Words pale with velvet

The light. A yucky, packed-earth parking lot tucked off a busy sidewalk becomes an ethereal respite when a few clouds of light and shadows play on the walls.

I shot hard on burst mode with a high shutter speed. A burst does multiple shots all in a row. A setup like this pushes my photographic skills the most - what about this setting? what about that setting? 

Always, always, when I put on this velvet coat, I leave myself. Those are my wool vintage Gianni Versace pants and a chartreuse silky blouse from bcbgmaxazria. There's a better view of the blouse on my Instagram, here. I had on double scarves but tore off the second one, the blue one; I couldn't breathe in all that matchiness.

I'm sure residents of the glass-walled highrises around me learn a lot about the life of a +50 style blogger when they see me playing in lanes below them. I can almost hear their greedy eyes as they spy me strolling in there, "Honey, she's baa-a-a-ck," and imagine their grab for the chips and wine. More likely, if they're into that kind of thing, there is far more dramatic action going on in this parking lot at other times of the day and night than a middle-aged woman twirling.

I'm thinking in feelings lately, colour, light, movement, which can be calming but also occasionally frazzling. Words are sleeping. Last night I made this video below, short and quiet.

That's all from here. I have to haul up my winter coats from my space bags in storage. Dreading going down there...

I'm linking something from here up to Patti at Visible Monday, Not Dead Yet Style, and Catherine, #iwillwearwhatilike, Not Dressed as Lamb.

Edit: I also can't forget a huge thank you to Sally of Already Pretty for including me in her Lovely Links last Friday! Such an honour.

Becoming a better blogger, and vintage Versace

My stair pose, taught to me personally by the one who made it famous: Sheila of Ephemera. I'm wearing my vintage 100% wool Gianni Versace Couture pants, made in Italy, with front zip and inner ankle zips, $15 maybe - I forget now - newly sprung from a spacebag. And a bold fuchsia oversized silky top and red earrings. That's my red journal on the steps.

And now, onto important matters.

I reeeeally, reeeally want to be a better blogger and Instagrammer. That's why I was so happy when Suzanne sent me a link a while ago to a YouTube video by wildly successful Aimee Song, who has 3.5 million IG followers and almost 300,000 followers on Bloglovin' (Song of Style) - geez, that's a lot.

I thought I'd try out some of her tips. Here we go.

I have to take a bird's eye photo of what goes into my body in the morning. She had an artful cappuccino photo with her clutch and sunglasses. Well, I forgot to take a "before" shot, but this is the dirty bowl from my oatmeal, plain, with milk and half a sliced banana and Kashi cereal sprinkles.

Not bad, but not as good as Aimee's, even though I placed an artboard on the tabletop because it is more arty than the regular tabletop and I included my napkin bit for visual punch. Still, it's a bit boring.

Above: Definitely better. Oh, there's a little Kashi nugget at 4:30 on the bowl dial.

Below: Nighttime dining photo. Aimee says when dining in a dimly-lit restaurant with friends, it's a good idea to illuminate your food as a group using light from your cell phones. This is the best I could do.

I knew I wouldn't be dining out this evening so I practiced by dragging my breakfast tray into the bathroom where it was dark and lit it with a flashlight because I don't have a cell phone, or friends. There's that nugget again!

Next: Aimee says to make sure you take multiple detail shots of your outfit, especially your shoes and your pedicure.

I call this photo Fun With Band-aids. This is a springtime look many gals know too well as our warm-weather sockless footwear bites the crap out of our tender winter feet. I decorated my Band-aids with Sharpies and white-out. Nice, right? Those are my white platform flip-flops.

And finally, more accessories.

I used these for making this post. That's the flashlight on the left. I had it turned on but it's hard to see. You know why, right? Aimee suggests using natural light so I did.

Aimee has lots more fun suggestions, like asking strangers to take your photos and being bossy about it, using back-lighting to get a halo effect and natural light to look good. She didn't mention anything about having a team of professional photographers to take your photos though.

Sigh.

Okay, so maybe not. Pffft.
To be fair, Aimee's video was helpful in that surreal if-only-I-were-normal kind of way.

So back to reality...

You can see the purplish tones in the blouse in this photo.

And I've been making collages lately. This is one of them.

That's all. I'll link up to Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday and Catherine at Not Dressed as Lamb for #iwillwearwhatilike. Catherine kindly included me in her lineup of "9 Fashion Bloggers with a Really Unique Sense of Style." Thank you! I may not have 300,000 followers, but I have you guys - you're the BEST!!

Have a great week!