Clovember: Arty green & black tunic, voluminous red dress
LJ! Skimming my long-abandoned Friends list, I feel a certain... sad nostalgia. Sad because part of me pines for the days when I had the time and mental space to be an Active Livejournaller who read every entry on her Friends list and posted regular updates of her own. Still, with the range of competing parental, professional and RL social demands I'm juggling, I have prudently concluded that I have to ration social media, and LJ is quite a time-consuming example thereof. After years of shunning Facebook, it's now about the only social media I'm active on. I do have a Twitter account, but I find it too impersonal and can't afford to put in the effort to make it less so.
Still, nothing like a bit of Clovember to open the gate to Memory Lane, eh? I still do aspire to a style blog, but see above. Clovember allows me to indulge that aspiration in a small and photographically undemanding way... dodgy phone selfies like these just wouldn't cut it for a proper blog, I feel. ANYWAY! To the clo!
For some reason, the adequately lit bedroom selfies of yesteryear don't seem to be cutting the mustard. Hence the shot in the bathroom, where the light is less flattering but brighter. Am fond of this top. I bought it at one of those weird whimsical shops that mostly cater to flamboyant fifty-something women who wear huge jewellery, and even the smallest size needed considerable alteration to fit. BUT! I have long since accepted that I must pay an alteration tax on most clothing I buy for it to fit properly, and having a cheery, arty tunic top made from a patchwork of green and black stuff overlaid with random embroidered squiggly lines and buttons is a worthy cause. Definitely needed the beret and boots treatment, this.
Then there's today, a somewhat warmer venture which permits the wearing of the mildly ludicrous voluminous red dress:
I've been working two days a week at Deakin University for the past year, and I suspect the pressure of having to wear work-appropriate clothing on those days has led to reactionary Excessive Artiness in my clothing on non-work days. As with the green and black tunic, this dress was comically big on me when I bought it and needed to be whittled dramatically to stop it looking like a maternity smock (GOD NO. NO more babies), while retaining the hint-of-bubble-skirt drapey volume. I've taken to wearing it with silver, in this case flat silver sandals and huge curly silver earrings.
Have no idea how many Clovember posts I'm likely to put up this year. The month ahead is looking pretty packed. I've just finishing phoneticising a giant batch of names for graduations ceremonies and am running three workshops - one on how to make any speech topic engaging at the Semi-Annual Toastmasters Convention, one for a women's leadership program on cross-cultural communication and how to pick a cross-cultural trainer (my attempt to introduce the notion of quality control into my profession, which sorely needs it), one for a student residence with the usual problems in getting international and domestic students to socialise with each other. In between which I want to start concocting more little books and videos for my children, who are a highly appreciative audience for such things. Still, I suspect I will find time for at least a few more Clovember posts. Fine stuff, clo. Shall go and look at what you're all wearing now...
Still, nothing like a bit of Clovember to open the gate to Memory Lane, eh? I still do aspire to a style blog, but see above. Clovember allows me to indulge that aspiration in a small and photographically undemanding way... dodgy phone selfies like these just wouldn't cut it for a proper blog, I feel. ANYWAY! To the clo!
For some reason, the adequately lit bedroom selfies of yesteryear don't seem to be cutting the mustard. Hence the shot in the bathroom, where the light is less flattering but brighter. Am fond of this top. I bought it at one of those weird whimsical shops that mostly cater to flamboyant fifty-something women who wear huge jewellery, and even the smallest size needed considerable alteration to fit. BUT! I have long since accepted that I must pay an alteration tax on most clothing I buy for it to fit properly, and having a cheery, arty tunic top made from a patchwork of green and black stuff overlaid with random embroidered squiggly lines and buttons is a worthy cause. Definitely needed the beret and boots treatment, this.
Then there's today, a somewhat warmer venture which permits the wearing of the mildly ludicrous voluminous red dress:
I've been working two days a week at Deakin University for the past year, and I suspect the pressure of having to wear work-appropriate clothing on those days has led to reactionary Excessive Artiness in my clothing on non-work days. As with the green and black tunic, this dress was comically big on me when I bought it and needed to be whittled dramatically to stop it looking like a maternity smock (GOD NO. NO more babies), while retaining the hint-of-bubble-skirt drapey volume. I've taken to wearing it with silver, in this case flat silver sandals and huge curly silver earrings.
Have no idea how many Clovember posts I'm likely to put up this year. The month ahead is looking pretty packed. I've just finishing phoneticising a giant batch of names for graduations ceremonies and am running three workshops - one on how to make any speech topic engaging at the Semi-Annual Toastmasters Convention, one for a women's leadership program on cross-cultural communication and how to pick a cross-cultural trainer (my attempt to introduce the notion of quality control into my profession, which sorely needs it), one for a student residence with the usual problems in getting international and domestic students to socialise with each other. In between which I want to start concocting more little books and videos for my children, who are a highly appreciative audience for such things. Still, I suspect I will find time for at least a few more Clovember posts. Fine stuff, clo. Shall go and look at what you're all wearing now...