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June 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1 – Of by Elizabeth Magill

June 2, 2025

Remember, there will be a blog post EVERY weekday this week. The first week of the month is when I always push out all six of the "Six Paintings - 12 Months" posts over six weekdays. I feel like these posts benefit from being seen close together - what do you say?

The more I look at this painting, the more I like it! There's really quit a lot going on here to admire:

This month, I'm feeling like I need to be really organized for all SORTS of things, and that's going to show up with these wardrobes! I think we're going to start with each heroine's Weekly Timeless Wardrobe list, and try to very logically fill in four items that are missing.

I'm not at all sure that any of these wardrobes will, in December, have a ... View the Post

Always Wear Green? Start With Art: Helen Frankenthaler – Lush Spring

May 26, 2025

"But I ALWAYS wear green? I look great in green. Can't I wear it when we go to Dublin?"

Well, yes. Of course you can. Nobody there will probably even notice! Just don't say "top o' the mornin'" to anybody...

Our heroine loves this painting - the huge blocks of green, accented with the tiniest touches of blue, red, blush...

For the purposes of her upcoming trip to Dublin, our heroine has isolated these colors for her travel capsule wardrobe:

Her starting point is easy - comfortable shades of green, waterproof shoes, a pretty scarf and some classic earrings!

But NOW what to pack?

"You'd better be prepared - Ireland is cool even in the summer!"

So she packs these things; note that the sweatpants ... View the Post

May 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2 – Of by Elizabeth Magill

April 23, 2025

I often wonder about having a wardrobe that is essentially just two colors; for literally decades, I wore only black and white. That might be a bit stark now, but shades of grey, and shades of burgundy/pink? Hmm...

This heroine's 20-piece wardrobe from the last installment is the kind of thing that I would pack and run with for months... Sigh...

When our heroine saw that Eileen Fisher was offering graphite linen pieces, she was sold! Although the vest and pants are linen, there's really NO reason (except warmth) that they can't be worn all year. The vest has a lot of potential over shirts, tee shirts, on its own...

And who could resist the French lilac top and the floral scarf?

Her wardrobe doesn't ... View the Post

April 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3 – Of by Elizabeth Magill

April 3, 2025

I really love this painting - so simple, such lovely colors, such texture...

This heroine's 16-piece "end of March" wardrobe in lovely, and would get one through quite a lot of travel:

This heroine was leaning toward warm weather clothes anyway - when she saw the foxglove dress, she knew for certain that she was on the right track! Neutral shorts and a matching tee shirt, and a pretty merino polo finish off her April shopping:

With her wardrobe augmented for warmer weather, this 20-piece capsule wardrobe could be used for round-the-world travel! (give me a suitcase and a ticket...)

Our heroine is all over the place with her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe plan, which kind of makes sense when ... View the Post

The Fourth of Six Paintings-Twelve Months, March 2025

March 6, 2025

Let's check up on our heroine who is working with the most limited color palette this year. Short of wearing just ONE color, this is maybe as small a palette as you can get. Well, maybe not, but after the multiple accent colors of our other wardrobes, this one seems quite streamlined!

At the end of February our heroine had a nice twelve-piece wardrobe - it would make a great travel capsule wardrobe... I'm thinking a lot about travel right now!

Our heroine has decided to shift her focus to warmer weather - especially in order to grab the sandals that she's wanted for a while! Yes, she won't be able to wear them for weeks, but at least she's not walking out of the store empty-handed when the weather finally ... View the Post

The Fifth of Six Paintings – Twelve Months February 2025

February 7, 2025

I think of this wardrobe as that of someone who once wore black, white, and red, and has now softened and gentled her colors into grey, white and shades of burgundy...

You know, one could easily make a case that some of the background colors look like navy... I'm not going to do that unless I find that I hit a wall building this wardrobe, but it could be done!

As blessed February dawned, our heroine had this very simple eight-piece wardrobe. Nothing amazing, but extremely versatile:

This seems a good time to fill in more basics for this heroine, so I grabbed her my favorite white shirt, and a pair of black jeans. She already has grey jeans...

The sweater vest is one of my favorite garments, and ... View the Post

Want Something Pretty? Start With a Scarf – The Artiquel Scarf by Artifact.

