Details: Pilcro sweater, Prairie Trail Goods vest, Cartonnier pants, Rafael Alfandary necklace, J. Crew shoes

Thoughts: This vest is one of the pieces I’m most excited to wear this summer… so excited, in fact, that I couldn’t wait any longer to wear it. So I tried to come up with a cozy way to make it work for the current season. I chose this sweater based on the colours in the quilt pattern, and I am pumped about the combo! The striped pants add a bit of subtle pattern-mixing, plus the colour works better with the palette here than a simple black would have done.

Details: Wilfred sweater, Ports blazer, Ralph Lauren skirt, Nocona belt, Chelsea Crew shoes

Thoughts: This outfit was, once more, inspired by some RL runway looks. This belt-over-sweater-over-skirt formula is making me very happy right now. An outfit in head-to-toe shades of brown is very “RL country” which is my style sweet spot, especially for spring/fall. Do I wish the skirt was a smiiiidge longer? Yes, always. But overall, it’s all good.

Details: Club Monaco turtleneck, Le Chateau vest, Twinset blazer, Banana Republic pants

Thoughts: I was going for a little baroque, a little dandy vibe here, and I think I mostly pulled it off. The pattern mixing works for me, and you know I am a ride-or-die for vest+blazer combos. I’m slightly undecided on whether the turtleneck is a bit too heavy, but I am also not sure if a better alternative was at hand (I don’t think a button down shirt would have worked).

Details: Wilfred sweater & coat, Denim & Supply dress, Ecco boots

Thoughts: When you’ve got a patchwork of patterns … adding one more to the mix is the obvious outfit-making strategy, no? As always, I am relying on a cohesive colour palette to push me into that “YES” territory. I think I made it 😉

Details: Le Lis top, Holding Horses tunic, Topshop skirt, Lena Bernard necklace, Zara shoes

Thoughts: This is very similar to a couple of other outfits I wore; I’m just mixing up the same (or similar) pieces in different ways. If the formula ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Just improvise on the same!

Details: United Colours of Benetton poncho, Frame jeans, Office London shoes

Thoughts: This poncho was not an automatic thrift buy for me, believe it or not. My husband pushed me into getting it, as I was having doubts. He was correct. It’s too strange and wonderful — wonderfully strange! — of a piece to pass up. I don’t normally like overtly-branded clothing, but the colourful lettering here works for me. It’s so fun! Plus, I like the message (cleverly) worked in: tutto va bene (tton). Everything is okay. Some days you need that reminder, you know?

I am sure no one was waiting for this update with bated breath, but here it is: I did not get accepted to the Royal Bison spring art market. It was a long shot and (perhaps) a more political process than I realized, so while I was very disappointed initially, I’ve become pretty philosophical about it. Reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin helped, especially bits like this one:

“How shall we measure success?

It isn’t popularity, money, or critical esteem. Success occurs in the privacy of the soul. It comes in the moment you decide to release the work, before exposure to a single opinion. When you’ve done all you can to bring out the work’s greatest potential. When you’re pleased and ready to let go.”

So I am choosing not to see this as a setback but as a window of opportunity. I am once again free from any need to consider market dictates – what people might want to buy – when deciding what to create, and free from deadlines as well. I haven’t decided whether to apply to other markets this year. I kinda like all this freedom, to be honest, and at the end of the day … all the finished hoops that have been piling up don’t take up a lot of space. If I don’t sell any of them, it’s fine.

Speaking of which, let’s take a look:

Another abstract floral. It always makes me happy when I’m working with bold colour. Something like this doesn’t challenge me in a technical sense, so it’s the kind of thing I like to work on when I’m looking for space for quiet reflection. The work (which is still time-consuming even when it’s not challenging) is a sort of meditative ritual.

Landscapes have been the challenge I’ve set myself this year. They take a lot of time and are, therefore, a commitment and sign of confidence in my own ability to bring a design vision to life. With a lot of these, the picture doesn’t fully come together until the end so I have to trust my own skills while I’m doing the laborious leg work. Sometimes when I am part-way through a project like this, I am convinced that I’ve messed up and then I have to talk myself into continuing to the end … and usually, it does come together!

