52 Pick-me-up: Pattern Max

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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!

52 Pick-me-up: Iris

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This week we celebrate the Iris.

Iris Petals by Len Burgess 

Iris 'Constant Companion' October 18th, closeup by Bob Gutowski 

The iris comes in a wide range of colors, but I was inspired by the purple ones.
Both of my ensembles feature the radiant purple scarf that Bella gave me last May.

Did you know that the heraldic fleur de lis motif is based on both the lily and the iris? Now you do!

[source]

I'll be linking up with Sacramento and Rosie's Share-In-Style on Monday.

You, on the other hand, will hopefully link here!

52 Pick-me-up: Baroque and LAFC

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This week's theme is Baroque. I am WAY more interested in posting about the two days I spent at the Fall 15 presentations staged by the Los Angeles Fashion Council last Tuesday and Wednesday. Let's see how I can get this to work.
Vocabulary.com defines baroque as:
"Something baroque is overly ornate, like a paisley red velvet jacket with tassels, or music that has a lot going on and might include a harpsichord. Anything with a complicated design can be baroque but it also refers to a style of art, music, and architecture from 17th Century Italy (and is then sometimes capitalized). Although it has roots in the Portuguese word barroco meaning "imperfect pearl" not everything baroque is imperfect. Caravaggio and Rubens are considered baroque painters, and baroque composers include Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel. Although rococo and baroque both describe something over-the-top, sticklers will save baroque for something with heft and use rococo for lighter designs, like that velvet jacket. Historically, Rococo comes after the Baroque period."

One of the first people that I ran into when I arrived was Glenda, from So What to Twenty.

My hair (by Nancy) and makeup (by Christopher) c/o Glam Squad
photo by Freddy Harrison

Even though we had only met online, I knew it was her immediately!
Over the two days, we had some lovely chats while waiting for shows to start.
I think an Inland Empire blogger meet-up (including Maricel) is in our future!

That golden prism wall piece made an excellent backdrop for many a portrait those two days.

That's Paris Hatcher of Where Sexy Meets Classy and Traci Mari Smith of Just Mariklo.
Still trying to ID the guys.

Baroque is a good adjective for Michael Ngo's presentation entitled Shinobi Ballroom

Ngo was inspired by Willi Ninja and the LGBT Ballroom scene of the late 80s.

Johnny Rice and Anthony Garza aka The Kiss Boyz

A quote lifted from Michael:

"I envisioned the lovechild of strength & elegance and the battle between reality & fantasy—who you are and who chose to be. Finding strength, beauty and bravery by channeling your inner warrior is my mission. I want to empower the wearers of my collection with contrasting worlds of smooth and textured; evening and street; and elegant and edginess. These ideals will be conveyed through my relentless addiction to structure and eye for detail.
With the beauty & grace of a geisha and the strength & stealth of a ninja, you can triumph over struggle & opposition and defiantly dance into the moonlight.
You own the night.
You are your own SHINOBI."

Check out Michael's video:

Did I go baroque enough?
Add your own baroque-inspired links!

BTW, I'm linking this up with Sacramento and Rosie's Share-In-Style on Monday.

52 Pick-me-up: Read Between the Lines

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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: Black

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Black is this week's 52 Pick-me-up theme. How to make black not so basic? I mixed textures:

I'm linking up with Patti's Visible Monday
and
Sacramento's Share in Style

Sonic Sunday: Mary Foster Conklin

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Meet Ms Mary Foster Conklin:

Isn't she divine?
A voice like velvet, that one.

I saw her perform on a very wet Saturday night with Mark Winkler at Vitello's in Studio City.

Mary hails from NYC, and it was a treat to see her on the left coast.
You New Yorkers -- be sure to get on Mary's email list so you can catch her next gig.
She has CDs/digital downloads available for the rest of us.

She graduated a year after me from Emma Willard (our high school).
Her transformation into a stellar chanteuse was forged through tough life transitions.
I'm so happy that we've reconnected.

this photo by Severo
Mary wanted me to tell you that she's wearing a $20 Norma Kamali for Walmart dress.

Mary is one of my angels. She quickly knit up two chemo caps for me when I needed them back in 2010.

Here's what I wore for the gig:

Glamour closeup for Style Crone's Hat Attack:

My dupatta (indian scarf) is secondhand from Sahara Vintage Boutique, in Artesia.
All items sold there have been donated and a percent of the proceeds benefit the Sahara organization,
which helps battered women in the SoCal South Asian community

Linking up all over the internet, because I'm that kind of gal.
Bella's Secondhandfirst
Sacramento's Share in Style [Music]
Style Crone's Hat Attack

Holiday Partying and Plaid

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I went to two holiday parties this week, one for my gallery and the other the Two Point Oh! LA Snowball.
The Big Red Coat came out for a spin and garnered lots of praise at the Snowball.

*necklace c/o InPink, similar

To brag a little, I did a great job tailoring this coat. It has swagger and feels like a royal robe. (Severo said I looked like the Ghost of Christmas Past -- whatever). I designed, draped, and sewed it as one of my Senior projects at Otis in '87.
I'm glad I kept it!

The Snowball was a blast. Kelsi found a great venue and themed it Prom Twin Peaks.

Kelsi -- don't you love her plaid silk dupioni dress?
She designed it and Inka of ISM Mode made it.

Note the live band behind her:
Danny Memphis and the Extraordinaires.
They played lots of Elvis covers.

Emily in a dress with cutouts and Audrey in metallic lace

Erik won the most plaids in one outfit award:

I was mesmerized! I hope he didn't think I was stalking him, I took a lot of pictures.

I have much more to share on the Snowball -- the pinatas, my live sketches, wild dancing.
We'll have to wait -- I still have my Plaid ID post that I promised you!

I'm linking up with Sacramento's Share In Style Christmas and Patti's Visible Monday.

Also on the IFB Project #126, Celebration Style roll

Have you been to any fun Holiday parties this year? Did you wear plaid?
There's still time to join my plaid party! Any sort of plaid outfit is welcome.
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