I‘d rather be naked! (3 things to do when you have NOTHING to wear.)

“He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.”

— Much Ado About Nothing Act I, i

PC: me

Headband: Gucci , Dress: Vivetta

How many times a week do you stand in your closet and proclaim “I HAVE NOTIHING TO WEAR”…knowing good and well that this should NOT be the freaking case. (This is definitely a first-world problem,…and the sin of gluttony at the very least…..but don’t judge…lol. Before running to the nearest mall in despair (are malls still a thing)….or your nearest keyboard to order something cute online, check out my three tips.

TIP #1 PINTEREST

Are you still sleeping on Pinterest? Well, today you are going to get that app and get yo life all the way together. Pinterest is a powerful search engine that you can use for all kinds of inspiration, including fashion. I love to type in a particular looks, such as spring/summer outfits, or transition to fall/winter outfits. You can even get specific and type in boots, or leather coats, etc. Go ahead and create some boards and keep your looks on tap. That’s what I do. Check mine out for all kinds of swagalicious looks.

TIP #2 SHOP YOUR CLOSET

Don’t underestimate the depths of your closet. First, have a clear out. Donate or sell all of the clothes and shoes you know for sure you won’t don anymore. Take them to your local Goodwill, or sell them at a second-hand shop, or on apps such as DePop, Poshmark, or TheRealReal, for example. Now you’re ready to take a double take at all of those shirts, sweaters, and skirts, that got pushed to the back of your closet. That skirt you bought on sale, it’s a great color, great fit, still has the tags on it,…pull it out! What about that sweater you haven’t worn in a while, pull it out of your drawer and give it some love. Now, lets see what we can do with these pieces that we’re about to give new life to.

TIP 3 TRY DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS

After perusing Pinterest, you no doubt have several outfit ideas you can’t wait to try out. Instead of pairing the same outfit combinations you normally do, try something different. Pair different patterns, colors, add some new jewelry, etc. Also, try different shoes that you wouldn’t normally wear with the outfit you’re creating. All of this will give you the feeling as if you are wearing a brand new outfit. And the best part is, you didn’t spend any money, and you potentially made some money from the sale of unwanted clothing items. Now that’s a WIN-WIN!

BONUS TIP

There is also an app that I’ve recently discovered called Stylebook. With this you can upload your clothes to the app, and the app gives you wardrobe suggestions that you may not have thought of. There are also other features such as a calendar which can potentially help you take the guess work out of what to wear for the upcoming week. Give it a try! :-)

Those are my tips on solving the “nothing to wear” problem, and avoiding you just giving up and leaving the house in your birthday suit…lol.

Let me know if this is something you regularly do, or if you decided to give something I mentioned a try. Would love to hear from you!

Thank you for stopping by! XOXO

Damn! You are so skinny!

Recently, I went to a Thai restaurant to have lunch. I’d been to this particular restaurant several times in the past, however, this was the first time I had seen this particular waitress. As she was taking me to an available table, she exclaimed quite shockingly, “Wow, you are sooo skinny!” I’m going to assume that because English wasn’t her first language (it was quite obvious), that she didn’t realize using the term skinny has a negative connotation. And using it with strangers can come across as off-putting and rude. However, while taking all of that into consideration, and assuming she had no intentions of being rude to a paying customer, I simply smiled and said, “Yes, that’s true.”

Dress: Athena procopiou (I don’t think dress is available anymore.)

Shoes: Gucci Ace Sneakers

Purse: Gucci

Photo credit: BT

You see, this has been happening my entire life. I am really very, very naturally thin. I basically have been the same size my entire teenage, young adult, and now middle-aged adult life. I cannot tell you the countless times I´d been teased growing up because of my weight. As a child I was called Olive Oyl…remember her? :-) I was also a cheerleader from age 7-18 and of course those skimpy cheerleader uniforms just accentuated my skinniness even more. All of the other cheerleaders had curves by then, and I was still “straight up and down” as they used to say back when I was young. My mother even thought that after I had a baby, I would do as she did, and gain a lot of weight. She, too, had been thin as a child and as an adult before she had children. However, after I had my child, I snapped right back to the exact same size I had always been.

