Preparations for surgery

To clear any confusion (Terri!), I have had elective foot surgery scheduled for over a month. Then we had the scare with Hubby. But since he doesn't need immediate surgery... we decided it was best for me to go ahead with mine as scheduled.

To that end, I've been doing a lot of preparations this weekend. To start, pajama-shopping:



I checked out some library books:



Then a lovely pedi:



Tackling a ginormous pile of laundry:



And lots of other cleaning... including dusting and completely reorganizing my living room shelves:





I still have a lot of work to go... Tuesday is the day!

Friend Friday procrastinator

I was just starting to post last night, but Hubby wanted a cuddle... and I dropped right off to (apparently badly-needed) sleep early.



I was exhausted Thursday also, so Friday morning, after abusing the snooze button again, I flew around for a quickie shower and makeup, grabbed pants I already wore this week and a sweater so I could skip ironing... the earrings I fell asleep in, so no problem there! No court= no jacket needed. So I just grabbed for that one thing to make the outfit "blog-worthy":



No time to mess with my hair, so I just pulled it back and sprayed that sucka down:



And out the door! Only a little late.... the photos are from the end of the day, so my hair is coming apart a little. Oh well....

Sweater: VanHusen outlet
Pants: Lane Bryant
Earrings: gift from a friend
Scarf: I've had it about a hundred years, and it's origins have been clouded by time.

Friend Friday- all about color

1. What color dominates your closet?

For decades, it was black... but now, oddly enough, it seems to be brown. I also adore red, and always have a good supply on hand... it makes me feel better.

2. If money weren’t an issue how would you change the color emphasis in your closet?

For me, it's not so much the money issue, as it is the fit issue. I now have a lot of brown in my wardrobe because the only pants I found for awhile that fit my bodacious curves happened to be brown. So I bought more brown stuff to go with them.

I would definitely go with more greys and navys in pants/suits. If only I could find suits that fit, and that I'm not allergic to. I have a better chance of seeing a unicorn!

My "upper-body" wardrobe already has a wide variety of color. My coloring tends to look best in rather "odd" colors, so I just grab whatever fits and complements my skintone. Then figure out how to work it into the rotation.

3. What is your mantra about mixing colors?

I'm not fearless, but reading all these fashion blogs is helping me get braver. So as long as I think colors make sense together, and don't look to "chopped-up"... I'm going for it!

4. For you, how do you incorporate color into your outfits?

Needing to wear jackets near-daily really forces me to incorporate more color. Because I'm so tough to fit, if a jacket can be made to fit by careful tailoring (nothing EVER fit off-the-rack) I buy it. And make it work, because I bought it, so I'm wearing it- dangit!

5. Which blogger(s) do you think do a good job of incorporating color into their wardrobe?

All hail Queen Sheila! She is probably my biggest inspiration, and I'm getting bolder thanks to her influence. Of course, I'm still in the "making comical mistakes" phase... but I'll cope.

And Iman- who I've already decided to do a feature on, look for it later this month!

Windup to medical leave

Whew! Super-busy week pulling everything together at work and at home, so the world won't come to a screeching halt while I'm spending my paid "vacation" on the couch on drugs watching the Travel Channel.



Maybe my TV will take me to Bali....

In the meantime... court, paperwork, lunch with a girlfriend bemoaning a breakup (hers- not mine!), and pajama-shopping for my upcoming convalesence. Most of today was spent huddled up against the decidedly non-tropical, un-fun arctic chill in my scarf-as-shawl:



Have I mentioned how much I love this scarf? I know I've blogged this outfit before... but its hard to mess with perfection!



And these earrings have been making frequent appearances lately, probably because the slightly dulled colors and hammered-out texture make them so versatile:



Top: Freeda's castoff AB Studio
Jacket: VanHusen outlet
Pants: Lane Bryant
Earrings: gift from a friend
Scarf: purchased at a random stand in Paris, France

Pretty printcess

I love, love, love this sweater- but I don't feel comfortable wearing it to work without something under it:



And I adore the print in this blouse:



So much love today....

It's actually too short, and the sleeves are too short, as well. But I adore the print. I got it for $2... so it's well worth having the sleeves altered. Now I just need to remember to do it- I've just been rolling them up. But under my sparkly sweater... it's magic.

Of course, a jacket:



I really wanted my navy one, but it doesn't match my pants. That would bug the snot out of me all day, so beige it is!

