Queen of Post-Wit

Now for the details:

In the first photo, that wonderful sparkly hat was hand-knit by Thorne Garnet, sent to me as the winner of her draw quite a while ago, first posted here. The kitty sweater is a DIY first shown here. Some of the photos are stills from video clips, which is why they are not as crisp as I like, caught in motion. The video will have to wait.
News: Lots of fog here. That's all.

And you can vote for me for BEST CANADIAN FASHION BLOGGER?!, although I'm not the sort to write posts on must-have trends. Many of my favourite other Canadian women bloggers are entered too, so, as Ariane put it so well on her blog, Style Sud-Est, "Let's beat the young trendy nymphet!"

And if you still have an urge to click, Rosalind Jana of Clothes, Cameras, and Coffee is in an exciting competition as well, h.club100 for Innovators, Visionaries and Pioneers. You can vote for her here.

Not much writing today - the word well is dry. They'll come to me tomorrow no doubt. The day after I put up my previous rabbit post I was pissed off that I hadn't named it Bad Hare Day. Do you ever do that? Queen of Post-Wit. Have a great week all.

Mysterious rabbit

I woke up with the rabbit face on my mind. I had to draw it. Then I had to wear it. Then I had to pick out a dress to wear with it. And shoes too. Mysterious rabbit - half evil, half good, half real.

This is not a post for Halloween - it's just me. I didn't wear the mask to my coffee shop, physically at least. The outfit is plain but it seemed to embody the magical rabbit sensibility of a sweetly twisted fairy tale, which I was looking for.

Thrifted dress, top half knit with furry cuffs, bottom half jersey A-line, sewn in fabric belt. Black tights. Black glitter platform booties heavily discounted retail, with upcycled antique kimono shoelaces, gift. Magic loupe O made me.

For the mask, I drew the image on a piece of canvas paper with a black Sharpie, cut eye holes above the rabbit eyes and a small nose flap, then taped the mask to a pair of glasses with clear lenses. The whole process took about 20 minutes. The rigidity of the glasses maintains the image's flat plain and makes it easy to put on and remove the mask.

And I had to make a video clip of myself spinning down the rabbit hole. The Alice in Wonderland story always scared me as a child, but today I wanted to embrace that other worldliness. This clip expresses a small fraction of my expression. I felt constrained using a tripod to make this one, but you Just Make Do.

I'm linking this up with Patti at Visible Monday, Not Dead Yet Style, doncha know. She's off to New York, happy bunny, so we'll have to make sure we don't trash her house while she's gone, won't we.

I love these grey, misty days here. It's a busy season. I hope you're all finding ways to express yourselves as well, whether it's through clothes or music or friends or art...

And thanks for all your kind words and support on my last post.

The story of O and Jean and me and magic

This is Jean, Jean Thilmany. Doesn't she look great?

Check out that colour combo - red booties, orange bag, green dress, patterned cover-up, with a hint of crazy socks and tie belt. Note too the pink flamingo. Jean has got Style! But Jean is not a style blogger (at least not yet) - I requested the photo from her, which she valiantly had taken by a family member.

I met Jean through my partner O, who met her by way of Bag and a Beret. It's a complicated story but a perfect illustration of how extraordinary and unexpected positive change in your life can come from blogging.

A couple of months ago, out of the blue, Jean sent O an email which precipitated an intense flurry of emails between them. As a highly mature, open-minded, sophisticated, sensible, loving (and modest) partner, and with the aid of some Kobayashi-technique meditation sessions, I was quite happy to let their relationship run its course, and even encourage it BECAUSE -

- Jean is a writer. She stumbled across O's art website after dropping by Bag and Beret (there's a link to his site under my banner) while perusing +40 style blogs. O's art captivated her. She wrote O to ask him if he would be interested in being interviewed for an article in New-York based Mechanical Engineering magazine, where she is Associate Editor. It is published by ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

Well...Gaaa! After working in relative solitude for years, O and I had been wondering how we could introduce his work to the art world, engineers, and people who enjoy the poetry of small quiet things, which O specializes in. Our jaws dropped when we found out that Jean's focus for the piece would be about the marriage of art and engineering.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of work O does, below are a few of his latest pieces. The first is a solid gold chess set of 18K yellow and white gold on a stainless steel board, 3.8mm X 3.8mm, probably the smallest in the world in its category.

The stainless steel chess board below, 0.95mm X 0.95mm, is barely visible even on the head of a pin. And O is going even smaller... I call it magic. More than skill, if you don't believe you can do it, O tells me, you will definitely fail.

Jean's article, "Artist's Eye ME's Creation," came out in the October issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine, which is viewable online only by ASME members and in print by subscribers, but with Jean's permission we have posted a PDF of the article here. We couldn't have imagined a more perfect and timely public launch.

I contacted Jean after publication to thank her and invite her to take a bow on Bag for the incredible and unexpected positive impact she has made on our lives, knowing she enjoys reading style blogs. Here's what she said about her style in her email to me:

I'm a thrifter, of course. And have a huge collection of stuff thrifted almost since high school. I do cull, but some of it I just can't get rid of. I like to grab the first thing that comes to hand in the morning and then make an outfit around that. I've pretty much been dressing the same way since the time I discovered "grandpa sweaters" in high school. Never went to grunge, but did wear overly big shirts and skirts with too many layers in the 90s. That's about the only thing I've changed.

