I Have No Words

This will be my last post for a while as I need some time away. Last Monday we took our sweet Harry to the Veterinarian for a check-up because he had not been quite himself lately. He checked out well in the office but the Vet took blood to do some tests. On Wednesday we got "THE" phone call. Harry has Lymphoma. We do not know how long we have left with him, but we know it won't be very long or long enough. As most of you know, Harry is a big part of the process of taking my blog photos. It is just too hard right now to take photos. It is really hard just dealing with the knowledge that he will be gone too soon. We have never lost this many dogs in such a short time. Each one is like a child to us and ever so special in our hearts. Harry is such a clown and has brought so much happiness to us.

These outfit photos were taken before we knew the results of the test. As usual he was excited and racing about while we were taking pictures. It was hard to believe he is so ill. I am going to include more pictures today than I normally do. We did a couple of variations on the outfit. I actually wore it with the jacket, but wanted to show the blouse more so I put on the vest. The blouse is sheer with a print of tiny metallic gold squares.

Vest: HandMade by Carla's Creations
Blouse: JCPenney
Jeans: NYDJ

Necklace: Forever 21

Bracelet on Left: Leighelena
Bracelet on Right: Noosa Amsterdam with
Chunks made by me from vintage buttons

Harry had thrown his toy down by the tripod,
hoping that DH would throw it for him to fetch.

I hope you will continue to follow me even though I may not post for a while. I will be back and now that my DH has retired, hopefully we will have time for more and better pictures.  I will be watching your blogs even if I may not comment often. I feel that I am part of a wonderful community with so many friends even if we have never met in person. Please visit Visible Monday this Monday and the ones that follow.

All Dressed Up for a Fair

This is the outfit I wore to the Wichita Women's Fair which features fashion, shopping, health information, cooking, shopping, and shopping. There are a lot of vendors selling all different kinds of products that they think will appeal to women. It is supposed to be a big party for women to attend and have fun.

I felt quite visible in this outfit (since most everyone else was in logo tees and sweatshirts.) The jeans are DKNY that I was a bit unsure about when I purchased them only to become obsessed with all the outfits I can create with them as a base piece. It is hard to see in these photos, but the pattern actually has some rosy purple in it. The jacket is Chico's and the top from K-Mart.

The jacket is solid purple and not two different shades as seen.

 

Harry with a ball that he is not supposed to have in the house.

Bracelets on left side of picture: Pearls from JCP, fashion bracelet, Charlotte Hosten.
Bracelets on right side of pic: Ann Taylor, artisan bracelets and Michelle watch.

I hope you will visit Not Dead Yet Style for yet another fashionable Visible Monday with so many women who are such wonderful examples of fabulous style.

Sparkles, Spikes, and Bows

Some days I feel like being a bit edgy and today was one of those days. After I got dressed, I asked DH if he would mind taking some pictures. He told me he figured I wanted them based on the way I was dressed. What? I though most days outfits deserved photos, but I guess maybe this one was a bit more dramatic than usual (at least to him.)

This is my all time favorite denim jacket from Target. I am wearing a Talbot's top and Tribal pants. The pants have a pleather strip down the sides that adds a bit more 'edge' to them. I was wearing my Tom's glitter shoes.

I am wearing Deborah Lippman Swagga Like Us polish. I splurged on this polish because it was such a fabulous color that I could not find in any other line. It is described as a mirrored chrome and I think it is.

As you can see I did not stage these necklaces for photography. They are as worn and messy. All the necklaces are from Forever21 except for the bow with the pearl is from Ann Taylor.

I think my camera is on its last legs as it seems to get slower and not flash when appropriate. In looking at the newer point and shoot camera's I am amazed at how the price has come down and the mega pixels have gone up. For those of you who use a point and shoot does the higher mega pixel result in sharper photos?

Did you watch the Grammys last night? It is fun to see the fashion and listen to the music. The coolest dress I saw was Carrie Underwood's dress that was lighted with many different images. Wow, was that amazing.The most beautiful part was the butterflies that appeared to fly from her dress to the ceiling.

Image source Huff Post

Please join the ladies who light up my life with their amazing style at Visible Monday and Monday Mingle.

A little sparkle

Dillard's had one of their "extra 30% off permanently reduced merchandise" sales this past week. I tried really hard to stay away and ended up going on the last couple of days of the sale which probably meant that there were fewer treasures for me to find, but that's okay. I still found a couple of things. One is the necklace that I am wearing today. The pictures do not begin to show how beautifully sparkly it is. I do love me some sparkle!

This outfit was inspired by an email I received from JCrew, called the art of the collar. I am sorry I do not have a full length picture. My DH is down in the back and I did not want him to have to stoop over to take pictures. My shirt is from Old Navy and the suede jacket is one I purchased many years ago at Dillard's.

I used the Lucky magazine that I just received as a background for the necklace. If you look closely, you will see that on February 13th, Lucky is having a giveaway for a Wendy Brandes necklace! Hooray for Wendy. I hope it will bring her a lot of new customers. I am going to enter that one for sure! You can go to luckymag.com/breaks to access the giveaways.

