Two red riding hoods and Alphonso

Over Christmas when Mel and I were at my mom and step-dad’s house, I was lucky enough to get in some BFF time with Rochelle, who came to stay the first weekend of our trip with us!

Uh, happy faces, anyone? This photo was taken just a few minutes after she got there.

It was great, because other than an hour-long layover she had at O’Hare this summer, we hadn’t seen each other since we hung out in March. (You can see our two outfit posts from then here and here, plus our adventures at National Park Seminary.)

We had one little outfit idea planned for when we were together in December, but it was up to me to make it happen. Fortunately I squeezed it in before the trip!

Yes, you are totally not seeing double there with our tops. If you follow Rochelle’s blog too, you’ll probably know that she sewed a really cute Tank Dress tunic with an adorable red riding hood fabric from fabric.com (I think it’s sold out now). Being the novelty print connoisseur that I am, I had to copy her and buy the fabric too, especially when I knew we were going to get to hang out in December!

I used Simplicity 3266, a blouse pattern from 1956 with a cool large wing collar that I love but was a total pain in the ass. I’ll hopefully talk more details about it another time (and I’m pretty sure that regardless of the annoying collar, I’ll sew it again!). Plus next week, you’ll get to see more of the cardigan I’m wearing. Those were the last two things I made in 2014!

But really, I swear Rochelle knew I was copying her fabric choice. Honest!

My mom was our photographer of the day, and picked up some real gems like this. What the hell do we do when we’re together?!

Well for one, we hang out with inflatable pool floaties used as Christmas decor.

In fairness, the alligator is entirely the fault of my parents. When Rochelle arrived, we were all in the process of stringing Christmas lights around an inflatable pool alligator that they wanted to use to decorate their front porch. (No that sentence won’t sound any more normal if you read it again.)

It must say something about our friendship that Rochelle didn’t even bat an eye at any of this. She just named the alligator Alphonso.

So of course, jackassery with an alligator ensued.

I love that in the photo below it looks like we’re posing with a member of the family or something.

Of course, we are actually capable of taking somewhat respectable photos, too!

I guess I don’t have to tell you we had a great time. I think the smiles and giggles say it all!

Ta ta from Rochelle and I, until the next time we get to spend time together and chat about sewing, knitting, decorate Christmas trees, drink tea and each too much stweets, act like buffoons in front of a camera, presumably annoy everyone around us, and hang out with inflatable creatures!

Thanks to my mom for taking photos, making the above collage over Christmas, and playing host to our jackassery.

outfit details

on Rochelle:
Tank Dress tunic – made by Rochelle
cardigan – Target
boots – 6pm
hat – made by me as a birthday gift

on me:
1950s blouse – made by me
Butterick B5895 pants – made by me
cardigan – made by me (sharing more next week)
vintage scarf – misc.
earrings – misc.
shoes – Bait Footwear