Midsummer Midlife Fun: Shorts

A short while ago, I showed you my first in probably a good 10 years pair of shorts (here). I admitted in that post that shorts were never my favorite garment, not even back when I was very young and yes, in better physical shape. But one thing that aging unmistakably changes for me is my level of self-acceptance.  I think like many of us, I was way, I mean waaaaay too hard on myself when I was younger. So many things don't seem to be such a big of a deal to me anymore. Now I wear jumpsuits, overalls, rompers, culottes and even shorts. I don't do it to rebel or seek for approval of anyone, or for any such reasons. I do it for one reason only, and it is to drop my own inner barriers, which is all that ever matters, really. And it feels liberating!

Today, I invited two of my dear blogging friends to join me in a fun collaborative link-up (or blog hop) where each of us would wear shorts to inspire women to feel free to wear either what used to intimidate them, or what they rejected as age (or size) "inappropriate". It can be anything really, as each of us has her own inner taboos. We wanted to show that we middle-aged women (or those approaching middle age), some delightfully plump, some having troubles accepting one or the other part of our changing bodies, not only can look good wearing those "taboo" garments, but truly feel wonderful wearing them! We invite you to join us! Let us all have a good time, middle age or not, shorts or not. Feel free to simply be yourself and enjoy it. The link-up is open for one week. Anyone is welcome to participate. Link your new or old posts, visit each other and have the best time!

Stripes, Stripes, More Stripes

They say, we got more rain this winter than in a few previous years, but it does not mean that we don't have perfectly wonderful sunny days and blue sky - sometimes, we do! Like today, or that day a couple of weeks back when I wore my new stripy dress. It is so easy to wear, comfortable, that I wore it out quite a few times, and even was lounging at home in it. The silhouette is very simple - almost a basic sailor shirt, which is flattering on a woman's body even the way it is, but combined with a variety of stripes, creates an especially successful design. 

And I Think to Myself

The day was gray and rainy, and I forgot our camera at home, but I wanted to share with you my new green blouse, fresh haircut, trees in bloom, beautiful video and what I consider the best song ever written. I'm sorry the colors are grayed on the phone photos - the blouse is so much brighter in life. Enjoy your weekend, much love to you all!

Hello Again!

You knew this day would come, didn't you?

I am so happy to be here again and greet you all, dear friends and readers!

I received so, so many warm, wonderful words from you - please know that I was very touched by your kindness and the interest you expressed in my blog. I must say that it was overwhelming, in the most positive way. Thank you!!

I don't know what happened. For the first few weeks of non-blogging, I felt happy and content with my life. I got really busy with other projects, worked on publishing my books, and of course spent lots of time with my family. Justin and I had our little trips, and since taking photos and writing about our discoveries was a huge part of our life for many years, regardless of blogging, we have never stopped doing it. But I missed sharing little style and shopping stories with you, and lately, literally in the last few days, I started really missing my blog. Maybe I just needed a nice long break to feel refreshed? All I know is this (and Justin really helped me to come to this conclusion). Life is too short to regret our decisions. Ultimately, nothing in life is completely irreversible, we can change our mind about pretty much anything, and if something that helps us feel better is missing from our life, then it's OK to re-decide. I don't know (and I can't know, can I?) where it's all going, but for now, writing my blog makes me feel happy. I am all for feeling happy. I know that you are too. So hello again! :)

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.

Night Owl in the Early Bird World

I don't know what association you'll have looking at this outfit, but to me it's African. I have not tried to create this with Africa in mind, but I do admire African bright and bold prints, and when I put this together, it said African to me. Hot and bright sun, blue sky and blue sea, brown earth, tribal prints, chunky jewelry, linen, metal, glass and leather - very rich, very expressive, very organic - and anything but shy.

Hair

 

It's official. All this getting up early in the morning and doing things on a schedule is not my cup of tea. End of bulletin.
Now on to fun and informal bits.

Stripes, Meet Stripes

Once upon a time, there was a stripy shirt living in a closet. She had an adventure or two - you might have read about them here. But most of the time, she led a pretty quiet life, thinking every now and then that maybe there is a more exciting closet for her to live in. She'd think that, sigh quietly and just continue to hang in there, I mean, literally. And then one sunny day a stripy skirt moved in the closet. 

Reset

I'm a born redhead. I mean, literally I am, it is not a figure of speech. My Mom tells me that I was born with red (and, apparently, long!) hair. I'm not really surprised - my father and everyone in his family have copper hair, and there are a few redheads on mama's side too. But my baby red hair turned into blond, then into medium brown - though it always had a copperish tone visible under straight sunlight. 

Blue Eyes, Red Pixi, Healthy Salad, Light Heart

When mama visits, I take her at least once during her stay to Erica for a stylish haircut and good professional color, and all the wonderful service Erica provides. Back home, they can't afford a nice hairdresser - both Mom and Dad are retired with less than modest means for living, so they are always looking for ways to cut corners. Mom's haircut is usually hit and miss, and then she just buys an inexpensive hair color from a store, and her sister colors her hair. That is also hit and miss - for instance, last time the color turned out way too bright for Mom's liking (Anya, her granddaughter, did appreciate it though). So this time, Mom's wish was to make her hair more natural looking, warm brown, sort of honey walnut color as she described it. That was difficult to do, given the bright purplish red Erica had to work with, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Versatile

As soon as I saw this dress at the Lands' End web site, I was taken. It is the type of garment I would wear in pretty much any given period of my life - while studying at university in my teens and early 20s, later while working at a museum, a publishing house, and an advertising agency, and later still while staying at home raising my little one and taking care of my own small business (writing articles for a newspaper and poetry just for myself when the little one was asleep), and later yet while working as a community leader, storyteller and educator, and finally now when I spend my days writing, exploring and learning ... at any given point, if only I had a chance to find this dress, it would suit my taste and my personality. It has a vintage vibe about it which I adore (hello 1960s, my old time favorite). And I think it has this rare quality which I always treasure - a quiet beauty which stands out.

