It's a new dawn, it's a new day and I'm feeling OLD?

Update on my friend Joan, she is making a slow recovery. Two more weeks in ICU, and as of right now her kidneys are still on vacation, but....her LIVER is growing, and there is lots of HOPE that everything is going to come out fine. So onward baby steps, and please keep her in your thoughts.

Today my oldest daughter got her braces on, and it drove home that she is starting her journey to womanhood. She starts high school next year, she is making decisions about her future that will hopefully lead to her a fulfilling career. She still talks to me candidly about almost everything, and it is such a joy to find her discovering herself and abilities. I think this part of motherhood excites me more than the baby, and toddler years. It certainly is challenging, but I feel we are closer. She asked me to dye her hair black today, I have resisted this request for two years. I don't know exactly what changed my mind, but I think I felt comfortable with her ability to make the decision. I personally am not a fan of dyed black hair, because it usually looks, well I guess ...dyed. I am one to talk though, as I am sure the colors of my hair have never been seen in nature on their own occurrence. Especially the glob of bright pink hair that I had last summer. So she is sitting right now with black on her hair, ready to change, scared of the difference, a great parallel to the place she is right now in her journey.

Fashion news! I bought a cardi yesterday with an brown leopard or cheetah print (can't tell which one). This is very surprising for me, as I am not huge fan of the animal prints. But, since I have been chasing after a more vintage look, this seems to fit right in. I thought about getting a skirt with that kind of print, but I am more excited about the prospect of the cardi. I also ordered a great dress from Avenue last night. I had a coupon for 50% of my highest priced item, if I bought two things. So I found some clearance panties for $3.99, and my dress ended up being only 29.99, when it started out at 59.99. YEAH ME!

I am not above buying used clothes. I found a board called the fatshion exchange board. Most of the stuff is too small for me, but I did find a cute boho skirt and sweater. I paid for it two weeks ago, and I have yet to get it. The seller disappeared, so I started a claim with paypal. That finally brought the seller out of the woodwork, she had a virus on computer,blah blah blah. Still no clothes, and now she won't reply again. Very frustrating. I just don't understand someone who tries to scam through these boards, it makes a bad experience for everyone. Oh well.....in a couple of weeks I should have my money back.

Early bird gets the cardigan?????

So doing my usual cruise through my clothing sites, and Torrid has started a super clearance sale. I get email updates from them, but I didn't get one on this...boo!!!!! Anyway I am at work, looking at the site between calls, and I found 2 cute cardi's for $4.99! I have been watching them on the website for awhile, hoping that they would get marked down a bit more. They did, but then all hell broke loose at work, and I couldn't place an order.

Fast forward: I am home,had to deal with some in home crisis so I couldn't get back on the website until an hour ago......THEY WERE GONE!!!!!!Gone I tell you GONE! So I found a couple of things in the $9.99 part of the sale, placed them in my cart, and then had to deal with another issue for my husband. I go to place my order and one of them was sold out...WAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I did find a substitute for the one that was so rudely taken away from me. I also placed the order for the oh so cute shoes I was talking about last night, and a green and cream cami from the new collection.

So my advice to you...buy early and don't wait at the Torrid clearance sale!

Tuk Shoes

Yesterday I was cruising the Torrid website, and took a detour to the shoes section. Normally I bypass their heals because I can't walk in a skinny heeled shoe, and if it is much about 3" I would trip. But lo and behold, there were a pair of black & white mary jane oxford heels that were/are screaming my name. They have nice sensible stacked heel, and are of a good height. So cute....you can go look at them here.

The brand Tuk was not one I had heard of before, so I did my google search and found out that they actually have their own website. I think I found a little piece of shoe heaven. Some of the shoes are too goth, or too high, but the mary jane selection was awesome. I have found lots of shoes that I would like to have, but I thought a good trial run would be this pair of shoes above. They were only $7.50, that's right seven dollars and 50 cents. Actually the shipping was more than the shoes. I thought for seven bucks I could try them, get a feel for the quality, fit, etc. I know that the shoes above are a bit funky, and probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I like fun things, and I thought they would be adorable with my boyfriend jeans, and red t-shirt. So, anyway you should check out their site, and really look around, as I said some of it is very goth, or punk, but I see potential for a lot of their stuff for a non conservative office, and maybe even a conservative office with the right outfit.

