Donatello and Michelangelo

Green and purple together always remind me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Green and orange, as well. I had a beloved outfit in fourth grade that was comprised of a green/white rugby striped T-shirt with orange denim bermuda shorts. I only remember wearing it once because I'm pretty sure it was made fun of. 

Anyway, today's accessory is a green wooden bead necklace.

 
I can't remember where I got it, though I think it was Encore in Conway, SC. I was going through a multi-strand thing at the time. I've got four more to prove it. Maybe that'll be a theme next week.

I'm not running today, when I should. I could get my monthly average up to where I need it to be. But it's windy and I'm cold. So I'm just going to run more in February to make up for it. Right?

tschuss

I forgot

No accessories today. Crap!

A button just fell off my sweater. Crap!

I have printmaking tonight. From 4:15-7:00pm I am at the Bloomington Print Collective. Mostly, I sit around waiting for people to show up or need help with a project. It's usually pretty slow on Wednesday, so I'm bored. Go figure. I've been trying with printmaking. I'm just uninspired. I have printer's block, which is a good pun if you're a wood block printer. I also discovered that I can't draw anymore. Everything is wonky.

I need a wambulance.

I also need a sammich.

I'm listening to Grandaddy today. They always remind me of my friend Aaron. We don't keep in touch the way we should, but I've kind of put him in my always friends pile. No matter how long we might go without talking, we can always pick up where we left off.

I had soup instead of a sammich. It was unsatisfying and took forever to eat. Shoulda had the sammich.

Oh and the wambulance came. DOA. I'm just not going to be able to stop whining today. It's rainy and blegh. On the upside, my amaryllis has bloomed. See? 

 I write so many posts in TextEdit and never get around to posting them, that I'm not sure if I mentioned my amaryllis. It was from Oscar's grandparents for Christmas. I watched it slowly bud and then BAM it had bloomed.

I've been trying to digitally color match some stuff all day. We've got a repeat client and a blue (PMS 547) that printed wrong to begin with, so now I'm trying to match the bad color for the second run. I have to take the wrong color and add percentages of CMYK in tiny increments in order to get the right color. It's tiring and tedious, but I love it when it goes right. Oh, and I'll probably have to do it again next time the order comes in because the Bizhub doesn't remember color well. It's something to keep me busy, though, so no whining here.

Boobies

Just kidding. But I'm wearing slutty pearls today. I mentioned them last post. I guess I'm just running through my pearls posts. These are from my other grandmother. My mom's mom. My two grandmothers were so different. My mom's mom had a lot of cheap, but great stuff. My dad's mother had a few nice things. My mom's mom was born in Castle Hayne (Wilmington), NC. My dad's mom was born in London, England. Probably the biggest reason I don't have a southern accent was her having me recite "How now brown cow" over and over again. She immigrated at 14 in 1929. The family lived in Queens. My mom's mom lived in NC most of her life. She and my grandfather moved to Indiana (where he was from) for a while. They moved to NC in 1959 or 1960. My mom was five-ish.

I can't tell if this is a nice set of pearls. Surely they're fake, but the pearl finish is in remarkably good nick. No chipping. And the string used to be knotted between each pearl, which is quality. My multi-strand from the last post doesn't have it. This stringing is falling apart, though. A bead or two must have broken off at some point because there's a pretty long gap of naked string. And you can see where somebody tied it back together. Maybe I'll have them restrung. However, that'd be pretty expensive for a fake set of pearls. Could I learn to do it myself? There are probably a million tutorials and videos on the Google.

Yesterday, I was cripplingly bored. I'm on medication for ADHD, and I forgot it. So on top of not having much to do, I couldn't focus on faking it. Unmedicated ADHD is like running knee deep in honey. Medicated, I feel the way I think normal people feel. Capable, motivated, less bored. I came to the realization recently that I'm not actually lazy. I'm just bored, and when I'm bored, I'm extremely unmotivated.

Moping has been my MO the last couple of days. It's this gray weather. I must run more to counteract it. I will run today when I get home.

Real or Fake, but Preppy Allover.

We're going back to last Thursday for this one. I wore my amazingly soft cotton/silk flannel dress that Oscar got for me as a thank you for supporting him through grad school so far. It's from LL Bean Signature. It's also got pockets. All dressed need pockets. That's gotta be on my Fashion Rules list somewhere. I should work on that sometime. It'd make a good post, yes? Rule number one? No tapers with pleats. Anyway, I totally June Cleavered the dress with a red cardigan and pearls. I inherited the pearls from my grandmother. The sweater is J.Crew. Oh and I don't know if you can see the earrings, but they're porcelain flowers. My gran brought them back from England for me. I was probably 10 or 12 and I hated them at the time. Now I love them. Although I think they may have been a bit much for this outfit

On to Tuesday. Again, a red sweater with pearls.

