Excited yet terrified

Cardigan and Tank from Simply Be, Pants from Lands End, Necklace from a street fair.

So. Big news! My sister and I have decided that we will start to look for property together! The idea is that we want either two built houses, or one house with room to build a little cottage for me. (Which should be easy enough, since we're looking for several acres of land as well.) Our own little commune! This is just a plan/looking around at the moment, but it's still enough to get me all excited and nervous. I really could end up living in my very own tiny house! If you follow me on Pinterest, you know that I have a whole board devoted to tiny little houses. I'm obsessed with the idea of living in my very own little space that I've filled with books and it not being an apartment. Not to trash people who like apartments, but I don't like being surrounded by people. At all. I make an exception for my family, but that's it.

I've taken several home decor quizzes since Jen and I talked about this idea yesterday evening, and I keep getting odd results. I've decided that my preferred aesthetic is Pretty Stuff That is Not Overly Precocious or Sweet. (I made that up myself, you know.) Just...comfy stuff that's nice and not overly "done". Also, I want built-ins out the wazoo. Bookshelves up to the ceiling and a little bitty book ladder to get up there, so I can pretend I'm Belle. A little kitchen with open (door-less) cabinets.

The idea of me living on my own is thrilling. I'm 31 and I've never actually lived alone. Part of it is being close to my family, part is not having much money while doing things like getting my MLS and working part-time, and the rest of it is my epilepsy, of course. I don't take baths unless someone is in the house, because I could seize and drown. I'm looking at non-loft tiny houses (even though lofts are beautiful), because I would break several bones if I seized and fell out of a loft. Ditto the fact that I'm thinking about 1-story houses to avoid any stair related injuries. Even after living with it for 12 years, it's weird to have my illness affect such a basic part of my life as what type of house I can live in. Luckily, I love one-story shotgun style houses. But I'm ready to finish what I think of as growing up and building a house really appeals to me.

I sometimes use curse words when I pray*

Dress - Joe Browns, Leggings - Avenue, Socks - Sock Dreams, Shoes - Crocs.

Proportions are all in the eye of the beholder. I love this dress, but it has less room in the bust than I expected, turning it into more of an empire waist than I had expected. I asked my father if it made me look a little chunky, because it's not fitted the way most of my other favorite dresses are, even the empire waists. And my father looked closely at me, and promptly told me yes, I did look a little chunkier than usual in it. Which, as you might expect, was not the answer I was looking for. Then at lunch at work, a random office co-worker told me how small I was getting! (Not really a comment I ever go looking for, actually, but one that was helpful today.) I explained to her that I'm just hourglassy, so it depends on what I wear as to how I look.

Here

And that's precisely true; I have a comparatively small waist, so dresses with empire waistlines like this one (aka without ties or belts) can obscure my waist, leaving only my bust and hips as the outstanding viewpoints. The dress is made of cotton, but the pattern makes me think of all of Sal's Desigual dresses, which are too expensive for me (and don't even come in my size, anyway). Thus endeth the ramble, because I have nothing more to say so far today, other than I'm going to Looper tonight. 

*And also the post title is from the Avett Brothers song "Me and God".

Bows are my life

Gleaming white girl.

I thought about calling this post Tiny Bow Shoes II: The Return, after yesterday's post, but decided not to. I do have several shoes with bows on the toes, though. Nothing is quite as cute as a pair of flats with bows, I do believe. I spent a few hours last night and this morning helping my dad with tech issues, so it's a simple outfit and maybe some shadows under my eyes to compliment it all. One of the many blessings of having supah-white skin is that it's immediately apparent when I'm tired/need more sleep by the dark shadows under my eyes. It's my lovely consumptive look, and yes, I have it a lot.

I really like this shirt, since it comes with it's own cleavage hider in the lace trim. It's a 3/4 length sleeve, though, which I love in theory. In reality, most 3/4 length sleeves hit my short arms about an inch or so above my wrist bone. And the only thing odder than little T-Rex arms is sleeves that appear to be too short for them. I should investigate and see if I have narrow shoulders. Are your shoulders supposed to be wider than your chest? The same width as your hips? I have no clue. Mine are neither, and sort of slopey/round. I leave you in a quandary.

