Archives for February 2021

February 2021

Start with Art: Abstracts by Tony Daley

February 26, 2021 The Sun is Out!

It's not going to be insanely warm at the gardens, but warm enough that she can take a couple of days to check on the bee hives...

So she decides that she's going to wear pretty pretty pretty colors, and pretend to be one of the flowers...

She dresses somewhat warmly for the trip...

She's not sure how long she's going to stay, nor how warm it will be, so she plans to pack an assortment of possibilities...

To start, she makes certain that she has her beige cardigan, shorts, and cropped pants. Her tan skirt is almost the same color, so she adds that...

Then a couple of tee shirts, a cardigan and her favorite floral top...

When she gets to the ... View the Post

Acessories! Adding Balance and Interest to Start with Art: Meadow by Mainie Jellett

February 24, 2021

This may or may NOT change your feelings about this wardrobe; I suspect that I'm going to revisit this at least twice! Maybe once use darker brown and olive to balance the red, and a second try to incorporate the mauve pink in place of the red...

This is where we started:

I already feel like the wheels are coming off - the red accessories that go so well with this outfit won't be worn with any other outfits except maybe an all camel ensemble...

This outfit screams "reading on the sofa for 5 hours" to me...

If you haven't had a haircut in a REALLY REALLY long time, a pretty hair clip might be smart...

The green puts our heroine in the mood for 4-leaf clovers, and who could blame ... View the Post

February 2021 Start with a Bracelet: The Confident Lynx

February 22, 2021 You Could Go By Yourself... She looked at her favorite bracelet - the Confident Lynx...

She's going to do this - she's been anticipating this Cathedral Tour weekend for ages, and she's not going to miss it just because nobody she knows wants to go too!

So she starts to plan...

It won't be bitter cold by the time of the tour, but she knows that she wants to dress rather warmly, because old stone buildings are never toasty...

Since she's going to be alone (well, there will of course be other people on the tour!), she wants to make sure that she can lift her own luggage and manage it without having to resort to the kindness of strangers! So she arranges a tidy black core of clothes, and ... View the Post

Start With Art: Meadow by Mainie Jellett

February 19, 2021 When Accent Colors Lead You Astray... She wanted to start with this painting, and who could blame her?

She is in the process of shifting her preferred neutral from navy to camel, and her accent colors from cool and bright to warm and muted - it's quite the project!

This painting is perfect for her... After some study, and some thinking, she chose these colors:

Her plan is to assemble her 21-piece wardrobe - Her Garde-Robe du Mois - this way:

yes, this is only 20 garments - she's going to toss in her camel dress, when it's clean!

Since her closet is sort of "betwixt and between" right now, she decides to start with pants; this is a pretty good idea for most of us, since these are the clothes ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Triangle Magic by Jessie Zhao New York

February 17, 2021

One of you has treated yourself! I think it's important to do that, from time to time...

(I splurged on a scarf too - I'll share a link at the end of this post...)

I'm pretty certain that our friend uses green as one of her accent colors, but I'm going to use denim blue instead - this scarf certainly gives you options!

As I've been inclined to do these days, I'm starting with a classic navy and white Common Wardrobe of 12 garments. When I talk about Common Wardrobes, I mean those classic, timeless garments that many of our wardrobes have in common...

With 12 garments in hand, anybody who wants to pull together a Garde-Robe du Mois (see Fiona Ferris for the explanation of this) just needs 9 more ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: Echo Photo Floral Silk Square

February 15, 2021

Let's wallow in some flowers!

This has the potential to take black and white RIGHT into spring - at least in our hearts! What lovely colors:

Today's heroine assures me that her wardrobe is pretty classic black and white, so let's start with a 12-piece Common Wardrobe that will see her into a few warm days:

Now - the accent colors!

I had to splurge and show you this tee shirt, because I think the floral print is lovely...

Coral! Who wouldn't look at least reasonably good in this color? And the sleeveless top brings summer into the room, even if worn under a cardigan:

Okay, one may not be inclined to wear this cardigan every other day, but it is SO bright and fun for these ... View the Post

Stress Dressing Mini-Wardrobes for Cool Weather

February 12, 2021

We've looked back at the original Stress Dressing post, and quite a few of us realized that this might be worth revisiting in our wardrobes for this "dead of winter, middle of pandemic" situation...

