amazon_syren

Okay.

So I was griping, over the weekend, about not having enough of a clue how to make my Personal Style show up in real life.

Mostly, I was talking about clothes but I also whined a little bit about not knowing what to do with my hair.


Having moaned and complained about everthing for a bit, though, I then went and watched about two hours of youtube tutorials on how to do rockabilly-style Fake Bangs.
As of this morning, I'm happy to report, I have (sort of) figured out how to adapt the technique for waist/hip-length hair.

Basically, it involves:
1) separating the front section of your hair
2) putting it into a side ponytail near the crown of your head
3) making a moderately loose loop with said ponytail so that it falls across your forehead (down to about eyebrow level)
4) twisting the tail end of your ponytail back up and under the loop
5) wrapping the tail end around the hair elastic a couple of times (to hide the elastic)
6) twisting the last of the tail end of your ponytail so that it can be added to the rest of your hair (which is in its own ponytail, bun, french twist, or whatever) and secured in place
7) spreading out the loop of your fake bangs so that they actually fall like bangs rather than some sort of bun that didn't work
8) secureing the sides with a couple of bobby-pins[1] so that they'll stay in place
9) adding a big, blowsy flower clip to the other side of my hairdo so that my head doesn't look lopsided.


Oh for a camera, so that I could show you all a picture. :-D


I'm very pleased with this, even if it's my first attempt and it's nowhere near perfect... it's still good enough to wear out of the house and my head isn't hurting and I'm not (too) worried about massive tangles happening when I try to take it down tonight.

So I declair this hairstyle a success! :-D


I have random tendrilly bits falling out of my fake bangs. I think this actually works quite nicely, though I'd have liked to be able to get the general 'do a little bit sleaker (there are a lot of fly-aways around the crown), but it'll do. It'll more than do.


So I'm going out this morning - hitting up a dollar store for (1) a pin cushion, and (2) a 6" black zipper[2] (if they've got one); and then heading to Leading Note to look for sheet music[3]. So I've done myself up with bright lipstick (well, lip-stain) and eyeshadow and Traditional Cats-Eye Eyeliner and, to be perfectly honest, am feeling more than a little bit spiffy.

Hurrah for spiffy! :-D


I suspect I'll change my tank-top to a slightly fancier (but still t-shirt fabric) top this evening - we're meeting a couple of in-town-unexpectedly friends for dinner tonight, so I may as well enjoy rocking the spiff while I can. :-D


YAY! Success! I'm feeling so much better! :-D








[1] Which means that I have just successfully used bobby-pins, fyi. :-D That's kind of a first for me. :-)

[2] I also made myself a skirt over the weekend. It has a denim waist-band and the rest is made from an old ankle-length skirt I made for myself when I was 30 lbs lighter and which I've been wanting to re-do for some time. It needs hemming - because the plant is to have it fall to about (the long side of) knee-length on me, and roll the extra fabric up to make a thick hem... The idea is that the roll of fabric will act like "horsehair" and give the skirt a little bit of fullness and swing rather than having it just hang there.
For something done with no pattern what-so-ever, I'm really quite pleased with it. :-D

[3] Hoping that I can find an inexpensive collection of Funerary Greatest Hits or something for soprano voice. I need to find sheet music for my grandfather's funeral - he's still alive, but he's also not taking in any water... :-\ So I'm guessing it won't be more than a day or so at this point... Funeral is now scheduled for - most likely - Friday. So I need to get ready for it.

So, I was blogging over at Urban Meliad about the art of glamour(y), about "loving your look", finding your personal style, and all that kind of stuff. And, as typically happens, I ended up thinking about shoes.

Side note: My Ghost is not (yet) a shoe-maker. She can re-sole shoes, and patch them up, but she doesn't know how to make them. (So far, I've given her one book on How To Make Shoes -- I'd love to be able to find others. Modern ones that talk you through making patterns, sizing things up and down, plus suggestions on where to get matterials and how to do fancy custom stuff like split soles[1] and louis heels and the like. Suggestions welcome. :-D <*looks hopeful*>

Back on topic: My knees are pretty messed up. They're not wrecked, but they're on their way. I can't do hours and hours of 4" heels these days. I certainly can't do more than about 20 minutes worth of walking on concrete/asphault on them.
Which sucks, since I have such an abundance of Awesome and Fabulous very high heels. And, I mean, yes. Not being able to wear them when Just Hacking Around means that they stay Awesome and Fabulous. That's the up-side. The down-side is that, despite having a lot of shoes, I don't actually have a lot of shoes that I can just throw on and wear.

