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 knew that I had a great Monsoon dress (bought second hand from ex-blogger Char) that really gave a nod to the inspiration:

I wore the same dress for Style Imitating art July 13th 2020 for the Tingklit mask inspiration

The flower print, I think you will agree, bears similarities in colours to the inspiration piece

I have a white frilly hat but it looked too costumey for this outfit so I wore my Grandad's Straw school boater.

As a nod to the woman's blue part of her dress, I wore a Monsoon linen cobweb cardigan (second hand). It's such a soft and gentle cover up.

On my feet, I wore my charity-shopped sand coloured Mary Jane shoes.  I've had these about 3 years and I am gutted that I wrecked one of them last week- I was cycling and I stopped. When I put my foot back on the pedal, I misjudged where I put my foot and ended up catching the side of the shoes where the strap is in the pedal. It ripped it and is now hanging on by a thread. This is really annoying as I wear this for a lot of the warmer weather at school and they are in otherwise great condition.

I'm looking forward to seeing the other outfits for this one so head over to Salazar's on Wednesday.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

I had a lovely one. On Saturday afternoon, I headed to my orchestra rehearsal with CBC and we did the concert in the evening.  The soloist for the Glazunov Violin concerto was the wonderful Elodie Chousemer-Howells who was String violinist for Young Musician of the Year in 2018. She's such a sweetie and is incredibly talented and knows exactly what she wants the orchestra to do but is very humble despite being such a star. She played amazingly!  One thing I absolutely loved was that after her practice, she joined the 1st violins for the exhausting Tschaikovsky 5th Symphony. In addition, she stuck around to watch us do the symphony in the concert.  What a lovely person as well as being so talented!

In between the rehearsal and the concert, CBC and I headed to the town we lived in when we first got married to go to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner!

This morning, I headed back to this town to play flute for the service at my old church.  It was the first service taken by the recently licensed (as in yesterday!) Lay Minister Catherine. I ended up playing violin as well as flute and singing.  As CBC was out cycling, I stayed for the barbeque to celebrate Catherine's completion and it was lovely to stick around.  I then came home, went for a walk, did some gardening and school work.

Hope all is well with you!

xx

xxsds

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.

I chose Karo:

Shelbee's round up post was fab as she paired all 10 ladies with their chosen piece. So here's mine,

I chose Caro as I wanted to wear my beautiful, comfortable linen jumpsuit from Seasalt which CBC bought me for my 40th birthday.  I added my charity-shopped black pointelle cardigan as the pattern is sort of created on my arms by the 'holes' in my cardigan.  I added my black velvet Kangol beret (charity shopped) and to finish off, my black/white patterned Toms shoes match up with the black and white pattern rather nicely. Alas, I have no closeup picture of them!

My little sister took this picture of me in the Bluebell woods near her house. She also took photos on her SLR but I'm going to have to wait for those!

I urge you to go and look at Shelbee's round up post as it's fabulous how all 10 ladies interpreted their chosen squares!

Hope you had a successful day! I rather like my Wednesdays as it's 3 lessons of Year 5, plus one Year 6, Year 5-6 singing assembly and then choir.  In Singing Assembly, we've been learning Sakura, a Japanese folk song and I'd shown them videos of the Shakuhachi and Koto playing a version of it last week, so I took in my Sulangsong, a bamboo flute specially made for me by a flute maker from Bandung, Java, called Efendi who created his own flute which is a mixture of the Japanese Shakuhachi, the Sundanese Suling and the Sumatran Saluang.

Here is a duet version with the koto and the Shakuhachi

My Year 5's were working on their river buildups for Vltava (Smetana) and my 6's were improving their Beethoven 5th Symphony Developments. 

Do you remember I was a little sad about having low numbers in choir compared to last term?  Well, it all worked out in the end due to some individual targetting and some surprises and I have 31 in choir now including some real sweeties! Choir sounds pretty good!

How far would you go for the environment?  Am I that crazy that I carried home 8 smelly crab shells from my Dad's? I was clearing up the table after a lovely seafood platter and I asked if they had food waste for me to put the shells in. My stepmum replied that they don't have it (and obvs putting fishy stuff in the home compost is a no no as it encourages rats).My Dad commented that it was such a shame to have to put the shells in the bin because there are lots of valuable minerals that could be returned to the soil.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and cunningly wrapped all 8 shells in some waste plastic and hid them in my bag.  I fessed up to my Dad later on and he chuckled and told me, "Good on you!" but agreed the rest of the family would think me insane for doing this.

