I'm feeling really old

I have the ever popular SAD, self diagnosed of course. I think everyone thinks they have it because it is so difficult to remain upbeat and cheery when the weather is so cold and dreary (I'm so sorry that rhymed.) But I typically have a rather gloomy disposition to begin with. I guess i've never outgrown my teen angst and it's a shame, really, as I've long outgrown being an actual teenager.




Usually, my winter doldrums don't flare up until closer to Thanksgiving what with all the holidays (which have been marred beyond repair by my upbringing) and my birthday in January and the new year which is never new, etc, etc, etc followed by months more of black snow and ice and sleet.




I've been feeling really old lately. Partly I guess because the average girl blogger is 22, uniquely stunning, and about 115 pounds. I'm getting the inferiority complex from the blogs I read, which normally would be reserved for celebrities of some sort. It's so much worse to know real girls look like this, without stylists, personal trainers, permanant airbrushing.



these things have made me feel old.....

* I was talking to a co worker about movies and mentioned Natural Born Killers. Which she had never heard of. Because she was in kindergarten when it came out. We have a completely different set of cultural markers.

* Vanity. People have been guessing my age at 25 when only last year they put me at 20. this means I have aged 5 years in the last year. I blame the economy.

*The clothes that i wore in high school, for which I was tortured and ridiculed, have come back into style. Teen angst on runways.

* Someone asked me how I met my husband and I was deeply ashamed to admit it was on myspace. Not because we met on the internet, but because Myspace now seems especially juvenile and embarrassing to me. Not like facebook is any better. I guess it justfelt like a dated reference.

*I rented Sweeney Todd the other night and realized that I've had an ongoing school girl crush on Johnny depp for...21 years. How is that even possible?


Interspersed in this rant, are some pictures of sunny days, from my vacation, mostly Paris, because London and Amsterdam look a lot like here. I hope these pictures helped to keep your spirits high as you read through all this junk.

Daily Wear: Paris!

Well without further ado, a few of my photographs from my recent week in Paris. I don't think I managed to take any pictures my first day, at least none that included any outfit details. We took the Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris and between some confusion of how to get onto the metro from the train (when the ticket booth was closed for maintenance and the machines wouldn't accept our credit cards and we had no coins) and then arriving at the apartment we rent to find thatthe key had not been left for us, only to be rescued by the maid who didn't speak french or english, being half starved and headachey .....and where was I going with this? Oh! Not many pictures that first day, but I do have a few here and there of the rest of the trip....


And so these pictures are not in day by day order that my blogs on London and Amsterdam were. I'm just too tired and overwhelmed right now to figure it all out. But this his husband and I at Pere Lachaise, the cemetery with all the famous people, mostly frenchies.

Here I am posing in front of Oscar Wilde's grave with hundreds of lipstick prints, thousands. Many of the graves had signs of devotion like letters tucked here and there, candles, real and plastic flowers, messages written directly on stone. It was different for me, thinking about cemetery culture. I'm wearing my jumper again, remixed with the striped tee shirt and grey tights. This was one of my favorite outfits because the cuteness of it made me happy.

Here we are in Montmarte. We wandered around looking up scenes from Amelie, including eating in the little cafe where she worked. Some fellow tourists were kind enough to take our picture outside the basilica sacre coeur overlooking the amazing view.

and it was a long way up... Me in grey pants, green cardigan, green and pink floral button up. I lobe to layer short sleeved cardigans over long sleeve tops. Don't you?

Brunch at a little creperie. Absolutely delicious. It's near the Pompidou, which I think we visited afterward and were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of artworks of all varieties. But at this point we were pretty museumed out.


In the entryway of our rented apartment. Pink Satin dress remixed for the fourth time, i think on this blog that's only been around four months! I guess i just really really really like it. Shown here with black wrap cardigan and grey tights.

A super close up of me in the Jardin Luxembourg, my favorite place on earth. I think we spent at least two days there, though on our last trip we explored more of the gardens. This picture justreminded me of how awful my nose it. Next!

