Don't you hate it when you try for Liz Taylor...
It's the hair. I have half a canister of Adorn in it too. I wouldn't mind having Anne Sexton's typewriter in the photo. If I saw a green typewriter in the Goodwill, I'd buy it in a second.
I've been saving this dress for a nice, spring day. We didn't get one of those today, but I wore it anyway to celebrate setting our clocks forward an hour. Longer days of sunshine are right around the corner.
Is there anything better than a gigantic necklace with a full-length polyester gown? I don't think so. This is far from my most flattering dress, but I love it so much I don't care. It is impossible to remain in a dour mood wearing a bright green dress. Impossible, I tell you!
Oooh, dangly earrings. I bought these about 40 years ago when I tagged along on a business trip with my dad. To kill time when he was seeing customers, I wandered into a small shop that sold items made by local artists. I wish I could remember the town-it was somewhere in Wisconsin and I think it was Cedarburg, but I can't say for certain. I saw these earrings and green being my favourite colour, I had to have them. I do remember that they cost fifteen dollars, which was a huge sum of money then, and far outside my budget. I bought them anyway, and I remember sneaking them home so my mother wouldn't see them because she'd have lost her mind if she knew I bought a pair of earrings for that kind of money. I wore them practically every day in High School, then I forgot about them. Once beaded earrings went out of style, they really went out of style, unless you were spending your time following the Dead. I'd wear them occasionally through the years, but even today they don't work with most of the clothes I own (which is probably a sign I need another suede fringed jacket like I had in High School!), Today, the stars aligned just so, and my treasured beaded earrings had a day out. I'm glad I was able to get a good photograph for the blog, as beads are notoriously difficult to photograph.
Outfit Particulars:
1970's polyester maxi-Fairy Tail Costumes, Omaha
Shoes-K Mart, several years ago
1970's Collins-style handbag-Goodwill
Necklace-K Mart
Earrings-A shop in Wisconsin decades ago
Lippy-Maybellene Shocking Coral
Fragrance-Elizabeth Taylor Gardenia (I would have worn Green Emeralds if I had it)
I'm going to risk it, and pack away the last of my winter clothes, leaving out a few cardigans because shops insist on blasting the AC all summer long. I'm not sure what I have from last summer that will still fit (thanks prednisone and menopause!). At the rate I'm going I can forget about Liz Taylor, and go straight for Totie Fields. Most years, I find clothes at the end of a season that get packed away for the following year. Hopefully, I have some nice tent dresses in there that I've forgotten about.
God rest her soul, she was hilarious.
I guess this can kind of count as my early St. Patrick's Day post as it is all so green. I swear it is a bigger holiday in the US than it is in Ireland. I grew up in Chicago where the river is dyed green each 17 March.
Anyone have plans for St. Patrick's Day, or is it "just another Mass day" as a friend at school used to say?
I hope you have a wonderful week
I think we could make the Liz look happen. I'd slip a bumpit under the top of that bob & tease your hair over it. Since Liz is all about the eyes- I'd swipe some minty shimmery green over the lid with a pop of pearly white ion the browbone & the inner eye corners, then a dramatic Arab style double flicked eye liner with the top flick in metallic emerald and the bottom flick in basic black. A warm pink or coral lippy & you're set. (I'd probably 2 strips of false eyelashes on top of that too, but that's just Bibi's OTT idea of glamour.)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that polyester green maxi with the metallic "between the boobies" button. I'll take one in basic black, ecru, orchidee, sapphire blue, and Bibi's signature sizzlin' hot pink. That neckline's high enough to pass Islamic standards & I can see myself becoming the Muslimah version of Fanny Craddock as I age, or "ripen" as Anita Ekberg used to say.
A cautionary tale-
In June 1977 a much-thinner Fields starred in the Home Box Office special series Standing Room Only, beginning her show seated in a wheelchair. As the audience welcomed her, she stood up, causing the cheering audience to stand with her. Said Fields: "I've waited all my life to say this... I weigh less than Elizabeth Taylor!" In October 1977, Fields was diagnosed with breast cancer and her right breast was removed. Nevertheless, Fields continued to perform, incorporating her health problems into her act. As a result, this changed the tone of her humor. Actor Van Johnson, who was a friend of Fields, was said to have remarked, "When Totie lost weight, she wasn't funny anymore."
So there!
Diets be damned!
I don't do anything for St Patrick's Day. (The English appreciation of it basically involves drinking far too much and wearing silly hats, but that can be said of any national celebration of any significance. And weddings.) I was quite surprised to realise how proud my granddad Mac's generation seemed to be of their Irish side as nothing's been transmitted down to my generation, not even the Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteI like soda bread, especially with honey and butter on.
I reckon there's a fair bit of Liz in your outfit. Definitely more Liz than Anne.
Enid Collins bags are starting to become a Thing even over here, I keep seeing more and more bloggers going on about them.
I think your dress is much nicer than Elisabeth's and your jewellery rocks!
ReplyDeleteYou're very brave putting away your winter stuff. The weather is quite spring-like here and I'm very tempted, but will leave it until Easter I think. Xxx
That is definitely The Dress of your collection, Goody! Lacking Liz's wearable rock collection, The Art Deco necklace is exactly right for the décolletage.
ReplyDeleteThe bead earrings are indeed a collector's prize, but one sees your point about their wearability in these drab times. Perhaps you might display them on one of those Christmas ornament table stands?
And speaking of Christmas ornaments, Totie remained funny. I remember her twirling onstage as light as a chiffon and sequined Christmas tree ball; and years later reciting a story about being shadowed "by something that squeaked and creaked" on a morning walk in Central Park. It was her new leg...
I'll wear a bit of faux emerald bling to mark the day and honor a g-g grandmother Mollie who was the one who "came West in a wagon and didn't marry whosit until they got there safely." My pet memory of other nods of acknowledging the Irish ancestors was a rather large photo badge of a bearded man, hatted and collared, worn on a green dress by an African-American co-worker. (He was, in fact, her maternal great-grandfather. She wore a beads and feather necklace at Thanksgiving to acknowledge her paternal side.)
Wow! Don't you look glamorous! I hope you didn't make soda farls in that gorgeous dress. I love green too and the earrings are a perfect match. I thought you looked better than Liz Taylor...Love that gold necklace, too.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to another blog where the blogger today has a similar (same designer/maker) bag as you: http://50isnotold.com/2016/03/14/spring-in-the-mountains/
A coincidence or what?
I think you're right about St. Patrick's day in the US. The Irish certainly don't dye their river!
When I was a child my granny used to send us St. Patrick's Day badges and a big sprig of shamrock from Ireland, but that was as far as we used to celebrate it. I daresay my parents had a few Guinneses, though!
We called champ - colcannon. We usually had it on Fridays (no meat day) with a fried egg on top. Lovely!
Have a great week
Veronica
vronni60s.blogspot.com
As a total pleb I don't have a clue who Anne Sexton is and will have to Google her. You're definitely channeling Liz Taylor in that fab green maxi and blingy jewels. Those earrings are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI do have plans for 17th but it ain't nothing to do with the Irish or Catholic saints. xxx
@Bibi
ReplyDeleteI was wearing more eyeliner (upper and lower) than I've ever worn in my life! There's a shimmery eyeshadow too, but it just isn't for me I guess. *Sob*. At least I look good in a caftan.
@Mim
The Enid bags are cute (I have a box bag with a bird on it)but not worth the prices they are commanding these days. These bucket-style bags are so close to the original that I'm happy to wear them. I never was a label snob. I can see why people like them though-the shape is practical, holds quite a bit, and they are real conversation pieces-and unlike lucite bags they are nearly indestructible.
@Polyester Princess
Thank you. But Liz's jewelry was *real*. Don't you think I;d look so much better with a few thousand dollars worth of diamonds around my neck? I think I would!
@Beth
I like the idea of honouring you relatives with some bling. The only Irish members of our family married-in, and probably instantly regretted it!
@Veronica
I took a look at the link-how funny. Her's is a genuine Enid Collins bag.
The flower shops in Boston all sold shamrock this time of year, but here in the Midwest, we just don't have enough Irish population to buy it. Sometimes in spring shops will get heather plants, but that's unreliable too.
@Vix
Sexton was a confessional poet that should have kept a bit more to herself ;)
She famously parked illegally to go to a bar (with Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath) and was told, "Hey lady, you can't park here, this is a Loading Zone" to which she replied, "That's OK, we're going to get loaded."