I didn't include dresses this time - I think that the probability that one of us is going to need a dress isn't all that high! And since so many of us are still spending so much time at home, I didn't include a bag either...

My goals were warm, comfortable, somewhat versatile, and uncomplicated. Let's look!

Loosely speaking, this is a list of what I might look for when I build this for myself:

Even though we're home most of the time, there's still no guarantee that our wardrobes will be ... View the Post

Need an Accent Color to Get Through the Rest of the Winter?

February 10, 2021

This post is partly for me - I'm hankering for something in a different color than my usual!

I've got to be really careful not to buy something without a LOT of thought; my wardrobe has been 95+% black and white for decades, so busting out with a blue scarf and tee shirt would be a MAJOR change...

But I see that my favorite tee shirt is available in quite a few colors; what might I do?

More pink is always a possibility; I know that I love pink, and it goes well with all my black and white:

I love the way these 5 things look together, but I'm not sure that coral is a direction I should go...

Yellow? I think not, but it's so pretty and cheery...

Oddly enough, Beach Glass ... View the Post

Start with Art: Lunar Halo over Snowy Trees by Goran Strand

February 8, 2021

Yes, it could be "Start with Nature," but I feel that this images owes a LOT to the photographer, and thus to me it is art... A robust discussion is welcome! It's supposed to start snowing by sunset... And so she's packing and going to be on the road by lunchtime!

Her favorite Bed and Breakfast has her favorite room available...

So she pauses for a second, and closes her eyes:

She's not really planning to do much of anything except walk outdoors, eat when summoned to do so, and read...

Okay, maybe a nap...

So it's pretty simple to get things together!

She can wear what she already has on, swapping out her slippers for good boots:

So long as she has her charging cord for her books (what ... View the Post

Start with Art: Untitled 2019 by Jeremy Stenger

February 5, 2021 The Lake is Frozen... Better get ready... She stops to focus for just a couple of heartbeats on her current favorite painting and color palette:

She knows that she needs to pack, and she knows that she doesn't want to spend much time dwelling on that, so she remember her current color palette...

What she's wearing will be fine for the drive - she just needs to get on her shoes...

She's agreed to fix dinner TONIGHT - this gets her off the hook for meals the rest of the weekend! So before she even walks NEAR her closet, she pulls out a big grocery bag from her stash, and starts assembling the ingredients for a big pot of soup...

And then she cuts the dry ingredients for biscuits together ... View the Post

The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe = Guide to a Garde-Robe du Mois

February 3, 2021

Yes, this is confusing...

But I'm trying to find a way to use the core 52 garments from The Weekly Timeless Wardrobe to help anyone who has to keep 2 separate wardrobes in 2 locations (or those of us who wear 2 completely different seasonal wardrobes as the weather comes and goes...)

Last week, I looked over the 52 garment list, and chose 10 to be the "core" wardrobe for this heroine. An example of one of the 10-piece wardrobes is this lovely grouping:

As useful and versatile as this wardrobe is, most women will want to add something to it! In order to stick to our plan, I went back to the list of 21 garments that remained AFTER I removed the 10 "core" pieces from the list. (and then split the list into warm ... View the Post

February 2021 – Six Scarves, 12 Months, 12 Outfits

February 1, 2021

Ah, I'm so happy! I love these scarf-based wardrobes...

If you want to catch up on where we left off last month, click on this sentence to jump back there!

Since we are (for now) loosely following the Starting From Scratch wardrobe guidelines, this month brings us to a 2nd pair of pants and a shirt.

For most wardrobes, these pants will be chosen so that our heroines will each have a pair of jeans and another pair of pants that are somewhat dressier. The new shirt will be neutral if that's what they need, and accent if that's what's missing. A few more accessories, and any of us would be in good shape for an overnight trip with what's included so far.

This is our first scarf, and palette. The only possible ... View the Post