That’s a Wrap!

Hello To All My Gal Pals,

This has been a time of such high drama I thought I would reference the theater throughout the blog. I have had the most fun writing this one and said I would continue to write the blog as long as it was fun for me. My first theater reference is to the movie “Pollyanna” (hopefully most of my friends know this movie) and the “glad game”. If you remember, Pollyanna was able to find something positive out of a bad situation. Well, I am glad to see annoying retail commercials on TV because they are not hundreds of campaign ads. I am glad for the mundane everyday flyers in my mailbox because they are not political statements. Even though I log into Facebook with some trepidation ( I won’t say anything further but I am sure some of you can relate), I am glad that most of the posts are ones of unity, family pictures and humorous cartoons (we could all use a good laugh these days). Of course we all should be more like Auntie Acid who says “Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth”. So I am continuing to be glad and always smiling.

For those of you who have been with me from Blog #1 you know that the purpose of this blog is to demonstrate that older woman can look fashionable while hiding the tier 3 belly, the lowest tier of the fat layers we seem to acquire after 55. As fashionable Maxine says “I’m at that age where I can achieve ‘that layered look’ completely naked”. I would prefer to have that “look” by layering my clothes and jewelry. You also remember I am not necessarily into trends. As Gianni Versace said. “Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide who you are”. You should forget the rules and if you like it, wear it. My motto is “If you wear things you love, you just look better.” Of course, in this day of Covid there aren’t many places to go that I need to get dressed up. These days I seem to relate more to Maxine who said, “At my age, my number one fashion question is “Can I nap in it?”.

So let’s get started with the fashion of the day. The title of the blog is so appropriate for three reasons. “That’s a Wrap!” can refer to the end of the election, what is said at the end of a movie scene, or what could be considered an accessory in fashion. Many times you can find a fashionable wrap in the accessory department of a store. I decided to do something different in this blog. I am going to wear the same black top and pants in each picture and show how you can accessorize it with a different wrap and jewelry to make a completely different outfit each time. I have about 10 pairs of black pants of differing styles and 15 black tops ranging from sleeveless to long sleeves. From simple pairings of black tops and pants, I have enough wraps, jackets, sweaters, etc. to make over 50 outfits. So my advice, invest in black. The nice thing about black is that it masks whether your clothes are expensive or inexpensive. I don’t have the budget to buy expensive pieces and I subscribe to the philosophy of Maxine who says, “Wouldn’t it be nice if retail therapy were covered by health insurance”.

As a school psychologist I have always been interested in the concept of “perception” because it dictates so much of human behavior. I have been looking into the relationship between visual perception and the color black. I wanted to know why we look so slim in this color. I will try to summarize it for you as best as I can. Black increases the slimming illusion because it does not reflect light. Other colors are affected by light projecting reflections or casting shadows in areas where your body curves or the material bends and wrinkles. Black on the other hand doesn’t have that effect so any imperfections remain hidden. The human brain is hardwired to seek out light over dark. Here are some other good reasons to wear black. It never goes out of style, it means never having to worry about matching it with other colors, it camouflages stains, it can be layered endlessly, it flatters every skin tone, it allows you to go wild with accessories, and it always looks kind of dressed up. I rest my case.

I am going to use a little outdoor decorating to highlight today’s blog on accessorizing. When landscaping, I worked with hardscapes and softscapes. The hardscapes include things like decks, ponds and retaining walls. The softscapes included shrubs and trees. All these are fairly permanent to an area and become part of the landscape design. The picture below should be familiar to you because I have used it in other blogs but it looks significantly different. The softscaping is the same but the “accessories” make the area look completely different.

Similar to the landscape design concept, adding different accessories to a black “softscape” creates a whole new outfit. No one is the wiser to the fact that you are often wearing the same two articles of clothing. That is why I feel my accessories expand my wardrobe. Accessories have the capacity to express an individuals identity and personality. I have a big personality and my accessories reflect that.

I told you earlier that I was going to add a little theater to my blog. I decided to reenact scenes from some of my favorite movies. In each scene I am wearing the same black “softscape” with different accessories. See if you can guess the scene before you read the description. The three wraps you will see all came from a little store called The Beach House in Saugatuck, Michigan. They were on sale and ranged from $15 to $39. I tend to buy most of my pieces from the middle of August to the middle of November because the boaters and other tourists return home and the boutiques in these boater towns put their merchandise on sale.

Hopefully you guessed “Saturday Night Fever”. It was hard for me not to smile but John Travolta looked very intense in this scene. My jewelry goes beautifully with the rusty fall color of this striped wrap. The black is slimming but the colorful wrap is what catches the eye. I love layering my jewelry. See the jewelry below.

This grouping has the Aztec Indian feel to me. The black ring was bought at a free trade store in St. Joseph, Michigan. It is made of a wood from South America. The other ring is made of mixed metals but most of the grouping is made with gold metals. I love layering so on each wrist and my neck I wore two accessories. I love the use of feathers in jewelry. All pieces are color coordinated with my outfit and each other. I always try to make sure the pieces I choose make sense. I start with the necklace and work outward from there, building on some aspect of the necklace.

The hills are alive with the “Sound of Music”. I wish my singing voice was similar to Julie Andrew’s but I do OK in that department. When you wear all black you have to wear jewelry that stands out. Every accessory other than the wrap have a beautiful shimmer. You can shine with a very simple outfit. You can’t see it in the picture but my shoes are black and they sparkle. See the rest of the sparkly accessories below.

There is a leaf theme in this grouping. The only accessory that doesn’t sparkle is my watch. Even the stems and leaves of the scarf are outlined with sparkles. By the way, olive green is a hot color for this winter. The leaf slide and the leaf earrings are not a set even though they look like they are. The slide came from a cute little boutique in Holland, Michigan and the earrings came from Petals and Twigs in New Lenox, Illinois. The leaf bracelet was part of my mother’s costume jewelry collection and is filled with man made diamonds (in other words “fake”) as is the long necklace. The cuts in the metal bracelet create the sparkly appearance.

I went all out on the scenery for this pose. I pulled the shower curtain and mat out of my bathroom and set it up in my bedroom. It is not the best pose to highlight my wrap but I think you “get the picture” (Psycho I hope). You never get to see Janet Leigh’s body but this is my interpretation of what it probably looked like as the knife was coming toward her. This wrap is a beautiful color and even matched well with my shower curtain. What I like about this wrap is that you can wear it several different ways. It looks so cute as an asymmetrical poncho. I didn’t wear shoes because, after all, who wears shoes in the shower (of course, who wears clothes in the shower)? Shower jewelry is shown below.

This necklace really shows off my personality. Not only do I love flowers but I really love chunky jewelry. I recently read that chunky jewelry supposedly makes women look older but how much older can I look at my age? Because the necklace is so large, the rest of the pieces have to hold their own weight. The flowers on the bracelet exactly match the necklace flowers but these pieces were not bought together. The dark orange ring goes well with the dark orange flowers and the white stone of the other ring looks like one of the petals of the flowers. The peachy colored watch also goes with the colors of the necklace. The nice thing about this necklace is that I have the options of pairing it with so many different accessories in my collection.

Well, that is it for today. I am trying hard to keep off the few pounds that I lost over the last few months. I don’t like exercising but I love going for long walks with my dog. I agree with Aunty Acid who says “I don’t exercise. If God wanted me to bend over, he would have put cupcakes on the floor”. In reality they wouldn’t last on the floor because my dog would assume they were for him (I would hate to fight with my dog over food). I decided I needed a pick-me-up so I am putting up my Christmas trees this weekend and binging on Hallmark Christmas movies. I hope you can find the joy in something you will do this weekend.

So, till next time, remember God loves you and so do I.