Last week RoseAG asked about whether or not I had tweaked my hair color. The answer is yes and no. I have been experimenting with some different purple shampoos which can change the tone of my hair. Purple shampoo? What the heck is that? Well, it is a shampoo that has purple color depositing toner in it that is used by blonds and women with gray hair to reduce brassy tones. If used too often, it can turn very light hair kind of purple. Hey that is okay by me as I love the pale lilac tones in hair. It has been hard to find a good one that is not perfumey and that doesn't cause a reaction on my sensitive skin. Once I find the one that works for me I will report my findings. I know a few of us are trying to go to our natural color.

Please join the very visible fashionistas at Not Dead Yet Style for our Monday linkup!

It looks better in person; I promise!

One thing I have learned from my time blogging is that often an outfit will look different in a photograph than in real life. Today's outfit is definitely one of "those." The colors of the Chico's jacket are much prettier in person. (I sure miss Picnik photo software, it was so easy to use to correct colors. PicMonkey is just not the same.) In person, the Chico's necklaces pick up the purplish colors in the plaid. I felt very stylish while running a few errands and getting my hair trimmed.

 As usual, Mr. Harry was excited about the photo session. He was so excited that he was moving so quickly he was just a blur. He was a very happy blur while shaking his loofa toy (the yellow blur.)

3 Chico's necklaces layered

I hope you will all join me over at Patti's for Visible Monday with all the lovely ladies whose style I so admire. My gosh, it is getting to be a really big party!

Fire and Lace

Good morning to everyone on this special day for those of us here in the United States of America. It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. 

I decided to go with some color for my outfit of the week. The title of this post is based on the fiery colors of the scarf and blouse from Coldwater Creek and the lace pattern on pants from Chico's. The jacket is from Jones New York. I certainly felt visible in the bright colors!

I spent quite a bit of time looking at different scarf tying methods and did not find this particular look. This is a variation of the loop and tuck (keep the ends the same length when looping instead of the way it's shown in the instructions shown in the link.)where instead of tightly tucking the ends through the loop I pulled them up to drape over the top of the loop. I've tried this on several scarves and I think it is a pretty variation. I think it works best on a very long scarf because the hanging pieces end up longer. I am calling this Loop, Tuck, and Drape. What do you think of it?

Please join me on with all the other stylish ladies for the Visible Monday linkup.

Shimmer at Sunset

The gold and burgundy colors in my outfit reminded me of brilliant sunset colors and the jacket has shimmery gold threads, thus the title of this post.

Last week I asked you all about listing brands of clothing shown in my outfits and the consensus seems to be to list them.  I often learn of new companies that I wouldn't have heard of if it hadn't been for information other bloggers have shared with us. 

A couple of you commented that I looked like I was glowing. I think it's the 7.2 mega-pixels and bad lighting! We had some pictures taken at a local studio and I am pretty sure there is no glow. I rarely wear any makeup in my pictures and don't really do much in the way of skin care. I may do a post about products I do like. I think that it is very helpful to share our experiences with products. 

Jacket and Blouse: Chico's
Jeans: NYDJ Jade Leggings
Scarf from Von Maur

(The scarf isn't as bright a yellow as it appears on the screen.)

I cropped this from a photo of
me and my sister taken Saturday.  

We had family pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. The photos were quite nice for the number of photos we received and the number of pictures taken. The last time we had pictures taken was at a professional photographer's studio. Those pictures were so beautifully done and time was spent making each pose perfect.  However, it took a lot of time to get the photos back and the photos were much more expensive. For my blog I sure cannot gripe about my photographer as he doesn't charge me and I know we don't have hundreds of dollars in camera/photography equipment. 

I hope you will share this Visible Monday and Monday Mingle linkup's with all the lovely ladies who share their beautiful selves with us each week.

I Dream of Stars and Tie-Dye

Whenever I read the really cool titles that are on blog posts I always think that I wish I could come up with one. I don't know if this one is really cool or is just cool in my head, but it jumped into my thoughts today so I decided to use it. For today's Visible Monday outfit I do have a star print top and tie-dye scarf. Megan Mae and I have 'a thing' for stars (the outer space kind.) For me, maybe it was growing up during the 50's and 60's when the space program was a really big deal, Star Trek was brand new, and man stood on the moon for the first and then the last time. I hope someday to see humans go to Mars, but I fear I will not live that long.

As usual, Mr. Harry decided he needed to get in the pictures. We get such a kick out of his excitement.

I have a question for you all. I am unsure as to whether or not to continue to list the brands of clothing and accessories that I am wearing. When I do list them it is so that if anyone is interested in finding an item it will make it easier for them to do so. If  no one cares, then I will not list them any more. Please comment and let me know your preference. 

I just got my new issue of People Stylewatch and in looking through it I realized that the bloggers I follow are really much more interesting than any celebrity. You all dress more uniquely and have more interesting outfits that reflect real life style.  Please visit the linkups at Monday Mingle and Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday.