Still More Art Week

Dani Gets Stuffed

Art Week continues

So Many Choices

Why I'm Not Dressing This Week...

...because I had a colonoscopy this morning.

Although the actual procedure--from admittance to discharge--took only two hours, the prep time is nearly 48 hours. You have to stop eating solid food before you go to bed two nights before...and then spend all of the next day on clear liquids: water, juices, broths, gelatin, soft drinks. Plus you have to take some laxatives--two bottles of magnesium citrate and some pills. And nothing--not even water--after midnight. You don't get to eat real food until after it's all done and even then you're recovering from some 36 hours of restricted diet. (I'm only now...at nearly 10 PM of the day of the procedure...feeling anything like normal.)

In addition, you're under a mild anesthetic during the procedure, so you're not allowed to drive for the rest of the day, either.

That meant I was too wrapped up in all that to dress this week.

Was it all worth it? Absolutely--I got a clean bill of health; important, because I have a family history of colon cancer. If you do as well, get to a doctor and schedule a colonoscopy as soon as you can.

More Art Week

More Than a Maid

The Windows to the Soul?

As you all know, I've been playing around with eye makeup recently, and since I can't dress today (or anytime this week--more on that tomorrow), I did a quick experiment. Without doing any other cosmetics, I did up my eyes.

I took a slightly different process this time. I started with the mascara, instead of ending with it. Then I applied the new "one-sweep" shadow from L'Oreal. I like that, but I find it doesn't define as well in photos as it does in person, so I took the black/white palette of shadow I bought earlier and applied a quick sweep of white under the brows and blended a little black into the crease. I finished it all with one last coat of mascara. I also put on some eyebrow pencil.

Here are some pics:

These are my unadorned eyes; the only digital work here is soft focus.

My eyes in a normal open mode--here I've added digital eyeliner and an extra highlight on the pupils (I find that adds life to the eyes), then soft focus.

Eyes wide open to show a little more of the shadow work. Same digital processes.

Eyes closed for a full view of the shadows. Eyeliner added, soft focus.

Profile shots--same digital processes as before.

I'm very interested in comments from all of you, please!

A Week of Art

Since I cannot possibly dress at all this week, I'm going to fill the week with posts of cartoons and the like, starting with this Archie one:


Practice Makes Perfect

Poll results

Here's how the last set of two portraits scored:

S=3.0

T=3.0

Now, the results overall. These are the five top-rated portraits:

Alternatively, the top-rated in each of five categories (blonde, black, no wig, short wig, redhead)

I'm not sure if I'm going to use the first set or the second...but thanks for your help.

Try to Remember 16

A much more conservative, yet still quite sexy look, than the one I wore earlier today. The navy blouse with the silver stripes is from Kmart's Jaclyn Smith collection, bought earlier this year; the black pencil skirt is from Fashion Bug, also a fairly recent purchase.

Accessories are blue bow, silver jewelry, chain belt, black pantyhose, and blue suede peep-toe pumps.

Another portrait. I think this one turned out particularly well.

I tried another video...the lighting is better, but I'm still not happy with it. I hope to have the new photo area ready within two weeks.



More pics on Flickr; this may be my last dressing/photo session for September. I have a medical procedure scheduled next week that also requires a day of "prep" time, so dressing may not happen.

Try to Remember 15

OK--is this enough leg for you all?

Here's the belted blue tunic from Kmart, which I've never figured a way to wear except by itself. Maybe I need a pair of leggings to go with it?

As you can see, I did work out time to dress today. Accessories here are a blue bow, scarf, silver jewelry, black pantyhose, and navy blue patent spike heels.

And a portrait--again, full makeup...but I remain disappointed that the mascara looks great in the mirror, but seems to disappear on camera, so I "enhanced" digitally here.

More pics on Flickr; another outfit later, including a new video.

Try to Remember 14

The second outfit today combined a drape collar purple top and the white pleated skirt.

Accessories: white bow, gold jewelry, purple belt, light hose and purple pumps.

No portrait this time, but another video:



More pics on Flickr.

Try to Remember 13

An interesting combination for the first outfit today...my pink polka-dot blouse and the short red straight skirt. Some experiments on makeup today as well (more on that later) and I tried some videos, too!

Accessories are pink bow, silver jewelry, chain belt, pink thigh highs, and red patent spike pumps.

Here's a portrait. I tried a new product for the eyeshadow and I love it. It's L'Oreal's One-Sweep, and the link will show the product and how it works. I've never had an easier time applying eye shadow and getting the right effect!

I also tried using brown mascara, instead of black. It looks OK "in person", but seems a bit too light for photography.

And the video--I have to figure a way to get more light on these. I may be able to use a different location in the house for photography within a month or so, and that may improve both the pictures and the videos.



More pics on Flickr; a different outfit later today. Whether I dress any more this week awaits some scheduling adjustments.

Little Darling Dodi

As promised, some more art this weekend:

Try to Remember 12

OK--some problems with this set: When I set up the camera, I must have jostled it and the setting got switched from "auto" to "image stabilization," which results actually in a less clear image when the subject isn't moving. A shame--because a lot of these are nice poses. I fixed it before I did the portrait shot, though.

The outfit is a combination that turns out better than I could have hoped as well...the black pleated blouse over a pink camisole and a pink zebra-stripe skirt.

Accessories are black headband, silver jewelry, silver belt, light hose and poppy pink patent pumps.

Here's the portrait--I did put on lipstick this time, and I went a little heavier on the mascara, so no digital touchups there, save for the eyeliner.

More pics on Flickr; next dressing on Tuesday (with some more makeup experimentation); perhaps some more artwork over the weekend.

Try to Remember 11

Closing out the week, as fall weather sets into the area, we begin today with this combination of a red t-shirt (with lovely femme touches at the collar) and a pin-striped skirt with nice button and belt details.

Accessories are a white bow, gold jewelry, light hose, and red plaid peep-toe pumps.

A portrait...and some comments on these pics--I spent a lot of time on the eye makeup today, including real mascara. In these shots, however, I felt the eyelashes still didn't show well, so I touched them up a little, as well as adding digital eyeliner (that last is probably always going to be the case...I've stuck myself in the eye with eyeliner once too often.) Funny this is, I was so intent on the eyes, I completely forgot to put on lipstick, so all the lip color in this set is digital!

More pics on Flickr; I'll post the second set later today or tomorrow.