April in Paris

Natch, that'd be a good reason for falling off the grid if I was on holiday the entire month but nope. I was merely overcome by life.

So let's just have a dress-up salute to one of our very favorite cities.

And I just realized it was about 4 years ago when I first met

dear Dani when she was off to Paris. :)



The sweatshirt is the color of sweet butter. It was in Paris where I fell in love with the stuff. Now I have bread as an excuse to eat butter.

 This is the French print popover. I had sworn off popovers ...

unless it's an irresistible print. Oh well.

The ballet flats are to keep the theme but I am definitely swearing off these J.Crew ballet flats, the horrible hurtful things

are all wrong for my feet. Never again.

If I said the color of these trousers was Paris pink would you believe me? It's really iced quartz but in keeping with the theme ...

The girls' tee (size 14) is too young for me but I had to have it.

Fun with these brogue shoes from yoox.

More love for Paris via a linen T-shirt and trying to be

oh so cool with the jacket. Ha.

Tomorrow is May Day and I will be asking an SOS to survive it.

Not only will it be HOT but the low humidity and strong winds make for unfortunate wildfire conditions.

 

Did you know the Mayday distress signal may be derived from the French expression "m'aidez" meaning "help me?"

 

As my friend Wendy (who also loves Paris) says: stay safe out there!





Red and White and Red, White and Blue

Brilliant minds. Gigi and I had the same idea about 

the linen beaded sweater being awsome for July 4th.

I love the beading, of course.

I love the tweedy looking stripes.

And there's something about the texture of linen knits I find addicting.

It's boxy and oversized (I'm wearing XXS), but I'd be concerned about sizing down because you might damage the beading when pulling it on or off (not nearly as bad as some but I say go slow while doing so).

I wore the schoolboy blazer in indigo dot over it at work because

it's almost always cold there in my office.

Oh just give me a reason to dress in theme, this was yesterday.

Yep it was my friend Gigi who pointed to a batch of Old Navy sweaters a few months ago, would you believe at the time I said July 4th when I saw this one? More dots. More café capris. It's these.

I'm showing off my shoes.

Aren't they awsome for July 4th?

And this is how the week started, in honor of my Canadian friends.

The factory elbow-sleeve sweater is not elbow-sleeved

but the color is beautiful and the price is right.

The trous are the bennett chino.

They are skinny, skinny (for chinos) and extra long (these are petite length,

which tends to be a little short for me but they're rolled three or four times here).



This is not the beaded rose necklace. At least not the real thing.

It's not a statement I'll be making forever so I got the look.

Hint: the five-flower version looks less like a lei (I'll show you on another post).

Not to be outdone, here's how husby tied everything nicely together

on Canada Day, the start of July 4th week.

He always wanted that day to be his birthday because his day

four months earlier tends to be lousy weather.

Isn't he weird?

Update: This is my July 4th outfit.

We had Canadian beer with our all-American burgers,

it happens to be our favorite. What did you cook up?

Enjoy your family and friends ... happy Independence Day!

And as another of my friends WMM says, stay safe out there!

Pepper Patch

I had a personal pact to post this pack of pepper tweed things

way before now. Of course, I failed miserably.

I bought them at the end of the Fall 2012 season sale priced and with an extra percentage off so I thought it odd they came back in the suiting section full priced then went on sale again and now the dress has sold out a second time and only the jacket and skirt remain in limited sizes

in the final sale section.

 

Maybe they're the same things maybe not.

Though the item numbers are identical, I know mine are black and ivory while what's currently on sale has navy ivory for the color choice.

Whatever. I'm thinking they have the same fit and fabrication so reviews could help somebody if the pepper tweed things pop back.

The fabric is 52% cotton/48% polyester (at least there's more real stuff than not).

It's loose enough a weave I could carefully work an Art Deco hat pin into the material, being careful to not go through the lining.

(Hat pins often have dull, threaded ends that don't pierce cleanly through fabric.)

I really like the dress, for once I didn't feel as if I'd want to

shorten or nip in a garment for a better fit.

Here, I decided to wear some fun, vintage plastic jewelry.

