DIY Makeover Quote #14

"It takes creativity to wear one dress ten ways; any dummy with a credit card can buy out the mall."

--from Rebekah, via Academichic

Wardrobe Maintenance

Looking at photos of myself over the years, I realize I used to have pretty nice clothes. They weren't expensive, but I looked reasonably put together, especially in college, where at my Bible college I was required to wear dresses to class; and in the early days of my marriage, when I still had those college clothes. But somewhere along the line I lost whatever sense of style I had, little as it may have been, and I'm wondering what happened.

I've been thinking about it, and I think I've discovered the answer. My wardrobe suffered from lack of maintenance. Since I had no "style" to speak of, I had no plan, no vision of what  my wardrobe should consist of. It was mainly whatever caught my eye, that I could afford, that looked halfway decent on  me, that matched at least one other thing in my closet. (One style sense I did have was the love of mixing and matching.) Over the years, as I've changed shape and sizes, what with having babies and growing older, I've outgrown or worn out different items in my closet, and I never replaced them.

Many years ago my wardrobe had a lot of brown and cream. For example, I had a nice brown linen pencil skirt and a cream sweater with pastel flowers embroidered on the shoulder, and to go with it, a pair of tan heels. There is a photo of me wearing that outfit, while holding my first born, who was one year old at the time, and I actually don't cringe when I look at it. But what happened? Well, the waistband on the skirt became too tight--my waistline just never went back that skinny. The sweater became pilled and a little shrunken--and besides, at some point I became disgusted with acrylic sweaters and threw all of mine out. (I did "replace" them, sort of--with cotton sweatshirts! What was I thinking?) I don't remember what happened to the shoes, but my guess is I ran out of things that I felt "went" with them, and got rid of them. Eventually, my wardrobe degenerated to the point where I was wearing jeans everywhere, including church, because that was all I had. It never occurred to me, when I outgrew my brown skirt, to find another brown skirt, to keep  my wardrobe going,  or to find another cream sweater in a different fiber when I tired of the acrylic one.

Now, I've learned. I've learned that when I find a basic, classic piece of clothing in a color and fit that suits me, I will replace it when it become unwearable, as many times as necessary, until I change my style and I need something else. But I will no longer just let something die. It must be replaced if I want to keep my wardrobe to continue to function efficiently.

Makeover Quote #13

My memorable quote today comes from an unexpected source: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. The author is discussing the subject of good taste in your writing style, and then he gives this example:

A woman with taste in clothes delights us with her ability to turn herself out every day in a combination that's not only stylish and surprising; it's also exactly right. Taste is the instinct to know what works and to avoid what doesn't.

The Triumph of Individual Style: A Review

The most helpful book about personal style that I've read so far is this one:

The book approaches style from the perspective of art. Using many illustrations from famous paintings of women (usually nudes), as well as charts and diagrams, the authors show that all body types are just that: types--not problems or flaws--and all are beautiful. The key to showcasing your personal beauty is in the art world: proportion, line, and color.

With the authors' help I began looking at my body as a work of art, a sculpture or a painting, and I began to understand the basic principles behind why certain clothing shapes and designs work or don't work on me. It's a matter of proportion. Just as in art, there are certain lines and proportion that are generally pleasing to the eye, and the closer you can get to that, the more pleasing your form will be to others. And it's not a matter of the "in" body type this season; it's a matter of working with the proportions of your own body.

There is also a whole section on color, with pages of color swatches that you use to find your own personal palette of color. I did this exercise with my daughter and we each ended up with a little key ring of color cards of our "colors." The difference from other color theories being that in this case the colors were truly MY colors: the four colors of my eyes (the iris, the ring around it, the specks, the whites), the two colors of my hair (the base color and the highlights), the two colors of my skin (the actual skin color, and the undertone), rather than a set of colors that are supposed to look good on me. The idea behind this is that you will then find colors to wear that enhance the colors of YOU. This actually works. I have found that my eyes, instead of being green are actually two shades of gray that look green from a distance. This is why certain shades of gray seem to make my eyes bigger and prettier.

The last page of the book has an unexpected quote that sums up the philosophy of the book:

For thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:13-14

Friday Fashion--Just Me

These are some photos of me that I entered in YouLookFab's Maxxinista contest a while back. I didn't win the $300 gift certificate from TJMaxx (boo) but I did get to see myself from the outside, so to speak, by taking pictures of my outfits and looking at them objectively. There are several more that didn't make the cut, but they are buried in the bowels of my laptop, which is inaccessible right now because the power cord died again. If and when I get my laptop back I'd like to post those pics also and get some advice on why those outfits don't work as well as I'd thought.

