Procrastination is a style!

I realised that as much as I want to write this blog, I also wish it, could get done without the actual writing part! I'm not a practiced writer, and coming up with witty, be your self musings, in written form, isn't easy!
When Carole Radzwill from the Real Housewives of NY, who I think has a great chic quirkiness to her, was talking about her writing style, she called it lyrical. I'd like to think I write the same way, I just need someone to light a fire under my ass to get it done.
I do have a draft of a post titled "seasoning your style" about going from cold weather to warm, with your make-up, clothes, home and blah blah blah. But I started writing that back in the beginning of April and it was taking me so long to write it that I gave up. I was getting board and not feeling it!
Perhaps my lackluster willingness to share for the last few months has more to do with attitude and less to do with content. I haven't been thrilled with the way life has been treating me lately, but since I truly believe things happen for a reason, I'm not gonna let it drag me down and you know what "they" say about big girl panties.
Anyhoo, I've been home a lot keeping up on the latest trends etc and decided that I have a bone to pick with normcore!
What is normcore? According to Simon Doonan (fashion expert and Barneys NY creative go to guy) "Its gray sweatpants pretending to be trousers. Its safe, its an idea, that in an era that embraces the distinct, bespoke and quirky, normcore is the final fashion frontier of dressing like an anonymous nobody."
 

Seriously, this is an actual style? I think my procrastination in writing is more stylish than this!

Perhaps the invention of the crotch drop or "poopy pants" as Micheal Kors likes to call them, ushered in this trend, who knows, either way its just not something worth being proud of. This is the way I dress to go to Target or a doctors appt, etc. I like to call it incognito.

To combat this blasphemous trend I would like to share 8 of my "Top Tips" to looking stylish and chic, for a last minute event, even thought you've spent the day normcoring it running errands or procrastinating.

1. Know Your Wardrobe! Have a few go to outfits or individual items that will dress you up in a pinch.
  

2. Buy a Hat or Two, for those bad hair days



3. Keep your eyebrows and nails groomed!
  

4. Navy blue eyeliner & Black mascara together, will make your eyes pop with out much trying. Just smudge the liner in your lash line, swipe your lashes and voila!
  

5. Find a lip color that works, buy a few and keep them handy!
  

6. A Pendant Necklace, Forever 21 is a goldmine for cheap, cute, statement worthy pieces to have on hand.
  

7. SHOES!!! Need I say any more?!?!




 I got a little carried away! I just love shoes!

8. Smile! It will instantly elevate any outfit your wearing or mood your in, smiling makes us attractive!



Lets band together to keep things looking good! Procrastination may not be a great reason for why you may or may not have gotten something accomplished but its better that intentionally looking like nothing. I know when it comes meeting, greeting and socializing, your appearance always makes a first impression. Make it a great one and if all else fails, Smile!

Style Icons?

Everybody should have at least one, they help mold us and shape the way we present our selves in the physical world.

When I was very young my first was Glinda the Good Witch, played by the gorgeous Billy Burke, so beautiful, sparkly, and travels in an iridescent bubble, who wouldn't want that for them selves? Sadly I could only glimpse her once a year during the annual TV airing of The Wizard of Oz but lucky for me PBS played classic old movies on the weekends. I was hooked at a young age, on all those stylish films featuring some of the swankiest sets, costumes, dashing gentlemen and some of the most sophisticated ladies of all time! 

Jean Harlow was the coolest of them all for me! She really wasn't the prettiest, but man could she make an entrance, wearing the most lux of clothes and always with that "shit eating grin" saying it like it was! Funny, when I read her biography Platinum Girl, The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow by Eve Golden, I discovered Harlean Carpenter (her real name) was the complete opposite of who she played. In real life she was a hard-working, humble and tremendously likable woman who molded herself into a remarkable actress.

Which was the exact opposite of Grace Kelly, another icon of mine, she always played the demure, sophisticated cool blond in her movies especially in Alfred Hitchcock films. The first Hitchcock film I saw was "To Catch a Thief" which is my number 1 favorite movie, so sexy and stylish and mysterious all at the same time! Naturally I had to read the biography that came out about her a few years after her tragic death. Grace, The Secret Lives of a Princess, An Intimate Biography of Grace Kelly by James Spada.  I was a kind of shocked to read about one of my favorite icons as a codependent floozy of the biggest sort, till she married her prince, who never let her work again :(  A personal let down for me, I still have a hard time believing most of it, but damn she was aways styled right!

Some time during Jr High school, I discovered David Bowie!

