Macaw

 

Somebody wise and renowned once said "Never wear yellow eyeshadow with blue eyeliner and bright red lipstick", but apparently I never got the memo. I personally thought it turned out great! I don't know any real makeup routines, and I got into it later in life than most girls, but I kinda just move colors and stuff around on my face until I get something I like. I've gotten a little better at it than when I first started, figuring out what works for oily skin and what colors go well with a generally olive complexion (most!). Maybe one day I'll look up makeup tutorials on Youtube channels and get really good at it, but videos bore me in general, and I'm kinda addicted to cheap drugstore makeup. So pretty much, I'm lazy as crap and not willing to spend the extra time and $$.

This dress was a thriftstore find (surprise, surprise) and I wear it to work all the time in the summer. It's a tiiiinnnyyyy bit little-kiddy, and not high fashion by any means, but it's cute and I get compliments on it all the day long, so I'm not complaining. I just wear it over a coordinating camisole and matching jewelry, slip on some sandals, and I'm out the door. My makeup probably took way longer than it took to create and wear the outfit.

The overall effect of the bright colors together reminded me of the tropical parrot, the macaw, hence the title name. I'm definitely not one to shy away from colors, there just has to be something holding them all together, an underlying backbone so to speak. I keep all the colors to a specific spectrum, and they all have to coordinate; it's not just a slapdash thing. It's difficult to describe, but it's like a mental closing the circle thing. Similar to when the conclusion of a story ends in a way that throwbacks to its beginning. A full circle. Everything has to mesh. I could just be crazy, who knows? I just know what feels right and my personal style is a way to indulge in that artistic compulsion.

Dress, necklace - thriftstore

Earrings - boutique store

Sandals - DSW

<3 The Magpie

Dual Tone

My grandfather died over the summer. I've avoided making this post because I wanted to write so much, yet so little. I knew he was dying, and yet the knowledge of his death shocked me to the core. He had a brave, full life and was well-taken care of at his end. I got to see him, one last time before he passed. I wish I had seen him more. Regrets are those things in life that can never be experienced again, no matter what you do. I was overwhelmed by eternity and the existence-less of a life that had once burned so brightly. How do you name or contain grief? It shivers in your bones and seeps through the cracks in little slivers of tears in the most ordinary of moments. Driving my car, walking down a grocery aisle, talking to a customer at work; during all these small mundane tasks, I suddenly would be swept away by the knowledge that somebody I loved was dead. I will not forget you! my mind cried, I will never let your memory be vanquished!

And yet. Here I was putting on pretty dresses and wearing pretty things, continuing on with my own little chores and work and school, as if nothing had changed. And maybe that's the crux of the matter; you think the world will change, that life itself will change, but maybe only you really change. Maybe it's only inwardly that your soul cries out in anguish, but the sun still rises and sets, and the earth still turns, and the people still walk by. I am not an expert on death, and I certainly hope not to be. Neither do I think death is a part of life, but rather a loss, a void of previous existence. But I can still enjoy the sweetness and brightness of the world and do my best not to languish in despair. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comeths in the morning" Psalm 30:5b. This summer was a long night of weeping, but joy has returned, and tomorrow is a new morning.

Dress - thrifted

Earrings - World Market

<3 The Magpie

Daisies & Foxes

It's funny to look at the photos I take of myself and see how strange and weird and awkward they can be. Look, it's me in a photograph taking photos! Of myself! I can see me thinking about how strange and weird and awkward I am in the strange/weird/awkward photos! That's so meta! But really, it's been good for me. As much as I shake my head over the excessive silliness of it all, making myself pick up my camera and go out and take photographs has been cathartic in a way. It pushes me to consider  each shot and really think out the process of how I want to set an image up. It helps me practice a technique used by artists and even athletes, where you imagine the scene ahead of time of what you want to create, and then you go and try to replicate that in real life. Of course, the method and final product is never perfect and improvisation is a large part of its creativity, but actual process of visualizing the idea is what is important.

Aside from that vast and major importance stuff that I'm definitely employing very seriously and studiously (I'm trying to make up for my earlier criticism of strange/weird... nope, still doesn't help), let's talk about clothes! This outfit is one of those light silly things I wear to work, where it has to be functional and cool enough for the heat of the day. I really liked the stripes with the daisy pattern skirt, and I couldn't resist wearing little gold foxes in my hair. I wish it had been breezy enough to wear the cardigan all day, because I definitely matched my eyeshadow to it on purpose. Yay colors! Yay for matching eyeshadow! I threw in the orange earrings just because I could. It felt like it worked.

Heheh, I'm so mysterious as I stare off into the distance. 

Shirt - thrifted

Skirt - TJ Maxx

Cardigan - Banana Republic

Sandals - DSW

Earrings - gift

Fox clips - Charmin Charlie's

<3 The Magpie

Body Electric

I bought a bright candy-colored eyeshadow palette from a Walgreens just in time for the summer. It's a cheap Wet n Wild thing, but they do have great eyeshadows, despite my face now owning flashing neon signs winking above my eyes. Sorrynotsorry. I wore this outfit to work so it's pretty simple. I work at a coffee place where we aren't required to wear a uniform, but you definitely don't want to wear anything that you can't throw in the wash, because your clothes WILL get dirty. So I sometimes try to dress a little cute, but the kind of cute that's chill and easy going, and still light weight enough for the summer heat. The lipstick I added later, because why not go full neon? The colors seemed to crackle and spark, like hot pink orange electricity in my mind.

Every stance I've ever had with color is now falling away into dust and whole new exciting fields are opening up to explore, now that I've moved past particular biases. I used to hate pink; loathe it. And look at me now, excitedly slathering it on my face while it sparkles behind my eyes. I wish color was as exciting for everyone, but it does take work to bring your mind around and some cultural perceptions are hard to overcome.

 

Shirt - hand-me-down

Skirt, necklace - thrifted

Earrings - gift

Sandals - DSW

<3 The Magpie

Eternal Ruby

I suppose there is nothing special about work clothes, but taking these photos was more about creating a mood and playing around with angles and lighting. I tried to suffuse them with a sense of light; almost to a painterly effect. I'm still struggling to bring what I envision to life, but half of any endeavor is the attempts to get there, no?

Aside from that, I was riveted by the strips of shadow and light created by simple hanging blinds. I always find it so strange, yet so marvelous that much of what holds wonder in this world is an unintended consequence of a subject's original purpose. How much are we missing simply because we cease to see?

Also, the title of this blog post was taken from the name of the lipstick I'm wearing in the pictures. As I've mentioned before, isn't the power of names a funny thing?

I took numerous photos of the blinds, exploring their edges and angles from all sides, each photo a staccato beat of an overall tune. I usually try to par down my excess similitudes, but this time, it's the slight differences in each frame that held my attention. Look closely at each photograph and you start to appreciate how light creates its own weight and mass, and how the differences and similarities between the photos start to ebb and fuse.

Shirt, skirt - thrifted

Necklace - Walmart

Earrings - unknown

Headband - World Market

Sandals - DSW

<3 The Magpie