Frumpy Friday? This is actually a photo from yesterday.  I’ve been reading so many Susan Branch books that are set in the ’80′s and it’s put me in a Laura Ashley frame of mind that is coming out in funny and interesting ways!

 I added a hat.  Maybe next time I’ll bother to clean the mirror.

I’ve been thinking about my wardrobe, sort of as a way of thinking about my life.  Self expression, self representation, sense of self, self respect even, self care for certain.  Everything in flux…shifting life, shifting body shape, shifting needs, shifting priorities.  Trying to find that comfortable spot that feels true.

I want to make things again.  I was to make more of what I wear with my own hands.  In order to make more I need to know more.  What do I really need?  What do I really want?  I’ve been thinking about doing Me Made May this year.  Even the thought has been inspiring me to look at my wardrobe with fresh eyes, to pull things out from the back and try new combinations.  I had thought there wasn’t much left in my wardrobe that I had made.  There was a time when I made almost everything that I wore.  There is actually more there than I thought.

Above is my Deschain sweater over a thrifted, hand-made, vintage dress, paired with my Blackberry Beret, complete with decorative mends.

Today’s low-key St. Patrick’s Day look:

Here I paired my Cleo Skirt with a ready to wear top and my No Frills Cardigan.

We’re off to an Irish dance show followed by a bowling after party.

My knitting under black lights!

Doing my best Degas in honor of a trip to the art museum.  Why, yes, I do know enough about Degas and his models to know that I don’t really want to be one.  But in make believe it’s perfectly lovely.

Sadly, Galen is still in possession of my camera, so all of these photos are quite poor in quality.

He had no idea I was taking this picture.

I love this one.  It isn’t a Carl Holsoe, but it reminds me of a Carl Holsoe, only a bit more ethereal.

Imagine showing up at the same place with the same hairstyle and similar dresses….how embarrassing!

The man reminds me of Galen.

It took all of my self control not to reach out and rub the fabric of the skirt between my fingers.

Self-portrait by Degas

Those folds and gathers!  Just divinely amazing.

The Impressionist Wing was my favorite.  I took pictures in the gift shop of all of the books that I wish to order from the library.

Treat for the ride home.

When your morning smoothie matches your current project.

For years I had a regular yoga practice.  It’s something that I miss, but since getting older and doing more damage to my body, I’ve been afraid to return.  The couple of times that I tried I hurt myself almost immediately.  I finally thought to search for yoga routines for people with EDS (my connective tissue disorder).  I was so excited to finally find one!  I thought it would feel like coming home.  Honestly, it was mostly just painful and intense.  I thought one of the poses was downright insane for a class of people who are likely to dislocate the bones in their feet.  I substituted something safer.  Nothing about it felt particularly good or right.  I tried a second one which was supposed to be more low-key and it bored me to tears.  I gave up half-way through.  It was just so solidly bleh.  I did find a pilates routine for EDS and that one was quite promising.  It was short- back in the day I used to do 45 minutes to an hour of either pilates or yoga most days- but it sat well with both my body and mind.  Perhaps it’s something I can build on.

Seraphina wants to learn how to cook.  I talked her through the making of tilapia chowder while I put another coat of paint on the drawers.

I’m trying to finish up this sampler that I started ages and ages ago, so that I can frame it and give it to Seraphina for her birthday.  I think it will be a nice addition to her fixed up room.  Moths got into my original wool years ago.  I finally took the time to order more and get back to it.  It’s coming along and I’m really pleased to finally be finishing it.  It’s satisfying.

Seraphina and I finished Anne of Green Gables and The Family Under the Bridge as well (that one is better at Christmas time).  We started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I’ve since lost my voice.  It’s very frustrating.  The last several nights we’ve cuddled up and watched cute animal videos instead.  We’re doing the best we can.

Saturday mornings are starting to have their own routine: Help Elijah with his make-up before he takes a long morning drive to whatever photo shoot he has that day.  Fix Seraphina breakfast.  Gather up the library books while she’s eating.  Do her hair for Irish dance.  Get her out the door.  Morning workout, generally while listening to an audio book.  Settle in, preferably with a cup of tea and some classical music in the background, generally with Meadow nestled in my arms making it hard to type (see photo in previous post), with posts here; transcribing from the journal and the little notes that I’ve left myself, sometimes adding photos here and there.  This is how it should go, but often I lose large portions of the morning accidentally getting lost in other realms of the World Wide Web.  Today it was mostly looking at pictures of people that I knew as children.  They were children with my children.  Who, as it turns out, are now shockingly grown up, married (to each other!) and expecting a child of their own.  Goodness.  And now that I’m typing it out, I feel like life has made me into some kind of weirdo who is internet stalking their children’s old friends.  Right.  Moving on.  (though still a little teary eyed)

As a public service I also ate the rest of the Valentine’s Day chocolate.  It seemed important to get it cleaned up and out of the way.

