Sketching the Simply Stylist Event at the Grove

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As a fashion blogger member of Two Point Oh LA, Simply Stylist gave me a *free ticket to an afternoon of pampering in the park at The Grove. I'll show you the makeovers that Kristen of  Blushington and Calvin of Román Salon gave me later -- right now, I want to share my sketches:

[never mind that 4.7 earthquake that just happened in Westwood near the Getty]

Calvin Louis, Román Salon

Dexter Cobb

Lilly

Mary Lina wearing Mustard Cartel

Will I ever get these digitally painted? I sure hope so!
I was a little bit better at approaching people after I sketched them, but didn't catch everyone.
Let me know if you recognize anyone! (I'll be checking IG, FB, and Twitter when I have time and update).

The Story of Bola de Nieve

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Bola de Nieve was a cute piñata that unfortunately crossed paths with the Two Point Oh! LA witches bloggers group.
It was time for the 4th annual Snowball, and Kelsi devised a clever method of distributing the gifts.

Chapter I

Our protagonist, Bola de Nieve

The coven gals dance in a circle while Bola de Nieve watches

Strung up

Oh noooooooo

Decapitated!

Suffering indignities courtesy of Erik and Andy

Trophy head and broken bat

 Chapter II

Strung up a second time, headless

Meet Stephanie and Scott, Snowball Prom Queen and King
(Stephanie designed and sewed her gown, btw)

Stephanie wields her stick

Scott winds up for the coup de grâce

RIP Bola de Nieve!

The witches bloggers scramble for treasure

Only candy remains

The dancing continues, with Bola de Nieve left in a ragged heap

There were Rules

Here's what I snagged:

*c/o Neutrogena Shine Control Primer

Those witches girls were fast at grabbing the goodies! My item was seriously trampled upon.

Linked with:

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.
Most images with a URL can be linked. Facebook (make your photo public!), Instagram (use Webstagram -- won't work directly from IG) Photobucket, maybe even Google+ (no).

Gina, Goddess of Fruit

It's fruit week here at SpyGirl HQ.
Meet Gina, who worked the Two Point Oh 4th Picnic last month wearing a fun fruit headpiece:

Gina blogs at G McFinch

Have you worn any fruit on your head this week? Do share!

The 4th Annual Two Point Oh! LA Blogger Picnic

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LA's premier fashion, beauty and style blogging group, Two Point Oh! LA (TPOLA), hosted it's 4th Annual Picnic poolside at
Isis Living in Glendale.

Kelsi Smith, founder of TPOLA, really outdid herself this year. There was a burger/taco bar, sundae and dessert stations and some wicked mixed drinks!
[Sorry, yet another reporting fail -- no photos. I don't think you want to see my melted sundae, do you? Really?]
Lulu's, Sole Society, and Chilli Beans all had setups adjacent to the pool.
There was also a special private gifting suite/patio upstairs:

Everyone loved the patio's groovy retro swing chairs! So good for posing!

Jacqueline of TGIF Guide

Laurie of LaurieBstyle

I already discussed the great *totes from Thursday Friday that we were given to hold our collections of goodies.
Here's an summary of what I snagged:

clockwise from 11:00 inside the bag:

*Neutrogena Shine Control Primer
*Clean & Clear Morning Burst cleanser
*Glytone Rejuvenate facial cream
*Stur water enhancer [taking that to work!]
*Capwell necklace
*set of Pati Dubroff  lip balm crayons
*lipsticks and eye powder from Jouer

I will go into greater detail about the items as I use them.

Mostly, I hung out with Marla of Marlita on the Run and Roni:

cute couple alert!

And, of course, I sketched:

What came to mind, as I thought about the event, was the difference in my sketching this year compared to last.

2012 on the iPad, 2013 starts out analog

Kelsi last year on my iPad

This year, I set myself the challenge to improve my fashion sketching and to work out a method for "on the fly" live sketching. I have figured out that I'm most comfortable sketching with a brush marker on paper and then coloring the drawing in Photoshop. Color/print reference I get with photos -- my own or Instagram/Twitter feeds. Hashtags such as #tpola4thpicnic make it super easy to get intel!

this year's Kelsi

I'll be "painting" the rest of my sketches this week.
Keep an eye on my Twitter feed, where I'll post when I upload them to SpyGirl's Society6 page. 

A big THANK YOU to Kelsi, all the staff at TPOLA, and all the generous gifters for a really fun event!

52 Pick-me-up: Feet First

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It's Wednesday, time for a new 52 Pick-me-up theme for the week:
"Choose your shoes first. Then get dressed."

Behold the Sven "torture" clogs, my starting point.

They look so innocent, with their sweet ditsy print, right?
They're still too tight across my metatarsals!
I'll be working on stretching them this week.

I utilized my new print matching system from Florals Week, with the addition of black into the palette:

Severo pointed out that my cute new *tote from Thursday Friday (carrying my emergency change of shoes) matched my ensemble. This was a gift I picked up last Sunday at the Two Point Oh! LA 4th Annual Picnic.  It held all my free loot from the gifting suite (which I'll elaborate upon later). This is as close as I'll ever get to an "it" bag -- not being one obsessed with designer bags.

a look inside -- fully lined, very nice

If you like the concept (a fancy bag printed onto a canvas tote), click on over to Thursday Friday.
They are offering a 40% discount to my readers. Use the code: TWOPOINTOH!

OK, back to shoes. Are you dressing Feet First this week?

Quick Draw at the Blogger Picnic

This is Tosha, of Bambi's Armoire.
She left the park before I finished the sketch or got her info.
Through the power of Twitter + Instagram (and her friend Sheryl of Walk in Wonderland),
I tracked her down and applied the finishing touches to the sketch.

Kelsi, of Dedicated Follower of Fashion, and Two Point Oh LA hosted the picnic.
She wore such a cunning (as my grandmother would have said) dress -- it had cupcakes on it!

These are my two Quick Draw sketches from Sunday's blogger picnic. I decided to try something new -- drawing on my iPad using the Brushes App. I want to get proficient with this so that I can do some decent sketches during my upcoming trip to the east coast in August. Last year I only had my iPhone, which resulted in minimalistic landscapes such as this one. I've returned to Danny Gregory's Every Day Matters drawing Challenge (the impetus for my first blog in 2008) to practice and improve my drawing skills. Drawing with one's finger vs a pen sure makes for some crude line work! (I also had a old school sketchbook, which I still find the best for fast sketching).

I've never been very good at drawing fashion figures from scratch and always used a croquis template when I was in school through to my Barbie designer days. On the iPad, Brushes has layers like Photoshop so I uploaded a figure that I offer my digital design students.

It's not my own figure and I didn't like using it as a template. Time to revise!