Hieroglyphs and Fluevogs

I casually strolled by Fluevog's Water Street shoe store last week on my way home from the art opening, stupidly forgetting the supernatural powers of the maxi cheongsam dress (as seen in last post) that I was wearing at the time. And look what happened!

I walked out with green shag-carpet boots. I circled the table they were on like a cat purring. Daintily I picked up said boot and peered into its sole until my hair stood on end - it was a cosmic connection: the sticker said $269 down to $99. I had to pounce! Considering I wore these boots TWICE already last week, I figure I'm practically making money from this investment.

These boots have an open toe AND an open heel - the heel is difficult to see with all the shag bits - and an inside seam zip and stacked wood platforms. I justified this purchase as a reward for winding up my art gallery activities.

Of course I was feeling very hieroglyphic in this shagariffic footwear. The blues and greens are like Fight Club on my legs. These new boots definitely are appropriate for Patti's Visible Monday gathering. I'll see you all there!

Details of the outfit:

• Fluevog brand boots, The Jericho, $99 new
• satin neon orange sleeveless blouse, thrifted
• satin dark blue top, hand-me-over
• red beret, thrifted
• blue stretch skirt, sample sale, $10?
• gold bag, hand-me-over
• inspiration: Egypt and Fluevogs

I'm wondering if you ever buy things that make you squeamish. These boots are like that for me - gross green, suede, and deliciously, naughtily out of bounds! 

I'll have some fries and an ice cream sundae with this dress

This has got to be one of my favourite outfits ever - and I'm linking it to Patti's fantastic Visible Monday. I thrifted this beautiful maxi cheongsam-style dress a couple of days ago for $11. It was made in the UK, Monsoon label, which I have seen before on other blogs. The fabric stretches so there are no zips and the dress has great give.


I chose these patent leather vintage shoes to enhance the old-world vibe humming from the dress, and I wore an Indian-motif blue top underneath against the chill. I love the blue clash between the top and my turquoise tights. For another twist I added the blue beaded brooch which I bought at a craft sale from the hat lady who had intended it as a hat accent. And I topped the outfit with my bright red head bangle to jangle with the crimson. Youch. Feelin' good.

You can see how this dress might move below. There's a wickedly daring slit up one side, which, apart from the chill, was another reason for the tights. Click, click, click - I traipsed clear across town in these kitten heels.

Do I look like I'm walking?

Details of the outfit

• Monsoon dress, thrifted, Community Thrift Store, $11
• patent leather shoes, vintage, $10?, True Value Vintage (gone now)
• turquoise tights, sample sale
• blue India-print top, thrifted, Value Village about 8 years ago
• bag, gift from Singapore for plant-sitting

I wore this to the art opening of SPLASH at Baron Gallery, the exhibit of the work done by my action painting workshop participants, although it would be equally appropriate for a picnic or moon dance. What a great turnout we had. Positive energy was bouncing off the walls - so I pocketed the leftovers and carried it home to snack on later, or rather, it carried me home...

Have a great week, everyone. Don't forget to breathe...

Happy maxi skirt with attitude

Hello, everyone! I'm on my way to Visible Monday at Patti's place, Not Dead Yet Style. It's a new week, full of possibilities... I'm ready. Nothing like a zesty lemon maxi skirt to sproing me up. I bought it at - gulp - Joe Fresh...new. (I hang my head in shame.) This skirt very boldly screamed at me as I gawped at it in the window about a month ago. I didn't flinch though - I knew the price would drop. And drop it did. I waltzed in and rescued it late last week for half price. I don't think the store had sold even one; every size was still on the rack. So sad but not surprising. (Where do unwanted skirts go?)

Here it is, the look that says, Don't get in my way or I'll flatten you in my happy skirt. O calls it The Willow Monster with Two Shadows. In fact, I can imagine silently levitating down the sidewalk in this upright position, frighteningly calm and zesty, very Japanime.

This is the best spinnaker sail in my closet! Today was breezy and I just couldn't resist gently holding out the folds to catch the wind. Whenever I'd stop at a walk signal, it would take seconds for the billowing fabric behind me to catch up. I wore the turtleneck to protect my neck from the sun but the fabric is light and breathes. And there was plenty of air-conditioning down below...

