I wore this for school on Monday! I remember a girl, who plays cello, walking behind me saying, "That cat is playing the cello on your shirt!" in utter wonderment!
The random ramblings of an eclectic eccentric who wends waywardly through a myriad of activities!
Thursday, November 06, 2025
Style Imitating Art Katzensymphonie
I wore this for school on Monday! I remember a girl, who plays cello, walking behind me saying, "That cat is playing the cello on your shirt!" in utter wonderment!
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Style Imitating Art- Karin at the Shore- Kezzie in the Garden
I have finally remembered to join in with Style Imitating Art. Salazar is this week's curator and she chose a beautiful watercolour:
| “Karin at the Shore” by Swedish artist Carl Larsson |
I wore the same dress for Style Imitating art July 13th 2020 for the Tingklit mask inspiration
I have a white frilly hat but it looked too costumey for this outfit so I wore my Grandad's Straw school boater.
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Style Imitating Art- Anne M Bray's Scrappy squares
I got out the habit of joining in with Style Imitating Art over the last few months which is sad as there have been some superb inspiration art pieces.
A wonderful new host has joined the SIA team- Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge. I have long admired Shelbee's Style Imitating Art posts where she shared detailed outfits and the inspiration behind them so I am super happy she's now going to be choosing the inspirations every 3rd turn.
She chose art by a fellow blogger and artist, Anne M Bray who decided to turn scrap fabrics into art rather than wasting them. They are called Scrappy squares and Shelbee has one named after her!
We were invited to choose one to inspire our outfit.
Shelbee's round up post was fab as she paired all 10 ladies with their chosen piece. So here's mine,
Monday, October 18, 2021
Style Imitating Art- Jazz Stories- 3 for the price of 1!
Evening there,
Hope you are well.
This evening, for Style Imitating Art, Daenel picked a brilliant piece of artwork, right up my street!
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| Inspiration piece: Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #1: Somebody Stole My Broken Heart by Faith Ringgold. |
Ah, isn't it brilliant! So bright and so many cool features! Plus, of course, it's all about music!!!
Here's my collage I sent to Daenel. Yes, I went for three outfits!
I'll talk you through my sartorial choices each in turn.Outfit no. 1 was based round this lightweight vintage blouse I picked up from Polly's Vintage at Battlesbridge antiques centre last Summer. The pattern reminded me of the stripy edge of the inspiration piece. Underneath, for warmth, I chose to wear a navy turtle neck (M&S) and trousers (Just Female)- the colours aren't quite on but I thought it could represent the blue suits of the men. My Clarks Originals red desert boots and bead necklace were a nod to all the red. This is what I wore to school today. Oh, and my red and blue Swatch watch was a nod to all the colours of the piece.
I wished I had donned one or two items of jewellery in my collection, two of which are pictured.
This Tatty Devine musical necklace would work well with the whole vibe, as would this musical brooch trio. I have a saxophone brooch which is attached to a corduroy blazer but it's hard to undo so I didn't bother and believe it or not, I have a blue drum pin badge which is almost identical to the one being played by the drummer. However, I couldn't find it!
Tuesday, October 05, 2021
Style Imitating Art - decoupage flowers
This week, our Style Imitating Art inspirations are the many flower collages and decoupages of 18th century Mary Delany. In her 70's, she started making paper cut outs of flowers and they are exquisite!
Here are two examples I picked out:
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Style Imitating Art - Dining Room in the Country by Pierre Bonnard, 1913
Monday, July 12, 2021
Style Imitating Art Outfit - Bow Sweater
This week, for Style Imitating Art, Salazar chose a piece of knitwear for the inspiration:
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| Elsa Schiaparelli’s sweater |
As soon as I saw this, it reminded me of a sweater from Joanie Clothing from a previous collection.
It also reminded me of the Cashmere sweater I wore on Christmas day.
| Joanie Clothing sweater image from https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/389702173990551686 |
I started with this black top with a crochet Peterpan collar from Peacocks which I think I've had since about 2010 for obvious reasons because of its black top with white collar link.
On my bottom half, I decided to add my Kew Broderie Anglaise skirt (£1 from the Clearance Charity shop warehouse) to stick to a mainly black outfit.
Because it wasn't the warmest day, I added a charity-shopped Peacocks cardigan
Monday, June 28, 2021
Style Imitating Art outfit: Booky Summer reading
Hello there!
Hope you are well!
Today is a quick post for Style Imitating Art.
Terri is today's curator and she chose this wonderful painting which her daughter owns.
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| “Booky-Summer reading led her into fall darkness” by Patty Carroll, which is part of her Anonymous Women series. |
I love this painting! It's so clever and there's so much to look at in it! I love the chaos and I could probably recreate this in my own home- I'm a bit messy and I own lots of books. My dining room looks a bit like this with the table full of books, craft stuff and instruments. Need to clean it by Friday as CBC has his work colleagues round on Friday night. Sigh. Like last year but this time 2 colleagues who I like are not invited.
Anyway, I am usually a stickler for the colours in a Style Imitating Art post but this time, I just decided to go with my first inclination which was to WEAR MY BOOK DRESS!!
As well as my Cross necklace (handmade by Annie Scales Silver), I snuck a little quote pin from Fable and Black.
I'll write a bit more soon but head over to Terri on Wednesday to see how everyone else interpreted it.
xx
Monday, May 17, 2021
Style Imitating Art- Simultaneous Dresses- Three Women
Hello there,
Today, I thought I'd join with Style Imitating Art after missing it for a couple of weeks.
The curator this time was Terri at Meadowtree Style and she chose the following painting:
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| Sonia Delaney's Simultaneous Dresses (Three Women, Forms, Colours) Painted 1925 |
Usually, according to Terri, her style is bright coloured, abstract, concentric circles but this painting is a little different from her usual style and nods to her other creative outlets, costume desining for Ballet, Stage and Films also.