Despite the properness of Thursday's outfit, Tuesday's look is way more preppy. Pearls are always preppy, right? Unless they're one long strand tied in a knot. Then they're kind of slutty in a flapper kind of way. But with a classic red sweater? Ta da!! Preptastic

Two posts for one

1. One is better than two.

I started out Friday with two plastic chain link necklaces. Well, you can see. I thought it was a good look until I took off the teal one. It was a much better look overall without it. I looked less like a kid playing in her mother's jewelry. Had I not had Ke$ha face with the second photo, I would say I looked more like the mother of the above situation.

The necklaces are J.Crew Outlet.

2. Scarf it down.

No necklace today. Instead I'm wearing my England scarf.

I'm to the point where I'm bored with my own writing. I'm not bored of writing. I could write forever. But when I read back what I've written, I find it incredibly boring. So what can I say about a scarf that isn't boring? I must find exciting synonyms for "great." I'm going to make a list that I can just pick from when I write because of course anything I write about is going to be "great." So synonym 231 on the list: Sensational. Isn't this scarf sensational?

The scarf is from Madewell.

~~~

I went skiing this weekend. Or should I say I went falling? I never could stop, so I just fell instead. I'm really good at falling. You think I've being vicious, but I'm not. The instructor said I was good at falling. I'm a natural. I think it's just my natural inclination that to slow down, going downhill, you lean back. At least that's how it works in running. But with skiing, you weight needs to be on the balls of your feet while you lean your shins forward so they're resting on the boot. Then you bend your knees so your butt is over your feet. So you're not really leaning forward or back. Then, to slow down, you're supposed to make a wedge with the skis. And I swear I was doing that, but I never slowed down. And forget about steering. I just don't deal well with any standing momentum that isn't walking.

Big Necklace, Little Necklace

I'm dragging today. I've been sick the last few days. I get a cold once or twice a year and it's that time. The congestion is making me spacey. I keep letting out these huge sighs because I can't breath. I want to go home and nap, but I know I've got a customer coming in soon. But not soon enough.

On to today's accessories.

 

 

I love the big necklace. It's my favorite piece of jewelry. I love it so much that when I lost it (I knew I left it either at a friend's house or a hotel), I found it again on eBay. And then, when it turned up (it was overlooked at the friend's house for two months), I kept both. I wear them together sometimes. 

This morning, with just a simple gray turtle neck, I thought the big necklace was a little too sophisticated. So I threw it off with the sailboat necklace. 

Also, can I say I'm digging my hair these days. It looks like Madeleine from Masculin Feminin. Which, no, I haven't seen. But an old roommate (Hi Ashley) had a screenshot from the movie hanging in her room, which is tooootally the same thing as having seen it.

See that gap in my closet? See all those beautiful clothes to the right of the gap. See all the perfectly lovely clothes to the left? Guess what divides them?

Twenty pounds.

To the right are all the clothes that I can't fit into. They're just too small. They weren't six months ago. Hell, most of them were okay three months ago. And that's not including all the folded jeans I can't wear. I'm down to two pairs of jeans and one pair of slacks. Two dresses. I'm nearly in a panic. Wait. I am in the panic stage. I need to get to the do something phase. Just breath and run phase. Stop eating shit phase.

I can do this. I've done it before. I just didn't think I'd have to do it again. But this just goes to show how important exercise is. My eating habits are a huge problem, but I kept them at bay with running. Now, I want to tackle both facets of losing weight. The exercise and the diet. But I hate cookiwah wah wah. I'm tired of hearing myself type. I'm so boring. I just wanted to illustrate something and I've gone off on a tangent.

Gained twenty pounds in six month.
Want to take it off in half that.
Must stop hating to cook.
Must run more.

Brevity, yeah!

Brace Let

Resolution Two: Accessorize

This bracelet. Look! At this bracelet.

Or should I say brace because there's no let about it.

The story:
I don't actually, officially know the story behind this bracelet. I have many clues, though. It was my aunt Marilyn's. She and my uncle Geoff lived in Southern California in the 70s and 80s. I know they visited Mexico at least once with my grandmother. This bracelet looks Mexican, wouldn't you say? My grandmother had an identical bracelet. So a safe conclusion would be that it was a souvenir from that trip to Mexico.

My first instinct is to dislike this bracelet. It's very large. And kind of folksy. Archeologist jewelry if you will. But I like throwing little curve balls in my wardrobe. I wore a particularly professional outfit the day I wore that bracelet. Gray slacks with an aqua tie-collar shirt, tucked in and my black booties. I will wear it again and take photos next time.

I'm on my second week of accessorizing. It's very satisfying. It takes no more time in the morning, yet I feel more–put together, whole, with it, on the ball–what is the phrase I'm looking for? I feel more mature without feeling old. Age appropriate. I feel responsible. All from adding an extra touch to an outfit.

New Years Resolutions

I have three resolutions this year.

One
Run more. My goal is 500 miles this year. That's 10 miles a week. Totally doable.

Two
Accessorize. I have tons of great costume jewelry. I'm going to take advantage.

Three
Write about resolutions one and two. Continue FPotD.