Details of the outfit:

• yellow maxi skirt (with pockets!), Joe Fresh, new, $30
• fuchsia silk top and teal silk top, hand-me-overs
• turtleneck, thrifted
• Michael Kors platform sandals, thrifted, Value Village
• sunglasses, new about 15 years ago, Sunglasses Hut?

I also had a kick in my walk because I was feeling energized and to prevent falling flat on my face by tripping over that hem. Did I also say this the longest maxi I own? Tip: People are friendly to women in lemon skirts.

Other News

I took down my art pieces tonight; the Baron Gallery exhibit closed yesterday. What a ride that was!! The people who attended my action painting workshop will be exhibiting their works for a week and the opening is Sunday, July 22, 2-4 p.m. Free refreshments. I'll definitely be there. Everyone is so incredibly talented, I wouldn't miss it. Thanks for your support during this exhibition!! I really appreciated it. 

Turnip head - in the desert and power surging

Time for the turnip head in a couple of sketches of what I've worn recently.

Above is how I felt in my thrifted bright floral pants, which I wore on June 18, photo below, and posted as  "Floral pants to summon summer." I used the title of the sketch as the title of the post.

In the next outfit of June 15 I was feeling oh-so-mellow and calm but I didn't take a photo that day. I was able to shut out the slamming of the city and clatter of the coffee shop and slip into this vast zone of warmth and tranquillity.

I wore the same dress on February 8, photo below, the post called "When you're smiling..." Hm, the same outfit for June and February? All I can say is it was still very chilly here. At least in June I didn't wear a T-shirt under the dress. Also, I am wearing dark brown tights with brown knit over-the-knee socks layered on top, and animal-print shoes instead of my red Dorothy shoes. No beret either in the June version.

(That painting in the background sold at my show. Here it's still in its infancy.)

I hope you have a good weekend, everyone! Thank you for all your wonderful comments. I appreciate them so much! 

Remedy for too much pattern

This dress had too much pattern for my liking so there was only one thing I could do: add more pattern. I desperately needed a distraction from the florals, and I found the solution in my lovely satin Oriental top with its own groovy motif. I added the little velvet tie belt to disrupt the red field on my torso and unify the overall flow. The pattern riot is then anchored by black shoes and Trusty Beret.

When I thrifted this dress for about a dollar it had big stiff ruffles lined with bright pink satin around the cuffs and hemline - hideously fun but seriously too hideous. I ripped them off immediately but kept them for future projects. This dress was obviously lovingly hand-made. The fabric is a polymorphoid blend, which is most probably water-resistant by the old feel of it.

Details of the outfit

• polymorphoid thrifted maxi dress, True Value Vintage (gone now), about a dollar
• red satin Oriental top, Wildlife Thrift Store
• stretch pointy heels, new some years ago
• black T underneath to shield myself from the rainproof fabric

This outfit looks much better in motion that it does static. As I kicked down the sidewalk this outfit seemed to say, "Howdy, howdy, would you like to join me for tea?" I wore this on Friday, July 6, just before summer descended at precisely 10:03 Saturday morning. 

And today I am happy to join everyone over at Patti's Visible Monday gathering. I look forward to seeing you there! Everyone always looks so brilliant. 

Other News

I gave my encore artist talk on Sunday at Baron Gallery and it went very well! The capacity audience was incredibly supportive so I felt very relaxed. An art critic also wrote a review of my work and my talk, which was published Friday in an online award-winning newspaper - it gave me a shock...and a huge grin! If you're interested, you can find it here. I wore my muu muu and beret, and of course Grushenka, my magic wand/pointer cast a lovely bubble of safety and goodness.

One mouth four ways

Foreskins and corpse and bovine fat are just some of the lovely ingredients that women, and sometimes men, inject into their faces, especially their lips, to look beautiful. Of course these ingredients have pretty names once they are packaged, but they are what they are. Why do we do this? Why are big lips such an attraction, especially for 40+ women? Why is it that I'll never hear these words as I walk by: "Wow, she has the most awesome thin lips!!"

So I-Of-The-Thin-Lips decided to do my own big-lip investigation as part of my series of art projects on identity and some of the results are scaaary, in an unexpected way, which you'll find out if you read on.

