Animal Prints and inspiration from another

J's Everyday Fashion  inspired me with the colors she chose and the addition of the animal print shoes. I thought wait a minute I have animal print shoes a sweater that color and a jacket that green. I also have pants the color of her jacket. So I swapped out the pants color for the jacket color in my outfit. I added animal print hat, shoes and purse.
(Isn't J a beautiful young woman. Yes I don't think I would wear my version in public because of fit issues,my pants and sweater are too tight but I'm having fun with it;)

snake skin purse from Nigeria

Calf skin with animal print

The the animal in the print so it is animal print!

So I was inspired to come up with my own combination. I love the hat because I had a dog that looked like the one in the print. Did I ever mention that I lived in Nigeria? Well that is another story maybe I'll do a post on it someday.

undertones in neutrals/another jacket look 30/30 challenge

 Undertones are so important so even though neutrals should all go together they don't.
 In my closet and in the lighting of my bedroom these two items looked like I could wear them together:the jacket and the pants.They are both brown fabric. But in the lighting of the flash do you see how the two browns don't go together?
The jacket and scarf are both browns with golden undertones. The pants are a brown with a pinky beige undertone.

I think design wise the pants and the jacket work well together but the colors were so off I had to change into a warm brown pair of pants I own.
If you want to read more about undertones of color I suggest you look at Maria Killiam design website really good information.

Expectations and dissapointments:one can lead to the other

Do people in your life disappoint your? Or are your expectations leading to your disappointments?
I had this discussion with my mother. She was feeling disappointed about many things and well I thought she was this disappointed because she has lots of expectations. 
I reflected on my own expectations and discovered that I don't have many at all of the people in my family or my friends. Maybe this is why I end up doing things mostly by myself. Maybe this is why I am happier than my mother. Or maybe this is why I have no outfit pictures. I couldn't get anyone in my family to take any outfit pictures for me the past two days. Is it expecting too much for my family to take my outfit pictures for me daily or every other day? Maybe I need a remote for my camera or a new camera that comes with a remote. I have tried the timer thingy on my camera but it is way too frustrating to use anymore. Oh well I will solve this problem but I was wondering if other people have trouble with their expectations and resultant disappointment?

I digress from my 30-30 challenge to feature another sewing project

vogue 8713

arm blingage

top stitching

side front drape

Vogue 8713

I thought it would be fun to make up something quick using Linen in various colors. I love this vest am not sure it is a very flattering style on me but it is my attempt to create something different than I would usually wear. 
This pattern went together so smoothly I am thinking of making the other version of it on the pattern. I am thinking of wearing this over jeans and a t-shirt in the summer.. 
I top stitched using the 'feather-stitch'. At first I matched the color of the thread in places to the fabric but that didn't show up, then  Idid the brown top stitching on the gold fabric and the gold top stitching on the brown fabric in the back. (you get the idea)

Lateral thinking versus linear thinking and the creative process

Lateral thinking versus linear thinking.
If Linear Thinking is nose-down, get it done, then Lateral Thinking is taking a step back to look at the Big Picture.  To paraphrase a famous Chinese poem, Linear Thinking sees trees and Lateral Thinking sees the forest.Ever wonder what inspires people.  I like to create, the process, the planning the execution and trying to make the elements of the project do what I want them to. Solving problems in the creation process is fun too. 
If I end up with what I tried to create, well that is icing on the cake.
I tend to have multiple projects going on at once. They often can influence each other. For instance I have some beautiful small pieces of wood that have been finished into geometric shapes. Originally I just strung them on a chain to have a necklace. Now I'm thinking of linking them with leather to make a hat band.


Hats hats hats currently I'm working on some Fedora style hats in panama straw. I was hung up on how I wanted to finish the brims, what size brims to make etc. Well I decided to keep the brims larger and to simply bind the edges with Petersham and make the head bands classic Petersham bow or tie. Sometimes doing less on a hat is more. The texture of the straw and the colors are enough I don't need any fancy hat band or trim.
So you can see that my thinking style isnt necessarily linear or lateral but perhaps horizontal. I jump back an forth from projects. When I get stuck on one project I change direction and work on another only to come back to the original project usually with a new solution. How do you create what is your thinking process?  And while I ponder all of this you can see me on Not Dead Yet Style 





 

Day six for the 30-30 challenge

 Oops my slip is showing. Do people still wear slips? I do it makes the knit fabrics skim my body better. Today I wore a animal print blouse underneath my brown knit dress. I like the pattern with the jacket. I added purple shoes because the blouse has touches of purple in the animal print. Even though you can't see them in these pictures my earrings are purple stones on gold as well. This is a basic outfit nothing special just another way to wear a dress with a jacket.

Day Five, 30-30 challenge Brown with orange

 I have a cold boo hoo hoo!! I hate having colds. I don't get them that often but when I do I look like ... NOT GOOD. 
But I have to keep my challenge going so here is my jacket with an orange sweater underneath and my golden khaki jeans tucked into my boots because of all the slush outside. I had to go to the store to get some soup and cold medication. The blouse which is under the sweater has a quasi-animal print which obviously the hat has as well.

I am not smiling in this picture because I just don't feel like it. I didn't want anyone out there in blog land to think I am some sort of superhuman that smiles no matter how they feel.