Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker Dan

Apologies for the extended break. I've missed everyone and though I've been trying to visit your blogs, by the time I finally have time to do so, I'm unable to find anything intelligent to add to the comments. I mean, worse than my typical inability to say anything intelligent. 

I have managed to maintain my cheerful disposition through it all. 

We dropped off Danny's fair entries on Monday. The judging was yesterday, but we won't know how he did until the fair opens next week. Fingers crossed. That entire table was his baking/canning. 

 That violet and lavender lemon loaf not only looked beautiful, it smelled divine. I hope that one wins a ribbon.

 Cinnamon buns...

...apple/raisin tea ring...

...white cake, and many more. So now we wait, and hope for the best. It was a lot of work and dedication-much more effort that I would have put into anything when I was eleven!

I wore some clothes over the past few weeks, as you do. 

No, I don't typically wear gym shoes with a dress. The grass hadn't been mowed at the park for some time, and it was wet and muddy. There's only so far I'm willing to go for a blog photo, and destroying my vintage shoes is too far! My gym shoes were already muddy, so there you have it. And yes, they are godawful ugly shoes but it was the only colour they came in, and I have a hard-to-fit foot when it comes to running. By the way, if you're in the Omaha area and need expert fitting for your running shoes, Peak Performance might be worth a visit. They don't sell a million shoes (which is why you can end up with pink and teal ones) but they will get you into the right ones. I knew halfway around their track that it was worth the extra cost buying these shoes there. Probably, for the first time in my life, my feet aren't crippled after running. We won't discuss my hip and knees-but my feet are fine. I'm not being compensated in any way by Peak Performance-I'm just very, very happy with my experience buying shoes there. But not so pleased that I wear the shoes with dresses. Come on...mow the damn park grass already!

These two were more appropriately attired.

I'm going to do a quick outfit wrap-up of things I thought were interesting enough to show, but didn't merit a post of their own.

 Polyester zip-front house dress.

Vintage shoes. They were murder on my feet but...hey everybody look! Vintage shoes!  Not worth the blisters, trust me.

I had a bit of a flapper moment . The wide trousers and drop-waist blouse are wardrobe pieces that never seem to work with anything. I might have found the happy marriage in this outfit. The bag is rather special too

 I found it hanging lonely at the Goodwill for a few dollars. The bag is Crown Lewis, and still has the original hand mirror. The patent leather is genuine, and still in very good condition. I really lucked-out finding it.

 American Duchess repro shoes. They didn't murder my feet.

 The short necklace is something I bought in the early 80's. I remember my grandmother commenting that it looked like the sort of thing she wore when she was first married, which always made it seem more special to me. I don't know why now, but lately I've been missing her quite a bit. Must be something to do with getting older (and disgusted with everyone and everything!).

 The bangle watch also belonged to my grandmother. The bracelet was Mum's.

Having rid myself of the impulse to dress like a flapper, I moved ahead into the 70's and dressed like myself...in the 70's.

See kids, "athleisure" isn't a new idea-we were wearing rugby shirts in 1974! You can see the tag still hanging from the sleeve, which means it was a gift from someone and I had to model it for a photo to be sent off to the gift giver with a thank-you note. This was a Christmas (and Birthday) ritual so that far flung relations would get to see what I looked like as I grew, and know that their gift was appreciated.

I grew some tits since then.
This 70's polyester top is a curiosity. It has a faux drawstring at the waist to look like sporting clothes without having any functionality-sort of like faux pockets. What it really needs is a hood, but sadly the designer went for gigantic lapels instead. The skirt is polyester by Levi's (I don't remember them making anything but denim, but this isn't the sort of skirt I would have worn at the time).

Today, I dug out this skirt made from antique saree silks re-worked into a modern wrap skirt. The silk itself is a pale blue, but overlaid on the purple satin it takes on a beautiful shimmering quality in sunlight. I bought this years ago as a university student-and I won't tell you how long ago that was! It has started shedding sequins, so I wear it very rarely these days. 

Yet another macrame bag from the collection. I really need to stop buying these things because there's only so many macrame bags a woman can use! There's something great about a handbag you can wash with dish-soap. 

And that's about it for interesting clothes. For the better part of the past few weeks I've been living in shorts and tee shirts. Now that the heat has backed off a bit, I might be inspired to try looking human again, but I wouldn't bet on it. I need to finish my "Fair Hat" by the weekend, and I'll try to get photos up in a reasonable amount of time. School starts the week after next, which terrifies me because I still haven't recuperated from last year.  Thanks for sticking around, and I hope I haven't bored anyone to tears. Eventually, life will fall into some sort of predictable pattern again. I hope.

I'll be back with State Fair results as soon as I have them. I swear, I'm losing my mind with anticipation! Thank god Danny doesn't play sports-I'd be a nervous wreck watching. If you'd told me thirty years ago that I'd be getting emotionally involved in a jar of apricot jam, I would have laughed. I'm not laughing now. No. Not at all.