There's some great strong colours and patterns in this painting and I could see lots of ideas to go with but today, I decided to focus on the main 3 women in the picture, rather than the background:
My first one nods to the lady on the left. Her main colours are blue and white. I started with this Phase Eight Chevron skirt (CS Harp Southend) since the model is wearing triangular shapes. Karen Millen blouse (CS Scope Hexham). I DID want to find a pale pink top in my wardrobe to reflect her very pink skin, but I'm not sure I still have such an item that would work so instead. My Florentine-bought blue boots completed the look (not charity shopped). I kept the accessories simple- just my bee necklace which bears no relevance to the outfit.
If you think you could put an outfit together based on this painting, let Terri know by tomorrow night (Tuesday)
Here are the details from her on what to do:
Send me your picture of your SIA inspired outfit along with a small blurb on how you were inspired to meadowtreestyle@gmail.com May 18th. I’ll share the submissions on my blog on Wednesday May 19th.
Anyone can participate and you certainly do not have to have a blog.
If you do share your inspirations on Instagram use the hashtag #StyleImitatingArt so we know you are there. You can also tag us in the images. Our Instagram names are: terrigardner_meadowtree, daenelt and 14shadesofgrey.
Even if you DON'T participate, let me know what you WOULD wear in the comments, if you had time to join in!
xxx
Wednesday, April 07, 2021
Style Imitating Art - Nick Cave's Sound suit
Two outfit posts in a row! Today's post is my interpretation of our latest Style Imitating Art look. Very annoyed that my draft post has disappeared from this- was not expecting that so I have to type it again.
Thanks for all your supportive comments yesterday. I didn't have a great night's sleep- had a headache and was very hot and achy but feeling somewhat improved today- all the more so after managing to get back to sleep at around 4.30am after coming downstairs to take some paracetamol and then eventually managing to get back to sleep. I then had a lazy morning and then a walk which helped.
I made a large batch of Nettle soup for dinner tonight (and for 2 other meals at least) after collecting nettles in the church yard after my walk. I stirred in the last of the wild garlic which acted like a spinach- it was wonderful!
Onto the main event.
Terri chose this sculpture by Nick Cave which is one of his wearable sculptures called Soundsuits. You can read more about them in the link above. I like them because the materials make sound effects as well as looking most intriguing!
Monday, March 22, 2021
Style Imitating Art- Woman who flatly refuses a coffee pot!
Daenel chose Paul Cezanne's Woman With a Coffee Pot for this week's inspiration piece for Style Imitating Art.
The premise of this challenge, if you have not ever seen a post from me about it before, is that one of our 3 curators chooses a piece of art and posts it. We, the blog readers can then submit an outfit to them that we feel reflects some aspect of the painting of is our sartorial response to it, no matter how tenuous. For me, I always like to hear the person's choices of why they chose garments- that's what I find the most interesting so I love reading posts where people write about their decisions. There's no wrong or right answer and flatlays and pet outfits are also accepted, props are optional. If you think this is something you'd find fun, then pop an email to Daenel at livingoutsidethestacks@gmail.com by Tuesday night and then visit Daenel's blog on Wednesday to see the round up of everyone's outfits.
I knew that I had two outfits that I would do for this picture and I would go down the more literal route than abstract.
On the subject of coffee, from my nomenclature of this post, you can perhaps hypothesize that I am none too fond of this popular beverage. Funnily enough though, I ended up talking to my Year 6 children about coffee today as we were listening to J.S. Bach's Hunt Cantata and whilst I was explaining what a cantata is* and talking about Bach and what the subject of some of his cantatas were, I told them that he loved coffee so he wrote a cantata about it. Here's a link to the lyrics translated from German. Do have a look as they are really funny! It's all about a coffee addiction! Here's an aria from the cantata below sung by the coffee addict! Do listen as it is beautiful!
Monday, March 08, 2021
Style Imitating Art- Woman with Dog
Style Imitating Art this week is hosted by Salazar and she chose Pierre Bonard's "Woman with a Dog" for our inspiration:
Monday, February 08, 2021
Style Imitating Art- The Counting Lesson by Albert Huie
Hi there,
Here's my latest outfit for Style Imitating Art with Daenel.
Her choice this week was The Counting Lesson by Albert Huie
February is Black History Month, so, it only seems fitting that the first inspiration piece is by a Black artist. One of the founding tutors of the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts, Albert Huie was a Jamaican artist who exhibited around Jamaica and the United States. As a painter, he was known for his landscapes, but often painted portraits as well. Influenced by Rastafarianism, Garvyism, and cultural nationalism, many of his paintings expressed sociopolitical themes and showed images of manual labor. To learn more about Huie, click here.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Style imitating art meets Style Imitating Sheila (sort of!)
Hello there,
Welcome to another edition of Style Imitating Art. Salazar is the host of this week's challenge:
It features this wonderful art work:
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| The Nebra sky disk, a disk from the Bronze Age (or possibly the Iron Age) found in the town of Nebra, Germany, which features the oldest depiction of the cosmos in the world. |
As soon as I saw this piece, I knew exactly what I'd wear:
I decided to start with my Sheila skirt.
I call it that because Sheila has the most wonderful opulent, flamboyant wardrobe with gorgeous textures, colours and garments. When I saw this wonderful metallic skirt in Oxfam before Christmas, the day before I had to go into isolation, I instantly thought of Sheila and thought it was the perfect Christmas skirt- indeed, I wore it on Christmas day. It's super swishy, wide with loads of material and it has wire in the hem so it curls and bobs beautifully!
Next, I added my dark teal cowl neck jumper from M&S to mimic the background colour of the disk.

























