Weekend Wrap-Up: PANK Brunch and Vote; Snake Jacket Sleeves Part I

Welcome back, my friends! I hope you've had a chill weekend. The grey weather, including rain, has rolled in here, and I welcome the cooler temps. We didn't have enough people for an Ultimate Frisbee game this week, so L and I had brunch together instead. 

Time to break out some boots! 

And I'm also getting in a wearing of this awesome black and cream skirt, first time this season. 

• Wool jacket - Gap, consignment, Vancouver; last worn here in July over a blue jammy dress
• Top - INC, thrifted; last seen here in August under my optic cardigan
• Skirt - All Saints, pass-along from Dominique; last worn here in September 2020 (Flashback there too)
• Boots - BCBG Max Azria; last seen here (2nd outfit) for brunch in June

I have never worn this moto jacket with it - that feels like an oversight.

Although this is only my 6th wearing of this (free!) pouffy skirt, so I'm not too miffed about it. 

Isn't the jacket a glorious colour? 

En route to food, L and I stopped at the local middle school and voted in the advance polls for our upcoming federal election (if you don't vote, you can't complain about politics!), and I had a nice chat with the volunteer there who admired my ensemble. She was wearing bright pink too, so we had a PANK moment (it's pink so bright, it's PANK, right?). 

We drove out to Floyd's Diner for brunch, for a little nostalgia (yum, the 420 Benny is my fave), and to let Vlad the Jag enjoy the highway. 

I had a hot flash while eating, and took my jacket off. 

Above is my pre-coffee face. 

Yay, I've had coffee now! 

Zipped up - this jacket has always been a titch snug (it's an XS), but I don't mind. 

After brunch, we drove to town for a couple of quick errands, and I had oodles of comments on both my hair ("It's totally natural!") and my outfit ("Every day is a good time to dress up!").

Despite the grey, I went incognito with my shades. 

And road-tested my new-to-me purple purse. 

• Purse - Danier Leather, thrifted; purchased here for $24.95

The bag was excellent. 

That umbrella, not so much. The handle has gone goopy (gross and sticky) and one of the spines has busted. I've asked the Birthday Gods to bring me a new one. 

• Mask - by Mom
• Umbrella - Cheeky

The stuff: 

I love the OTK (over-the-knee) boots + short skirt combination - it makes minis much more wearable, especially with hosiery. I had microfishnet nylons on, plus a mini half-slip under my skirt. These boots are leather on the front and stretchy fabric on the back, so they are a perfect fit over my muscular calves. 

Badass bling:

Tough stuff.

• Belt - gift from Ruth
• Brooch - thrifted
• Silver/onyx ring - Toccara, vintage fair
• Silver/crystal ring - Soul Flower
• Silver earrings - Israel, consignment

After brunch, I sat on the deck as the rain pattered down on the glass roof, with music playing and L reading/being a nap station for Vizzini, and started a new section on my Snake Jacket Art Project (I finished the back section here last weekend, if you missed it). 

Snake Jacket Art Project: Sleeves, Part I

I followed the same process as I did with the back panel - once you have a routine that works, stick to it! I have my inspiration picture ready, and started with the left sleeve, since the sideways skull is facing towards the front of the jacket. I will have to flip that picture and reprint it for the other sleeve. 

I used a non-permanent grey marker to map out the position of both skulls and drew in big circles for where the roses will go. 

I did very thin lines for the basic skull shapes, leaving some lines open, then erased the sketchy grey outlines with a damp paper towel.

Some roses are in front of the skulls, some behind, so I have to take the overlapping sections slowly. All of this is freehand and I can't erase it from here. 

Filling in more lines - you can see on the upper right forehead of the top skull that I made it too big and bulgy, so I just drew the rose over that line. 

"There are no mistakes." That line will not even be noticeable by the time it's coloured. 

This is a much smaller area than the back, so after about four hours, I've gotten all the lines in and done the shading on the skulls. 

No need to reinvent the wheel here - now that I do roses and leaves like this, all of them will look the same. 

And finally, I added dark lines for shading, firmed up the outlines of the skulls, and added the pointy edges to the leaves. 

It's ready to colour! So exciting! Now that NFL Football season has started, I'll be working on this while I watch games. 

L and I played boardgames on Saturday night while Vizzini kept us company.

"Hmm? I'm just sleeping off a catnip bender, Woman."

He was all wired up, attacking his mousie. And then he went floppy.

I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend full of good times, my friends!