Frivolous Frittering

It's all Flickr's fault. If I wasn't a member of the flickr.com photo-sharing website, I wouldn't be out with my camera everywhere, maniacally snapping pictures. Before I got a digital camera the 35mm would languish away in the cupboard for endless months. Now, I take my camera everywhere with me. Except last Thursday when I went to a big sidewalk sale at the mall.

A dark-haired woman dressed in a flippy black gored skirt, black cardigan, shockingly hot pink top underneath with shockingly matching high heels and silver jewelry was looking at a display of dishes at Stokes. (A kitchen and home accessories shop that always has something nice on sale.) She was critically eyeing a display of three white plates standing up on the rims in front of — wait for it — shockingly hot pink placemats, also displayed vertically with — you've already guessed — black napkins, folded long and hanging down the left side of the hot pink placemats. The whole display was a glorious vertical wall of white circles, hot pink squares and tall black rectangles complete with glasses and cutlery.

Was this planned?? Was she staff & it was Pink and Black Day? Was she just lucky enough to find dinner wear to match her wardrobe? I couldn't take my eyes off the woman, so with questions circling, I casually glanced around the display ...mmmm hmm, very nice... and other displays nearby — behind her, of course. It wasn't until I saw a small envelope purse under her arm that I realized: she ISN'T part of the display!

I was feeling a bit dowdy, by comparison, even though I had on a decent enough outfit of sandy-beige twill pants, a dusty plum sweater and a really great arty necklace. And new sandals. Maybe it was all that color contrast; maybe it's because I used to have hair that color and looked good in hot pink, too. Shocking hot pink is a color you can only wear on days you feel 'on top of the world' and are brimming with confidence. It's a color to get noticed in, especially when you team it with black.

Anyway, next time I go to the mall, the camera comes with me!

Getting back to the camera.....a few days later, I was driving past a bridal shop with a rainbow of dreamy dresses in the window. The reason I took the photo below was specifically for the Things Pink photography pool on flickr.com. I even went back at night to re-shoot because the daylight photos had too may reflections in the window. Maybe I should add this one to Flickr's OCFD group pool as well (Obsessive Compulsive Flickr Disorder).


In the middle of my 'fashion shoot' I could see using these images in more ways than just photo-sharing. Maybe the mannequins needed heads — or something. The idea has been sitting somewhere in my brain for weeks. Yesterday, after posting the photo, one of my viewers left the comment,
"OO you could hide a whole scrapyard under there."

THAT's IT!! A skirt with a hiding place under it.

A 3-D dress was the starting point. Easy, I had the photo. A shape for the torso, a big pouffy skirt, bead and sparkles, two layers of tulle, a blank ATC and an hour-and-a-half.




Then a search through my junk jars for something from a 'scrapyard'.
(Thank you, Arlee.)


Do you know how difficult it is to find a couple of quintessential scrapyard pieces that are under two inches square? Lots of rusty things, but I needed something car. In the jar of found objects that are silver was an old lock cover, alas, its swiveling days long since passed. See? This is why I don't throw things out.


The hardest part was trying to find a carpet image that was the proper scale. But I did: and it was pink! Now what can I stuff under the next one???