Start with a Bracelet Archives

Start with a Bracelet – Golden Hour by Fierce Lynx Designs

November 16, 2020 Rumor Has It...

...that the elusive "they" are going to install broadband internet access up at The Cottages!

She's off to see if this is true, and more importantly, to take advantage of the cool weather to admire the sky. Away from the lights of the city, everything is different...

The days are so short now that she's awake for both sunrise AND sunset, and intends to take full advantage of those golden hours of the morning and late afternoon...

So off she goes!

Since she's going to be alone for these 3 days, she's going to be wearing a mix of night clothes and "normal" day wear. If there's anything fun in the night sky, she might find that her days and nights turn around...

It seems like a ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – Shine On by Fierce Lynx Designs

October 14, 2020 We Want to Record Your Acceptance Speech...

Well... it's one thing entirely to win an award in the middle of a pandemic, but quite another to be invited into the city for the weekend...

But they offered a hotel room for Friday, Saturday AND Sunday night, if she could come into the recording studio for an hour or so and record a video that they could use when they announced all of the winners. So into the city they go!

Her original plan was to use 2 accent colors, but she struggled and STRUGGLED to find a good "bridge" garment or scarf, so she finally just threw her hands up in the air and decided on a full-tilt pink and black weekend!

Sometimes you have to know when you aren't going to find the right ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – Sapphire Skies by Fierce Lynx Designs

September 18, 2020 Cool Weather = Clear Skies! "Hey - what are you doing this weekend? You know the temperature is supposed to drop a ton, and the skies are supposed to be crystal clear..."

well, she was going to do laundry, and read, and nap...

"I'm going to drive up to the observatory Friday evening - if you come with, you can watch for meteor showers while I'm photographing that dying star I found..."

i.e. you can sit out where it's cold, and keep your head on a swivel watching for something - anything - happening in the skies...

"I want to publish anything that we can find about this "stray" meteor shower that we thought we saw; you are going to co-author this with me, aren't you?"

they've been published ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – Voyage to Amsterdam by Fierce Lynx Designs

August 28, 2020

I think that I might be posting on my old "Monday, Wednesday, Friday" schedule for a bit; it's all going to depend on my energy levels!

But let's talk about pretty things, eh? One of you requested a wardrobe based on this most wonderful bracelet...

I would LOVE to be able to capture that soft, misty blue in garments, but it's not exactly common! So we're going to enjoy the cheer and beauty of what we CAN find, right?

Yes, We Will Take the Ferry... And drive the rest of the way to Amsterdam. He has so much stuff to move out of his dorm room that we will want our car as well as his...

It feels like they JUST moved him INTO the dorm... but things change, especially this year!

It's not going to take ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – August 2020

August 21, 2020 Ultimate Job Security...

She's a little bit steamed right now; she doesn't want to travel, but that ONE office that always has issues with their computer network... is having... you guessed it.... ISSUES WITH THEIR COMPUTER NETWORK.

She tried to talk them through the fix. She drew pictures. She wrote checklists. She photographed the computers in THEIR office and put little notes on the photograph to show them what to do.

Not happening.

So she's headed there... against her best judgment and preferences. And she's seeing red...

(okay, maybe it's orange!)

She loves her new bracelet - the knot charm reminds her of the linking and integration that she loves so much in computer networking. So she's using ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – July 2020

July 17, 2020

This bracelet just screams sun and sea...

They keep inviting her to come up to their house for the weekend - there's enough room for her to have a bedroom/bathroom all to herself...

She's welcome to eat at a distance, too. Basically, they want to give her a safe break!

Sigh.... she can rent a car and drive up, rather than take the shuttle bus. Maybe this will work?

She thinks about what to pack - not much, for sure!

Her summer palette is bright, cheerful, and quintessentially summery:

She knows that it gets cool up there in the evenings, and she's going to need a sweater when she gets on the ferry...

She doesn't really plan to swim; she just wants to walk on the rocky beaches. ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – June 2020

July 2, 2020

Yes, it's July, but we never got around to the beautiful June bracelet!

In all fairness, our beautiful jewelry designer is having to deal with getting stones and beads delivered, which isn't uncomplicated under our current circumstances. We can easily forgive things, these days...

The Moon Will be Full... And that's all she really needs to be motivated to go to the cabin for the weekend!

She's going to be dressed and in the car anyway because she has a doctor's appointment. Some things do NOT wait for the lockdown to end...

Nobody else much wants to come with her - even at the cabin, they have to be careful about not socializing closely with the other people who live around the lake. THAT means that ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – May 2020

June 3, 2020

Yes, it's the May bracelet. Time has lost all meaning for those of us between the quarantine and the curfew.

And I have to apologize for a slowly diminishing selection of products available to include on The Vivienne Files. More and more stores seem to be running out of things (or at least running out of good assortments of sizes), and some places are already getting in cashmere sweaters. It's difficult to know what the future few months of retail will look like, but I think I can confidently recommend that if there's something you really like or need, you should grab it when you can....

I will continue (of course!) to try to find the prettiest, best coordinated, best-priced items I can, available in as many sizes as I ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – April 2020

April 17, 2020

Happy Birthday to my amazing mother!

What a beautiful piece of work THIS is:

She Doesn't Think Anybody Noticed... But she's been pretty... slack... about getting ready to telecommute each day. So she's turning over a new leaf - out of bed, SHOWER, do NOT put the clothes back on that are on the floor beside the bed. Earrings. Maybe a dash of lipstick. She needs to look (and more importantly, FEEL) like she's working...

This is her inspiration:

Her sweetheart isn't working, so she creeps out of bed at the appropriate time, and gets dressed from clothes she's now stashing in the hall closet!

It doesn't much matter from the waist down what she wears, but anything that's going to show when she's ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – March 2020

Calm, subtle, with just a touch of vivid red!

She's Been Brave for Months... And now that she's free to travel again, she's just going to sit... She's going to go to her favorite city, go to an outdoor table at a cafe, order coffee, and watch the world go back to work...

I'm not usually a fan of logo scarves, but this one is so subtle that I'm including it...

She's going to travel during the week so that she can see the city come back to life; she's going to dine out, and pour her modest travel budget back into the economy!

She doesn't want to be terribly conspicuous, and she's not concerned about getting wildly dressed up...

Oh bother, I forgot to include 1 of the scarves!

She's been a heroine for months; ... View the Post

How to Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Bracelet – February

THIS is just perfect; what a great way to bring some cheer into your day, and some Mardi Gras spirit to your outfit throughout the year:

I was sorely tempted to dress our heroine in creamy silk with bright accents, but alas, creamy silk is not yet available from anybody I could see...

But there are ALWAYS options, if we think long and hard enough!

She Thought She Was Going to Mardi Gras for her vacation. But just a few days before she was to leave, the head of the Engineering Department told the Sales Manager that SHE should go to their biggest client for the launch of a number of system modifications. After all, she designed all of the carbon-neutral adaptations for the client operations - who better to explain it ... View the Post

Start with a Bracelet – Diplomatic Lynx Bracelet

October 30, 2019

Oh, some diplomacy could be useful these days...

Someone Needs to Visit THAT Office... And she just knows that it's going to be her...

Nobody can really tell her what's going on there; all they seem to be able to say is that there's a problem...

Thus, she doesn't know if she's going to be in the production area, with all of the "creative" types, or stuck in the Executive Suite with the suit-y people...

So she's packing a variety of calm, relaxing neutrals...

And her travel capsule wardrobe accent color is going to be soft and approachable; she really needs to get these people to talk!

She wants to look nice, but not wear anything that really arouses strong opinions. She suspects ... View the Post