Sitting on the edge of the fountain. That's right. turtles vomiting onto horses. Wearing my favorite engineer stripe dress with hot pink tights and silver flats. One of the few pictures I like the looks of.

Eating out yummy sorbets! I can't actually remember what else we did on this day...wait! At least part of it was spent walking along the Seine where we buy our art prints. I distinctly remember regretting wearing heels.

Husband insisted on taking a picture of me in the stairway of our building. I'm wearing my grey/cream tunic with the black bows tucked into a grey high waisted skirt. Black wrap cardigan for the slight breeze coming off the water. I'm very wimpy about cold.


In the Luxembourg again. I feel like this was pretty early in our trip actually. I of course was not really asleep but dear husband was. He can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, is in fact, asleep right now.

Along the Seine, pretending to be a glamorous model and failing. Wearing wideleg jeans, pink/grey floral blouse, and trusty black cardigan...again...


My makeup look for the week consisted of a smokey eye, rose cheeks, and pinky nude lips. I played around with the eyeshadow shades to give more or less intensity for day or night. Fun and easy.

On the eyes: Lancome eyeshadow quad in Radiance (but only the lightgrey on the brow bone and the medium silver grey on the lid), Sephora brand matte black eye shadow, Benefit black eyeliner, and Estee Lauder mascara (it was a free gift mini, lost now, and I can't recall the formula...sorry)

On the cheeks and lips: cream blush in Shhhh, lip pencil in Lush, and lip gloss in Streakin'--all by benefit.

And this is how it looks all put together. I may have another post of some more vacation pictures, hope it won't be too boring for you!

Daily Wear: Amsterdam!

So I've finally looked over my pictures from Amsterdam and selected a few, though nothing came out really well. Lots of Myspace style self portraits.....well it's funny at least. We were in Amsterdam for four days and were surprised at how walkable it was. I think we managed to see all the neighborhoods but maybe one. and here is what I wore...



Lots 'o stripes. this is me in the hotel hallway, very red eyed...from the flash! Charcoal grey pinstripe pants, black trench coat, dove grey stripe bag, pink stripe scarf, silver flats....




And here is the pink floral blouse I wore with it, never got a full outfit pic so use your imagination. I really like mixing prints, especially florals and stripes. Pink ribbon in hair. Dazed expression. Poor shy husband making another unglamorous appearance.



On day two we rented bikes and explored the streets and didn't die or kill anyone. Black trenchcoat (it rained the whole time), cream tights, black maryjanes with ivory piping, grey stripe bag...

And a shot from the front reveals pink dress (from my faerie post) with green cardigan (which has a pink floral patch or something, I forget) I did have on shorts under my dress though so no use looking for my panties.

Day three in the Vondelpark. dove grey pants, black wrap cardigan, grey/ivory blouse with black bows across the breast. the return of the thin giant headband; black/white stripe slipons, pink purse.

And my adorable yet geeky husband in a flattering picture because he has suffered so much indignity due to my misguided vanity.

I justreally like this picture, from our last night at a Jenever tasting. We had a good time and it was a good memory to end our Amsterdam experience with. But if you're curious about what's under that trench, I leave you with this disturbing image...


details:green/pink floral button up, fake denim jumper dress, hot pink tights, silver flats. Thank goodness those people behind me were facing the other way and missed my goofball preening.

I have pictures form Paris coming soon. I was there a week though so it's a lot to go through so expect some filler for a few days, or perhaps even nothing at all.

Thanks for stopping by!

Daily Wear: London!

I'm finally getting around to posting about my vacation, me, the one with a mind like a sieve. So I'm slow on memories right now but perhaps seeing the pics will help me along. i apologize if I've forgotten names and places and dates.




This is me doing a bathroom shot abroad! First night in London, face courtesy of my being drunk already at this point. We had to take a dozen pics to get this outfit and for that reason never attempted to get outfit pics for the rest of the two weeks. I was on vacation from everything, including blogging. And my outfits weren't too cute anyway as I realized once I got a gander at European girls. My European readers might debate this, but they're thinking of girls from new York and L.A. not Pittsburgh.

