Weekend Wrap-Up: Brunch Adidas; Peacock Jacket Sleeves

Welcome back, my friends! I hope you all had a safe, healthy and chill weekend. We've been basically watching football and playing boardgames, but we did do our usual Saturday brunch with Nick. 

I wanted to build a winter outfit with my new-to-me Adidas tulle skirt...so I did! 

• Cardigan - Kenzo, consignment; last worn here (4th outfit) in February 2021 for a Zoom chat with Greetje!
• Turtleneck - M&S, thrifted; last seen here in October 2021 with neoprenes
• Skirt - Adidas, consignment; purchased here for $29.00
• Shoes - Hispanitas; last worn here (2nd outfit) in January 2021 with mixed patterns
• Coat (below) - L'Atiste, consignment, Vancouver; last seen here in November 2021

I seem to have started this year off in a mental funk - I don't have much enthusiasm for anything. Wearing black doesn't really help, but overall this outfit did make me feel better. 

Part of it was this very fun skirt. I wore thick sweater tights with it, along with my spring/summer petitpants (a wee nod to when we wore bike shorts in the 90s under our dresses!) to keep it all decent. 

My cardigan is also longer in the back, so my bum is covered. 

If you look closely, you can see the pink sweater peeking through the knit around the shoulders. This cardi is by Kenzo (a classy designer!) and I chose it because of the white stripes and detail around the flipped over sleeves (it says "Kenzo Paris"). 

Hark, 'tis the sound of Vlad the Jag revving his engine. The snow had melted enough that we could drive again! 

The staff at the Ruby were agog over my striped skirt. I will likely put it into my spring/summer wardrobe as I already have a (much floofier) black tulle skirt (this one). I like having seasonal versions of the same thing. 

Although I look very "be still, my heart" here, I'm actually showing off my rings. 

This is the face of me with only one cup of coffee. 

Which matches my general sentiment so far this year: F#@!

Outerwear and mask. 

My glove did not like going on over the spiky rings. 

Ah well, don't care. 

Let's go have brunch. 

Accoutrements: 

I didn't really need the beret - there was no line-up at the Ruby! 

• Beret - Club Monaco, thrifted
• Gloves - consignment
• Mask - by Mom

The stuff: 

I was shocked that I haven't worn these shoes in a year! They are one of my favourite pairs - top 20, at least. 

F#@! bling:

These rings injected some much-needed badassery into my attitude. 

• Swear rings - Wendy Brandes
• Earrings - gift from Petra
• Silver/onyx ring - Toccara, vintage fair

Art Project: Peacock Jacket, Sleeves

I haven't been working on my art project(s) as much as I've wanted lately, but I squeezed in a few sessions here and there and have finally finished the sleeves.

Here's where we last left off, with the back finished and all the gold accents done:

I've noticed that the colours fade over time (much like a real tattoo!). 

I finished one sleeve a few weeks ago. I do one, then the other and mirror them, although I always mess a few things up. Eh, no one will notice that I didn't mirror the roses exactly. 

Two roses, two peacock feathers (copying the design from the back), and "loops" of the filigree design down the upper arm. 

Darkening up the black sections and adding shading. This part takes the longest. 

The intent of the big loop hanging down is to mimic the look of a chain, like on a biker or punk jacket. 

It gives it a "tough" edge, to counter all this fussy detail. 

Cuffs:

None of it is perfect, and I didn't do any design on the inner arm, where the jacket would rub next to the body. 

Adding colour and "halo" shading. 

When I finished doing this, I felt it still looked a little bit bare - there's too much "white" space in the upper arm area. 

So I added some curlicues, leaves and dots to the design. 

Drawing on a jacket - since it's a 3-dimensional object - means I handle it a lot. As I'm doing colour or shading, it's turned and twisted around and around. 

Unfortunately, this meant that a lot of the gold I'd done on the back rubbed off. 

The red arrow shows a section that I redid in gold - you can see how much the other areas (green arrows) have faded/rubbed off due to my vigorous manipulations. 

Because of this, I will be adding all of the gold and redoing the back gold sections when I'm completely finished the jacket. 

So although I'm "done" the sleeves, they won't be fully done until the jacket is finished. 

I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do on the front. 

But you can see what a difference the sleeves make. Both took about 5-6 hours to do in total. 

Extra bonus pics! 

This is a terra cotta pig statue that I've had since about 1986 (I would have been around 18-19 years old). I paid $10 for him back then from a local shop, and I bought this one for me, and a skinnier version for my best friend Lynette. 

I put him in the TV unit with an LED candle. I like that it looks like he's telling a campfire story, you know, a scary one involving a call coming from inside the house. Scary pig! 

On Sunday morning, we found Vizzini had claimed my Monster Vest as his own. I wear it around the house to regulate my temperatures, and had tossed it onto the gold chair the previous evening during a hot flash. 

"I accept this offering."

Vizzini, I need that back, bud. 

And now...off to enjoy the rest of my weekend! 

Stay cool, my friends.