Blue Skies

Sweater - Simply Be, Pants - thrifted, Shoes - Target.

So my niece has decided that blueberry smoothies are her FAVORITE thing to have for breakfast. You know, if Auntie makes them for her. I'm sure it's all about the flavor, and not about the fact that they're a bright purple and she gets to use a big wide straw. (Presentation is key, you know.) It's starting to get warm again. Hopefully, it'll stay that way, rather than suddenly freezing again and snowing.

Also key, a cute Sherlock gif:

Masterpost of ShockingBlankets #not dead gifs here.

Go forth and waste your night on Tumblr!

1st Gwynnie Bee!

I got home and my first Gwynnie Bee package was waiting! I talked about Gwynnie Bee in my last post, but for all the info, here's their FAQ page. And here's a picture of me in my first top! (I forgot my camera at work, so you get a cell phone pic with crazy eyes.)

Top - Kiyonna from Gwynnie Be, Cami and Boots- Simply Be, Pants - Denim 24/7.

I'm sending the Fluid Wrap Dress straight back  for a lot of reasons. I got it just to try it on, since I'd never tried anything from Coldwater Creek before. But; I'm not really a fan of the color (too teal), it's too big on me, and the sleeves are too long anyway. (Curse  you, short arms!)

I got one shirt from Evans, a black and white peplum top. Now, I've been personally unsure about peplum tops since they became such a huge thing. I was just sure that somehow they would look strange on me. And this was the best way to try one. But it looks cute! It doesn't look ravishing enough for me to go out and buy one, but I think I'll enjoy styling it. It's made out of a soft t-shirt fabric so it isn't a stiff peplum like you see in some magazines, and I think that helped me like it.

I got two tops from Kiyonna. See, if I had lots of money, I would buy TONS of stuff from Kiyonna. Just bags and bags of stuff. This purple striped shirt is one that I just looked at on their site. It's on sale for $58, and I really liked the look of it. But I just didn't know about the fit. So, once again, a great way to try it. It has a really low plunge to it, but it's loose enough to easily wear a camisole underneath. And yes, it's ADORABLE. Look at how cute the sleeves are!

The last item I got in this package was a gorgeous bright red Kiyonna top. It looks like a low plunge and a tight belly, but after you put it on, you just have to adjust it. Like a bra! The top of it sort of cuddles your cleavage, so it doesn't expose you, and once you stop pulling down on the bottom and let it the ruching go up properly, it provides a hourglassy effect.

Now, as far as cost, you can do:
       1 item at a time for $35 a month
       2 for $59 a month ($29.50 each)
       3 for $79 a month ($26.33 each)
       5 for $99 a month ($19.80 each)
       7 for $129 a month ($18.42 each)
       10 for $159 a month ($15.90 each)
And yes, you really can keep stuff for as long as you want. Unless you quit, obviously. Just going by this first package, I'm sold. If you did the top tier, you could conceivably do a capsule wardrobe with their stuff, pajamas, and a couple of pairs of dress pants only. Not that I could ever purge my closet to that level.

Wearing of the Grays

Fused Glass Labyrinth necklace

It's been a neutral few days here, in the matter of colorways. Not purposefully, it just happened that way. Do you ever get stuck in an accidental color rut? I should get a package though to kick me right out of it soon. I joined Gwynnie Bee. I kept seeing the name all over various plus-size fashion blogs, so I looked it up. Basically, it's a plus-size clothing rental service. You sign up to rent so many items a month (various price options), get them in the mail and keep them as long as you want. Then you mail them back, together or separately, and get new ones.

Zippered shirt - Lane Bryant, Pants - Avenue, TOMS.

It starts at size 10 and goes up (yay, plus size!). They have casual and dressy stuff, and it's all really nice quality stuff (Kiyonna, Eloquii, Igigi, etc). I think that this will be a great way for me to try trends/styles I'm not sure of/pricey stuff before I commit to buying anything. Shipping is free, they do all the washing and checking before sending it out, and it just seems like a really great system. I'll post even more when I get my first package, which should be in the next day or so.

Sweater - Roamans, Pants - thrifted, Shoes - Dexter.

Orange!?!

Lovely Haitian beads bracelet won in a giveaway from Carrie!

So, I realized one of the reasons that I dislike the color orange. The short story "1408" by Stephen King features a heavy use of the color orange as a grotesqueness. If you haven't read the story, do yourself a favor, it's one of King's best (you can find it in Everything's Eventual or online here). Also, I had a bit of a John Cusack weekend, watching 1408 and Identity.

Dress, cardi, and boots - Simply Be, fleece lined tights - Wal-mart.

Fleece-lined tights rock, and these George tights from Wal-mart are just large enough for me. They're like fancy leggings. This ponte dress is long, coming way below my knees, and it comes in several colors. The cardigan is still available in a few larger sizes, too.

Labyrinths

So, I've been stressing over writing this post, hoping something magical would happen so I didn't have a reason to even think about it. No luck. The polyps they removed from my surgery last week turned out to show simple hyperplasia. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either. I've got way too much estrogen, and it's 

causing the excessive growths/polyps they found. It wouldn't be such a big deal, but it's a fairly worrying risk sign for pre-cancerous cells. The treatments range from progesterone pills all the way up to hysterectomies. At the moment I'm on progesterone pills, which are as ever giving me odd side effects.