**This post should have been accompanied by photos of Elijah in make-up and a suit.  I was simultaneously photographing him and scolding him for playing with my roses and putting them between his teeth.**

Mairi is loudly listening to Adele this morning.  Ours is a world of floating flurries and wild wind and it all fits my mood today.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Later.

I remembered that I texted my sisters pictures of the salon, so I saved the photos from that thread!  Not the best quality, but it’s something.

They had a can of Aqua Net signed by Debbie Harry, which I found endlessly amusing…

I had Heart of Glass stuck in my head all day!

Before and After.  I think I like the before picture better because I’m making a funny face in the after, but oh, well!  Also, it actually looks better than this.  It wasn’t quite dry yet here and I was rushing out the door, so didn’t have time to style it properly.

This is how I actually left the salon:

I will never understand why every single stylist attempts to make me look like I belong in an ’80′s hair band! This has nothing to do with the inspiration photos I brought, nor anything I said. I don’t get it. WHY?!? Every. single. time.

***Pretend that there is a video of Galen and Seraphina playing Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah together on the piano.  And also pretend that I didn’t just get all teary-eyed describing what I should be able to show you.***

———————————————————

Galen was telling me how someone sent him a recommended reading list.  I asked what was on it.  Says he, “but of course I’ve already read things like Little Women, because I’m a good boy.”  Ah, but there are other books by Louisa May books that would astonish you!  Books that are hilariously different.  I proceeded to tell him about A Long Fatal Love Chase.  It wasn’t published until 1995 because it was considered too scandalous for her time.  It’s a “thriller” that includes almost every outrageous (for the time period) situation that you can conjure up.  The heroine is tricked into marrying a scoundrel who is already married!  When she finds out she runs from him and tires to hide all over the world!  Even dressing as a man!  There is a woman of ill repute!  And a tempted monk!  The whole thing ends, and I don’t think this is a big spoiler here, fatally.  Reading it I kept picturing Gabriel Byrne in the 1994 version of Little Women telling Winona Ryder/Jo to just write what she knows.

Galen’s counterpoint to this was that he had found the greatest movie summery of all time:

“After losing his parents, a priest travels to China, where he inherits a mysterious ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first horrified by this new power, a hooker convinces him to use it to fight crime. And ninjas.”  

Brilliant.  I’m not sure that could be more ridiculously hilarious.  Though we have questions…”And ninjas.” being an incomplete sentence, leaves a lot up in the air.  Does he fight the ninjas?  Or are they just also in the movie?  Maybe they are on his side.  The film is called, I swear this is true, The VelociPastor.  Similar shows recommended by IMDB include: Llamageddon, Killer Sofa, and the yet to be released The VelociPastor 2.

In other news, I’m almost finished my third Susan Branch book of the month.  It’s a thing now and I don’t think it will end until I’ve read them all.

I’m scheduled to get my hair cut tomorrow.  It will be my first trip to the salon in 9 years.  I’m kind of wondering what would happen if I brought this as my inspiration picture:

Here am I, trying to regroup.  I have 7 unfinished posts.  The external hard drive where I store my photos up and died.  It was backed up until August, thank goodness, but the last six months are now gone.  Poof!  I spent a week and a half in denial, while Steve attempted everything he could think of to try to fix it.  We haven’t decided if we are going to take it somewhere to try to salvage the contents because it turns out that’s quite expensive.  I keep telling myself that it’s only 6 months worth.  It could have been so much worse.  But it still stings.  I really wish that I had finished up my Advent videos.  At least I would have had Christmas.

Anyhow, I had photos that I wanted to include in posts and then the photos were gone and it kind of threw me.  I do still have some things that were on my phone or pulled aside for other reasons, so I’ll just piece it together as best as I can.

The last several weeks have been intense.  Health issues- I couldn’t speak at all for a while again.  I can now, but my throat hurts a lot and I start coughing if I overdo.  My fatigue has been over-whelming.  Chronic and not-so-chronic issues have been cropping up for others as well.

We’ve had appointments.  So, so many appointments.

And weather.  We got nearly 3′ of snow earlier this week.  Thankfully we only lost power for a day, and not even a full day at that.  The town has declared a state of emergency and two days after the fact, there is still over a foot of snow on our road.

This is going to be a s-l-o-w project.  I took all of the hardware off of the dresser.  Every once in a while I take a drawer out on the porch and sand it down.  I’m just roughing up the surface so it doesn’t take terribly long.  Right around the time that my hands start to get really cold, I’m just about done.

~*~* Seventeen *~*~

He may have gotten distracted by cats on his way downstairs.  Pretty normal.

~One of his gifts~

In retrospect I shouldn’t have had him open the sleep mask first.

His masterpiece:

Ice cream cake with a cookie crust, chocolate caramel fudge core, topped with caramel and candied peanuts.