 

David Bowie is and will always be my favorite icon on all fronts! I could fill this blog with more inspiring photos of his styling genius than I have words. I grew up without listening to popular music, I got all my info on that from friends, other peoples homes and the little bit of TV I was aloud to watch. On the weekends my home was filled with the sounds of classical, opera, jazz and some musicals, there were art books a plenty to look at, Vogue magazine (thank you mommy) the PBS channel and the New York Times always lingered for every word to be digested or till my dad finished the crossword puzzle. And, no I'm not from NYC I grew up in the small city of Elmira,NY very far from the culture of the big apple.

One day while baby-sitting at the neighbors house and listening to the local pop radio station WENY, I heard the most unusual song, it was David Bowie's, Fame. Wow! my senses were going crazy, what was this? who is this? and why doesn't it sound like all the other pop music? The dj of course commented on its strangeness and talked about the fact that John Lennon co-wrote it, which is the only reason it was played. But it was enough for me, I was now on a quest, for more Bowie! I bought the album that song was on Young Americans and Diamond Dogs as cassettes, from the Columbia Record Co scam that advertised in all the magazines back then, along with 6 other artists for a dime, lol! I couldn't stop listening to Bowie, I checked out those LP's and other Bowie albums from the library and studied all his different looks. My friends thought he was weird and creepy, so I kept my love for all things Bowie on the down-low, even to this day I have friends who think that. But that's ok, I like what I like and I wont apologise for it ever! I think I was attracted to his unapologetic creativity as well. The ultimate rebel or Shakespeare player, maybe, or a live wire that needed to be plugged in, who knows? Either way, when I need a stylish boost, I get my Bowie on.

When I was about 16, Punk Rock was just hitting the scene here in the US and I hadn't had a style awakening since my Bowie discovery! It was another creative outlet for me to want to be part of, but while I got the reason for Punk and loved the sound, most of it looked kind of ugly. Que the band Blondie, the album Parallel Lines and their lead singer Debbie Harry! She was part of that whole scene but pretty and sexy and still defiantly Punk Rock, a girl I could and did and do channel. She was a style combination of all my icons Ginda, Jean Harlow, Grace Kelly and David Bowie all rolled into one. And lucky for me just like Bowie, Debbie is still singing and still styling!  

As we get older I think we need to be reminded of first discovery and what propels us to keep from becoming complacent or giving up on our looks and surroundings.  I was, after watching a new documentary on the making of Parallel Lines on TV, Blondie's New York, The Making of a Legendary Punk-Pop Album. It was my inspiration for this post, made me think about what influenced me while developing my own style. There are so many incredibly stylish people in the world but there are some that just stay with you forever. Today my daughter Sarah said that she thinks my style is a mix of Vivienne Westwood & Jackie O, not my icons of choice but they definitely go hand-in-hand with my influences. A big Thank You to my icons for brightening my soul and leading me down the yellow brick road of Style!

Mood lifters

Sometimes life gets in the way of trying to be stylish, especially after 50!
I have been happily married for almost 28 years and like I mentioned before have 3 daughters who I've raised and put through university. My youngest, Nina will be graduating from UBC Vancouver May 2014 and my twins Emily & Sarah graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2012. Not to shabby Alma maters to have in today's world! When Nina left for school I was afforded some time without having to play mommy, a staring role I am very proud to have, but it was nice to feel like that character was going to be getting less stage time. So far that hasn't been the case and I'm having a difficult time with this new kind of mothering role. I've also neglected to mention that I'm a preschool teacher without a class. I chose to leave my teaching position to take a break and see what other things life had to offer, the same time my twins moved back home from college, BIG mistake!!! Its been 2 years since they have come home and it doesn't look like they will be trying to make it on their own anytime soon. Don't get me wrong, I love my girls and am proud of all they have accomplished but it is so very hard to find a productive rhythm. All of my usual habits have been disrupted and sometimes it makes life very very challenging!  
However I found that if you have the right sunglasses it can be an instant mood lifter!
I was feeling kinda down due to some squabbling at home (que paragraph one) so I decided to channel the beautifull and stylish acting icon Greta Garbo. She plays the Russian ballerina in the academy award winning movie "Grand Hotel", where she famously says, in a fabulously tortured Russian accent, the line "I want to be alone"

 

I wanted to be alone too! 
I threw on some grey jeans, a black T and my new black,pink&white asics, pony tailed my hair, glossed my lips with some Napoleon Perdis auto pilot lip service and covered my face with my prescription Ray Ban aviator sunglasses, and off I went! Since I wanted to be alone and was looking not very put together for my standards. I ended up at one of my favorite coffee shops off the beat and path. Thankfully it wasn't too busy when I arrived so I was able to have a booth to my self. The waitress came over immediately and greeted me with her beautiful youthful smile and took my coffee order, that's when it happened. Before she walked away this heaven sent girl says "I love your Ray Ban's, they are so chic and stylish!" It was an incredible pick me up! Of course I thanked her, as it was so unexpected considering my mood or maybe she could tell I wasn't a happy camper, either way it was perfectly timed.  I think the ultimate compliment is when your told you have great style and though she was referring to my sunglasses it was perfect! 
I have over the years collected several pairs of sunglasses, mostly Ray Ban's because they fit my face well and arent over priced. I've owned a couple of expensive "designer" pairs but they always made me feel like I was trying to hard to be fashionable. I've come to realise that my most fashionable/stylish moments come when I'm not trying at all. I think the trick to this is to surround your self with what looks good and makes you happy and never underestimate the power of great pair of sunglasses!