First up, one of my favorite outfits that I have worn quite a bit. With the jacket--


Without the jacket--


Next, a great fall outfit, using clamdiggers with boots, instead of jeans, and using the "column of color" idea I learned at Inside Out Style. Although, technically, I should be wearing the cardigan open, so the denim blue flows in a long line.


I liked this next outfit better before I saw the photo of it. I'm wearing a white vee-neck tee under the cardigan, and in real life, about an inch of it shows at the neckline, which is difficult to pick out here. The shoes, I love. I get complimented every time I wear them, even though according to some stylists they are all wrong, because they have a horizontal strap across the foot, supposedly making my legs look short. However, I think the horizontal line is counteracted by the vertical strap, and the fact that the shoe is very open, showing a lot of foot.


What do you think? I'm open to comments and suggestions.

Fashion Peeve #3

I didn't title this Peeve, because I'm not sure how to phrase it in a pithy way. It's going to take me a whole paragraph, or at least a sentence, and here goes:

What's with the fashion experts who tell us that the cheap way to update our Look every season is with bags and shoes? Bags and shoes are not necessarily inexpensive, especially not the ones the same experts are telling us to update with. A trendy leather bag for $800? A pair of killer heels for $300? I'd hate to see what the experts are paying for their jeans and sweaters if those are the CHEAP items.

Personally, I don't like to spend more than $2500 for a bag, but that's just me.....

And really, I don't think I own a single "bag," because I buy "purses."

However, I do like my shoes to be of as high of a quality as I can afford. I like good leather, comfort, cute styling, and something that will last a while. I hold to the philosophy of Hercule Poirot---Mystery writer Agatha Christie's famous detective---who said that however shabby an impoverished British Lady may have become, her footwear will always be of the highest quality.

Makeover Quote #12

I started very early to believe in an inside-out concept--that if you look as good as you can, you will feel better. ~~Jil Sander, designer.

How you feel in clothes is as important as how you look in them. ~~Leah Feldon, author of "Does This Make Me Look Fat?"

Wearing Black and Gray

A year ago I had two black items in my wardrobe: a pair of slacks, and a long (ankle length) skirt. Those were worn approximately twice a year for worship team events.

Since then, I've learned two things. One, black is considered every woman's safe/good color, and everyone ought to have some black because you can wear it almost anywhere and be appropriate. Two, I look good in black! I never knew either of these two things before.

By now, I have accumulated quite a bit of black, but it's taken me some time to get used to it, mostly because I feel so dressy in black. I don't know if black is inherently dressy, or if it makes me look so good that I look like I'm dressed up, I don't know.

The other color I've discovered is gray. Not heather, sweatshirt gray; that shade of gray is why I've also never worn gray before. In that shade of gray I look like I should be laying on the couch recovering from the flu. However, when I wear dark gray, from silvery graphite, to charcoal, to almost black, my eyes shine and my complexion glows. I get lots of compliments.

I don't own as much gray as I would like, because the right shades are not easy to find, but you can bet gray is on my shopping radar at all times now.

Now I just have to learn to shut out the voices of many stylish people and designers who are saying that black and gray are "boring" and "unadventurous." Those voices are cheer leading women--who have been following the rules up till now and wearing black for everything-- to break out and be adventurous with color. After all, this is the season for that "pop" of color. (I'm so tired of that phrase!)

(Actually, the "pop" of color has become so trendy that it's more like popcorn--red bag, teal shoes, orange necklace. How many different "pop"s can you have before you look silly?)

But for me right now, black and gray--and yes, with an occasional "pop of color"--is my adventure!

What about you? What colors look fabulous on you?

Makeover Quote #11

...our ultimate goal: to be highly selective in your clothing choices; to choose only those clothes and accessories that balance or are in harmony with Your Body's Design Pattern.

By balance and harmony we mean capturing a visually pleasing relationship between you and your clothes so that your total presentation looks stable and in proportion, and that your clothes are "in tune with" the design elements found in your facial features and body.

--from The Triumph of Individual Style by Carla Mason Mathis and Helen Villa Connor

Do You Want to FOoooOF?

I want to write a book review for a book called "Flatter Your Figure" by Jan Larkey, but I don't remember exactly how to write one. Or maybe I wanted to write a book "report" instead of a review, but I'm not sure what the difference is....

