I got my hair cut last weekend. It'd been months since I'd had it cut, and while I was thoroughly enjoying having long long hair (still a novelty, after 30 years of mostly short hair), a few things were making it more and more hateful:
1. Baltimore/DC in the summer. Muggy, hot, no central AC in my house ... I was pulling it back, out of my face and off my neck, most days.
2. I had layers cut in, back in January, but they'd grown out and so it was all just hanging there. Very healthy, lots of movement, but still. Just there. And when I wore it down, it felt and looked like a shawl of hair. Attractive on some women, maybe, but for long-faced me? Not so much.
3. Have I mentioned the mid-Atlantic summertime weather? 'Nuff said.
So now I am rocking a shorter, more layered cut, that when properly styled is edgy and razored and almost the exact same cut 18yo ES#2 just got rid of (in favor of the Katie Holmes pixie cut, which looks marvelous on ES#2, it must be said).
However. The new cut is a bit more demanding when it comes to dressing for my day. I feel I must live up to the Rocking Edgy Razor look, and have been ransacking my closet to find those "professional" outfits that still fit my RER criteria. So I have been tapping into my Fake It Till You Make It mode a little more -- more specifically, I've been imagining what ES#2 would wear.
This seems like something she'd approve of.
Shirt: thrifted on a trip to an amazing thrift store that I could never find on my own, via LF
Pants: Nearly New Sale
Bracelet: thrifted as a birthday gift from MIL
Shoes: Payless
Let's be frank: who's not looking for the perfect summer sandal? Comfortable enough to wear on the walk to and from work, or around a street fair, or to the plethora of bbqs, birthday parties and other excuses to throw a party -- yet "nice" enough for work, for church, for whatever makes you put your spit-shine on and look presentable.
This may be it.
I was walking to work last week and saw a woman wearing these, waiting to cross the street. "I love your sandals," I raved, and she told me that everyone tells her that (what a bummer, I hate to follow the crowd) and, AND, the most amazing thing: they're MERRELLS.
Yes, Merrell. Everyone's favorite comfortable footwear maker, loved by sensible-shoe wearers everywhere, makes CUTE shoes. And now I want them.
Size 11, if anyone's so inclined.
Worked a little late last night, Hig picked me up without HM (Evil Stepdaughter #1 being at home with her) and we stopped for a quick snap on the bridge where the car was parked. It's been spring-like in the mid-Atlantic this week, not a hint of humidity and as such, I've been able to wear my hair down without feeling like it's attacking my neck and sticking to my skin.
This ensemble was entirely designed to highlight the black & silver earrings I'm rocking. They came, in a bit of serendipity (of course) from the receptionist at my office -- I saw them, along with another pair, on her desk and asked about them. Her mother had given them to her, she said, and she just never wore them. Would I like them?
Would I like them? Of course I would like them!
The design is stamped, feels like, and they have a vaguely Indian ("dots not feathers," thanks Good Will Hunting) feel to them. All day I played with them, rubbing my thumbs on the backs and swinging my head intentionally to feel their weight under my ears.
And oh! The shoes! They will have to wait for another post: I bought them specifically to go with the dress I wore to ES#2's graduation last weekend (YAY, congrats ES#2!), and are silver and almost not-there, and are like nothing I would imagine I would wear or purchase, and I kind of loves them. Only kind of, right now, because they are still being a bit mean and rubbed my heel a little raw yesterday.
Shirt: bequested, LF
Pants: thrifted
Earrings: bequested, MS
Shoes: Payless
The summer I turned 13 I wore an armful of bracelets creeping up my left wrist. It started with two black jelly bracelets; above that were seven thin string bracelets, in neon green, pink, yellow and blue; and the whole thing was capped off by a watch that sported a wide black band, in a pliable faux-leather-ribbon look.
I took off the watch when it’d get wet in the shower or the pool, but the bracelets stayed on all summer long, and I’d get a little surge of happiness whenever I caught sight of my colorful funky arm.
Summer ended and the bracelets came off – with a touch of sadness and regret.
The year I went away to college a friend gifted me a necklace, a simple black nylon thread holding a polymer clay disc, decorated with a yin-yang and other swirly hippy happy icons. I wore that necklace all year, seeing it as a totem of the new life I was finally living.
Before HM came on the scene, another friend gifted me another necklace, this one a sterling silver ball chain with a simple silver pendant reading Quirky. I was instantly charmed by the necklace, putting it on and leaving it on for the next couple of years. It was the kind of piece I’d lust after but never purchase for myself, and I loved that my friend had captured a bit of me so perfectly.
After HM arrived, the necklace turned into a grabby toy for her, and I regretfully took it off.
Now I have these bracelets. The charm bracelet was a gift from KLo, and was something I’d admired for months, plotting of ways to ensure Hig would remember it for a birthday or anniversary. The other was a gift from the artist; both bring together two of my favorite things: words & silver, and when I move my arm, the two bracelets jingle-jangle together in the most delicate and pleasing way.
I imagine there will come a time when I’ll take off the bracelets; for now, they’ll remain my signature pieces, always incorporated into my outfits and always bringing me a bit of joy when I look at my left wrist.
Charm bracelet: handcrafted by Silver Pie, gifted by KLo, with family members’ names, my wedding date and the word “charmed,” to remind me that my life is just that
Link bracelet: handcrafted & gifted by Toby & Max, reading as follows: Be Happy, Live Simply, Love, Appreciate, Balance and Laugh
I got my hair cut last weekend. It'd been months since I'd had it cut, and while I was thoroughly enjoying having long long hair (still a novelty, after 30 years of mostly short hair), a few things were making it more and more hateful:
