Posh Frock Friday - Cheer Me Up Edition

Posh Frock Friday is a sort-of-meme run by  Kate of Scathingly Brilliant.

I've been a bit down lately. Finances, future goals, health issues, wedding planning all seem to weigh me down emotionally. One of the ways I've been cheering myself up is by wearing posh frocks and experimenting with hairdos. 

In our present culture very few people do hairdos anymore. It's all about the haircut. You go to a hair salon, invest in a good haircut and it's like having a permanent hairdo on your head at all times. I can't do haircuts. Nothing really works on me. Bangs don't work at any length because my hair is naturally very curly and frizzy. I have three types of hair (European, African and Arabic). It doesn't want to lay flat ever, especially on my forehead. I can't do any haircuts that require the hair to be super straight to look good. I can't do layers because it'll look like I'm wearing a mullet. Stylish haircuts are just not for me. However, I can do stylish hairdos. My hair loves to be braided, twisted, pinned and styled. Hairdos break up the roundness of my head and face and give some structure to my look. Plus they are fun to do. I used to do french braids on my friends in high school all the time. On one friend I even did a french braid that looked like a big question mark with a scrunchie at the end that served as a dot. Looking back at pictures of my mother when she was my age, she always had impeccable hairdos. She had at one time been a professional hair dresser and passed down her natural talent to me. So now, I'm cheering myself up with some hairdos!

 

Not sure if you can see but this is a traditional rope that wraps around the head. The secret to this rope is to work it like a french braid AND to make sure you twist the two strands of hair in one direction but twist them together in another. The tension between the two alternate twists is what holds the twist together. Also, alternating makes it look like a rope.

 

Skirt - Lord & Taylor

Top - Lord & Taylor

Cardigan - H&M

Earrings - Forever 21

If you want to learn how to do this hairdo, watch Lilith Moon's tutorial. She doesn't mention the alternating twisting style in this one so make note of it. Otherwise it won't look right on your head.

Posh Frock Friday: Southampton Wedding Edition #2

Posh Frock Friday: Southampton Wedding Edition

Posh Frock Friday is hosted by the fabulous Kate Gabrielle at the blog Scathingly Brilliant.

I went to Lord & Taylor some weeks back (unfortunately, I chose the day they were having a Prom Runway Show, egads!) and got this fabulous cotton dress on sale. I fell in love with the shape of it because it reminded me of those wiggle dresses Doris Day and the like wore in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The geometric pattern screamed Art Deco and the black helped me look slim in the dress. I look rather large when I wear light colors so a bit of dark always helps. Plus I felt I could wear almost any standard color shoe and it would go with the dress. The material was sturdy enough to hold in my voluptuous figure and I didn't feel like I had to suck it in all the time. 

Perfect dress for a wedding and for dancing at a hoppin' reception! Our good friends got married over the past weekend in Southampton, NY. Carlos and I had a blast!

Here I am at the church. I felt a bit uncomfortable there because I have a phobia of large pieces of religious artwork. But all the white space on the walls and ceiling helped me relax and soothed me. Doesn't it look like some spiritual force is shining light down upon me?!

At the reception, I was a bit naughty. I tried a stogie. Oh yes! I am militantly anti-smoking and I think cigarettes are cancer sticks of evil but I've always wanted to try a cigar. I think a celebratory cigar at a wedding is fine as long as cigars don't become a regular habit. Carlos got a bunch for the groom and the groomsmen at the wedding and I snuck a puff or two of his.

And I didn't inhale!

Carlos took some shots of me at the stairwell leading out of the restaurant's patio.

Carlos looked very nice in his Tuxedo!

Raaayyyyrrr!

Posh Frock Friday: April Fool's Day Edition

It's April Fool's Day and Mother Nature chose to play with our sanity again and give the area a nice slushy snowstorm. But I'm not going to complain because 1) it's happened before and 2) it gives me an excuse to wear the green diagonal pattern scarf that I've been knitting all winter. I had hoped that I could wear it before winter was over but by the time March 21st came around I still hadn't finished. But thanks to this surprise snow storm, I was able to deck myself out in some of my finest winter wear for one last time before next winter (or the next Spring snow storm).

Coat  - H&M

Hat - Forever 21 or DSW (I forget!)

Black, elbow-length gloves - Target

Scarf - Quelle

Photography by Carlos

Posh Frock Friday: Low Self-Confidence Edition

 

Sometimes a nice flowy top is very forgiving. While I still feel good about my overall shape, I feel really bad about how much weight I'm carrying around. I've been over-working myself at the gym trying to shed some of this weight now but I keep injuring myself. For example, I overdid it on a thigh exercise which gave me some sciatic and a twisted pelvis. My left side was further back than my right. I tried to undo this by going overboard with stretches and I ended up injuring my right side and made my left side worse. Oy vey! I was on a really good track, jogging 5-7.5 miles a week and I had made a goal for myself of jogging a marathon worth of miles in February but I had to stop! I can't wait for the spring and summer time when I can be more active. I'm dreaming of the days when I can play tennis, go on long walks, start biking again, head out to the batting cages, go for challenging hikes, play paddle ball in a park, swim in a pool or in the ocean, etc. But alas, I'm stuck in winter for now, with this damn weight and this really low-self esteem which is just dropping to new depths every day.

Sometimes, when you are feeling really down about yourself, it's nice to take some time and dress up. Put on a skirt, a nice flowy top, or maybe just a dress, do your hair, add some makeup to your face and put on some dangling earrings. You'll suddenly feel a whole lot better.

Top: Forever 21

Skirt: TJ Maxx (gift from my mom)

Nylons: Backseamed ones from Nordstrom Rack

Shoes: DSW warehouse

Posh Frock Friday: New Year's Edition

Posh Frock Friday is a new meme hosted by Kate Gabrielle over at Scathingly Brilliant.

Dress - Nordstrom Rack

Backseamed Stockings - Nordstrom Rack

Shoes - Payless Shoe Source

New Year's Accoutrement - Market Basket (no joke)