My December 2015 Mini Capsule Wardrobe + Bombsheller!

Welcome friends,

Today I'm happy to reveal my mini capsule wardrobe I'll be wearing this month for Dressember 2015.  If you're not sure about my spelling in that sentence I promise it was on purpose.  I'm doing a great fashion based challenge called Dressember for the month of December.  It involves wearing just dresses to help raise awareness, start conversations about, and put a stop to human trafficking.  You can read more about in my last post where I explain in depth and help me support the Dressember Foundation here.

Dressember Capsule Wardrobe

With wearing dresses I wanted to have enough in my capsule collection that I don't need to be constantly doing laundry.  So I settled on 7 dresses, 7 pairs of leggings (because I have a ton of leggings, I culled some, but I still might have an addiction), 7 tops, sweaters, and jackets, and 3 pairs of shoes, totaling to 24 pieces.

Items still for sale:
2 - Her Universe◊, they're almost out of 9th Doctor dresses, but 10's is in stock here.
3 - Cherry Velvet several other patterns available in the same cut here.
4 - City Chic, available in kite print, big polka dots, and small polka dots.
5 - LuLaRoe "Nicole" dresses in limited sizes and colors available in my friend Nicole's shop. (tell her I sent you!)
7 - ModCloth◊, available in 6 other colors, plus several other cuts.

Still for sale:
12 - Switchfoot Tee, it runs big so I'm able to wear the XL, found in their shop here.
14 - LuLaRoe "Sarah" cardigans in limited sizes and colors available in my friend Nicole's shop. (tell her I sent you!)

Items available currently:
15 - Bombsheller "WyvernScales" leggings available here as a limited edition item up to size 6x (I wear 2X), please use code "GeekMeUp" for a special affiliate discount!
16 - ASOS shimmer disco leggings available in red and black.
18 - LuLaRoe leggings in limited sizes and colors available in my friend Nicole's shop. (tell her I sent you!)
20 - ModCloth◊ Fresh Take leggings in Blue, Green, and Red/Pink.

23 - Converse Chuck Taylor Lo in Cosmic.

Wohoo! I'm so glad to finally show you all this collection.  For some reason the editing seemed to take forever, which makes me extra glad to be done putting this together.  Feel free to ask me questions in the comments!

More About Bombsheller

So I heard about Bombsheller a while back in an article detailing how comic book author Kelly Sue DeConnick's books were getting leggings made all the way up to size 6x.  I immediately had to check out their site and was pleasantly surprised to find that yes, they're selling larger sizes up to a 2X in nearly every designs now, with up to 4X in most designs, which just started yesterday!  Eventually they want to have up to 6X too.  So they excited me for that....

Then I found out that they're an ethical place to shop too!  They make every pair of leggings to order in Seattle, WA, USA, with fabric sourced from Italy that's also ethically made.  Awesome right?

It gets better, their designs are fun, comfortable, and artist designed!  So you can download a template and create your very own pattern.  Not that you'd need to since there are several hundred fantastic patterns to choose from, there's comic book themes, antique maps, layer cake, geometric designs off all kinds, circuit boards, flowers and way more.

They were kind enough to send me a pair of their leggings to try so I could tell you all about them.  They do not disappoint!  They're very comfy, and true to their size chart.  Here are some shots of me wearing them, with more to come in my outfits as the month continues.

Ok, here's a bit of midriff for you all!  Not too tight, but it might show lines under clothes.  If I try sizing up to a 3X next time I'll let you all know if there's a big difference, but this is fairly normal fit for this weight of leggings in my experiences so far.

As you can see there's extra length at the ankle, so tall folks need not worry.  I'm 5'6" and seemed to have about 3 inches in extra length, not too much, though it might be for someone under 5' tall.

My leggings above are the #WyvernScales design that's made in association with Espionage Cosmetics.  (a company that makes geeky themed makeup!)  It's a limited edition design so if you're in love with it go here to snap it up now, it'll only be available until January 1 2016!  And be sure to use code "GeekMeUp" for a discount and so they know I sent you.

That's about all for today's post other than this bit of fun from my studio:

I decided to try using an exercise ball as my desk chair.  Of course I'll have the added fun of getting used to it while wearing skirts all month.  haha  Thank goodness for leggings, right?  I was given an exercise ball from Forever Flex to try out and I'd definitely recommend it!  The 65mm size is just right for me as a chair.

