WeeCap: Mad Men

My friend Alex and I are huge Mad Men fans; as much for clothes as for the wonderful acting, writing and that sexy misogynist, Don Draper.  So, when we heard that the theme for this year’s annual Salem Art Association Clay Ball was Mad Men, we knew we had to go.  And we knew we had to go all out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything appropriately 60s in my closet, so I had to go shopping.  Luckily I was able to find this dress at an antique mall in Albany:

I realize in looking at these pictures that it’s a little too big for me, which I didn’t notice before because too big vintage is not often an issue I run into.  I’ll probably have to take it in before I wear it again.

Fit aside, I knew I had to get this dress as soon as I saw the fabulous sleeves – I love that they’re unattached and sequined.  Not that the sequins were enough; oh, no, I had to add some rhinestones too:

I embellished my hair with two clip-on rhinestone earrings, wore the rhinestone earrings and a bracelet and added a rhinestone pin to my clutch.

Unlike me, Alex had the foresight to buy a gorgeous 60s gown a couple years ago:

Isn’t it amazing? She also accessorized with rhinestones and added long white gloves and major lashes.

And then we were off to the party.  And, you guys?  It was so much fun.  The first couple of hours were the silent auction, drinks and hors d’oeuvres.  And a photo booth:

Erich McVey Photography was there with a very cool wall of old advertisements from the late 50s and early 60s.  If you want to see more pictures from the event, go to http://www.hautebooth.com/ and you can see a bunch of the other party goers.

After the silent auction we had dinner and the live auction – it was the first I’d ever attended, and it was fabulous.  Really, the whole night was fabulous.  Except that my feet hurt the next day.

It doesn’t help that I was out dancing Friday night too but by Sunday, the dogs were barking.  Luckily, I had some of these to wear around the next day:

They’re Kushyfoot Flats-to-Go and they’re wonderful.  They fit easily into my purse and they really are cushy.  When I received them from the fine folks at Kushyfoot, I was a little worried because the size is 9/10 and in my experience, things that have two size on them never fit the larger size listed.  But, I was wrong; these wonderfully comfortable flats really do fit my monstrous size 10 feet easily.

My pair is black embossed crocodile, but these fabulous flats also come in bronze alligator, zebra, polka dot, snake, perforated cream, black patent and silver.  And they're only $9.99 per pair in drug stores everywhere.  Or, of course, you can get some at kushyfoot.com.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Gracey

WeeCap: February 18th and 19th

Wherein the Gracey the Giant meets Kelsey the CharmingPumpkin and it is awesome.

Saturday, February 18^th

I spent Saturday with my best friend Jodee, shopping the Nordstrom Rack clearance sale, eating German food, trying and failing to make sense of H&M and finally (finally!) finding red tights.  I wore this

Yes, you are correct; I dohave a lot of patterns going on.  I paired leopard and paisley and stripes.  But, I’m convinced it works because all of the patterns share a color palette and I kept the rest of the outfit simple.  For the not-so-simple portion of my outfit, I paired a striped tunic (Banana Republic) with a paisley scarf (Target) and topped it off with a leopard coat (Wet Seal, consigned).  The unseen simple portion is just skinny jeans (Macy’s) tucked into riding boots (Born Crown “Sosie”).

Sunday, February 19^th

Sunday, Sunday was when the magic happened.  After a totes delish brunch with Jodee, I met up with the ridiculously awesome Kelsey of the Charming Pumpkin.  We were planning on doing A LOT of thrifting and laughing, so I dressed accordingly:

Here’s the thing folks; do you know what’s good for thrifting and laughing?  Leggings.  And leggings it was.  I paired some black leggings (Macy’s) with a printed chiffon blouse (Nordstrom Rack), a sleeveless black dress/tunic (Nordstrom), an orange cashmere scarf (Nordstrom) and my riding boots from the day before.  And I thrifted and laughed in comfort the entire day.

I’ll get to the thrifting in a second, but first, let me tell you about Kelsey.  I knew she was funny and smart and adorable from her blog, but she’s even smarter and funnier and more adorable in person.  Seriously folks, she is one bright lady.  And hilarious.  And irreverent.  And the best thrifting good luck charm.

We only made it to three thrift stores, but I found a ton of stuff.  Mostly a lot of floral stuff:

And 80s stuff, like this red, angora sweater coat of ridiculousness:

And other 80s stuff that you’ll have to wait until 80s prom to see.  Trust me, it’s so worth it.

We also found, but did not buy, sticky stuff (seriously, it was so disgusting)  and sexy nun stuff; we decided the floor length, long-sleeved grey dress with the rhinestone collar was the domain of Sister Elizabeth – she’s the sexy one.  And 80s prom dresses with butt bows the size of small dogs; sadly mine was too small and Kelsey’s was too big, otherwise that totally would have happened.

And then we met up with Mr. CP, who is also brilliant and hilarious, and had dinner at the Veritable Quandary which was delicious and funny and wonderful.

All in all, it was an absolutely fabulous weekend and I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of Kelsey and I together, but we were too busy trying on stuff that didn’t fit and laughing to snap photos.

Next time though, I promise!

Gracey