Pucker Up or Shut Up

From the frog, not me. Sorry. 

I'm looking more pig than toad these days anyhow. 

Instead of complaining about that, would you permit me to brag about these recently thrifted silk and wool trousers I bought still bearing their $185.00 label for a dollar? Hell yes, I love thrifting. These were the "cheap" trousers that day, I also scored a pair of linen, made in France trousers with a pricetag of $375.00 also on the dollar rack at Hand-Me-Ups. Who spends that sort of dough on clothes they never even wear? Luckily for me, they do. I love a good pair of wide-legged trousers but they're almost always too baggy at the top. These were perfect, if a tiny bit long. I'll likely wear them with higher heels. 

 This jacket is a curiosity. It has buttons that would lead you to think it is double-breasted, but no buttonholes to pull them through. The details are nice though, and I found it with the original tags still attached from a department store that has been gone since 1960. This jacket cost $90.00 in the 50's! Good clothes took up a greater share of your budget back then, but they were better made, of course and people had far less. Cheap, available clothing hasn't exactly been a good thing for the world.

 I bought this one at the costume shop, of all places.

 Would you look at those buttons?

 I dressed the jacket up a bit because I really don't know how to do casual sportswear.

Outfit particulars:

Banana Republic trousers-Hand-Me-Ups, $1.00

Mam'selle vintage 50's jacket-Fairytail Costumes, Omaha

Top-K Mart

Necklace-Thrift store in Northern Wisconsin about 25 years ago

Monogram pins-Hobby Lobby

Vintage Whiting and Davis silver bracelet-Goodwill

1970's leather clutch bag-Goodwill

Boots-K Mart

1960's clip earrings-Thrift World

Lippy-Revlon 5th Ave. Red

Fragrance-Vintage formulation Jicky (still prefer the reformulation. Sorry).

Ooops-no rhinestones! I never noticed ('caus I'm almost blind) until I posted the photo.

It turns out the swollen finger was just the start of what looks to be one hell of an assault on my immune system. This happens from time-to-time, and I've been living with it most of my adult life. I have to be honest though, this time, it is an ass-kicking. I don't know if it is the combination of going through the change of life at the same time, or what, but each day has been interesting.  I'm sure we'll get it under control (eventually) but if my posts seem a bit scatterbrained, I hope you'll understand and just look at the pictures. Pictures are nice. Here's two I'm rather pleased with...

I've wanted an orchid for years, but they're terribly expensive and I'm not good with flowering houseplants. When I saw Aldi was selling them for a tenner after Valentine's Day, I took a chance and brought this one home. Once a week, it gets three ice cubes (or 1/4 cup of cool water) and that's about it. There are six more buds on the stem waiting to bloom, and I'm hopeful they will. In the meantime, I have a new subject to practice photography on. I have to be careful to avoid touching the leaves (latex allergy) but thus far, the plant hasn't tried to kill me. I don't think I've ever owned a prettier plant. The poinsettias are both still thriving as well, which is mind-boggling. I hope they make it to summer so they can live in the garden-wouldn't that be fun? 

Now, if we could just get the gardenia to bloom without making me wait until summer, I'd feel like I accomplished something monumental. 

 I thought about not posting outfit photos until the swelling goes down, but fuck-it, this isn't some sort of perfect Instagram life-type blog, and if you can't look at a middle-aged woman pumped full of steroid medications, then this probably isn't the blog for you. Shit happens, probably better to just go ahead and look at it. I promise, I don't possess Medusa-like powers, and you'll not turn to stone if you look. I will however sing the praises of ELF redness-reducing primer because what you don't see is a huge, red, butterfly rash that stretches ear-to-ear across my cheeks and nose. They aren't sponsoring me to promote their product, but I'm telling you-it works! A little Dermablend foundation helps too. This is the greatest time to be alive if you have terrible skin-the problem-solving products available are like little miracles in tubes. Where the hell was all this stuff when I was a teenager? You kids today have no idea how good you have it. Someday, I'll tell you about sunless tanner in the 70's. Not pretty. At all.

Suppose if we all think hard enough we can get that gardenia to bloom?

OK, on three,
One
Two
BLOOM!

Ah well, maybe we need to work on that. You guys are the best.