Well, whatever. I am going to tell you a little about the book, and what I think of it. How's that?

Here's the book:




This is actually a sort of workbook, with lots of drawings, where you are led to measure and evaluate each part of your body and decide if you are long-waisted or short-waisted, or long-legged or short-legged, or round-shouldered or square-shouldered, etc. This is "FOoooOF-ing," as the author calls it, or "Figuring Out Our Figures."

Then you decide if you have a Major figure problem (which needs camouflaging) or a Minor figure problem (which needs the attention drawn away from) or No figure problem (which may be an asset that needs accentuating.) You look these things up on a little chart where you find a number to use in the rest of the book, where the author has several pages of illustrations of over 200 style elements (collars, necklines, sleeve lengths, shoulder lines, hemlines, etc), each one coded by number. Using your number, you can soon find out which styles are flattering for you and which ones are anathema.

Things I liked:

1) She differentiated between "figure" problems and "fit" problems, which simply means that if you can't find something to fit you, it may not be your problem, it may be the fault of the clothing manufacturer. With this in mind, people probably had fewer "figure problems" when they had all their clothing custom made by a tailor!

2) She also pointed out that you may have neither of those problems, you may have a "mother/other" problem, where you have been criticized enough on your clothing choices and your body that you perceive a problem when there really is none.

Things I didn't like:

1) In spite of the emphasis on accepting your body for what it is, the whole book was still written from the perspective of problems, and how to solve them. Why is it that our bodies are full of problems? Who decided these body shapes are a problem?

2) While there were explanations of, say, why line is so important (vertical=slimming, horizontal=widening) the explanations didn't go far enough. I was left asking "Why?"

3) Some of the discussions of problems and solutions were dated. That is, the author promoted broad shoulders and narrow hips as a universal ideal, when, in fact, that was the style Look of the Eighties.

4) Some of the style options that my little code number told me were flattering, are not flattering on me.

My conclusion is that this book is a good first step if you know nothing about style and you need help defining your shape. My first reading of the book I felt I had hit gold. And then the shine faded because I felt the book didn't go far enough to answer my questions about how to dress well.

Friday Fashion

Today I want to do something new and feature some cute clothes that have caught my eye lately. If I can't actually buy stuff, I can pretend, right?

1. I love this motorcycle sweater jacket from Banana Republic:

I like the slightly asymmetrical zipper, the wide collar, and the odd twist of a motorcycle jacket made of merino. (Or else the odd twist of a merino wool sweater made to look like a motorcycle jacket.) I could see myself wearing this around the house, as well as out running errands, with jeans and boots.

2. For a dressy occasion, I'd love to try this Boucle sheath from Talbots. Not that I know what "boucle" is but I'd like to try it.




















3. I also like this faux wrap dress. Although I don't know why I look at, and long for, dresses, when right now I have very few occasions which call for a dressy dress. Howsomenever, I STILL wish for a quintessential Little Black Dress.



















If the neckline turned out to be a little low, I would wear a cute camisole underneath, either in silver gray, for sophistication, or in red or bright pink, for a "pop" of color.

4. This long-sleeved v-neck tee looks soft and durable and very useful:


















5. This shoulder-gathered tee also catches my eye, but I'd have to try it on to find out if it camouflaged or accentuated my already fairly hefty shoulders. I don't want to look like a football player!


















6. And these Fidji shoes would be so cute for spring and summer:














7. Speaking of shoes, I love the look of these booties for knocking around in:















8. And finally, I want a pair of dark gray pants, probably fairly skinny and fitted, either denim, or corduroy, or even some sort of heavy knit. (But not double knit, heavens, no.) I have no picture because I haven't found any yet that I like. Any suggestions?

DIY Makeover: Summer Brown

So I've been working on my style, and here is a sample of what I've discovered looks good on me:

summer brown by cindykay featuring Rocket Dog shoes

This outfit is very similar to what I'm wearing today. The cardigan I have actually has embroidered flowers on the front in green, blue, and tan, and, while I haven't worn it yet today, I will take it along tonight to Worship Team Practice, in case the air conditioning is a little too persuasive.

I've found that for me, wearing basically all one color makes me look really sharp. It's not really "cool," since this season we're all about that "pop of color," but there it is.

Since I've discovered Polyvore, I think I'll do more of this. Won't that be fun!

DIY Makeover Quote #10

"Individual style is about doing your own thing, not someone else's. It's taking bits and pieces of what's available and putting them together in your own personal way, breathing your own life into them."

