Simple but Flirty

Just a short outfit post tonight. It was so warm today, and even tonight. I decided to wear this light polyester dress that I thrifted last year. I love the ruffly little collar and keyhole opening in the front. These little details give a very sweet, feminine feeling to a simple dress. Its so nice to finally shed all of the layers from our long winter and as a result, I've been keeping my wardrobe very basic lately: few accessories paired with flirty, but pretty summer dresses like this one. Part and parcel, my silver spoon bracelet has become a fixture. Several years ago, my mom bought my sister and I these bracelets at a kumquat festival in Florida. It's both elegant and sentimental and always sparks conversation.









Dress: Thrifted Vintage
Belt: Linea Pelle (Marshall's)
Spoon Bracelet: Gift
Earrings: Thrifted
Shoes: Clarks

My short hair really does go along with this desire for simplicity lately. Its so funny, I'm not quite used to seeing myself this way and when I walk in front of a mirror its a bit surprising (but in a good way that makes me giggle at myself). I love the change and the thought of pairing my slightly boyish hair with all of the feminine frocks in my wardrobe.

Good night everybody!

Thrift Finds

This morning, Dan and I headed to his hometown to visit his mother and grandmothers. One of my favorite thrift stores is very nearby, so after lunch we headed there and I set to work perusing for almost an hour. Its always hit and miss with thrift shopping, but this place usually yields something every time I visit. Today I got really lucky.

This first dress is definitely vintage from the late 70's, early 80's. Its short and fun and flirty, with a pretty collar and a fitted bodice. I love that the little sleeves have a slight puff to them. The former owner wrote her name on the tag in marker, so I'm debating whether to cut it out or not. I've never seen that before...has anyone else?

The next one is from BCBG Max Azria. I absolutely love the bold giraffe-like print and the short, almost mod shape. It'll be a good transition piece to fall and winter too and I'll probably end up wearing it as a tunic over dark jeans.



And finally a very pretty, classic polka-dot maxi dress. I didn't think too much of it on the rack, but because of my undying love for dots and current search for more long dresses, I decided to give it a whirl in the dressing room. I'm glad I did. It fits so well! It'll be an easy, classic choice for work-days when I don't feel like fretting over what to wear.



Before leaving this store, I always cruise by the jewelry section to check out the pins and earrings. Today, I found a pretty (if ubiquitous) rose pin. My sister bought one of these a few years ago at a vintage store nearby and I've been keeping an eye out since for one that I liked. Today I got lucky. (please ignore the dog hair, that's also ubiquitous:)

And here's what I wore while shopping...

Dress: Thrifted Vintage (altered by me)
Perforated Wedges: Target
Pin: Thrifted today!
Earrings: Forever 21
Rattan Purse: Thrifted
Bangles: Forever 21 & Thrifted

This dress has become my automatic go-to outfit for summer over the past few years. Its pretty and easy to wear and has pockets, which is a definite bonus. Do you have an automatic default outfit?

dreamsbykelley.wordpress.com

Shortie

I took the plunge today, although it didn't really feel like much of a plunge. I've been thinking about cutting my hair short again for months now and this afternoon I walked into my hairdresser's with a few pictures of Jean Seberg from Breathless in hand, ready to commit. I love my stylist. She's enthusiastic and honest and friendly. She was so excited for me. Its wonderful to find someone who you trust implicitly with your hair.

The last time I got it cut, I went to someone else at the same salon with a similar request. The woman was really nice, but she basically tried to convince me not to do it and said she was afraid I might really regret it and cry (for some reason, they always think I'm going to cry:). While I appreciated her candor, I found myself in the odd position of explaining to her that, yes, I had cut my hair that short before and that ultimately it's just hair and will eventually grow back. It was rather humorous.

Today was a completely different story. I can't wait to play around with it and see what I can do.











(Mena wanted in on the photo action today)

Blouse: Thrifted
Shorts: Anthropologie Sale
Sunglasses: Vintage Store
Earrings: Forever 21
Handbag: Thrifted
Shoes: Target
Ring: Gift

And I also bought a new pair of purple wedge platform sandals on sale today! Luckily I just happened to be passing by my favorite shoe store and decided to pop in on a whim. They're made by Born, which is quickly turning into one of my preferred shoe brands, especially for heels. As the salesgirl said, they're just so comfortable.

For years, I wouldn't dare wear platforms or heels over three inches. I'm almost six feet tall anyway, so I thought I'd just stick out even more. And I was convinced that I'm such a clutz that I'd constantly be tripping and falling. But the other day, when I said something about my lack of coordination to a friend, he looked at me for a minute and then told me he thinks I don't give myself enough credit. I've decided that I think he's right. I can handle walking in these shoes.

Its funny how the stories that stick with us from our childhoods sometimes shape who we think we are. I grew really, really fast in elementary school (an entire foot in one year!) and ended up feeling really awkward while adjusting to my new body. Ever since, I've always thought of myself as an inelegant, clumsy person who tends to physically stick out. But maybe I've just been seeing it all wrong and taking lots of things about myself for granted.

Oh, and if you get a chance, I started a new blog for my art called Dreams By Kelley. Stop by if you get a chance!

