My friend Felis recently celebrated her 45th birthday with a Paris-themed party!  I love dressing for a theme, and now I finally get to share my final look with you.  Ultimately, I decided to go with a layered look that I absolutely love!  I was thinking of a fashionable ensemble I could wear to the cafe or shopping, or something like that.  Also, I've never been to Paris, so I am going by television and movie inspiration.

However, Felis and at least three other people at that party have been to Paris, and everyone loved my outfit!  Keep scrolling to see the piece I made for Felis as a gift (and visit my Etsy shop, Wilde Skye, to see similar pieces).

This outfit is a true mix of items from shopping my closet, but it was so much fun to put this look together!  

This is the first time I've worn the top half of this ensemble.  The mesh shirt is a bralette design from Torrid.  The dress is also Torrid, but I found it on Poshmark last spring, originally purchased for a different birthday party when I ended up wearing something else entirely.  Both the hat and harness belt are new purchases, from Amazon and Eloquii respectively.  The hat fits my big ole head, but I could have sized down in the belt.  I went with my normal size, but there is a little elastic band in the back that helps it fit and stay snug.  I did find the flaps behind the buckle a bit annoying because I was always making sure they were laying flat together and not askew.  Still, I wanted a harness belt and was happy to find one!  (And actually, Torrid came out with one the following week and I bought that one too.  In comparison, the hardware is silver on the Torrid one and the straps are all thinner, with no elastic in the back.)

This is the fifth time I'm wearing these awesome tights from Rachel, but my fingernail poked a hole in the thigh and I finally got a run!  I will definitely be ordering these again!  The Hayley Boot by Dansko is so easy to walk around in compared to most heeled shoe options in my closet.  I own them in both black and brown because they were a screaming deal on Amazon a few years ago.  (My pandemic obsession purchases were shoes and lipstick, both things I did NOT need in the pandemic. Go figure.)

When I started creating my mixed media pieces for Wilde Skye, my Etsy shop, I had so many ideas and never enough time to work on them.  The idea for this piece for Felis came to me two years ago.  I sketched it in my little crafting notebook but was very scared to take a crack at it because I know I cannot draw people well.  But then Felis sent out invites for her party and I decided it was time to tackle the painting.

It took multiple sketches to get everything proportioned and positioned just right.  Then I started painting layer by layer in the hopes I wouldn't mess it up.  I spent a while mixing paint to try to get Felis' warm brown skin tone just right before I nervously painted her.  After many failed print ideas for her dress, I decided my signature Hailey addition to things is glitter, so a glitter dress is what she's rockin'!  Then I added in the cherry blossom tree using rose gold wire, pink powder opal and strawberry quartz gemstone beads, and duo-chrome faceted beads for some extra sparkle.

I asked Felis to open her gift when I got there because I wanted to see her reaction so badly!  She knew right away that the person in the painting was her, which made me so happy.  I'm really proud of myself for pushing through the discomfort of my self-doubt while still managing to create what I saw in my head.  I hope that this boost of confidence can help manifest more of these ideas that are fluttering around!