If you care...details: grey/white engineer stripe dress, grey tights, mint green bow tie held by bobby pins, silver flats. Next picture also features my pink/cream stripe scarf, ubiquitous on this trip.



This is a picture with my adorable nerd husband, who was mistaken for British in every town we went to. I hope he doesn't overly mind that I've exposed him on this blog. I know he snoops around here about once a month. If I post a whole bunch this will be on the next page and he hasn't the attention span to go back that far!



On day two we took a metro or bus (mind like a sieve) to Piccadilly circus and walked a circuitous route through Leicester square, covent garden, soho back to where we were staying in Bloomsbury. So we are somewhere in that area in this picture. You tell me. Poor husband is gonna be in every shot for the next three posts, i think. He almost always wears his glasses because his contacts bother him but I like being able to see his face and green eyes.



Sort of an outfit pic. I wanted a picture of myself in a phone booth but I wouldn't get in because it wreaked of urine and was full of dirty pictures. I'm not drunk but look like it anyway. Black and white striped shirt, wide leg bluejeans, black/white stripe flats. black/white stripe headband bow. I....like black and white stripes? Black trench coat also ubiquitous.



Third and final day in London. We visited the Tate Modern. A rare eyeglass free day for poor hubby. Bur he wore the hat, ubiquitous for him.




This is probably the last time you'll get to see my outfit. Amsterdam and Paris made me lazy. This is along the Thames. we like bridge/water shots. Off-white tunic tucked into high waisted grey pinstripe skirt. Black shoes and stockings. Large yet thin cream bow headband. huge grey striped purse. Face courtesy of being windblown.

So that was my trip in a nutshell. Windy. Short. I was sad to leave, anxious to return, but still excited to go to Amsterdam. Stay tuned for pictures from that leg of the trip...more blurry, unattractive headshots of me and hubby. See you soon!

Bon Voyage!

I'm leaving tomorrow for a two week mini tour of Europe. I'll be visiting London, Amsterdam, and Paris. I hope to take many pictures. sorry there hasn't been much activity here lately but between being ill and preparing for this trip, I just having been taking any pictures or doing much else...


But I thought that while I'm here saying goodbye, i could share my packing tips. I have a history of being an obscene over-packer. Historically, I have taken about three times what I needed on any trip from one night at a friend's to a week in some foreign destination. Somewhere a long the way, I totally changed and now I take as little as reasonably possible.

So for two weeks I have just one tiny vintage suitcase with a carry on messenger bag/purse. And that is it!

So how do I do it?

Step one: Choose a color palette to ensure that everything matches, or nearly matches, everything else. This way you can create several outfits with just a few pieces. Try to limit colors and patterns. Feel free to go wild on accessories to liven things up a bit. The hardest part--you only gettwo pairs of shoes, one heels, one flats. Wear the flats on the plane.



These are my wrinkly clothes on my messy bed. I've chosen a color palette of grey (in its various forms), pink, and cream/off-white. I threw in a little mint green and denim to spice things up. Yes, i consider denim a color. I have another outfit not pictured as I will be wearing it on the flight. It all pretty much matches.

Step 2: Get a tiny suitcase. The bigger your case the more tempted you will be to fill it up.



This case is TINY. It's about 16 inches across and five inches tall.

Step3: Roll your clothes up tight and begin layering until case is full.

first layer...



second layer...



I actually managed to get two more layers after this of undergarments, socks, and two towels(hostels, just in case).

Step 4: Press very hard and get it all closed up. This step may be the most strenuous and time consuming but it can be done.



Step 5: Pack up a giant purse for everything else. Make sure you have passport, ID, credit/bank cards, confirmation papers, etc. Take along something to read on long layovers and overnight flights. a small "going out" purse can fit in here along with accessories, toiletries, and that extra pair of shoes.




That's it! Bon voyage!