Velvet and Rhinestones and Glitter

First, I want to tell you how much all of your expressions of sympathy about my dear FarLeyJoE meant to me. It was such a hard week, but reading your comments meant a lot to me. Thank you so much for your kindness.

I have jury duty  this week and I am exhausted after just the first day. Just sitting in horrible chairs and waiting all day has made me very tired. I do not even know if I am on a jury yet. I have to go back tomorrow to find out if I have been chosen. This outfit is not what I wore because I always feel dirty after being at the Courthouse so I went pretty casual today. Since you have to go through a metal detector, I only wore a watch. It is too much of a hassle to take jewelry on and off and keep track of your handbag which is going through an X-ray machine 10 feet away. If you have never had jury duty, let me say that it is NOTHING like they show it on TV. 

Anyway, on to the outfit. It was fairly cool on Saturday so I was able to wear my velvet jacket. It is probably still a bit early to wear it, but I wanted to wear it, so wear it I did. All of the pictures turned out horrible, so I tried to change the colors as much as I could to make it look like it really did.



Jacket: Lane Bryant
Blouse: Dillards
Jeans: Chico's
Shoes: Tom's silver glitter

The jeans have rhinestones all over the front and on the back pockets. Really glitzy. We had gone to Gander Mountain and I was sitting in a chair waiting on my DH and a young lady came up and told me how much she liked the jeans. It turns out she is a news anchor on the local FOX station. It made my day.

I hope you will join all the other stylish bloggers over at Patti's Not Dead Yet Style for the Visible Monday linkup. I hope you are all having a better week than I am.

Visible Monday - Blue edition

My outfit for today is as blue as I feel on this Visible Monday and Monday Mingle. I probably had on too much shiny gold, but it made me feel a bit better.

Jacket: Fashion Bug
Blue & Gold Sweater: Chico's
Gold Tank: Chico's
Jeans: Chico's
Gold Shoes: Corso Como

Harry was happy to have his picture taken.

Cloisonne Pendant
Indigo Flameworks

The rest of this post is about why I am sad right now. You don't have to read any further if you do not wish to do so.

Last Wednesday, I had to make one of the hardest decisions ever. I had to make the phone call to the Veterinarian to make an appointment to euthanize my sweet, sweet FarLeyJoE. I know I have mostly written about Harry, but FarLeyJoE was my 'heart dog.' The one who was the one I shall miss more than any other and I have missed many of them an awful lot. He was always "my" dog. I was his one and only. Even when others were around, he had eyes and love for only me. If you have never had a heart dog or pet, I doubt you will understand the depth of my grief over losing him. Some may think "he was only a dog", but he was more than just a dog to me. I made sure that the last thing he saw was me and the last words he heard were me saying "I love you."

This quote from Dean Koontz's book "The Darkest Evening of the Year", is the best one I have ever read about sharing one's life with a dog.

“Dogs, lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price. Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and the mistakes we make because of those illusions.”

Most of the photos we have of my boy were actual film photos. I had to scan these, so they are not very clear.

What a beautiful, expressive face

 

When he was younger, he liked to sleep in my chair.

 

FarLeyJoE wasn't always a well behaved dog. He once pooped on my clean clothes in a laundry basket, DH's clothes were on the other side of the basket, untouched. He was upset because I went out of town for business and was naughty every day I was gone.

He came to us as a rescue, found in a local park by a Veterinarian who was running through the park. He was a big goofball. These last few years he has been in declining health and mostly slept and kept an eye on me. He would bark when I left the room, wanting me to return. It is so hard to be here in the den without him. I have and always will miss him, goodbye my sweet boy.

If you have read to this point, thank you. Thank you for sharing my Visible Monday and Monday Mingle with me. Please visit the other stylish ladies for their wonderful outfits and no doubt happier posts.

Visible Monday - Goldfinger

Not really a Goldfinger, but instead gold finger nails for this Visible Monday. I had on a really pretty rose gold polish from Sephora, but it chipped in less than 24 hours. Back it goes. I expect it to last more than 1 day and especially when it was a limited edition that was a bit more pricey than other polishes. The polish I have on now is Deborah Lippman 'Swagga Like Us.' It is a  beautiful duochrome that shows both gold and green gold depending on the light and angle of your hands.

Bracelet on left side of photo: Leighelena
Deborah Lippman polish: Swagga Like Us
Bracelets on right side of photo: Michele Watch, David Yurman Spiritual Beads, 
Other 3 Yurman sterling cable bracelets

The battery died in my car yesterday, so we had to go out today and get a replacement. I usually get my pictures taken on Sunday, but my husband had a club event and was gone all day Sunday, so my pictures were taken a bit late today.

Today's outfit was really a bit too warm considering it was 80 today. This weather is quite weird. Hot one day, cool the next. It makes it hard to plan on what to wear. The vest I am wearing is one I got at the 1/2 of 1/2 Name Brand Store. It was originally a double  breasted vest, but I modified it to single breasted. I got it for $6.00 and then bought new buttons. The original buttons were white and mostly broken. If not for seeing what other bloggers are doing to refashion clothing, I probably wouldn't have thought to try this, but I am so glad I did. I think this vest will get lots of use this fall and winter.

Vest: 1/2 of 1/2 NBC
Blouse: CJ Banks
Jeans: Lauren via 1/2 of 1/2
Booties: From last year
 

I purchased Stacy London's new book "The Truth About Style" and I will write a short review this week of my opinion about it. Has anyone else purchased or read this new book?

I hope to see many of you on the Visible Monday linkup. It's getting to be a pretty big weekly party with women of many different ages, come join the fun!

Visible Monday - Slightly Cowgirl

We had our first freeze over the weekend, so it was finally cool enough to pull out my fringe jacket. I had almost forgotten that I had it until deja pseu posted about fringe as a fall trend. I bought the jacket several years ago at Chico's and have rarely worn it. Being a baby boomer, I think my memories of the Lone Ranger and all the cowboy shows of the 50's and 60's influenced my love of leather, fringe, and silver. Did you play Cowboys and Indians when you were young? We kids galloped all over our neighborhood riding imaginary horses. Mine was a beautiful Palomino with a flowing white mane and tail and a beautiful black tooled leather saddle with silver accents. (I loved horses and had quite a vivid imagination when I was a little girl.)

We had to take my houseplants back inside for the winter, so my background is a bit stark now. I really wasn't feeling well yesterday when these pictures were taken, so I had minimal accessories.



Jacket: Chico's
Chambray Blouse: JCP
Jeggings: NYDJ Jade style in Plumberry
Shoes: Tom's
Infinity Scarf: Coldwater Creek

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and feel visible and fabulous! Please join Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday and the ladies at Monday Mingle.

Visible Monday - Black, White, and Red

This is what I wore to go to breakfast, PetCo, and Walmart. My life has been rather quiet here lately. I guess that is a good thing. We did spend Saturday viewing the Homeland marathon on Showtime. Now I understand why it got so many Emmy's. It has a lot of twists and turns. Just when you think you have the bad guys figured out, a twist occurs that leaves you wondering.

I am meeting my best friend for lunch today so I will keep this post short. I will be joining Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday
 and Nicole at Momtrends for Monday Mingle.

The photo on the right is my accidental "blogger looking at shoes" pose.
Jacket: Lane Bryant via 1/2 of 1/2 store
Top: don't remember
Jeans: NYDJ Sheri Skinny
Shoes: Payless Shoe Source

Necklace: Chico's

I hope to see many of you on our weekly fashion linkup. I find it more exciting to see what all of you wear than I do the glossy fashion magazines. Have a great Monday.