teal Archives

December 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3: Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

December 3, 2025

Before we dive into the fund, I have a Public Service Announcement!

Get your wallet out. Take everything out of it, and scan it all, front and back. Now email those files to yourself.

If you happen to lose your wallet, or if it's stolen (as just happened to me), you will be endlessly grateful to yourself for having this information handy... Having to replace your passport 10 days before an international trip is - shall we say - STRESSFUL!

Okay, let's dive into this most lovely painting. Imagine if I get to move to Ireland, and I have to replace my entire wardrobe for some horrible reason. These colors would be so great...

Our heroine was pretty methodical this month! She knew that she wanted some ... View the Post

Start with a Scarf: The Iridescent Hummingbird Silk Scarf by Emily Carter

May 19, 2023

A Wedding at the Lake She's not convinced that she would want to drag a long white dress across the lawns, boat ramps, errant piles of discarded bait etc., but it's not her wedding!

But she will be beautiful, and just dressy enough to be festive!

She's one of those women who would be happy wearing all black, all day, every day, but of course you can't do that for most weddings - especially one that's immersed in nature!

So she focuses on her favorite scarf, and chooses her wedding outfit (and other garments) accordingly...

She looks lovely in green and blue - her family will be beyond thrilled to see her in a dress, and a green dress at that!

And an off-the-shoulder top for the rehearsal ... View the Post

Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with a Scarf: Signature Peacock Print Scarf by Luna & Avery

February 13, 2023

Our heroine didn't even TRY to resist this scarf!

She knew, with a long weekend trip ahead, this would be a great inspiration:

For travel, she mostly wants to be comfortable! She chooses to wear her short boots, rather than try to pack them. And her scarf is the perfect accent for her navy "suit" and lavender tee shirt...

She knows that she wants to bring jeans, and her favorite navy cashmere crewneck sweater. Then she hesitates... her lavender cardigan and shirt? They will be perfect with either jeans or navy pants, and the cardigan can also be worn over the tee shirt in which she is traveling.

Hmmm, what else? She knows that she is going to a dinner that's going to be crowded and noisy - she ... View the Post

Start with Art: Construction by Max Weber

October 13, 2021 Difficult...

Very early in her career, she became instantly famous (at least in architecture circles!) for her innovations in combining unexpected construction materials. She discovered new synergies of strength and flexibility that changed the industry...

Since then, she has deliberately cultivated a reputation for being a difficult partner in projects. She's actually a lovely, kind woman, but she finds that she is treated with more respect if everyone approaches her with a certain... trepidation?

Her wardrobe reflects her interest in combining things in unexpected ways; she might show up for a project summit dressed in a soft, approachable way:

But she knows that she's going to want to surprise ... View the Post

Start with A Scarf: The Robin Scarf in Midnight Blue, from Aspinal of London

September 8, 2021

Bird Watching, of a Sort... She started with this - it was an irresistible urge to own this scarf that got it all rolling...

The color palette was pretty obvious - she already had plenty of grey and navy with which to work...

Her only plans for her trip are to sit in a cafe, or a restaurant, or outside a museum, and watch the world go by. Bird watching - if you use the term "bird" to refer to young women!

She just wants to see youth, and individuality, and distinctive personal style as worn by the women of her favorite city. She's happy to just look appropriate, and be warm and comfortable!

So she starts with her travel outfit:

She doesn't really know how much she can get ... View the Post

Start with Art: The Plum Garden at the Kameido Shrine by Utagawa Hiroshige

September 2, 2020

I've received some requests to add accent colors to grey - I'm always happy to try to oblige!

ROAD TRIP!!! Yes, they're going to visit a BUNCH of gardens... For about 2 weeks or so! They're going to rent a camper (oh my...) and go to all of the places they've talked about visiting for years.

It's quite casual - touring these gardens doesn't require getting dressy! But she loves her color palette so...

She's going to stick with her core of grey garments, and then add 2 clusters of color...

She packs some warm teal tops, and then decides to include her tee shirt with floral prints... Why not?

Her coral garments vary from very soft and pastel to deep, almost rust. And she decides to pack a ... View the Post

Adding Accents to a Cool Weather Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

August 5, 2020

I tried, SO HARD, to find enough burgundy pieces to use burgundy as an accent color; J. Crew has a perfect crewneck sweater in burgundy, (it comes in FOURTEEN colors!) but that was about as far as I could get!

So.... camel and teal! Not too bad a compromise, eh?

Let's get back to our starting Autumn and Winter Weekly Timeless Wardrobes:

I can't believe how many times I kept looking at navy dotted shirts, and dotted skirts... I'm obsessed, I fear....

When we break this wardrobe down by garment, we're pretty well balanced, but could certainly use some more colors!

Let's attack that camel idea that I had...

I've had a feeling about this heroine for a few days - I think her life requires a ... View the Post

Start with 2 Scarves: A Teal and Hot Pink Accented Travel Capsule Wardrobe

June 12, 2020

It seemed like a good idea - take a couple of the scarves from yesterday, along with the accessories, and see how they would work for a travel capsule wardrobe. So let's go!

There are the 2 scarves that are going to be the starting point for this wardrobe:

First up, I added a tank top to both of these Accessory Families, so that the accent colors would be well-represented in the clothing for this trip...

Navy would be a lovely neutral with these 2 accents, but I thought that I'd go full-on summer with beige and white:

This would be such an easy trip - travel wearing the beige cardigan and pants, and the beige espadrilles, with any of the 4 tops. Pack the other 6 garments and the accessories, and ... View the Post

What Do I Need in My Wardrobe? Navy, Teal, Plum and Lavender

May 13, 2020

It was a sort of urgent email - I get those sometimes! In the middle of quarantining and lots of disruption, SHE GOT A PROMOTION!!!! A big one...

After much back and forth, we settled on the 4 colors in our palette, and she has already isolated these 8 things to launch her work wardrobe:

These are her chosen colors:

She's going to need to travel some, and be on screens for teleconferences a lot, so I'm targeting - eventually - a 20-piece wardrobe for her for these "visible" work activities. I thought maybe this template would help me be organized in making recommendations:

So the first thing we need to do is show her 8 existing garments in this template, so we can see where we have ... View the Post

Expanding a Start with Art: Light of Iris by Georgia O’Keeffe

April 24, 2020

Last week, they went to the farmhouse to see if they would like to stay there for the long-term. They realized pretty much as soon as they pulled into the drive that they did, indeed, want to stay out of town!

When they thought that they were only going to stay for a few days, she chose her travel capsule wardrobe based on her favorite painting:

She was still wearing her travel outfit when they decided to go back into town and pack up all of their food, their computers, and more clothes. It's only 5 miles, so it won't be a long trip!

Before they drove back, she dashed upstairs and dumped out her tote bag onto the bed. This was she had initially packed:

They talked about packing, on the way back into ... 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

Start with Art: Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe based on Arara Azul by Victoria Ragna

March 26, 2020

This is a LOT like yesterday's post, I admit. Not because I'm inherently lazy (although I could be, given the right circumstances...) but more because someone asked yesterday about wearing accents of teal, aqua and soft blue with navy. I HAD to show how well many of these garments work just as well with a slightly different neutral.

(yes, grey would be lovely...)

This is very much the same color palette as yesterday, except the shift away from black...

After a LONG summer... They're free to travel again! She's been planning for months for this trip...

What kept her sane through the summer was the ability to go outdoors and watch the birds. It had never been a hobby before; they had had a bird feeder ... View the Post