Gaslight, Gatekeep, Squirrelboss

 Hello there!

This post is being written hours before sunrise as my annual Autumn insomnia kicks in. Something to do with the daylight this time of year (Omaha is rather far west in the Central time zone) that typically corrects after the time change in November. I don't fret about it, I just adjust by going to bed earlier knowing I'll be wide-awake at 3 AM. I seem to require less sleep as I age, which is normal enough from what I hear. I rather enjoy the quiet of early morning before anyone expects anything of me. It is a good time to get caught up with blogging as I don't want to engage in any noise creating chores. 

The past few years we've skipped putting out bird feeders as there's been avian disease in migratory birds. Experts advised to bring down the feeders to avoid infecting local birds, so we did. This year seems to be safe (touch wood) so off to the local bird feeding store for supplies and fresh suet. These are a brand called, "Woodpecker Treat" that has fruits and seeds pressed into the  block. True to the name, woodpeckers do seem to enjoy it, as do do the starlings pictured above. Starlings are such maligned birds. Yes, they make a terrible mess if you have seed feeders, and in large groups they will devour whatever you've put out quickly, but I adore them. Maybe it is their gawky movements, or their graceless calls that I find so endearing. Perhaps I just find solidarity with outcasts. Whatever the reason, I was happy to see a pair come to visit shortly after hanging the food. 

 

This outfit is not a set, but it certainly looks as though it could be. The dress is Kay Unger, and the jacket a fast-fashion bit of junk I wouldn't have purchased had the thrift store not been selling it for .99 cents. I do enjoy "marrying" an expensive item of clothing with something cheap and silly. Everything was purchased second hand as I don't shop in the sort of places that sell Kay Unger retail. The tiny Puma purse made to look like a miniature gym bag is one of those fun pieces that keeps an outfit from being too dressy for day wear. 

Such a cute little bag. I'm making an effort to wear more of my bags. I did a major clear out and reluctantly parted with the ones that have become too shabby for use. Leather can be refurbished, but once vinyl cracks and peels it is only a matter of time. Shabby Chic is fine when you're young, but on someone my age it just looks eccentric. I make exceptions for very vintage pieces that would be expected to have wear, but it is hard to justify keeping a 00s era vinyl handbag, no matter how well loved. I try to make myself feel better reasoning that I kept it out of the landfill a bit longer than otherwise, but ultimately that's where it will end. When possible, I try to strip the bags for replacement hardware to use elsewhere. 

It doesn't show well in the photo but the fabric is a printed netting over a solid black lining. I don't like cap sleeves on my arms, and I've yet to see anyone really look good in the style. Why do designers keep insisting on these horrible impersonations of proper short sleeves? Do a sleeve or go sleeveless,  but cap sleeves are nothing but a fucking annoyance. Hrumph. And yeah, get the hell off my lawn you damn kids.

Still need to move the summer bags to storage. Not an ideal way to store handbags, and I don't keep the good ones like this, but for everyday wear items, it serves the purpose. 

Hey you kids, I mean it! Get off my lawn. Go on, shoo!

I adore jumpsuits. I don't adore getting undressed just to use the toilet, but that's the sacrifice made for looking cool. 

It was a bit big on top but I didn't want to disrupt the look with a brooch pinning it shut, so a black sports bra was pressed into service and did the trick. A camisole would just be twisting and annoying beneath a garment that can't be easily adjusted without unbuttoning. 

Those shoes again. Hard to believe the best shoes I have at the moment came from H&M. They're sturdy, supportive, and easy to clean the scuffs (like the one I missed in this photo) without the use of polish. 

Quick look at the 80s handbag.

Been a while since any quality handbags were made in America.

I don't know anything about this bag as the label was cut out. It was in good condition when I purchased it, and continues to be a favourite bag each autumn. 

This belt is a long-lived item. My cousin gave it to me in the mid-70s! Her parents had a second home in Arizona where I'm sure the belt originated. It has held up, and I'm still wearing it all these years later. I've punched a few extra holes in it over the years, but that's about it. The leather is still stiff after 50 years!

White poloneck, what was I thinking? Probably the same thing I was thinking with the white corduroys I'll show you in a moment. I guess we all have those lapses in judgement.

Not terrible with a jacket over.

Better look at the coat fabric. It is cotton, but heavy and warm. Perfect for this time of year.

