52 Pick-me-up: Black & White / Destiny

••• 

What's in the cards for me as I turn 60? 

My year, according to the Destiny Cards app
Seems accurate, so far. 

I wore this Black & White ensemble on May 15, for International Fluevog Day,
John Fluevog's self-proclaimed day to celebrate his oeuvre.

Starring Fluevog Creepx that I got on deep sale in San Francisco.
Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday.

As part of the celebration, all the Fluevog stores had sales and special giveaways.
I ventured over to the Abbot Kinney branch in Venice. 
What a party!

Shoe frenzy!

Shiny! The Sparkler, released 2016
(All links are for your shopping pleasure, not affiliate).

Red Liz on left, can anyone ID the pale pink ones?

Meteor on left, Black Opposition in middle

Men's Granville

No shoes for man's best friend. Sad face.

I got into the fun and tried on dotty Propel

Lots of fab shoes, all beyond my budget.

Back home, I DID manage to get a pack of Fluevog playing cards online. With the Day's free shipping, I avoided the $8 shipping usually slapped onto $10 cards. 52 Pick-me-up, indeed!
...

But then on Friday my luck turned.
I was all set to photograph a Royal Flush with the Heart suit, but much to my dismay, the Queen and Jack were missing!

Oh noooooo!

I immediately did a live chat with Fluevog's online customer service.
Megan from Minneapolis was ever so helpful and a replacement deck is making it's way home.
Whew! Crisis averted!
Megan told me to use my partial deck for "craft projects".
I have the perfect idea and it involves the December 40+ Blogger Meetup. In the cards, my friends, in the cards.

Will it be my Destiny to see you in December?
Black & White / Destiny -- Link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Periwinkle / Balance

••• 

This is our final week of PURPLE and our last color is Periwinkle, a color combining purple, blue, and grey. Balance is the emotion cue word, very apt for me after my month of fake-journaling as Enid.  I also blogged the tartans of US and Canada A-Z every day this month (except Sunday) over on Pattern Recognition. Exhausting! Extremely unbalanced!

Periwinkle was one of the colors in Enid's rainbow of crayon colors, here is my Periwinkle outfit from 4/21.

Anyone remember the brand Kensington Blue? They made my striped tee.
Hey 80's. I got the ikat scarf at that time too. Relics that still fit! Hurrah!
Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday

I shot an outfit photo every day this month to sketch from -- easier for me to look at the preview on my camera vs imagining what I looked like. I'll be making a compilation of the month's photos, but not today. I'm too busy being a groupie! (Smithereens gig at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. It's sound check as I type.)

It's all about Balance, right?

This is your final week to add anything PURPLE to the link-up.
Periwinkle / Balance -- Link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Navy / Quest

••• 

We are finishing off our seven weeks of blue hues with Navy.

I was all set to have this be a post about Poshmark and selling this Navy and wine striped dress from Uniqlo:

That's not a pin at my chest. It's the size sticker.
I was going to sell it NWT [new with tags]

A funny thing happened while I was taking my product shots...

Rare view of my butt.

I decided that I liked it after all and I'm not going to sell it!
It's super comfortable!
I just need to remove the pockets -- the pocket bags are too bulky on my hips.
My hips are big enough, thankyouverymuch.

Here's the saga of why I have this new dress that I thought I didn't like:

Remember the Uniqlo Del Amo store opening that I attended back in October?
Remember the flannel shirt that was too small?
I found it online in my size, along with some bright tees that weren't at Del Amo either. The dress looked cute on the model (don't they always), it was on sale for $19.98, and I added it to my cart.

Upon arrival, it didn't live up to my fantasies (a hazard of online shopping). I wanted to send it back, but a mail-in return was going to incur a "restocking charge". Sigh. I could return it to a local Uniqlo store but never made it within the 30-day deadline because of a combo of laziness and the holiday season (I don't "do" malls during November/December).

Anyway.
It's a keeper, for now. I like how it looks with the argyle tights.

••• 

Back to the subject of Poshmark.
I've had some success with sales, and have racked up some "bank" to shop with.
I went on a Quest for Mexican huipils, etc, and found this:

Yes!
Mine!

I thought from the photos that it'd be a darker blue, but that's OK. It's lovely.

Signing in at Patti's Visible Monday, like always.
I'll also link this up with Judith's Hat Attack for April.

Navy or any other Blue / Quest -- Link and tell!
I'm changing up the link-up schedule and will have it open for a longer period starting next week.
For this week, here are all the "BLUE" linkups. I've reopened them, so add to whichever shade of blue you coordinate with. ;-)

Ink Blue or Navy

Sapphire

Blueberry, Denim

Aqua

Sky Blue

Electric Blue

52 Pick-me-up: Grass / Growth / Courage

••• 

Grass Green is the color this week for 52 Pick-me-up.
I have touches of it in my vest and leggings:

I'm linking up with Patti for Visible Monday.

