Unfucking totally fubar...
Since the last post, life has gotten in the way of pretty much everything else. T had emergency laproscopic gall bladder removal (and 4 days in the hospital plus a few more days out of it at home), and we both need dental work done which is not helping us get back to normal. Plus, Monday is my second 'evaluation' for medi-cal; the first was ~ 1 hour drive each way, 15 minutes of forms and less than 5 minutes with the doctor who quickly twisted my limbs around until I yelped in pain then said he needed my full medical records. No real discussion, no warnings that this may hurt or what he was going to do, a totally perfunctory waste of time. The next one is with a psych - I can't wait.
I've been writing almost nothing, doing the basic minimums of cooking, cleaning, etc, and going out once most weeks. T's been wonderful putting up with my body shutting down after we dealt with his health fail, and I'm finally starting to feel like it's summer (but broken immune system = stomach virus yesterday/today we think). Life is.
I have finished another nightgown for me and a kilt for a friend when my body and mind cooperate. I still haven't finished the damn pants he wanted but I'm closer, and knitting is fail - think I'm going to need to find a store with someone to teach me what the fuck I'm doing - I can cast on, but do not understand how to do the next row. Broken brain sucks at learning new things worse than ever; this should not be that hard.
Oh, and we got an Asus Transformer Prime tablet primarily for me - I like it so far for web, reading, solitaire, etc. It's lighter than a hardback, easier to see than a paperback, and I have the whole web available to read, which is a win when I'm having a crap day. Haven't done much streaming video on it; we usually watch 'TV' on my Macbook but what I have seen looked excellent. It is nice that this basically cost us nothing - T got a gift certificate at work and sold one of his older laptops which covered the rest of the cost. I'm quite pleased with the resolution, the selection of 'apps' and the performance; it's got a fucking quad core processor and it shows.
Hope everyone is doing well, those of you on the East coast aren't melting too badly, and that you get to have some fun this summer. I want to get better at keeping up here, so hopefully you'll see posts once every week or so once things calm down a bit.
One last thing - I actually wrote about dressing well and sexy as I get older and how my style changed. That's posted http://gothfash.livejournal.com/5195166.html as I'd love to have further discussion on it with lots of people! But if you don't want to follow the link or comment there, it's here too. Originally posted in the comments of http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/22/fashion-friday-age-and-sex/#comments - on being sexy and fashionable and 50.
Let me preface this by saying I’m a 46 year old freak (we reclaimed the term in the late 80′s). One of my friends named my style dainty punk a number of years ago and it still fits. I also live in LA where it’s temperate to hot year round, so heavy fabrics aren’t a large part of my wardrobe.
I’m bald, with visible piercings and a gorgeous tattoo that runs from my shoulderblades to my ass and which I like to show off whenever I can. As I get older I find that my style has changed, and that I still feel (and based on comments look) sexy even though I’m not wearing tight miniskirts and clothes for 20-somethings anymore.
I still love corsets and corset back tops to show off the ink, but I often wear fishnet or stretch lace under them now whether sleeveless or with sleeves. I wear a lot more thigh high stockings with garter belts too - that hint of skin when I move is hot. For professional situations I favor fitted collared shirts and unprinted ‘baby-doll’ or long sleeve t-shirts.
For everyday wear I like princess seamed dresses or skirts - form fitting to the waist/hips and fuller skirts in lengths from above the knee to the floor. I also always have on heels unless I’m barefoot at home (mostly because it changes my gait and walking doesn’t hurt as much, but it doesn’t hurt the way my calves look or my leg length either - like every woman in my family I’m starting to shrink). And I wear a lot of brightly colored sarongs (mostly ‘celtic’ prints) as skirts - they wrap my waist twice and hug my curves without being vulgar - you can also add a foot of grosgrain ribbon on each end to get the wrap if you’re not as thin as I am.
I love high waisted skirts with slits up the sides to above the knee (and ankle length ones that are slit to my hips for the club), and slightly longer than mini-length ‘foofy’ skirts (again for the club). A tuxedo cut (ankle length in back, knee-ish in front) skirt or dress is an excellent way to show off your legs without being too bare and are great without stockings when it’s warm.
For going out I also favor see-through or semi-opaque skirts - layers of tulle, patterned organdy, etc with ‘boyshort’ panties underneath. It lets me show off my legs without wearing stockings all the time, and gives a great silhouette.
As for colors and patterns - lots of black, blueish greys, white, and jewel tones. And simple geometrics or curves, oversize houndstooth, plaids and pinstripes. I also like embellishments - anything from a textured velvet around the hem to el-wire hooping to black-light reactive thread at the seams.
My style is a bit more sophisticated than it was when I was younger, but a lot of my staples are 20+ years old - a good cut never goes out of style as long as it still fits well. I also find that for blacks (I favor cottons except for the club) I re-dye them regularly now which I didn’t do - faded black doesn’t work as well.
