I Am The Wind

I got called a bunch of things today.
Namely, "Indian Brave," "Mermaid," "Autumn Gypsy," "Like-a-Native-American-tribal-Indian-dancer-ethereal-fortune-teller-Chola-warrior-princess-thing," and "Jingle-Jangley."
Also, the typical "You're wearing a belt on your head. WTF?" (Sometimes a good WTF, sometimes neutral, sometimes bad, but no matter.)

I made this fabulous skirt for a gypsy Hallowe'en costume several years ago. 

We bought the patchwork fabric and Michael Levine and my mom said she thought she had something similar to it for the other panels already at home. When we got home and check, she had the gold/red fabric... that is EXACTLY the same as one of the fabrics used in the patchwork, and utilizes one of the same threads from ALL the other patchwork textiles. It was GREAT.

Since I'm still in the Oh-my-god-I-can-fishtail-braid-therefore-I-must-do-it-every-day phase, I did two fishtail braids today, but this time with my rainbow extension from Vivid Vivka (on etsy) braided in on my right.

I stuck feather earrings in the ponytail holders at the ends, and wore bronze-y hoop earrings. Both pairs came in the same earring set from my campus bookstore. Right? Right. Yeah.

I really enjoy creating the illusion of nudity or partial nudity when it's not actually there. I guess I just generally enjoying pushing limits (and envelopes?), and so wearing a nude skintight top under a T-shirt with only one button done seemed like the obvious solution.

I thought it was kind of obvious, but I actually got asked a couple times whether it was my stomach or a shirt. 

I guess the real question is "do you or don't you believe that I have a belly button?"

Hip scarf from somewhere in downtown LA... LOVE this thing. It has a full musical sound to it, the colors are gorgeous, and it's lightweight as all get-out. Who could ask for more in a hip scarf?

F21 gold cuff, bangles from craft stores/antique shops/thrift shops/travels abroad, vintage ring settings from Zinnia (wonderful craft shop in South Pasadena), spiky ring from F21 (on ring finger).

Makeup applied wet from some random pallette. It's just a shiny blue and a shiny bronze. I wore a dark wine-colored lipstick later, and I wish to god I'd worn it for the pictures. I looked a heck-of-a-lot better with it on, especially considering the heavy eyebrows I had today leftover from yesterday's shading.

This is one of my very favorite belts. So glad I just found another use for it. :)

This photo looks like something out of a comic book. You don't have to, but I love it. <3

picasion.com is my new favorite thing. :P

Is it just me, or are black and white photos inherently classier than color photos?

I think I look like a statue of a saint in this pic. That means NOTHING metaphorically. 

Like, really, please don't read into that.

And good morning/night/afternoon/whatever.
Go listen to the Cherokee Morning Song on youtube or something. Really, it's really good and it's been stuck in my head all day. :)

Love,

<3LW

Look at This Stuff!

Isn't it neat?

Just in case you don't watch enough classic Disney to get the reference, I was a mermaid today.

Chronic Bitchface sold separately. 

I really am sorry about this. I wasn't really happy with any of the full-body shots I got, and I would have taken more but my camera ran completely out of battery and I was too lazy to find more and switch them out. So.

I made this fabulous green mermaid skirt (yeah, it is green) for sewing class last semester, and have worn it way too many times since then. What can I say, I love it. I'm pretty sure it's Butterick... it's a late Victorian pattern for two skirts and a jacket. You can figure it out if you really want to make it. ;)

The wonderful silk velvet jacket is a re-pieced vintage item from Buffalo Exchange, given to me by Emma Dahling.

To commemorate my mermaidification, for which I've been waiting my whole life (I was a mermaid for Halloween when I was two. Not kidding. And then again when I was 7ish and again when I was 13ish. I've really been quite looking forward to this.), I wore lots of jewelry, including a shell necklace, some other cool crap, and two glass-beaded necklaces I made myself.

One of the necklaces I made has a fish on it!

Skull ring from Oriental Trading Company (this is embarrassing :P),

Koi ring from Forever21,

Coral and Silver ring from some roadside stand in Arizona.

I know, my Pokemon nails go great with this whole mermaid thing. <3

Abalone bangle from Target, faux pearl bracelet... no idea.

Vintage burst ring, Floral stacking rings from Forever21.

Seahorse barrette from StarrlightJewelry on Etsy.

I also learned how to fishtail braid this morning! I tried it, like, three times, because I kept thinking I was doing it wrong, but then I realized that I just couldn't see it and I actually had been doing it right. Heh... heh... heh.

Well, practice makes perfect. Or, practice makes permanent. But, it was good practice, so... you conclude what you will.

Got on a Revlon Colorstay lipgloss (Gosh, are practically all of my lip products Revlon Colorstay? I don't know. BUT, in my experience, the whole line is not of equal quality--some things a fabulous, some are okay (like this gloss), and some are absolute crap.), MAC Metalrush pigment and some bronze liquid liner from I-don't-remember (on eyes, and as scales). Plus, some dark shadow on my brows, whatever it was.

I'm gonna try and make these next two pictures as non-awkward as boob shots can be, because I want y'all to see the gorgeous beaded detailing on this fabulous mermaid top I made for my most recent mermaid Halloween (I think it was 8th grade...but I might have been in high school. I really don't know.).

I used this same orange fabric for curtains in my room at home. I'm literally in love with the color. It's silk dupioni, I found it at Michael Levine, and the glass beads I bought at Michaels. They're hand-sewn onto the nude stretch fabric which is basically a tube top sewn to a strapless bra. The most important thing in making this was the fit of the bra, because it is a strapless top, so... you do the math.

It doesn't look like that much beading, but this took HOURS. Like, I don't even know.

The rhinestone barrette on my part is from Target (long ago).

Earrings were a vintage gift from Queen Mary Jean.

Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Ah, but the fashion-addicted shall never recover. Uy.
<3Lovely

Bubblegum Bliss

Hey Loves,

     Sorry I haven't been posting so much lately. I've actually been wearing good outfits, too, which is a real shame. :( Not that I'm wearing them, but that when I wear them you don't get to see them, obviously. The thing is, I don't get out of class till late afternoon/early evening usually, and it's been freezing cold and getting dark really early, so by the time I'm ready to take photos it's after sunset at 40degF outside. Uy.

     BUT! It is Saturday, and so you get pictures:

Hey, hey, hey. This is what I wore today. 

What I'm wearing right now, actually, and will be wearing for the rest of this lovely lazy Saturday. 

Mmmm, Saturdays. :) They make me happy.

So, I totally curled my hair today.

When does THAT ever happen? 

Um, pretty much never.

I never curl my hair even though I like it so much better that way, because I have way too much hair that takes too much time to curl to make it worth it for the approximately ten minutes it stays curled. However, I teased/ratted/whatevered my hair yesterday, which meant that my hair already had a LOT of hairspray in it, and was kind of disgustingly stiff and extraordinarily well-suited to being curled today. Yay!! Maybe I'll rat my hair more often so that I can curl it more often? Maybe. We'll see. :)

Also, fake tattoos are the greatest thing ever. 

This came from a book of Halloween tattoos that I won in the Halloween Costume Contest for the Fine Arts Dorms here at Baylor.

The dress is borrowed from my mom's closet and I have no idea what the label says. She got it at either Ross or Marshall's or some place like that. You know what I'm talking about. I love it: it's a fabulous over-saturated turquoise, and the comfiest thing ever.

The rain jacket is protection against wind and rain, but NOT against cold. NO thermal insulation whatsoever, but, you know, that's not why I bought it. I bought it because it was a clear pink vinyl mac, and that's still why it's awesome. This thing went to Oxford with me, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's pretty near and dear to my heart. <3

I love this ring so damn much. The one rhinestone at the bottom dangles and moves and swings and whatsit. I got it a while ago in Chinatown for ten bucks after I'd been eyeing it for two or three years. Not even kidding.

