Toop Arties!

This is the most unplanned post I've done in awhile, but I want to go to Visible Monday and 52 Pick-me-up. Nothing gets me motivated like a party - unless it's two parties! *

The theme for 52 Pick-me-up this week is Orchid. I would have thought of the usual Pantoney Radiant Orchid, but Anne is breaking the mold and wearing YELLOW! And PAISLEY! It's her party so she can do what she wants to, but I thought I could probably get away with being a rare blue orchid.

Sort of.

This is my business attire on a hot day in the middle of summer in my home office - cotton shirt (old) from Walmart, denim skirt from JCP.

I don't subscribe to the idea that you have to dress professionally when you work from home. I'd much rather be comfortable, although I do draw the line at wearing my PJs to do work. Unless I have to get something done super early, like before 8:30, but I try to avoid that anyway. I love not having to use an alarm clock!

I don't wear shoes in the house, so I spend my day in my moccasins or barefoot. But if I'm barefoot it just makes me aware of how crunchy the kitchen floor is and then I feel like I have to clean it. So, moccasins it is!

And further to my last post about my home office space, I really did optimize my Craft Cave, without even throwing much away. Voila my new office! This desk is so much more comfortable and sprawling.

The lamp was a wedding present to my parents in 1951, and yes, it's pink! The wooden bowls and the clock came from the thrift store.

Thrift shop china on the wall - cabbage rose pattern, which I love.

The craft area (which includes the long end of the desk) is freakishly neat and unsloppy - for now. I can't wait to see how things work out when I need to spread out with glue and paint and more glue.

I keep water for paints in the old coffee pot. I did the red and green painting about 87 years ago.

The frogs are Djim (on vocals) and Django (on bass), and I got them from a co-worker who got them from a friend who found them in a VW van he bought. God knows what their life was like before that! I've had them since 1993, usually keeping them in my office because that's where they started.

Time to wrap it up for the day and get a nice cool drink at the party - which one should I start with (party, I mean, not drink)?

Val

* Post title inspired by the legendary Two Ronnies and Four Candles. 

Heroes and Villains

SpyGirl's 52 Pick-me-up this week is Fairy Tale. It ties in perfectly with Maricel and Selah's T3 prompt to dress like your favorite literary villain. So I'm wearing black and white to represent good and evil, and I'll tell you my own fairy tale that transpired this week.

Once upon a time there were a boy and girl who went to visit a little cottage in the country. They walked up to the porch, which was piled with old boxes and plant pots, and they pulled the clapper on the brass bell hanging by the door. A little troll opened the heavy wooden door and led them inside, then down into the cellar. The room there was piled high with books and boxes and shelves and tools. It smelled horrible, and there were cobwebs covering the windows as thick as curtains. The troll asked them what they wanted, and when they told him he said he could grant their wish for eighty pieces of gold. They left their computer with him and went away.

The troll is the hero in this story. He loaded Windows 7 onto my computer so I can work on my new client's cloud server.

The thing is, heroes look like ordinary people. (Although computer nerds who work out of their own homes are generally a little, shall we say extraordinary. I wasn't kidding about the smell and the cobwebs.)

My own knight in shining armor had already spent hours trying to install Windows 7 and then reloading all my other programs. As day turned to night, we found out that the copy of Windows 7 he had bought from eBay was counterfeit, sold to us by an evil villainess in North Miami Beach!

I imagine her with a bald head, bad skin and snaggly teeth (the bitch!), but she could just as easily look like a cheerleader or a soccer mom. Because villains can look like ordinary people, too, like Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird or Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca or Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Villains suck.

If you want to know the ending of my story, the evil bitch, I mean the seller, responded after about 36 hours with a poorly typed message saying she's sorry for our "bad experience" and she'll refund the money in a few days. Doesn't matter what she does now, we've reported her to eBay and Microsoft. They can throw her in a dungeon for all I care.

Because good always triumphs over evil.

