I Was Born to Distract

I was once asked to remove these earrings during class as the teacher thought they were too, "Distracting." 1980 was such an innocent time, before teachers knew what distractions were yet to come. Looking at them today, it is hard to see what would have been so terribly interesting that it would keep students from their work. 

You want distracting? I've got distracting right here in this Diane Freis dress from the 1980's. With all the ruffles and wild colours I've come to think of this as the, "Carnival Dress", and so it was only fitting I wear it this weekend. 

 Did someone say, "Huge sleeves?" Well, here ya go.

I wouldn't have worn anything like this in the 80's, but through some fluke I now own two very loud, Diane Freis dresses. My mother had several in this style, but she was tall which helps with a dropped waist...I mean, on the dress. My waist dropped years ago along with my boobs. 

These dresses sell for crazy amounts of money at 1st Dibs, and other designer spots for vintage around the net. I found both of mine at Goodwill. As far as I can tell (where I live anyway) there are still plenty of them out there in the thrifts for considerably less than $595.00! I think I paid about five dollars. They're easy to spot by the wild designs, but also by the elasticised drop-waist design. They're worth keeping an eye out for. The design of these dresses makes them comfortable to wear, and forgiving if you put on a few pounds. 

Whenever I wear this dress I find myself wishing I owned a bottle of Poison, but looking through my perfume collection I settled on Fragile. It felt like a good fit, though it isn't quite as forceful as an outfit like this seems to demand. Next time, I'm doing Knowing. 

Outfit Particulars:
Diane Freis dress (80's) Goodwill
Sweater coat-Dots, about 15 years ago
Brooch-Antique store somewhere in Massachusetts
Early 80's earrings-I Think they came from The Limited, but I could be wrong. After three decades it all gets a bit murky.
Bracelets-I believe all of them came from K Mart at various times.
Boots-K Mart
Tights-Walgreen's
Vintage Johansen handbag-Hand-Me-Ups
Fragrance-Jean Paul Gaultier  Fragile

I rarely wear stretch bracelets as they tend to cut off my circulation, but these are comfortable. The large blue ones need to be worn higher up because when they sit at my wrist they are heavy enough to bang at my wrist bones. The joys of RA! I've found that juggling the bangles/bracelets/rings around typically comes up with a way I can wear them comfortably. It might change day to day, but eventually I figure it out. Sometimes I can wear things later in the day that wouldn't go over my hand early in the morning. I won't even talk about shoes. It hurts to be fabulous!

I found a store in Omaha that stocks my favourite mints in the whole entire world. Naturally, I bought two dozen packets. Violets are one of my favourite edible flowers, and the mints smell so incredible it is worth keeping a packet in your purse just for the sachet quality. The lemon mints are excellent as well. Now that I know I could just order online, I never need be without them again...I have very low requirements for my happiness.

We have a busy week ahead, but I've put aside some time on Tuesday for pancake making. When Danny was little, we'd make crepes, and I'd let him have the first one or two imperfect ones. He'd cover them with the sorts of things a small child would-brown sugar, jam, chocolate chips, all of that at once, and so on. Over the years, my crepe making has improved to where I rarely mess them up, but Danny still gets the first two, perfect or otherwise. He's lucky he's an only child or he might need to fight for them! Typically, I make them early in the day and then use them for a caramelised apple pile of crepes that goes under the broiler for a minute before serving. It is a nice, once a year sort of dessert, but I've also layered them with apricot jam and melted dark chocolate.

My mother was not a pancake maker. At all. We'd have them if we went out, but that was it. In the American Midwest, pancakes tend to be a thick, fluffy, cake-like thing made with buttermilk. You can get buckwheat pancakes, or Swedish pancakes which tend to be thinner, but in most places if you order a "pancake" you're getting the sweet, fluffy things.

 Here's an old photo from a Mother's Day breakfast (Before Danny developed food allergies. This was one of his last meals eaten away from home) that can give you an idea of what, "Pancakes" means in Nebraska. They're served with whipped butter and warmed maple syrup. I think Danny was about four here. I remember they had face-painting and the woman wanted to do a funnel cloud design on him and he was laughing that we'd already had a, "Real tornado." I obviously couldn't be bothered to wear makeup, but I did drag my behind out of bed for a drive to the city for pancakes. And what pancakes they were!How many calories do you suppose a plate of carbs like that packs?

As it is traditional to get drunk and flash your tits at carnival/mardi gras, I hope this will do.

Pancake Day-fluffy or thin? Maple syrup or lemon and icing sugar? Or do you just go for a King Cake instead? I have also been drafted to make apple fritters this year.

If you're looking for my archive of lenten cakes, click on the Pages link in the sidebar.