That's Mr. E's verbal rendition of the sound a small animal makes while snoring cutely in it's sleep. Which my adorable handful of readers will be doing after they get a look at this get-up. It was a somewhat less incerneratingly hot, stay at home day and i felt like wearing jeans. The black tee was a no-brainer, and the belt helped keep the pants up. Apparently a daily outfit diary is not the non-stop thrill fest it may appear to be upon first hearing.
I'm skipping forward a bit to show you these more interesting pix. Yesterday we went to Stone Mountain and Daughter, a venerable Berkeley fabric store with P, an old school friend. Stone Mountain has the best selection of apparel fabric in the San Francisco Bay Area, in my view. Britex across the bay is outstanding, but also incredibly pricey. I love to go there and ogle, and will buy there for very special pieces, but Stone Mountain is your place for bread and butter clothes fabrics. (And they have a great selection of special occasion fabrics too.)
Here's Mr. E with a bolt of fabric he's pondering for a shirt:
He's currently undecided, but there's plenty left on the bolt. I'm holding a bolt of Japanese cotton scattered in cherry blossoms - i got enough to make a below-the-knee, tiered ruffle 'rag doll' skirt.
P got a couple of samples to test out as possible curtain material. She got 1/4 yard of each 45" wide fabric and plans to hang it where the curtains will be to live with it a bit and see how she likes it. A prudent plan!
No post tomorrow - i'm sitting the newest member of the family for the day. I'll do my best to get some pix. Everybody have fun out there!
Tee: Target Merona the Ultimate Tee
Jeans: Levi's curvy cut (discontinued)
The day i wore this outfit i wasn't sure if i was going to be home all day futzing around or maybe going out and about. Can you guess how things turned out? Not that i'm bitter......
This is another Ann Ferriday top, from one or two years ago. I just love it - the lace is overdyed so there's a nice depth of color, the black details give it an edge and a nice line, the fit skims nicely over the torso so you get a great line without having to wear a belt. I'm contemplating trying to duplicate the fit of this top in a pattern, but i'm undecided if i could pull it off. The neckline is fairly revealing, so i threw on the scarf to go out shopping. So i had the skirt, the scarf, and the hat feathers all floating about in the breeze.........ah, bliss.
Top: Ann Ferriday
Skirt: own design inspired by The Hidden Seed
Shoes: old Borns
All Else: gifts or own design
Whoops! no post yesterday. Frankly, i didn't have anything to say, so i didn't say it. Today i'm back to my regular, blabby self, so here we go. These weeks of blogging have got me thinking about the subjective nature of photography. Basically, while photography is seen as an objective or documentary medium, the photographer is always making choices. Where to place the camera, what time to take the pic, lighter vs. darker exposure, cropping, - then there's all the goodies in photoshop or other photo-editing programs. And i've never seen an exhibit, real or online, where a photographer shows every photo they took. You select the ones which further your intended effect. Vogue will choose different photos to publish as opposed to the ones National Enquirer would select of the same celeb on the same day. As members of a media-savvy culture, we all 'know' this, but making those choices myself every day has made me much more conscious of the choices behind what i see out there on TV, in magazines and on the web.
These two photos point up some of the issues. The basic purpose of an outfit diary is to show how particular clothes and accessories look on a person's body. But vanity comes into it, and the difference between how things look in real life vs. how the camera sees them. A slight change of angle in a pose can add 5-10 pounds, making a big difference in how the outfit looks. Some bloggers take on the task of creating a magazine editorial feel, shooting in dramatic settings at exotic angles, using props and photographic effects to create an artistic mood. It's all about choices, your own desires and what you see as the purpose of your blog.
I want to document my outfits to become more organized and creative with my wardrobe. The camera doesn't love me*, and i don't want to look so gawky or awkward that i give an unrealistic view of how the outfit comes across in real life (which is, after all, where i live). And i'm very visual, and i get ideas for pictures, so it's fun to try something new instead of shooting in the same spot and pose every day. (Though with my experience here, i've seen the wisdom of that popular approach. I am keeping track of 'successful' set-ups for less creative or busier days.) Plus, i have a smaller wardrobe (which is how i like it) so varying poses and backgrounds can add to the visual interest when the clothes don't change. I'm also considering selling clothes on etsy at some time, and appealing, accurate pictures are vital to that purpose.
So. The second photo shows the clothes and details much more clearly than the first. But the first (taken just 5 minutes before the second) is a much more appealing picture. The light is golden and dappled and it highlights the figure while tying it into the environment through the similar highlighting of the small trees. But it also washes out all the clothing details. The pose is relaxed and happy, but it hides the shoes.
You can clearly see all the clothing and accessories details in the second photo - because that gorgeous light is gone. And the pose is kind of awkward, though it does show the shoes, and our relationship to the brachiating primates. You can see the clothes better, but which picture would you rather be a part of?
So i show them both to you. I prefer the first but include the second to honor the ostensible purpose of this blog.
* Video's a different story. I look great on surveillance screens.
Top: own design, inspired by some girls wander
Skirt: own design, inspired by The Hidden Seed
Belt: vintage Coach
Shoes: Dansko Marcelle
All else: gifts
My brother came into town for the holiday weekend, and proposed a little road trip. I thought it would be the perfect time to wear this outfit, with which i experienced technical difficulties a couple of weeks ago.
