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.

Blue and Gold brocade

Ah, New Years Eve and the last Monday of 2012. It just seems hard to believe that another year has flown by in the blink of an eye. Our evening will be a quiet one spent at home and if we are lucky we might be awake at midnight to greet the new year.  

I purchased some new boots from Amazon this past week with some money I got for Christmas. On Christmas day, my sister was wearing these boots in black. She had purchased them from a local boutique for $160. I hoped to find them for less and after some searching, I found them on Amazon for $40. I ended up getting both the taupe and black since they were such a good price.

For today's outfit, I combined the taupe boots with pattern and shine in gold and blue. I started out with the pants tucked into the boots but I was unsure if I really liked it so I ended up untucking them. It is hard for me to find anything pants that are tight enough through the calves to tuck in boots. Plus-side skinny or jeggings are not made for those of us with smaller calves (although mine aren't that tiny!)



Image From Amazon.com



Jacket: Chico's
Blouse: Dillards
Jeans: Wit & Wisdom via Nordstrom
 Boots: Very Volatile via Amazon
 

It is hard to see the pattern on the pants, but it is a large brocade pattern. Because I had so much pattern going on, I decided to go with minimal accessories. I have had this bracelet and matching earrings for a long time and haven't worn it much. It is so beautiful that I am kind of afraid to wear it and risk damaging it. It went so perfectly with this outfit that I had to get it out.

Stanley Hagler NYC/Ian St. Gellar

 

 I wish you all a very Happy New Year. Thank you for joining me on my style journey through my retirement. I am so thankful for being a part of this wonderful blogging community. I am always in awe of all the creativity and style that is shared on Visible Monday and every other day. You are all amazing and inspiring. Thank you for being here. Please visit Not Dead Yet Style for the last Visible Monday of 2012.

Cream and Gray

I have been going back and forth trying to decide whether or not to post today. With the news of what happened in Newtown on Friday I feel so sad and a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.  What a horrific tragedy. My heart goes out to all who lost a loved one and to those whose innocence has been forever lost.

My outfit for today is rather muted in gray and cream. I need to get the pants hemmed, but I did not want to wait to wear them, so I turned the hems up. I remember years ago I never had to hem pants. Now I almost always have to unless the pants are "ankle" pants in which case they fit me like perfectly.

I decide to use rather feminine accessories so I went with what I think is the ultimate feminine accessory - pearls.

Friday evening we took Harry to the dog park. It was the first time at a dog park for us and it was fun even though it was cold and windy. It was fun to see all the dogs running and sniffing. (I don't think Harry much appreciated the two neutered males who thought he needed to be humped.) While we were watching them, a lady sitting on a bench with me remarked that there was a much larger than Harry black Lab who should be arriving soon. Imagine her surprise when the huge Lab, Rex, turned out to be smaller than Harry! He is a big dude. When we got him we were told he was a smaller Airedale and was full grown. Ha! We love him regardless.

On another subject, I am going to remove the ability to comment anonymously for a while. I have been getting a lot of spam anon comments. I wanted people to be able to comment easily even if they don't have a Google account. Unfortunately the few ruin things for the many. I apologize if this inconveniences anyone (except you spammers!)

Please join all the wonderful bloggers who share their beauty on this Visible Monday linkup.

Black and blue on Monday

Happy Monday to you all. First, I would like to apologize for not commenting on blogs this past week. I am afflicted with vascular headaches and occasionally I have them for days on end. This past week was one of those occasions. Consequently, I did not spend much time on the computer. I am hoping that this week I will have more time to view all of my favorite blogs.

I am not sure why, but lately I have been wearing a lot of black. My outfit for today consists of black, white, and accents of blue in scarves. I wanted to show two different scarves with the same outfit. I ended up wearing the more vivid blue one in the second photo. 

I love the jacket I am wearing. It is a very soft leather with a patent snake print on it purchased several years ago from Chico's. This scarf is from Brightly Twisted, a Michigan company. The scarves are dyed and manufactured in the USA from imported fabric.  Each scarf is uniquely beautiful. (I am not affiliated with the company in any way and purchased the scarf myself.)

Harry decided to perform a 'stuffinectomy' on his ball toy. Stuffin' was flyin' for a while.

