Such Beauty

I took my pictures of my expecting friends to my photography mentor, Mel - and she worked a little Photoshop Magic on them.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

What a gorgeous difference! I still need to learn the art of Photoshop. Sadly, I've had Elements for 2.5 years now... and still haven't installed it on my computer for fear of not having enough memory space. What a waste.

By the way... this beautiful couple isn't expecting anymore! They are now parents to a sweet little girl! Yeah... there will be pictures. Count on it.

One Click at a Time

One of the resolutions toward My Life Improvement when I started this was to become a better photographer. I recently found a professional photographer to take me under her wing, and I'm excited about learning more.

I've always been good at composing pictures. It's the technical side that needs work for me. So my Mentor is teaching me to use my manual settings... the ISO, shutter speed and cranking that f stop down as low as it can go.

For me, that meant buying a new lens. The two lenses I already had limited my f stop range to 4.
My new 50mm lens came via UPS today so I tested it out on my friends, the expecting parents.

I'm mostly pleased with the results. Can't wait to hear what they think!

How About Something A Little Different?

I'm starting to think of tomatoes as a crutch.

They're every where. In every dish. I'm thinking a few cooks oughta try challenging themselves and make something without tomatoes for a change. And chicken.

Can you say 'Blah'?

See, I am allergic to tomatoes and chicken, among other things.
So every time I go out to eat I have to skim past anything on the menu with these ingredients. And let me tell you, the food out there that doesn't consist of tomatoes and chicken... is really freaking delicious!

Friends with whom I dine often look at my plate with envy. If I give them a taste, they swoon. But they always order something with tomatoes and chicken.

BORING!

Favorite Things: Step Stool

Time for another one of my favorite things.

As an adult who is 5 feet 5 inches tall (no matter what my doc's asst. says - so rude!) I need a bit of assistance to get items from the top shelves of my cupboards and other places in my house.
I had put off buying the much needed step tool for many years.
Most things in the stores are plastic and ugly. In fact I had one of those. Meh.

Until one day, puttering around a favorite antique store I found this:

Glory!

How cute. It screams 70s to me and I love the lifetime of wear on the front edge of the step!
Only on one side though! Which tells me that this step tool lived with one owner and one house and probably stayed in one place it's entire life.

Now it has come to my home to help me and look fabulous in the process.


By the way, I also love my kitchy all metal kitchen cabinets! Aren't they fab?

Laundry Rudeness

I live in a 22 unit condo building run by an HOA (home owners association).

We are all rather neighborly and kind to one another, but we have a few folks who treat the laundry room as if it is not a shared space.
I won't get into the drippy messes and loads of dog hair some people leave behind. What really bothers the rest of us is the laundry they leave sit for days, weeks, even months.

??? I don't understand.

See, we purchased brand new machines about two years ago, and painted and tiled the laundry room which also serves as the back entrance of the building.
We even bought and installed lockers for everyone to store their detergent and laundry money without hauling it up and down the stairs.



Nice huh?

We figured the cheerful paint job and aesthetically pleasing decor would encourage people to take pride in the space - as well as make it an attractive entry area.

But someone keeps piling up their crap - which gets in the way of our cleaning service for one thing! And is really annoying to the rest of us for another.

No pics of the mess available to share with you.

Am I wrong? Isn't this rude?

I mean, I can understand if you started a load of towels and forgot about them overnight. But how do you forget your sheets for a month? A cute outfit for three weeks? Bizarre.

I'm on the board so I'm asserting my power.

We have posted warning signs like this:

sorry, the text got cut off in the conversion process.











And I just pinned this on two different piles today.











Be honest, would this bother you? Am I out of line? Or is the laundry dumper?

SHOES!

Some friends complimented me on my comfy summer sandals.
Um... are you sure? These are my old lady sandals!

They're Naturalizers - the brand my mom wears.

(wow! I never noticed how flat and big and ugly my feet look in these shoes until I took this picture. Uhh.)



I only bought them (and two other pair of Naturalizers) last summer. I was having a problem with my hip and my doc told me to ditch the heels for a while.

As I explained this to my friends - with vivid details of whining about having to shelve all my three inch heels - one girl interjected,

"You're the only person I know who would complain about NOT wearing heels."

1) Uh. How many women do you know?
&
2) Clearly, I live in Colorado now!

I looked at the feet around me. All six tootsies were bedecked with flip flops. (er - aren't those for the shower? Or maybe getting the mail?) Oh. and excuse me. Not flip flops. Chacos.
$80 flip flops with arch support. Are you kidding me?

