Praise Be To J. Peterman!

 Firstly, Hello! to all of you who arrived here from The House Of Underdog!  I really appreciate your taking the time to stop by - if you have a second to leave a comment, i'd love to take a look at your place, too  : )    I've been a big admirer of Ms. Underdog for a few months now - her style is just phenomenal, she is hilarious beyond measure, and i have found her to be very generous even in the face of her many responsibilities. Somehow, the Gods of Blog smiled upon me and she started following me pretty early on in my blog, which was so fantastic. No matter how slow things got, i'd think, 'But The Underdog follows!!' *** and i'd be so blown away i'd get fired up all over again! Lucky me!!  Thank you, Style U.

Okay, the clothes. The tee is from Peterman, unchanged from the original.  I did whip up this skirt from a pair of his wide-legged denim pants... BUT. I was inspired in this skirt's shape by my favorite Peterman classic, the Out Of Africa skirt (no longer sold). So it's fair enough to call this a Peterman-based getup, don't you think?

Here you can see a couple of my 'trade secrets'.  I love wearing a pin on my neckline that has some sort of chain, necklace or ribbon strung through it (with the chain worn around my neck). Here the gold rope chain is threaded through the butterfly's wire antenna. It changes the way the chain falls and adds more interest than the pin and chain worn 'together but separately', as it were.

You can also spot the way i've corralled the scarf. I've threaded it through the holes in the crochet sweater (you can just see the 'bump' it makes right under my chin).  The silk floats around, this way and that, but won't fall off or slip all down one side. You can also safety pin a scarf to a shirt or jacket at the back of the neck for a similar effect. Just fold the scarf longways a number of times, then pin it in the middle of one of the folds.  That way the fabric of the scarf will fall over the pin, hiding it.  I enjoy the look of a floating scarf so much, but i don't want them floating away from me entirely! So i use this trick pretty frequently.  Another idea is using a brooch to pin your scarf at the nape of your neck - an unexpected detail with short or pinned-up hair.

I loved the colors of this tee the minute i saw it and was so happy when it went on extreme sale (less than $20!).  I've also used the print as inspiration - all of the colors work so well together, and when i looked more closely and experimented it turns out they are great colors on me individually as well. Violet, coral/cerise, a greyed-out dark olive....stare deeply into your own flattering prints for color inspiration......

Happy Weekend everybody, and have a Spooktacular Halloween!

*** frankly ALL of my followers rock! and i've had that same thought about every one of you! heaven only knows how i got such a crop of stellar bloggers so early on............i'm just rollin' with it  : )

Cardi: vintage April Cornell
Top: Shanghai Tee from J. Peterman
Skirt: made by me from J. Peterman Wide Legged Denim Pants
Scarf, Pin, Chain: gifts
Earrings: Gathering Tribes
Sandals: Naturalizer