~~Leah Feldon, in Dress Like Million (On Considerably Less): A Trend-proof Guide to Real Fashion.

Ready for Summer--Finally!

So I went shopping for clothes on Monday and spent way too much money (mostly on, um, undergarments) but now I think I have everything I need for summer.

I bought four tee shirts in bright colors (at $4 each), two black cardigans (one of them on sale for $7, and one on clearance for $3--how could I resist?), and a NEW SWIMSUIT.

That merits all caps because I think it's been about ten years since I bought my last swimsuit, and it's looking kinda tired. Plus, I've gained a little weight and changed shape a little in ten years, and it was just Time. I'm really happy with it, for several reasons. One, it's a tankini, which is a new style for me, and the top is gray and silver stripes, and the bottom is a black boy short. I feel dressed in it, which is incredible, and my Hubby AND the three boys all gave me a thumbs up.

Just a side note: I have tried on swimsuits before, and my criteria is always "will I be embarrassed to be seen in it by my sons?" Also, since most of my swimsuit-wearing is in a hotel hot tub while at a conference somewhere, I ask myself if I'd be embarrassed to walk down a hotel hallway in it, or sit in a hot tub with our friend Swede, with whom we usually attend these events. This new suit fits the bill swimmingly. (smiley)

ANYway, as I was saying, since all these other things were on sale, the bulk of my expenditure was undergarments. I had no idea how much money you could spend on unmentionables. I used to just buy whatever Walmart had on sale that fit, but lately (like, for the last year), for various reasons, I cannot find anything at Walmart I can wear, so by now my lingerie stock was sadly lacking. I ended up at Kohl's, which is a few steps up in quality. At least I hope so, since the prices were double what I used to pay. However, on the bright side, now I have undergarments that don't scream for attention under my thin summer shirts. Very good.

I gave up on the extra footwear, which was the other thing on my list, because I can't find anything that matches all my picky criteria. (Does it fit? Is it comfortable enough to be on my feet all day? Is it cute and stylish? Does it match my wardrobe?) Besides, I already have black sandals and brown sandals and grey skimmers/sneaker flats (whatever you call them). The sandals fit my criteria, and even though the sneakers don't--my feet get really tired after a long day--they still fill a niche. Plus, I'm just tired of looking. If one of these days I'm out and something jumps out at me, I might get it. Otherwise, I'm just going to go with what I've got.

And now, I've just got to work on something else beside my wardrobe for a while. Maybe now that I feel like I have my style somewhat defined, and I have enough clothes for whatever summer throws at me, I can set it aside.

Until Fall, of course. I already have my Fall list started: 1) black knee-high boots, 2) black leather jacket, 3).... I'd better start saving up!

Garage Sale Day Loot

Saturday was the annual Garage Sale Day in our small town. It's usually a big event and lots of people turn out to drive, walk, or bike to all the different sales. A couple of times we've packed up all the kids and their bicycles and driven to town in the truck, and then let everybody off with their bikes to cruise around.

We could ride our bikes into town, yes, rather than carting them there-- it's four and a half miles, not so very unthinkable-- but this is Garage Sale Day which means there must be a means of hauling home the loot!

Anyway, as I was saying.

What was I saying?

So I found a ten dollar bill in the drawer and took that with me, figuring when it was gone, time was up.

One of the garage sales I went to had piles of used clothing in such bad shape I was rather shocked that they were selling it all, much less for a dollar a piece. If anything in my closet was that perspiration stained or stretched out, I'd burn it before I'd do anything so embarrassing as offer it for sale. In public.

However, just to show that you never know, that was that same sale where I picked up my best deals of the day. There was a stack of clothing apparently donated by a different person than the rest of the items. They were all my size, unlike the rest, and were clean and almost new. I ended up with an entire outfit:

*skirt: black and white, large floral print, slinky but comfy fabric, knee-length. It makes me feel like an ad for Ann Taylor.

* shirt: white fitted tee

*jacket: sort of a dressy short-sleeved bolero, black

The gal who took my money looked at the three items and said "It makes an outfit!" and was pretty impressed.

After three hours, my ten bucks was gone, as well as the change in the little coin holders in the car (*sheepish grin*), so I took my pile of stuff--which included two more shirts, a twin-size comforter and pillow sham, a tablecloth, a pair of pants (that fit!), a belt, a bracelet, and two books--and went home. The end.

And then I went to a store and spent ten times that on groceries and came home with an even bigger (thankfully!) pile of loot.