That's all for today, but I'll be back again soon with a crop of new book reviews.  See you in a day or two!

Love,
Lydia

Beginning to Decorate

Hello everyone,

I've spent some of my weekend working on my studio.  It's finally starting to feel like my own space as I put things in their place and nail up various shelves and planning tools.  At the new house Bryan and I will have a shared workspace in our second story "rec room".  The space is a great size for an extra large office that will accommodate our three desks, all my art storage needs and incorporate a little lounge area.  Our end goal is using the upstairs space more for our down time needs, so we can keep our downstairs spaces cleaner since they're more public.  For now there are still a enough boxes left to be unpacked that it's hard to get a good picture of the room.

So now I'm feeling good about how our space is coming along.  Here are a couple shots of my corner.  I still have more to put on the walls and supplies to sort out, but it's coming along nicely.

This picture is from Friday and over the weekend I completed a couple of small projects, which are going to enhance my work corner even more.

Splatter Painted Paper Honeycomb Balls

First off I got a pack of these tissue paper honeycomb balls◊ and decided to DIY a splatter paint job on one with watercolor.  I think the first try looks ok, and I'm going to do another with acrylic paints to see if it works better or just ends up sticking the paper together too much.

Here are really easy instructions for how to do it.  First off you'll want newspaper to protect all surfaces near your project.  You probably need two sheets, I only used one in the image above because I'm lazy.  It makes for messes later though, and that's never worth it!

Next off pick your color scheme,  I decided to go with mostly cooler tones.  Here are my colors:
Winsor and Newton - Potter's Pink◊ (very delicate old rose color)
Winsor and Newton - Winsor Red◊ (probably the best true red watercolor I own!)
Winsor and Newton - Cobalt Turquoise Light◊ (this is one of my favorite shades!)
Cotman - Phtalo Blue [Green Shade]◊ (high staining color that's brilliant and good for the budget)
Holbein - Lavender◊ (this color is lovely though it contains some white, making it more opaque than true watercolor)
Holbein - Cobalt Violet Light◊ (a fantastic purple that's quite lightfast too)
Lukas - Gold◊ (a good color that looks a little funny in the palette, but dries down nicer)

Here's what they look like with water.

For this project most any brush will do, though it might get ruined if you're too vigorous.  For real brushes I loaded the brush with paint and flicked my wrist to move the paint.  The picture above gives you an idea of how much water was used VS paint.  It really only takes a little!  However I only mixed enough of each color to create the one honeycomb ball, so I wouldn't be wasteful.  Also for opening some of the tougher paint tubes I use a silicone jar opener!  It works wonders, and I've been given several over the years as freebies.

And here my first version is done.  It's more pastel, which I love, but you can use less water to get brighter results too.  I found that because the paper is easily saturated you can only use two colors at a time before letting everything you've done dry (about an hour and a half) before going on the the next colors.  This honeycomb has a string you can hang it from so you could paint it while it's hanging to be more neat, especially if you have a porch where you can set things up.  Sunshine would definitely speed up the drying process, my work was done on a rainy day, so it took longer to dry.  Then you just have to decide how you want to display them!

Refinished Shelf Cubes

A while back we got a set of shelf cubes for our bedroom, but we don't need them at the new house because I now have enough space for a bedside table rather than having the bed too close to a wall as I did at our old rental.  So I decided I could put the cubes up in my studio as extra storage for little inspirational items.  The cubes came in a set of three different sizes and though it looks like they might not carry the plain ones at Target anymore here are some similar ones from Amazon◊.

The ones I had were more matte in finish so I didn't even need to sand them, I just used two coats of custom mixed paint colors.  If you have shelves with a shinier finish rough them up a bit all over with a fine grit sandpaper before painting them so the paint will stick and not peel off.  I used Winsor and Newton Acrylics because I had a lot left over from college (Freshman year kits were required gear!), but you could use most any brand you want.  If you wanted to buy online you might want to give Utrecht Acrylics a try, they're a good deal for good quality paints. Some brands and colors may need more coats than others.  I added a good bit of white paint to all three of my chosen shades, which helps make them more opaque.