For some more ideas on how the aging freak dresses well, the ‘elder-goth’ communities have some amazing finds. People like Siouxsie and Kambriel and Amber (from http://nopants2011.com/) often have much more formal styles than I do but they show options that may give you starting points to look sexy whatever your age.
I've been writing almost nothing, doing the basic minimums of cooking, cleaning, etc, and going out once most weeks. T's been wonderful putting up with my body shutting down after we dealt with his health fail, and I'm finally starting to feel like it's summer (but broken immune system = stomach virus yesterday/today we think). Life is.
I have finished another nightgown for me and a kilt for a friend when my body and mind cooperate. I still haven't finished the damn pants he wanted but I'm closer, and knitting is fail - think I'm going to need to find a store with someone to teach me what the fuck I'm doing - I can cast on, but do not understand how to do the next row. Broken brain sucks at learning new things worse than ever; this should not be that hard.
Oh, and we got an Asus Transformer Prime tablet primarily for me - I like it so far for web, reading, solitaire, etc. It's lighter than a hardback, easier to see than a paperback, and I have the whole web available to read, which is a win when I'm having a crap day. Haven't done much streaming video on it; we usually watch 'TV' on my Macbook but what I have seen looked excellent. It is nice that this basically cost us nothing - T got a gift certificate at work and sold one of his older laptops which covered the rest of the cost. I'm quite pleased with the resolution, the selection of 'apps' and the performance; it's got a fucking quad core processor and it shows.
Hope everyone is doing well, those of you on the East coast aren't melting too badly, and that you get to have some fun this summer. I want to get better at keeping up here, so hopefully you'll see posts once every week or so once things calm down a bit.
One last thing - I actually wrote about dressing well and sexy as I get older and how my style changed. That's posted http://gothfash.livejournal.com/5195166.html as I'd love to have further discussion on it with lots of people! But if you don't want to follow the link or comment there, it's here too. Originally posted in the comments of http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/06/22/fashion-friday-age-and-sex/#comments - on being sexy and fashionable and 50.
Let me preface this by saying I’m a 46 year old freak (we reclaimed the term in the late 80′s). One of my friends named my style dainty punk a number of years ago and it still fits. I also live in LA where it’s temperate to hot year round, so heavy fabrics aren’t a large part of my wardrobe.
I’m bald, with visible piercings and a gorgeous tattoo that runs from my shoulderblades to my ass and which I like to show off whenever I can. As I get older I find that my style has changed, and that I still feel (and based on comments look) sexy even though I’m not wearing tight miniskirts and clothes for 20-somethings anymore.
I still love corsets and corset back tops to show off the ink, but I often wear fishnet or stretch lace under them now whether sleeveless or with sleeves. I wear a lot more thigh high stockings with garter belts too - that hint of skin when I move is hot. For professional situations I favor fitted collared shirts and unprinted ‘baby-doll’ or long sleeve t-shirts.
For everyday wear I like princess seamed dresses or skirts - form fitting to the waist/hips and fuller skirts in lengths from above the knee to the floor. I also always have on heels unless I’m barefoot at home (mostly because it changes my gait and walking doesn’t hurt as much, but it doesn’t hurt the way my calves look or my leg length either - like every woman in my family I’m starting to shrink). And I wear a lot of brightly colored sarongs (mostly ‘celtic’ prints) as skirts - they wrap my waist twice and hug my curves without being vulgar - you can also add a foot of grosgrain ribbon on each end to get the wrap if you’re not as thin as I am.
I love high waisted skirts with slits up the sides to above the knee (and ankle length ones that are slit to my hips for the club), and slightly longer than mini-length ‘foofy’ skirts (again for the club). A tuxedo cut (ankle length in back, knee-ish in front) skirt or dress is an excellent way to show off your legs without being too bare and are great without stockings when it’s warm.
For going out I also favor see-through or semi-opaque skirts - layers of tulle, patterned organdy, etc with ‘boyshort’ panties underneath. It lets me show off my legs without wearing stockings all the time, and gives a great silhouette.
As for colors and patterns - lots of black, blueish greys, white, and jewel tones. And simple geometrics or curves, oversize houndstooth, plaids and pinstripes. I also like embellishments - anything from a textured velvet around the hem to el-wire hooping to black-light reactive thread at the seams.
My style is a bit more sophisticated than it was when I was younger, but a lot of my staples are 20+ years old - a good cut never goes out of style as long as it still fits well. I also find that for blacks (I favor cottons except for the club) I re-dye them regularly now which I didn’t do - faded black doesn’t work as well.
For some more ideas on how the aging freak dresses well, the ‘elder-goth’ communities have some amazing finds. People like Siouxsie and Kambriel and Amber (from http://nopants2011.com/) often have much more formal styles than I do but they show options that may give you starting points to look sexy whatever your age.