Keeping it real - Easter Dress Style

Even though I'm now in my 30s...an "Easter Dress" is still a must.  I don't know that I will ever outgrow this notion and requirement.  This year Easter snuck up on me and the week of Easter I was clicking through the web looking for said garment. All of these photos are ones I took on my phone while texting with my Mother about "which one looked best"....so I'm keeping it real with my camera photos instead of the actual web pics.  You know...a little blogging character. The majority of the options I selected were from ASOS Curve, but I also liked a few from Talbots, Simbly Bee, Rachel Pally, and MimuMaxi (where approximately 80% of my dresses are from these days.) I ended up ordering a dress from ASOS with 2 day shipping and it did arrive on time. I also ordered a Rachel Pally dress with 2 day shipping and it didn't come until Easter Monday (#fail). 

Dress #1 - ASOS 

Dress #2 - ASOS I have this one in a shorter version and LOVE it

Dress #3 - ASOS I decided this one had way too much going on in the hip region. 

I don't need any extra attention drawn on that area.  Thus this dress didn't make the short list. 

Dress #4 - ASOS this is the dress I ordered and love it. It is long and has a very nice shape about it. 

The back is a little lower than I would like and naturally it has no sleeves. I don't do bare arms in church (period). Has nothing to do with size. I is just something I don't do.  I'm of the cover your knees/arms THE END persuasion. I don't care if you're 15, 32, 50, or 85. Keep it real while you're in church. Long story short, I like this one a lot. I bought a navy elbow length cardigan to wear of the top. It's lovely. 

Dress #5- Simply Bee

This one was $29. And it is pink. 

The end. A good deal to be had. 

Dress #6 - MimuMaxi

I have nearly every dress they sell. I wear them with everything to everything and for everything. 

It is probably the most versitle articles of clothing I've ever owned. That keeps me a loyal customer. 

I can do a day's work in it - looking good - feeling good - and roll into the evening activity per day and still feel appropriately dressed.  Likewise, it suits my personal guidelines for church of keeping it real (if you don't remember that portion look up about 2 photos). I highly recommend this company. 

If you've not done it - check them out! 

I ended up wearing the white Cascade dress (pictured above) for Easter and was quite pleased with it. In addition to being a bit of a goose about various wardrobe things - I also am into grey scale pieces.  It is unlikely to see me wearing a bunch of color - and if so, it is an accessory. I'm good with black and white and all the shades in between.  So that was another part of my conundrum searching for an Easter dress.  I felt like a flower garden in 95% of the options.  Thus, decided to stick with the solids of my preferred grey scale. 

Well - so - I ordered 2 dresses. 1 of them showed up on time and 1 did not.  I ended up wearing one of my Mimu dresses for Easter. I'll wear the other two undoubtedly sometime this spring/summer. In addition to my modesty rule, I also have a rule that if I won't wear it at least 3 times in the upcoming season - I don't buy it.  So alas, here we go for spring and with some new, quite dandy dresses to sport.

Where have you been?

Where in the world have you been young lady? 

Sorry...I've been a bit tied up lately. Per usual. 

Here is one of my sporadic blog posts to show you what I've been up to. 

I've been spending my time on campus - obviously - as I'm a doctoral student

BUT - BUT - BUT
 I'm also working on campus in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. 

(the building on the left in the picture below)

I've been doing some temp work in the music school at University of Memphis for the past few weeks. It has been nice to return to the habitat of "my kind"...I will say the smell of a music building (at least the ones I've been in) smell like music buildings, rather than science buildings...there's something about that smell that throws me back to Murphy Hall at my undergrad and summers of music camp, etc.  That smell, the same nostalgic smell is what I'm experiencing every day at work. And perhaps it isn't at all that it smells like a "music building" it is just a cognitive reminder of happy things in the past. Regardless of any notion - it is good to be "home" in a place where the sounds (and smells) are familiar.

I turned 32.

Well. It happened. I turned 32. For some reason unpronounced to me this birthday felt the most traumatic of all the "I'm getting older birthdays". It was kind of like that scene from SATC when Carrie Bradshaw turns 35...well, that happened for me 3 years early. So, I'm going to stay 31 until I actually do turn 35. I swear. My sakes.

