Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Late night wanderings

Even though I should be in bed, I just have to share a couple of funny things my kids said today. First a little background, I have been looking a Pinterest a wee little bit too much lately . . . for hours. I mean, there should be a 12-step program really because I'm seriously addicted to looking at everything. I saw some terrariums and for some reason just had to make some. So I get some old jars and newly purchased jars and all the material together. I need some moss which we have in abundance in our woods, but I keep getting home after dark every day. 

So today I called my son while driving home. "Son, can you and your brother please go get some moss for me?" And what does my offspring say? "What? Where are we gonna find moss? We don't know where to look for moss. The woods?!? What? Mom, are you serious. It's cold outside!" Now keep in mind that you walk maybe 20 yards from our house and you are in the woods--deep shady, mossy woods. Also keep in mind that even though it was very cold for here, we do live in Georgia. Come on people!

Fortunately, I get home just in time to gather moss and make lovely terrariums. So my other son requests one for his room. When I finish it he says, "Mom, when I look down at it it's just like looking into the woods!" And he said it like it was the most surprising thing. I told him that was the effect we're going for with a terrarium. Easily amused on a Wednesday night. Pictures will have to wait because I should be in bed, but they turned out cute.

Fun with Colors

For my next trick I'm going to try unexpected color combinations. Well, they're unexpected for me anyway as someone who was scared to wear color till recently. When I was playing with my clothes and just sticking stuff together to see how it looked, this is one of the combos I tried. Maybe that should be my theme in December. Wait, I'm doing a theme? Not sure I'm ready and good enough for a theme. Oh well, why not?



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I NEED a New Camera


I broke two, yes two cameras within 2 months this summer in freak accidents. My son knocked my cheap knockabout camera out of my hand onto the sidewalk while posing for a picture in the smokeys. Then I dropped my good camera at work and it struck my desk as it fell. Lovely!

Somehow even with my new camera killer reputation, I think I've convinced my hubby to get me a good camera for Christmas. The one I'm using now is my kayaking camera bought primarily because it was waterproof and cheap. It's a Kodak Easy Share Sport and does O.K. in natural light. Like I said, it's cheap and waterproof. Great for kayaking and the beach, but not so much for a style blog.
 
Somehow it took this cool pic, but it does really weird things with my skin tone, even in natural light and takes lots of editing to keep me from looking space alien grey.

I'm open to any camera suggestions. I'm waffling between really going for it and getting a DSLR because I love to dabble in photography or getting a less sophisticated camera that has some manual settings I can play with. I'm not sure that I have the patience and time right now to learn anything complicated. Recommendations anyone?

Tuesday is pizza day

I have no idea what that has to do with this outfit, but it is pizza day. Usually Tuesday is the day my parents pick up my kids, meet me in the nearby town where I work and we go to Dad's favorite pizza place. All I know is that I don't have to cook and that makes it a good day. It calls for a celebratory outfit!
 
What happens when your husband calls in the middle of your son taking an outfit photo? This. You can't really tell these are black pinstripe pants and that the black sweater has cute ruffles at the neckline and sleeves. Sheesh, you don't know just how bad I need a new camera!!


Monday's Outfit a Day Late

There was a rain delay in getting Monday's outfit posted! Actually I had to work late and I'm not enough of a morning person to post in the morning. Normally I don't wear grey on rainy days but I figured the turquoise scarf would cheer it up. And as usually our dog Padme has to get in on the action. I've decided setting the self-timer is her cue to get in front of me. It must send out signals only she can hear. I have my cute plaid rain boots on but these pants looked stupid tucked in. I'm having pants tucked in boots issues that I need to work out!


Monday, November 28, 2011

Late Bloomer

So why would I all the sudden want to reinvent myself at the age of 44? Lots of reasons really, too many to explain in one little blog post. 

Well you know they say 40 is the new 20. No, no it's not. Really, it's not. As a person past 40, I can vouch for that. Saying an age is the new 20 implies we would want to go back to 20, and I absolutely would not. 

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Quick Change Artist

After a childhood spent avoiding dresses whenever possible, I'm discovering the advantages of dresses and skirts and wearing them more. I associate dresses with feeling restricted as a tomboy child. And panty hose used to be a must which meant sweat in summer and lots of discomfort. In winter they weren't really warm enough.

