All I Can Talk About These Days. The weather.

It was an experience I had anticipated for a while, it seemed like such an honor to go, to be invited. My coworker friend A was having a rice-feeding ceremony for her son, a traditional Indian right of passage. It's been such a quiet few months since the holidays have been over and the sky has been dark and cold and all I've ever wanted to do after work is hole up in my apartment. Going off to the depths of Queens to a Hindu temple filled with incense and colorful shrines to the many dieties of the religion, crowds of women and children swathed in sumtpuous silks making that certain celebratory screech that I swear, it must be a genetic gift to be able to do it at all... It was just what I needed. Like flowers blooming in Elmhurst, the day of chatting and eating-I-know-not-what and smiling, it rang in the following day of sunshine and jacket removal and a serious buzz outside as brunches were consumed on the sidewalk instead of indoors only, in the most perfect way ever. Then of course today we're back to rain and gray skies and a chill that almost, ALMOST, makes me give up all hope that those crocuses are poking their heads out of the ground for any reason whatsoever.

Life with extras

Ah, life is sweet. When the sun stays out longer and later and everyone is overjoyed because of it, you can't help but be in a good mood. I do think though that it's never just the outward things that make life taste so good, but what you've got brewing inside.

I've been sort of obsessed with the idea of changing my thinking through helpful books. I was turned on to You Can Heal Your Life by Louse. L. Hayes, by Gala Darling, blogger extraordinaire. I'd always liked Gala's perspective. She's all about positivity and really champions being honest with yourself and challenging yourself to reach goals. Awesome stuff. She really sort of embodies that outlook too, with bright pink hair and unicorns and cupcakes seemingly spinning 'round her head. Anyhow, lately I'd been thinking she's really taking the positivity thing to a new level and it was seeming more and more real coming from her as she's been pushing herself into this crazy new adventure. She just seems so at peace with herself and while I've come a long way in that direction over the years, I was excited to get a look into this book and video that she seemed so gung-ho about for self-improvement purposes. I've been reading the book on the subway, oblivious to the funny looks I MUST be getting from fellow passengers as the book is ENTIRELY printed in color with crunchy illustrations of birds and hearts and sunrises and women with arms open clearly 'feeling the love.' A bit cheesy, but you know what? Cheesiness is awesome. I don't feel I can do the concepts she presents much justice beyond just saying that yes, if you decide to be happy, and leave yourself open to the awesomeness that life can present to you, then you will be happy because it's all just a state of mind, and you'll find that by making choices outside of your usual life pattern you can take advantage of that very awesomeness I spoke of. What a concept! I don't know if it's just the bit of thinking this way I've been doing or what, but I just found a million people being super sweet today. Little things everywhere that made me fall in love with my whole situation all anew. Picking seeds to plant for some summer fresh veggies and herbs, others doing the same came to browse the selection and we all just smiled at each other because growing fresh things yourself is just cool. Little conversations at the local coffee shop with the dude making my coffee and his friend who was hanging out chatting lifted my spirits, unsolicited comments and compliments while shopping among us shoppers made it feel like we were all girlfriends looking for something cute together even though we didn't know each other. Connections everywhere make life good. The promise of farmers markets and street fairs and beers in a beergarden and trips to the beach and rooftop parties and pedicures and all of that make life better.

The Spring cleaning bug has bitten, too. As I said, I'm planting some consumables. I'm also flipping the mattress and sweeping out under the bed and replacing my big down comforter with a pretty white quilt and airing out the house and doing some baking to bring in for coworkers. Next, I want to begin switching out my Winter clothes for Spring, retire my boots for the season. I began the effort today with a trip to Urban Outfitters for some sweet little woven leather flats and new sunglasses. UO is one of those places where I generally realllly don't so much love a lot of the stuff. It all seems close but not quite there, either in quality or execution, and it makes me feel like an oldie at 26. How does it do that? I guess it's meant for high school students. But I still think it's the best place to go for certain things, like super cheap basic shoes that you can stomp around in until you destroy them without feeling guilty. Or sunglasses! I've seen identical shades at UO and Anthropologie, both owned by the same company, and they're marked at $10-20 more at Anthro simply because it's a more 'upscale' place for an older customer.

Toodles!

PS. I'm definitely going to have to come back to this one. It seems I can't get my computer to let me link to Gala's website, or post my photos because I don't have an updated version of Safari. And I don't have that, because I can't install it, because my OS is too old. Curses!! If I expect to keep this up I better get on this...

Colour and Shine; Basic and Matte

I want both colour and shine, and basic and matte. Especially now that Spring is fast approaching, I can't help but idealize all of the outfits that have been given a thought in the last months - my ability to really embrace the ridiculous is probably at an all time high right now.

I have a tweed coat with bits of turqouise woven through, but more outrageous than that, it has buttons that hardly fasten the thing and an enormous ruffled bit that hangs down one side. This means that when it's cold and I'm trying my darndest to bundle up, I can't possibly rely on those buttons nor can I wrap a huge scarf around myself and possibly hope to fit through a doorway, when I'm accompanied by the ruffle as well!

These things means that THIS is the time to experiment. Now is the time for the coat to come on out with me. If I can't bring my huge scarf or even button the coat it's not a problem. The weather is cooperating enough, the sun is out long enough, and the touch of color in the tweed is just perfect.
Also, I have these insane silky trousers left to me by my late grandmother, a wonderful and inspiring woman both in her wardrobe and out. I have a whole little collection - high wasted, wide legged, embellished trousers. One pair is bright blue with small stars covering the whole thing. Another is navy with white trim in all the right places.

So my biggest hope is to debut these in the next few weeks, when it's not so warm that I suffocate in them, but it's not so cold that I feel I forgot my pants altogether. Another trick is picking a day without a chance of rain. Frankly at this point, with my grandmother so recently lost to me, I'd rather keep them hanging pristine in my closet than risk staining them on a slushy rainy day. So pray to the weather gods with me and perhaps we'll be able to start experimenting with them sooner rather than later.