"Is that a pokeball on your thumbnail?" you ask. 

"Damn straight it is."

OHMYGODDITTOCHARMANDERPIKACHUBLARGH.

OHMYGODBULBASAURSQUIRTLEODDISHBLARGH.

I have one Pokemon card, because I stole it from my brother. The third or fourth time I stole it back, he finally gave up and just gave it to me. I figured it ought to be mine, since it had my name on it (I mean, almost). 

It is Erika's Oddish.

Also, I fucking hate painting my right hand nails. It makes me so damn nervous, and they always look messy. 

I kid you not, these three Pokemon on my right hand took an hour.

Wearing a bunch of silver and blue eyeshadow by various companies including a vintage pallette and some Jessie's Girl, also blue lipstick by Graftobian, the greatest thing ever. 

This is weird, but I pick my perfume by whether the bottle coordinates with my outfit. It's actually not that weird, because my outfit coordinates with my mood, and the packaging is designed to coordinate with the scent, so by three degrees of separation my mood is nevertheless coordinated to the scent. Anywho, that means that I'm wearing Harajuku Girls G of the Sea, which I fell in love with this summer honestly just because I had to have the packaging. When I saved up and bought it cheap off of ebay, I was ecstatic to find that I loved the scent, too. NOTE: I do not recommend this method of choosing perfume. Scent is actually pretty important, it turns out. ;)

Daisies are my absolute favorite flowers. The yellow-and-white color varieties, but any of the variously-shaped species are all in the My Favorite Flowers category.

Yay I like this picture.

YAY A HAIRBOW! 

Golly gee whiz, I've had this thing longer than I can remember. I've had it since before I was three, at the very least. It used to have a sunglasses cabochon on it, but it fell off a long time ago. Luckily, that just means that now it goes with even more things. :)

I'm going to leave you with this full body mirror shot, because it makes my legs look good. 

Also, shoes, Target. Blah.

Muah, muah, muah!

<3LW

Two Poems About College

Morning Birdsong

the songs of morning birds

like glitter dust the air

as i have just awoken

not from sleep but

from immersion, deep

within a two-pound paper

freshly printed

across my eyelids,

eyelids frozen not in ice

but in half-sleep—

that place between bed and coffee

where the words

wait sitting to get written

this morning i will

beat the stars to bed, but barely—

they litter still the sky

but the stars, like

tiny fireflies, are

swallowed as if by the morning

songbirds themselves,

one

by

one.

four a.m.

at four

in the morning

I unlocked

the dorm’s

south door.

a coffee-stained coat,

white, quite worn,

I wore.

at semester,

I swore

I wouldn’t do this

anymore.

I’d get back before

my eyes were sore

from reading Machiavelli.

But the core

of college

is cold coffee

until there isn’t

any coffee anymore

and if then

I spend

a dollar more,

what am I paying for?

Meet Me at the Graveyard

This was a very impromptu photoshoot--I did the makeup, posted a crap webcam pic on facebook, and a couple of IMs later Liam of Blackrose Photography (with whom I've worked several times before) was meeting me at the graveyard. Edits were teamwork (Liam edited them, hit me with 'em, I edited them some more, blah blah blah).

Meet Me at the Graveyard... sounds like a song... now I have to write it. :) Sounds like a post title for sure, though. Check!

Anywhat, I am very happy to be able to bring you these fab and flashy fotos photos, so...

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!

Makeup is:

• Graftobian clown white cream, topped with
• Coastal Scents silica powder (applied with a fan brush all over), then
• Make Up For Ever black gel liner, and
• Barry M. dazzle dust in parrot green, applied wet.

Clothing...

• dress from Ross,
• pants from ebay
• flowers from JoAnn Fabrics,
• shoes from Betsey Johnson. Yay!

Chao!
<3LW