A web of branches

Pin: c/o Detroit Curling Club | Top: Target | Belt: Target | Skirt: Target | Wedges: Target

I just went to pick some art for this week's Style Imitating Art, and I somehow ended up reading about Battlestar Galactica. I couldn't tell you what happened if I tried. Anyway, below is this week's inspiration:

Bigger Trees Near Warter by David Hockney (click for larger version)

I've always been a big David Hockney fan. And a big fan of big art. So this painting blows my skirt up quite a bit! For an idea of proportion, take a look at this picture. Insane and gorgeous, right? Hockney created it from a set of fifty 3x4 canvasses. Email me your outfits based on this painting by Monday afternoon and I'll post them here!

French braiding, part 2: the half French braid

Here is part 2 of the French braid series! Today is a lesson on half braiding, which is what I used for the serpentine braid and for any small braids near my hairline. Next week I might do a fishtail braid--is that something people want to see? Let me know!



What this braid looks like from the top...



...and underneath, when complete.

From point to point

I spent today in south Charlotte for the Queens Cup Steeplechase. According to my parents, I have been to a steeplechase, but I was so young that I don't remember it at all! Despite the gray skies and slow schedule, my friends and I had a great time and we'll be back next year (hopefully with a tailgate spot!). Here are some photos of the day. Enjoy!

Sting

Necklace: J.Crew | Top: Target | Cami: Eddie Bauer | Skirt: J.Crew | Flats: Payless

In the last couple of weeks, the weeds and whatnot have grown like a foot in this area. Tis the season! The one bad thing about this is that I certainly wandered through a thicket of leaves of three, after which point I starting itching like hell. I've had poison ivy before, and it sucks. But I have good news: turns out I was walking through wild berries, not PO. The itches were bug bites. They still itch, but there are only four, rather than a widespread panic spanning my epidermis from toe to knee. Crisis averted!

Shades of

Necklace: J.Crew | Sweater: JCPenney | Skirt: Gap | Tights: We Love Colors | Wedges: Target

"Shades of Grey" has been floating around at work a LOT lately. There is, of course, the ubiquitous Fifty Shades of Grey, whose scandalicious buzz seems to have finally reached my little work corner of Cardiganland. There's also the entirely unrelated Shades of Grey, which I am considering as a book discussion group pick. The author of Between Shades of Gray will be visiting work over the summer to speak. And then there is my outfit, which is somewhere between zero and fifty shades of græy.

Circle takes the square

Necklaces: chains from other necklaces | Cardigan: Gap | Dress: Belk | Belt: Old Navy | Bracelet: JCPenney necklace | Tights: Target | Heels: Nine West | Lips: Maybelline ColorSensational Make Me Pink over Chapstick | Nails: butter London Lady Muck

It's really tempting for me to say that this outfit is preppy. It feels pretty close. But then I look at blogs like this (and pictures like this--new goal: recreate!), and I know I'm nowhere close. First, I'm not skinny (have you ever seen anyone who isn't who successfully wears prep? Very sad but true), and second/more importantly, it's really not who I am. My hair is never straight. I don't do polo shirts. I avoid pastels & cable knit sweaters. My pearls only come out of the safe deposit box (you read that right) for weddings and graduations. But for a day, it's nice to pretend. Expect a teal pencil skirt and some crazy wedges tomorrow to rinse out the prep residue.

Want to see how Salazar styled today's Style Imitating Art? Click here!

Reader request: French braiding, part 1

Meghan requested a French braiding tutorial, and I thought I'd do her one better and do a few videos over the next month, building up to a video on doing the serpentine braid. So here's the first part, on how to do a basic French braid!



And a couple of pictures...



This is what a French braid looks like from the front or the top.



This is what the underside of a French braid looks like. I actually learned to French braid my hair this way--I grew up in a largely African-American community, and my friends who could cornrow taught me, so I originally French braided upside down. Instead of placing strands of hair over each other, you pull them underneath each other. It's a really cool look to do, especially for French braid pigtails.



And this is what my hair looked like today. It's extremely oily and this is not the best braid--I'm terribly uncoordinated upside down!--but this goes to show that you can do just about anything with a French braid once you figure out how to do it :)

Just an idea

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
Illustrated by Joe McLaren and designed by Suzanne Dean

Just a little inspiration for the next part of my tattoo. The UK version of this book's cover, which is blue, can be seen here.

Leaps and bounds, etc.

Pearls: JCPenney | Sweater: JCPenney | Dress as skirt: Belk | Flats: Payless

I have one week of classes left until I am home free! And by home free, I mean done for a month and I still have to work. But no lectures for a month! No projects for a month! Reading whatever I want for a month! It's enough to make me jump for joy.