How Did You Spend YOUR Weekend?

This last weekend, we got a bunch of rain. Buckets, all over the place. Which is great, we can always use it here in the Meditarranean climate of the Bay Area. So i spent all Saturday in bed, after which i felt re-invigorated and refreshed.

As you may guess from these photos, Mr. E has succumbed to a friend's pleas for him to join his Fantasy Football league this season.  So all day Sundays and on Monday nights the computer is reserved for Fantasy Football use exclusively.  A similar situation pertains next door - i was joking with D. that we are a new variety of 'Football Widows' (widowed from computer access).  Between the deluge outdoors and someone being glued to the computer, my options for outfit photos on Sunday were limited.  (You can see how enthralled my husband is with my self-portraiture.  I'm guessing over-exposure. And his fantasy team is doing much better than his expression would suggest.)

I had to venture out in the rain to do the weekly grocery shopping.  After the 'Can Clothes Be Too Comfy?' discussion, that grey ruffled skirt was on my brain.  I wanted to try this skirt at a shorter length and see how i liked it.....but without taking the irreversible step of chopping it up. I took a clue from Audi's penchant for hiking skirts up to below (and sometimes over) her bust.  I safety-pinned the skirt's waistband to the bottom elastic band of my bra at four places -  et voila! a perfect just below the knee length skirt!

These shenanigans yielded an unexpected benefit - my bra stayed perfectly in place all day. The weight of the skirt balanced out the weight of the bust, so no hourly pulling down the back of the bra. Funny how something that seems so fussy to put together ends up being much less fuss to wear. Counter-intuitive.

At this point my thinking is to just keep the skirt as is, and pin it up when i want to wear it shorter.  Let us bow down to the goddess that is the safety pin!  According to this site, Penelope received over a dozen safety pins from those pesky suitors when her man Odysseus was lashing himself to the mast, blinding Cyclops, and generally remaining AWOL.  Penelope has always been held up as an example of stunning faithfulness, spending sleepless nights unpicking her own work, but if all those suitors could come up with was a bunch of safety pins....well.  Sometimes life just isn't chock-full of tempting options.

In other outfit news, i have pictures of a

*** NEW SKIRT *** 

to post tomorrow.  Don't Touch That Dial!

Jacket: made by me, McCall's Pattern #5594
Top, OTK Socks: Target
Skirt: own design
Shoes: antique Maine Woods
Scarf: Echo

Dinosaur Dreams

Another 'bombing around town' outfit. As it happens, i'm bombing around town today as well....so this will be a short post.

First - those are black lacy 'low cut' peds from Chinese Laundry via T. J. Maxx. They stay in place, shield the foot from friction, and don't sprout holes (like these evil Peds from HUE).

Secondly - i couldn't get the camera to pick up the stripes in this jacket on this day. So look over on the coast or at UC Berkeley to see those nice stripes.

Thirdly - i lied. Mostly this is a short post because i have nothing to say, of interest or not. However, some intrepid paleontologists have unveiled the discovery of two new dinosaurs in Utah, namely Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops. In my opinion, the latter species should rightly be spelled 'Cosmoceratops' as it '...boasts the most ornately decorated dinosaur head known to date, with 15 horns.' Ha! The next time some Ignoramus sp. give you grief over your own concern with ornamentation, remind him or her that the evolutionary process saw fit to encourage and maintain maximum ornamentation as long as 76 million years ago. That's even before the Americas had come into being as continents!

hhmmmm.....that's giving me a whole new perspective on the pyramid studs on this bag.

Lace Tank: Jockey
Jacket: McCalls Pattern M5594, made by me
Skirt: own design
Shoes: Clark's Passion
Belt: vintage Coach

Toodling up Highway One

My brother came into town for the holiday weekend, and proposed a little road trip. I thought it would be the perfect time to wear this outfit, with which i experienced technical difficulties a couple of weeks ago.

For the return part of the trip we drove up Highway One between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. Any part of this highway, which follows the Pacific coastline from the top to bottom of California, is absolutely worth traveling. The especial charms of this segment are the gentle slopes down to the sea interspersed with small farms, the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, and the mating grounds of the elephant seal - Ano Neuvo State Park. From October through March every year these eccentrics of the sea congregate to battle it out with other males in hopes of accumulating a harem of the alluring, rotund female beasts. What can i say to begin to describe these creatures - they fight each other with grotesquely overgrown noses, they can stay under water for over one hundred minutes, their calls are eerily reminiscent of whale song. The baby seals, overgrown sausages just learning to feed on their own, are called 'weaners'. During mating season you may visit Ano Neuvo, but only as part of a guided tour arranged by reservation. I can't recommend it enough.


My brother took these pictures near Pescadero. The last pic shows the fullness at the bottom of the jacket nicely. This outfit worked out well for the day. It's comfy, flat shoes can take all the walking you want, it's pulled together but not fussy or overly formal, the jacket goes on or off to cope with varying temperatures.

The day was mild, we saw many windsurfers and kite surfers (the latter is a new one on me). But we didn't surf or ogle wild animals, just visited an old friend and gazed out at the beautiful ocean. I hope some of you get to spend some time at the seashore this summer as well.

Jacket: made myself from McCall's M5594
Blouse: Target
Capris: Royal Robbins
Shoes: old Borns
Belt: Betsey Johnson

Plan B

Yesterday was a typical Saturday. The E's bummed around the house, visited the library, made muffins. My outfit looked really cute - i was wearing the above jacket and top, with some khaki capris and flats (my trusty Borns) with lace anklets. Small top, small bottom, with a flare in the middle - i made a nice diamond shape, something like Miss Anne Elk's theory of the brontosaurus.

Then, stain on pants. So i put on these black rayon trousers i made a few years ago and wore a more mainstream outfit the rest of the day. The capris are soaking comfortably in the washer.

We ended up shopping on Telegraph, using the public facilities at the University (where above pic was taken - see if you can spot the bride!), then dining at Cesar Espana. Cesar is a delicious, trendy tapas bar in the Gourmet Ghetto with a great interior - lots of wood and tile set in huge curves and arcs. Wouldn't some candid pix of me in that fabulous setting, with fabulous food and fabulous people, be great?

Well, we ended up sitting near some tourist rubes who lovingly documented every plate that came to their table with their pink-skinned iphone.......and taking snaps in the dining area started to seem less glamorous and more 'acting like a coupla schmucks'.

However, some doors have locks, and when you're alone no one can judge.

You have to admit that is some great interior design.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there - especially my dad, Mr. E's dad, the bouch's dad, and Miss Dizzy's dad!!

Jacket: McCall's M5594, made by me (fabric a gift)
Top: Target
Trousers: made by me
Belt: Betsey Johnson
Necklace, Earrings: gifts