October Babies

I've decided to go a bit crazy and post two more outfits today. What? Again?? Yes, again. But you would never guess why I combined these two outfits into one post. Because the photos of both of them are awfully dark! Not especially artistic of me to post lower than usual quality photos, but I happened to like these outfits and I rarely repeat the same outfits a few days in a row (I repeat, but mostly something casual "throw on and forget about it" type of clothes). Well these were special, and I hardly will do them again soon and definitely will not dress up just to retake the photos, so here you go.

Between

You probably know that English is considered to have the most words of all comparable languages. Depending how you count the English vocabulary, there are 250 000 to 750 000 words (short explanations HERE and HERE). I learned English and became a bilingual person as an adult. “Bilinguals are those who use two or more languages (or dialects) in their everyday lives”. This is my favorite definition of bilingualism by Professor Fransois Grosjean. What I love about this definition - it is inclusive, not exclusive. It does not matter as much how well you know another language (or dialect). It does not matter if you use it conversationally or you only write or read in it. What matters is that you use it in your everyday life. More than half the people in the world are bilingual, by this definition. And to me as a linguist, bilingual person who is raising a bilingual child, and someone who worked with dozens and dozens of bilingual children and families for a few years, this really makes sense on a deep level. My bilingual brain works in somewhat whimsical ways, and I don't always know when I think in Russian and when in English. Very often its almost like being in two languages at the same time, or somewhere in between two languages, when they intertwine, whether I think, write or speak. The concepts which I either learn or simply use more often in English will creep in the form of English or Russianized English words when I think/speak/write in Russian. And vice versa - for some concepts I learned in Russian it is not easy for me to find English equivalent words. English has so many words that it probably does not really need other new ones - yet the new words keep getting created all the time, English is a quite "open-minded" language that way (which one can't say about English writing, "we write Manchester, but read Liverpool"). There are so many synonyms in English, so many ways to express just one meaning, and at the same time many words that can express a very precise nuance which, being translated into other languages, sometimes require a whole phrase. Yet at times, there are certain pretty significant concepts which have their own words in my native language, and seem to be overlooked in English. One of them is a classic linguistic textbook example - are you ready? There is no special word in English which means "a 24 hour period." How is it even possible in the language with at least a quarter of million words? :)

When Your Friend Is the Director of Awesome

Mr, Postman brought me a parcel from Canada this week! It came from the beautiful Vancouver Island where Shawna lives - painter, writer, author of a warm, thoughtful, genuine blog The Director of Awesome, and a dear friend, even though we have not met yet. But I know that some day we will! We are only about 300 miles apart - 7 hours by car, including a couple hour trip by ferry.

Bluegrass Rediscovered

I am all about ease and comfort these days - and my style reflects it. Justin and I went to various cultural events in the past week or so - we watched Evita, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber performed by Ovation, a local musical theater, and Twelfe Night, or What You Will in the beautiful Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island which we enjoyed a lot, though I will admit it is difficult for me to understand the language of Shakespeare. That was all in one short weekend, and I dressed up for both occasions, though we forgot our camera, and I don't have photos to share. This weekend, we attended another fun event in a park - Bluegrass Festival held 8th year on Bainbridge where I discovered that I loved bluegrass music all along, not even knowing what exactly it was.

Event as a Gift

Remember my outfit from the post Not With Chalk, But With Soul? It was mentioned in Sally's Lovely Links over at Already Pretty - how exciting! I noticed that because there were suddenly over 500 views of that post (it's close to 900 now)... that just has not happened to my blog before! I'm happy to welcome all the new readers and encourage you to leave comments - please do! I would love to hear from you! :)

Now, on to today's outfit. You might think that someone very thoroughly planned this photo shoot - look how the funky chairs perfectly match the colors of my dress! Yet we didn't plan it. It just happens to us... all the time! A proof? Here are a few from the top of my head:

- the orange bench

- the chameleon 

- the sunset

A little spooky, right?

Pixie

And some more pattern playing.

This outfit was actually from the same day as the one from my previous post, so it might seem a bit repetitive because of the blazer. 

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.

Shirt Dress in Winter?

So let's see what happened lately, in a couple of weeks when I wasn't posting any new outfits. Hmm... As my holiday gifts, I received a few parcels from a few different companies, and it was easy enough to decide what to keep and what not to keep, so I returned a few dresses and one pair of pants and kept a couple of things which I plan to show some time soon in the blog. I cut my hair almost two weeks ago - and it is how it looks now, amazing how leisurely my hair grows. :) I started taking yoga classes, and not just yoga, but hot yoga, which makes sense to me, being Russian who adores banya (Russian version of sauna). And finally, as a family, we celebrated our daughter's 11th birthday (her party for friends is tomorrow).

Online Style Party: How I Wear My... Coat

Jill of Everything Just So and Adrienne of The Rich Life on a Budget will co-host another monthly "online party" tomorrow, and I am participating again! I can't wait to see all the gorgeous women and all their gorgeous coats. Make sure that you don't miss it too - check out both blogs tomorrow!