The week's prompts here are: Grass / Growth / Courage
Link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Stripes

CREATED/ PURLOINED/ PURCHASED/ GIFTED/  

Yikes! It's Stripes week! (And I'm running late!)

photo by Severo, taken in February at the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair 

And then there's this, which you may have seen on Instagram:

[I can't figure out how to move the video here.] 

When did you last wear stripes? Link and tell!

[Enid] The Tee of Contention

ENID/

Transcription:  

4.26
Before I sink into a luxurious day of RELAXING I want to tell you about this tee.
SpyGirl is going to wax all nostalgic about it in her blog today
BUT
She stole it from me!
She's convinced that she got it in Mesa [AZ] in 2000. Yeah right.
She shopped my closet in 2014. Grrrrr.

52 Pick-me-up: Pattern Max

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ CREATED/ GIFTED/  

Oh thank you IRS for causing a delayed posting for this week's challenge. I managed to schedule my favorite theme -- Pattern Maxing -- in my least favorite week -- Tax Deadline. I'm back dating this and we'll all pretend that today is Sunday. If only!

Since I'm bombarding you daily with all of the fake journaling of Enid, I'm compiling the four outfits that I wore to work last week. I was inspired to new heights of pattern mixing [or maxing, as I like to say] by the Create 28 Lovely Spring Looks Challenge, the brainchild of Whitney A La Mode and Carrie of A Lovely Little Wardrobe. [I'm trying to do the challenge with my socks, but it is getting more and more difficult. Today's prompt is "Spring Dresses". How on earth can a sock be a spring dress?]

Anyway, on the the kooky outfits:

Monday. "Pattern on Bottom"
Pattern everywhere except for my tights.

Tuesday. "Pastels"
Pattern or embellishment everywhere except the faux Keds

Wednesday. Off theme.
Pattern everywhere.
Especially liked the leopard under the striped tee.
Note Jean's neck cowl [gifted] worn as a bum cover/ hip warmer.

Thursday. "Floral"
The coworkers gave me many compliments on the recently rediscovered circle skirt.

There you have it, my week of Pattern Maxing.
Go on, give it a try! Baby steps welcome too -- try a stripe with floral.
I have a helpful pattern mixing post here.

Linking with Create 28 Lovely Spring Looks
and Share-in-Style

Was your Pattern Maxing a success? Link and tell!

Happy St TARDIS Tuesday

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ GIFTED/ 

I saw this StyleMint blue/black/green dress on someone in Go Chic or Go Home, my online Digital Closet community and HAD to have it. It's rather cheap cotton blend knit that is now starting to pill and I'll keep wearing it until I kill it.
You've seen it before, but never combined like this!

Jan, of Fort Smith Stylista, kindly gave me the Duro Olowu shirt because I raved about hers, you can see how I sketched her in it here. The shirt had been sadly languishing in my closet because the right sleeve was too tight due to my lymphedema. Solution? I cut off the sleeves!

Severo gave me the socks, from his February Sock Haul in Brooklyn. These came in a 3-pack that sold for $1.99. He now checks my feet every morning to see what socks I'm wearing.
He has a gig in Boston this weekend. Will he bring home some new socks for my collection?

Linking up with Maricel's TARDIS Tuesday.

When Amaryllis Met TARDIS

PURCHASED/ GIFTED/ 

What happened when I was thinking of the red and white Amaryllis
while also thinking about Maricel's My Closet Catalogue TARDIS Tuesday?
This:

I fear the spandex is dying in the skirt. Tragic.
It's tubular bubble knit nylon/spandex yardage that I bought in the 80s.
I had located a wholesaler for it then, not sure if it's still being manufactured.

Amaryllis inspiration:

[Source: Google Image search for Amaryllis]

You have lots of time to add your 52 Pick-me-up link!

52 Pick-me-up: Amaryllis

PURCHASED/ GIFTED/ 

It's a flower week again on 53 Pick-me-up. The Amaryllis is a lily-like bulb that comes in many colors.

Amaryllis by disequilibber [source]

I'm using red, burgundy, and pink to inspire today's look.

Yeah, stripes still. I like stripes.

I'm linking up with Patti's Visible Monday later today.

Which Amaryllis color will you link?

52 Pick-me-up: Read Between the Lines

CREATED/ PURCHASED/

Originally when I created this theme, I was thinking that it would be timed with Selah and Maricel's
 Thoughtful Third Thursday link-up. WRONG. LAST Thursday was the link-up, not this coming Thursday. Oops.
On my 52 Pick-me-up theme calendar, the prompt for this week is "Read between the lines -- inspired by a book". Notice that I simplified it here to just "read between the lines". Which could mean stripes, if you're stumped on the whole book thing. I found the perfect book for this though -- an artist book that I made in 2009. And I paired it with coordinating stripes. So fancy!

The book is made from one piece of paper. It's printed with abstract scribbles that I created and printed out. I then cut and folded it so that it has a few pages. [See this how-to that I Pinned].

Below is each spread of pages. See if you can find the secret message, reading between the lines.
[I swear, I did NOT have this book in mind when I created the prompts back in June!]

Did you find the message? No spoilers in your comments!