Back Again

Hello everyone. Its been a while (again). I've been home sick for the past two days and have been mulling over quite a few things. I've been feeling an itch lately, but one that I can't seem to locate to successfully scratch it:) I realized looking through my blog roll last night that I really miss blogging. As a general rule, I tend to get caught up in what I think is expected of me and let those perceptions dictate what I do and how I do it. Its only recently that I've realized I need to trust myself and do things because I want to do them, rather than looking to other people for a guide as to what I should do. My husband is really great at following his heart and interests and I'm slowly (thankfully) coming to learn some things from him.

This is such a cliche that its somewhat hard to write, but here goes...what does it mean to be successful? I have always had a mishmash of goals that fit into that category in my mind, but they always fit into my desire to receive recognition and approval from other people. I'm beginning to see that I have to be happy with myself whether I get that approval or not. When I stopped consistently blogging about ten months ago, it was partially because I thought my efforts weren't interesting enough. Now, I'm beginning to see that that was a lot of melarky because they interested me and the blog was always meant to be one of my creative outlets. So, in a long delayed move, I'm going to start blogging again about the things that I'm interested in -- poetry, art, vintage, thrifting, photography.

I also started another blog (that's also listed in my blog roll) called Dreams By Kelley. There I'll post several pieces of my art every week. My husband Dan is writing a graphic novel. Every night, he sits down and writes one page; no matter what he always finds time to do this. I'm going to follow his lead and stop being so hard on myself. Dan always says that its not how many times you get knocked down that matters in life, but how many times you pick yourself back up again. Here goes nothing.

Poems by Matthea Harvey

*Some Poems by Matthea Harvey*

SETTING THE TABLE

To cut through night you'll need your sharpest scissors. Cut around the birch, the bump of the bird nest on its lowest limb. Then with your nail scissors, trim around the baby beaks waiting for worms to fall from the sky. Snip around the lip of the mailbox and the pervert's shoe peeking out from behind the Chevy. Before dawn, rip the silhouette from the sky and drag it inside. Frame the long black stripe and hang it in the dining room. Sleep. When you wake, redo the scene as day in doily. Now you have a lacy fence, a huge cherry blossom of a holly bush, a birch sugared with snow. Frame the white version and hang it opposite the black. Get your dinner and eat it between the two scenes. Your food will taste just right.

YOU HAVE MY EYES

Give them Back.

OUT OF ORDER

Today it's about truth and hope

and there are no ha-ha's

between me and the living.

World, I'm no one

to complain about you.

All poems from Modern Life by Matthea Harvey

Work in Progress

Lately I've been spending most of my creative time working on a collage, mixed media piece. Its going to take a while, but I love throwing myself into a project and slowly finishing each element. Its been particularly slow lately as I've been sick all week. Yuck! Here are some photos of the work in progress.

Every time I draw a picture, I feel like it has an elaborate story hidden within it. Somebody commented to this effect a few posts ago and it got me thinking about ways that I can incorporate text into the picture.

...and a gratuitous cool shoe shot because I walked around our apartment breaking these beauties in all day and just wanted to share them, since I can't wear them outside yet :)

How was your weekend?

Secrets of the Sea

Can you tell? I drew this while watching Ondine:)

Lady in the Clay

Since making my resolution to try out different forms of artistic expression, I've been looking around my community for classes to take. The first one of these that I signed up for was a sculpture workshop at a local museum. It was so wonderful! The class was only four hours long and among the ten students, most of us were beginners. We arranged the work areas around the model, the instructor did a short demonstration of the method we were supposed to employ and then we took a block of clay and some tools and just started to sculpt. Every five minutes or so, we would move to a different area of the room to see the model from that perspective and the instructor walked around and gave suggestions.

The time flew by so quickly, I could hardly believe that it was four hours long. In the end, we all lined up our pieces and talked about our observations. My sculpture was pretty much what she said it would be -- it resembles a woman, but there really wasn't time for too many details. Instead we focused on identifying the planes that we observed and shaving off pieces of the clay that corresponded. It felt so good to get lost in the process and covered in clay; to learn something new.

I liked the class so much that I'm going to take a longer course over the summer.

Stars in Her Eyes

Hello Again

Well, its been quite a while; much longer than I'd anticipated when I came to the conclusion that I needed a break from blogging. Six months ago we moved, and although I kept taking some photos, they never made it up onto the blog. Taking pictures of myself became a little bit boring after a while and about a month after the move I found a full time job. In the mean time I've been trying to figure some things out about myself and how I want to spend the free time that I have now. The conclusion that I've come to is that I want to...for lack of a better word...spend it creating things -- drawing painting and trying out forms of artistic expression that I've never attempted before.

As a result, I'm going to shift the focus of the blog. I still love vintage and shoes and my amateur photography and thrifting, but I'd like to use Kaleidoscopic Refrains more to showcase the art that I'm making room for in my life now. (Although those other things will still make appearances here:) If any of the followers of this blog or readers aren't interested anymore, I can't say that I blame you, but I need to follow my instincts and interests.

So from now on I will dedicate at least a half hour to an hour a day to art without worrying that it isn't good enough or doesn't meet some imagined standard. To encourage myself in this endeavor, I will post images of what I produce here. I don't necessarily expect any comments, this is for me, to encourage myself to pursue something that I've always loved, but haven't always had the confidence to see through. I will make the confidence now.

As a sort of inaugural, here' s my first new post...and thanks to anyone who's reading this and decides to stick around.

-Kelley