So I find myself more actively looking for kitten-heeled shoes in my size (ahaha) that actually look good to my eyes -- by which I mean they have a rounded toe, rather than a blunt toe (or a pointy toe -- pointy-toed flats look... weird to my eyes) and a shapely heel (rather than just a big, clunky block). It's tricky. The chunky-wedge soles and "sawed off" to-boxes that people with smaller feet can wear without looking desperately frumpy (I assume -- I don't think they'd make them if the Size Seven Masses weren't buying them in droves... maybe I'm wrong on that, though), tend to look like "Oh... those were the only shoes in your size, weren't they" when they land on feet above about a size nine or ten.

What I'd actually like to find is something like this 2"=heel, round-toed mary-jane style leather shoe (which actually does come in my size, although which may not be particularly kind to my high instep, if I go by the reviews. They are bookmarked and Saved For Later). There are others, many by Miz Moo, some by Clarks or Dansko or Mudd that I really like, but that don't come in my size. None the less, that may give you (me) an idea of what I'm looking out for.

I can dream. ;-)



This afternoon will be spent hanging out with Sexy_Romulan and checking out silicone bakewear. There will probably also be tea and/or books. Whee! :-D


TTFN,
Amazon. :-)


[1] I mention split soles because I tend to destroy my shoes right at the pivot-point of the ball of my foot. Part of this is because that's the wide part, the part that's most likely to get strained in day-to-day wear, but also because I'm a toe-walker and tend to need/expect/force a shoe to be able to take a lot of torque and bend when I go up on my toes or turn on them. Ghost has dubbed me the "Sole Destroyer" (cue the black metal and head banging). I like the title, but I wish it wasn't the case.

Okay.
I’m pretty sure I cleared pink – of all kinds – out of my wardrobe at the age of twelve and, other than a rose-quartz pendant given to me by a well-meaning cousin and a three-or-four month long spate, in fourth year university (of all things), when I just desperately craved baby-pink eye shadow (which I still have, almost never use, and yet felt so much better due to buying… I don’t understand it), have never really allowed it back in except on sufferance (e.g.: the black courduroy skirt (alas, no-longer mine) with the swirling wine embroidery? Also involved dusty rose).

Until now.

It all started with a tank top.

My mother – in a fit of craftiness (and fear of getting bored once retired) – asked me to go to her church’s garage sale (like a bazaar, but in Summer) and grab *every* bright, sold-colour t-shirt I could find because she wanted to turn them into kids’ play-clothes.

So (dutiful daughter that I am?) off I went.

I found about a zillion pastel pink and pastel (mint?) green golf shirts, as well as a couple of ones with horizontal stripes and a whole bunch in dark green with little tiny logos on that could be easily avoided in the recycled-clothing process.

And, while I was there, I found a couple of tops for myself. A turquoise rutched halter-neck (tie-back) top, a rutched v-neck t-shirt in a really nice deep blue, and this: A pink on pink striped tank top that looked for all the world like a berry dessert. Like strawberry ice cream with raspberry coulis drizzled over it.

At first, I thought it would make a cute dress on a toddler.
And then I thought it would suit my friend, Luna, to a T.
And then… Then I realized that I wanted the pink on pink striped tank top.
Me.
MINE.

And so I got myself the berry-tastic tank top and that was the beginning.

Now, I haven’t gone very far in the direction of embracing pink. I’m a pasty-assed white girl and, my dears, pastels are not my friend. (Frankly, I’m fairly certain they aren’t anybody’s friend, but I could be wrong. I have run into a few folks who can definitely rock sunshine yellow, so clearly they work for somebody).

But I have acquired a rose-pink halter-neck top (that is frequently accidentally revealing, so I have to be careful where I wear it) a couple of nail polishes – one a rich raspberry that, here-to-for was about as close to “pink” as I got, and the other (which I picked up today, in celebration of the fact that I will still be employed as of next week) is this wild kind of magenta colour with enough of a purplish sheen to it that I knew it would work with my skin tone. It’s one of Sally Hanson’s million billion types of nail polish and, much to my dismay, it doesn’t even come with a fantastic nail polish name (which is half the fun of nail polish, I think, but I’m weird like that). It *looks* like it should have a name like “Racy Stacy” or “Madame Magenta” or something like that. Y’know?
For now, I’m opting for “Racy Stacy”.

One hand painted. :-)
One to go. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)