments, like fashion bacteria!

DIY Couture books can be purchased here.

WWII Hairstyle Safety

lemon cake.

You're probably wondering where I've been (most likely not. I completely understand. I wouldn't care if I were you). For those of you who are like "Dude, Gabby. Stop being so lazy, stop neglecting your blog. We know you don't have a life. We know that your social life consists of tweezing your eyebrows while watching straight to video B-teen movies," what if I told you I was in space? Ok, sorry, I was a little too busy WALKING ON THE MOON to blog about, like, my love of tights.

I'm just kidding. I had you fooled! I did bake some lemon cake, which was delectable if I say so myself. If you've been following my Tumblr, you'll know that it's kind of creating a world wide phenomenon. I am becoming KIND OF A BIG DEAL.

The lovely Hazel came over and took some really beautiful photos of my house that you can see here. I think I am going to get her to come live here and take pictures at my beck and call in exchange for baked goods.

Lemon Cake

+2 cups all purpose flour

+3/4 teaspoon baking soda

+1/4 teaspoon salt

+1/2 cup milk

+2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

+1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

+1 cup granulated sugar

+2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 (8- by 2-inch) round cake pans and line bottoms of each with rounds of wax or parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir together milk and lemon juice (mixture will curdle).

Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture in batches, beginning and ending with flour, mixing at low speed until just combined.

Divide batter between pans, smoothing tops. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes, then invert onto racks, remove paper, and cool completely.

Lemon Frosting

+4 oz cream cheese, softened

+4 oz butter, softened

+3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

+2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

+1 or 2 teaspoons lemon zest

Beat everything together until fluffy and frost onto the cake layers!

What a hottie.

well, that she's an axe murderer, of course!

Exhibit A: Moschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 R/W

Look at that adorable guitar case bag! It just emanates cuteness! But yet...I feel that it looks so familiar...like I have seen it somewhere before, like say, I don't know, 19 SECONDS INTO THIS YOUTUBE CLIP?!

 

I like to think that Rosella Jardini is just like me and sits around watching Gilmore Girls reruns while eating nachos that she'd claimed she was making for the whole family, but in fact, ends up eating the whole plate on her own. 

sew u: dresses

I have the excitement of a preteen child the night before the release of the last Harry Potter book (I'm sorry. I don't know what it's called. I was partial to A Series of Unfortunate Events. Really, I can spend hours discussing the meaning behind Count Olaf's ankle tattoo, but that's for another time)! I have the first and second Sew U books by Built by Wendy and, just like the namesake line, they're so cool and offbeat and functional. 

Unlike most sewing instruction books, which are usually written in, like, pig latin and teach you how to make your very own floor length dirndl skirt out of polar fleece (!), these are written like you're talking to your easily understood cool best friend who has a vast knowledge of needlecraft and wants to teach you how to make something you'll actually want to wear. 

I plan on spending the rest of wintertime whipping up cute little dresses, and then, come springtime, I'll bust them out and nobody'll know what hit them! My world domination plan will succeed!

she comes apart, but she's so together!

Did you guys have ridiculous collections as a child? Because I did;  Beanie Babies, a brief stint with Legos, Betty Spaghetty dolls. (OMG DOES ANYONE ELSE REMEMBER BETTY SPAGHETTY? PLEASE SAY YOU DO. OMG. NOSTALGIA. INTERCHANGEABLE PLASTIC HAIRDOS. OMG.)

My mom collected Madame Alexander dolls, back when they didn't cost an arm and a leg and you could go buy one at the drugstore for like 5 cents and, like, sip an ice cream soda and ride your bicycle off into the distance. I remember I was so excited when McDonald's released Madame Alexander happy meal toys, that my mom took me there for lunch everyday for a week. We were just so set on collecting them a

ll. That and it gave us an excuse to eat french fries everyday. 

ANYWAYS, Jason Wu is designing a collection of dolls for Madame Alexander. These probably will cost an arm and a leg, but oh the cuteness IT HURTS. THAT HAIR, OH! This is unreal. I need a commemorative t-shirt immediately. And a cheeseburger. 

and if you haven't got a half penny, then god bless you!

I hope everyone's holiday was full of cheer and copious amounts of butter based food things! Mine certainly was. I promise an entire holiday themed post soon, I mean it's not like I'm lazy or toy with a procrastination problem OR SOMETHING SILLY LIKE THAT. No, no I just want to prolong the holiday cheer as much as possible! Yeah! But as a preview, here's what I wore on New Year's Eve. 

Please pardon my pseudo pretending I'm an Urban Outfitters model looking off lustfully into the distant pose here. I'm wore my sister's old Joyce Leslie leopard sweater under Rodarte for Target dress, 3 pairs of tights to protect my delicate child limbs from the cold, and boots whose brand I am unsure of, but that's alright because they give me a false sense of coolness!

That sweater is actually a  v-neck and, when worn that way, looks like something Hilda Suarez might sport. But because I'm just so startlingly brilliant, I wore it backwards and it looked like a whole new shirt, which then prompted my sister to ask for it back! Yes!

