I Heart Samurai!

When I was a kid, I was big into Barbie dolls (as well as non-Barbie brand dolls). I had two "regular" Barbies, one shorter one and two really small scale ones. The middle one was my favourite; she was part of a set that was a band, and she had a black afro (she was Afro-American) and flat feet. Her outfit was a turquoise long-sleeved t-shirt, tie-dye pants, and orange go-go boots. I remember my mom buying her for me at K-Mart. I sold all of my Barbies in a garage sale with all of their clothes for $10 in the early 80s.

Why the reminiscing over my Barbies? Because today's outfit reminded me of one of the outfits I had. Mom made a lot of their outfits (I myself crochet a killer dress!), but a very few were store-bought. The one that popped into my head was an orange and purple ensemble of a top and short-shorts with big orange feet on the front. 

And today, orange and purple:

The t-shirt is new-to-me, picked up at a thrift store for $5.00, and it's layered over one of my many long-sleeved tees. The skirt is also new-to-me.

Insert extremely awkward pose here:

I'm attempting to show both the back of the skirt and my combat boots. Pose fail! I just wore those boots last Friday, but today they are worn with the top and tongue up. There's a better picture further down, don't worry.

The skirt is a straight cut, as opposed to the wider A-line of my other denim maxi skirt. I think I am pretty much maxed out on denim skirts now, though - this makes 5!

My outerwear:

It was pretty frigid out this morning, but I wanted to wear my leather jacket. I've totally gotten my money's worth out of this jacket - I bought it in a corporate online auction at my last job, about 4 years ago, for $75. I'm pretty sure I've worn it over 50 times. And you can barely see the stamped corporate logo on the arm!

As promised, a better picture.

Vizzini is doing well, thank you for asking. He's limping a bit, but otherwise chipper. I love those boots.

I was so excited to find this t-shirt:

My Clockwork Orange shirt is the same brand - Threadless makes cool shirts! This one is called "No More Bento!" and is by Mikael Leger. Apparently, this design was released in 2006 and no one liked the orange! Crazy! Orange is the best.

Here's a shot of the awesomeness of the samurai!

According to Kendo experts in Threadless' forums, this image should be flipped so that the hands are positioned properly. Either way, I like it and I like samurai. "Ghost Dog, the Way of the Samurai" is one of my favourite movies.

Here's a look at my skirt's waistband:

The waist is deliberately frayed. The skirt was around $17.00 and is by Mavi (a jeans brand I've actually heard of). It's super soft and was awesome to wear!

I did silver accessories:

I heart all of this!

T-shirt (Threadless, thrifted), long-sleeved tee (Press), skirt (Mavi, consignment), boots (Penny Loves Kenny), necklace (consignment), cuff (St. Paul's Cathedral gift shop).


For the anonymous commenter who asked if I still paint figures, yes, I do! For those of you who think my only artistic outlet is fashion, this is another hobby of mine. My output has slowed down quite a lot over the past few years - I used to paint about a figure every two weeks or even more frequently. I've been working on a large diorama piece for over a year, and it definitely bogged me down. I also have two smaller pieces that are half-painted right now that I should really finish. I'm hoping to get back into it once football season is over. For now, here are some of my painted figures that I've showcased on Ephemera (warning, my Christmas village is the first post - skip it if you're offended by hookers, vampires and battle nuns).