A Bloggy Tour of Testimonies
As part of the Bloggy Tour of Testimonies, I wrote Why I Read the Whole Bible in a Little Over a Year, posted over at my titus 2 project.
Find other people’s stories here.
The Space Between My Peers
From the bottom of the fashion food chain, a conversation about what to wear.
Happy Birthday Danielle!
Yes, September 30th is my bloggy friend Danielle’s birthday. (She’s also collecting opinions about what style glasses to get next.)
Why don’t we all go over and wish her Happy Birthday?
Related Posts:
What’s For Dinner?
Local friends may recognize that question, as I used to write a column for our homeschool newsletter with that title.
It’s Frugal Friday! Various thoughts and themes have been chasing around in my head since I woke up (over here on the West Coast, after a very late night), but when I visited our host blog it all became crystal clear (stealth pun. extra points for those!)
Okay, here’s a short list of frugal alternatives to eating out:
- Invite friends over. Serve them a lovely meal.
- Invite friends over. Have a theme potluck.
- Invite friends over. Have them bring whatever they were going to make for dinner and you have potluck with whatever you were going to have. (We did this once for Easter and it was a blast!)
- Invite friends over. Serve them a simple meal.
Illustration: a frugal dinner party. In one instance when we had guests, choosing frugality as the theme took most of the hostess pressure off me. I made chicken and rice, avocado slices, cooked veggies, and I don’t remember what else. Then I was free to enjoy my guests.
If you don’t have the energy to have friends over:
- Just serve something simple. Like fried egg sandwiches.
- A family-sized portion of salmon, plus salad, costs the same as a Papa Murphy’s pizza, cooks in the same amount of time, and is much healthier for you.
One more thing: I agree with Crystal that it’s important to take your husband’s preferences into account. And I’ve found that most men don’t like breakfast for dinner.
Is anybody wondering what this has to do with dressing? Nothing. This post is pure turkey.
Related Posts:
Can a Man and a Woman Be Friends?
Can a man and a woman (not married to one another) be friends? Not “friendly acquaintances”. True FRIENDS.
I’m not seeing it, but I suspect many of you do.
Related Posts:
Ask Me a Question
Yesterday I kind of leaked my own style personality blend: 49% functional, 51% contemporary. Which I think is why I make a decent sounding board or closet editor.
Ask me a question like “should I keep this or biff it?” or “should I keep these or return them?” and I will most likely be able to help you sort out:
a) whether you will like it because it FUNCTIONS and
b) whether or not it looks right NOW, and if it has any fashion future.
More challenging questions I still enjoy, they just aren’t as easy for me.
And, as long as we’re talking about questions, have you answered any lately?
Related Posts:
What’s Your Favorite Color?
As an ice breaker in a training some time ago, the trainer asked us to go around the room and share our favorite color. Imagine everyone’s surprise when, a year later at that same event, I was able to repeat their favorite colors back to them (some of the people hadn’t even been there the year before, and I still knew their favorite color)!
Well, it’s not all that tricky. I’m not a mind-reader (I’m a clothes-reader! hehe).
By style personality, the most common favorite colors:
- Functional aka Sporty: Red, green, and camo. Yes, camo is a color! (Insistence that camouflage is a color is indicative of a strong functional influence in the personal idiom.)
- Nostalgic, comfortable, aka Romantic (or bohemian): Favorite is usually purple. Often says they love pink, as well. Since this style is usually pretty outdoorsy, green wouldn’t surprise me either.
- Timeless classic, aka traditional: Here in the Great Northwest, she most often chooses navy, or some other blue. I understand, however, that in Texas people like yellow (*heavy*temptation*to*shudder*). That’s okay. I’m sure it has to do with the light. In any light, sometimes chooses peach.
- Contemporary (classic): Uh, yeah, we don’t want to be pinned down to a single favorite. Or we’ll tell you the color of the month and say it’s always been our favorite. In all honesty. Otherwise, perhaps a color that just looks really good on. Maybe pink?
- Glamorous, aka Dramatic: Black, charcoal gray or white maybe, and red.
- Alternative, the trendsetter: Either black or something very bright. Maybe purple or orange.
