MABON FASHION COLLECTION

  May I present to you, my whole artistic Mabon fashion collection!

"Oliver Twist".

"50´ Cheerleader" (the garments were pulled right out of storage for this picture, that´s why the creases.)

"Scottish Plaids".

"Romania".

"Turning Leaves".

 
 Cool, now I´ll always know what to wear, and I´m all set for the Mabons to come!

MABON FASHION: TURNING LEAVES

  The fifth outfit in my Mabon collection is inspired by the magnificent natural change of color in leaves in the fall. On a sunny day, when sunshine hits the beautiful yellow, orange, and red trees, it is probably the most gorgeous landscape over the course of a year.

This picture is from a couple of weeks back. By now nearly all leaves have fallen off, so it was about time got finished with this last outfit. =)

This color combo hits the nail to the head. Dark, murky green pants coupled with an earth-toned warm yellow shirt repeat the colors of nature around Mabon. I made the pants really wide (could I go any more against the grain of fashion? =) and the top snug to show off the female figure and balance each other.

 Considering that my Mabon begins in the first half of September and lasts through the later half of October, the 3/4 length sleeves are handy. In the beginning it can be still very warm, and in the end, like today, it can be below freezing and first snow flakes dance from the sky. The beads I´m excited about. I´m new to using wire in beading, and love to surprise myself on how each necklace turns out.

The trick of this outfit is actually the connection between the necklace and makeup. I used copper and green in both.

A snug top does not mean skin-tight to me. But it needs to sit well, while still leave some room to move in. This is my all time favorite basic shirt pattern, which I´ve used for nearly a decade (still in the same size too =).

Makeup: light shimmery green on the inner 2/3 of the eyelid, shimmery copper on the outer 1/3, and black mascara on curled lashes. On the cheeks I added medium beige blush (which in reality is actually a bronzer for darker skin tones) and on the lips coppery lipstick. The same colors as in the necklace. The leaf-shaped aromatherapy earrings are like cherry on the cake, unfolding the whole idea behind this outfit.

  

MABON FASHION: ROMANIA

  Once I was able to travel around Romania in fall, and it was breathtakingly beautiful! The tour took me through the capital Bucharest to the countryside, where I visited monasteries and local homes, and of course awed the gorgeous Carpathian Mountains. 
  What struck me the most was that most houses had numerous apple trees in their yards, and the size of the fruit was unbelievable. So large, great in number, and deliciously perfect-looking. They also commonly grew other foods too, like corn, and many houses had a cow and a horse. Horse carriages were a more common sight than cars in the countryside.
  And the people! So confidently stylish in their old-fashioned clothes. I watched them with admiration. The women wore floral dresses and a scarf around their hair, and the men had on straight pants, a collar shirt, and a type of hat, like a mini-stetson. It felt like I had rolled back in time about seventy years. Awesome!

  Romania left such an impression on me, that ever since I have longed for a similar dress to what the women there wore. And now the time has come. Here´s my tribute to Romania:

I made my dress way more streamlined than theirs, but we live in different cultures too. The fabric is rather busy with all the flowers around it, so I kept everything else to a minimum. No collars, buttons, or pockets. Nor big show-off pieces of jewelry.

The pattern is new, and this dress is the first one I´ve ever made with it. The style is more loose than in my earlier patterns, and that´s the reason I wanted to try this. For years now fashion has been exaggeratedly wide on tops, so I figured I´d give this a try for a change. Time will tell how it works, but so far it feels good, and is a nice change to my dresses.

Makeup is natural, only using different shades of brown. While the real Romanian belles might have chosen bright red for their lips, I opted for nude beige lipgloss. But I chose bright red for my earrings. Red roses with white pearls are such a classic over decades, that they complement this traditional look well.

  Thank you, Romania, for inspiration, showing me your beauty, and teaching me your way of life! What an awesome experience.

P.S. The pattern I used to make the dress is from here (number 14).

MABON FASHION: SCOTTISH PLAIDS

  Alike all of my outfits, this one also comes from my imagination. It is an image that has formed in my head over the years as a result of all the things I´ve seen so far.

  Why I associate green plaids with the Scots, I do not know, but this style suits Mabon so well, that I need the look in my collection:

A dark green kilt-like mini-skirt with a tweed top.