Val

Mercury Moving

Last month Mercury was in retrograde - did you notice? I think my skeptical husband now agrees that all kinds of  cosmic whoop-ass can occur when that happens. Even my muses fled the vicinity, no doubt taking refuge on Venus so they could spin backwards until Mercury straightened itself out. Thank the goddesses we seem to be back on some kind of course now, and the muses are back and adding stuff to my To Do list.

Of course, Muse Melanie has always been here, rallying humankind and rousing us to creative catharses for the next issue of VOGOFF. My own little muses finally whispered in my ear and started telling me sweet little stories. Then they described a dreamscape in great detail until I finally knew what to do. So, since I had the camera out to do some photos for VOGOFF, I also took these pictures.

tank top - JCP; jeans - thrifted; shoes - Chelsea Crew; cuff - Etsy (can't remember the shop name)

The capelet is made from a scarf that I never wore, cut in half and sewn together leaving a hole for my pumpkin head (like I did here). I can wear it at least three different ways.

no brand on the scarf; the end I cut is now left frayed

And see my cool shoes, which I almost never wear!

 

Since I'm not working, I've mostly been wearing shorts and tee shirts, but I played dress-up today. I'll wear this next time I have a chance to go out, although the mercury is a little high for wearing jeans.

What do you think of my hair? I'm letting the bangs grow and combing them back, but I'm not sure if I like it or not. I have a very crease-y forehead.

Linking up with Creative Mondays and Visible Monday - stop by! And linking up with Shoe Shine,too.

Oh, and I added a new tab at the top of my blog - Buy Me!

Val

I watch the ripples change their size

Ladies, thank you so much for all your wonderful comments! Since I found out I lost my job my mind has been elsewhere, and I haven't been consistent with reading and commenting on blogs, but I appreciate all your thoughts and support.

Turns out I wasn't completely finished with work - I'm working some days this week to make the transition smoother. Hah! It's not smoother for me. I went from euphoria last week to limbo and lethargy this week. Can't wait until the break is clean and complete and I can really relax (an abundance of alliteration there!). Oh, and try to make a living.

I've missed a lot of my favorite link-ups lately, so this outfit will make up for lost time.

Today - 52 Pick-me-up - '60s
Friday - Secondhand First 
Sunday -Visible Monday

Here's my pseudo-'60s, secondhand and visible outfit. I'm sort of like Shelley Fabares meets Susan Dey.

Not exactly bell bottoms, but flared dungarees, along with a top tied at the waist and a button-up cardi thrown over my shoulders. The top, belt and jeans are thrifted; the cardi is Target and the sandals Clarks, and they're both at least five years old.

The top has a sort of mod pattern, and colors like 1960s kitchen appliances - avocado green, coppertone, and almond.

And I'm wearing my locket, previously seen here, which is from the '60s.


Hey, if you didn't already know, Joni James is doing a new blog! Check it out - An Artful Closet.

Thanks again for your lovely comments. Be sure to visit and join the link-ups!

Val

Oops, I did it again

Remember last month when I posted pictures of my nephew-in-law Kenji when we had a family get-together (Easter)? Well, here are some more photos of my nephew-in-law Kenji at another family get-together (Mother's Day).

I was trying to crowd in on his hipness then, too.

His vest, which his mother sent him from Japan, has a striped back and striped lining in the pockets. The label actually says "University of Oxford." Maybe they're branching out to make some extra money?

Remember in my last post when I was wearing a red dress? Here I am wearing another red dress. I bought both dresses the same day at the thrift store, so I'm linking up - again - to Secondhand First at Citizen Rosebud. I'm just going around in circles here!

Since the dress is red, I'm also linking up with Share-in-Style: Red at Mis Papelicos.

I wore the leopard-print cardi to work twice that week, and then again on the weekend. Madness!

Remember when I told you about my blogger meet-up in my last post? I'm on my way to another one!

It's just like Groundhog Day, lasting all week.

Val

Easter Melange

I love that word - melange. And I couldn't think of a better way to describe this post, which covers Easter, birthdays, men's style, food, family, sunshine, sewing, and a gnome.