How to use this information? Just know that sometimes it’s important to find a way to wear a certain color, even if it’s not in your packet of 30 colors.
Can you tell I’m having vocabulary issues? It’s up to you wonderful people to straighten me out!
Related Posts:
Garlic When Sick: Works For Me
So I had this post in mind before I really clued in to this week’s Works-for-me Wednesday being the Classics edition. Here’s my first one, on year-round wardrobe planning, although right now, it is summer I am packing away, fall I am styling outfits for, winter I am actively filling in the gaps, and spring is stored and on the back burner.
Finally I concluded that it must have become a sinus infection. With every step I took, I could feel my teeth. And it wasn’t a good feeling.
Well, I had already been doing everything: echinacea, goldenseal, yin chiao, tea tree oil, zinc; need I go on? It was time to pull out the big guns!
For lunch yesterday I pressed two cloves of garlic into about a quarter cup of sour cream, and ate it with Classic Lays. For dinner, we added several cloves of garlic to a Papa Murphy’s pizza with garlic sauce. Today, myself, I have probably eaten the equivalent of at least 3 cloves of garlic. And it worked! My teeth no longer hurt when I walk.
My friend who owns the health food store recommends garlic smashed up in honey. Yummy! Dessert.
Update: Socksmith wondered if the garlic had to be raw. My understanding is that it doesn’t, but that SMASHING (or pressing, chopping, whatever) increases the health benefits. In Chinese tradition, they just eat it. Like an apple.
Related Posts:
Will the Real Trendsetter Please Stand Up
Back here I explained that the hallmark of a glamorous style personality is that she always looks FABULOUS, using fashion writer and blogger Kristopher Dukes as my example. In her It’s Easy as Jacket on and Go, Susie Bubble of Style Bubble gives us a glimpse into the thinking of the true trendsetter: what I call “alternative”, for lack of a better term, in my quiz.
(Tori Hartman calls this style “Trendy”, which I think is nothing but confusing. “Trendy” calls to mind a person who is all about the trends. I’m talking about a person who is all about wearing what works for her, but has such style in doing it that she winds up SETTING the trends.)
The true trendsetter/alternative will wear a random signature piece or favorite item, like Susie’s sequin jacket, with everything or whatever and look totally normal.
Yeah. Not everyone can do that.
Another indicator of the alternative style personality? The ability to wear other styles, but as a costume.
Related Posts:
First Post in a Series on Personal Style
Simply because it amused me, I wanted to show you this outfit I wore to church this past Sunday. Why did it amuse me? Well, this is about the maximum number of “functional, aka sporty” accents I could possibly add to an outfit without feeling like a three-ring circus. hehe
From the bottom up
- Shoes: I bought these a few years ago at a Nordstrom semi-annual sale. They were not over $30. I go back and forth about keeping them, because of the ubiquitous Mary Jane thing; but the bold off-white stitching is the “sporty” accent that makes them suit ME.
- Hose: Last week, in a random moment, I stocked up on crazy tights. For me stocking up is about 4 pair, including these HEATHER GRAY ones. Yep, another “sporty” accent.
- Skirt: In my ad for a personal chef (which position, btw, is still open), I first mentioned this skirt. The A-line cut and wool in a classic heathery color make this a piece that is current and highly functional. If it were not current, a person with a strictly “functional” idiom could certainly still wear it, as could a more timeless classic, but I will probably sell it before then.
- Sweater: What could make a girl happier than a pink cashmere sweater? How about paying only $1 for it? Two things give this a “sporty” accent: the sweatshirt-like shape and the white crewneck t-shirt, which you probably can’t see because of the light, showing at the neckline.
Never fear, I still have lots to say about color. I will get back to it. But, after our MOPS group went over style personality last week, I feel it’s time to take a long-awaited turn down that path.
Especially since two of my friends guessed my style wrong after we took the quiz together. And they both had the same guess.
What’s yours?
Related Posts:
Worldly Ambition
Which is the greater evil, being ambitious for oneself or being ambitious for one’s mate or child(ren)? Is there a difference?
Or is ambition a virtue?