Below is my lip transformation. On my face I am wearing foundation and translucent powder to maintain colour under the lights. Unfortunately, I didn't smooth out the powder on my nose, which I suppose is not such a big deal considering all the other little imperfections competing for attention under the bright lights.

The Transformation

Top left: no lips, foundation on my lips; Top centre: outline of natural lips; Top right: Look (1) lipstick on natural lips. Bottom left: Look (2) lips drawn bigger than real lips; Bottom centre: Look (3) lips drawn even bigger; Bottom right: Look (4) big, huge, ginormous lips so I can't even talk without drooling.

It's easy not to appreciate how much my lips have taken over my face from start to finish, but have another look. Compare the bottom right photo, Look (4), to the one directly above it, Look (1). How, you may ask, did I achieve those whopper-licious lips? 

Bounty (the papertowels). "Mah wips ah bwootifoe. Kwiss me bwaybee!" You can actually see the wadded papertowel sticking out on the left - those are not my teeth, great illusion though. And the next photo is me removing the papertowel... Pitui. But better than having corpse fat in there...or is it?

And below you have the evidence of my fun experiment. Those lipstick stains around my mouth took some scrubbing with Bounty to get off. 

And one gratuitous movie star photo of me below with the most huge lips, minus the papertowels, Look (4). This is the kind of photo I would use on my book jacket if I ever had a book. But now you know my big-lip secret...

Oh no! I like big lips!

Oh gentle reader, I may not be ready for injections but I do indeed like the bigger-than-natural lips from drawing outside the lines in Look (2) and below. Now I GET it - this is what all the fuss is about. But it still feels odd drawing lipstick outside the lines, even though I would be the first to tell you to break that rule. Joan Crawford didn't mind doing it. I like the bow-like shape below even though this photo looks a bit like a mug shot. This is from a test photo the previous day.

So now that I have become thicker skinned with my thin lips, I think I should cut some slack for female Hollywood stars in particular and their big lips, but if you should ever encounter me out walking my own new big mouth, say hi but ironically don't expect a reply - I'm afraid I'd drool and my papertowels would fall out.

Have you ever thought of buying big lips? Are you blessed with them naturally? Have you ever augmented your lips? Do you draw lipstick outside the lines?! Thoughts?

Happy Fourth of July to my American blogger friends!

Outfit that grows up and up

After much deliberation, this is my outfit of choice for Patti's Visible Monday. This past week I have been enjoying wearing each and every one of my outfits so much that I have avoided taking photographs of them or translating the experience into words for fear of dulling the lingering electric edges, if that makes sense. What you see here was one of the most tame of the lot, but what I loved about it was it made me feel positively Brobdingnagian (great word! the giant people from Gulliver's Travels) or, simply, like a very, very tall tree. My trunk was in fact made of wood: Michael Kors thrifted wood platform sandals with leather uppers. The vertical stripes on both layers seemed to roll right past my head and up into the sky.

I thrifted both pieces in one go from the Wildlife Thrift Store, but I never realized at the time that I would be wearing them together. It wasn't until I had done a little closet jamming (layering clothes randomly from hanger to hanger in my closet - you should try it!), that I realized they were exactly the combo I was looking for. 

Details of the outfit

• orange sleeveless maxi, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store, $15?
• blue tunic, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store, $12?
• Michael Kors sandals, thrifted, $10, Value Village (not D&G as mentioned in an earlier post)
• long string of beads, too old to remember...
• white nylon maxi slip, came with wedding-type dress, Wildlife Thrift Store

In Other News

I finished reading a very, very long book, and while I feel enlightened by the content, I must confess to feeling relieved to be done with it, so I was happy to receive this short poem emailed to me by a friend based on Shakespeare's King Lear, which is my favourite of the Bard's tragedies. 

In case you don't know the story, a silly man, King Lear, asks his three daughters how much they love him. Two of them sickeningly exaggerate their love and the third says plainly how she loves him the way she has always loved him, no more, no less. The king then splits his kingdom between his two false daughters who promptly banish him to the wilds, only to be rescued by his true loving daughter, Cordelia. But what of Lear's wife? Poet W. S. Merwin asks the question in this great poem, "Lear's Wife." 

Have a great week, everyone! See you over at Patti's place.