Leather Jacket: Chico's
Blouse: Chico's
Pants: Chico's Floral Lace
Scarf: Brightly Twisted
Shoes: FSNY
 

The second scarf I wore is one I purchased from Marshall's. It has a beautiful cobalt, black, and gray print. It's a very light weight chiffon and is very easy to style. I have been obsessed with scarves and wearing them most every day. A scarf can take a plain outfit to chic and polished. It is a great way for someone who lives a very casual life to jazz up almost any outfit.

Please visit Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday and Bon Bon Rose Girls for Monday Mingle.

What a Retired Boomer Wears on a Casual Day

I am always in awe of the fabulous outfits that my fellow bloggers create. There are so many with unique, elegant, quirky, artistic, or classic style that I adore seeing every day.  I am not sure that my outfit for today's Visible Monday is really even blogworthy. I have found that the longer I am retired, the less likely I am to dress to the nines. I still try to dress nicely, but my reality is much different than those of you who are still in the work force. Today's outfit illustrates that new reality. It was far too warm for a jacket (we had a record high yesterday) and we only went to the grocery store, so my fanciest accessory was a scarf.

Shirt: Lauren
Jeans: Chico;s
Shoes: Boutique 9
Scarf: Next

I did wear a scarf on my wrist as well as around my neck. I have seen several bloggers wear a wrist scarf and I decided to try it as well. I don't think I will do it again because it is too difficult to keep it dry when I wash my hands. Cute, but impractical.

No Harry photo today because he was too busy watching a squirrel to be bothered with us.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy today's linkups for Visible Monday and Monday Mingle.

Two for the price of one

For today's Visible Monday I decided to do a 'twofer.' Two outfits based on the the same top, bottom, and scarf but with different jackets. I recently purchased the scarf on sale at White House Black Market. I liked the color combination/pattern. The scarf has an Alexander McQueen vibe without skulls. I just cannot abide the skull motif, it's just way too creepy for my taste.

Jacket on Left: CJBanks
Jacket on Right: Chico's
Blouse: Nygard
Jeans: NYDJ Jade Leggings
Scarf: White House Black Market
Boots: Vince Camuto Winchell
 

Here's a closer look at the scarf.

Of course, I have to share a photo of Harry who was so excited about photo time.

 

 

When I put together the floral/plaid look I wasn't so sure I would like it, but it turned out to be my favorite of the two looks. I think that we were so indoctrinated when we were young to not mix patterns that it has taken a long time for me to be really comfortable wearing it. Have any of you had a difficult time accepting this long time fashion "don't" as a "do"?

 

 

Please join me for this week's Visible Monday linkup. For me, it's the most happenin' place to be on a Monday.

Brooch, Broach, Pin or whatever you might call them, here they are!

I almost let November 21st slip by me. Where is time going? It seems to slip by faster every day. Une Femme d'un Certain Age has designated today as Show Us Your Brooches Day. I tried to pull out my prettier and older pieces. I have a lot that will most likely be considered vintage any day now as I have had many of them for years, but I didn't photograph them. I did inherit a couple of pieces from my great Aunt, but most of the others I have purchased over the past 30 or more years.

 

 

 

 

 

In getting them out to photograph them I noticed some of them were pretty dusty after being stored in drawers for so long. However, if I took time to clean them you all might never have seen them, so here they are "as is."  I think my favorites are the ones with orange toned stones. They seem to be the most dramatic.

I have quite a few vintage bracelets and necklaces that I have collected over the years and I will take pictures of those one of these days. I really need to do so just so I know what I have. 

Seeing all the pieces I have has made me decide to wear a few of them this year. So, you may be seeing them again soon on an outfit of the day.

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I wish you a very happy day.

Sparkle and Fringe Galore

This Visible Monday outfit is all about sparkle and fringe, two things I dearly love. I started out in the morning with the sweater on but had to remove it around noon because the day was getting too warm. I am beginning to wonder if I will be able to wear my sweaters this winter.

When I was in my teens I had a really cool (okay, it was cool in the 60's) outfit that I wore all the time. The shirt was a sheer brown and white print fabric with fringe trimming from the shoulders and down around the bust area as well as across the back. The pants were white bell bottoms and had a fringed fabric belt that matched the shirt. I felt as visible in that outfit as I did in the one I am sharing today. Some might say that I was a bit over the top in today's outfit, but I say to heck with them.


