I feel like black clothing is often the institution built by designers as a place for fat girls to go to die. Or buy exercise wear. So, both. (I jest: I love a well constructed black dress, and also enjoy exercising.) So I’m enjoying the first Lane Bryant designer collection by Isabel Toledo. I’m loving the embroidered, foil and eyelet sets: so much gorgeous, body-conscious, timeless beauty going on here. And… the layered cocktail  and the cowl neck dresses are so elegant and shapely. It’s a great time to be a big girl!

Erica text messaged me to say that a friend of hers had come into the tattoo shop, and was wearing a bird’s nest necklace. E. asked if it was one of mine, and the girl said she didn’t know who this Deirdra person was, but EVERYONE asks her that. She tells me what it looks like (goldy-bronze with weirdish pearls), but Oh! Her friend got it in North Carolina.

I check my records, and realize I’ve actually made a nest of that description and sent it to North Carolina.

I fire back, asking if she knows a woman named H. I made two nests for her, each going to women she loved wholeheartedly.

Bingo! The nest on the left went to the woman who is now H’s roommate.

So I once made a nest and sent it winging away to North Carolina, and now, it’s come back to roost.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say that this is a rare instance, and purchasing a nest will not force you to move to Mississippi or anything like that.

I’ll be taking a baker’s dozen to the Ink Spot this evening.  We’ll be working on the rose and the poppy this time, which will round out the largest components of the design.  The rose is a Handel, one of my mother’s favorite flowers.  She grew one next to our front door, untrellised, and the carnivorous beast used to demand blood toll from nearly every visitor.  I can’t tell you how many times that damned rose stabbed me in the left arm growing up, so this seems like fitting tribute.  I planted poppies in our garden when we were still considering a backyard wedding, hoping for a sea of orange and red.  They were a prominent motif on our wedblog (along with ginkgo), and I used them in my bouquet for our cheesy awesome Vegas wedding.

All of these pieces of my life are beautiful, especially together.

Moms love nests filled with as many eggs as they have children!

I went in last night for two hours so Erica could start the color on the flowers. The iris was first, and it’s stunning. It looks like it could rustle with the slightest breeze. The iris is for my grandmother, and I can’t wait to send the photos to her. The lotus was much less time-intensive, but it is no less lovely. I love the pinks and the lovely veining.

Dudes, I am all YARDCORE and stuff.

I’m so very excited. There’s still signficant work to be done, but I’m hoping to get as much done as possible in the spaces between the long weekends of teacher training.

Birthday is May 2nd!

ETA: The Toasterstrumpet informs me the Paypal button has been broken since my WordPress migration. Here’s a link instead.

About an hour later, I walked out with the beginnings of my birthday present!!

(if you click the image, you’ll see a tagged version, which explains the flowers)

It’s done in a medium grey, so it won’t have garish outlines. I think we’re heading somewhere semi-realistic, which should just be AMAZING.

I’m going back next Friday, where we’ll be layin’ down some color!

First, I took Fire Engine Red FOR DARK HAIR ONLY highlight kit, and coated the underlayer of my haircut. Then I threw in a couple of streaks.

Then, I filled in the rest with Torrids’ Audacious Red. That’s when I started getting nervous and wondering if I missed any spots, so I brushed it.

Then, I was really worried; because I had absolutely NO IDEA what this was going to do.

This is what it did.

I actually color-corrected these cameraphone pixx3n (Variations, 1 click of Green) because my shirt is forest green and looked teal. I am still somewhat startled by the conflagratory results. In reality, it’s very pinky-red. You can catch the freaking GLOWING NIMBUS around my head against the back of our ivory house.