Un resúmen de mi viaje - Te quiero Panamá

It's been almost a week since I came home from my trip, and I finally have a minute to sit down and get you all up to date. I had an incredible time. In fact, I decided to extend my stay an extra week because I just wasn't ready to come home. To be honest, I wasn't really ready when I did finally come home on the sixth. Without further ado, I'll take you all on a quick (and very much abridged) tour of my month-long stint in Panama.

Some of the girls.

There were skinks crawling around the hotel. This one was in the room next door.

The view from my hotel room balcony.

The first full day we were in Panama they took us out that night on a Chiva Parrandera. The Chiva Parrandera is an interesting phenomenon to witness and even more interesting to participate it. It's a party bus, converted from an old city bus, with a DJ booth in the back. We drove around the city for hours having our own mobile dance party. We made a pit stop for a bit at an empty parking lot out on the causeway. We had a great time, but I have never been that sweaty in my entire life, nor do I think I ever will be again. 

The next day we went on a couple of hikes through the two big parks in the city. The first (and the one these pictures are from) was on Ancon Hill.

Poison dart frog. We saw several, and I actually almost stepped on one.

View of the city skyline from one of the trails. 

I got my picture taken with the recycling mimes at Albrook Mall...

We went to an incredibly beautiful zoo in El Valle de Antón. It was unlike any zoo I've ever been to before, set back in the mountains and not as purposefully organized as most zoos we're familiar with. It was really lovely and peaceful though.

Some of the group went zip-lining.

While we took a rainy hike through the rainforest.

La India Dormida

Our first official night out to the clubs...

Our next major outing took us to Portobelo and Isla Grande. We stopped at the ruins of an old fort on the way there.

Miniatures of the Cristo Negro statue at the church in Portobelo.

My first dip in the Caribbean.

We had a delicious lunch of mariscos at a restaurant called Bob Marley's, owned by a man named Pupy.

We saw baby crocodiles on our trip to Gamboa...

And went to the National Championship baseball game between Los Santos and Bocas del Toro (who hadn't won in 53 years or something crazy). I have never been to a baseball game like this in my life. There was a bad, dancers, fights and beer throwing.

We got to take a ride in the 360º simulator at the Panama Canal. It made me a little woozy, more so than any of the actual boats we road in.

We went to a second baseball game (the third of the Championship finals) and found an adorable baby. I really wanted to bring him home with me. He's a sweetheart.

This is not a great picture of me, but he's cute enough to make up for it.

One of the best trips we took was to the Aldeas Orphanage. We each "adopted" a child for the day and spent the whole day running around the grounds, jumping rope, playing with remote control cars and coloring. It was really wonderful spending time with such sweet, happy kids. It was a moving experience for a lot of us.

A brief announcement...

So unfortunately I have not been able to meet my goal of not falling so behind again. However, we've been so busy, and our internet in the hotel here in Panamá is SO SLOW that it takes forever to do anything with pictures. I'm going to have to keep it to a minimum until I get back to the States, but I promise I'm taking lots and lots of pictures. Hope everyone is having a wonderful May!

-Evie

1930s Draping Book

I found this draping book at my school library (among others) and have finally gotten around to scanning it as I can't find a copy for sale anywhere. Now that it's two weeks overdue and I'm heading back to classes in a week I figure I should take care of this little tidbit, making sure I have all the information safely saved on my computer. It's a textbook from the Women's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences in Scranton, PA and was published in 1936. The entire book is 54 pages, but I'll share some of the illustrations with you all.

I've got another book from 1935 that I also planned on getting scanned this afternoon and will share with you soon. I've also located my camera charger and will share pictures of the plaid outfit progress later.

Glitter and Grit - December 18th continued

I decided to split this post up since it would have resulted in one distractingly long post if left otherwise. After the ballet on Saturday I had a little time to hang out before heading out to my next event. I got a little work done on another one of those Pixie baby hats that I made, since I've got another pregnant friend to make a gift for. I'd like to get his finished for her for Christmas so I've been scrambling to get it done. I'll share some pictures once I get it all together.

