Take Them Into Fall

Speaking of clothes that do not have any chance to get into a donation bag, I think you will be pleased to know that these two beauties (you could see them in the posts Magic and Dream Dress & Dinner Theater) fall into my "definitely keeping" category. Both made from the same fabric (100% cotton), with a cotton voile full lining, they are radically different styles (1950s and 1970s), but both very much loved. They were gifts from the unique women's clothing company eShakti, and I wrote about them on a couple of occasions HERE and HERE. Today, I received an early bird special offer from eShakti which I am happy to share with you, my friends and readers. 

WRITERSCLOSETFALL15

The coupon code is valid through August 31, 2015 and allows you to enjoy 15% off the new Fall arrivals which, as always with eShakti, you can customize in both style and size! Do check them out - I know that a couple of dresses stole my heart.

What the Bleep They Were Thinking?

Breaking news!

A Russian-speaking, English-writing, American-based blogger also known as In The Writer's Closet was spotted earlier this afternoon at the back entrance of a Goodwill store in the suburbs of Seattle. What was she doing at the back entrance of Goodwill? Special report! Exclusively for our readers! Stay tuned!

Write and Link #4: Because Everyone Knows...

Cows over Vitebsk by Marc Chagall. 1966 (source)

Hello dear friends and readers,

I'm inviting you to join our 4th WRITE AND LINK, the unique link-up party for creative writers. If you're a writer, feel free to write a story (1000 words is only a guideline, it can be shorter or longer) in which you incorporate the phrase of the month. For our August stories, it is "...Because everyone knows..." Let your imagination go wild, unleash your creativity, write from your very heart - then post it in your blog and link back to this post. WRITE AND LINK is a once a month link up and stays open for about a week, till September 1st, so you still have time to write your story. If you're a reader, you have a truly unique chance to see how stories are born, literally from nothingness, into a complete piece of art, in only about a month. You have a unique chance to see how different writers interpret the same phrase and what it brings out of them. Please support your friends and fellow bloggers by reading and leaving a comment, we all feel a bit wobbly in the beginning of a new creative journey and we do appreciate your support very much!

As I mentioned last month, I separated my creative writing from my style/travel/life impressions/thoughts blog, and am happy that I did so. So you will find my story in the link below, along with other writers' links. A few bloggers also created special blogs for their creative writing, because our creativity deserves a special place, in the world or in our virtual home. If you're new to In the Writer's Closet, or somehow missed when I announced the launch of my daily prompts, please make sure to check out Rise and Write which is a daily writing sketches link-up on my creativity blog - Out of the Writer's Closet. We're completing our first month of daily writings now. I'm pondering new ideas for writing challenges, but we'll see what the future brings.

Happy writing and reading everyone!

A phrase for September stories:

"As leaves turned yellow..."

A Place to Listen to Silence

When I wrote about our discovery of beautiful waterfalls and an abandoned brewery near Olympia back in early March (I also wrote about that place in the later post Days Passed), I mentioned that the same day, February 28th, we also made another discovery. Today the Real Adventure Man and I are taking you to that other place. There are not too many places near a big city where you can literally hear the silence, and this is one of them. I am talking about the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge founded in 1974 to protect the Nisqually River estuary in South Puget Sound.

Red Skirt

I ordered a skirt online, as I do often with my clothes shopping, simply because there is more selection and I can find better deals. But there is a downside to online shopping too - you can't always be sure whether you'll like the item "in person". There is always a chance that the fabric is not quite what you expected, or the fit is wrong, or the color looks different in reality. So when the skirt I ordered arrived at my local store, I knew it might not be what I envisioned - and it was not. The fit was not ideal on me, and the fabric seemed too thin for the style. Then I decided to not simply return it (which is always an option in our stores), but exchange it for a skirt that caught my eye earlier, but for whatever reason I was hesitant to buy it. I tried the other skirt on, and...

Blue, White, Red & Polka Dot

I showed this dress a couple of times before (in a Winter mixed patterns outfit here, and with pearls last Summer here), but this time I wanted to play with the classical combination of blue, white and red. You know what's funny? Even though this color combination is popular and beloved by many, I have done it... for the first time! They say there is a first time for everything.

Set Sail

Justin surprised me with a proposal to take a ferry, visit our favorite town, have a nice dinner and go back home late. Not that it was something unusual for us, we have little trips to places we love quite frequently, but it was in the middle of the work week, in the evening, and that made it unusual. So my outfit also had to be unusual - maybe not for some women who are 100% confident in their bodies (do such women even exist?), but for me. I'm braver when I'm with him. I knew this dress would be out of my comfort zone - I wore it before, what can I say, the looks from men I get when I wear it, are much more favorable than the looks from women. I understand. I also used to be so freakishly self-conscious about my shape, even when really, there was absolutely nothing to freak out about, that I know exactly what's going on in those women's heads. Don't worry, ladies. I don't consider myself so perfectly perfect that I can wear dresses like this one. But the difference between your and my outlook on such dresses and my shape is that I'm not looking for anyone's approval. Not anymore. I know who I am, I know what I want, I know that if I never do things that make me just a little bit uncomfortable, I will never grow. I'm not saying I never worry about what others think of me. It's probably nearly impossible to never ever think such thoughts. But I don't let those thoughts stop me. If I like something, if it seems like fun, if I want to try it and see how it feels - then I'm game, with or without approval. 

Kimono, Kimono

Truth be told, I don't know what I am wearing here. I found this piece at Goodwill earlier this Summer when I took Anya thrift shopping in a neighboring town. It's just so rare that I find something that fits me at a thrift shop (of the things I like, I mean), that I was absolutely thrilled to find something as unique as this dress is. Dress? It could be a tunic, a robe, a part of a stage costume, or a nightgown for all I know. I used to have a short kimono kind of robe many years ago, a gift for my birthday from my girlfriends, that I loved and wore for years. The style of this dress reminds me of that little robe. The label is in Korean (I guess), so I can't say where it is made, what it is made of or what the heck it even is. But I love it and I wore it as a kimono dress when I went to the movies with Justin last night. It's a funky and artsy little old movie theater where they show funky and artsy kinds of movies, and I thought that this is such a funky and artsy piece of clothing that it would fit perfectly for the occasion.