Go to the TUK site here.....

Sweeney Todd Red.....

My oldest daughter watched the ulitmate Valentine's movie tonight. Sweeney Todd! We both had seen it before, but it was fun to sing along with Mr. Depp. I was shopping on the computer (as always), when my Jaded J gave me the go ahead to get my new dress from Lucie Lu. He does have a way of spoiling me! He also got me a lovely box of chocolates and a cyclamen plant for my birthday, which is also on Valentines day. This is the dress I ended up getting, and I also bought this belt from Torrid.


The dress I thought would have many ways of wearing it (thank you for the inspiration Bombshell Beauty, see her Top 10 List post) I also thought it would allow me to get two goals completed in one purchase. The dress needs a belt, so it coerced into buying the one from Torrid, which would allow me to belt other outfits as well. My other goal is try to wear something sleeveless this summer. I have never liked my upper arms, not the shape necessairly but I have Keratosis Pilaris, also know as chicken skin, and I am self conscious of it. Embracing all of my perceived flaws is my goal, so my arms shall see the sun this summer. Maybe.

Size problem?

I recently ordered a ton of clothes (as you know). I have a problems with my ordering and my regular shopping, and that is I always go to the biggest size possible. I am very self conscious of my weight being displayed in overly tight clothing. I somtimes do need the largest size because my boobs make it impossible to go any smaller. What I am finding through my self acceptance journey is that I have trouble distinguishing between too loose and too tight. For example my new Red Torrid sweater I bought in a size 5, and it fit, but probably could have been smaller. I look at the pictures from the website, and mine definately doesn't hug my body like the models. I am so afraid of looking ridiculous, or trying to dress to young for my age. But....I also don't want to be frumpy.

Another hang up I have with clothing is that I hate trying things on to find out that they are too small. I makes me feel like I have failed, and then I get depressed. My solution has been to buy the biggest size and that way I know it will fit, no instant guilt for getting "too" big. I really study the other blogs I follow, and those ladies look so nice and put together. Rarely do I think that outfit is too small or unflattering, but I know if I put it on my body that I would be pulling and tugging and trying to find a way to hide myself better. Perhaps that is it, I feel like I should hide, because I don't look as good as the other people I work with in terms of being trim and body beautiful.

How do I overcome this issue? How do I find classic and sleek, from tight or frumpy?

Torrid Happiness!!!!!

My purchases have started to arrive....YEAH ME!

I am really into the Mad Men look right now, the little cardigans with skirts. I have always loved 50's inspired clothing. So my order consisted of two cardigans and one skirt. Unfortunately the skirt is no longer on the website or I would have a picture of that too.

The red cardigan I got has the fabric flowers, another obsession of mine recently. I even made my own flower fabric pins with moderate success this fall. I took the polyester filmy fabric, cut roundish blobs, and then burned the edges, after that I got some swaroski beads for the middle. I really like them. As a matter of fact I have more fabric, I just haven't made more of them yet.

The black cardigan is is very pretty, has 3/4 sleeves, with crystal detailing and buttons. I liked this because it wasn't just plain black, it had some visual interest without wearing jewelry. I like jewelry, I am bad about wearing it, I just don't take the time to accesorize the way I should. But the ladies on other blogs, especailly Lilli from Frocks and Frou Frou inspire me to try harder.

The skirt has the stretchy band at the top that can be rolled over to make the skirt longer or shorter. The skirt then has three flouncy layers of soft knit netting. TRES Cute. I have wanted a plain black skirt, but that was not a maxi skirt, not mini skirt. I think I have found it. I was going to buy the a-line skirt from Eliza Parker, but she ran out of my size....BOO! So this was on sale at Torrid, and I thought...what the hell? It was certainly cheaper, but a good black skirt is a solid investment because it should never go out of style. I am going to haunt the Eliza Parker website for awhile to see if it comes back in my size.

So on this nasty icy winter day in Nebraska, with me being home with the flu, I got some happiness in a soft white Torrid envelope.