Here are my finished shelves!  I set them down to dry on newspaper after each coat, and held them on my hand to paint them.  If you want to paint them easier without having to hold them I recommend using a cork trivet or putting them on top of a cardboard box.  If you have drips it will stick to newspaper and might mean you have to touch up a little later, cardboard is less likely to run into this problem, and cork is free of it unless you have a bad enough drip that it just peels the paint off.

Mint, lavender, and dark blue are some of my favorite colors.  And finally here's a shot of my studio with the shelves and my watercolor reference chart set up.  It's still pretty crazy, but getting better every day.  I almost know where all my supplies are!

That's all for today.  Let me know what are some of your favorite colors to decorate with in the comments!  Thanks.

Love,
Lydia

Mixed Bag

Hi everyone,

So today's post is a bit of a mixed bag with a couple comics and other things in store.

First off there's news:

Bryan and I had been planning quietly to go to Texas for a little vacation, but we hit a snafu almost as soon as I announced it.  Because Bryan changed jobs in the last year he makes a little more, maybe 15% after taxes.  However when I sent in my income based repayment information so good old Sallie Mae, oh wait, I mean Navient (their sad rebranding to try to shed the image attached to their other name) I got the results in the last week of what our adjusted payments would be.  Somehow a 15% jump in income means we can suddenly afford double the payments each month.  I don't know how their system works, but it sure is confusing!  What this mean is we're giving Navient an extra round trip flight to Texas each month.  So only I will be able to go for the wedding, and I won't spend much extra time there.  Maybe I'll be able to do something fun while I'm there meeting new friends and seeing old ones, or perhaps Bryan and I can go on some other adventure closer to home.  Either way I'll still be working on the travel series, but it will just end up different than I initially thought it would be.  Overall it's a little disappointing, but not the end of the world.  It leaves plenty of other possibilities open closer to home.  I'll have the next part of my travel series up either September 21st or 28th, so be on the lookout for that!

Secondly I'm thinking about how I can keep moving towards having a more ethical wardrobe and habits in general.  I've been testing out Thred Up ($20 off for you in the link there!), a way to sell or buy second hand clothes online and plan to do a comparison for you all, since I think Poshmark is also a site you all might be interested in.  They do basically the same thing, but with Poshmark you do more of the work and make more profit.  We'll see if it's worth it.  I started comparing my summer wardrobe, which at best has about 5% as ethical.  I'd have to check tags to know for sure, but I'm lazy and haven't yet.  However, with my fall wardrobe there's at least 5%, maybe a little more.  So that's progress of a sort.  And as I look at buying anything new I'm trying to check options from my ethical clothing list first these days.  Then there's Etsy, which is a fantastic place for gifts as well as clothes.  (I start my Christmas shopping early!)  And I'd also like to visit local thrift stores more often, which may turn into a new goal if I can get my husband, Bryan, on board!  I really like the ideas for repurposing and glaming up thrift store finds in this video below:

I think this means I'll be featuring some more Pinterest and DIY projects here soon!  Also my studio is slowly starting to get unpacked.  Finally!  haha  That's been a long time coming, and I'm glad to have work space again.  I also have the challenge of decorating it, so decor DIY here I come!

And now for the book review of the week:

This week I picked up The Ancient Magus Bride Volume 2 by Kore Yamazaki and it was just as good as the first volume!  There are more secrets, depth, and character development packed in this volume.  Chise finished things in the town of cats and meets some new fae.  We see her learning magic and find out how it drains her.  And finally she begins to make allies of who we thought might be enemies before we get to the edge of your seat ending.  I'll be honest, I kind of wish I hadn't heard of this series until all the volumes are published, because now I have to wait until December to read more!  haha Really though it's a great series and I'll have another pick for you all next week.

Love,
Lydia

Days 28-31

Hey folks,

Well, this has been a crazy week!  We got about 3 inches of snow Tuesday night (that's crisis level for North Carolina) and Bryan stayed home from work Wednesday.  It was nice to have him at home though it definitely shook up my usual weekly schedule.  I've been working in fits and spurts as I can find the time all this week.  Thursday night, when Bryan got home from work, we ended up spending half the evening visiting our urgent care doctor and finding out that Bryan has Shingles.  He's has a rash most of this week that was bugging him and that explains why.  So we got meds and such and will hope it goes away fast; I hate seeing him uncomfortable.