I was sooo tempted to make a miniature beret of the skirt fabric, and attach it to a headband or something, but it would have made the look too costume-like. So instead I opted for a regular woolen dark brown beret, which repeats the color of the pants nicely binding the whole together.

The outfit consists of several smallish pieces, the shirt, mini-skirt, and pants, so I added only earrings as accessory. And remotely imitating a kilt, it is also somewhat masculine, so loads of jewelry did not seem appropriate.

Makeup is surprisingly colorful (which once again does not show properly in the pic, but take my word for it =) to balance the muted brown in the tweed-like jersey top. I added bright light green on the inner 2/3 of the moving lid to repeat the green of the skirt. It is of different hue, but green nonetheless. Then the rest of the face is accentuated with different types of brown. Medium brown on the outer 1/3 of the moving lid, beige blush on the cheeks, and beige lipgloss. The earrings are, naturally, my own aromatherapy ones made of coppery metal and white wool.

  This outfit replaces the kilt one I made a couple of years ago. The skirt back then ended up twisting around me as I moved, being a drag to wear. What I´ve done different this time is sewn the skirt straight on to the waist of the pants, so it is impossible for it to twist and move around.

SUNDAY OUTFIT FOR A GIRL: A BIT BETTER

  Although we are not a religious family, it is a nice idea to wear something a bit better on Sundays. Therefore I made this outfit for my girl:

Brown is the key color in my Mabon palette, and it applies to kids´ clothes too, but in a lighter shade. I made the leggings in dark blue to give the outfit variety, although I was tempted to use dark brown at first. But this way the whole is a little brighter and makes the dress pop out even more.

I had these crochet flowers in my stash from an earlier project, and they suit this dress perfectly.

The original pattern had the sleeves in short (see here and here), but now the weather is cool already, so I lengthened them. Simply eyeballing did the trick, no measuring needed. =) I left them about 4/5 in length to keep them from getting dirty so easily. Very handy.

The leggings are made of soft and stretchy corduroy-like jersey. They keep my girl warm and cozy.

  Naturally this outfit can, and will, be worn on any day of the week, not only on Sundays. But Sundays were the inspiration, as I like to create variety in her wardrobe too. There is always a thought/idea behind each outfit. Mindfulness is the trend these days. =)

MABON

  What´s Mabon?

  To me paganism is all about wisdom and freedom. It shows wisdom to think outside the box (I mean the religion to which we were born and raised with), and then freedom of choice. We can either choose an already existing religion to follow, or "free fall" creating our own perspective on existence.

  I free fall. I ran into wiccanism fifteen years ago, and immediately adopted the wheel-of-the-year as my guide through times to come.

  To me Mabon marks mid fall, the equinox. There is equally light and dark time in a day, and from then on more dark than light. We are entering the dark half of the year.
  This year the fall equinox is next Tuesday (always September 22nd or 23rd), and it points the highlight of this season. I divide each sabbat into approx. six week periods, starting about two weeks prior to the actual date. I tune in with each sabbat for those full six weeks, and then move on to the next. By doing so my life has turned into a virtually continuous celebration of the wonders of nature. Not bad!

  Mabon is both joyful and sad time. Joyful because the first half of Mabon we still get to enjoy occasional warm summer-like days, and sad because the other half always is cold and ever darker. Leaves fall from trees and all green dies. We see less and less of the sun, and I get tired and want to start hibernating. =) There´s only little energy left.

  That´s the nature of nature, ever changing, ever evolving. And that´s the way it needs to be. No matter how sad I feel letting go of the warmth and light of summer, it would not feel so sweet if there was no cold and dark season in between.

Now it is time to enjoy the last bits of summery days and sunshine. Take it all in before it´s gone for a good amount of months! And to remember that life is always worth celebrating!

BEAUTIFUL NATURE

  Nature´s beauty is my inspiration to everything, the ground force so to speak. Today I was in bliss because of all of this I saw literally in our back yard:

  And to think I was only on our daily, routine, walk with my one-year-old. I´m still speachless. The beauty was overwhelming. Go nature!

PURE HOME- FASHION: MABON DRESS

  Recently I realised that in fact it does not matter which season it is, as long as the sun is shining. Meaning that all days are enjoyable and beautiful, as long as it is sunny. Be it in Samhain or Litha, sunlight makes my day!

