The Space Between My Peers

This weekend, when I was on a “mini-vacation” with my family, in the car on the way to visit some friends who live in the country, all the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. I want to get it written and published before I forget.

The 6 figure types and how to ID yours:

• Type A (formerly triangle) = shoulders narrower than hips, waist defined or not.
• Type I (formerly rectangle or pencil) = shoulders and hips equally wide, waist slightly or not defined.
• Type O (formerly oval) = shoulders sloped and equal to hips, waist filled in.
• Type V (formerly wedge or inverted triangle) = shoulders wider than hips, waist defined or not.
• Type X (formerly hour-glass) = shoulders straight and equal to hips, waist defined.
• Type 8 (formerly figure-eight) = shoulders sloped and equal to, or slightly smaller than, hips; waist defined.

Does this clear up more questions than it raises? If not, leave your questions here.

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In response to encouragement from HolyMama, I am participating in BooMama’s Bloggy Tour of Homes. Trouble is this: I have been focussing on learning something new this week and wasn’t really thinking about doing this. So what you see is what it’s really like here right now.

The front door image ~ Because my frugal people have been blogging about staying cool, I wanted to show this picture. Taken in the morning, and my house faces east, you can see the umbrella is entirely shading one window. Very effective!

Where I blog ~ a corner of the living room. With kids at home, I highly recommend the computer be located in a central place. Promotes accountability and discourages family fragmentation.

The living area ~ from another angle.

The kitchen ~ desperately in need of a makeover, but nowhere near the top of the list yet.

See the dishwasher? It’s just for show. We haven’t plumbed it in because to use it, we would have to take the drawer next to it out.

And, because this is a fashion blog, my closet:

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For quite some time I have been desirous of bringing you a review of the excellent weekly feature, Works For Me Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer, selecting my favorite “makes life easier” tips related to wardrobing.

However, as you can well imagine, that project would’ve been near impossible with dial-up. Thankfully Shannon, in her finite wisdom, has instituted new guidelines, which made the project all that much easier for me today.

Tips from this week’s entries:

• Joanne (Visible Panty Lines): Oh yeah! A cure for the thigh bulge that sometimes accompanies the wearing of the magic knickers.
• Melissa (Kryptonite for static cling): This trick really works, I’ve tried it. But most of us don’t wear nylons anymore, anyway, right?
• Heather (Doing Laundry): Did you know you can iron satin?

Since Works For Me Wednesday typically draws up to 100 participants, I’m a little curious: does anyone actually read them all?

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Yes, this is me. On a 100° day. The light colored sleeveless tee-shirt is double-layer, though.

Hey, I bet there are readers here now who have yet to be offended by my early post, What Not to Wear to Church. In it I mention that many nice men do not like to see any part of a woman’s “undergarment”.

Maybe you have a hard time believing that the sight of a bra-strap is a big deal. I did too. For the past 5 summers, I have volunteered in a capacity where the dress code specifies no visible undergarment (or lack thereof). For the first 4 summers, I quizzed my husband, “Is it really a big deal?”

His answer, roughly paraphrased, was that a man sees a part of the bra and it causes him to think of the whole bra. The idea of the whole bra leads to the thought of you in … do I need to continue?

Which leads me to my current favorite extreme hot weather casual look: The bikini top as bra (and necklace, too!). The advantages:

• No visible bra straps
• Dries quickly
• Inexpensive, especially this time of year. Where can you buy a bra for $5?
• Provides a splash of contrasting color near the face.

Now, I realize this will not work for every figure type. Nor for every situation. But for slim teens who want to be modest, this season’s long board shorts paired with a long tank and contrasting “tie straps” (which we sew in place) equals a look that shouldn’t cause anyone to think of anything but good clean fun.

It’s our summer uniform.

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The history: I announced the switch originally in this post; hinted at the advantages I was looking forward to here; and bemoaned the two weeks it took us, being a geek-free household, to actually get the system to work in my apology post.

Since most of our tech-savvy friends were unavailable when I was really anxious to get back up and running, I had the inspired idea to have my kids call one of their friends. Figuring she couldn’t really hurt anything, and she’d probably work for ice cream, what did I have to lose? About an hour later, we were surfing! She, uh, signed into her hotmail account. *?*?*

Anyway, enough about that, the real reason for this post is to share my joy with the rest of y’all. I found the Judson Laipply video!

(I got there via a site I found through Apologetix. I remember noticing HolyMama post a few months ago about the Man in the Orange Crush T Shirt, but sadly I was out of the loop then.)

I’ve seen it now. LOL!

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Beth’s question:

I am going to be hosting a table at a very fancy “gala” in October. Since you know my body shape and coloring, what would you suggest I look for? I want to appear elegant and classic, but eye-catching as well. I think the eye-catching will come from matching the outfit perfectly to my shape, coloring and personality.

Shopping by silhouette is a wonderful thing about Nordstrom.com, where she found this dress without any help from me. (Unfortunately it is now unavailable and we are back to the drawing board. But it is so pretty, I wanted to post it anyway.)

• Shape: Beth’s body shape is a tall A-line.
• Coloring: She has warm brown eyes and hair, pink-tone light-to-medium skin.
• Personality: Her fashion persona is Audrey Hepburn aka Charlotte.

And then, to underscore the elegance of the dress, she found the BEST SHOES EVER (on sale for like $56 until July 31st!)

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Look what I found! On sale for $6.99! Now I’m going back to see if I can find a suit.

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As usual when I am anticipating a casual evening out, I am currently racking my brain regarding what to wear this Saturday evening. The event: a community theatre production. The venue: a community college theatre. Sure, I could wear anything, but as much as I cry about not getting to dress up, it had better be a little bit special.

If it wasn’t supposed to be over 100 degrees that day, I might wear this outfit, in accordance with Danielle’s advice on the previous, March 2006, nightlife question. But, then, there is air-conditioning.

A skirt or dress would be nice, something cool and cottony, but I confess that I’m tired of mine, the straight ones I blogged about here. That is, I still like them for church, and for everyday wear, but they don’t feel special.

Do you think I should borrow this skirt from my daughter who has like 5 really cute options? She’s always willing to share, as am I, but I rarely take her up on it. I hate to think I’m taking advantage.

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As long as I’m dealing with old questions, and especially since this same favorite reader has since asked another question (more on that another time), it seems only appropriate to attempt to answer this one, originally posed back here:

So… if we (you and I) were to make two shopping trips a year, when might those be scheduled? I am envisioning a weekend together in that big city near me, with you flying in (my dime) and us hitting the shops. I could even bring a suitcase full of the clothes I plan to keep (you could tell me which ones I should, what do you call it? biff) If you take out the cost of hotel and food, how much $$ would I need to allocate? Spring and Fall? Coincide with any particular sale? It would be like “What Not to Wear” with 1/10th the budget.

My thoughts:

• Yes! What fun!
• When? September and April.
• How many $$? One-third of your annual clothing budget per trip.
• Readers help: Do you know the precise timing of any unbeatable sales?

Then the real trick is how to make sure you can wrap your spending plan around all the items you need.

Another post?

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Since we don’t have a TV, and I never get around to putting together photo albums, every now and again we can be found sitting in front of the computer, looking at pictures. Imagine my dismay when this one popped up.

“Aaah! Is that what I look like?”

(They kindly assured me it is not.)

Obviously these are my painting pants. And this picture was taken a few years ago. But it clearly demonstrates why fitting rooms are equipped with three-way mirrors.

I promise to be more careful.

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