Here are some of my Instagram photographs taken outside of the classroom. Summer rocks! So grateful for time off of work, for time to enjoy the sunshine. And for time to bask in the creation of art, and in the appreciation of it. #blessed <3
Here are my #ootd pictures from November 2018. The black cropped leg BCBGMaxAzria pants go with everything! I ended up getting a second pair because they are so spectacular. Not sure why they were not made in other colors. I love silk as well, and silk velvet is soooo amazing! I’m sure my dry cleaner loves that I wear it too, lol.
I was able to incorporate my Wonder Woman boots (above) in this one! They are Sorel – I think I paid one third of the retail asking price for them, maybe less!
It is fun keeping track of fashion because I can see what combinations I have done with separates – what items go with what, and as a result, I can assess what one new thing I may bring into the mix that will serve me best. The morning I put this look together (above), I was, like, how do these two things match? – that is so cool! That Kobi Halperin top is embroidered cotton – very wonderful texture in person. There is a version of it in all white hiding somewhere in the universe for me to find.
Rebecca Taylor has a new concept right now where you can pay a monthly fee and rent up to four garments at a time to wear until you want to give them back and then get more. I have my eye on a few pieces from her holiday collection right now. Go to www.rebeccataylor.com for more information.
This top (above) is from 1999! It is my first Trina Turk, the reason I fell in love with her work! Mine is a size Medium, which is a bit large for me now but I still love it and wear it often.
This BCBGMaxAzria gown (above) was my outfit for my annual Friendsgiving dinner. About twenty-five of us dined together at Delmonico’s Italian Steakhouse. It had been hanging in my closet for two years and so, I was very psyched to have an opportunity to wear it. I sewed bra cups into the lining because the bodice neckline made it difficult to find undergarments that worked. Easy-peasy!
Here I am wearing Rachel Zoe (above) at my friend Tracey’s pre-Thanksgiving house party. I have this top in black too.
I found this Alice + Olivia silk-velvet halter top on a final sale on saksoff5th.com. I think it was $40? Something like that! It is my new favorite thing. I paired it with those black cropped pants seen in every other pic, lol, for a trip to the movies last night.
What will I wear next? Stay tuned….
One of the best parts of getting back to work has been reuniting with my favorite photographer/bestie/colleague/art teacher/partner-in-goofiness, Katy C. We have resumed the #ootd. Here are my latest outfits coupled with some from before my two month hiatus.
I have fallen in love with a new-to-me brand: Cinq à Sept (5 to 7). I love every piece and am finding room in my closet for these silk confections – three dresses, two tops and counting!
I am also such a fan of Marc Jacobs boots. He and I are the same age. Lol, he really gets me. I feel like the lasts for these shoes were made from molds of my feet. Cray-cray awesomeness!
I love having somewhere to go every day. People often tell me that they never had a teacher like me, alluding to my work fashion. When I was growing up the teachers always made an effort – they wore mini shift dresses with high heels. Had their hair done in the beehive coifs of the day. Were prim and proper, and so, so smart. Beautiful. Miss Emerson, Miss Clancy, Miss Daniels, Miss Adsitt…. I loved going to school back then too. Thank you, Tecumseh Elementary for a dream. I guess I always aspired to be just like these amazing women. Didn’t actually realize it until now – wow!
I love fashion. Love to get dressed every morning for work. Love feeling good about myself, happy, relaxed, confident and this feeling contributes to the dynamic of each day.
We have so much fun. Art is about imagination – imagining your dreams via learning how to draw, how to visualize solutions. I am currently working on four or five different things with the students – clay sculptures and bas-reliefs in a couple classes, horse paintings in a couple…. The Studio in Art students are painting barn landscapes using Wolf Kahn’s color palette and my 5th graders are doing double duty – first an additive wood sculpture then an invention à la Da Vinci. More to come in regards to that one. I will tell you the story of my invention soon. It’s hilarious, I promise. <3
Here is my new favorite outfit! I love this Rachel Zoe top so much – I bought it in white too! And adding spandex to jeans is the most brilliant concept the fashion world has ever known. These 7 For All Mankind cropped ankle jeans are so spectacular. They totally move with me like a second skin. My most recent purchase. Lately, every time I buy something, I say to myself – okay, after this you don’t really need anything else. LOL! Needless to say, that thought is fleeting.
I also recently acquired these BCBGMaxAzria silk velvet cargo pants in teal – one of the major colors this season. They are amazing in every way! Soft, elastic waist, cropped so that they did not need hemming… OMG! Love!!! <3
And the Sloan fit pant from Banana Republic – I bought them in both garnet and charcoal. The red ones were on some ridiculous sale because they were the last pair and happened to be in my size. I think they ended up being only $20!
Here are the rest of my #ootd pics since school resumed. Some are weekend shots. I really love all my Rachel Zoe tops. The fabrication is top notch. I buy them on-line as no stores in Syracuse, New York carry her. Same goes for Trina Turk. Actually, shopping on-line is the way I prefer acquiring my wardrobe. Sometimes I try on BCBG and other stuff while at Lord & Taylor. I spent a couple hours in there trying on jeans last week so that I could ascertain my size and the best fit. Turns out I am a standard size 2 across the board in Hudson, Joe’s Jeans and 7 For All Mankind (0 in Banana and XS or XXS in BCBG depending on the cut). Yes!!!!! And…I love it when something comes in the mail and it is a perfect fit. It is just like magic! Because, of course, fashion is magical.