My Hair, My Way!

I got my hair fixed! YEAH! I don't have short hair and I haven't gone grey yet so I can go a while till my hair starts to look dull and like I gave up. I'm a natural blonde, which isn't good or bad, thought it does help when you need to get away with being kinda dumb (que the Cheshire Cat grin :)

I never really needed to dye my hair till I turned 30 after I had my 3rd daughter. I should probably share that I have 3 daughters, twins and a singleton who I absolutely adore. My twins Emily and Sarah will be 24 in May and Nina will be 22 in June.

Anyways, since the dying started I've been all shades of blonde, light, dark, skunked, solid, partially pinked and I even went brown for about a 3 weeks till my husband got all huffy and demanded I be the blonde he married.

I think the invention of hair dye is one of the greatest and as the years go by the dyes get better and better. My current fave (up above) is alternating foils with 2 colors & my natural color and then my stylist covers the rest up with dark butterscotch blonde for some fabulous "low lights". Please don't think I do this on my own as I would totally screw-it up! I have always subscribed to the "don't do this at home" mentality when it comes to things that I don't know much about, though I will say the dumb blonde occasionally comes out, lol!

But never with my real hair, that's what wigs are for!

No Make-up, Make-up!

Ok! now that I have a clean non smelly fire place I can really share. 
I have a Jambox that my husband gave me on Valentines Day, not a sexy gift but, to me it was! Listening to music while getting prepped for the day is a great way to set my mood. I was listening to to Fritz and the Tantrum a new band out there with a cool modern 70's vibe and then I changed it up with a relatively unknown band called The Pack A D, who are a couple of girls from Canada with a great kick-ass sound. Right after my shower I moisturized my face! It is probably the most important thing you can do for the care and keeping of your skin! First I use a skin rev-er upper by i.d. BareVitamins and then Olay Professional Pro X eye restoration complex and then give a final coating of the Olay Pro X anti aging lotion, which has a nice strong sfp 30! Today I decided to do my usual non make-up make-up. I polished my face with regular BareMinerals foundation in Lightly Fair, contoured with their bronzer called Warmth and finished it with BareMinerals mineral veil in illuminating. I waxed the little creases at the top of my lips and lined the top and just the bottom sides of my lips with a nude colored liner by Palladio. I never line the bottom center cause it makes the lips look fuller, then a swipe of my old stand-by since high school, Dr Pepper Lip Smackers. Next I swipe on what ever left-over light colored eye-shadow is on one of my shadow brushes and then wiggle a little dark eyeliner into my lash line. Then I blot on my tongue (yup my tongue) a very old lash brush that gets caked on mascara from use and brush my brows and lashes for a smidge of definition. That's it for now, gotta go be a good friend and bring her some whiskey to lift her spirits, literally!

Till Next time!

Love My Vanity

My favorite place to contemplate and get ideas these days is while sitting at my vanity! It's where I keep my tools for presenting my best self and a few symbolic tchotches of what I think makes me, me! This may sound vain but some of the worlds most important people will agree that taking time for your self is as important as what you give in life and to quote RuPaul "If you can't love yourself, then how the hell you gonna love anyone else". And I LOVE to make everything look as appealing as possible!

Today my vanity sat unused as I decided to do something very non chic. I cleaned out my fireplace, you know the inside where all those fire logs get burned, belch! I haven't done that in about 5 years, it was smelling a little ashy and not looking good. This is definitely a necessary habit to keep up! Now it looks good! Hopefully I'll get to use it a few more times before the perpetual spring/summer LA weather starts.

I am Wavalen! Hear me Roar!
A little dramatic? Oui! But to quote Shakespeare with a feminine twist
 "all the world's a stage, and all the women merely players" 
So far I've played child, teen, young adult, mom and currently woman over 50 but, don't let the over 50 fool you! You don't get to my place in time without without amassing a lot of knowledge about the goods in life and how to put your best foot forward. So I'm diving into the blogging world with all that I can share to hopefully make your world/stage the best and the chicest it can be.