When I got back, I washed the shells up to clean them and I crushed them with a garden trowel tonight to add to my compost. Yes, it was grim but I made a promise that I would try my best to ensure things aren't wasted!

Anyway, hope you have a lovely day! Don't forget to go and see Shelbee's round up!

xx

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!

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.

Outfit no. 2 is based on the dress of the main singer.  I took one look at the picture and realised that I had a dress with a very similar sort of print...but I had put it in the charity bag! I love the dress shape but the colour and material doesn't quite work for me. I find it hard to wear in the Autumn/winter in terms of colours and layering but the material is too hot for Summer. I added a beaded necklace (from a local shop near my childhood home).  I did want to wear my red heels with it, like the singer...but of course I couldn't find them! So I donned a scruffy pair of old red spotty ballet pumps.

My third, and final, outfit, is a dress I bought from ex-blogger and penpal, Char from her insta sale last year.  Honestly, when I saw she had a brand new dress with violins on it for a mere £8, I couldn't resist it!  That is, of course, a nod to our Double bass player at the back.  I liked the smart high-necked collar which made a nod to the suits of the men.  My T bar Clarks shoes completed the outfit.

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!

And that's the whole band:

What do you think?

What would you have worn? Which of my outfits do you think is your favourite.

You've got till tomorrow night to put together an outfit if you want to join in.

Flatlays of clothes are acceptable too!

Head over to Daenel on Wednesday for the round up.

xx

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:

I decided to take inspiration from these in my outfit, worn on Saturday, for my day out with my family to the brewery.

I decided to combine the colours and flowers for my look rather than an exact recreation.

I started with this Cath Kidston rose teadress which I bought in the charity shop, the day of my flute trio recital.  I then added this pointelle cardigan which was also a charity shop purchase.  Jewellery consists of a silver acorn necklace given to me for our first anniversary by CBC and a pair of charity shopped red earrings. My tights are an old pair of school tights- they are so comfy but very old now. The final item was my new Clarks boots I bought after getting soaking wet feet. I've been wearing them all week for school and they are fleece lined and very comfortable.

Head over to Salazar tomorrow to see how everyone else interpreted it.

Style Imitating Art - Dining Room in the Country by Pierre Bonnard, 1913

I'm a little late with this post.  I managed to remember to join in with Style Imitating Art this week.

Terri was this week's host and curator and she chose this painting: 

I love the colours of this painting- very orangey, peachey and pale blue and cream and the brush strokes are very pleasing.

Here's how I chose to interpret it:

I started with the dress.

I spotted this vintage Phool dress in the charity shop in Hexham when I was there at the end of July (It cost £7). (I know this is a desirable Indian brand as Vix has mentioned it!)  I felt the material of this dress and is the most wonderful lightweight cotton.  That does mean it is a little delicate and I have noticed a little rip in the bodice on one side but it is lined so it does mean it just looks like part of the pattern. I am very much a fan of a lightweight, slightly oversized maxi dress for summer comfort and I felt it really picked out the various oranges, reds and peachy shades in the picture.

To pick out the pale blue, I wore this cobweb lace 100% linen cardigan from Monsoon (charityshopped last month) and I felt the cobweb was reminiscent of the texture of the painting.

To pick out the cream, I wore my Primark ballet shoe pumps and added a pair of resin flower  earrings (a gift from Hazel) and a Lemon necklace that CBC gave me for Christmas.

You can see how everyone else interpreted it by heading to the link from Terri's name at the top of the post.

What do you think?

x

Style Imitating Art Outfit - Bow Sweater

 This week, for Style Imitating Art, Salazar chose a piece of knitwear for the inspiration:

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

Alas, I had put away the sweater for summer into my big yellow suitcase so it wasn't an option for my outfit this time but I thought I could very easily make an outfit out of something else.

And here it is:

I decided to go entirely monochrome.

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

The final elements were my earrings which I bought from a Church Christmas fair at Ilford Hospital Chapel about 15 years ago- I'm not sure what they are made out of but they have a lovely lustre.

In terms of shoes, I decided to wear my Bleyer dance shoes which I wear for Swing Dancing as the style is a nice vintage style to complete the look

I had a look through my phone and I found only this picture from Christmas, featuring my Cashmere sweater with a bow!

If you fancy seeing how everyone else interpreted it, head over to Salazar's blog on Wednesday evening to see the roundup!

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.

