Red coats



For me, when I try something on, it is all about how it feels. Or, how it makes me feel. If it is tight or uncomfortable, no way. I am often guilty of wearing my clothes too large. When people ask me what I was thinking when I bought something that is too big for me, my response is

 

 I was thinking I would wear this to the movies when it was raining on a Sunday morning.

 

You know, how you want to just be comfy and settle in and chill?

 

Basically, I dress for comfort.

And, I dress for how I think I look in my clothes.

How it looks in my head.

How I feel.

How I think it makes me look.

 

I love red coats. Throughout my life I have had several red coats. Red is captivating. I glow in red.

 

Recently, I saw a picture of Princess Kate in a red coat and realized she captures that feeling - that image of me in my head.

What I feel like it looks like

Then, I saw a photo of what I really look like in my red coat. It was a rainy, chilly day in South Bend, IN. We were on the campus of Notre Dame, being shown around by a couple of grad students who are our friends and family. It was cold and a steady mist was falling. I was wearing my new cream, soft infinity scarf which I pulled up to the back of my cap. I was freezing.

I am guilty of stuffing stuff in my pockets. I know on this day I had an extra pair of gloves and a head band/ear warmer thingy. Then when we took the picture, I put my arms around Mary and Q - which pulled my coat even more. 

What it really looks like

Even though I look like fifty cents in my red coat, I feel like a million bucks.

What she wore

What she wore or Grandmas can be groovy, too.

 

It is spring and I survived winter!

 

I am in the process of dieting, so maybe this can be a before photo.

(More about my diet in a post to follow.)

Currently, I am working on re-losing the weight I gained while mother was ill.

 I joked while she was in Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis that I had about every flavor of smoothie Au Bon Pain makes, but it was almost the truth.

Don't you hate re-losing? I do.

I am a few pounds from being classified as overweight rather than obese.

Overweight just sounds better.

White jacket by Dressbarn.

Pink top by Coldwater Creek via the best of Goodwill, Vintage Vogue.

(Have you heard Coldwater Creek is going out of business?

I loved their store, but have to admit, I rarely bought anything from them.)

Heart necklace by Brighton.

Pink watch by Avon.

Jeans by Cato.

Sandals by Dansko.

 

Here is a shot from further back so you can see our big flowering tree.

I'm not certain - it may be a crab apple?

The blooms really look red but in this shot somehow it looks pinkish-purple.

Everything around is in bloom.

Thus the pink top - I wanted to be in bloom, too!

One of my gal pals refers to strawberry pink as my signature shade.

What is your signature shade?

Charmed, I'm sure.

Today I'm wearing a jingling bracelet which brought back precious memories.

When I was a girl, a lot of women wore charm bracelets and collected charms one at a time. The bracelet in the photo above is a photo I took off of the Internet- but it could have been mine. I was in band- played the flute and sang in choir.

 

My mother had a charm bracelet that was heavy and jingled. She kept it in her jewelry box all year long and the only time she wore it was at Christmas time. My then-husband always said: "that bracelet your mother wears drives me crazy!" This always caused me to giggle on the inside.

 

In my mind, my mother was always beautiful. She had auburn hair that she wore in a french roll. She was elegant and wore little hats with veils to church. She was my Girl Scout leader for many years and would wear white gloves when we had ceremonies.

 

As the years passed, mother became more and more crazy eccentric with her dress. She still wears several rings and wears a ring on her thumb. She wore rings on her toes and on a flight to Hawaii one time, one of the rings got stuck when her feet swelled during the flight.

 

I always joked that mother dresses like a gypsy. In fact, a few years back I went to a Halloween party dressed as a gypsy and wore one of mother's gauzy full skirts and a brilliant shawl with roses on it.

 

Sometimes I think I'm becoming my mother. I've always referred to myself as "Nancy, Jr." because I think I look so much like her. Now, I too, am becoming more confident and happy and expressive in my jewelry and clothing.

 

Mother was greatly influenced by her grandma who was a positive, smiling person. My mother is not in very good health and is crippled to the point of nearly being home-bound. But, if you were to meet her, she would smile and when you said "how do you do?" Her answer would be "fine."