I would never spend $60 - $80 on shoes that I feel I couldn't wear out of the house!
Okay, I could wear 'em with yoga pants. All my other pants would drag on the ground. 3 inch heels required for all of them!

My attitude toward athletic shoes is similar. $60 - $120 for shoes limited to one category of clothing?!!! Workout clothes.

Please. With my shopping habits (TJMaxx, Department Store clearance racks) that's like 5 pairs of heels that would go with everything!

Everything:
Jeans
Slacks
Skirts
Dresses &
Shorts



Yeah... everything. Work, church, parties, shopping. All very practical.

Now that I live in Colorado, I actually need athletic shoes. And as I'm learning... not just one pair. One pair for the gym - cross trainers I guess, so that I can suck at my attempts at tennis.
And another pair for trail hiking. It is the mountains after all.

I hate shopping for athletic shoes. I'd rather have a root canal than shop for athletic shoes. I've had a root canal. Not so bad. I don't see the big deal.

Athletic shoes? Ugh. No.

They're so uncomfortable. It seems I lost my arch after years of wearing cute shoes. Now shoes with arch support feel as if though there's a boiled egg in my shoe. If the arch feels okay then something else feels terribly wrong, tight or bumpy. Ugh.

But, a hot pair of heels - they're always just right.
It is a fact that I can run just as fast and probably more gracefully in three inch heels than I can in a pair of sneakers.

But I will acquiesce - that the gym, the tennis court and mountain trails are really no place for high heels. And to be honest, my heels wouldn't go with those outfits anyway.


An Aside: Colorado is so much more casual than other places/cities. It's all Columbia trail pants and t-shirts and fleece all the time.
When I first moved here, and went to the mountains with my girlfriends... I took normal 'going out clothes' along for evenings. Everyone told me I was too dressed up for those rugged, rustic bars. And it's true. Guys here dig on girls who can rock the jeans - t-shirt - tennis shoe look.
Well... skinny, flat-chested girls like me can't really work it in that outfit! My friend who moved away from Denver before I moved here warned me it would be like this! She couldn't take it either!
And... after viewing Sex and the City last night with my other girlfriends... all dressed to kill... one of them noted that NO ONE in Satc EVER wore jeans (or sneakers I might add).
I rest my case.

The Return of Great Style?

Once upon a time there was a catalogue filled with the most beautiful clothes made of soft sweet fabrics and colors in flattering comfortable cuts - that both my mom and I adored!

That was quite a feat circa 1989-1991 - to find clothing that mom and I agreed on! But Tweeds Inc managed it! They had cute, sassy - yet classic looks for me - and tall sizing for mom - a priority for she with long legs and arms - always tricky to fit.

Mom and I would pour over the pages, and pick out a few items so we could share shipping. I was in college by then - the first time we didn't share an address.

Recently, my mom - she who is not Internet savvy - asked me to search for some clothing catalogues featuring 'Tall' sizing and sign her up on their mailing lists. That's my task for today - since reminded me of the request in our last phone conversation.

The Tweeds catalogue mysteriously disappeared. I still have a few issues tucked away. Sometimes I take them out and fantasize about clothing so rich and creamy and soft.
I remember those pages were the first where I saw clothing colors described as 'Eggplant', 'Grass' and 'Wheat'. Their take on a t-shirt was so original and classic and flattering that added shipping costs were justifiable! I loved everything Tweeds. Comparable to many of the items found at today's Anthropology - but not as heavily priced - eek!

Again today... I searched the Internet for possible links to Tweeds. All I find are past articles of the company's demise. Not a lot of information there either.

Yet - I am encouraged. On trips to TJMaxx in the past 8 months... I've found a few items with the Tweeds label. Be still my heart. It's the same tell-tale classic styling and great fabrics. These can't be clothes from some warehouse that closed 15 years ago - can they? I take it as an indication that Tweeds is nurturing a comeback - and these items on the rack at TJMaxx are harbingers of great styling - about to be reintroduced to the masses.

May we bow our heads in prayer - of hope and thanksgiving...

Does anyone have insider skinny of a come-back? Anyone?

Meanwhile... any recommendations for catalogues for Tall women like my mom - that might even feature large shoe sizes? I hooked Mom up with Eddi* Bau*r - J J!ll- Ch!cos and Co!dwater Cr**k. Every other tall size provider seemed to cater to 20-something clubbers! How strange - manufactures seem to think that tall women shrink down to 5'7" once they reach age 65. No wonder my mom and her sisters have such a rough time with pants!