A benefit to such early rising is the leisure to accessorize outfits a bit better than I'd ordinarily have time for. I still come up with less-than-perfect outfits (I'm looking at you, white poloneck) but it does bring out some of the neglected pieces like this jacket. I understand there's a difference between taking one's time, and labouring over an outfit. Somewhere in the middle is ideal.

This dress was a bit of a disappointment. It fits beautifully, and the colours are appealing, but the stripes do not match on the reverse.

I find that incredibly annoying. You could say, it drives me Batty. See what I did there? Oooh, clever.

I seem to be the only person bothered by this as patterns that don't match up have become the norm rather than exception. Yes, it costs more to cut enough fabric to match patterns and that's likely the source of this path we're headed down with respect to detail. It still annoys me. Not enough to sew my own clothes, mind. 

The sleeves don't match either. Anyway, I'm torn about keeping it . Wish I'd noticed this flaw before purchasing. That feels like a rookie thrifting mistake. I guess that year of not shopping put me out of practise.

Someone's hand-made Halloween pin. Plastic rings came from Walgreens years and years ago.Plastic bracelet was thrifted.

The white corduroys. The only saving grace here is that as children's clothing it has been treated to be stain resistant. Were the cuffs grey by the end of the day? Absolutely. To my credit though, I didn't actually Yeet* any coffee onto my lap or otherwise irreparably stain them. So there's that.  

A heavy tweed jacket is welcome on cold mornings.

What I wore for a very early visit to the endodontist..

Good outfit, bad visit.

Well, that's not fair. It was a bad visit in terms of getting bad news (extensive bone loss, recurring infection, etc.) but the visit itself was fine. Long time readers might remember about eight years ago I had a root canal done that went very bad with bleach solution being shot into my sinus and a big swollen eye, etc. This is the dentist that fixed that disaster, and over the years she's taken good care of me. Unfortunately, that tooth now needs to come out as the bone it is anchored in has cracked and is experiencing bone loss. Seeing a big dark spot on the 3-D x-ray was shocking. There's no reason it happens, and nothing I could have done to prevent it-just a life sort of thing. It explains all the sinus pain, recurring infection, and other assorted stuff. I'm getting treated with antibiotics which are doing double duty helping my sinuses (result!) and as I don't take them often the medication seems to be working as intended. 

I admit to being depressed about losing an upper molar I spent so much time and money trying to save, but what can I do? It will need to come out and have bone grafts before *possibly* being fitted with an implant. That's not guaranteed as there's no way of knowing how well bone grafts will take, or how many times I will need them. So yeah, the next year (because it is a long process) doesn't sound fun. I guess if there's a good thing about being on a liquid diet it is that I won't be needing that molar to chew. That's not much of a silver lining, but here we are. I'm trying to limit my thinking and just get on with it, my general approach to life. 

Let's change the subject to a dinner earlier in the week. I had some ground lamb, and a sugar pumpkin (the smaller, less stringy variety) and not much inspiration. I roasted the pumpkin with olive oil and sage, turned the lamb into meatballs I cooked in a pan, made a sort of carmelised red onions with port wine, and served it on a bed of diced, browned mushrooms. There's apple slices I sauteed in the pan after everything else cooked. Won't win any prizes for beauty, but it was enjoyed. At the moment lamb is much more economical than beef. That's great news for us, as my family prefer it. How it is less expensive to ship lamb from Australia than to sell beef processed here in Nebraska is a study in economics that's beyond my education, but that's how it has worked out. Goat is still inexpensive, and locally produced. It is much leaner, and takes a bit of skill to cook as it comes in a bag of chopped up pieces including bones. I've made tamales from shredded goat meat that were successful, but I had to add a lot of fat into the meat to keep it from being dry. Anyway, the boys could do with eating less meat (so says the vegetarian). 

Not sure a pale yellow poloneck is better than white, but I wore it anyway.

Made from an extremely clingy knit that made me feel like I was wearing hosiery as a shirt, I wasn't thrilled that it showed my rib cage and spine in such detail. It was more or less walking around nude. I ended up wearing a scarf to distract a bit from it, and outdoors I had on a suede jacket. Think this is destined to become strictly a layering piece-if it lasts that long. The inside appears to be ready to fall apart. I picked it up in a thrift store and can understand why it was donated.

There, I fixed it. That suede jacket has a matching pair of trousers. Another purchase from the long defunct Dots store in Revere, Mass.

The scarf is from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. It has an Egyptian motif that isn't the typical hieroglyphic sort of thing that ends up on clothing. Not that there's anything wrong with that-I have stuff fitting that description, just that this is a nice departure from what's usually available. Less kitsch anyway.