“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!!

I was bought this dress as a Christmas present by my Stepmum and Dad from Cath Kidston.

I decided to wear a drapey cardigan to represent the curtains on either side, even if I didn't have a burgundy cardigan.

My charity-shopped shoes match the colour of the anonymous lady in the painting if not the heel height.

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

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: 

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:

And yes, I decided to create a trio of outfits.

Each of these three outfits has 2 charity-shopped items in them (and the middle one has 3).

Let's look at each one individually:

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.

My second outfit is based on the central lady and I started with focusing on the brown, tan and burgundy shades on her outfit which I reflect in my Anokhi cotton trousers (CS Oxfam Harrogate).

I DID want to wear my brown vest-top but couldn't find it so instead, I went with this Tu broderie-anglaise-trimmed top (CS Barnados).  For the shoe front, I wore my recently bought Clarks Somerset T-bar sandals (CS Haven's Hospice).  My Nan's wooden necklace fitted with the vibe and I wore my 'fake plait' headband.

Outfit no. 3 is, in my opinion, the most boring outfit of the lot and is based on the lady in black. I had a dress with a similar neckline but much shorter so instead, I wore the same shoes as before along with Mango Culottes (CS Dog's Trust) and teamed it with a ruffle neck vest top from Beale's in Hexham before it closed (Sad!)

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

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!

I confess that I hadn't got a clue what would work in my wardrobe for this though I COULD think of multiple things in both Vix AND Sheila's wardrobes that would work for it.  It was only when I was searching my wardrobe for my Question mark shirt for yesterday's Doctor Who post, that I found this Zara blouse (charity shopped)  on the same hanger and realised I had a starting point.

I figured its embroidery was quite reminiscent of the top of the sculpture and being on a white background, mimicked the background contrast in the sculpture image.

I then decided to add my Indian vintage wrap-around skirt as it had contrasting patterns and shapes on it.

Can you see my handmade crocheted slippers underneath poking out?  I've had these at least 5 years now- Mum had them handmade for me from a Snowdonian cottage industry and they are still going strong.

The final touches were to add my foliage gold earrings which Hazel gave me for Christmas (I featured the other pair in my last SIA outfit) as well as my Nan's 'dried banana' necklace (this is CBC's name for it- he has a point) 

I hope all is well with you and I encourage you to try Nettle soup when you get the chance- it's so cheap and quick and simple to make.

I made about 8 portions of soup and the only things I purchased were:

3 potatoes, 1 onion, 2 stockcubes and some dried herbs- the nettles (2 colanders full) and wild garlic were free and foraged.

xx

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.

The piece is pretty powerful.  She doesn't look too happy to me about her coffee but maybe she just burnt her tongue and it's slight grimace, coupled with a yearning for coffee NOW!

Here's my outfit!

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.  

The first thing I did was to go down my 'clothes to cull' bag to take this dress out.  It's a vintage 70's one I bought about 8 years ago and I haven't worn for about 2 years or more but it was always a bit too big on me and sometimes I felt it was a bit too 'kitsch' and dress up for me. It's been in a cull pile under my bed for a while.  However, I thought the shape of the dress plus its style, neckline and colour made it suitable for the challenge and, actually, having tried it on again, it actually fits me better now, so perhaps it might keep its place for now.

Black leggings for warmth and my men's brown brogues plus my Mum's vintage belt were a nod to the table cloth and that's about all I have to say for my outfit- I think it speaks for itself.

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!

By the way, in case you aren't sure, a cantata is a medium-scale piece of music from the Baroque era that is narrative (e.g. tells a story) told through the medium of singing and instrumental accompaniment.  It can be a secular or sacred subject matter.  Some people may think they are listening to opera when they hear it but cantatas are not acted out, they are told purely through singing, not on a stage or in costumes usually.  They are shorter too.

The story can be sung by soloists, duets or the whole chorus as well as there being orchestral instrumental sections.

One boy who was sitting in front of me was really getting into Bach's Hunt Cantata and I heard him telling his friend he really liked it! Love it when they really groove to something unexpected.

I've never liked coffee and perhaps you think I should just try it again and see if I like it BUT, I can confirm that it won't happen.  When I was studying in Indonesia, I frequently visited people's houses.  The tradition there is not that you ask your guests if they would like and drink and therefore what they might like.  Instead, you are brought a drink and a snack as a matter of course and it is the expected and polite thing that you drink it.