I guess people who know me and have known me my whole life aren’t really fazed by how thin I am. They don’t even notice. And quite frankly, most times, neither do I. But, in today’s society of enhanced body parts, my lack thereof, may seem strange to some people. And the fact that I embrace how I am, and don’t strive to look like what society deems is “perfect” at whatever given moment may also be a factor. I am naturally the way I am. And that suits me perfectly.

The quote above is Shakespeare´s Sonnet 130, and it is mainly discussing people’s perception of what beauty is. What is our standard of beauty? Why are we always striving to fit a standard that is ever-changing, and is quite frankly a hollow template that cannot possibly contain all of the greatness we are? This lady (the Dark Lady, she’s called) that the person in the poem is describing has none of the attributes that make a woman “beautiful”, and yet he is deeply in love with her. He basically is putting his middle-finger up to society and it’s bogus beauty standards.

I’m not putting my middle finger up to society in this blog post…lol…but I do want to stress that we should all be comfortable the way we are. If you want to change something for you, that’s great, but don’t try and fit into society’s fickle perception of who you should be at any given time. When those thoughts start creeping in…that’s when you get those middle fingers ready!!! ;-)

Thank you for stopping by….XOXO!

Do you have a signature scent?

“Monster, I do smell all horse piss, at which
my nose is in great indignation. (IV, i, lines 223-224)
”

— William Shakespeare, The Tempest

First of all, let me say HAPPY 47th BIRTHDAY to me…July 1st…Cancers rule…(ok…I’m done….lol)! And, secondly, let me assure you….I smell heavenly. No whiffs of horse piss, Mr. Shakespeare…lol. This post is all about scents…..signature scents to be exact. Do you have a scent that your friends, family, co-workers, etc. associate with you? Do you tend to go for sweet , floral, leathery, musky scents. or soft , fresh and woody smells? Now, I’m not a “scent specialist”. I’m not well-versed in the perfume lingo, however, I have found the particular oils, trees, and/or flowers that are a part of the scents that I love. I must say, that it took me a long time to find my signature scent. In my twenties, I wasn’t even into perfumes. My thirties were a hodge podge of trendy scents that didn’t appeal to me at all. Believe it or not, it wasn’t until my forties that I began to really hone in on what kinds of scents I really love and what smells good on me. Some of those scents are: patchouli, cardamom, sandalwood, jasmine, fig and vetiver to name a few.

Let me give you some EXCELLENT advice. NEVER buy perfume or cologne for someone that you don’t know very well. Perfumes are really intimate gifts. Giving a scent to someone you don’t really know, may result in said scent lying in the back of a drawer, closet, or gathering dust on a shelf. Or even re-gifted…lol…which actually is better than lying around gathering dust. Pretty bottles don’t make the perfect gift for someone. I cannot tell you how many gifts of perfume I have received, that after one whiff have gone to the perfume cemetery to be laid to rest. Don’t be the that kind of gift giver….lol. Let your gift of perfume live.

Absolutely LOVE Le Labo´s Santal 33. Apparently, the sandalwood in this scent works divinely with my chemistry. I love it. Also, at the Le Labo counter they custom mix the scent for you and tell you all about their philosophy while you wait. Finally, you can even personalize the bottle. Even though it is a bit pricey, you can take the empty bottle in and get 20% (I think) off your next bottle. How cool is that!

Hat: Asos

Jeans: Dolce & Gabbana

Top: Wayf

This Tom Ford is a really grown up and sexy scent. Apparently they harvest the jasmine flowers at night because that is when they are their most fragrant.

This scent from Jo Malone is so light and airy to me. The cardamom is divine. I can wear this and never get tired of it. I will say, that out of the two…this fragrance has the least projection…(learned that from YouTube…lol). It also tends to fade after a while.

Have you found your signature scent? Let me know which scents are your absolute favorites.

Thank you for stopping by! XOXO