Monarch Magic Metamorphosis

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First, I know this pattern resembles a Tiger Butterfly more than a Monarch. I must have been a little loopy when I first typed this up, because here I am now editing it before it goes up in a few hours and I am wondering what I was thinking with the title. Who can really say?

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I have found in the last year that a swing style dress is my favorite.

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The Sarita Swing Dress is beautiful. I do wish it was one inch longer but otherwise it is perfect. It is made from silk which is a rare thing to find nowadays. My grandma used to keep silk worms in her house so we could watch how they worked. She also would occasionally raise a butterfly through the stages. Green and yellow were her favorite colors. She would have loved this dress.

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I paired the dress with my Simply Livly Turquoise Necklace and a wooden turquoise ring. I also wore my favorite Chie Mihara booties with it. They were one of my favorite sale scores last year. Her shoes are amazing.

I think that every girl dreams of a fantasy world. It is kind of what is thrown on us as children. Castles, princesses, animals, pink and flowers. Butterflies fall right into this.

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Now, I do not know for certain that this dress is based on a butterfly. It seems obvious to me that it is. But I also frequently mix up the words, “prescription and subscription” so I am absolutely no good mental evaluator.

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I looked up the name of the dress, “Sarita.” It means “flowing” in Sanskrit according to the website, behind the name. It is subtle. But, oh, the missed name opportunities this dress had.

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It has the most lovely crochet lace edged lining. The dress is short, but in all of my pictures (including spinning), I did not encounter one wardrobe snafu.

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It is perfect for a windy day. The sleeves flutter magnificently. I honestly felt like a butterfly in this dress. Groan. I can imagine someone quoting that and I realize how lame that sounds, but it is true.

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This dress might not have the right name, but it does not matter.

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It simply made me happy. When I wore it I smiled. It felt like a metamorphosis was taking place. And that is all that matters to me.

Not Feeling It

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I wore this all day. I was having a really hard time getting the gumption up to put an outfit together. Thankfully, this Free People jersey dress is pretty much like wearing pajamas. And I would have worn them as such if I had not borrowed my son’s deodorant that day (without his knowledge) and been knocked over by the smell of Old Spice. How do men do it? The aroma of the men’s deodorant clung to my dress and I could not sleep in it. I am used to baby powder. By the way, who decides that baby powder scent is for girls and mountain air is for boys? I was explaining my dilemma to my husband while I whined in bed and he looked around for an escape route.

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“What happened to your deodorant?” He asked like a grown up.

“I don’t know. It was just gone.”

He got up and went in to the bathroom. I watched him with a faint amount of interest.

“You mean this deodorant?” He asked as he held up my little blue container that had been sitting in direct line of sight in the middle of the counter.

“Wow! I don’t know how that got there!” Then I erupted into a cackle of lunar laughter that made my husband reevaluate the exits in our house again.

My point?

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Um, yea, sure… I had one.

Okay. I got it!

Don’t use your son’s deodorant.

And also, I’m pretty sure my deodorant is possessed.

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That day was hard. Deodorant issues aside.

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I felt as though all of my imagination was sucked dry. Maybe the deodorant worked too well.

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I just threw this dress on with some black tights and my newest popback score, these Freebird Boots I snagged for 85% off at Anthropologie. It was kind of amazing how just wearing something I liked made me feel a little better.

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I wanted to pair this dress with my striped blazer from last year. I would have loved to show it with some light colored denim skinny jeans. To me, that would have been perfect. But instead I kept the tights on. Maybe you can imagine I am wearing skinny jeans. And while you’re at it, maybe you could put me in my deodorant and not an eleven year old boy’s.

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I hope your imagination is better than mine.

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Have you ever lacked the incentive to get dressed? Have you ever used someone else’s deodorant? Do you know what kind of exorcism I could perform on mine? I think I saw it move again. It’s either that or my imagination might be coming back. I am quite sure it is the former. Which really just proves the latter.

Oi. I need to do something about these fumes.

In A Gorgurd

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I have been wanting to take some pictures in this little gully for quite some time. In a moment of serendipity, we happened to be over near it when I was wearing something we could trek down into the small green valley in.

Once we got down into it, we began to notice signs of life.

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I was keeping my eyes peeled for snakes. I wasn’t too worried about myself. I had huge leather boots on, but my husband was in loafers. I wasn’t so sure he would fare as well against a snake bite.

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We didn’t find any snakes, that I know of. But we did find a giant vine with small little gourds trailing on it. There were bright ripe ones and crushed grey dusty ones. I could not help but think of my favorite books growing up, The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony. If you have not read the fantasy series, it is a world full of puns. Gourds take you into another world when you stare into them. To be specific, it is where bad dreams are created. It is ruled by Night Mare. You guessed it. A horse… Gosh! I love puns!

I was very careful not to peer inside of any gourds. You neve’ know.

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I told my husband, “Honey, it’s like we are in Ireland!”

To which he replied, “You always say that any time it is green. If you actually went to Ireland, it wouldn’t look like this. Oregon doesn’t even look like this went it is green.”

Hmmmph. Next he’ll tell me it is perfectly fine to stare into gourds, too.

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I was so excited to wear my Salt Creek Vest on this day (sold out, but when I wrote this there was a medium left and there might be some still available in stores). I am not a fur girl, even the fake kind. I loved everything about this vest when I saw it online except for the fur collar. I even saw a lone vest at my store in my size that someone returned a few months ago but did not try it on because I did not want to get attached.

She It has the most amazing back.

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I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to score one for 70% off.

I could even handle the collar.

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In fact, just between us, I think I like it.

A lot.

What the heck is happening to me? Did I fall into a gourd land where Jenni likes fur collars?

Or pays full price?

I just could not wait for this black shirt to hit sale. It wasn’t too expensive. It was the perfect length. Material. Shape. I have been wearing it twice a week. It was a wonderful splurge. I needed a basic long sleeved black tee that did not have a pocket and was not tight. The Mother Cruiser jeans were a sale score a few years ago (similar here).

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That is surprisingly hard to find.

Like a perfect valley.

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I thought we had wandered into a dream. We found an old toy. I assume it was an old dog’s toy. Which made me a little nervous. I kept looking around for its owner. Sure a rabid beast would be hulking around the hill. But all we witnessed was a lone man pull up in his car at the top of the valley with his camera to take pictures of… His car.

Lots and lots of pictures of his car.

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What an odd thing to do.

I mean, who does that?

It is almost as weird as taking pictures of yourself in outfits.

Almost.

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Do you have rolling green hills near you? Have you been to Ireland? Is my husband right? Is this green valley a sad little sight compared to there?

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The journey was almost perfect. But towards the end of the shoot, my husband gave a tremendous roar. Then he began shaking out his pants. Red ants had climbed up his legs and bit him. He literally had ants in his pants. Piers Anthony would have been so proud.

So much for a perfect green valley.

I am quite sure this never would have happened in Ireland…

Or Xanth.

Tasseled and Tousled

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Sometimes an outfit will come together in my mind and then it is quickly forgotten as something else comes up. But I could not get this one out of my head.

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So I put it on. And I was happy.

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I received these booties for Christmas (however did he know?). The booties are sold out at Anthropologie, but the brand is Fortress of Inca and they have similar booties available. They are more than what I paid, but I have seen their site do promotions, so I would watch for that if you want the booties. I wore mine for about ten hours on this day. And they were very comfortable.

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The dress was an awesome sale popback score. I was really worried that this dress would accentuate my hips in a negative way, but it surprisingly does not. It is a very forgiving dress. The only thing I would change would be the v-shaped pretty plaid pattern in the middle. If you stand a certain way, it looks like odd legs. But I can live with that.

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Heather from The Peacock Fairy previously wore her dress here. Can you believe she just had a baby? She looks fantastic! I didn’t get dressed for three months after each baby. She is very inspiring. Bonnie from Small Town Fashionista also rocked the dress early on. In fact, it was after seeing it on her that I added it to my wishlist.

It is a great dress for all body types. You might be able to find The Tasseled Maxi Dress on eBay or as a popback (it is all sold out, but Golden Tote has almost the exact same dress for $35 without the middle panel. I have never shopped there before, so I cannot comment on the site).

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Whew! Mundane details out of the way. Oh! I forgot about the necklace! And I forgot its name! It is from 2013. It has a gold stripe on the other side. I always wear it backwards because I like the pure dark fabric by itself better. The ring was the best deal last month. I had wanted it when it first came out, but never got it. My local store had it for $7.50. I wear it all of the time!

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Okay. Now the mundane details are hopefully out of the way. Who likes mundane details? Not me. And isn’t January full of them as we try to get our lives organized for the new year?

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Such as, I have been purging my closet. I made a pile that I will be donating and the next night at dinner, my daughter came to the table wearing the kimono I had put on top of the donation pile. It is a good thing that I am always slow and behind or she would have missed out!

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It was windy when we took these pictures. Somehow I ended up in positions that resembled ballerina poses as I tried to block the sun and keep my hair in place.

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I find this hilarious as I am the most klutzy person I know. My mother was a beautiful ballerina. I never had the knack. Or the grace. Or the fortitude. I took it for, gosh, seven years. I kept hearing about the blood involved with pointe shoes and that was it for me. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it. And nobody wants a dizzy ballerina. Besides I believe I would be a ditzy dizzy ballerina and that would be a double blow to the craft.

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Did you take a dance class as a child? Do you take it now? Is anyone else still reeling from the talk about the pointe shoes? I can feel the room spinning. I must put my head between my legs.

Don’t worry. If anyone asks I’ll just tell them it is a new dance move.

And they’ll totally not believe me.

P.S. I shared this on The Pleated Poppy and Reasons To Dress and Fashion Should Be Fun.