Monday, March 18, 2024

Post St. Patrick's Day Pose

Dress: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's


Shoes: Chase & Chloe, Zulily

Scarf: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

It's never too late to celebrate the wearing of the green.  Or to enjoy a St. Patrick's Day mystery or three.  Because it wasn't until late last night that I opened this trio of Irish-themed novellas: Leslie Meier's Irish Coffee Murder, Lee Hollis's Death of an Irish Coffee Drinker, and Barbara Ross's Perked Up.  All three small-town sleuths find themselves in hot coffee -- and hot water.  Thankfully, my own holiday was limited to lounging under the archway.  

Here's hoping that yours was as exciting -- or as uneventful -- as you wanted!💚

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

One Darn Yarn: Fostering Calm Through Crafting


You know that crafting and sitcoms are near and dear to my escapist heart.  So when I stumbled upon Sutton Foster's Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life, I thought,  Younger's Liza Miller taking on her anxiety one paint stroke at a time?  Yes, please!  I could especially relate when she shared how cross-stitch helped her deal with catty chorus girls.  Not that I've ever starred in a play.  Or cross-stitched.  But I'm no stranger to retreating to my own inner world.

"And so, in order to survive the tour, I needed something to do that would ground me.  Something that had nothing to do with the show or its social politics.  Something that I could be in complete control of.  That was how I started to cross-stitch.  I call it my gateway craft." (18-19)

There's an autonomy that comes with solitary pursuits, especially creative ones, that's very freeing.  And I loved that Sutton had this tool in her self-care arsenal.  As I read, though, I learned that the real source of her angst wasn't mean girls, but her agoraphobic mother.  Although Helen Foster fiercely supported Sutton's career, she almost never told Sutton "I love you."  It was very sad and often hard to read.

But Sutton's resilience kept me going.  With each Broadway show, breakup, and roadblock with her mom, she finds joy and solace in a new form of artistic expression.  She's so likeable and scrappy and vulnerable that you can't help but root for her to come out on the other side.  And by the time Younger airs, she does, emerging as stronger than the mosaic glass girl she once made and then shattered.

Not unlike our intrepid Liza.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Boots Before Booties and Other Kitsch Cuties: Also, Hello Zipperless Denim

Flannel: So, Kohl's

Bag: Betsey Johnson, Boscov's

Hair clips: Marshalls

Jeans: Sonoma, Kohl's

Boots: 2 Lips Too, Zulily

Dress: Lily Rose, Kohl's

Headband: Zulily


Bag: INC, Macy's

Boots: Wild Fable, Target

Sweater: Gap

Boots and bag: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

The bigger I get, the more I love boots.  It's nice to have the height and support that come with a sturdy block heel -- not to mention the sass of the Southwest.  You know what else is nice?  Maternity jeans!  At first I was suspicious of these so-called jeans sans zippers, but now I can't live without them.  

That said, no new jewelry to show this time.  But I am working on a special new "drop" (do people still say that?), and I'm pretty excited about it. 

So stay tuned.  I'll be here, dwelling in cloud-soft denim.  

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Small Town, Big Heart, Up Down, Fresh Start


For the most part, I'm drawn to three kinds of fiction: cozy mysteries, romcoms, and heartwarming dramas.  That said, I write about the mysteries and romcoms a lot.  But when it comes to the dramas, not so much.  I think it's because they demand a little more from me.  Yet that's also why, more often than not, they touch me the deepest.  And that was the case with Elizabeth Berg's The Confession Club.

The Confession Club is one of Berg's Mason, Missouri novels and revisits some of her characters from Night of Miracles.  Local ladies of different ages meet weekly to take turns spilling secrets over coffee and cake.  Sometimes the confessions that seem the most mundane prove to be the most cathartic.  Because this club -- and this book -- aren't about shock value.  They're about letting go and embracing the world.

For example, when the heroine, Iris, meets a man with a sad past, Berg describes the moment with wistful wisdom:

"It's beautiful outside.  It's as though the edges of the world have been lightly erased, and everything is infused with a violet light: the sky, the droplets that hang from the tips of leaves, the mesh of tall weeds at the side of the road, even the road itself.  Then, as the color begins to fade, she realizes it was a trick of the eye, a kind of saturation that occurred from looking so deeply at all those purple lilacs.  But it was wonderful, that false vision, an unconscious surrender to seeing things another way." (73)   

I like to think that this is what Iris and the other women learn -- that "tricks" are sometimes trails to the truth, and that beauty can be our salvation.

No wonder I didn't want to leave Mason.  Luckily, Berg has a few more books set there, so it'll be a bit before I have to.       