 Last summer I discovered airy dresses are a great way to beat the heat and now that I've discovered tights, the winter chills aren't a barrier to wearing skirts any more. And sometimes they're just plain fun. Also being a basically lazy person, I realized skirts rarely need washing. I'm sold.
Still when I'm heading out on a road trip after church, it's time for a quick change to jeans.

And here's what I wore to church today. So far I'm mainly branching out to wearing dresses to church because I can change to something ultra casual when I return home. But at least it's a start. Now that I see how slimming this is compared to some of my pants outfits, it may become a regular pattern.  

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Encore Presentation Shoe Shelves


And the shoe shelves my husband made are so impressive that we're going to have an encore presentation (Also I just wore very casual clothes yesterday which didn't deserve a post of their own!). Here they are folks for your viewing pleasure:


Friday, November 25, 2011

Shoe Storage

Shelves courtesy of my husband. Didn't he do an awesome job? Out of gratitude I allowed him a small section on the right for his shoes.










This makes it look like our house is incredibly organized. If only I could get the rest looking like this. Well, I can dream and maybe work on it a room at a time.

Mixing Patterns--My First Ever Attempt!

First let me say, I'm an original and creative person . . . just not today. I have to admit I was inspired by fashion bloggers, especially Kashmira at What I Wore 2Day. Usually I just say "Oh, wow I love that on her but I could never pull that off!" since I'm a fade into the background kind of a gal. I know mixing patterns works in interior design and I do it when scrapbooking a lot, but clothes? The memory is still fresh of 7th grade and mom making me go change out of a plaid skirt with a floral top. I think the colors were the same and it would probably work today, but not in 1981!. At that point I believe we were still obeying the whole no white shoes before Easter or after Labor Day rule. So things were a lot more restrictive.

Fast forward to this year when I went to my closet and just played with my clothes. I just took a bunch of stuff and made outfits just to see if I could. Gosh darnit, this is actually fun and I came up with some cute combos. Who knew?


And as usual the animals have to get in on the photo action. Bonus points if you can find the picture where I have a tail! I was also swatting a bug when the self-timer snapped it. Maybe later I'll do a post entirely of photo bloopers.

It's a little shortish for what I'm usually comfortable with, and my tan has apparently faded. So for work I would definitely have to wear tights, but it all turned out better than I thought. Fun, fun, fun! With some tights, I would definitely wear this in public and not just in the woods with the pets.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Curvy Girls Have More Fun

O.K. There, I've said it--I'm curvy! So sue me.
I was checking some of my favorite blogs this morning and came across this post by Sal on Already Pretty about wearing tunics over leggings. I absolutely adore this look, but with my figure, it's questionable at best. Still sometimes I try to pull it off. I'm going to post a couple of outfits from the last few weeks that I've been meaning to post anyway. Occasionally I just wear something I love even if it's not the most flattering and these would be examples of me doing just that.


What do you think? 


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Family Photo Shoot

Take 14 yr old twin boys and convince them to stay still for a family photo shoot and this is what you get.
What you don't know looking at this sweet picture is what went on behind the scenes to get this one great shot.

 








I'm loving that I have some great comfy boots now to wear with my long brown corduroy skirt. The boots I had before looked great but left me unable to walk after each wear. Not good. I still have no idea why because they look like normal boots and weren't high heeled or anything.

For some reason the pets always get involved in my photo shoots at home. This session features my son Chris' cat "Whiskas". She used to be the floppiest cuddly noodle ever, but is more reserved now. Just before the camera snapped the final picture, she decided she didn't want to be a model after all.

Stay tuned for more photos of our pets and one photo where I have a tail.

Sunday's Outfit

 Playing weekend catch-up. Here's the fun red thrifted jacket and striped shirt I wore Sunday. My church is pretty casual and anything goes from jeans to your nicest outfits. So it's fun to wear whatever suits my mood.

As for my continuing quest for better fit, there goes that darn sagging crotch again on another pair of pants. I really had no idea that so many of my clothes need altering. In the last 2 years my hubby and I have lost weight and had some fluctuations up and down since then. It seems like my body changes shape subtly every few months now that I'm past 40. Fun! I think I either need to learn to sew or make good friends with a tailor!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Outfit catch up--Casual Friday

Jumping on the striped bandwagon
I'm not normally one to jump on a fashion bandwagon, but after seeing all the cute stripes on Go Chic or Go Home recently, I decided to be on the lookout for a piece with stripes. Imagine my surprise when I found this sweater at a tiny resale shop in itty bitty Cedartown, GA. I also scored this lovely green sweater, grey sweater, a striped shirt, a skirt, red jacket and a even a beaded scarf. Be on the lookout for these in upcoming outfits.