Chico's sweater
Foxcroft blouse
Chico's scarf
Chico's Rhinestone jeans
Tom's glitter shoes

My sweater has silver threads woven throughout. It is a loose weave meant for layering. I chose a black shirt to give it a bit of a gray cast so it would pick up the gray color in the scarf.

As usual, when we were taking pictures, Harry had to get in the action with his loofa dog toy. He loves the toy because he can shake it, squeak it, and flea bite it. He likes to put it against our bodies and then flea bite it. He had it against DH's back while he was trying to take the pictures. This picture is one taken when I called him to me so as to stop pestering the photographer.


I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy this Visible Monday linkup. I am always in awe at that wonderful style that so many of you share each week.

Cold weather has arrived

First, on this Veteran's Day, I would like to thank all our Veterans for their service to their country and all its citizens. 

In one day, we went from almost 80 degrees F to freezing with 40 mph wind, which is rather typical Kansas weather. Now I remember why I do not like to wear dresses. After seeing so many bloggers wear dresses and tights, I decided to give it a try myself for my Visible Monday outfit. I bought a really pretty sweater dress and some black tights. The sweater dress was only $11.00 at the 1/2 of 1/2 Store. The tights I had gotten to wear with a dress for a wedding we attended Friday night. (More about that later.) I think the next time I wear the sweater dress it will be with skinny jeans underneath and not tights. Brrr, cold!

Sweater dress: Style & Co via 1/2 of 1/2 Store
Blouse: Foxcroft
Boots: Aerosoles
Megan Mae button flower

Aerosoles Sota Boots

Friday night we attended the wedding of two of the loveliest young people I have ever met. Quinn, the bride, is the daughter of my best friend. She and her husband Stuart are the kind of young people every parent would want their children to grow up to be. They are both hard-working and focused on their futures.  In an era when weddings can often be ostentatious expensive extravaganzas, they chose to make their focus on family and friends and their love for each other. Their wedding was simply elegant and suited them perfectly. I felt lucky to be a part of their beautiful day. Thank you Quinn and Stuart and I wish the best of everything to you both. May you always be as happy as you were on your wedding day.

I hope you will all join me for our fun Visible Monday and Monday Mingle weekly fashion linkup.

There's no place like home or red glitter shoes

I have been having a really hard time bouncing back from FarLeyJoE's death and I have not been commenting or looking at many blogs here lately. I am sorry, but I have just been so blue that I haven't been too interested in fashion. The odd thing is that I have gotten obsessed with genealogy. I have been spending a lot of time researching my family tree. I have no famous relatives and certainly none that were rich. But it is very interesting to find out that I have ancestors who have been in the United States since before there was a US of A. Some were veterans of the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812, and the Civil War. With Veterans Day coming up, it makes it mean even more to me this year. I think working on genealogy gives me something to concentrate on other than the empty spot in my heart and in my den from the loss of FarLeyJoE and Jada. Have any of you done any genealogy research? Any tips for me?

Last week I went to my hairdresser and got some darker color weaved in my hair. I want to let my hair grow out to its natural color, whatever that might be. The color is a big change and I am not sure I like it yet, but I am sure I will get used to it eventually.

I wanted to wear my red glitter Tom's so I put together this outfit so I could wear them for this Visible Monday linkup.  I have wanted red glitter shoes since the first time I saw Dorothy's shoes in The Wizard of Oz. The pants are a knit that has pleather inserts down each side. They are a bit long, but I really bought them so I could tuck them inside my boots, so I haven't hemmed them.

Leather jacket: Coldwater Creek
Top: JonesNY via 1/2 of 1/2 store
Pants: Tribal from Ann's Fashions
Red Glitter shoes: Tom's

Is it a bird, a plane, or Superman?
It was a big passenger jet flying really fast and low over the house.

Chico's necklace

 This has been a rough summer for me. First losing Jada and then FarLeyJoE has just hit me hard. So please bear with me until I get back to normal (or at least what is normal for me, ha!) In the meantime, please visit Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday and Monday Mingle for the weekly fashion parade.