Ivy City Co. Gold

Who says Christmas is the only holiday season where gold is an appropriate choice.  Maybe it's the whole pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow-thing, but something about March always makes me want to break out the metallics.  Yes, ok, this Coco dress in gold was part of their Christmas Holiday collection, but I just can't wait for a whole other year before I wear this beauty, so I'm wearing it in March and so far it's been no questions and all compliments.  Because I've loved this dress so much, I've decided to order a few more and do a YouTube unboxing, so be on the look out for that in the coming months.

Ivy City Co.  is a brand I've been eyeing for months, and this little beauty gave me the excuse to try them.  Founded in 2015 by two best friends and then revamped in 2018 when another member joined the team.  A dress company that is run by women who love dresses and understand how to make women's bodies look amazing in so many styles sounds like the perfect fit for me.

You would expect this dress to be quite stiff and scratchy, and while it is a little stiff being made of metallic fabric, it's actually quite soft and comfortable.  The length is perfect, although it's an empire, puff dress style, it has just enough of a waist to give it shape, and the sleeves are set in far enough to cover your bra straps.  Now, these ladies know how to perfectly combine practical with princess to make the very best kind of dress. Kudos, ladies, you just earned yourself a loyal customer.

Shopping Info:  Coco dress in Gold-$138 from IvyCityco.com  Use my link to save 10% off your purchase.

Time to Winterize

Once again, the seasons are turning and I've packed away all my puff dresses like this one until warmer days return.  On the one hand, I'll miss all my short pretty dresses and bright colors.  On the other hand, I'm committed trying a one year experiment of having a seasonal wardrobe.

So, far I'm only one season in to this little experiment, but I do rather like the results so far.  I plan on going more in depth about this in a future post, but in a nutshell, I'm breaking my year into quarters and keeping everything that's not seasonally relevant packed away.  By breaking my wardrobe into smaller chunks, I hope to get more wear out of all my pretty clothes.

Unfortunately, none of my puff dress, real or dupes like this pretty paisley print, have made the cut for cooler months, so it will be a while before I post on any of them again.

I mean, take a look at the profile of these sleeves!  I'm afraid I couldn't get a coat over those, let alone a cardigan, both of which are a must around here already.  So, into storage they went. 

I'm curious to see how creative I can get when 75% of my wardrobe is packed away, but also excited because it will be a great challenge.  

And, I think I'll leave it at that today as I still have a lot of winterizing to do around the farm.  The cold weather is already here but I still have a little bit of time before the brutally cold weather hits, so I need to make the most of it.

Shopping Info:  Paisley Dupe Dress-$27, 

Harriseve Flats on Amazon

The Wishlist Method

Now that spring is officially over, we can finally talk about Selkie's spring release.

I used to do regular "Shopping List" posts about all the things I adored from various shops.  But, as life has gotten busier over the past few years, I haven't had as much time for wish lists and window shopping.  Above you will see a photo collage of most of the dresses on my spring wish list from Selkie's Out of the Tower collection.  As much as I really wanted to release my Spring wish list as soon as Selkie showcased their new prints and styles at NY Fashion Week last year, I also didn't want the extra competition.  Is that silly?  Not if you saw how fast some things went in the spring drops.

Maybe it is silly, but if you've ever shopped one of these Selkie drops you'll know that they tend to sell out in minutes and the less people know about what to look for the more chance you have of getting what you want.  It also helps if you sacrifice having a life to wait by your phone, constantly checking Instagram, e-mail, and fan boards to see when these drops will happen and then jump in the buying frenzy to get the dress you want.  It helps, but it is by no means a guarantee.

It's safe to say that while I have been somewhat disillusioned by Selkie, I was smitten with Spring '22 collection.  More than anything else about the brand, I appreciated the fact that they did a drop sheet of what to expect from the collection  so that I had about six months to save up for what I really wanted.  While they didn't include everything and still as yet have not released the full collection, I used the time to whittle down my sizeable list and have managed to use the money I saved to buy everything I wanted or a close proximity if the original was not within my budget.

Selkie has their faults, every company does, but thanks to this one little thing of giving customers a heads-up of what's on the way saved me the agony of having to miss out because I couldn't afford the spring collection.  Instead I had months of agony waiting and dreaming, but more importantly working hard and saving so that when the opportunity arose I could buy whatever I wanted.

While I didn't buy the Da Vinci Dress, because I just didn't love it as much as some of the others, I did find a very nice dupe that has sufficiently satisfied my appetite for the dress and I am excited to share a review of this dress with you as soon as it arrives, which based on shipping speed over the past month or so will likely be in July. 

This has been such a huge project compiling my wish list, saving my money, and then finding and acquiring these spring dresses, but I am so happy with each and every one of them that I felt like this whole undertaking needed a separate post as we finally close the door on this collection just for the proper closure and adieu.  Now let's move on to talk about other things besides Selkie all the time!

Shopping Info: Pretty puff dupe at Aliexpress for $35

Rebel with a Simple Cause

Wanna be a rebel?  Wanna be different than everyone else out there?  Wanna go against everything that the culture stands for? In a world that glorifies lewdness, violence, cruelty, narcissism, and self indulgence, if you want to stand out: Be modest.  Be patient.  Be Kind.  Be Self-controlled.  

I have to laugh at all these aging counter-culturalists who seemed edgy 25 years ago and now are hopelessly commonplace but have no idea. They're still screaming, they just don't know who they're screaming at anymore, since most politicians, corporations, and the general public are all extremely accepting if not in total agreement with them now.  