Thrifted:

Catch up outfit photo from last week

 
I'm happy to have some good boots to wear with my long corduroy skirt. It didn't get a lot of wear last year because the only boots I had killed my feet. So I met my goal for finding wearable boots. It was rainy which kept it cool enough for the corduroy and boots but warm enough to ditch my sweater. I'm loving this mild fall we're having this year.

Organized Medicine Cabinet

Before and after photos of the medicine cabinet. This thing was stressing me out every time I opened the door. It was super-deep cavernous, narrow place. Very difficult to navigate. Nobody could find anything in there but me which meant "Mom, where are the bandaids?" People rifling through and tossing stuff around had it looking like this:
Before
                                       
                                                                                 After

Now each family member has a basket for their prescriptions and supplements they take. Then there's a basket for cough/cold remedies, a basket for OTC pain medicine, one for ointments/topical meds and one in the back for my kids' asthma medicine and home nebulizer which, fortunately, we rarely use. Best of all, we can see all the categories at a glance and instantly grab what we need.

I'm so proud! Becoming an organized person at 44 feels amazing. O.K. So I had to start taking an ADHD medication to get this far, but I'm also learning some new skills. It takes all these resources to address the disorganization but I think it's worth it.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Organizing is fun?


I'm mighty proud of this drawer. Of course the wood glue shows in the flash photo. If my husband had done it, there would be no visible wood glue and it would be done correctly. But where's the fun in that? Me, I just grabbed some balsa wood, glue and an exact-o knife. Presto!

I'm on an organizational kick big time. Since I started taking medication for ADHD about 8 months ago, my organizational abilities suddenly kicked in. I'm on a mission to re-do all the badly planned storage in our house and, believe it or not, I'm kind of having fun. I just wish I could take a week off from work and do it all at once, but that's not going to happen.

Energy to complete the task is another big thing. For whatever reason, things that used to seem insurmountable don't any more. It's not perfect and medication seems to be helping way more at home than at work, but it is helping.

And here is my nemisis--a medicine cabinet so deep we can't tell what lurks at the back. Every single member of the family takes supplies in and out of this space too. All of this is a recipe for total chaos. We eventually want to install those sliding drawer things, but I really need to tame this beast now. Stay tuned for after photos hopefully coming soon.

Considering my husband almost didn't marry me based on how my apartment looked when we were dating . . . I've come a tremendously long way. Of course my twins were 3 at the time. Feel free to address comment to him about it. Ha ha.  He had his reasons which  I really can't go into. And he is amazingly understanding now that he knows my brain just doesn't work to organize automatically the way his does. Some people are born organizers and some have to learn.

Tactile Defensiveness and Clothing Sensitivity

Last night I spoke to a group of foster parents about parenting and ADHD.  Somehow I forgot to even mention clothing sensitivity. How could I forget that when both my son and I have that? I think the fancy smancy term for it is "tactile defensiveness" but I just call it "I'm not wearing THAT!"

This would include anything stiff, itchy, tight anywhere on the body, anything with tags, a tight neck, etc. No turtlenecks, no pencil skirts for more than an hour or so, high heels, shirts that button up, structured jackets that don't allow totally free arm and shoulder movement, spanx, thongs, anything that squeezes anywhere, etc., etc. In short, anything remotely fashionable. Or at least that's what I used to believe. After becoming determined to dress myself more attractively, I began to search out comfortable things that still look nice. So while I'm still cutting tags out of my clothes and thanking whoever decided boys tees should have no tag . . . I'm really trying to be more mindful of fit and not just comfort. 


Here's an example of how comfort can either look sloppy or stylish. No, I did not lose 20 lbs. between the 1st and 2nd picture. In fact, they were taken the same day. The 1st is my uniform for Mom cleaning and running errands on a Saturday. The 2nd isn't perfect but it is a step up. Here I have a very soft shirt as the first layer with a soft cardigan over it. I think the jeans are still slightly "mom jeanish" but all my dark wash jeans have disappeared.