What did you guys do on New Years Eve? I spent mine feasting on Chinese food with my family and ending up on my best friend's couch watching the cast of Jersey Shore ring in the new year. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but sometimes I fantasize about having a pretty apartment and frolicking around in a sparkly dress with a tray of pigs in a blanket and noisemakers on New Years Eve. The amount of time I spend fantasizing about cute cocktail parties I want to hold in the future is inversely proportional to the amount of time I actually spend partying. Also, the amount of parties I am invited to. SHUT UP, I'M NORMAL.

P.S.

I made a Tumblr! Because I often come across nice things or have random thoughts that aren't really worthy of an entire blog post. That and I obviously need another internet gimmick to check constantly, instead of doing my homework. So add me or follow me or tumble (?) me or whatever the lingo the kids are using!

the as if conundrum.

As a five year old, I was overexposed to late nineties romantic teen comedies and desperately wanted to be a sixteen year old girl with a car, a boyfriend, and a computer operated closet. Now that I've been sixteen for three weeks, I just want to be my five year old self who had the confidence to wear leopard pants and didn't have an abundance of homework stopping me from watching late nineties romantic teen comedies all day.I still find this to be the most technologically advanced thing ever. 

we interrupt this program for a very important announcement

YOU. RIGHT THERE. READING THIS PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A BLOG. I need your help. You see, there's this fantastic independent fashion journal called Worn. Last week, the kind, extremely well dressed folks there sent me an issue.  

Just as I had finally finished whittling the giant wood block of homework I had into a delightful gnome, ready to sing praises of Worn and how if it were a person, it would be your friend's cool older sister who is always wearing some awesome vintage getup and always sounds smart and funny AND YOU WANT TO BE JUST LIKE HER AND YOU WRITE IN RUN ON SENTENCES AND USE ALL CAPS TO CONVEY PASSIONATE EMOTIONS, I hear this news. 

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT. Some no good, scum-between-my-toes dirtbags hacked into the lovely folk's bank account, and now they can't pay distribution costs. Mind you, the Wornettes are all volunteers, to boot! 

So, dig between your sofa cushions, hold a bake sale, or interpretive dance on the side of the road with a tip jar, whatever you can do to scrounge up some moolah to help out one of the greatest fashion zines of our time!

someone in my dictionary's up to no good

When it rains it pours, homework-wise. I'm really happy about that because I was beginning to worry I would be able to have time to blog/enjoy life again. I need to stop making excuses. If I have time to record fifteen minute videos of me eating chocolate pudding whilst simultaneously lip synching show tunes (a skill that, I must admite, I am quite proud of) for my friends, I have time for blogging GOSHDARNIT.

I'm giving up on this whole "hair" concept.

I made one of these Formspring contraptions, where you anonymously ask me questions or gush out your feelings or talk about some really great food you had and I can live vicariously through your stomach, and then I'll post and answer them here. My dear pal Hazel has one and I've admired it for sometime and because I am going through such a rut thought it might liven things up a bit around here (Have you noticed? This blog has become a bunch of posts of me complaining about complaining about not posting and then taking angsty self-portraits.) 

So please, ask way, dear friends.

fixing a hole.

Why do I never consistently post?

a.) I am currently swimming a sea of homework.

b.) I am just lazy.

c.) I spend all my free time googling where I can find Indian food within a 5 miles radius.

d.) I am busy cutting holes in my future prom dress, ala the Viktor and Rolf number below.

e.) I'm contemplating the natural food coloring thing going on with beets.

f.) all of the above.

  P.S. Take a look at the new header by Audrey Malo! Visit her Etsy shop, full of many delightful prints.

BENTO PERFECTION

I would like this for lunch everyday, please. 

OFF TO GO STEAM SOME RICE AND THINGS!

the entire confection.

I was talking with a friend today about our favorite scenes in a movie, of all time. I determined this is mine.

Those notoriously charming folks that comment at Youtube share my feelings, more or less:

"dam tht cake looks good-i know yall r thinking it too!"

"This IS epic caek."

"Hidden scenes - The revolting fat child dies of coronary heart disease not long after."

"I would need a freaking ton of milk to get through that thing..."

"he is my hero! i chugged my capri sun when he was eating the last of the cake and screaming!"

"i totally feel like him now. cause i'm eating half a pie"

"BRUCE PWNS FAT BITCHES!" (INDEED)

school daze.

My first day of school can easily be described in a single word: meh. It's not like I expected anything more than that blah blah i want to go to college blah blah everyone sucks blah teen angst. I've come to the conclusion that my ideal school is one in which Ina Garten is the principal and everyone is polite and cheery and wear dresses and we eat lobster pot pie and chocolate cake for lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY.

This is what I wore, sans the tights and a different belt. I was just lazy/sleep deprived the first day and didn't feel like taking a picture and had conveniently taken this one the other day.I KNOW I KNOW, this is such a profesh fashion blog. I mean where, in that large brilliant mind of mine, do I find such groundbreaking ensemble ideas?!

In other new, I just poured myself a bowl of chocolate chips. They've got that mystical,whiteness to them that is either A.) mold (does chocolate mold?) or B.)staleness from being in a open bag for too long. The fact that a bag of chocolate has gone uneaten in my home for so long that it's developed the said mystical whiteness is disgraceful.

 How was your first day of school?

P.S. The Etsy shop is up and running! Look over there, to the right!