For the return part of the trip we drove up Highway One between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. Any part of this highway, which follows the Pacific coastline from the top to bottom of California, is absolutely worth traveling. The especial charms of this segment are the gentle slopes down to the sea interspersed with small farms, the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, and the mating grounds of the elephant seal - Ano Neuvo State Park. From October through March every year these eccentrics of the sea congregate to battle it out with other males in hopes of accumulating a harem of the alluring, rotund female beasts. What can i say to begin to describe these creatures - they fight each other with grotesquely overgrown noses, they can stay under water for over one hundred minutes, their calls are eerily reminiscent of whale song. The baby seals, overgrown sausages just learning to feed on their own, are called 'weaners'. During mating season you may visit Ano Neuvo, but only as part of a guided tour arranged by reservation. I can't recommend it enough.
My brother took these pictures near Pescadero. The last pic shows the fullness at the bottom of the jacket nicely. This outfit worked out well for the day. It's comfy, flat shoes can take all the walking you want, it's pulled together but not fussy or overly formal, the jacket goes on or off to cope with varying temperatures.
The day was mild, we saw many windsurfers and kite surfers (the latter is a new one on me). But we didn't surf or ogle wild animals, just visited an old friend and gazed out at the beautiful ocean. I hope some of you get to spend some time at the seashore this summer as well.
Jacket: made myself from McCall's M5594
Blouse: Target
Capris: Royal Robbins
Shoes: old Borns
Belt: Betsey Johnson
Please allow me to introduce Hannah, a charming and well-spoken young lady attending the festivities in Napa, as our inaugural guest Dashing Eccentric. Anyone can throw on a pair of patent leather, platform, stars and stripes boots (especially on the Fourth in the USA) and call it done. But it takes true Dash to create a pulled-together and flattering ensemble featuring said boots. I especially love the way she chose bandana prints, an americana classic, for most of the red in her outfit. We only chatted a moment, due to the developing line to take her picture, but Hannah remained very gracious and sweet about all the attention.
Hannah, we Dashing Eccentrics salute you!
I took this picture in Veteran's Memorial Park, an amphitheatre overlooking the Napa River. It was a typical small-town American Fourth, emphasizing family, food, and fireworks after dark. Cruising up and down the river on a yacht and watching the fireworks burst straight overhead looks like a lot of fun, doesn't it! But the best part was the mellow, friendly feeling of the crowd.
Napa is an agricultural town in California, which means there is a large population of south-of-the-border immigrants living here and providing the skilled, difficult labor involved in growing and harvesting wine grapes - the foundation of every fortune in the valley. Everyone understands the painstaking activity required to make Napa fruit some of the most sought after in the world, and everyone knows exactly who is doing that work. It's not the case everywhere in the state, but in Napa the agricultural workers get some of the respect they deserve for their labor and knowledge. How i enjoyed seeing families of all hues out enjoying the holiday side by side, seeing the ideals of the holiday come alive.
Blog News: It has come to my attention that people to whom i am not related have been commenting on this blog. Some have even become followers. Many thanks to you and to all the people who visit! But do realize that you're only encouraging me...............
First, blog news. My brother is flying in tonite for the Fourth of July festivities, so i'm not planning on posting for the next few days. I do plan on taking pix, and catching up on posting after the weekend. So stay tuned!
Now - Success! My main goal with this blog was to document what i'm wearing, day to day, to get a practical idea of what i have in my closet, what i'm wearing, and how it works out. Then i can use that information to better come up with new pieces, also to create a 'library' of documented looks that work for low energy/low inspiration days. I generally get dressed in a really unconscious/subliminal way. So it's hard for me to duplicate outfits that work, since i wasn't really paying attention when i put them together.
This outfit would never have come about if i wasn't 'diary blogging'. I was tired and had no ideas yesterday, but i knew i would feel like a knucklehead if i didn't make any effort. So i started with this skirt, because i hadn't worn it in a while. Then i thought 'ah, how about some black to toughen it up - plus it's supposed to be cooler today, so black won't make me broil in the sun'. I rolled up the tunic sleeves to free up the movement in the shoulders, the flats were a no-brainer. When i got ready to go out and about, i wanted a statement necklace (to play off the detailing at the top of the tunic), but the strong enough ones were all a little fancy. So i went multiple. I added the link bracelet to balance out the necklaces. And.........Tada! Outfit!
At the last minute i threw on the jacket to deal with a mighty wind outside, and i loved the outfit even more. It's definitely casual, but quirky and comfortable. I can switch out the accessories, hair, shoes and stockings to change up the look. (For example, put my hair up, add dangly earrings and sparkly necklace, wear heels and fishnets with a petticoat under the skirt - fun going out to dinner and a movie, no?)
Plus, the skirt and tunic both billow and swirl in the wind most fetchingly. Really, this is one time i wish i had a photographer following me around! Maybe sometime in future.....And the sad face? I was commiserating with a certain hairy someone who needed something warm and delicious in his tummy. See if you can spot the hairs at the bottom of the photograph.
How nice when you have an idea, follow it through, and get the results you wanted! And frankly, how unusual.
Tunic: Converse One Star at Target
Skirt: own design
Jacket: Royal Robbins (altered)
Belt: vintage Coach
Sox: Target
Jewelry: gifts or own design
That's Mr. E's verbal rendition of the sound a small animal makes while snoring cutely in it's sleep. Which my adorable handful of readers will be doing after they get a look at this get-up. It was a somewhat less incerneratingly hot, stay at home day and i felt like wearing jeans. The black tee was a no-brainer, and the belt helped keep the pants up. Apparently a daily outfit diary is not the non-stop thrill fest it may appear to be upon first hearing.
He's currently undecided, but there's plenty left on the bolt. I'm holding a bolt of Japanese cotton scattered in cherry blossoms - i got enough to make a below-the-knee, tiered ruffle 'rag doll' skirt.
P got a couple of samples to test out as possible curtain material. She got 1/4 yard of each 45" wide fabric and plans to hang it where the curtains will be to live with it a bit and see how she likes it. A prudent plan!