Anyway, Saturday night my best friend and her beau had their annual Christmas party, Glitter and Grit. Perfect name for it. I couldn't go last year (I don't remember why) and I almost missed it this year. I was supposed to go to another party, but the ballet set me behind and I was going to have to drive by myself, 30 minutes plus both ways, and just really didn't feel like doing that so instead I went to Laura's party. I'm very glad I did too because I got to spend time with some of my dearest friends that I hardly get to see anymore. I headed over a little early so I could get a parking spot right out front and I figured they could maybe use an extra hand with final preparations. I was right, and was more than happy to help finish up chopping and arranging.

Sean even decorated the kitchen with ornaments and such! There was tons of delicious food and Sean really outdid himself on the decor.

Santa served as the backdrop for a makeshift holiday photo booth. 

Watch out Martha! You've got some competition.

There's a better one of these on someone else's camera. Stephanie got a little blocked in this one. 

Candy girls. I technically don't work there anymore, but after 8 years I think I deserve to maintain the title.

I discovered later that night that not only is this dress amazing to begin with, but it also has a pocket! It does only have one on the right side, which I thought was a little funny, but one pocket is better than none. It's buried down in the pleats which is why I never noticed it before. It was a great party and we all had a wonderful time. There was plenty of delicious food, lots of dancing and good conversation and just enough craziness on the dance floor. You really can't beat an elf breakdancing to Lady Gaga, and what Christmas playlist is complete without the Antoine Dodson remix? I had not intended on staying out late since we had an early morning on Sunday, but I ended up getting home about 1:00. It was well worth it though. I love my friends and had so much fun. A great big heartfelt thank you to our two wonderful hosts! Love you both!

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.

Wishful thinking...

I've been noodling around on the internet a lot recently ogling various pairs of shoes and other lovely things that I want. While I never put together an actual Christmas list per-say, and even if I did most everything on it would occupy a merely fantastical place on the Christmas list anyway, here a just a handful of the things I've been drooling over recently.

The first is this lovely pair of 1920s evening shoes from Remix, the Ritz.

Now we move on to another pair of their shoes, Myrna. Isn't she beautiful?

And then there is Rita...

I don't really care for the yellow, but the red, pink and black, etc are all wonderful.

The pleated toe wedgies are really cute too. I love the red ones!

Well, enough with the shoes already. I also found a few books recently that I'd love to have. The first one is thoroughly nerdy; a book about the effect of politics on fashion in post colonial Argentina. It's called Couture and Consensus and sounds really interesting.






I also really like this copy of Amado Nervo's El estanque de los lotos. I included a poem from it in my post a couple of days ago. The copy I have is on loan from the University of Arkansas Library and it's a 1927 edition. It's lovely and I'd really like to find a similar early edition somewhere. I found a few with relatively reasonable prices at ABEbooks.com.

I've also been itching to get the new Bruce Springsteen boxed set The Promise. I have the CD, but I'd really like to have the DVDs and such. It's got the best version of Racing in the Street ever! I was really tempted to buy the whole set when it came out, but it was just a bit steep. I'm really loving the CD though, and very glad I went ahead and bought it.

In other news....

the fabric for my Poiret outfit got here on Friday afternoon. I can't remember whether I already told you all or not. It's beautiful! It's a bit lighter weight than I had anticipated, but it's going to be lovely. I also got several new patterns in the mail Friday. They were very on sale so I had to go ahead and get them.

V8333

V8621

V2931

V2964

V1137

V8346

V8052

I've been thinking about getting the first Claire Shaffer jacket pattern for a while, and now that it was on sale I jumped at it. The other was just so interesting I opted to just get both. The Vintage vogue dress pattern is another that I've been wanted for a while. I really like the reversible swing coat and the fit of the sheath dress. The hat pattern is another we didn't have, and the coat pattern is the perfect winter coat. I'd love to make a nice heavy one, maybe in a plaid, who knows. The two evening gown patterns really were just a frivolity. I think they're both so pretty, and the one with the trumpet hem and the big bow is just too fun. I never have anywhere to wear anything like that and I don't hope to have any occasion to wear either of them anytime soon, but I just love them both and they were cheap so I went for it. Maybe some day I'll have a fancy, black tie event to go to (but I'm not going to hold my breath).

I'd better get back to this paper, but I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!