Plain gold hoops to go with the necklace, and I'm off to work and a Junior League meeting.

Too bad these photos don't look so great... am I going to have to watch more "America's Next Top Model" to learn to pose? Project for my medical leave, perhaps?

Shirt: Liz Claiborne via consignment shop
Sweater: INC from Macy's
Pants: Lane Bryant
Jacket: Talbot's petite
Necklace: purchased wholesale from a friend
Earrings: Lia Sophia

Yesterday's experiment, today

I had a very late night, so I didn't get to post before my collapse from the sheer exhaustion of trying to carry off this look all day:



This is one of my favorite summer tops, and it has been hanging in my closet... taunting me! I saw it hanging next to the long-sleeved tee. And the gerbils in my head where my brain should be started spinning their wheels.

Why not try it? It was just an "office-day" anyway.

Whoops! I had to go the night court after all. So I tossed on a jacket:



This looked much better in my head....

Tank: Lane Bryant
Shirt: VanHusen outlet
Jacket: Talbot's petite
Pants: Lane Bryant
Jewelry: gift from a friend

Big scares, big news... and a guest blog of sorts

Who CARES about my clothes this last week? Not me!

I wore a repeat today: "Chocolate Cherry". Wednesday, I wore a blog-worthy outfit, and wanted to show a "fix". I didn't have a chance to blog it before the fit hit the shan.

I've been offline because we had a horrid scare. Hubby had been having a lot of neck pain, and Dr. T sent him for an MRI Tues. Wed morning, she called him, FROM HER HOME, telling him that if he makes the wrong move he could be paralyzed! He actually called in to work earlier, because his neck bothered him.

He called me, and I left my office in near-hysterics. I had to drive him to a real city over two hours away to get him to a neurologist. The head of neurology at a respected hospital, actually.... Cliff Notes version: MRI wasn't detailed enough, and made it look even scarier than it is.

But Dr. T made the right call, and we are truly grateful.

But I've never been so terrified in my life!

I changed from my work clothes to a sweater and jeans while we were waiting for a call from Dr. T, and I remember when changing into PJs that night that my sweater smelled like "Fear". Certainly didn't want photos of my puffy-eyes, tear-stained, abject-terrorized self.

We didn't learn for certain that immediate surgery wasn't necessary Friday afternoon. We spent the weekend recovering from the strain.

Then today... got a text from Baby Sis: "read (my niece's) T-shirt, then call me":



Figure out the big news yet?

Resolution recap

I was going to re-do five less-than-stellar outfits from my December recap, but didn't get a round tuit until toward the month. So much for dealing with my chronic procrastination! And resisting the occasional impulse to channel my dad's bad puns.

... and I only tried two "do-overs", succeeding at only one:



Which got some lovely compliments... The other was another attempt at wearing this odd sweater:



Have I mentioned that I'm a lifelong underachiever? According to scores of K-12 teachers, anyway. Considering that my slack-azz self holds three law licenses... I wonder sometimes what I *could* have done. Like learn to shop cohesively? ;/

So I need to redo the redo with the weird sweater. Freeda thinks I should give up on it, but I'm not quite ready to throw in the sweater. Ugh- bad pun... FAIL!

Not only to I have previous wardrobe failures to correct, I added new ones in January. Two of them involved my too-big Iman sweater, which should be corrected in due course. The other likely redo:



The only thing I didn't like was that the sweater and scarf don't quite tonally match. And turtleneck sweater + thick scarf = Hulk neck. While Hubby is a big fan of The Hulk, I don't think he wants to be married to "Hulk-neck".

But I like the scarf with the jacket. I like the sweater with the jacket. A puzzlement.... (Now I'm channelling Yul Brynner? The King of Siam was almost as constant a presence in my household as my dad, I suppose).

And the award for most coma-inducing abuse of the color red goes to:



zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Was I even trying that day, or was I semi-consious? Most mornings, as an unfortunate side effect of insomnia, the latter is highly likely!

My truly bad idea in January will fit into another post at another time. I have a month of jammie-time (aka FMLA leave) coming up, so I need to save some stuff to post... or you will be looking at a test pattern. I will try to achieve more between drug-induced naps.

Lately, I have been noticing I'm now carrying some extra luggage under my eyes. Daily photos are bringing that to my attention. *sigh* Am I doing to have to start Preparation H-ing them in the mornings? That will be another two minutes' sleep lost.

Maybe I will look at that last photo. That should put me right out!