Welcome back, my friends! It's been a lovely chill weekend for me, with our usual brunch (and a wee shop at Dots) and board games - and I've started a new Art Project (and created a new page!). Grab yourself a cup of something warm and comforting, and join me, won't you?
After an evening of games (Dominion, a very fun deck-building card game) and music, L and I slept in a bit on Saturday morning, before we met up with Nick at the Ruby for brunch. It had dipped down to single digits overnight, and although it was sunny, I wasn't fooled.
I'm nice and cozy warm in my wool snaky-print sweater dress and fleece-lined tights.
- Dress - Opening Ceremony, thrifted; first worn here for New Year's Eve in December 2020
- Boots - Truths Teah, Fluevog; last seen here in January with all the pinks and purples
- Coat (below) - Rodarte for Opening Ceremony, consignment; last seen and Flashbacked here in March
Isn't the dress cool? The pattern is all knitted in, not printed, in shades of turquoise, dark green and black.
I found it at the Patch last December for $22.95 - such a steal for a high-end brand.
It's a snug fit, but I'm feeling good about my shape.
Masked up - totally matchy.
After brunch, we strolled over to Fort Street - L and Nick went to Ditch to browse and I had a poke through Dots to see if there was any good real leather (there was, but it's too pricey for me right now, so I'm stalking it).
The early sunshine called for shades.
I felt so mysterious!
Both the dress and the coat are by Opening Ceremony - double Ceremony! - although the coat is actually
Rodarte for Opening Ceremony.
My Ringmaster coat is one of my favourites - the top part is faux Persian lamb and the bottom is wool.
Don't you love my tails?
I'm too cool for this town.
L and I got groceries on the way home, then napped in the afternoon.
Accoutrements and coffee:
That's my second cup, for being nice to other people (the first cup is so that I'm nice to L).
- Gloves - Danier
- Mask - by Mom
The stuff:
These are magnificent steampunk boots. Super comfy too.
Black bling:
I enjoyed rattling off details of my bling to our server at the Ruby. She was stunned that my snake ring is so old.
- Studded cuff - c. 1998
- Lucite/crystal bangle - Alexis Bittar, consignment, Sidney
- Silver snake ring - BC Museum Gift Shop, c. 1986
- Silver/onyx ring - Toccara, vintage fair
- Earrings - Mom's, Fiji
I tried a few things on at Dots, but nothing rung my bell. I was waffling over this skirt when L came in.
"Buy it," he said, and so I did.
I love the 3D texture of the two-sided sequins. One side is orange/gold and the other is blue/teal.
It's like the sparling skies at night.
It's by Culture, and retailed for $90.00.
It was an extra 10% off so $26.99.
New Page - My Art Projects
I've created a new page at the top of the blog for
My Art Projects (link
here), so that I can find them all at a glance and refer to them (or show them to people). There are links back to final reveals (which usually have detail links embedded). Just makin' it easier to see everything when it's all in one place!
Art Project - Peacock Jacket
I spotted this baby blue leather jacket in my closet the other day, and the light bulb went off - this is a really challenging colour of jacket to style and it doesn't hugely inspire me anyway. So...why not illustrate it?
I bought it
here at the WIN Warehouse store in December 2020 for a whopping $9.95 - I don't think they realized it was leather.
I think it's from the early 00s.
I've worn it three times:
here with a silver skirt,
here with some mixed patterns and
here on a Mom-Adventure as outerwear.
There's lots of space to get creative!
I thought for a while about what I wanted to do on it, and decided on a peacock to go with the baby blue.
It's not so much about doing something different every time, but I do like a balance of new and the old standards. I'll be repeating elements I've done before, but changing up and learning some new things. It's good to experiment, and the main thing for me is the creative focus and mental health benefits. So I'm taking the pressure off myself. No need to reinvent the wheel, but it's also good to add new skills and designs to my "art toolbox."
I poked around online found some henna-inspired designs that I really liked, including a peacock design that seemed doable. I try not to "borrow" any original artwork - these images were all over the web.
I tested my pens and markers inside the jacket where they won't be seen. Clockwise from the two greens on the left: two pinks and lavender (barely visible), pink over the black (testing if it rubs off the black - yes, it does, arg, good to know early), two reds and dark purple.
Looks like it's going to be the Staedtler black marker and the Tombow alcohol-based markers again, as everything else rubbed off. I will be stopping by Island Blue Art Supplies tomorrow on the way home to pick up some blues and teals. I'm getting quite the collection of pens.
Luckily, one of my water-based Staedtler markers worked as a "pencil" again, allowing me to sketch out the basic shapes.
I started with the back. The jacket doesn't look very blue here, but I was working indoors after dark.
"This is the scary part," I said to L, as I started putting permanent ink on it. Deep breath, here we go!
I decided to do some of my regular roses - but I haven't decided what colour(s) to do them yet. If the peacock is going to be all greens and blues and teals, what colour would YOU do the roses? Keep in mind the jacket is baby blue - not all colours will show up properly. You can get an idea of the pinks, purples and reds from the test picture above.
Once I had the first lines on, I wiped off the water-based ink "pencil" lines with a damp paper towel.
Then I added detail on all the feathers. This is much more Zentangle-inspired than previous pieces I've done.
I love the way the tail feathers look. They were not as difficult as I expected once I broke down how to do them.
And then I started darkening up the lines and giving them that tattoo look.
I stopped here - this was about 2 hours of work from the beginning.
I did little bits here and there in the evening, as we paused during our boardgames.
I also plan to add more elaborate gold accents to this piece and will be changing up the buttons to make it more special - I don't want it to be a duplicate of the Snake Jacket.
So...exciting! Thank you so all so much for your wonderful comments on the Tammy Jacket - it really does mean a lot to me to share these with y'all.
And now, I'm off to finish enjoying my weekend!
I always layer a top under it, but I've never worn it with this stripey one. 
Oh yeah, that pandemic thing. We're being warned to not see too many people and be too physically close over the holidays...sounds ominous. 78% of my province is fully-vaccinated, and boosters are being rolled out (Mom's booked!). I'll likely get mine in February. 
Soft and warm. 
I took one of my shoes off to show to my colleague - see the angels on the heels? 
This is most of my amber collection and a chunk of my Brutalist pieces. 
