Wattle flowers sparkle into our Winter's day,
Twirling their leaf moustaches,
And smiling at the edges.
30 June 2014
29 June 2014
BeautyScope 90: Cycling around Lake Burley Griffin
Grasses dance as we cycle past,
our breezy wake setting them alight.
28 June 2014
27 June 2014
BeautyScope 88: Trees entwined
Arms clutching arms,
trees weave an intricate archway,
welcoming all.
26 June 2014
BeautyScope 87: The beauty of rust
Graced by the mellow patina of age...
may we all be so privileged.
(Photo taken by my son The Artist)
25 June 2014
24 June 2014
23 June 2014
BeautyScope 84: Middle-aged Leaf
Though age spots appear...
apply sunbeams
and out shines that inner glow!
and out shines that inner glow!
(Photo taken by my son The Artist)
22 June 2014
Architectural Clothing
So today, my lovelies, for your perusing pleasure we have a denim outfit. I am linking up with Denim: Share-in-style at Mis Papelicos. Come and join the party!
Men's jeans bought retail- men's cut is best for me because I have no hips.
We also have what looks like a denim shirt, but is only denim coloured. It's brushed cotton, and so cosy! Also men's- secondhand for $7.
The belt is Diesel, bought secondhand for $3 - it has a seatbelt action buckle, very cool.
Scarf is a gift, and shoes are retail, Rockport painted by me.
Underneath is a men's shirt - Kathmandu, bought on special years ago.
As we get ready to brave the elements, I put on a felted pink secondhand jumper, and neck warmer I knitted out of alpaca wool.
I wanted to show you my new kimono made of wool.
I picked up this fabric for $4 secondhand!
$30 for a metre in the shops at the moment.
I copied a simple kimono pattern from here referred to by Andrea of Little Did You Know,
and used a kilt pin to close.
I love it's architectural feeling.
On the back I added a piece of suede leather to reinforce the back neck where there is a lot of tension.
You can also see the back of the hat - it pulls up with a drawstring.
I adjusted the pattern slightly by folding the fronts back and adding a line of stitching to make pockets. I also top stitched the front edge, and the fold line.
See my hat?
Here are some closeups.
My shoes are painted with acrylic paints and oil pastels, with lines by permanent marker, then spray varnished.
The original colour of the shoes matched the laces.
I've linked up to Sheila's Shoe Shine.
Come and see some other gorgeous feet!
The neckwarmers
Now a hat
I wore my mittens made from socks, see this post.
I decided to let the bottom edge of the kimomo fray, with a line of zigzag stitching about 2cm up to restrict the fraying and stop the whole coat fraying away!
A close up of the sleeves where I left the selvedge as a contrast feature.
Here is the back neck with the piece of suede reinforcing.
You may notice the seam line down the back is actually inside out. I changed my mind and made the inside the outside, so I just stitched the edges of the seam allowance to look like a feature!
So there we have it...the kimono I made 1 hour before we went to the Winter Festival at my kids' school on Friday night. And it's warm!
Linking up to Hat Attack at The Style Crone
Come and view the exquisite hats!
because my kimono is made of two rectangles. Come and see some more crazy minimalist looks.
'Til next time, keep creating!
Jazzy Jack
21 June 2014
20 June 2014
19 June 2014
18 June 2014
The Blues, Perfectionist and Frivolity
The Blues
I had the blues this morning.
I think some of the blues was caused by my weight gain which has happened over the last six months, due to menopause or medication. This is causing issues with my wardrobe, so I am disinclined to want to share.
Also I am finding myself wanting to revert back to my boy clothes and I don't think they are as interesting for people to look at.
I've also had some health issues, with a sore neck that is resisting treatment, and multiple sore niggles in various parts of my body, which is causing a dip in my confidence and resilience.
I tend to get trapped in overwhelmness and overload when I'm in pain, due to my sensory processing issues.
If I paddle harder to get better e.g. seeing professionals, doing exercises, the extra busyness causes exhaustion which causes more tendency to overload.
If I stop and rest, my brain gets bored and I get depressed thinking I'm wasting my life away, lying on the bed.
Perfectionist
My tendency is towards earnestness and perfectionism
(is that a term?)
(is that a term?)
When I was two my parents noticed I wasn't laughing much, so deliberately set out to find funny books to teach me to have fun!
I always have a clock ticking in my head, marking off the moments of my life, telling me to make sure every moment counts because I only have so much time living.
Unfortunately my perfectionist tendencies grab hold of this perfectly reasonable thought, and push me into doing the best and most perfect thing, every single moment of every single day, otherwise I've failed!
So couple this with my Aspergic tendency to not like small talk, and I find I struggle to chat and have fun on my blog.