This was just a quick little hoop I made for myself because I’ve been wanting a Matisse print for a while. And I went on making a few other things for myself too:

A fancy peacock to join my frog prince.

Can you believe I didn’t have any cactus hoops of my own? All the previous ones I made were sold.

Queen Elizabeth I was one of my first cartoon portraits. It seemed fitting to add her mother, Anne Boleyn, to the line-up.

This was my second attempt at a Margot Tennenbaum cartoon, and I think it’s miles better than the first. It was meant for the Royal Bison market but now … maybe I’ll just keep it.

Ditto with this Frida portrait – perhaps my fave one yet.

Back to the Klimt floral theme, but a slightly new/different take. I loved this so much – designing it, making it, AND the end result – that I’m working on a second one now.

Last but not least, I wanted to experiment with thread painting in a non-landscape design and what better than one of my favourite flowers. Very happy with how this one turned out.

Spring is the start of the “busy season” each year, and this year I have a lot of extra “life stuff” on my plate, so I’ll be taking a slower pace with, well, every creative pursuit including this one. Which is ok. And it’s the upside of putting monetization on the back burner. For now 🙂

Details: J. Crew shirt, Everlane sweater, Mexx skirt, Pendleton coat (all secondhand)

Thoughts: GUYS!! THIS COAT!! I am in love. Maybe manifesting works after all. I found this amazing vintage Pendleton coat — in mint condition — for a killer price on Poshmark. Honestly, I think it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time (and swooping in quickly) which is the “secret” to all secondhand shopping. This coat is gorgeous and a total outfit-maker. I’ve been wearing it a LOT lately; it’s an instant “pick me up”. And the timing is right too; the temps are finally rising, so I can ditch my winter coat in favour of lighter ones like this one. Yay for spring and yay for amazing coats!

Details: Club Monaco turtleneck (retail), LizSport vest, Ralph Lauren jacket, Topshop pants (all thrifted)

Thoughts: This was one of my fave recent outfits; it all came together perfectly. I had the pants and vest set aside as “combo” but was missing the topper. I tried a few and nothing was really gelling. Then I remembered that I had this 90s classic monogram RL blazer which I thrifted a while ago but hadn’t worn yet because I couldn’t find the right outfit for it. Well, problem solved. I don’t wear navy a lot, but it’s the right neutral for this colour palette, and the preppiness of the blazer fits right in with the rest.

Details: Rebel Sugar turtleneck (gift), Jacob vest, no label skirt (both thrifted)

Thoughts: I’m calling this vibe “baroque goth”. It’s an aesthetic I didn’t end up exploring as much as I had hoped this winter. I think the main reason for that is the fact that I don’t have a lot of pieces that speak to the ‘baroque’ part. Nor have I been able to find things under that category that I’ve wanted to add to my closet. But that’s ok. No need to force things; if it’s meant to be, it will happen organically. Like this outfit.

Details: Club Monaco turtleneck (retail), Chaps vest, Malorie Urbanovich skirt, Paloma Picasso belt (all thrifted)

Thoughts: In case you couldn’t tell, this was an outfit inspired by a Ralph Lauren runway look. The runway version had an almost identical fair isle patterned topper; mine is a vest rather than a jacket, but that’s ok. The key styling note was the belt – RL does a lot of belts over sweaters with skirts (or dresses), which is new territory for me, and that can really transform the proportions of an outfit. This Paloma Picasso belt is a real statement too. It actually works better on skirts rather than pants because belt loops can get in the way of the chain (yes, I tried).

Details: Topshop dress, vintage cardigan (both thrifted), Zara shoes (retail)

Thoughts: My version of transitional dressing almost always involves tights. I hesitated over the colour of the tights in this case. I wasn’t sure whether to go with a ‘safe’ choice like black or a dark green that would blend into the background more; but I ended up choosing burgundy instead — which picks up the red in the floral pattern — and I think that bolder choice works well. I stuck with the funkier vibe by choosing chonky platforms rather than a more delicate shoe. This is still something I’m getting my eyes used to (the different shoe proportions) but I think it helps ‘modernize’ the outfit as a whole.