And of course a reprise of the tweed dweeb below, worn with the short-sleeve chambray shirt (the short sleeves avoid the fussiness at the cuffs and I like the rounded collars with the collarless jacket). The skirt fits surprisingly slim, I'm not used to skirts fitting around the waist. This one is sitting slightly high waisted instead of riding on my hips like most.

In case you're wondering, yes, I am wearing tights.
They're beige with tiny polka dots but it just looks like I have pasty legs, which I do.

Pepper tweed cons: the loosely woven fabric will easily snag (my vintage crystal bracelet caused a few before I became keenly aware to keep it away), the loosely woven fabric can also get out of shape (you can see above the uneven skirt hem) and though more than 50% cotton, I still wish for a 100% natural material, silk for the poly content would be lovely.

Pepper tweed pros: easy-to-wear, basic colors (whether black ivory or navy ivory); classic cut and a nice, close fit (at least for me); a lightweight tweed good for most seasons (for where I live and this tweed will also travel well); the loosely woven fabric can be worked to easily make snags disappear.

I've layered two necklaces collected over the years, these are from the 1920s, I believe.

The pepper tweed inspired me to pack a little more punch
with pieces from my vintage/antique jewelry collection.
I go in and out of these phases, should I stay put in this one a bit?

Did you pick up or pass on the pepper tweed?

Oh and does anybody remember I promised the ultimate chambray/denim shirt smackdown? Trying to be comprehensive stopped me from getting started. So silly wabbit, I will post one each week until I'm through them all. First one in a couple days and I'll take requests.



Nonstop Hop

Mythical creatures. Feasome critters. Jackalopes are mighty reclusive.

A clear picture of their representation on a sweater was elusive.

But I've got them going around a square scarf.

 To be worn thusly when it got cool.  

Not very original but I was following the majority rule.



I Don't Understand These

I'm not trying to be snarky but I don't get them.

In case you're wondering ... yes, they are tights.

Just reduced to $29.95 from $48.

I don't think the side view is any better.

How would you wear them?
What could possibly work with them?

Who can rock them?

Again, not trying to be mean but I'm genuinely puzzled.

 

I don't get these either.

But they made a lot more sense than the tights.

At least to me.

A Very Late Thanksgiving

You call that a gravy boat?

This is a gravy boat.

You're supposed to read that

with this in mind:

In addition to big bird (a 23.7 pound turkey)

we did 10 pounds of candied yams

five pounds of mashed potatoes,

two different stuffings (they filled two extra large roasting pans),

two kinds of cranberry sauce,

some peas so we can pretend we ate vegetables,

and had pumpkin pie and ice cream.

 

We did not host dinner for 20, there were only five of us.

Which is why I was glad I didn't glam,

I had all these ideas but I wore this (perfect wear for peeling potatoes and stuffing stuffing):

This is obviously an awfully tardy post.

And an awkward segue to say thank you.

(With all good intentions I meant to do it way before now.)

First to M of Apples & Pencil Skirts

and rynetta of jcrewismyfavstore

for giving me

Then to Andrea of Tweed and Toile

for awarding me

And last but certainly not at all the least

TC of What I Bought Today

and Danielle of Chocolate, Shoes, and Debate

for bestowing on me the

There are questions to be answered and other bloggers to nominate.

But I figure I should get on with at least the thanks

so I'm not even more delinquent with each passing day.

{hangs head in shame for realizing how overdue I am}

Is it really true better late than never?

And can overalls ever work with heels?



Credit Where Credit's Due

Polka dots gone wild.

Faux fur trim gone wild.

(Umm ... don't think I want a big strip of furriness to add to my hipline.)

Metallic trend gone wild.

(I've met my match in crazy pants; I'm sure others can rock these but it won't be me.)

 

I try not to and I know it's not nice.

But I did here and here.

And I want to say please JC, watch how you place the pattern:

So to be fair, I think KS can miss too (see first 3 pics above).

And I'll jump in here with this:

All I can think of is: psychedelic shack, that's where it's at.

Psychedelic shack. That's where it's at.



Three Days in Fort Worth

Three Days in Fort Worth by tiffanyrose featuring cotton t shirts

No matter how hot it is where I'll be going, I'll always take my Luminosa puffer (aka my life jacket), a thin wool thermal tee and a scarf. You never know if they'll crank up the AC while you're stuck in that meeting room for hours.

See you in a few days!