Authentic

I'd like to speak a word to all the fashion bloggers who go to the city parks and fields of flowers to take their photographs ...
I love y'all, I do.  And I dig your inspiration too.  After all, you're probably the (mostly) whole reason that I'm wearing (p)leather pants and studded butt-stompers and a so-fresh-so-clean cardigan and some version of a tartan scarf if not the winning one*.

Oh, and plaid in general, duh.

And I'm inspired to do this blogging thing too.  It's just that over here, what I have is table tops and ceiling views, toddler socks and knock-offs.

Oh, and bad photography, duh.


I have little to offer, really, that's actually and truly, so-fresh-so-clean-so-hasn't-been-done-before.  No portending here that what I have, nobody else has except for one thing, really, and that's my story.

We all have that, you know ~ a life that can't be duplicated.  I hope very much that each of you is inspired by the beauty that's around you, that you learn from those with talent and wisdom to offer, that you copy what you can.  But then never be anything other than your real and genuine self, no matter how "im-picture-perfect."

(And those who do actually have picture-perfect stuff to show, please keep doing that too!  It's how I know what to wear when I leave the house.)



*If you're a pinterester, and even remotely follow fashion, and I say, "tartan scarf," you've got it, right?  In your mind, there's a picture of a particular plaid that's winning the pins.  Right?

Spread It 'Round

I'm a crappy crafter, no denyin' it.  

But please, by all means, y'all do better!

For days and days, I've been looking for the perfect diy project:  

Christmas gifts crafted from those things regularly spilling over at our shop.  

Here, what we usually have more than we know what to do with are things such as 

plates, cups, socks...  

(That we have too many ladies' clothes might go without saying.)

I can find projects, sure ~ sock monkeys, paint a plate, put some candy in a cup.

But I wanted something to convey a message, and I knew that, were it up to me,

I'd convey joy. 

Not finding any pinterest projects that met my goals, I decided to just do it myself.

So, I started with a picture frame, one of those Most Abundant, 

nobody-seems-to-know-what-to-do-with-them kind of things, 

and then scavenged from my thrift and hold pile.

Painted the frame 

(and later screwed it up, leading to some pretty serious disappointment.)
*Take your time.

Wrapped the mat.

Like a boss.

Not.

Determined my layout.

And voila!

This, I like.

But, truth in telling,
because I hurried, it looks like this:

Told y'all I'm bad at this!
Oh, well.  I've enjoyed myself and hopefully made my point:

We have picture frames!

Just kidding.

Obviously, you can't buy joy, but if you're in a gifting mood,

then I propose that joy is a great gift to convey.
And there are some really creative

(and inexpensive)

ways to do it!

So, y'all get busy!

Do a better a job than I have done

and

Merry Christmas To Ya!

To A T

I saw a neighbor lady walking her daughter and she was wearing this dress with a hemline that I'd not seen anywhere before and I knew instantly that I would cut that hem into something.  Within a week, I bought a skirt and put it away until the time was right.

That was about a year ago.

And so now we have the graphic t-shirt craze and it's had me checking the racks for the perfect $1 statement shirt for months and months but I finally gave it up and searched and searched the internets until I found it.

This just may be my most perfect ensemble.

I converted a (not really the ugliest skirt ever but for the sake of linguistics, I'm calling it) hideous skirt into something I quite like.

The thing cost me $1.
My shoes were $1.












I employed a little RRR by making the pattern from a circular.

My shirt, while it cost a little more than $1, is not like any other that I've seen and it speaks quite well to my multi-faceted personality, I think.

That's...

Act Like A Lady

Think Like A Boss

C'est moi, n'est-il pas?

Oui, Oui.  To a tee.

Partie Deux

Forget the idiom, please!  I know I've made it clear I'm not a genius.

Anyhow, when I was a kid, when I got any pair of new shoes, I wanted to sleep in them for at least a couple of nights.  It's a little like that with this lipstick.

Lipstick, in general, has never been a part of my "regular application."  It's just never done anything for me.  However, for a couple of years now, I've been looking for a shade of red that I can wear without feeling the need to wear a ski mask at the same time.  Why the need for red lipstick?  No clue, really, but my search was futile until...

It became necessary for me to have it - Because Momma Said So, in fact - then I bypassed my usual drugstore and went straight to Sephora.  And straight to one of my favorite brands.  And then straight to this shade.  In hindsight, it's a little weird how easily I found it.  It's as if we were meant for each other.

So for the next several days, I wore it every chance I had.  (Though I really wanted to sleep with it on, I didn't.  I remember how uncomfortable that was with the shoes.)

The day after I found the lipstick, I stumbled across this blog, Why You Can Wear Red Lipstick - also pretty weird.  Seriously, the similarities are weird.  But she tells her story in so much better a fashion than my lame attempt here and so this is where I'm stopping.

Because Momma Said So

Recently, my momma sent me a picture asking, 

"It's you, right?"

Ohhhhhh yyeeaahhh.

There are, of course, some obvious reasons that one might question this.  I mean, obviously my nails are shorter than hers!

And, truth be told, I don't have quite the uhhhh ... well, quite the nerve to leave the house dressed this way.

Or at least I don't have the nerve to leave the house having paired these two particular prints.

But the thing is ... I have a near match to each of these!

And another thing is that I like to do what I like to do, fashion-wise.  I like to do what I like to do and I will do it, fashionably speaking, most of the time.

It's really not that I'm fashion-gifted, or that I always get it right, or that I even get it "good" most of the time.  It's that I've learned - and it's taken me a great many years - to do what makes me happy, fashionably speaking.

So people may not ask me to give the origin of a print, but those who know me well know which ones I'll wear.

And so, because my momma said so...






The only thing I'm wearing that I didn't own before Momma's instruction is the red lipstick.  That's a whole 'nother story.  Think I'll make that a sequel.

Also, my cat's developed some weird thing for showing up in pictures. Hope this isn't the start of some weird new pattern.

Wait.  Should I have said, "print" just then?

My GIF To You

...because I'm a trekkie, not a techie.


Sorry.  Had to.

Allegory

I don't always have a plan or even know what I'm doing,

But things generally work out in the end.

For instance, take this costume-y jacket that I found a year ago,

And these super-fly shoes that I found recently (for 80% off) 

while at an out-of-town wedding,

And the skirts that I've collected over a year's span...

Voila!

Oftentimes, we have to just do what we know is right, trusting that things will all come together in the end.

Whatever you're working on today - a question, a family, a plan - I pray that you go through it with joy and peace and assurance that it's worth sticking it out.

Merry Christmas!