No complaints.

 

I now work in a new office where I am very happy. Our dress code is not as strict as it was where I worked before. I can wear my crazy artistic, expressive jewelry. Fridays are the most casual and today I wore a jingling necklace with matching bracelet. As I typed and moved and my bracelet jingled, it brought back the memory of mother's charm bracelet. I always loved looking at her charms and she would tell me the story of each one. There was a silhouette of a girl's head with my name and birth date engraved on it. For me it was a sweet time shared with my mother. Sometimes I would just go round and round, spinning it around her wrist as I studied each charm.

 

The jingling of a bracelet brings memories of a magical time in my life - Christmas, when mother always wore her charm bracelet. It is a happy sound.

Dress like every day is a photo shoot

A friend of mine owns an advertising business. He contacted me about six weeks ago and told me he had shown one of his clients my photo. I have no idea what photo he showed them. He says they loved me, that I was exactly what they were looking for.
I was like "wait a minute...me?" So he says.

My friend contacted me this week. Says the client is going to contact me. That we are going to do the shoot sometime this week, maybe Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. I told him I was free on Wednesday or Friday.

This morning I got up and thought "are they contacting me today?" Would they do that? Just send me and email and say "c'mon over, we're doing the shoot today."

How would you dress if you thought there might be a photo shoot at the end of the day?
I wore my new Dansko heels, a skirt with matching top and a white jacket. I carried my new satchel purse. I straightened my hair. I did my makeup. I had polish on both toenails and fingernails.

Sometime during the day, the client contacted me and said we needed to post-pone the shoot.

After work a woman turned to me as we got off the elevator and said "your nails match your outfit."
I smiled and said "well, I thought there was going to be a photo shoot today."

She probably thought I was crazy.

What she wore - #2

This is what I wore to my friend's son's wedding.  I had the boots and tights, bought a new sweater dress and paired it with a knit jacket of sorts and matching necklace and earrings. 

This was taken in our drive.  Our burning bush is burning! I bought the dress, jacket and jewelry at Dressbarn.  The tights and boots are also from Dressbarn - but I bought them last year.

Have you been shopping, recently?  Take it from me, the pickins are slim!  I'm not crazy about a lot of stuff out there - even at Dressbarn, but I also found a pair of basic jeans and two knit tops.  I'm not a huge jeans person and only had one pair.  It seems to me a lot of the clothing out there right now is cheap and not very well made.  And if it is very well made, it costs an arm and a leg. 

Where is your favorite place to shop?

What She Wore premiere

I posted the abbreviated version of What She Wore on facebook, yesterday.

I am a Grandma. 

One of my gal friends keeps carrying on about my carrying on about my being a Grandma. 

She said "so, your daughter has a kid." 

Um, last time I checked, that made me a Grandma.

I'm in my early fifties.

I just bought a new bicycle this summer.

I've been doing kickboxing for the past few months.

It helps my balance and strengthens my core.

I am the oldest person in the class and often, the heaviest. 

That doesn't discourage me.  In fact, sometimes it causes me to work harder.

I walk fast.

I work hard.

I try to stay in shape.

I lost fifteen pounds before I went to Paris

and I've lost five since and managed to keep that off.

I try.

I still need to lose more.

But, I feel pretty good.

I think for my age, I do o.k.

It could be worse.

I love this blog.

She inspired me to cut my hair short this summer. 

I read this magazine.

It gives me age appropriate fashion tips and tips on how to have great looking skin and be successful.

Recently Doug bought this skirt and sweater for me.

It is from The Gift of G.A.B. in Goshen, IN.

I found this fantastic necklace and earrings when I went home for my class reunion.
From Edward's Jewelers in New Castle, IN.

I've been with Doug for more than seven years and he has never bought me an outfit, before.  His sister in law owns the Gift of G.A.B.  He picked out the skirt and she helped him find something to go with it.
I asked him if he is having an affair.
He said "what? because I'm being nice?"
"It happens." I answered.

So here I am with the premiere of What She Wore.
I'll see what else I can come up with.
In the mean time- go out there and get 'em.