A keychain I turned into a necklace, the traditional Chartres labyrinth

I'm pulling out my happy jewelry, since everything seems to be going all pear-shaped. For a long time, I've felt a big affinity for labyrinths, tree of life jewelry, and other...branchy type symbols. So, pro-tip? Go see your gynecologist regularly, unlike me, who slacked off until I had several very weird ultra-long periods.

Let's Play Grownups

Quick: in one of these pictures, I look like more of a stereotypical office worker than in the other. Guess which one. If you guessed the second one, you win the prize! I forgot to post on Tuesday, so I went to post a two-fer today, and the differences between the two pictures really struck me.

Tuesday

 In both, I'm wearing a cardigan over a t-shirt, pajama-style dress pants and socks (I wore my rain boots both days outside). But on Tuesday, the look is much more boho than Wednesday's classic business. The soft, flowing lines of the cardigan match my wavy hair, and a repeated dusty pink enhances my skin tone.

Wednesday

Today's red/black combination works with my skin in a different way; more of a Snow White contrast. And with my hair back in a bun, and the cleaner, more blazer-like lines of this cardigan, I have a more conventional business look.

Obviously, I'm not going to say one is better than the other. I'm the one wearing both of them! I just thought it was worth looking at how lines and colors can make big differences, even when you wear the exact same pieces of clothing. And let's face it, I have a TON of cardigans and pajama pants!

Tuesday: Cardigan - Simply Be, Shirt - Avenue, Pants - White Stag, Socks - Target.
Wednesday: Cardigan and Shirt - Avenue, Pants - Denim 24-7, Socks - Sock Dreams.

Gurneys are the work of the devil (also, I cut my hair)

Sweater and boots - Simply Be, Shirt - thrift store, Pants - Denim 24/7,.

So, it turns out that hospital gurneys are the hardest, most evil beds known to man. I had my surgery* (they found some polyps, but everything went fine), but it was delayed because the surgeries before mine took more time than they planned. So I spent approximately 1,400 hours on a gurney. Give or take a few hours. My lady-parts** felt fine, but my back still hurts from the gurney and the surgery was on Thursday. Also, in a wonderful turn of events, anesthesia makes me weepy. So I came to after surgery with an already sore back, and then started crying. Yay.

Also, I finally got Jen to cut my hair! As is so very obvious. Really, I just got her to give me a blunt cut, evening up the ends, because the back was longer than the front, because of horrible layers that I had. So the front is still the same length, the back just got trimmed up 2 inches to meet it. I'm so much happier with it like this. Layers in my hair make me stabby.

*My surgery was a D&C for excessive bleeding.

**When my sister, who has been vehement about calling body parts by their right names for her kids, was asked by the munchkins why I was having surgery, she randomly lost all control. She told them I was having surgery on my girl-parts. I later informed my sister that I have lady-parts.

The evil pants

So this outfit looks totally normal, right? Big rain/snow boots because we had sleet in the morning and rain the rest of the day, but non-adorable footwear aside, it looks normal. I was at my gyno's getting ready to walk in the office, when my dad leans over and tells me I have a rip in the side of them, on my right upper thigh. I manage to fix that with a stapler in an empty office and feel pretty pleased with myself.

 THEN AT THE END OF THE DAY, I'm in the bathroom peeing (not for the first time, since I'm not a camel), and I look down and see a giant rip in the crotch! I am of course wearing bright pink panties. These are not actually a pair of work pants, they're a pair of pants that I KNOW need to be fixed. But I'm too freaking lazy (and bad at sewing), so I've put them on a pile of things to ask my mother to fix. 

And yet somehow I picked them up this morning, put them on and never noticed either the rip on the side or the GIANT HOLE in the crotch until later in the day. Luckily, the rip in the crotch is directly in the crotch where no one can see, so at least I was spared that embarrassment.

Please, share some similar embarrassing stories so I don't feel like quite such a doofus. (And send me some luck, because I'm going to have a D & C on Thursday for uterine bleeding issues.)

It's time to tell the truth...I'm old.

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

I didn't watch the Oscars. They go on FOREVER. So we watched a TV episode off the DVR (Warehouse 13!) and then went to bed. Because I'm old. But I looked online at everyone's dresses this morning. And the plus size ladies killed it! (Except for you, Melissa McCarthy. You were evidently put under an evil spell by a witch and can only look adorable when you're NOT wearing a ballgown.)

Octavia Spencer looked beautiful in another Tadashi Shoji gown, her signature designer for big events. This is so pretty and Cinderella-ish.

Source: Uploaded by user via Erin on Pinterest

Adele looked awesome in a Jenny Packham gown. She almost always wears black, but a singer with a voice like hers doesn't need anything fancy to stand out!

Source: Uploaded by user via Erin on Pinterest

Queen Latifah looked kick-ass. You know she could take care of it all in this Badgley Mischka dress. It's pure white, but the beading on the bodice keeps it from being bland.

Source: Uploaded by user via Erin on Pinterest