I realised I hadn't done any outfit posts lately, but my slave driver voice told me it was a frivolous way to spend my time (NB: I'm not accusing other style bloggers here of wasting their time! They have many good reasons for their blogs which I admire).
Anyway, I decided to do some photos anyway, and dress up a bit, even though I was only staying at home, and lo and behold, with the dressing and playing with ideas, I pulled myself out of my funk!
Big lesson here!!! Maybe when I start to feel I'm wasting my time on earth because I'm stuck at home with my disability issues, instead of pushing myself to achieve something which I'm incapable of, and with the resulting self esteem loss because I can't match my goal...I should try to have fun and lighten up, and then my slave driver will lighten up, and then paradoxically, I'll feel I've achieved something!
Does this make sense?
Frivolity
So here I am trying to play! Apologies for the faded features, I forgot to put lipstick on, and it was cold!
Here is an outfit comprising of my dressing gown (gift) which I thought deserved an outing, under that is my silk trench coat (old) I recently renovated to make the shoulders fit, and I can wear it on its own.
The scarf is a gift I've had for many years, jumper is merino (retail old),
the pants are secondhand $3, the belt also $3 secondhand,
and the suede booties $5 secondhand.
With the focus on shrugs recently, I thought I'd show you one I made out of the velvet dress (gift) I've had for many years and hardly ever worn.
Here I am in a secondhand men's wool jumper $10.
And this is what I spent the day in...the vest I made from Bushy's secondhand jacket (I nicked the sleeves for my armlets).
Since we are talking about the blues, I thought I'd show a rayon gown bought secondhand for $7.
My favourite kind of blues!
'Til next time, keep creating,
Jazzy Jack
17 June 2014
16 June 2014
BeautyScope 77: Heartsblood
"Every heart sings a song, incomplete,
until another heart whispers back."- Plato
15 June 2014
BeautyScope 76: City meets country in Belconnen, ACT
Where skyscrapers meet trees,
And paddling kayak meets paddling feet.
14 June 2014
13 June 2014
12 June 2014
BeautyScope 73: Reflections on life at Lake Ginninderra
picture perfect moments do happen to real people!
Arts and Crafts
Today I would like to show a few items in detail you may have missed in our house tour.
First up are some paintings.
This one is titled Poppies. I did this in a childlike style because it refers to the two Grandfathers who are now no longer with us, my Grandfather, and my kids' Grandfather both who were named Poppy.
And of course referring also to the remembering of the dead from war with the flower Poppy.
The next one is called Interbred.
I painted this while living in New Zealand and seeing how the Maori culture is interwoven into the white culture, especially in Rotorua.
It made me sad to think that our Aboriginal people could have had the same respect.
The next painting is painted to encourage myself.
I painted it to look like heiroglyphics carved in stone, swirling around a centre full of life, and from that centre emerges a force which carves its own way through the stone.
The symbols are those used throughout the queer world, and the letters underneath are
LGBT in the Greek Alphabet (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender).
The line is 'To swim against the stream, salmonlike, a silvered gleam, knifepoint slicing its way'
a line from one of my poems.
The following are paintings I've done of The Artist and The Actor.
Now we come to crafts. This is the only thing I, as crafty as you like, could bring myself to make for my unborn first child.
Its a wallhanging of native Australian flowers with faces.
Waratah, Wattle, Flannel Flower, Tea Tree, and Banksia or something like that!
The white objects are two from a series of four I carved out of polystyrene at art college.
We were learning Maori carving techniques and had to invent a design incorporating them on four different shapes.
I got top marks for the cone, but he didnt like the sphere.
It's a lizard hiding in grass...his head...
...his body...
...and his tail.
As part of our Rotorua stay we bought ourselves a piece of glass to remind us of its volcanic nature.
Isn't it gorgeous?
We don't have formal display cases with lights, so we stand it on the little wall behind the sink and the downlight shines into it. I put my rings in it when I cook. I like using precious things.
And right beside the glory of the lava glass, at the other end of the bench, and the other end pricewise!,is my green bottle collection. I look into them and feel like I'm in another world, like underwater or something.
Lastly we have my shoes I was too embarrassed to put up on Sheila's Shoeshine this week!
They are very crafted.
Old boots that are nearly at the end of their life, looked grungy, so I drew on them with oil pastels.
But I wasn't totally happy, so one day when I felt reckless, I cut out the tongue so you could see the socks, and darkened them a little, then feeling I needed to break up the shape, I painted the instep with black shoe dye. It now looks high heeled!
Then feeling still more reckless, I cut off the top of the boot.
Now they are much lighter with less leather.
The leather is so soft and I have a sheepskin inner sole, they are like walking on clouds!
I hope you enjoyed my micro tour!
Please come again :-)
'Til next time, keep creating,
Jazzy Jack
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