Shirt - Avenue, Pants - White Stag, Shoes - Dexter, Necklace - pressie.

APRA HO!

Mia in our fabulous conference room!

So, Mia and I are both at APRA. Our eyes met, she loved me immediately, and I was totally not lame. (Okay, she's completely awesome and nice enough to hang out with the old lady.)

Carpet of horrors.

Important thing number one that I've learned here: when I have to listen to people talking into microphones 10 feet away from my head for hours, it gives me raging headaches. Two: Mia calls my blank face my bitch face, which is exactly what it looks like. Three: convention food can actually be good, although it is all made up of salad, cherry tomatoes, and chicken.

 

Top-ANA, Pants-White Stag, Necklace-self-made, shoes-TOMS.

Also, protip: the Mall of America is big and H&M is a very seductive store. But I am easily seduced by cobalt blue things (*cough TARDIS cough*). 

I now have blue suede(ish) shoes. Am I not awesome?

I had read that H&M's sizing was strange, and I can fully attest to that. They had a very sad little corner of plus size items, but this regular large burnout tank fit me perfectly.

I hate you and your face

Why didn't anyone tell me my ruffle was all kerfluffled?

 When things don't go right for me, I usually go on a rant (to myself) about how I hate people and their face. Honestly, until I started writing this, I had no idea where I picked that up. Apparently, I got it from Waiting for Guffman. The full line is "Well, then, I just hate you... and I hate your... ass... face!" The odd thing is that I don't like that movie. It's my least favorite Christopher Guest movies (favorite of course is A Mighty Wind, assuming we're not counting The Princess Bride). But I do like to tell my family that I hate their face.

This is the pose my Dad has been forcing me to make for days. The Weather.com guy for the Today show, the one who's been down in Florida, poses like this while he's talking. Like he's a little teapot, telling us all the important news about which towns have been flooded. It is very hard to take him seriously. (And yes, I would obviously have the same problem with a woman posing this way. Little teapots don't differentiate by gender.)

At 7:15 this morning it was a delightful 80 degrees outside. In my office, I'm wearing a heavy cardigan, while outside it's now 90. Temperature is confusing, ya'll. Couldn't we just put a dome over the world and have it stay around 70? Rain only at night? Sound like a plan to everyone else? Good.

Top - Avenue, Pants - Simply Be, Shoes - TOMS, Necklace - handmade.

Dexter shoes and You

Top - Avenue, Pants - White Stag, Shoes - Dexter.

I don't have that many followers, so it sometimes feels oddly like I'm addressing a small bunch of friends instead of a huge crowd, like some bloggers do. At least, that's the reason I'm using for my lackadaisical style, and the odd things I talk about. It helps that the people who read my blog are just as strange as me. (Kiss! I love you all!) I can talk about what I dub "neo-hippie" stuff, like making my own shampoo and buying GladRags, or talk about my love for Regina Spektor, and several of you will pipe up in the comments about how much you like/use/make the same thing/person. So basically, this ramble turned into one about how awesome YOU are. Aren't you glad you kept reading?
 

Anyway, this outfit is from my patented Comfy Collection©. Tunic top, loose black pants, and Dexter flats. If you haven't noticed, I tend to wear these flats every other day or so. They are Dexflex Dexter flats from Payless, and they aren't on the website anymore, although they do have a number of cute boat shoes and little black flats from Dexter there. I'm a big fan of Dexter, because they (almost) always do their dress shoes in Wide Widths, and they're super comfy. Boat shoes are my secret preppy addiction as well.

Commune

Blouse - Target, Shirt - Avenue, Pants - Walmart, Shoes - TOMS

I realized yesterday that while you could say I live in a multi-generational household (parents, children, grandchildren), you could also say I live in a teeny-tiny commune. Wikipedia says "A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes." My hippie-art-teacher outfit obviously helps solidify my point. The necklace is actually half of a set of earrings that a co-worker gave me after she bought them on sale at Wal-mart. After trying them on, she realized they were too big to wear comfortably, so she gave them to me for jewelry experimenting. My mom has a huge love of geodes and rock slices that she passed down to me, so I eagerly slapped this puppy on some chain for a long dangly necklace.

