The photos that busted out

If I make my blog photos BIGGER, surely they must be better. Surely I am VISIBLE now. Look out guys at Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style because I'll be HOGGING the WHOLE PLACE with my HUUUGE photos and BIG FACE.
BIGGER equals BETTER. HUUUGER, HUUUGEST...
Of course you can see me, hear me, smell me if I am moving, loud, bright, and you've caught me just after a mug of strong coffee. B&W works too if it's huuuge. How unutterably annoying it is to see these unprofessional, pixelated photos leaching obnoxiously past the margins into my carefully groomed sidebar.
But this does raise an issue - I've been thinking of w-i-d-e-n-ing my margins. gasp. Seriously.
BAM! BAMM BAMMM!! 
I like the sense of s-p-a-c-e I feel on blogs with a wider margin. Maybe some of YOU have wide margins. GASP!

[Miracle Secrets: Add Inches to Your Margins Overnight and Eat Anything you Like!]

My hair up there reminds me of those newspaper cornstalks we used to make in primary school - just pull for instant vertical extensions. I stretched the image of course; the unadulterated version is the same, minus the head sprout. I don't like the facial expression, but thatsa why I lika, all those little dewlaps doing downward dogs. Wearing DIY bagged-out jeans with eyes on knees, sweeping velvet opera coat, black Olive Oyle army boots (not seen), and some other stuff, forget, not worth it... As long as you can SEE me and SMELL me and WATCH me MOVE in general. [Don't sing that song in your head, you know, the one by The Who that goes, See me, feel me, touch me, heal me...]

THANK YOUS:

Thank you, Sally, of Already Pretty for linking to my post "Trouble posting my face" on your Lovely Links on Friday. That woke up my stats for sure. You can always find a smorgasbord of food for the brain, bod, and soul over there. 

Thanks to Gorgeous Rebecca Harasym of Winnipeg Style for the Vedette Shapewear piece I won in her giveaway a while ago. ALERT: She is giving away a piece every month. Entry is international and the latest deadline is Oct. 26. I'm not showing my faaaabulous piece here (love it!) because it's, well, it's an undie. Normally I'd wear it on the outside but it's not appropriate for this school-marm blog, even though it's pearlescent beige. Or wait till I've finished my drink (see previous post). Rebecca has AWESOME style - I MEAN IT!

FINALLY, thank you, everyone, for your very generous and kind comments on my interview over at Imogen's Inside Out Style blog, her column Stylish Thoughts. It's too funny that just when you think people must be bored by you, opportunities come around and people show up at your door with big smiles. Well, here's big hugs BACK!!!

Have a great week!! I'm knee-deep in words so won't be skipping about quite so much, but you'll be on my mind. (NO NO! Especially don't sing that song by Willie Nelson in your head... Don't DOOONT'T. Relax, don't do it... Gaaa. )

My Stylish Thoughts and Birthday Bash at Sheila's

In case you missed the addition to my last post: I am featured in an interview in Imogen Lamport's Stylish Thoughts column on her dynamic blog Inside Out Style. If you want to know more about me, "Yesh, shecrets of the schtars!!" have a look. Imogen has had some life changes lately, well worth the read, and while she knows the style rules, she also believes in breaking them. Thanks, Imogen. I feel honoured to be in your lineup!

Now for more business: Sheila's Party!!

Happy Birthday, Sheila!! What a lovely party. Yes, it's Sheila of Ephemera's Birthday Party and I have dressed up special for it. I like these photos so I'm surprised I didn't wreck enhance them. I look a bit like a coconut.

If you'll notice, that's the same bottle clutched in my hand as at your party in 2012, here. It has been entombed in my fridge all this time because it tastes like crap and it's non-alcoholic, at least it WAS non-alcoholic before fermentation... I suppose I don't chuck it because I need something to serve my guests - bwa-ha-ha!!! - and go out of my head at your party.

I'm wearing my thrifted ruffled blouse, because I know how much you like them, and I like to debut new pieces at your parties, in this case that would be the thrifted patchwork skirt, which needs a few repairs, but who will notice after I empty this magic juice into the punch bowl? And that's my old thrifted fringed jerkin. Oh, and a wide suede embroidered belt, old and thrifted.

I'm also hooking this post up to your Shoe Shine 12, Sheila, and to Mis Papelico's Share-in-Style: Favourite Print. My favourite prints change by the day, but at the moment this skirt has my favourite patchwork pattern with some spectacular time-warp prints on its stretchy polyester squares. The skirt is hand-made and very swirly. 

That's all, folks. Have a safe drive home - or why not sleep over with the gang? The key bowl is almost full. Hee-hee-hee.

PS: My fridge is very clean otherwise, honest. 

ALSO, Pao at Project Minima took Turnip Head to see David Bowie at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. She doesn't want to come home now...

Trouble posting my face

Edit Update: (Mon. Oct 13, Miz Bagg HQ) I am featured in an interview HERE on Imogen Lamport's "Stylish Thoughts" column in her dynamic blog Inside Out Style. If you want to know more about me, "Yesh, secrets of the schtars!!" have a look. Imogen has had some life changes lately, well worth the read, and she believes in breaking style rules.

This is my face when I wake up (minus lipstick and eyeliner).

All thrifted except the tights: shiny satin summery dress with attached lemony underskirt, pink tulle petticoat, yellow zig-zag coat, red beret, D&G pony shoes, striped delicate cotton T, and magic loupe and toolbox hand bag from O. 

I have trouble posting my face lately; I have trouble posting any photo I like lately. If I like it too much I must defile it somehow, say, by dropping in a different background or a fake head or both. I guess that's my reaction to seeing Everybody Everywhere turning into models, especially kids who are adept at striking a pose-and-grimace within photo target range. 

Do you ever think your outfit or photo is too settled, too nicey nice, too model-wannabe, so you just want to wreck it up? Of course it's hard to get away from when the goal of an outfit post is to show people what you're wearing, but still, the desire to bust out is always just under the surface. The thing that usually creates harmony in what I wear is that little something that's "off." What's off in this outfit? It's not the pattern mixing but the red of the beret being repelled by the reds in my shirt. Brrr! (frisson of delight)

Maybe I need props... Or a cat head and a sideways background.

All thrifted except the tights: Karen Millen dress, floral linen coat with satiny lining, D&G pony shoes, vintage sunglasses. This is what I wore the day before, same tights (laundered between wears) and shoes. What's off in this outfit? The hemline - too short! I liked the selfie I took, hence the cat head and sideways backdrop. So, have you wrecked any good photos lately? Or bad photos? 

Do you favour beauty or the beast?

the post with the spaceheads and guy theme

SPOOKY-GIRL-ME DOLL

My big head on a spooky rebel girl sketch I made this summer.

Speaking of big heads, below is a cartoon I drew in 2011. I've known lots of people like Big Head Guy; in fact, I've had planets revolving around my own head from time to time as well.

Keeping with the guy theme, those are man shoes, my first attempt at velvet painting - well, my backing has a very soft nap like velvet but it's probably upholstery fabric - painted a couple of years ago, acrylic, 3' x 4', and forgotten about it until I stumbled across this photo. Now the piece is rolled up. It's odd how something that was so energy-focused during its creation can be easily forgotten.

AND MORE ON THE GUY THEME:

My friend, Corey Hamm, won Best Classical Recording of the Year at the 2014 Western Canadian Music Awards on October 5. How cool is that? His CD is The People United Will Never Be Defeated! composed by Frederic Rzewski. It is on sale at Redshift Records, CDBaby, iTunes, Bandcamp, and from him personally. His Facebook page is here. Congratulations, Corey! 

Corey has been on this blog before here when I photographed him at rehearsals with the Vancouver Symphony with Maestro Bramwell Tovey and composer Jordan Nobles.

Thaaat's better. It's so nice to take off my mask once in a while and let my real face breathe.

Below are the shots before I took off my mask. Not so very different really.

What I wore today:

Blogger won't let me upload the photo of this outfit on me, so you'll have to make do with this one of the detailing. [Edit: I tried again and got my photo up below.] It's is a vintage maxi robe/coat lined in mint green light linen, which I belted high over my jean jeggings, high-heel Miu Miu boots, and oversized Jimi Hendrix T-shirt. There was a cool Beatles-in-India feel to this, and although I didn't feel the full vibe myself, this was one of those outfits where the beauty is more in the eye of the beholder. Who knows why.

This is a long post. Whew. I hope you're all having a great week. 

Leftovers? Surely not.

I've been trolling my stash of photos from style parkouring with Sandra, Lens is More. Hundreds. Each one brings back a laugh. I farked a bit with a few; this is a sample. Sandra and I haven't been out lately but that doesn't mean we're finished.

That's the bathing cap I use for real in the first photo, worn with Sandra's sunglasses And the plastic-blend blanket I'm wearing in the third photo is one I actually wrapped around me one rainy, nasty winter afternoon when I had car trouble and hadn't brought a coat. I got many compliments on it. Attitude my friends, whipping it about like I planned it. The leaves stuck on it were artful. No joke: that's what fashion is, pulling something off that would otherwise look like an emergency car-trunk blanket that's seen one picnic too many. I admit, I liked wearing it - it felt cozy - so the faking part was easy.

And the last photo is Sandra with her self-made armlets, my Miz Bagg hat, and a major red lipstick experiment. Love it. The alley mattress shot was taken on the day I did my post about squeaking under a gibbous moon. Except for the mattress photo, these pics were all taken with the June 2013 VOGOFF in mind but they didn't make the cut. So. many. photos. I hate to waste them. Plus, we had a blast taking them - why bother otherwise?

I'm linking this up with Patti at Not Dead Yet Style's Visible Monday. These photos count because that IS my real bathing cap and I actually wore the coat, maybe not this week, but I do in real life. See you there?