The Pose App

I got the above in the inbox this morning, so I figured it was time to release all my "Pose Paranoia" posts that I've kept in draft form. Pose is not as evil as I was beginning to think back in April. I was concerned by the amount of tweens/teens that were suddenly "following" me and the slightly sexual content that they were posting. I thought it would be very easy for creepy trolls to hide behind an alternative identity and stalk these girls. Still possible, but none fell for my secret SpyGirl bait. If you are a mom, and your girl has a smartphone, check over her apps and see what she's up to. I was invincible when I was a teen. I did stuff that was not so smart. Much worse can occur now, the world being what it is.

Will I be using Pose any more? I doubt it. The feed turned into a nightmare of clutter. Not enough privacy/editing possibilities. I DID find some cool "friends" who thankfully are using Instagram, so I can follow them there.

If you want to follow just the Pose thread, click here.
(It will include part of my 365 Photo project posts, since I was originally using Pose for it)

Adios, Pose.

I Spy on Pose

Nothing has been happening in my Iama Spy Pose account. I think I need to start posting every day and follow more people. I wish there was a "search people" page... alas, no.

Today I posted these fantastic Jimmy Choo Shoes:

you can find them at Neiman Marcus

here fishy, fishy...

I think I figured out the feed situation. At least here, looks like it's all me, people I follow, or others that friends have hearted or made comments on (this is how the chaos happens, I bet!). I followed some more people one more person after I took this shot, maybe I'll return later today and see how it's changed...

[next morning]
I finally got something in my inbox...

An advert from the ubiquitous Mr Kate

Ugh. Mr Kate annoys me. She's probably a perfectly nice person but it's her profile picture. It really bugs me. I HATE the mustache thing. I don't GET the mustache thing.  (Steampunk, right?)
I guess that makes me an old person. That's OK, I'm old.


And then there's the issue that THIS IS AN AD! Spammy ads in our inboxes.
Fantastic [said with eye roll].

Iama Poser

setting my trap

I am a Spy = Iama Spy

Important: MOMS TAKE NOTE!
No age restrictions in Pose other than those imposed by Facebook. Easy enough to lie about one's age there. BUT at least on Facebook, one can control privacy settings. NO PRIVACY ON POSE. No way to block followers. This makes me UNCOMFORTABLE.

Spy Mission April 2012

SpyGirl Status Report

Hello, all my internet friends! I have several deadlines looming large...

An art exhibition that gets hung 4/22, opens 4/24, reception 4/28.
If you live in the Los Angeles area, the details are here on facebook
and here: annembray.com

I am working some of the art into repeat so that I can offer voile scarves in the prints... nothing completed on that yet... eeek! I promise myself to at least have the one above available. I want to wear it to the FABB West conference on 4/30! You'll be the first to get the shopping link when it happens.

The Threads and Surfaces Fashion Icon sketchbook is due to ArtHouse in Brooklyn on 4/30. Must get back to doing those portraits, I have 12 to finish. If I do one a day...
I'll be posting those here as I complete them.


TAXES!!!!!!


The fake wedding journal is on hiatus at present >sad face<.


Any OOTD posts will most likely go on Facebook for now so please go like SpyGirl to see what crazy combos I concoct next.

There are lots of things I want to write about but I must concentrate on the top four items above first. For instance, I've gone undercover on Pose just to see what happens. I'm also monitoring Pinterest with a high degree of paranoia.
SpyGirl is very busy -- "on the QT and very hush hush."

Later, my dears!

Proportion Play

Not so sure this works...
I know what you're going to say:
Anne, tuck in your shirt. 

Wow! I DO have a waistline!
Can you tell I'm holding my breath so my gut won't hang out?
Gotta stop that!

Reality?
Untucked and too hot in the office to need the jacket.

Here's a close-up of what I have attached to the pockets.
The bunny diaper pin is featured on my Pose today.
The sheriff pin is there too.
The others will appear on those mornings when I'm running late for work and realize:
OH! 365 photo - need to shoot 10 minutes ago!

The jacket was designed and sewn by Tony Young in 1987 as a Guess project at OTIS.

Happy Wednesday. It's my Friday in my work week. Woohoo! Working part-time is awesome.

This Worked Magic at the DMV

So I wore it again today!

It's true about the DMV. I went with no appointment and got out of there in UNDER a 1/2 hour. Didn't even have time to sketch! Just shot a couple of Instagrams and replied to an email. Convinced that wearing my new amulet helped...
I even devoted a 365 Photo to it:

from my Pose

Here's to the power of visibility!
See more on Not Dead Yet Style

365 project update

link to Pose post

If you're my contact on Facebook (personal, not SpyGirl page), Instagram, Twitter (@annembray) or Pose, you have been getting the daily feed of my 365 project: "365 Days of Jewelry" If not, and you were hoping to see it on Flickr, um, sorry about that -- I'm WAY behind on my Flickr uploading.

I just took a bunch of screenshots from Pose, thinking I'd do a big recap for the however many days [I'm not counting] I've been at it. I changed my mind -- it would make this post gigantic. Here are the most recent five days:

Some thoughts I have about Pose and my process on this project:

Pose:
The app is still very clunky. HATE that I can't delete misfires (see upper earring shot that I accidentally tagged as a "romper" and then accidentally hit the done button. I ran into a room with no phone coverage - not difficult at my house! - so that it wouldn't upload but it uploaded at work anyway. Grrrrr). Tagging items is difficult with my fat fingers and slow 3G phone service. Wish it was available for iPad. Uploads are not all in chronological order. I will carry on using it, despite all this. Maybe it'll improve during the course of the year...

iPhone photography:

I got a macro lens that I absolutely adore and that's very helpful for capturing tiny items and details on rings. I wish there was a lens for close-but-not-macro (and if you know of one, please share!). A lot of the bracelets and larger pins + earrings are out of focus. On work days, it's still dark in the morning, so the images have suffered from low contrast. Sometimes I process the images in the PS Express app though that sometimes backfires, making things too pixellated.

Aesthetics + process:
My jewelry styling is improving, it's been a good learning process. The best part of this, BY FAR, is going through my piles of jewelry and scarves! I've been cruising down memory lane big time -- I'm on the memory interstate! Most of my backgrounds are scarves, textiles or objects from the shops, locations or era of the jewelry piece. I see a whole bunch of blog posts fomenting. With the ethnic pieces, I've been trying to research their origins. I recently shot a necklace on a mudcloth textile, thinking they were both from Mali and then discovered that the necklace is from a tribe in northern Kenya. Oops! Scrap that one... here's the shot I won't use:

In summery, so far, so good.
I'll update you again in a month or so...

IFB: 365 pieces of jewelry

Do I have that many? I wonder...

I've been toying with the idea of doing a 365 (taking a photo every day) project and the gals over at IFB convinced me to take the plunge for their Project #29. I'm going to take a picture of a piece of my jewelry every day in 2012. I will use the Pose app [stopped using in March] and the posts will go to my Tumbler and my Twitter (@annembray) feeds. I'll do monthly summaries here.
[a few days later]
THE BEST LINK to this project is on
my Flickr 365 set, which has an RSS feed
[a month or so later]
way behind on updating Flickr
here is the public link for my Pose set for shots through March
[May update - so badly behind... Pose became horrible to use, I switched to Instagram. The Tumbler archive is probably the best place to go for now... Can I just go to a deserted island that has wi-fi so I can upload all my photos since February to Flickr????]

Here is the first one:

four African necklaces from ???
Pose link

To see more 365 project links, click here.
There is also an IFB-365 group on Flickr here

And now a word from the stylist:

"rawr"