Modish Matrons #24: Inspired by the 1980s

Hello friends! You are welcome to join my gorgeous MODISH MATRONS squad for our new theme - Inspired by the 1980s! When I offered this theme, I imagined I would combine bold colors, batwing sleeves, big bling jewelry, colorblocking... something like it or all of the above. But when it was time to come up with an outfit, my mind went blank - it just couldn't decide what to focus on. Until I remembered the denim dress which I bought back in Winter or early Spring and which immediately brought me back to my own 1980s (the late 80s to be precise), when my distant auntie handed me her unwanted deep blue velvet suit, not too different from what Princess Diana would wear (HERE) - a midi length pencil skirt with a peplum jacket. I remember that at first, it seemed very outdated and matronly to me, but then I made it fit my then slim, perfect hourglass figure, to attend a New Year's Eve party - and I think I looked pretty adorable and classy in my hand-me-down suit!

Modish Matrons: Russian Winter Fairy Tale

Happy New Year!

Here at In The Writer's Closet, we begin it with a new, updated version of our monthly link-up that will start on the 1st of every month and stay open for a whole month. If you are on Facebook, we'll appreciate if you like our new page MODISH MATRONS, and thank you to all who have already liked us! Our team - Tina, Beate and myself - would love it if you get inspired by our themes, but feel free to join us as you are, too. Other than a new date, we also arrange our themes differently now - we take turns, so each month one of us presents a theme that inspires her, and it is represented in our collages too:

The Mamushka!

 

I don't know about your part of the world, but here in the US there are basically three kinds of movie theaters. My favorite kind is the little independent movie theaters that show artistic movies, foreign movies, documentaries, and indies. Another kind of theaters show current movies, and with the latest addition of comfortable recliners, they became more welcoming to me, especially when they show classic old movies, or (rarely) something of my interest (Woody Allen, for one).

Count Holmes and Sherlock Dracula

I would like to thank our local theater community for preparing for Justin's birthday so well this year! We barely made it to the last performance of a humorous, dynamic, fast-paced Hound of Baskervilles at Lakewood Playhouse, as Tacoma Little Theatre offered the dramatic Dracula. I love theater and will watch just about anything. But Justin is a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, and Dracula is up his alley as well, so bingo! That made my birthday present shopping really easy! Both were amazing performances, by the way, and if you're in town, I highly recommend - you'll have an unforgettable evening while supporting local arts. On to my outfit now.

  

Like a Russian Play

When Pantone revealed the colors of the year of 2016, I thought that there would not be too many things for me this year. "Oh good, I'll save money then," I thought. Rose Quartz and Serenity, or, translated into my unsophisticated color vocabulary, pale pink and pale blue (I know, it's not the same!), just aren't my colors. I do think they are both pretty and serene, I just did not think I would want to wear them. But appetite grows with eating, as they say, and at this point wild horses would not be able to drag me from my experiments with style. To my surprise, I soon found myself getting into pretty blues and pinks. And when I saw this dress, I fell head over heels for its tender beauty.

What Is That Thing?

What makes us decide "today, I want to wear this and not that"? So many factors can be involved - the weather, the occasion, the way you feel, whether you want to be not just dressed up, but also comfortable, or you want mainly to feel at ease and not so dressed up at all... and so on. I still have days (will I always have them?) when I open my closet... and I don't like anything! The whole new closet to me please, right away! But today was not like those days at all. I opened my closet, briefly scanned my stuff and in a few seconds knew that the leopard print skirt was what I wanted to wear. Once you settle on at least one part of your outfit, the rest comes together pretty easily. At least, that's how it works for me.

Shall We Dance?

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. 

Dress, Play, Explore

Hello lovely friends, and thank you so much for your wonderful comments on my previous In Love post! You are truly the most amazing, and I want you to know that I'm not just saying that. I enjoy interaction with people, all sorts of people. I like to get to know people and I find almost anyone I talk to interesting. And I am pretty much always just me, the way I am here with you - open, warm and sincere. But not all the interactions, especially with groups, are as wonderful, warm and rewarding as my communication with you guys, individually or as a group. Such warm, sincere and continuous support, is an extremely rare thing! You are amazing. I want you to know that. :) 

And now, let's talk about style.