These Karl Lagerfeld Paris boots are in heavy rotation right now. They are 2 1/2″ heel – over the knee boots in both blue and black suede. I couldn’t decide which color to get, and you know that meant I had to have both of them. So comfortable, so amazing! They go with everything in my closet. It is incredible how a new item makes everything else that’s old appear fresh again. Karl Lagerfeld Paris definitely gets the Tashionista seal of approval. <3 <3 <3
Here are my #ootd (outfits of the day) from the last couple weeks. Am dying to buy something new, but, I know, I know…I should be grateful for what I have and for being able to figure out a way to wear what I have in different ways – mixing designers, changing up the shoes, etc.
My classroom is weirdly one of the warmest rooms in the school, so I am always wearing a cardigan or blazer thinking it will be a lot colder than it is only to end up flinging it on my desk chair as soon as I get to class.
I almost always toss on an apron too. Students are painting in two classes, clay in one and colored pencil in the others, so it’s not that messy yet.
But still – the minute I get paint or marker on the sleeve of something, I get so frustrated. The lure of on-line shopping rears its pretty little head and I’m like, please let me have new stuff!!!!! I want, I want!
The joke is that you haven’t really lived until you have experienced the wrath of Tash. Usually I’m just angry with myself but…if someone is behaving inappropriately, I’ve been known to turn green. Steam comes out of my ears and I say, “Tash mad.” (lol) I am always laughing at my own jokes, sorry. I guess you have to be there.
This kid in the hall told me he’s going to be all cammo for Halloween so I said, “No one will see you. You’re gonna end up with no candy.” I laughed and laughed at that one. I’m telling you – camouflage jokes just never get old.
Another thing that never gets old – finding money on the ground. I love when this happens. It’s like the universe is saying – see, you can manifest cash anytime you want. In the US, the streets are lined in gold…sort of.
Nickels, dimes and mostly copper pennies! And we all know those are really worth two cents because that’s how much, apparently, it costs to make a penny these days.
It’s a fun game to see how much you can find in a year. Whoever wins gets to brag and then all the money is given away.
You can’t really hunt for it. Money usually just finds you. You just have to believe.
This week I did a lot of black on the bottom (BB). So far, I have not done a single repeat in clothing or shoes. I like the idea of planning what I’m going to wear for people to see because it’s kind of a fun way to look forward to going to work, so thank you to all of the people who liked my Instagram #ootd (outfit of the day) posts.
I went to a funeral this week. My great aunt died. I know how some of you don’t like being morbid, but I can’t help trying to see a big picture to life when someone I cared about leaves us for good. I know, and I don’t even think about dying at all. I think more about all the living I need to do and the existential quest of what I am supposed to be accomplishing, as though I had a plan before I was born. I am supposed to find something or someone in a search for happiness, as if I had a bet with someone up there in the ether that even within the parameters of the life I was given, I’ve been challenged to still find it. Whatever that may be.
It reminds me of the famous Robert Rauschenberg story of the Erased DeKooning piece. In the video made at the time of the 1997 Guggenheim retrospective, Rauschenberg talked about how he had been doing a series of white paintings and he had conceived the notion of erasing a work making it white again (the paper). The idea of the process backwards, you see? It is such a cerebral notion for a guy who spent a lifetime laughing.
He decided he wanted to erase someone else’s piece since erasing your own would have this feeling that you already knew how it was made, so it would be a lot easier to erase your own work. You know how much pressure you had placed on the pencil and how much elbow grease it would require to get rid of those marks. That makes sense, right?
So he went over to DeKooning’s, a formidable guy even sober. He knocked – the artist didn’t answer at first and he thought, okay so the idea has now died. I tried and knocked and …nothing. Done and done.
But DeKooning answered, let him in, closed the door behind him and stood in front of it so that Rauschenberg couldn’t escape after announcing his query – in the back of his mind he thought for sure that DeKooning would beat the crap out of him.
But instead, DeKooning said something like. “Okay, I understand what you’re asking. I’m going to give you something hard to erase.” He handed Rauschenberg a drawing made with charcoal and paint and other materials, and Rauschenberg spent months trying to erase it.
It was a challenge, and that made the idea more fun. And as much as non-artists scrunch up their noses and think that’s not art with an Emperor’s New Clothes mentality, you really have to admit that it took loads of time and a lot of work to erase that art. So in essence, it was and is artwork.
Art history scholars tend to relay it as a message delineating the changing of the guard from Abstract Expressionism to the new Pop Art establishment, but Rauschenberg himself insisted that was not his intent.
No matter what we do, people will put their own spin on things. Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez are Instagramming like clockwork, and they take the good and take the bad along with it, the negative-nellies who voice their harassment of the selfie variety, and can be very harsh in doing so.
I won’t let that stop me from continuing my journey. I am having fun with the fashion stuff, which was heavy on the Banana (Republic) this week.
In light of the death, my parents were talking about buying their plots this week. Preparing for the inevitable in a way to reduce our stress when the time comes. My great-grandfather bought one extra plot a long time ago and Mom and Dad were thinking of trading it in for their two – but that spot is like my perfect spot. It is a short walk from my great aunt and uncle’s graves, overlooking the Comstock Art facility, which is next to Manley Field House at Syracuse University. I kind of want to keep it for myself. It seemed familiar, like a part of the puzzle that made sense but didn’t….
It really is surreal to think of ending up there. Like, what? That’s all this was? Me, dead, with a view of my art school, along with a giant oak tree and a huge gravestone marked MILLER? What is that supposed to mean? I mean, I know.