December 18, 2024

Sometimes, you see something that just makes you happy. If you keep thinking about that thing... six hours later?... you might want to listen to your heart!

That's my feeling about this scarf; the minute I saw this, I knew I wanted to share it with you all here:

What an interesting image - dill? Some sparse hydrangeas? And artichokes? What do you think?

Of course, these colors are difficult to find...

Our heroine knows that she's going to struggle to find the soft accent colors - the green and purple are QUITE elusive. But she also knows that she can wear this scarf with her neutral grey, or she could look for a different green like soft olive. Or use beige as her neutral. There are always ... View the Post

A Navy & Grey Lover? Start Packing with The Common Wardrobe

November 22, 2024

It's snowing like the end of the world here in Chicago - I'm very happy! Of course, it will last an hour, and then melt... sigh...

More heroines than you might expect are committed to wearing navy, grey, and accent colors that vary with the seasons. I hear from you often, and I can entirely agree that your choice is an elegant and pretty foolproof way to dress...

For you, I've chosen to include denim blue in your palette, just to give you options! My idea of what The Common Wardrobe would look like for you is delightfully uncomplicated and versatile:

One could certainly pack this, some jewelry, a handful of scarves, and a couple of pairs of shoes, and be fine...

But our heroine's going to be seasonal for ... View the Post

November 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – Second Painting, by Georgia O’Keeffe

November 4, 2024

I think I'm going to do a post each day this week, and finish the six paintings for the month of November. It seems to me that any kind of distraction might come in handy right now...

Ah, this most exuberant of heroines! Not just anybody could pull off a wardrobe in only three colors, when one of them is RED. But it's possible. There are lots of women, and lots of wardrobes...

This wardrobe feels pretty complete to me - when you remember that you can only wear one outfit at a time (at least in theory!), own this much clothing feels pretty complete...

In all fairness, if this was my wardrobe, I'd need a few more summer dresses! But still, I don't think I'd ever really struggle to get dressed...

I ... View the Post

Want to Travel Pretty? Start with a Bracelet – The Highlands’ Heather Bracelets by Fierce Lynx Designs

May 31, 2024

Yes, we waited as long as possible to get to the May bracelets, because our bracelet goddess was on vacation in .... SCOTLAND...

my envy knows no bounds...

In keeping with her Scottish adventure, her bracelets this months are right on point:

For a longer trip, or a larger wardrobe, there's a ton of ivory and bone hues to work with here...

Right now, we have quite a few heroines traveling to places that aren't sweltering summer weather - Arctic cruises, north of Scotland, north of Finland... You all do some interesting things!

And I've been asked more than once for a travel capsule wardrobe that's full of L.L.Bean clothes and their timeless aesthetic. AND many of us are excited about wearing pink. So ... View the Post

Part 1 – Do You Need Accents? Or Neutrals? 6 Paintings, 12 Months April 2024

April 3, 2024

Back again with one of my favorite posts of each month! Our heroines diverge this month on what they want/need in their wardrobes, which is to be expected. Many of us can share the same core of classic garments, but we're still going to assemble our very personal wardrobes in a specific order...

Our first heroine feels like she needs to add some navy and white to her wardrobe. As we enter April, with 16 garments, only 37.5% of her clothes are her accent color - that might not be a troubling ration for many of us. But she's ready for more neutrals!

Let's pause for just a second to enjoy her favorite painting:

This is her wardrobe at the end of March; yes, there's certainly quite a lot of bright blue ... View the Post

March 2024 “Six Paintings, Twelve Months” – Part 2

March 4, 2024

First three paintings can be found here...

Let's visit our other 3 heroines, and their paintings! It's funny how much I love these paintings when I come back to them after almost a month...

At the end of February, our heroine had a cheerful and very practical 12-piece travel capsule wardrobe:

I fully expected to be adding white to this wardrobe at this point, but then I stumbled onto some lovely light grey, and decided it was wise to grab it! Gray in the summer can be really difficult to find, so avail yourself of it when it's around.

Her wardrobe now looks more like she wants to include a range of shades of grey - up until now, she's been pretty dedicated to charcoal... And the red is ... View the Post