COLOR ME TROPICAL

Aloha to all my Gal Pals,

I want to explain how I ended up with the picture above. Lately I seem to have a lot of wandering thoughts. A few of these wanderings make sense because they are related to something important like solving a problem. However, I am astounded by the majority of them because I start with one thought related to something in my immediate environment and somehow that one thought takes me to far away places. That is how I ended up with my intro picture. I was listening to the song “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys which made me think of tropical islands which made me think of the movie “South Pacific” (that I recently watched) which made me think of soldiers in the South Pacific (my father was one of them) which made me think of Betty Grable as a pin-up girl which made me think “Wouldn’t it be fun to recreate a pin-up picture for my blog” since it is about tropical outfits and VOILA! I guess I should be thankful that my mind works at all. There are days I think it is giving me the silent treatment. I once read something on a poster that makes me worry “Getting older is just one body part after another saying, ‘HaHa, you think that’s bad? Watch this!” UGH!

We are in the midst of one of the hottest Julys in history. It is hot, hot, hot! It makes me think of Crabby Maxine who says “If hell’s gonna be this hot, I gotta start being nicer.” It seems like the perfect time to wear those tropical outfits. A little history on tropical attire for women which evolved from those service personnel of the South Pacific I was referring to earlier. After WWII ended in the 1940s Hawaiian print shirts, sarong dresses and tropical flowers have been popular clothing in summer. Women of the 1940s through the 1960s hosted Tiki parties as did restaurants and dance halls. To dress for these occasions, women wore tropical print dresses called tiki dresses. The tiki dress had two main shapes. Full circle skirts (i.e. swing dresses), and the very narrow pencil shaped dresses associated with the Pin-up Girl that is still popular today. All were made with tropical print fabrics. Backing up a little farther in history, the Christian missionaries, who arrived in 1820 to set up operations in Maui and Oahu, preferred the native women fully clothed instead of half naked. Mission women designed the Hawaiian muumuu to accommodate native women of all sizes, and the muumuu continues to be popular today in richly decorated native floral patterns. With the current heat, I feel like I am on a tropical island. I always find it funny when I hear men complain to women about the heat. Most of us can relate to Crabby Maxine who says, “To me summer is just one long hot flash”.

I think I showed you one garden picture that contained my dad’s hibiscus plant. I decided to make it the focus for this blog not only because it is a tropical plant but because it is 30 years old.

It stands almost 7 feet tall in the pot and it has managed to stay alive in my unheated garage during subzero weather. When my dad passed away over 20 years ago I inherited it and take care of it in honor of him.

OK, let the tropical fashion show begin. Every tropical outfit is not complete without a hat, sunglasses and a tropical drink in your hand.

This top is not only a beautifully colorful article of clothing and covers the tummy, it was a great buy from Chico’s because it was on sale, I got a member discount and I had a gift card from my birthday. I think I might have talked about my Jams before in another blog. They are light weight, loose fitting pants that have an elastic waste and tie string. They remind me of “I Dream of Jeannie” pants but not so transparent. I have them in several colors. I use to wear them on hot days in the garden to keep the mosquitos off my legs.

I decided to show the tropical pattern along with the jewelry I paired it with. It is hard to find accessories in the purplish-pink color of the flowers and butterflies but not impossible. The watch band and the earrings I wore are exactly the same color. You can’t tell by the picture but the sunglasses’ lenses reflect the turquoise color. The bracelets and rings also compliment the turquoise in the pattern. The necklace says “Chic”.

I love this outfit because it just flows. I wish you could feel the material of this light weight tropical top. The only way I can describe it as “rich”. It was a splurge buy this past February when I took my sister out for a shopping trip at Von Maur for her birthday. It always happens that I am out shopping for someone else and I end up also buying something for myself. But in my defense it was a great buy and it minimizes my belly. Some of the flowers in the top are navy blue so I paired it with a summer pair of wide leg, navy blue pants and navy sandals.

I love dragonflies and I miss seeing them around my pond. Butterflies and dragonflies go beautifully with tropical flowers. The colors in the butterfly bracelet are exactly the colors in the flowers of the top. The sunglasses have a navy blue frame and the ring as well as the watch are the same green colors of the tropical leaves.

Two years ago in August of 2019 I did a blog about outfits that you could wear out for lunch then go right to the pool. This is one of those outfits. Instead of a top I am wearing a black bathing suit with a pleated overlay that hangs over a pair of black Jams (described previously). It is easy to slip off the Jams and the tropical duster is a great poolside coverup.

I always make sure I have a watch when tanning so I know when to turn over and of course it is always color coordinated with my bathing outfit. The lovebird bracelet and the necklace are coated with a shiny coppery color. The necklace has lovely matching earrings but to be perfectly honest I rarely wear dangling earrings to the beach because I would have to take them off and sure as shootin I would lose one of the earrings. I have a collection of earrings that are no longer a pair. I keep them just in case I come upon the lost earrings but I am giving up hope. I think I have a better chance of finding a missing sock.

OK, I haven’t lost any more weight since the last blog but during the summer I am glad not to have gained weight. I love socializing while sitting outside and eating desserts. I think I mentioned last week that I bought a Yonana and it satisfies my ice cream cravings. The problem is I have a lot of other cravings in the summer (actually all year round). Aunty Acid taught me to pray “Dear Lord, let me only crave water this week” but I can only hold out for about an hour. The problem is I don’t like water. I drink it only because I’m told I have to drink it for my health. My brother sent me an email poster that reflects my feeling about giving up my guilty food pleasures at my age. It says “Did you know? By replacing your potato chips with grapefruit as a snack you can lose up to 90% of what little joy you still have left in your life”. Amen to that. I prefer to enjoy what is left of my life so I subscribe to a quote I read “I’m fat but I identify with skinny, I’m trans-slender”.

Well, that is it for this month. I am so proud of myself for getting this blog out on time. There were no major disruption in my life over the last 4 weeks. So hopefully I will get the next one out in August. On the other hand you may get a notice that I copied from Aunty Acid that states “ATTENTION ALL! Due to my recent carb setbacks my summer body has been postponed for yet another year! Your patience is, as usual, fully appreciated. Please bring me a donut. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.”

Until then, remember God loves you and so do I.