Still here...

I don't have much free time these days, but what time I do have I've been spending on my wardrobe (STILL!) Do I seem obsessed?

I have bought a few new things lately: some tee shirts (black, gray, white) from Old Navy, a pair of black sandals from TJ Maxx, a wonderful black and silver pashmina from Ebay ($9!).

I also ordered several pairs of shoes from Zappos. Actually, I prefer to say that I had them "sent out on approval". I saw that phrase somewhere in a book. It sounds so rich, doesn't it?

(I should mention here that the reason I even tried this crazy idea was because I recently received some unexpected money, and I decided the money could be used to invest in some of the pricier aspects of my new wardrobe--like quality shoes.)

So since Zappos offers such a great return policy, with free shipping both ways, I figured it was like having a department store come directly to my living room. I picked six likely candidates, figuring that, all said and done, I'd keep one, or maybe two, of them. Sadly, none of them really pass muster, so they're all going back. My favorite ones turned out to be made of silk and have a sticker on them saying to not get them wet. Since I wanted them for run-around-in-the-summer shoes, that won't work. I can just imagine having to worry about getting my shoes wet when I run out to the clothesline on a dewy summer morning. Sorry, not happening.

Last week I cleared my closet of all my heavy winter items so I could better see what I have left for warm weather options. I should really say warmER, since it's not really been very warm here lately aside from an occasional summer-y afternoon.

What I have left, I laid out all over the bed yesterday to examine my options, and then tried everything on. It's tiring to try on every item in your wardrobe in one afternoon! But it was a helpful exercise, and I ended up deciding to ditch a few things, and keep some others, and wear some other things in different ways than I have before.

And then I made a list of what my wardrobe wants. Not what I myself think I need, but what I need to make my wardrobe work better. That would include a pair of white or metallic comfy sandals (operative word being comfy), to wear with all my summer skirts (since I switched from shorts to skirts this year); two or three fitted comfy tee-shirts; a lightweight cardigan in either gray or black (or both!); and possibly a pair of cute athletic mary janes or ballet flats for wearing with capris.

Of course, this list will probably get edited before I actually go shopping. After all, I have brand new black comfy sandals, which will look all right with my comfy skirts, but even though they're flat they look a little dressy, and I'd like something fun and very, very comfortable. And I probably really have enough tee-shirts, but they're all rather snug except one, and I'm thinking when it gets really hot, I'll want something a little looser for the breeze factor. And the cardigan is possibly not necessary, really, it's just that right now I keep having to wear extra layers because the weather stays so chilly. And the flats-- well, I have a pair I just bought, but they're not that comfy for all day wear, so we'll see.

Other items, possibly of interest:

My family had the opportunity to be the worship team for a meeting last weekend, which was a blast, and we are going to be part of a larger team next weekend going to Colorado to do two meetings. Fun stuff.

The garden is up, but slow. That cold weather again.

MB3 is remodeling a bedroom for us, and spent yesterday (it was raining so the guys were home) tearing all the wallpaper and plaster off the walls and ceiling. Can you say DUST?

DIY Makeover Quote #8

Style at times seems to be a balancing act between what objectively looks best (most flatters our figure and coloring) and what speaks to us on an emotional level.

from Une femme d'un certain age.

DIY Makeover Quote #7

"While {supermodels} Linda and Naomi, or Shalom and Amber, might look perfectly slim and adorable in an old tablecloth cinched in with a clothesline, the rest of us have to choose our outfits a little more carefully."

~from Does This Make Me Look Fat?: The Definitive Rules for Dressing Thin for Every Height, Size, and Shape, by Leah Feldon

Looky! More blogs to read!

I've been following quite a few blogs recently that have to do with fashion and style, and I decided it was time to share them with you. So if you look over to the right in my side bar, you'll see a brand new list. Some of the blogs give advice; some show photos of "what I wore today." They are all interesting to me, at least for now!

What I'm Wearing Today

Hubby loves how I look today, so I'm going to try to share the look with you. Here's a pic, taken with Photo Booth, meaning, I stood my laptop on its side on the picnic table....




blue plaid tank: Goodwill, probably a couple bucks (it was a long time ago)

gray tank: Shade, $11

crop jeans: hand-me-downs

pink sash: recycled from a skirt I cut off and hemmed

gray and black flats: Pamida, $15

stud earrings: Walmart, about fifty cents

silver bangle watch: Pamida, $15 (bought way back before they went on clearance!)

shoelace hair band: ?

necklace: