Monday, October 09, 2017

Won't Lose Me in a Crowd-80's edition

Thank you everyone for your well wishes. I do try to avoid complaining but sometimes it gets the best of me. I'll try to keep the grumbling to a minimum though as I get sick of hearing about it too! Thanks for indulging me though.

How's everyone's Rocktober coming along? We've been trying our best to get into the Halloween spirit (see what I did there?) but the rainy, steamy weather has been most uncooperative. I think today was expected to be the last of it, though we don't have a frost in sight for a while. I don't have plans for the green tomatoes beyond a few batches of chutney, but it might make sense to make a batch of vegetarian green tomato mincemeat. I could pickle the tomatoes, but I'm the only one that will eat a sour pickled tomato and I rarely want more than one. I'm still pulling in ripe tomatoes, so with a bit of luck I won't be too overwhelmed with underipe ones. 
 I've owned this sheer jacket for a few years, and it was only as I dressed last weekend that I noticed a bit of paper stuffed in the arm. I've been wearing the original price tag around for three years (the jacket is sheer-it must have been noticeable). *shakes head*. Goodness. What's worse, some fool paid $99.00 for it and never wore it before donating it...or else they overlooked the tag as well. Who puts a price tag up a sleeve anyway?!
 The skirt proved difficult to photograph, but you get the idea.

Outfit Particulars:
Nabi jacket-Hand-Me-Ups
Vintage satin blouse-Goodwill
Skirt-Goodwill
Tights-Walgreen's
Vintage leather boots-Goodwill
Brooch-Goodwill
Belt-Goodwill
Vintage Gaymode handbag-Goodwill
Fragrance-Geminesse

If you own a spider ring this is the time of year to wear it. We've had some lovely orb-weavers outside our window, big garden spiders, and the usual house-dwelling sorts. We don't get wolf spiders in this house like we did on the farm, so there's nothing here willing to take a bite out of us. I leave them alone, and they largely do the same with us. 
 I spotted this dress at Goodwill for .99 cents last week. It still had the $30.00 tag from the defunct vintage shop that was trying to sell it as 80's cool. Look, it was 80's-definitely, but this was never the sort of dress a "Cool" person would have worn. My mum would have worn this-and possibly her mum as well. It has gigantic shoulder pads (I'd place this circa '84-'86) and is made of a parachute material. It is too big on me as the shoulders kept slipping, and I had to wear a belt to keep it from twisting as I sat, but I really purchased it for my collection. I like pieces that are representative of the sort of thing people wore daily, not just for special occasions. I very much doubt I will be wearing it again, but I don't regret purchasing it. I would NOT have spent $30.00 on it. 80's stuff is still easily available-you don't need someone to curate it for you.
I do like the bright colours-but I wouldn't have been caught dead in a dress like this at the time.

 Outfit Particulars:
1980's dress-Goodwill
Boots-K Mart
Belt-Hand-Me-Ups
Vintage purse-Sequels
Earrings-Goodwill
Black bangles-both Goodwill
Fragrance-Shalimar

In other news...we've been out enjoying all the wonderful parks Nebraska has to offer.
The boys at Lakeside Park (gosh, they really got creative naming that one).
 Yellow-Rumped Warbler at Chalco Hills NRD
 Red-Tailed Hawk at Walnut Grove park.
 Wherespan lake on an Autumn morning.
 Somewhere in this tree are the first Dark Eyed Juncos we've seen this year (the Juncos are here! The Juncos are here!) which is always a source of excitement for birders. The birds are quite small, and camera shy.
As the Autumn migration is underway we're seeing more snow geese, gulls, pelicans, ibises, and cormorants. The yellow rumped warblers no longer migrate, and can be found in Nebraska year round, but they are more difficult to spot in winter plumage. If the weather cooperates, I'm going to try and take Danny out early before school each morning so he can take advantage of Nebraska being in the flight-path for all these birds. I'm not a morning person, but I have a travel tumbler and plenty of tea.

Anything interesting flying through your neighbourhood?  More importantly-what are you doing with your green tomatoes?














11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried curried green tomatoes yet? We used to do that in IL and they were delicious. JanF

Beth Waltz said...

Green tomatoes deserve to be fried! I confess to frying them in the bacon skillet -- the only "spider" allowed in my kitchen -- and adding them to the bacon on whole wheat toast sammich that is my end-of-summer season brunch. A BLT sans L.

The sheer jacket is perfection with the lime-detailed skirt. What else would work? A lime cashmere cardigan?

The 80s dress reminds me of a childhood book of nautical flags and their meanings given me by my father, the merchant seaman. (I think the left shoulder may signal: "Fresh produce onboard, we're in a hurry...")

Goody said...

@Jan
No, I haven't-that sounds lie a winner.

@Beth
Do you bread the tomatoes like a typical fried tomato, or just soften them up in bacon grease? I could try it with "Fakin' bacon soy strips and Crisco, but I suspect it would be but a sad imitation. I made some oven roasted salsa-type thing a few weeks back, but the boys weren't too excited by it.

I hadn't put that together but you're right-it does look like nautical flags.

Polyester Princess said...

I love the skirt with its lime detailing which perfectly matches the sheer jacket. Oh, and that brooch is divine! That mad 80's dress is quite something, as if the designer couldn't decide on the colour or the print, and put them all together in one dress! At least nobody was mad enough to pay $ 30 for it in that vintage shop, but for 99 cents I might have picked it up as a museum piece too! xxx

Beth Waltz said...

Simply slice those big, meaty greenies and plop them in the grease! I use a dab of olive oil because I usually prefer turkey bacon.

Mim said...

Good green and blue outfit - those colours look superb together. Noticeable but in an 'OMG that's fab!' way.

I'm not doing anything with any tomatoes because mine all got blight :-( So I had three before the plants all died.

Vix said...

Unmistakably 1980s! I think they're harder to find that 1960s and 1970s in chazzas, either the old dears who volunteer are scared of them or the hipsters have got in there first!
Both look fab on you, too good to miss at those prices.
South Indian green tomato curry - I can't find my recipe but you should find it if you google, delicious. xxx

Goody said...

@Ann
Yep, it is definitely an, "Everything dress." I sort of miss that spirit of, "What the hell, more is more" from the 80's.

@Beth
Sounds delicious.

@Mim
I wish I could send you some. This was a strange year, I never get a harvest like that from a few plants.

@Vix
Probably being kept for the church picnics (I just bought that dress in 1982).
I Googled at your suggestion and that sounds lovely-I think the boys would enjoy it. Thank you.

Melanie Folly Bird said...

I love seeing birds from other countries! I get very excited when I see anything new at all actually, even here!

Crikey, that dress just screams the 1980's! Over here there was a fad with shirts having each panel a different primary colour stripe in the 80's, I'd forgotten about those till now.

Radostin said...

Ooo, I am impressed by that lime & turquoise combination - you've outdone yourself!
Your birding spots look rather lovely, and I admire your dedication to early morning outings.

Goody said...

@Melanie
I have one of those colorblocks-in a cropped jacket with massive shoulder pads. I must wear it on blog for laughs (it is a collection piece I don't wear).

@Radostin
The early birder gets the er...bird?