In my family we have plenty of birthdays in April - my mom's, my sister's, my brother's, now also my nephew-in-law's, my sister-in-law's, and also one of my best friends's (pronounced "best friendzuz"). At least here in this town we're able to combine three birthdays and celebrate at once. It just happened that Easter was the best time to get together for a barbecue!

my brother-in-law barbecuing

I've been wanting to take some photos of my very cool nephew-in-law, Kenji, who was one of our birthday celebrants. Kenji would like to find some men's style blogs, so if you know of any, let me know.

 

the sunglasses are Ray Ban's

Cool, huh? He's also an absolute sweetheart, which is nothing less than my niece deserves.

This is Kenji and his wife, Lisa, with their two nephews.

This photo includes my sister, color-coordinated with Lisa, and my other niece, Mildred. The boys are her sons.

My goodness, these people are multiplying like rabbits! My mom and I joined the line-up.

And what is Val wearing, I hear you ask. Well. I made a cape thingy from a scarf and wore it over a white tee shirt.

maybe Kenji's coolness will rub off on me

I'm also wearing my Frida necklace (made by the delightful Tamera) and some pale pink jeans.

Here's the back of the scarf-cape. I just had to cut the scarf in half and stitch the long edges together, leaving room for my head, of course. The fringe was an added bonus!

We had lots of yummy food.

The carrots (made by my sister) are cooked in broth with cream cheese (!), then chopped pecans and green onions are added, and a little lemon juice. I bet this would be good without the cream cheese, too.

What do you call an angry garden statue? A gnomad! (Thank you, Mr. S.)

And then we came home.

Linking up to Visible Monday and Creative Mondays! Have a good week, everyone!

Thursday - I'm also linking up my upcycled scarf-cape thingy to The Citizen Rosebud for Secondhand First. The scarf was bought at Buffalo Exchange resale shop.

Val

T3 - Plaid and Paisley

I'm struggling a bit to come up with something for Thoughtful Third Thursday. It's all about books, and although I've been reading almost constantly, I've only finished a couple of books in the past month. I ditched two books before I even got halfway through. Funny, they were both set in Washington State - my old stomping grounds. They were recommended by a colleague with whom I share lots of book and movie recommendations, but we don't actually have the same taste at all. Except I turned him and his wife on to Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson, and they turned me on to Tana French and Gillian Flynn. Other than that we haven't been having much luck. I'll tell you more about the rejected books at the end of the post, for anyone who's interested in my sweeping and subjective opinion.

Right now I'm reading Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn. It's the second in her series of Jackson Brodie crime novels, and it's pretty good. I'm not a huge crime fiction fan, but I generally like her writing, although not always. She tends to throw in lots of characters and their musings and history while they're doing other things. It's easy to lose track sometimes.

The book is set in Edinburgh, so I decided to go with tartan for an outfit. Here's a quote from the book:

"The hotel was surprisingly cheap and unsurprisingly awful. Anything that could be decorated with tartan was, even the ceiling had been papered in a funereal Black Watch. On the walls were hung framed prints of Old Edinburgh and heraldic clan insignia mounted on wooden shields."

I mixed the tartan with paisley - another Scottish association. The design is Indian, but when it became popular in Great Britain quite a lot of paisley patterns were produced at mills in Paisley, Scotland.

The style of the book is kind of sardonic, wry, and self-deprecating. There's a bit too much death and blood for my taste, but I do like Jackson. The BBC has made a series of three Jackson Brodie books, and the character is played by Jason Isaacs - aka Lucius Malfoy of Harry Potter fame.

My shirt is a Michael Kors men's shirt, the scarf is Ray Strauss, which I bought from Bella at The Citizen Rosebud on Etsy. The yellow jeans are thrifted Shylo, and the suede leopard sneakers are Born.

Now, about the other books.

I started reading The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, and I didn't like it at all. The style was very aloof and pseudo-poetic in a spare kind of way. Lots of sentences seemed very clunky and immature, and I just didn't get into the characters. Glad it was only a library book.