Scenic Parking Garage

It looked like we were going to run late today, so you get a shot in our parking garage at work. I might be turning into a a big hippie. I've made my own shampoo, now my own conditioner*, use a DivaCup, and I bought some GladRags yesterday. If I was writing this while listening to The Grateful Dead, the transformation might be complete. Luckily, I'm listening to Polyphonic Spree and wearing several man-made fibers, so I haven't quite crossed the line. I'll just take the label "green" instead. When you grow up in a county that's pretty evenly split between rednecks and hippies, you just want to be a normal geek.

Cardi and Pants - Simply Be, Shirt - Avenue, Shoes - Dexter, Necklace - selfmade.

*Okay, made might be a big stretch. Did you know that you can use honey as a conditioner? And that it doesn't leave your hair sticky like you might worry it will?

I'm supposed to be awake?

I'm not working tomorrow, because it's my nephew's birthday (and because I wanted a 4 day weekend), so today is my Friday. Yay! Of course, this does mean I'll have to go to Chuck E Cheese tomorrow with the crowd. The things I do for love...still, a kid only turns 8 once. By the way, that should be impossible. I was there in the hospital room when he was born, and I was an actual adult (work-wise) at that time. I refuse to believe that was 8 years ago. That would be easier to refuse if he didn't come up to my throat, though. My sister decided to have a giant for a son, evidently, all arms and legs. With all of these outside pictures lately, you can see the beautiful silver streaks in my hair. I'm like Rogue, but my superpower is grumpiness and complete knowledge of random book plots.

 

Top (and under tank) - Avenue, Pants - Denim 24/7, Shoes - Dexter, Necklace - Self-made.

NOT flashing

Sometimes you end up with a long tunic. I put on this dress, bent over to pick something up, and realized my butt was NOT covered by the "dress". Darn jersey fabric shrunk up a bit in the wash. So it gets to be a long tunic, and I get to not flash everyone I work with. Yay for both! Also, bows on my toes, so I get properly admired.

My sister got her chickens in yesterday. That sounds like some sort of code, but really, we live on a large piece of land that actually has an old chicken coop on it. She (and the munchkins) fixed it up, ordered a batch of little baby chicks, and they're going to raise them for eggs over the next several years.

My little Nana had another stroke yesterday. This was a small one, but I think she's just going for the all time record, having them every 2 weeks now. All this is causing the crazy face seen below.

Top - Mei, Jeans - Simply Be, Shoes - Dexter, Jewelry - present.

Allergies make me forgetful

So, apparently the pollen count has been around 4 quadrillion (or however you count pollen). I have allergies, and they make me sneeze ALL DAY LONG. I haven't been taking allergy pills, because the last freaking thing I need is another pill, but even without them, I appear to have become more addled and forgetful. Short way around, I loaded Friday's photo, but forgot to put it up.

Yay, I'm Friday!

As you might notice, if you have good eyes, I'm wearing the same shoes and necklace. The shoes are really comfy (Dexflex flats from Dexter) and the necklace is one I made that actually hits right below my clavicles, so it will show even if I wear a higher cut shirt, without being so high that it's a choker. (That was a ridiculously long sentence to point out that the necklace fits well.)

I've also been doing so poorly at Story a Day; I've only done 13 of the last 20 days, or 65%. I know that doesn't sound horrible, but I wrote a story every day the first seven days of May, then four in the next seven days, and only one in the previous seven days (15th-today). Bleah. I need to write today.

And sleepy. They also make me sleepy.

Pretend Tall

But do you have a flag?

In real life, I am a munchkin. Five foot four, to be precise. Okay, I just looked on Wikipedia, and apparently, this is the average height for a US woman. One inch shorter than the average white woman, though, and a half inch shorter than the average black woman. (Did you know Mexican American women are super short? 5"2' average.) So really, it appears that I am NOT a munchkin. Possibly, most of those shorter than "average" are old ladies who have shrunk. Other theory, everyone feels this like they're teeny.

Anyway, in this picture, I feel like I look tall. Slim lines, neutral colors (the shoes were for comfort, people, don't be haters), and the fact that I'm standing up really straight all combine to make me look like I have glorious long proportions like Gracey. Also, I felt a little like the figurehead at the prow of a ship. Both equally cool.