December 18 - Day 124

Saturday was my annual trip to see the Nutcracker at the ballet. My aunt has been giving me a season ticket to the ballet for my birthday and Christmas for years. We always go out to lunch and then to the Saturday matinees. It's really fun, and it's been neat to see the way they have adapted some of the ballets over the years. This year was the second time they've done the newly revamped production of The Nutcracker. I really like what they've done to it also. This was also the first year that my cousin's little girl got to go with us. She'll be five in a few months and she was in absolute awe for the first act. She sat there in her new Christmas dress with her mouth gaping open at the magic happening on stage. She was getting a little tired by the second act, but she behaved really well.

(Please excuse the mess behind me. A lot of that is stuff that's been in transit the past week.) I really wanted to try and switch up my outfits this year, so I decided to rotate what I wear to which event a bit more. I wore this dress of Dot's to a Christmas Carol last year, but I didn't have a crinoline to go under it yet. I finished this one over the summer and the dress definitely benefits from it. This was not one that Dot made, but it's really fabulous. I was ecstatic when I pulled this one out of the bag. It's got a fun, all over strawberry print with black velvet accents on the dropped shoulders. The belt actually belonged to my grandmother, Nana, but it matches this dress perfectly, almost like they were made to go together. I twisted my hair up into a simple twist and put on my polka-dot stockings and my patent leather pumps. I wore Nana's mink coat with it too, since it was so cold out, but I wanted you to be able to see the dress to full advantage.

The shoulders have rhinestones under the velvet trim also, which is part of the reason Nana's belt matches so well.

I'm lookin' a little shiny in this one (I didn't have time to take pictures until I got home and really should have powdered off before doing so), but I did a pretty simple eye and a really bold lip to go with my vintage inspired holiday look. I just recently found this tutorial from the girls at Pixiwoo. I've used a lot of their tutorials for inspiration and I'm really impressed with them all. I really loved the lip in this tutorial though and decided to try out something similar.