Here's another shot of Jean, self-portrait. I love that outfit with those shoes and socks. And check out that bling wall and mannequin hanger. At first I thought that was a wonky doorway but it's a mirror.

And that's my story, well, O's story, Jean's story, and my story, or just the beginning of it maybe. It's not my typical blog post, but I wanted to share this major event in my life with you. I was busy for a while updating O's website and my own art website where I have had to go TOTAL CHAOS to re-short my circuits, if that makes sense.

So keep on blogging my friends. You never know where it will lead! But then you already know that...

Yellow Skirt Freak Show Update!! and Shoe Shine

The Freakish Yellow Skirt 
lounges in the 

sumptuous Bedouin Love Bower...

after grueling days & nights surveying the Territories 

from the lofty heights of her Mighty Terracotta Steed

Camels, children, and grown bearded men

quake and cry before the Almighty

Freakish Skirt, commanded by SHE-RA

Margy of 

A Fool for Fabric

Witness her mastery of this magic fabric

G O!   G O   N O W ! !

__________________________________________________________________

Also see Margy's incredible addition to the FYS on her post. Your styling transports us to another world. (You must see her Bedouin Love Bower - I'm not making this up!) And special thanks for doing this on the heels of a family wedding. Remarkable! Hugs.

In other news....Shoe Shine

These are my woolly mammoth boots, which I'm linking up to Bella's Shoe Shine over at The Citizen Rosebud. This is a repost from my previous one, where you can also see these boots laughing in the little video, but you need to make sure the sound is on when you play it.

Thanks, Bella, for the party. Who doesn't love shoes(and boots)?!

Rock star pants and woolly mammoth boots

Thrift-o-mania and DIY - the perfect storm. Sorry, Patti, the mood I'm in, you'll have to batten the hatches over at Visible Monday. See you there!

Highlights:

1. That sweater, I'm not sure if I've shown it to you before or not, but it was a perfectly good hideous white sweater which I fixed by stabbing holes in it, randomly tying on pieces of squiggy glitter-flecked white yarn, and stitching on a creature who is probably my best friend in that elusive seventh dimension. The sleeves were long so I cut holes in them to loop over my thumbs.

2. You've seen the rock star pants before, which debuted the day I almost met Paul Stanley from KISS. They used to be boring beige. And the Calvin Klein men's robe - floaty madness.

3. Woolly mammoth boots in maroon and black. Gaaaa! I spotted them at the thrift store unceremoniously piled in with all the Halloween costumes. I thought they'd be wildly too big because they are so mammoth-looking, but they fit just right. They said $50 on the bottom (leather and black suede, like new), yikes, but I decided, okay, I've had my eye on Demonia boots for a while and there's no harm asking for a discount. The cashier laughed and said, oh, that's not $50 - that's $15...! Notice the stacked platform soles, which makes them doubly monstrously high.

4. Jacquard jacket called The Mad Hatter. Nuff said.

Except for the tights, and sample sale blue skirt and midi cardigan (under the robe), everything in these outfits is thrifted. Green beret from fabulous Ariane at Style Sud-Est.

I made a video again. I. Can't. Help. Myself.

That's all. Hugs! Time to raid the kitchen cupboards for something sweet... Even if I'm not saying so, you guys are the best. Your positivity is astounding.

Hat Attack 3 and mini VOGOFF promo video

Whirlwind of a day: my assistant would not stop shrieking about the botched liposuction job on her hideous globular index finger (I had to sedate her); my cobbler's eyes glazed over and he started drooling (or was that foaming?) when I demanded he glue purple lug platforms onto my Blahnik stilettos; the water in my preferred downtown fountain was a degree too cold so my morning shower was RUINED, and; my arm-hair stylist is once again missing in the Alps, which is incredibly selfish and idiotic since I told him to postpone his trip until AFTER my appointment. Everyone is fired. What's happening to the world? And then to top it off, someone told me the US government has shut down. What, do I look stupid?!

Wearing psychedelic fuzzy paisley top hat with hairy/shaggy soft vest, striped oversized Talbots pants, booties - all thrifted. Plus an oversized dark navy pullover on top of my woolly black tunic. Me-made mega-mantis pendant on a broken leather shoelace and glasses. No nice pictures are allowed in this post - new rule.

Oh, and then I got a call from that biatch Miz Bagg from VOGOFF gloating about her new facial unguent. Give it up already, I wanted to tell her, you look like a cow, no amount of pureed insect dung will make you look better. Who does she think she is? 

This is my hat for Style Crone's Hat Attack #3. Thanks, Judith! (Don't you love her video?) I wore this hat special for her. It's the most fun hat I have (so far). I don't walk when I wear this outfit - I stomp. These bootie heels are the best at making noise and this hat is best at busting out a few smiles, a few laughs, and perhaps a few big gasps like noxious gas as I stomp by. Excellent.

I made the video below as a small promo piece for VOGOFF, featuring some of the clips that I have amassed from my style parkouring outings with Sandra, Lens is More, as part of a bid for VOGOFF global domination. (VOGOFF would never shut down, I swear.) I hope you like it, the video and my domination. This is my life, or at least the part that counts, the creative drooling part.

I'm skulking the net and comment when I can. Hugs, everyone!! Hang in there for those affected by the shutdown. That's some crazy-ass ship.