Though Thursday did bring that craziness it also brought one of the loveliest sunsets I've seen in a while.  I managed to get a half decent camera phone shot for you all here:

As for Friday, I worked on a new piece and straightened up my desk.  In starting the new piece I found an unfinished watercolor that I'd forgotten about.  It's the one propped up on my desk here:

It still needs a good bit of work, but so far it's pretty solid.  It's from a still life of tiny shells I had set up back in July when we went to Myrtle Beach.  The other things in from the shell painting are various other works in progress, though it's not all of them.  I will confess that I love starting new pieces, but sometimes it's harder for me to finish them all.  It's definitely compounded by the fact that I enjoy having a variety of pieces to work on at any one time.  However, things are definitely moving along well despite any distractions from my personal life.  And I found some little plastic cups to put my pastels in, solving the organizational problem I mentioned last time.

My new painting will be a mix of watercolor with some inks and pastel.  Here's a shot with only a little color added:

It's a more figurative form of portrait that's based off a character I've created for a game.  She's a lady thief and an albino, who's convinced yellow is her lucky color.  In terms of style I've taken some inspiration from playing card designs as well as Manuscript illustrations.  I've worked a good bit with more Irish styled pieces, though this is drawing from more general medieval examples.  I still have a bit to design in the border as well, though I've got some ideas for it already.  I've been enjoying the style of work and may make several more to I get a good series going.  It's definitely the kind of piece I wouldn't mind doing commissions in!

Beyond all that the deadline for my Kickstarter is nearing.  I could use all the help I can get!  Either way 52 pieces will be made, I just like thinking I have the support so I won't be as stressed while making them.  And the idea of making 365 pieces will be sad to let go of.  If you can spread the word I'd appreciate it!  - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014

See you all Monday!

Love, Lydia

Day 2

Today I got to work with some of the fantastic art supplies I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law.  I'm so excited to try all the new things out!  Here's a overview of the things:

Mona Lisa brand gold, silver and copper leaf (perfect to give a bit of shine to collages)

All the Neocolor II pastels I needed to round out my collection (I've only been getting the most lightsafe of colors, it's a bit of an obsession I have.  But it made collecting all the shades a bit easier, not that it's too hard when they under $2 each.)  I really like the Neocolor II line of pastels because they're wax based and water soluble.  Which means they basically can be used like watercolors.  They've been one of my favorite tools to work with this past year.

I got a great little "color theory" set of Shiva Casein paints.  They work similarly to watercolor and acrylic paints, but give a bit of the look of gouache with a lovely more velvety matte finish.  They use a milk based emulsifier for the paints, which I had never heard of until I happened to read about it in a book.

Sennelier masking fluid, which I've heard great things about thanks to the Art of the Carolinas show back in November.  Masking fluid is used to cover areas of paper or canvas that you want to keep white while you paint a darker color over and around it.  When the color's dry the masking fluid can be peeled off to reveal all the areas of white you wanted to preserve.  It's perfect for making bright stars in a starry sky.

Additionally I got a couple of great books on art from my own mom as well as my mother-in-law.  But I'll save talked about them for another day.

Today I tried out the casein paints and the masking fluid (which you can find at Dick Blick Art Stores).  I actually tried them together, but am a little mixed on what I think of the results.  Here's what the products look like for reference:

So the casein dries fast and is definitely nice and matte like gouache.  I can see why it's called velvety, and I look forward to using it more.  Today I put down some backgrounds for collages.  They're pretty bright since the color theory set came only with red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and violet....no white of black to mellow them down with.  I tried mixing colors while wet and pretty much used them straight from the tube with a brushful of water here and there for blending or to re-wet the colors on my palette.  Here's a picture of the results:

I used a fan brush to apply the masking fluid, thinking the texture would give the piece an interesting feel.  The words ended up being a bit harder to make out, I think partially because I went over them more than I should have.  I'm going to test more in the future though.  The small details from the fan brush came out really nicely though, so I'm pleased with that.

If you couldn't tell my desk is rather messy and due for a cleaning, but I thought I'd share a picture of it too since I feel like spaces give some clues as to personality and so many other things.  I love seeing great artists studios to get a feeling for how they worked.

I don't tend to mind the clutter too much, but I've hit a point where I don't have the space to work!  haha 


So there are my first 4 new pieces of the year!  I can't wait to see how they end up developing.

More tomorrow.
Love, Lydia