I read two books by Jonathan Evison, well, one and a bit. The first one I loved - The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving. It was a funny, sweet, heart-wrenching tale about a man's life being put back together (in spite of himself) after a tragedy. I definitely recommend this book, as well as another Evison book, All About Lulu. But the one I didn't finish is West of Here. I think it's more of a man's book, long descriptions about wild scenery and men moving through it. And mud. Just not enough human interaction to hold my attention.

Come on over to My Closet Catalogue or A Bibliophile's Style and see the other visual book reports!

Update April 30 - now linking up to 52 Pick-me-up for Yellow Fever.

Val

Forwards and Backwards, maybe Sideways

Thank you for all your comments the last few weeks – well, all the time actually! I've enjoyed sharing some of my past exploits and reading about yours. I'll share more adventures in the future, but I can't tell you everything – I have to save something for my memoirs.

I've been feeling really inspired and creative lately – the muse is making fondue! I feel myself stretching my mind and thinking outside the box, and I owe a lot of credit to my fellow bloggers. I've mentioned Melanie, who gave me the idea of the paper dolls, and there's also Maricel, who has mentioned artists and authors who have stirred some of my creative juices. (I might even read a vampire novel.) And all you sewists and upcyclers have led me to my current phase of trying to customize my wardrobe. I've also been inspired in this regard by Suzi Click, who I found on Advanced Style, so now I have a big pile of unworn clothes in pretty fabrics that I hope to make into unique, wearable pieces. And Sue Kreitzman is also an amazing inspiration for her clothing and assemblages and use of color.

But at this moment I especially have to thank Anne of Spy Girl for her 52 Pick-me-up challenges. The prompt this week is to wear something back to front, and this has led me to wear an old dress in a new way.

I know, right? I love it!

And it was so easy! I bet a lot of you have done this with t-shirts, but have you tried it with anything else?

The dress is from Target, previously seen here and here (the same boots are in the second one, too, but you have to get past my rant to see the outfit). It's polyester so it's easy to wear and pack and wash. I wore it with leggings on the plane to Texas last summer (first link above). The tights are also from Target, and the boots and belt are thrifted.

The back/front puckers a little bit, but I could probably fiddle with the belt to make it look better.

Cowlicks all over my head

 Or just wear a jacket.

This suede jacket (previously seen here, also thrifted) reminds me so much of a similar jacket I had in my early 20s. Same cut, same pigskin suede, slightly different color. When I first bought this one I kept having déjà vu! Do you ever get that?

Come on over to Spy Girl for a pick-me-up!

Val

Red, Blue, Pompidou!

In my last post I told you about my first trip to Europe, fifty years ago. Well, twenty-five years ago I went to Europe for the second time. I spent three months studying in Rome, then traveled to Greece with a friend, spent some time with an Italian man in Firenze (that's all I'm sayin'), and eventually went to Paris on my own before flying home.

In Paris I took a really cool picture of the Centre Pompidou and made a necklace with it.

This set my color scheme for a recent outfit.

top - JCP; skirt - Docker's, thrifted; tights - Target; shoes - Dexter

I took more photos in this outfit, but I'm bored with my own backyard and too self-conscious to go out in public to take pictures. Sooooo, I decided to revisit Paris in 1989.

It was the centennial of the Eiffel Tower, so they had lights on it spelling out "100 ans." It was also the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

 The Louvre - so much to see, it would take more than one day and you'd still be overwhelmed.

Luxembourg Gardens - I stayed near here in the Latin Quarter. My little room and lumpy bed were under the eaves, up six flights of stairs, with the toilet and showers down the hall. I loved it!

And then we're back where we started, at the Pompidou Centre.

All these photos were printed on paper - I cut out paper dolls of me and glued them to the printed photos, then photographed them. Thanks again to Melanie for this idea!

It's time to get together for Visible Monday, so don't forget to head on over to Patti's on Sunday evening or Monday. Or Tuesday. And there's a Shoe Shine at Bella's, so here's the money shot for that.

 

A bientot, mes cheries!

Val