Friendship Story

I don't know about you, but I sometimes put pieces together just for fun - I hang them on a tapestry rod in the living room, so I can glance at my "work in progress" from time to time as I read or write. This work sinks in to me, new ideas come, new details are added, something gets removed... all while hanging there on the tapestry rod. Then I transfer the work in progress from the rod on to my body. It's still in progress at this point, because as all of you know, things rarely look the same on the body as they do on hangers. Sometimes, it's so completely wrong (and I loved what I saw on the tapestry rod) that I don't even bother to photograph my ideas. Other times, I proceed to photograph, and then it can be either - "yep, it works" or "nope, it doesn't." 

I am not super analytical. I can't always figure out in advance what will work for me and what won't. When it comes to the creative process, I follow my heart. And when I started my style journey about a year ago, I bought pieces which I though would work, or I wanted them to work. And some of them became favorites, and I wore them a lot, while others mostly spent time in my closet. It's not that I don't like them - most of the time, I think I just haven't found good companions for them. Good friends. We all need good friends. Those who see us for who we are and love us for who we are. Not less, not more. I'm sure you know what I mean. Clothes are really not so different. Each piece can be brilliant if it has a good friend - the one which helps it shine.

Tights as Inspiration

Do you change outfits a few times a day, not for any practical reason, but just 'cause it's fun? I know that since I started blogging, I do. I also very rarely repeat the same outfit again. It's more interesting to find new ways of mixing for me these days. So, this particular outfit actually started as adding these fun floral tights to another outfit I wore earlier in the day. When I put them on, I realized that shoes were wrong, so I changed shoes. Still did not work, so I realized I need to change the whole outfit just because of the tights. Easiest thing to do would be, of course, just add another pair of tights, which would go well with the previous outfit. But this pair was so much fun to look at! I don't remember when I had floral tights last time... when I was 17, perhaps?

First Picnic

Spring is here!

On Monday, we had sun and clouds, and thunder, and hail, and lightening.

On Tuesday, it was lovely - sunny, about 60 F.

On Wednesday, it was glorious - 63 F which felt more like 73 F, with sun and very high blue sky all day long.

Lucky me, Justin took a day off, and our daughter had a short day at school, so we were able to go to our very first picnic this year. Now, that must be some sort of record. In the previous years, we started having picnics in April. Very, very unusual. Spring is very mild, very slow here, with average temperatures in 50s. It actually felt like Summer to me in the past two days!

Restoration

A few things happened in the last few days. I dropped my laptop, the body of which was already partly broken, and now it seems like something got messed up where the power comes in, so my computer can only work on batteries. To recharge it, Justin sort of babysits the whole thing almost every night while we watch movies together - he holds my computer's hand to recharge it, so I have a little time to write or browse online the next day. Very little though, because after a couple of hours, the computer needs babysitting again. That's why I haven't been posting and reading and commenting much lately.

Lighthearted

I would love to finish this month on a lighthearted note. After all, it is the last full Winter month (and the last Winter month for Russians - we believe that the 1st of March is the official beginning of Spring!). I also would love to thank you all for such a wonderful feedback to my blog. It is a joy and honor to be able to connect with you all - beautiful, generous, talented and extremely supportive and positive women who are doing some amazing stuff with their lives! It is both encouraging, empowering and humbling in the best possible way. Thank you! :)

Spring Spirit

Spring is usually in the air by the end of January where I live. Garden stores start offering spring flowers - it's always primrose first, - camellia bush begins to blossom by my kitchen window, and I go through my wardrobe in search for spring spirit. 

Bold

Fashion bloggers are one of my most favorite sources of style inspiration. Ideas flow from a computer screen into a room of my modest little cottage as soon as I enter a password and open my blogroll. Some ideas fly in and then away, but rare ones simply don't have a chance, because I open my closet and start playing with the pieces I own in a new way. That is what happened today.

Mary Poppins, Mary Janes and Letting Go

Before I come back to the snowy post, part 2 (part 1 is here), I thought I would tell you a story about one typical winter day here in Seattle. The temperature was around 50 F (or 10 C). The sky covered us with a fluffy warm blanket of clouds and sprinkled a dust of rain. I wanted to wear something casual to the movies and suddenly felt like my denim shirt (I don't wear denim very often) and picked this rich wine colored blazer instead of a coat. The umbrella was for all of it - the rain, the blazer, and the movie I was about to watch.

Shoe Shopping or Shopping Shoes? + Sneak Peek

There was actually a coat shopping plan that day. But shoes were also on my mind. The truth is that they almost always are. You see when I told you that I have wide feet, I wasn't kidding. All my life it has been a challenge to find a pair of shoes which A) I will love to look at, and B) I will love to wear. Shoes are just such an uncomfortable "garment"! I love shoes. But mostly just visually. In my dream life, I walk barefoot.