31 (2014) was an okay year. Not exactly a gravy train. But, it happened. Seemed like one transition point after another.  It felt like one adult type thing after another. Perhaps an opportunity to chalk it up to growing pains? But there were good things as a 31 year old. Perhaps my favorite of the year, spending July in NYC. That was terrific. I will always remember that trip, the learning experience, etc. Things that were not lovely about being 31. Perhaps at the top, the realization that I wasn't doing something that made me happy or that I wanted to do any longer. When you figure out you're going down the wrong path at 31, that's harsh when you've made so much effort to be in the right place. So, I said goodbye to my 31 year old self on January 30th at midnight and welcomed in my 32 year old self. Which, thus far,  I'm optimistic that something more sunny is coming my way.

 My birthday weekend started with some extra props for music lessons. 

I give you the girls from Frozen as well as Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse. 

Hey, when you're 5, it's all good. I say bring'em. I'll use them to help you learn the piano. 

And...my Mom sent me a new book for the collection. 

And yes. I wore some pink. 

Through in other years it consumed more of my outfit, as I'm growing older...it's a smaller portion. 

I got two of these new to me lamps from Antique Warehouse on Summer Ave. 

They are brassy gold with a solid carerra marble base. LOVE THEM. 

I have one in the living room and the other is in the lady room. 

And as you can see, Handsome was on hand to assist. 

I share my birthday (January 31) with Justin Timberlake. 

Shout out to JT. 

Okay...and a shout out to Handsome. 

Later in the day we went to see "Cake"...

And do not me decieved this is not a happy birthday cake kind of movie. 

Though...it was thrilling. Fabulous movie, wonderful acting. Terribly sad. 

Then Dr. GHW had to rush off to marry some folks so the bday celebration was put on hold.

Post wedding, we hit the Peabody for some beverages. 

My pick, an ode to my pinky love...Pink Cadillac. 

F-U-N in a glass. 

Following the adult beverage portion of the evening at The Peabody, 

we loaded back up and headed to midtown for dinner at Restaurant Iris. 

Me + Him on my 32nd Birthday. 

Our dinner reservation was at 9pm. As we were driving back to East Memphis, we realized that since the next day was Superbowl Sunday that perhaps we should stop off to pick up some food to avoid the crowd.  Well we did get some food and we also came home with this delightful caterpillar. It was on sale and was purchased for $29.98.  I love it.

Fun evening indeed. 

Then, Sunday brought lessons and preparation for our 

"SuperBowl/Downton Abbey/Birthday gathering"

I share a birthday weekend with a lovely group of ladies from our church so we have celebrated around our collective birthdays for the past 7 or so years. I am the youngest, the next is 62 and the eldest is 82. We are quite the group.  

Dot with our shared birthday cake. 

And a birthday box from my family in Kansas. 

Being away from home is very hard. That will never get any easier. 

But, it does help to have a few treats from the fam at home. 

Here we go 32, let's do this.

New Photos of Me + Him

A couple of weeks ago, I had a new head shot taken for WKNO at WKNO by none other than Marci Lambert. The whole process took about 7 minutes. She took probably 20 photos and behold the very first one she took was the chosen photo. I haven't had one taken in several years - at least of a serious nature - so this was a treat not to mention just plain fun.

The hubs came with me so she snapped a couple of photos of him too. Which is cool because now we have a matching set. Our collection of Olan Mills Church photos are ridiculous - that's not my bag at all.  So this is fun to have photos of the two of us in a different light - Literally!

If you're in the market for a friendly photog - check out Marci Lambert!

Mid Century Renovation Inspiration Photos

Every morning I open my email, very nearly before my feet hit the ground. Amongst the myriad of emails, mostly junk these days, is one of my favorites, the daily email from Domain Home. I can always count on 2 things from that blessed email.  1. That I am going to ooo-ahh at the approximately 6 article links the email provides. 2. I am then going to practically rewrite some aspect of my "final" plan for projects in at #dwh2. 

On Thursday, February 5, this happened in a mega way.

Now, as I've clearly said about 3 other times in this post, these photos are from Domain/Pinterest. 

Not my house, not my monkeys, but man is this a circus I could be part of on a daily basis.

So without further adieu...

All photos via Domain Home/Pinterest