When the world is moving in one direction it takes a lot of strength to go against the current, to be different, to stand up.  Right now I see this trend of people who call themselves marginalized outsiders, but if a huge percentage of the population now identifies with you, it's time to admit you're not counter culture; you're mainstream.  You're not fighting the power; you are the power.

I'm not saying you should rebel for no reason (although if you are looking to rebel against something now's a good time).  But, I am saying that if you're unhappy with the way the world is going, you don't have to go along with it.  Don't expect going your way to be easy.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.  But, everyone doesn't.  Most people go where everyone else is going because that's easy.  They don't have to think or try or risk.  They just exist and follow along.

Right now, the trend seems to be complete self-absorption, immediate explosive rage, and general dickery.  So, if you really want to be an outsider, if you really want to be different: put others first, respond instead of react, be patient instead of demanding, kind instead of demeaning, put your screen down and be present in the world and in the moment, and be a valuable part of it.

Shopping Info:  Dress is from J.ING.

Afterwhile, Chamomile

This pretty little Garden Pub Selkie seemed like a great bargain on Poshmark and I love the pastel print, but the world is becoming a more and more dishonest place and I buy everything with a grain of salt these days.  Unfortunately, the posher I bought it from claimed it was New With Tags, but it arrived with a tiny food speck on the front, so I knew it had at least been worn for the duration of a snack.  That didn't really bother me too much.  Then, a few days later, when it was too late to return it, I took it out to wear it on a humid day and that's when the pit-funk hit me.  Ugh.  I wish all companies would put tags in a place where they couldn't be hidden for wear and then resold as new.  I washed the dress and the funk has been reduced, but it will take another wash or two at least to get out this lying posher's stink.  I hate dishonest people.  Ok, dress-tangent over.  Let's get to the actual topic of today's post.

Sometimes, it starts feeling like my blog posts are stuck in a rut.  That I'm constantly discussing a struggle of some sort and to be frank, there are times when that's all I write about because that's all I'm doing;  I'm struggling with some thing or problem daily.   Fortunately, today will not be a tale of woe but of triumph!

The literal fruits of my labor are finally paying off in the form of my herb garden.  When we moved onto our farm, we had to contend with the bewildering choices of the previous occupant.  One such choice was to cut down two trees in the front yard, but leave the stumps about four feet high and blocking the walkway to the front door.  Those stumps were then surrounded with giant boulders bordering bare desolate earth.  It was a strange, grim sort of landscaping, but as everything was too bizarre to contemplate and too heavy to move, we left it alone.  

Later I planted some flowers called Four O'clocks, which are lovely, but merely decorative, and only covered the ridiculous stumps for one third of the year.  The rest of the year it remained a festering eye sore.  Last spring I decided to reclaim this area as it is one of the few sunny spots in our yard.  Herbs seemed the logical choice for such a small space, so I planted, mint which was gifted to me by a friend, basil, and chamomile, along with marigolds for a little pest control.

It took quite a bit of work to transform this speck of ground into something lovely and useable.  I had to start by using a rock bar and a hammer and chisel to break down some of the larger boulders that were blocking the sun into a useable perimeter fence.  I used the boulder-turned-rocks to expand, in fact to double the size of my plot.  

Then I had to haul more rocks to build a fence, plus haul in topsoil.  Mr. Bleu removed one stump and greatly reduced the size of the other since they were not only taking up room but also blocking the light.  Finally we had to fence off the whole area to keep out hungry chickens and curious cats who would have scratched all my work up in a matter of minutes.  But, I knew it would all be worth it for some homegrown herbs, particularly if one of those herbs would make a very nice tea.

I must have been about 17 and living on my own for the first time when I chose to become an herbal tea drinker.  It was something that I saw an older, more refined and worldly friend doing and, since I wanted to seem refined too, I decided to take it up.  I bought a variety of teas and began testing them.  It was not easy at first, in fact, I despised the taste of most of them, but I was determined to persevere and after about 500 disgusting cups of tea, I eventually learned that I love chamomile tea and pretty much nothing else in the herbal variety of beverages.

Last year being the first year for my little garden, I didn't get a single cup of tea.  Instead I let all the flowers go to seed and saved as many as I could just in case my plants didn't return on their own this year.  To my delight, not only did my plants return, but they thrived and multiplied, so this spring I am diligently plucking and drying as many of these aromatic flowers as possible so that I can enjoy this taste of spring long into the winter months, although I fully intend to enjoy a cup or two with fresh flowers on one of these lovely mild mornings in my favorite spot under the trees while the season lasts. 

Unfortunately, my herb garden is still quite small and certainly not grand enough to make for a nice backdrop for photos, so I had to content myself with taking photos among some wildflowers and photographing the chamomile all on its own.  It's come back this year so gloriously full and with so many blossoms that it has brightened up this strange, previous bland rocky spot and I don't really mind letting it be the star of its own pics.

I thought a few pics of my latest second-hand selkie acquisition would pair nicely with the chamomile.  I'm obsessed with Selkie prints but still not a huge fan of the puff style.  So far this pink belt and this pair of pink cotton bicycle shorts have been the saving grace that's allowed me to wear all these short Selkie puffs without worrying about the empire waist making me look dumpy or unwanted bum exposure from how short they are.  I am nothing if not someone who loves a challenge.  

Shopping Info:  Selkie Pub Garden Puff Dress, cotton bicycle short from amazon.com, belt from shein.com