Art Fair Outfits

The Superfine Art Fair in Seattle was a good excuse for a road trip!
Here, however, I'll review what I wore...

It seems I relied on the kindness of strangers for my outfit shots.
I guess I forgot that sometimes I'm a fashion blogger. 

in @gottfried_megan's IG story

The Opening night I wore my favorite tunic. I always feel great in this.
In 2019, I stitched this together in transit for my brother's wedding! So glad I did! 

Paired with green space-dyed Fabletics leggings.

photo by Katie's daughter

Day 2, Katie stopped by. Katie lives in Birmingham, Alabama. I've been in Feng Shui cohorts with her for the past couple of years. This was our first meeting IRL.

I wore my vintage 90's shirt that I found on Poshmark and leopard leggings from Fabletics.
The gap in the art grid was a fake sale. I thought maybe viewers were intimidated by the full grid, and I removed a piece.

in @superfineartfair's IG story

Day 3, the Noon - 9pm marathon day.
I wore the antique kimono fabric tunic, which is another favorite.
I added sleeves to this a few years after first sewing it. Best move ever.
I don't remember which leggings I wore (because I'm actually writing this post in November).

I don't remember who took this... maybe my art booth neighbor?

Day 4: the African wax cloth tunic, purchased in Providence, RI way back in the '80s.

The cotton fabric is super soft now. Same leggings as Day 1.

And the art?

This was the only instance the Scrappy Squares were seen as a complete set the way they were intended to be hung.

I made a sale! The grid was broken for real this time.

Which one sold?

Shelbee!

art blog post about making this

Shelbee had the honor of being featured in a Style Imitating Art challenge by Shelbee herself!

For the fair, I dressed in all my favorite colorful tunics/tops to help me feel good in my skin and radiate confidence.

And then I managed to leave them all hanging in the closet where I was staying! Idiot test failure! (Idiot tests are what musicians do after a gig to make sure they don't leave any gear behind).

It took me 46 miles to realize my error.

Fortunately, my Seattle friends quickly sent them back to me. Favorite garment crisis averted.

Linking up with...

Shelbee's On the Edge

The Fluevog Sandal Clog Has Risen

Oh how I love these sandals!
On Saturday, they were sprung from Repair Jail. On the advice of Petrea at Fluevog Abbot Kinney, I took them to Miracle Shoe Repair in Playa Del Rey. I wanted a gentle touch -- these treasures are 25 years old! They needed new soles, front and back, and the back of the heels required a little rebuilding.

You can see two strata of heel repair: the dark upper layer was added in the 90s by Zinke's in Pasadena

To try and inspire myself to do some work on Repair Mountain, I pulled all the garments that coordinated with the sandals:

I found a lot of items! Did I do anything? No, not yet.

Remember this photo? (from this post)

I've been using the bottom skirt portion to cover the broken sewing machine.

Today's outfit -- the one I went out into the world in, not the staged one I posted on IG:

I had to make a run to Egg Slut for some VERY IMPORTANT taste test items and to Staples for printer ink.
Doesn't my dotty shopping bag coordinate nicely? Severo bought me three of them!
The little bit of walking I did gave me incipient blisters, so if I wear these tomorrow (highly likely), I'll need to wear socks.

I'm now supposed to be looking for missing art prints but instead I'm going to join Mr Lou on the couch.
It's how I Monday!

Linking up with:
Patti's Visible Monday
Catherine's #iwillwearwhatilike
Cherie's Shoe and Tell
Shelbee's On the Edge of the Week

Go Fish

Patti featured this sketch last week in her "Why I Like Instagram" post.
It's one of my lunch break selfie sketches. (To see them all filtered by the hashtag on Tumblr, click here).

Linking up with Patti's Visible Monday.

52 Pick-me-up: Indigo / Gratitude

••• 

I went to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve today.

It did not go as expected.

What does this have to do with this week's color/emotion prompt, Indigo / Gratitude? 
I'll get to that, don't worry. 

It was a beautiful morning, and I was looking for any excuse to procrastinate on finishing my taxes. 

ROAD TRIP!!!!! 

The drive up San Francisquito Canyon Road was lovely. 

I took a bunch of road photos (I'll post them on Flickr later) and entered the Antelope Valley with great anticipation. 

Then I got to the entry gate and discovered that I didn't have my wallet. 

OH NOOOOOOOOOO! 

That was not the worst part. Just wait.  

I took a selfie at the Reserve's entry on Lancaster Road, with it as a backdrop. 

Note the lack of poppies. [Chloe frames c/o Ditto]
Linking this up with Patti's Visible Monday.

I was on a mission to find poppies. 

CA Poppies. Done. 

Well, why not take some outfit shots and be a silly fashion blogger dressed inappropriately? 

Argh! You can't see my INDIGO pants!
You CAN see the DIY poncho that I made by cutting a hole in the middle of a throw blanket.
(As reported by Enid on Friday)

Alright, enough of that.

I was getting low on gas.

I contemplated the situation and decided to go home a longer, more well-traveled route.

Remember, I DIDN'T HAVE MY WALLET.

What I DID have was a change purse in my console for feeding parking meters.

(Thank you, Severo, for insisting that I have this).

$2.83 won't get me a gallon of gas. Trouble brews.

Also in my dash, I found a spare AAA card (they'll give you $5 of gas if stranded) and a jade amulet.
(The woman who gave it to me said jade gives "luck" to travelers. I needed all the luck I could get. I put it on).

I zeroed out the "mileage counter" to keep track of my miles.

Onward.

Fifteen miles later, the "very low on gas" light started blinking.

What did I do?

I stopped and took more outfit photos! 

Why not? It was a good field full of poppies! The best of the day!

Exiting the car, I found a bunch of burrs on my pants:

A good look, don't you think?It's known as a "3D" print.Now you can see the color of the pants.

Got the shot! Thank you wind!

I had cut the poncho's neckhole too big, so I cinched it in with a giant safety pin that I obtained in Austin, TX.
All that orangish field behind me is poppies. They were all closed because it was windy and cloudy.

It was 5 more miles to I-5, and 28 miles down (literally, so I was able to coast) the freeway I saw a bunch of roadside business. I parked to assess my situation. And scour the car for more change. 

Success!

I found the other change purse, it had some quarters in it!

I was now up to $4.30.

The Mobil station was charging $3.25/gal.

Could I find better?

I consulted the GasBuddy app.

Yes, a 7-11 across the freeway was listed at $2.99.

Even better, it was down to $2.74 when I got there.

That would get me 1.5 gallons.

I WILL MAKE IT HOME.

Thank you GasBuddy for finding me the best deal in town.

Thank you Prius for your great mileage.

Thank you amulet for your magical powers.

Thank you readers for indulging me!
Gratitude, it's a powerful thing.

Indigo / Gratitude -- link and tell!

An InLinkz Link-up

52 Pick-me-up: United Nations

PURCHASED/ 

My effort this week is entitled "Multicultural Mashup with Hippie Skirts"

I have a lot of long flowy Indian skirts that I can't stop myself from purchasing whenever I rendezvous in Artesia (AKA Little India) with my friend Deborah. It's all Deborah's fault! I've decided that they overwhelm me and work better if they're hiked up and worn as dresses. Also, I can't wear long skirts at work because I'll trip on the stairs in and roll my chair on them.

I decided to experiment mixing the skirt-dresses with tops from different countries [for the prompt] through the filter of selfies to see what worked. Looking at a photograph often works better for me than the mirror.

First I tried an African fish tunic combo:

has potential

Next was a Mayan top (not sure whether from Mexico or Guatemala):

no. too much fabric and side seams wonky

I really like the fabric on the skirt, but cutting slits at the sides for armholes and placing the waist at my neck doesn't work. I wore it like this for work last Tuesday:

I look like a giant baby. Or a Cabbage Patch Kid. Nooooooo!

I settled on my favorite combo of Mayan top/ Indian patchwork skirt-dress:

It was 90º in Claremont at the "All U Can Eat" show. (20º hotter than at home).
This outfit was comfortable.
And
I sold 2 out of 3 pieces! (You can see them here). Yay me! I then bought two paintings to take back to my lair.
Here I am with Anne Seltzer. I bought her piece, she bought mine.

Linking up with Patti's last Visible Monday for the summer.

Can you create an international cocktail from your closet?
Link and tell!

Olowu Shirt, Act I: Sleep With the Fishes

LINKS/ PURLOINED/ PURCHASED/ GIFTED

I finally took The Shirt out on the town. I wore this on Friday to see The Great Gatsby. I went with Ruth and we ran into Heather. For such a large metropolis, LA can be a village! I'll discuss Gatsby later. I'm still cogitating on it.

Now fasten your seatbelt, I'm introducing you to my favorite new app: Tiny Planets [for iPhone, 99¢, for Android, $2.99].
It takes a photo and bends it into a sphere.
I'm using it for my #ootd shots now because it is so stellar!

Inside the net of fishes lies the Planet Olowu!

If your head is spinning, jet on over to Patti's Visible Planet.
She'll cure what ails ya.