For the record, I'd never reject an item for being kitsch.

Vintage Scholl's comfort shoes. They live up to the description. God, I have such big, bad, feet. 

Why yes, I could have rotated the photo. *Shrugs*.

 

That was Dan's Levi's jacket. I wasn't going to get rid of a good piece of denim just because he outgrew it. It didn't get worn much when he could still fit it, and I'm afraid the task of breaking it in falls to me. Washing is probably the easiest way if I remember to chuck it in the wash when I'm doing a dark load, but I've also been tempted to tie it to the back of the car and drive it down a few gravel roads. Would get the job done quicker. Denim doesn't like to be hurried.

A Tumblr friend was asking how the sweater was constructed. To my surprise, when I looked at the interior it is just two pieces, a front and back sewn together. On the body it feels a little like wearing a sideways tube.

The necklace is a two-piece.

October is a great time to wear an obnoxious orange nylon blouse with gigantic sleeves, if you have one.

When else can I get away with wearing something like this?

Irregular choice squirrel heels got worn. They inspired the best comment I've ever received on an outfit: Gaslight, Gatekeep, Squirrelboss.

They're too big and murderously uncomfortable, but I love those shoes. The squirrel's belly has a fuzzy, flocked material. The purse is from Target, years ago.

The soles of the shoes are cute too.

Would you look at that face!

Speaking of fuzzy faces...

Dan finally grew tired of his beard and shaved it off...

He looks younger! There go your opportunities for underage drinking, kid. Not that he's interested in that, and likes to tease his parents that everyone was a delinquent in the 70s. Different era, I guess. Everyone smoked too.

The scramble to wear all the Halloween attire before the end of the month.

The shirt depicts a tyrannosaurus with a jack-o-lantern head. Here's my impersonation.

Well, I thought it was inspired.

 Halloween day saw this outfit for going around town doing chores. I've had that bag since the 90s and it is falling apart. That's one I won't part with though.

Tights with fishnets over

Another kid's tee shirt from Target.

Are you ready for Halloween night?

It might be scary...

Boo! OK, not a perfect Baby Jane, but I worked with what I had. The skirt is vintage Gunne Sax, the blouse, Piketttes, and the vintage beaded cardi has no label. Blue Bear was made by my mother in the 60s. He's seen several repairs over the years and lives atop a desk in the bedroom.

That eyeliner wasn't fun to remove, nor was the bright lippy used on my cheeks.

We only had a handful of Trick or Treaters but we got to hang out with our neighbours (I bought fancy blood orange sodas to hand out to the adults) and made some children happy that I knew what their costumes were. I can thank the young people on Tumblr for that as I'd have never known otherwise. It is good to keep current with whatever the kids are into. 

The evening was warm enough to sit outside, so I set up a table of treats. I had pop,juice boxes, full sized candy bars, allergen free candy, and mini-bottles of bubbles in Halloween themed containers. 

The last visitor came late with her dad who was still dressed in a way suggesting he'd just hurried home from work to take her trick or treating. The girl was about 12 or 13 and clearly neurodivergent. I won't speculate as to how, but when I told her to help herself and take whatever she wanted, she dug in with two hands and filed as much as she could into the treat bag her dad was holding. Before he could object (because I could tell he was uncomfortable with it) I announced that I applaud her enthusiasm, and encouraged her to take more, which she did. I got the sense that child has spent her life being told what she couldn't do, so I hope she'll remember this as the Halloween she got to do what she wanted. It also let her dad off the hook from needing to intervene as he looked too tired to be dragging around the neighbourhood with a child in tow at 9 PM. 

I don't typically sit in front of the house and don't get to observe the goings on around our neighbourhood. The woman across the street brought out her cat, Socrates to visit with us (he's elderly but enjoys being outside) which was nice. We also got to watch the strangeness in the form of a man who must have spent three hours pushing an empty pram in a loop around our complex.  Dan went to go check if he was okay (and not, god forbid pushing around a dead baby or in some sort of crisis). He was fine, the pram was empty, and he seemed to be muttering to himself in a language we couldn't quite make out (he looked South Asian). The next morning, he was out there again. I don't know if he's taking exercise, doing penance, or just generally bonkers but as he isn't bothering anyone it just adds to the oddness of the city. There's no law against being eccentric. 

And that's about it. November has started off busy but I'm making the most of the extra, early morning hours.