Making Do

Purple Flowers and Spectacular Animals--Friday, 9/25/15

Focal item: Lavender/purple floral knit top

Today you'll see how two fabulous inspiration outfits come together into one perfectly OK casual Friday outfit.  Allow me to explicate this mysterious process.  First, the inspirations.

Striped seersucker blazer, bright pastel floral top, jeans.

From museisaverb.com

Striped top, purple floral coat, denim skirt.

From sarahsreallife.com

From your own closet, extract a sort of lumpy grey striped blazer from Goodwill, an oddly textured lavender and purple floral top from Goodwill, and a pair of boring jeans (that at least fit you pretty well).  Be a little sad that you don't have a magnificent dark floral coat or a bright pastel floral top, then put on a pair of cute leopard flats to get over this lack. 

Lavender/purple floral knit top (thrifted, Kohls), $2.00/wear+
Grey striped blazer (thrifted, Target), $1.67/wear
Straight leg jeans (Kohls), $1.40/wear
Grey leopard flats by Fergilicious, $1.17/wear
White swag necklace (Kohls), $4.82/wear

Outfit total: $11.06/wear  (3 outfits under $12 per wear brought my 5 day workweek average down to $22.10 per wear, even with Thursday's high price tag.  So I guess that works out.)

Add a big white necklace in the hopes that it'll make the kind of odd shirt/jacket pairing look a bit more intentional and less like you got dressed in the dark/on a dare/in a colorblind state.

When in doubt, be glad it's Friday.

And be reminded that white/grey/black is a very lovely color combination by checking out how this harlequin magpie wears it.

In other news...Since I spent the day finding "ghosts," it is only appropriate to share a story about a ghost bird.  Scientists have finally seen the male mustached kingfisher, and he is gorgeous!  I was touched by this comment toward the end of the post:

"For countless generations, the people of Guadalcanal have lived with and known these remarkable and elusive birds. Uluna-Sutahuri people call the bird Mbarikuku, and the older Uluna members of our team all had stories of encounters with it from their youth."

A wonderful reminder that rare animals rarely seen and poorly understood by scientists may yet be a vital and beloved part of local communities.

I am very excited to see photos of this spectacular bird, and I am overwhelmed with empathetic joy that this scientist finally found (and mist-netted and held) this bird he's been seeking for 20 years!