Sweet Pastels

Hello to all my Gal Pals,

I can’t believe this is blog #55! Where has time gone? Time is such a precious thing when you hit my age. I remember the days when I thought there was not enough time in a day to get everything done. I was raising my children, working and going to school in the evenings. I saw time as a present here-and-now concept. However, at my current age I look at time as more of a lifespan concept. Some of you might have a “BUCKET LIST” of things you want to do before time runs out. I do not have a “Bucket List”. I have already traveled around the world, I don’t want to do anything risky like skydiving nor do I want to learn ballroom dancing. For the most part I am content with my life as it is. All I want to do is spend time with family and friends. When I was working I only had time to read professional reference books or text books. Now I read solely for enjoyment. I may have 30 more years on this planet or I could die tomorrow. What I want is quality of life for my remaining days. It really bothers me when someone negatively impacts that goal so, you know I’m about to complain about something. It is like Aunty Acid says, “People who say ‘I can’t complain’ just aren’t trying”. I get somewhat upset about having to wait on the phone to talk to a real person after going through 20 minutes of wait time. However, what really gets my “panties in an uproar” is a medical system that sucks! I am not upset with all of the medical system just the part where I have to deal with specialists. I have been having some health issues lately and would like to get them resolved. Why do I have to wait 2 months to get in to see a specialist as a returning patient? Do these doctors not see a problem with letting people suffer for months until they have time for these sick patients? Do these doctors not see that some of their patients don’t have all the time in the world? Don’t they think that my time is valuable? I can relate to Aunty Acid who says “I had my patience tested….I’m negative”. I was told that I have a choice, either I could wait to see a specialist or I could go to the emergency room. Last time I went to my local emergency room there was an 18 hour wait because everyone was in the same boat I was in. I would like to spend my days enjoying quality time with family and friends but that is hard to do if I don’t feel well! OK, I have said my peace and I will get off my soap box. Thank you for letting me spout and I will try to be nicer in my next blog but it is like Aunty Acid says, “If what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger then I should be able to bench press a Cadillac by now!”.

The title of this blog lets you know that I will be talking about the use of pastels in women’s fashion but also about form and function when wearing light hues. The nice thing about dark clothes is that they minimize our little poochy bellies and all our other fat pads. Unfortunately, pastels don’t do the same so you need to consider the form of the pastel articles of clothing and how they can function as minimizers or how you can pair them with other articles of clothing that can act as minimizers. The pastel clothing trend is totally in for spring and summer seasons. Pastels seem to evoke quite a lot of wonderful emotions. One of the articles I read put it this way “This type of clothing brings to mind the sweetness of candies and innocence. They make you think of luxury on a sunny afternoon and a gentle life. Pastels conjure up images of babies and well-behaved children in their Sunday best.” You will have to figure out the best pastel colors for your skin tone because some pastel colors may make you look washed out. You can usually find one or more pastel colors that will look good on you. I am wearing a summer scarf with each of the outfits because I think accessories really make an outfit.

I am going to talk about our favorite spring flowers and our use of form and function in the landscape. I love taking my morning walks in the spring and looking at all the daffodils and tulips in the front yards of my neighbors. However, now on my walks I am looking at ugly dying leaves on those same plants. The landscape solution is day lilies.

This is what my day lilies looked like at the beginning of June but the plant starts to leaf out in April. You can’t tell that there are dying daffodil leaves underneath because the form of the leaves of both plants are strap-like and the function of the day lilies is to hide the ugliness of the daffodil and tulip leaves. The day lilies get large enough to cover the upright leaves of the daffodils. Same with tulips as their leaves tend to bend over like the leaves of the day lilies. The strap-like form of the day lily leaves allow the sun to get through to feed the spring bulb plants. No one wants to look at dying leaves.

Ok, it is time for my sweet pastels.

One way to wear pastels is to create a monochromatic look. The two piece outfit and all accessories are the same pale pink. I love the looseness of the top and the wide leg pants that just flow when I walk because the material is so lightweight. There is a pattern in the material that creates a striped look. The lacy, delicate scarf I am wearing is the exact same color of the outfit and is very lightweight like the outfit material. I am wearing my clear Barbie shoes so all you see are my pink toenails.

The short necklace and bracelet are made of pink glass beads and the long necklace has an insert with a pale pink background, white and pink flowers and words that read “Sisters are Forever Friends”. The clip-on earrings are also pale pink as is the square stone in one of the rings. The other ring has a landscape carving under the glass.

For those of you who do not feel you look good in lilac around your face then wear lilacs pants. The scarf replaces the need for a necklace and is made up of multiple stripes of pastel colors. The white blouse falls loose around the hips but adds a little flair around the upper arms. This is such a casual look that I decided that sneakers are best paired with it.

Because of all the colors in the scarf you could wear almost any color in your other accessories. The watch band, faux pearl earrings and pearl ring are a light purple while the glass bead bracelet is a dark purple. The other ring has a heart shaped green peridot gem.

Pastels look great with neutral colors. Here I am wearing cream colored skinny pants and a sleeveless cream colored top underneath a blue-green topper with a two-toned pale green scarf. The topper is one that can be worn a few different ways. In order to hide my tummy I wear it like this. I paired it with a cream colored pair of sandals with a one inch heel.

All the accessories are either pale green, blue-green or blue. I got the bracelet and earrings at the library sale for a dollar each. The rings I got from an antique store in South Haven, Michigan. One has a blue-green stone and the other a cream colored pearl. The watch is a sea foam green while the shorter necklace is made up of cream, blue-green and turquoise circles. The longer faux pearl necklace is blue-green. All-in-all, this is a great grouping of colors.

This was my favorite blog because I got to eat part of the scenery (the bakery goods) while we were shooting the pictures. I gained 3 pounds between the time we took the pictures and the time I wrote the blog because someone had to eat all those bakery goods and I volunteered. I try to eat healthy but my diet is similar to Crabby Maxine’s which is “I believe in eating several servings of fruit each day, in pie form”. It would have been a sin to spend all that money on cookies, donuts, coffee cake and cupcakes then let them end up in the garbage. I did share some of them with my sister (my photographer) because it is rude to eat in front of others without offering them some of the goods. Unfortunately we had just come home from Michigan where I got very little exercise and ate poorly. I guess this means I am going to have to go on a diet and work out in order to fit into my bathing suit (yeh, right). Like Aunty Acid says “I’ve reached the age where my mind makes commitments my body can’t keep”.

Well, until next month, remember God loves you and so do I.