A Mother’s Journal

Hasn’t it been fun?  Well, it has for me, sharing fun thrift store finds and reading all of your very kind comments!  Today will be the last day, and tomorrow a day of rest from this fashion adventure. 

Can you tell whose baby Annie really is?  I love this little puppy, in spite of her, uh, inability to understand that her bathroom is OUTSIDE.  We will get it straight one day, though.

I love the dress pictured above because of the corset-type tie in the front, and there is a repeated exact tie on the back.  Oh, I do love it. 

Dress 4.00

I am closing with just one picture showing the beautiful detail of one of my current favorites, because I think beauty is in the details.  We fall in love with people as we find out their little ways and peculiarities — their details.  Much of interior design is in the details.  There are detail shops for cars.

When I go out shopping, I shop for things that make me happy and that I can make a connection with.  I also shop for functional things, obviously, because I’m buying clothes, but if I have to choose between a drab gray overcoat and a soft pink one with a pretty charm hanging from the zipper tab, guess what? 

Thank you all so much for having fun with me this week!

Today’s a work day.  It’s snowing here today.  Again.  I told Thomas spring was right around the corner.  ”Six weeks,” I said. 

“Where’d you get that idea?” he asked.

I was picturing the little groundhog and knowing that he had seen his shadow.

Thomas interrupted my beautiful thoughts and said, “You know they’re comparing this winter to only two others like it over the last 100 years.  This winter’s gonna go slam through March.”

Was he kidding?

Oh well.

PS - Tanya, just for you…

It does have a great twirl effect!

And Ginger, the skirt yesterday is 100% polyester.  I checked this morning. 

Delight in Disorder
by Robert Herrick

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction–
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher–
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly–
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat–
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility–
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.

I asked my husband one time if he thought I was odd and he said, “You are pleasantly eccentric.”  I had a grandmother who loved hats, scarves, and leopard prints and all sorts of unusual articles of clothing.  I remember when she would come and visit, we always waited in anticipation, wondering what she would have on.  Actually, I sort of love leopard print too, but it has to be just the right thing for me to wear it.  Fair skin and freckles somehow don’t always look great in leopard print. 

I love pairing two very lacy tops together.  Having a little bit of lace show through at a collar or neckline or waist is pretty to me, though too much is, well, too much. 

The skirt has a story.  I bought this skirt probably 10 years ago secondhand.  A few years later I was cleaning out to donate some things to a yard sale and my mother saw that skirt in the bag.  She knew I had really loved it and would probably miss it one day, so she pulled it out without telling me and put it up.  She pulled it out again about two years ago and said, “Remember this?”  It was like finding that skirt all over again.  I thanked her for saving this pretty skirt for me.  It’s got two layers to it, has a beautiful floral print and hangs oh so pretty.

Brown lace top – $3.00
Lacy under-layer shirt – $3.00
Twirly skirt – $3.00
Black tights – $1.00
Sam and Libby boots – $5.00

Apron?  The first one I ever made, about 25 years ago, out of fabric bought really cheap at a textile factory I was working at.

Have a beautiful Friday.  Here’s to a job at home, hot tea, and God’s beautiful creation just on the other side of the window pane.

Oh, the week is flying by!  Tomorrow I’ll be at my work desk, but we won’t think of that today!  No.

What we will think about is making the most of each day.  As I post this fun and sort of frivolous week of fashion, I am not unaware that there is great suffering around the world, and many would love to have any new clothes right now, let alone a large selection purchased at good prices.

So, we must do what we can to help others and we must be all we can in our places.  I fully believe also in Tasha Tudor’s saying that we must “take joy.” 

I would like to thank my photographer, Michaela, for setting the camera on burst and then getting me to twirl, which I’m not very good at, by the way.  I reminded myself of one of those little twirlers in a jewelry box when the wire has gone awry and she spins off balance. 

Black velvety dress – $4.00

Black tights – $1.00

Black Wal-Mart Mary Janes – $9.00

Finally, the apron was a splurge and was $20.00, more than the rest of the outfit combined, but there’s a story behind it.  I bought it locally, it is handmade and supports someone who crafts and makes things and sells them, and I think that is worthwhile.    So there.

Besides, everyone needs a pretty apron to wear while cooking and cleaning.

Happy Thursday!

Welcome back to the fashion show!  (That was really fun saying that.)

You get to see one of my current favorite shirts and my cluttered kitchen counter all at the same time!  What a day!

Once again I am layering shirts, which is a useful thing to be able to do since I’m so cold-natured.  The skirt for the day is really shiny and crinkly.  I should have gotten a closer picture of the skirt because the hem is trimmed in lace.  It’s really pretty with black boots.  I found it in a store called Rave, in the mall, on a clearance rack for for 5 dollars.  Most things in stores like that don’t work out for me because everything, uh, doesn’t have enough fabric in it, but this skirt and one just like it in brown came home with me.

I thought this picture was worth putting in because you get to see the bright sun.  The snow looked like it had been sprinkled with bright sparkly glitter.  It was so very pretty.  Made me appreciate Snowflake Bentley all over again!

The greenish-teal shirt underneath is the one that I’m really enjoying right now.  The brand is Stamp 10.  I love how the blue in the pin brings out the blue tone in the shirt.  The black shirt I love too, because of the lace in the V neck.  It’s Chaus Organic and looked like it had never been touched when I bought it at Goodwill.

Once again, I’m covered in shawls.  The red plaid shawl was my one new shawl purchase this year.  I’ll try really hard not to buy another one until the big after-winter sales next year.

Total cost:

twirly skirt – 5.00
black shirt – 3.00
blue-green shirt – 3.00
black tights – 1.00
red shawl – 25.00