On Monday, I'm linking up with Sacramento's Share-in-Style. The theme is scarves.

One more helpful hint for this week: cookbooks are books too.
Stripes or a book or some baked goods, link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Crazy Legs

PURCHASED/ CREATED/ GIFTED/ 

Time for some crazy on your legs. Crazy pants, crazy tights, crazy socks, crazy shoes.
I'm wearing the crazy tights that I had printed and rainbow socks that Ruth gave me.

How crazy will you go? Link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Pattern Max

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ 

Greetings all! I'm back home after two months and 12,772 miles of road tripping.
This week's theme is Pattern Mixing. You know I how I love to play around with patterns!
Here I'm wearing gingham, stripes, and some leopard.

Get in the mix! Link up!

52 Pick-me-up: Tight On!

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/LINKS/

Hopefully you are aware that I've been circumnavigating the US. (As this posts, I'll be in Portland, OR.) What happens when I sit in the car for more than 8 hours a day? A whole lot of snacking! When I made my list of 52 Pick-me-up prompts, I knew I'd be near the end of my trip and that I would probably be "a little bit bigger". Am I? I'm not sure, everything I packed is either stretchy (yay yoga pants purloined from work) or oversized (tunics are the best and I sewed two more while I was at my mom's).
One item that maybe is a bit more snug is this Desigual tunic shirt:

This was shot a month ago in Providence, RI.
Notice I don't have the shirt buttoned.

Oh those Spanish designers and their glorious prints and devilish small sizing.

So, This week's prompt is: Uptight/alright: wear that thing that’s a little too small
Link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Back to Front

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ 

Oh look! I've been magically teleported to my back yard!
It's all an illusion, I'm not there at all. I'm in South Carolina.
52 Pick-me-up is still happening, despite the road trip.

This week's challenge is to wear something back to front.
I've been trying that out lately with low-cut tops. Here, the stripe dress is backwards.

Try it with a V-neck cardigan, like Roquelle. It might give you more options for stuff you already own.

Experiment, link, and tell!

Let's Laugh

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ GIFTED/ AFFILIATE LINKS*/ 

This tee makes me happy:

Severo gave it to me, it's from Newbury Comics, a New England record chain. I think he had a gig there, maybe in Boston.

My new yoga pants and Keds make me happy too:

I grabbed the pants from the sample box at work. It amazes me that I can squish my girth (34" waist) into the sample size Small. Stretchy cotton/spandex is a wonderful thing!

The Keds came from Yoox, via Lyst. Lyst is an affiliate link program. If you click through one of the garment links at the bottom of this blog, I supposedly get compensation. I don't push it very much, mainly because I add the most ridiculously expensive designer items to *"my Lyst of favorites". I use it to research trends, follow certain designers, or find particular fabrications or prints. My favorite thing about it is that Lyst will alert you when a favorited item goes on sale. I can't do much with an Etro paisley shawl "reduced" to $300 except sigh, but these Keds were on sale for $29 and that seemed like a good deal.
They're now sold out, but here are some current styles that caught my eye:

(this is a non-clickable screen grab. The "make a collection" feature was not working for me this morning)

The DOTS!!!!

For someone who "doesn't like sneakers", I'm certainly starting to amass a good collection:

The third (or fourth?) thing that makes me happy is this:

 Secret paisley Happy Socks*! (Why do I have clown feet here? My feet aren't "that" big!)

Have a great Saturday, everyone!
I'm going to a Simply Stylist event at The Grove today (not in this outfit, btw). I'll be wearing my Narrative Clip, to hopefully get some SpyShots of the fashionable goings-on. I'll submit a full report tomorrow soon.

Meanwhile, click on over to The Citizen Rosebud to ogle some fellow ShoeShiners.

52 Pick-me-up: Short Over Long

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ LINKS/

Proportion play! Find something short (maybe even TOO short) and wear something long under it.
Go grunge and wear long sleeves under a tee.
Or go crazy, like I did:

I didn't start out dressing to match my scarves (like last week), but I found the perfect matchy scarves.
Short scarf over long scarf pure accident!

This was one of those outfits that started out with totally different items over the striped top and red pants.
I ended up with the above for lack of time.

I felt like this (which I've posted before, but it bears repeating):

Sporting the drop-crotch trend at such an early age!

My red and white scarf has a special past:

Dolls of the World Kenya Barbie, 1994
photo source: Barbie Collector

I designed it for Kenya Barbie and purloined some sample fabric!
This is one of my early digital print designs, that I worked up in U4ia (expensive proprietary software which Lectra now calls something else). The printing on the polyester base cloth shows equally on both sides, and it works well for both Barbie's cape and my scarf.

[Apologies for the wretched photo. Will replace with a better one tomorrow.]

Here's another short over long idea:

At my art reception, 3/31/2013

I now have the distinction of being "that crazy girl on Facebook", as described by one of Severo's old pals.
Hahahaha!

Special shout-out to Megan Mae and Keely, 
who first gave me the idea for this prompt, from their Fashion Challenge series.

Link up, my friends: