Shifts In A Denim Shift

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I started out wearing this little denim dress from Urban Outfitters (sold out. But Old Navy currently has a cute denim dress also available in plus size). With boots. And I asked my husband if he could take pictures of it.

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And he looked at the dress and said, “Whoa! That is short!”

But I didn’t believe him.

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And then I looked at these pictures while we were out taking the pictures and I had to agree. But I still thought maybe it was the heels and not the dress. Because I had kind of all ready worn this dress around town that day and I really could not bear to think of how many people saw me sans pants. I stubbornly stuck with, “It is a dress and it is long enough.” As all sixteen thirty seven year olds do.

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So I changed to flats.

It’s called denial.

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And it is my speciality.

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It was how I originally wanted to wear the dress any way. And I did. For approximately five seconds.

Before I took a peek at these pictures and decided it was not the heels.

It was not the flats.

It was the dress.

And it was a shirt.

I hate when that happens.

Although, I cannot wait to layer it over another dress like Atlantic Pacific did here.

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I put on some tights that I had in my car.

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What? You don’t carry tights in your car? What about spare deodorant? Extra underwear? Straws? Salt?

A girl has always gots to be prepared.

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I do admit, I felt more comfortable in the tights.

Just don’t tell my husband.

He’ll never let me live it down.

He is all ready teasing me about always being pantless.

There will be no living with him if he learns that I agree with him.

Have you ever been in denial about an outfit? Left the house in an indecent state? I am afraid that I can answer “yes” to both of those questions too often. I need to shift that. Top the next outfit. Ad-dress the issue and move on. For not once, but twice, in school, I left the changing room for p.e. without pants on. If I could get through it in junior high school, I can do it now. It is amazing how things can change and yet always stay the same.

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.

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.

From India To Me

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I love to shop Etsy for one of a kind pieces. I especially love embroidered pieces. But I am not picky. I’ll know it when I see it.

And I saw it.

But it was sold out, so I contacted Lisa from Madame Hall on Etsy to see if she would be making any more of the dresses I had seen on her site in a size medium. She did not have any but she sent me a few pictures of this dress laying flat.

And, of course, I loved it.

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I bought it (with the help of a gift card from the sweetest lady ever. Thank you B!) and anxiously awaited its arrival.

It came in the coolest package about two weeks later. She sewed the package up with my address on the cloth. Inside of the initial package, the dress was wrapped in another gorgeous embroidered simple cloth bag. And she even sent me a beautiful embroidered scarf as a gift. Truly exceptional service. I would not hesitate to order from her again and to recommend her shop to others.

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I was not planning on pairing it with brown boots. In fact, I was going to wear it with my black fringed booties. But the snow would have ruined those. I did need to quickly grab a slip for underneath this because of the length. It is almost more of a tunic than a dress but because it is made from wool, I would only wear this with tights and leggings in the wintertime any way.

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The bright cheerful colors just make me so happy.

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I feel like this dress was meant to be mine. Or I was meant for it. It only needed to find me half way across the world. From India to me.

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Do you buy clothing items from Etsy? Do you ever feel a personal connection to an item of clothing? Does it speak to you?

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Mine does.

I’m not gonna tell you what it says.

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All right.

Just this once. I’ll spill the beans. Or beads as it were…

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With a shimmer. A glimmer. A whisper, it breathes, “OHHHHHH YEAAAAAAHHHHHH.”

Or maybe that’s just me.