from Scratch Archives - Page 2 of 15

July 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

July 10, 2026

Our researcher of all things Gothic architectural detail is in Paris. Melting. Loving her small borrowed apartment with air conditioning...

First up, let's savor her signature work of art - the painting from which she draws her color palette, and the serene grace that she tries to emulate in her life:

some day I'm going to be in a pub quiz in which they hold up photographs of paintings and ask "who's the artist". I'm going to OWN that pub....

At the end of June, our heroine had this wardrobe. She clearly has some great things to wear in hot weather, which is a good thing!

This was her accessory collection. So bright, so pretty, so useful!

She's looking for another outfit that she can wear in the ... View the Post

July 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

July 8, 2026

Our heroine is spending this month, and part of next month, hanging out at a small rural college in Vermont, where fervent bird-counting is underway! Happily, her responsibility is tallying numbers, and NOT sitting out in a concealed shelter for hours and hours...

She takes her inspiration, and finds her discipline, in this photograph:

Coming into the month of July, this was our heroine's 28-piece wardrobe. She didn't bring all of this with her to Vermont...

Neither did she bring all of her accessories. I could easily justify ONE pair of boots for any trip at any time, but two pairs of boots, in July, in North America?

This month's wardrobe additions reflect our heroine's rural, hot ... View the Post

July 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

July 6, 2026

I'm home from Paris. Well, I'm actually writing this the day BEFORE I leave, so I'm assuming that everything went swimmingly...

Let's revisit our heroine who spends her work time listening to others. She draws her personal style inspiration from this painting:

She finished the first half of the calendar year with these 28 pieces of clothing as her work wardrobe. Most of us have a ton more than this, but I think we might be able to agree that this is pretty sufficient:

If you get bored with the clothes (although clothes maybe shouldn't be a big source of entertainment!), the accessories can liven things up a bit:

When our heroine was looking for additions to her wardrobe, she was thinking of adding ... View the Post

July 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

July 3, 2026

Our heroine, the ambitious bank employee, takes her wardrobe inspiration from this beautiful work:

At the end of June, her wardrobe included 28 garments:

And this snappy assortment of accessories. Our heroine is beginning to really understand the joy of wearing scarves...

This month, she's finally buying a suit! It's linen, so she understands that it's for mostly warmer weather, but she's absolutely NOT opposed to buying a second suit for cold weather. Men wear suits every day...

And yes, she went nuts on the scarf. Finding something that looked just right with her newest accent - the Baltic teal - wasn't easy. But the scarf will still be around long after she's the CEO of the entire bank holding ... View the Post

July 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

July 1, 2026

While many of us are struggling with the lack of brightness and contrast in this wardrobe, I think most of us at least really admire this painting:

At the end of June, our heroine the landscape designer had this capsule wardrobe - 28 garments:

And these are her accessories. While the clothes are quite simple, her accessories are a bit ore interesting. Yes, she does indeed have the exactly same tote bag in two colors! And her scarves are deliciously lovely...

Our heroine found some casual things that will be useful for when she's meeting clients outdoors. She doesn't do this as often as she had once believed she would - a couple of visits to the site seem to be sufficient for her part of the work. But ... View the Post

June 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

June 3, 2026

Let's see how our "professional listener" is doing! For what it's worth, I was picturing this woman as a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor or such...

Her inspiration art:

She REALLY doesn't care if any of her clients or co-workers remember what she wears; she's much more concerned in helping people... But she does want to look nice, and she likes to think that her choice of colors gives her a warm and calm image.

And she has russet hair and aqua eyes...

At the end of May, her wardrobe looked like this:

And these are her accessories, so far:

Our heroine is trying quite hard to stick to her wardrobe template. Last month, she bought both pants AND a dress, which left her with "template ... View the Post

June 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

June 1, 2026

I believe that Summer has arrived!

watch, it will snow tomorrow...

Although this painting is of clouds later in the year, I could certainly pretend that the beautiful green landscape is mid-summer. Those are greens vivid enough for Ireland!

At the end of May, our heroine had this wardrobe, shown in two images - one for clothes and one for accessories.

It's well worth looking at these images for a minute, because there is a world full of people who have this much clothing OR LESS. Well-chosen, a small wardrobe can be enough. I know nobody who deliberately tries to keep their wardrobe small, but there could be good reasons...

I could manage with a small number of clothes, so long as I had lots of ... View the Post

May 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

May 8, 2026

I don't know if the character in the painting is sad, or is just getting away from the news - and other people - for a few minutes...

This heroine remains quite pleased with her color palette. She's having good luck finding things that she both likes and needs - shopping isn't always easy when you've decided to wear just a limited palette. Unless you live in black, like some of us...

At the end of April, our heroine had this 20-piece wardrobe:

Although the weather still isn't particularly warm where our heroine lives, she decided that she was going to look for clothes for warm weather ANYWAY.

And she debated about the necklaces. She was trying to choose between the two, and she kept going back and ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 13, 2026

Our heroine the expert in indigenous plants, and the uses thereof in landscaping, has chosen this painting as the leitmotif of her wardrobe:

She has, as a result, this color palette for her wardrobe. Her hope is that she can show in a small, personal way, the beauty of subtle, natural colors.

It does help that her personal coloring is soft and subtle!

At the end of March, her wardrobe of 16 pieces was thus:

Before her April shopping, our heroine studied her existing wardrobe, and her color palette, at some length. She needed to decide if she was serious about including grey in her wardrobe. Her heart said yes, and her painting certainly agreed!

Also, she wanted to expand her wardrobe in a way ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

April 10, 2026

Our heroine is pleased with her wardrobe, and MORE pleased with her bank balance! She's trying to give up impulse clothes buying - there are many more important things in the world that she wants - like plane tickets.

Her wardrobe inspiration is this painting - of course it has letters in it! She is an expert in the combination of multiple type faces.

Her color palette includes three neutrals and two lovely, vivid accents:

At the end of March, her very disciplined wardrobe included 16 garments, and dozens of outfit options:

Our heroine gave a lot of thought to her April purchases. She knew that it would be really sensible to add a summer "column" to her wardrobe, thus she immediately chose the ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

April 8, 2026

It's a very good thing that our heroine loves all things medieval... Her favorite painting is this beauty:

Her color palette is thus:

At the end of March, our heroine has this 16-piece wardrobe. Versatile, elegant and a touch on the dressy side of life. Maybe still a touch dark...

Early in April, our heroine sat through some VERY long meetings with a group of people dedicated to the renovation of a very famous historic church near Paris. Included in the amusingly eclectic group of attendees was one woman dressed as a medieval nun, and another woman wearing a wimple...

As soon as she got out of there, she was determined to do some very 21st century shopping!

yes, there are people who dress in ... View the Post

April 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

April 6, 2026

I saw one of these in England! I think - it was at a distance, and I might have been dreaming... does it count if one sees something in a dream?

I'm quite sure that our heroine has seen one of these. Although she's not the person actually sitting out in a blind somewhere counting birds, she IS the person who takes all of those essential numbers and compiles and analyzes them. She must get out once in a while to actually LOOK at birds. I hope!

For whatever reason, she has chosen this bird as her style model, and is building her wardrobe around these simple but striking colors:

At the end of March, our heroine had 16 garments in her wardrobe. That's not a lot - all of this would fit in a medium-sized ... View the Post