One of the perks of working out of your home is getting to wear pajamas, although I love getting dressed up for business meetings. Actually I like getting dressed up for just about anything as my friends like to point out. In my fantasy, “going to the office” means entering the richly colored world of Mad Men. And in this world, every woman gets to be Joan P. Harris (nee Holloway).

Let me take a moment to point out that as an avid Mad Men fan I realize that while there are many fashion highs for the female characters, they are often accompanied by career lows. Back to the wardrobe… the Mad Men era is my dream time period for fashion. Also, part of the fantasy is getting to have Christina Hendrick’s amazing body.

To me, there is nothing greater than a fabulous dress and a pair of pumps. As an amateur seamstress (thanks to my BFF who taught me the basics), I love to make skirts and dresses. I found the perfect Joanie-inspired pattern from Butterick. The best part about the pattern is that it’s a “Fast & Easy” pattern – perfect for this somewhat impatient seamstress!

My favorite element of the dress is the collar option which definitely adds the vintage flair or “the Joanie element” as I will call it. The BFF and I set off to Philly’s Fabric Row located on South 4th Street which is chocked full of amazing textiles. Be careful while browsing as the price per yard of fabric in this area of this city is often a bit more expensive than what you might find in Jo-Ann’s.

I had to scan the fabric I ended up using for the dress (check it out below). I guess it’s a wool of some sort… I don’t really know! But it’s gorgeous. The blend of orange, yellow, pink and a bit of lime green makes for a fantastic palette. I didn’t cut the fabric for the longest time because I was nervous about screwing up… and because this was the most expensive fabric I’d ever worked with (about $30/yard).

And voilà! My very own Joan Holloway dress! What do you think? I love it! Now I just need a business meeting to attend…

Are you interested in learning to sew? It’s really not that difficult to get started. Decent sewing machines can cost about $150-200 (I have a Brother machine that I bought from Overstock.com). Vogue, Butterick and McCall’s all carry great “easy” patterns that are perfect for beginners.

Spool on South Street offers a 2-session “Learn to Sew” class for only $52! All of the materials are included and you get to use their machines – what have you got to lose?

I’m a total dork, I love technology. I spend most of my day in front of my computer. And when I’m not in front of my computer, I’m either teaching computer-based technology OR sleeping. That’s just how I roll. This year I was lucky enough to spoil myself with a few new tech toys. The biggest toy I got this year was my new 27 inch iMac. Wow, is it big. The man-friend is annoyed he can no longer see me in our shared office.

Accessories are key – in any situation! That orange bad boy on the top left is part of the brand LaCie‘s rugged model external hard drive. My new 500GB drive is great for meeting with clients and transferring student work. I LOVE LaCie; they are great, reliable drives! I have three LaCie drives – they are named LaBef (500GB), Big LaBef (1 TB) and Tough Guy (500GB – shown above). Yes, I name my drives. The new rugged drive has a triple interface with Firewire. If you don’t already know, Firewire is a different type of port for a computer and it is awesome  - so much faster than the standard go-to USB.

My other techcessories include:
- iPod Touch or as I call it an iPhone that can’t make calls
- DROID by Motorola
- Apple “Magic” Trackpad (I’m using it right now, wild right?)

I really love the Brother brand. My sewing machine is a Brother! So I was not disappointed at all by the color laser printer I picked up in early 2010! I will be printing my wedding invitations on this awesome machine in the coming months. I’ve ran some test prints on beautiful Canson metallic card stock and they look amazing! As far as inkjet goes, I’m an Epson girl all the way – but the Brother is a great laser option!

Finally, as a photographer and a bonafide girlie-girl, I just HAD to get a new camera bag! An obvious and totally-worth-the-cost choice was the Classic Bag by Kelly Moore. I love the deceiving nature of this bag! Right now it’s sitting next to my desk and holding my Canon 5D camera, 3 lenses, a flash and a bunch of extras. The bag is designed to always stay upright! And did I mention that it’s cute?

The only thing missing from my collection is my very own iPad… with the release of the new multi-tasking iOS4 iPad, perhaps 2011 is the year!