  I made a dress for those sunny and brilliant days of Mabon. It is featured at PaganPages.Org, but there was a mishap with publishing, and two (of the best?) photos are missing. Here they are:

A sneak peek of the dress.

Fully enjoying fall colors! Beautiful!

  After all it does not matter what you wear, as long as you feel good in it. And I do feel good in my newest home dress! Go check it out!

MABON FASHION: 50´S CHEERLEADER

  Yipee, I´ve finally made it! I´ve yearned to make this outfit for two years already, and now it is completed at last.

A subtle version of the classic cheerleading look. Schools start in the fall, and although I´m way past my high school years, I want to pay tribute to the institution by carrying on one of the most enjoyable of it´s traditions. To me the idea of cheerleading is wholly positive and energetic, and I want to share that with the people I meet. 

When designing, I decided to keep the colors very down to earth, so the outfit would remain wearable, and not turn into a costume. I often love such classic looks, that I need to tone down the ideas in my head big time, to make them work in real life.  =)  Here I chose beige as the main color of the tunic, deep red to accentuate it with, and darker brown for the pants. I always like to keep the top lighter than the bottom, so the natural focus is closer to the face.

I´m forever in love with this tunic pattern I drew myself once. I combined  a regular t-shirt and a mini skirt patterns. It simply works.  The pants are actually red-on-brown pin-striped, and remind me a bit of punk era. But the colors matched the top so well, that I wanted this particular fabric. And the stripes add a point of interest in this otherwise quite simplified look.

Apart from the design I drew, I did not feel the need to add the red stripes to the edge of the short sleeves. I always let the sketch lead the way, but make creative choises as I go. It is always different to see the garment in full size. Only then can I see what each piece really appears like, and how to make it "perfect" (I don´t actually believe in perfect beauty, because the old saying is right: Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder).

My initials are enough detail. I was tempted to add some numbers to the sleeves, and writing in the back, but nah, this is a modern version of the good old look. Streamlined and funky.

  Funny thing is that I´m no sports fan, yet I love this sporty look. I don´t do, or even watch, any sports myself, nor have I ever done cheerleading. But this look brings to mind the "good old days" after WW2, when culture was all about uplifting people´s spirit. Making life happy and enjoyable again. Values still needed even in our time. Hail positivity!

BYE BYE BUMBLEBEES

  It is time for bumblebees to give it in for winter, but I still managed to catch these on camera:

This is probably the last one I will see this fall. It was already moving quite slowly, so I took advantage of the situation by snapping a good close up.

After a while it got company! Aren´t they just beautiful?

  Fall is taking over, it is enevitable. After all, it is past autumn equinox already. It just feels difficult to understand, because due to my raw food experiment I still have a lot of energy to buzz around. That energy usually fades as days grow shorter, but apparently this Mabon it is different. I can but consider it a good thing, since I still have quite a bit of yard work to do before frost is allowed in our premises... =)

THE LAST DIP IN TO THE SEA

  Past weekend I went swimming for the last time this year. The sea water is getting so cold that I have no business in it anymore. No doubt my husband and son will continue for who knows how long, but this is it for me.

Yes, I know... What a wuss, wearing a wetsuit! But I swear, without it I would not have been able to swim much at all this summer. I can´t force myself into the water if the temperature is below 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). Thank goodness for technology these days!

Never before have I gone swimming this late in the fall (nore have I owned this wetsuit either...). So this is a big deal for me, honestly.

Freezing, freezing...

But I did it! Yey! Well done me!

  Now the summer is officially over. It will take another long, cold, and dark winter before I can even start dream about swimming again. Some people go and keep swimming in natural waters throughout the winter, even cut holes to the ice to get in it, but that´s not for me baby. I´m more about comfort and relaxing. Let that start right now!

BEAUTIFUL DAWN

  Eating breakfast outside, while it is still warm enough, is my luxury moment of the day. I get to be alone, in peace and quiet, breathing fresh county air (there´s no livestock or any animals nearby =).

  Here´s the view I witnessed the other morning, with my mouth full of fruit puré and a cup of herbal infusion steaming in my mug:

  I got at least as much energy from seeing this scenery, as I did from the breakfast itself!   =)