So I had a year of drinking both sugary tea AND coffee and I would have to finish that glass (always in a glass) and I STILL don't like either!

You can take your coffee and leave me the UNSUGARED tea in exchange.

How do you feel about coffee?  Love it enough to write an entire cantata about it?

Hope all is well with you.

Take care

xx

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:

Image borrowed from
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Pierre_Bonnard_Woman_with_Dog_1891.jpg 

I knew immediately of several garments in my wardrobe that would work for this painting but could I find any of them!??!? No!
SO instead, I present you with:

I wanted to wear a H&M black and white Gingham dress but it was awol, as was my Gingham floral blouse but I spied this vintage Marjon Couture dress in my wardrobe and figured it would do as a picnic rug.  Plus, it has black edging which points to the prominent black fur coat of the lady on the right.  Also, the white buttons could be tenuously associated with the polka dot neckwaer or the white flowers up the top.

Underneath, I wore a charity-shopped mustard sweater which has a texture up close which might be said to resemble the brushstrokes of the dog's fur.

It was too cold for no leg-wear so I added my green leggings as a touch of the green from the painting.

As a nod to the neckwear of the lady, I wore my red and white floral cravat. I'm not sure if it goes but I quite liked the addition.  

The final touch, I am gutted you didn't get to see are my earrings which Hazel gave me for Christmas- they are resin with preserved yellow wild flowers and green foliage and give a really lovely nod to the yellow blooms in the picture.

Update: turns out I took a picture on my phone:

Boots have no particular reason for being in this outfit but I couldn't be bothered to find my Irregular Choice mustard and checked shoes as I didn't think they'd look good with socks and leggings! Pity as they would have gone quite well.

Wish our neighbour's dog, Lolly, who keeps sneaking into our garden through the badger hole had made an appearance for these photos- would have been nice to have an actual dog in my picture!

The return to school today was ok.

I had 2 year 4 classes and 2 year 6's- all were really well behaved and did their work and genuinely seemed pleased to see me. I managed to make those who didn't do the music work feel dead guilty, whilst not actually telling them off, saying I understood it must have been hard to cope with being at home and working in a new way, but then sharing my great appreciation of those who HAD done it and sighing and saying how sad it made me that some of them didn't even attempt one bit of work or send me any messages to clarify.

The smug year 6's who had done their work found their music listening work really easy this afternoon- they loved the smug feeling of knowledge! I may have milked the 'If you had done Week 5,6,7 work you would have extra knowledge of these instruments,' blah blah etc.  Sorry, not sorry.

It was a good day.

Hope you have had a good week.

xxx

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

Here's why she chose it:

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.

It's a beautiful painting and it has lots of interest in it. You can go literally with the girl's outfit or go with the background colours or details.

I decided to go with the former. and here's my outfit:

I decided to start with a charity-shopped polka-dot t-shirt from Tu at Sainsbury's. I've often talked about my liking for Tu garments, most of which I have charity-shopped. I mentioned buying this back in November and this is its first outing. I could have gone with brown trousers but decided to just stick with a limited-colour palette.  My nod to the red bow is the red bead necklace and a hair ribbon.

A final touch was my red bow socks. I have 2 pairs of these which bought from Primark a few years ago.

It's not the interesting of outfits but I like its simplicity.

Head over to Daenel's blog on Wednesday to see the round up.

xx

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:

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.

What about the stuff?* (This is the Sheila terminology for jewellery and accessories!)

Well, I wore my Ralph Lauren boots which are a dark petrol colour.  I then added this blingy gold disc necklace which I bought in Primark about 10 years ago for my ancient Greek costume for The Boys from Syracuse although, for school, I ended up wearing my lemon necklace as it is a bit too heavy to wear all day! Finally, I added my charity-shopped gold-leaf oak leaf earrings.

If you're wondering about the hair, this is not very Sheila.   I washed my hair on Saturday morning and put it into two plaits whilst wet.  On Saturday night, I went to sleep with the plaits in and on Sunday morning, I decided that my hair looked ok in the plaits and didn't bother brushing it and I wanted to unplait it when I had time to so I could enjoy the curls.  Except, I didn't end up doing it all day Sunday, nor Monday, nor Tuesday till it got to about 7.15pm when I took these pictures! I somehow went 4 days without brushing my hair! I even went to school like that- so the plaited picture is what it looked like after 4 days! It was a weird kind of experiment but I did enjoy having big curls when I let it out!

Head over to Salazar's blog to see how everyone else interpreted this piece.