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

A New Way to Be, Nothing to See, Just a Geriatric Pregnancy

Coat: Nine West, Kohl's

Bag: Isaac Mizrahi, Marshalls; Scrunchie: Ella and Elly, Zulily

Sweater: So, Kohls; Skirt (a dress!): Three Hearts, Kohl's

Jewelry: Macy's

Top: Candie's, Kohl's; Boots: Mossimo, Target

Bag: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Here I am looking downright rural.  So, evidence that this bump is turning me into a country bumpkin.  I'm not mad at it, though.  It feels cozy and simple and safe at a time when life is anything but.  

Today I went for my 24-week checkup, where I was informed that I can register for my June hospital stay now if I do so desire.  Yikes!  I mean, the crib is still in the box.  Also, in slightly more serious but let's-not-freak-out news, I may have gestational diabetes.  My test results were just a wee bit elevated, which means -- yes, you guessed it -- more testing and more needles.  But I'm getting good at getting bloodwork (yesterday at LabCorp, I didn't even flinch), an activity that, as you know, used to nearly make me faint.  So, progress.    

But back to the outfits.  Full disclosure: The pink dress and jean skirt pics were taken last month.  There's no way I could wear a jean skirt -- or anything else with a zipper -- now.  But the pink sweater pic was taken yesterday.  Yep, I got gussied up for LabCorp.  

So now to up my diet and exercise game just a tiny bit for this tiny one.  

Because as ever I have hope that all things great and small are always possible.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Sorority of Satire: Never Judge a Book by its Lover

For my last book club pick, I went with Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible.  Not because I'm a Jane Austen fan, but because I'm a fan of Sittenfeld's Romantic ComedyEligible is (probably?) the latest in the many modern takes on Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Which gave me pause because -- and please don't send hate mail -- I've never liked that book.  I found Elizabeth Bennett kind of cold and Austen's writing tedious.  I know, I know.  It's a classic, not to mention the archetype for every romantic comedy ever.  Even the famously critical Sheldon Cooper couldn't argue its excellence when trying to denigrate things Amy Farrah Fowler loved on The Big Bang Theory, conceding, "He has too much pride, she has too much prejudice.  It just works."  That said, I was intrigued by Eligible as a pop culture comment on a novel that's never far from the zeitgeist.

And you know what?  It was a hoot.  This time Elizabeth is a New York City-based women's magazine writer.  Her big sis Jane is a yoga instructor and lives in the Big Apple too, and their three younger sisters Mary, Kitty, and Lydia are unemployed and live with their parents in a crumbling mansion in Cincinnati.  I always knew that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were caricatures, but I never appreciated just how laughable they are until Sittenfeld reincarnated them as a health insurance objector and shopaholic hoarder.  Even Elizabeth's dislike for Darcy rings truer when she overhears him disparaging her hometown to his bestie and Jane's love interest Bingley.  Darcy, by the way, is an ER doc, a role that imbues him with all the arrogant pomp he needs to do his namesake justice.  Not only that, but he's still super rich and master of Pemberley.   

But it's not just the characters that emerge as more vivid.  I really enjoyed the language.  It's just dry enough, sharpened by wit and insight and, yes, heart to echo the vibe of the original in a way that doesn't, as I like to say, "stick in your throat."  Add some very present-day social scenarios, all of which reveal Elizabeth to, surprise surprise, be the most traditional as well as the most forward-thinking of the Bennetts, and you have a silken satire.

So hats (bonnets?) off to you, Curtis Sittenfeld, for softening my misinformed prejudice toward this timeless title.

Maybe I'm a little like Elizabeth after all.          

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Sunbeam Scream

Top: Elizabeth and James, Kohl's; Skirt: Candie's, Kohl's; Boots: Chase & Chloe, Zulily

Bag: Olivia Miller, JCPenney

Anchor necklace: Charming Charlie

Art block: Primitives by Kathy, Zulily

Sweater and bag: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's; Skirt: Kohl's

A colorful corner of the craft room

Dress: Lula Roe; Shirt: Bongo, Sears; Boots: Penny Loves Kenny, Amazon

Bag: Delia's, Dolls Kill


Logistically speaking, sunbeams don't scream.  Unless, of course, it's summer, and even then they don't scream so much as scorch the skin of careless beachgoers.  But the phrase sounded good so I used it, despite the winter chill that still stings the air.  

To that end, here are some very yellow -- and very boho -- outfits.  I wore the first one to Valentine's dinner with the husband and the other two to run errands.  (I don't run errands often, so when I do, I make the most of it.)  None of the clothes are maternity except for the leggings.  The yellow sweater is one of my favorites, and when I saw myself in the mirror, I thought, yep, you can tell she's really in there.  Which was kind of crazy but also cool.

Even if it did make me fret about someday soon protecting her from the sun.