What Should I wear to . . . a Meeting?

First you need to know that public speaking terrifies me, and then you  need to know that my job absolutely requires it.  Part of feeling confident is wearing something I feel professional and attractive in. This is maybe not the perfect outfit, but I'd give it about a 7 or 8 out of ten now that I'm second guessing myself after the fact. It's what I wore the other day while presenting to a group, so it's what I'm going with. Ideally I'd like a perfect 10 especially if I'm presenting, but somehow it just wasn't happening that day. I've been playing with fun color coordinations, but I was afraid to stray far from the ordinary and conventional. Maybe that's why I find it sort of, blah. And I had my black Merrill Clogs on in the picture because I wore them for the drive home. For the meeting I actually had some cute taupe flats that helped the outfit a lot.

 I also found it amusing that when I begged my son to take my photo these are the pictures he took below. It took a lot of convincing to get him to photograph dear old Mom and not his cat. After all, Whiskas is always styling no matter what.

My Feet Hate Me

Apparently the cute shoes I have been wearing lately have angered my feet . Several times I have been in great pain by evening. Could it be the Christmas shopping I did while wearing boots? So for several days I had to go back to wearing running shoes or my Merrill clogs. I learned my lesson. Cute shoes are OK at my desk or short events but not shopping. Dang it.

 My stepson has taken possession of the laptop for a few days. Stay tuned for a decent post tomorrow hopefully. Temporarily my black Merrill clogs which my husband has proclaimed the ugliest shoes ever, are my footwear of choice.

What Should I wear to . . . My Office Christmas Party?

Now that I finally figured out no one under age 70 should wear loud Christmas sweaters (and maybe not even then), there's a vacuum in holiday party wear. Here's my top runner for what to wear at the office party.

I guess I should mention I work for a non-profit agency, not a fortune 500 company and that it's a casual daytime party. Those factors make a big difference!

Tunic, Leggings, Boots

 O.K. So this is apparently an outfit formula lots of people use, but not something I do often. I thought I was too curvy and, well, blobby to pull it off. But I gave it some thought, and here are the results. Isn't it cute? And I took the sweater off when I got hot at work because it was up in the 60's today. Don't I look like a happy office elf?

Ahhh Terrariums

O.K. I both bless and curse the day I heard of Pinterest. I can find so many millions of ideas that I couldn't do them all in my lifetime. For some reason I thought terrariums would be a good project for me and the twins to do together. Unfortunately, I forgot that they are 14 year old boys. Anyway, MY terrariums turned out cool!

Now the only bad thing is my husband things I'm a bit nutty to make all of these. I mean, he didn't say that because he doesn't have a death wish. What he actually said was, "Some of these are for Christmas gifts, right?"

Weekend Review

Saturday we left the house and piddled around town. Very relaxing, but got absolutely nothing done, including posts. So here is what I wore Sunday to church and afterwards when I went casual. Saturday I was just too busy doing nothing to pause for a photo.

I found an awesome backdrop for my photo. And then I beat a hasty retreat from the old stone house restaurant when some dude began walking over to see what I was up to. On Sunday after church I convinced my hubby to get in the picture with me wearing the outfit I gave him for his birthday.

I'm terrible about identifying my clothing for various reasons. Not least of which is that I don't consider my blog a "how-to" blog. There are lots of others out there who can give you advice. Mine is more of a personal discovery thing. Other reasons include shame over buying low quality things, having no tag after cutting them all out, and just plain having a bad memory.  But I'll try to start identifying items more.

I know that the dress is from Cato, the little grey laceless oxfords came from Payless Shoes. The boots came from Kmart. After trying on many expensive boots, these finally fit the bill. Weird huh? My feet are weird about boots because the arthritis made my ankles less flexible.

 Generally I buy better quality now, and since I've discovered thrifting, my standards are getting higher. I'm still a work in progress. My hubby is wearing a  dark grey Van Heusen shirt and black Dockers pants.

Play-doh and Cowboy Boots

I was in a 2-day training and yesterday the trainer instructed us to dress casual. "Wear your jeans because we're going to play." Sure enough we did role play, got in the floor, played with play-doh, etc. Almost makes it worth the crap we go through as social workers.

I'm usually still kind of conservative and cautious when I'm attending meetings or training, but I took the instructions to go casual as an opportunity to have fun. Is this too young a look for a 44 yr old professional? Hmm . . . I hope not cause I did it! One thing we discussed was the importance of play. So lets play!!

Colors
Since I had decided to try wearing unexpected color combinations. Not sure if a grey/black top with brown belt, boots and sweater counts. It's unexpected for me anyway.

Fun with clothing
You'd never guess I took the photos in the Home Depot parking lot after training. Well, I was out of town and wanted photos before it got dark. Plus the town I was in had stores we don't like Target, Kohl's, Marshall's, etc. and I decided to start my Christmas shopping then and there.