Puppy Portraits with Dolly & Dotty

Part 2 of my collaboration with Dolly & Dotty continues today with this completely adorable Amanda dress in the Dog Frame print.  

I knew I was in trouble the minute I laid eyes on this shop, but this was the print that really set my heart aflutter.  It's just the right blend of colors with a wonderful novelty print.

I made a little YouTube video in which I do a full review of this dress, but I can give you a little preview by saying that I love the way this box pleated skirt on the Amanda Dress is so full on it's own.  It's a perfect vintage style!  I added a petticoat for this photo shoot, but didn't notice a huge difference in the fullness with or without it.

The bodice on this style has the straps at just the right place to cover bra straps and is high enough in the back to cover the bra as well.  And, of course, I love the way that this bodice hugs the narrowest part of the waist.

I have so loved this collaboration and I am happy to announce that there are more lovely dresses from Dolly & Dotty on the way!  Check out my full review in the video below.

 Outfit Info:  Amanda Dog Fram Circle Dress in Navy Blue-£50 from Dolly & Dotty,

Yellow Cardi from YEMak

Amanda and the Bug Collection: Dolly & Dotty Collaboration

I have had quite a nice long winter nap and now that spring has sprung, it's time to shake myself out of my rest and get back to work.  I haven't really been winter napping, of course, but I have taken quite a break from collaborations and I am excited for this new collab today.

I find that I get more offers for work in the winter, and for years I have accepted and gone out in the cold to take photos, but this year I just couldn't bring myself to do more than a few quick dashes out in to my own back yard on a snowy day.  

So, there I was enjoying my winter rest when the birds started singing again and the daffodils started blooming and then along came Dolly & Dotty coaxing me out into the world again in some of their pretty dresses with the most darling prints!

This little beauty is the Amanda dress in the Bug Collection Print.  I love that from a distance this dress looks like just a sweet little geometric print, but as you get closer, you see the bug collection and do a double take.  I love that this dress has more than meets the eye.

The fit is perfect and the style is so flattering.  Dolly & Dotty is committed to creating 1950s style garments with a more flattering modern fit.  Personally, I'd like to say, Mission Accomplished!

I have another lovely style from this brand on the way, but if you just can't wait, then be sure to catch my full review on YouTube at 10:00 a.m. today.

 Outfit Info:  Amanda Navy Blue Bug Swing Dress-£50 from Dolly & Dotty, 

Cardigan from YeMak

Simple Advice

Here's a little something I found somewhere on the internet at while back and have been saving up to share: I recently found a paper tucked behind a photograph in my parent’s wedding album. It’s in my mom’s handwriting and it’s dated “11/12/47.” It’s entitled, “Advice” – and includes the following adages:

1. Do not always speak your thoughts.

2. Be courteous and friendly, but not cheap.

3. Maintain a firm hold upon your friends, but be aware not to take in everyone as an intimate friend. 

4. Try not to become involved in an argument but if it is unavoidable, stand up for your rights and fight fairly for what you believe in.

5. Listen politely, but do not say too much.

6. Listen to everyone’s opinion, but judge quietly to yourself.

7.  Wear becoming clothes which displays refinement.

8.  If you are true to yourself, you cannot help but be true to your friends.

Outfit Info:  Monet Day Dress from Selkie

Spring & New Things

The daffodils are blooming, Finally!  And things are beginning to look a lot more like spring around here.  I have learned over the years that the best time for a New Year's resolution is when the year and everything else around me feel new, which is March, not January when it's still cold and snowy and everyone is still getting sick.  March is also the perfect time to try new things, like a fresh new hair cut.  Although, as per usual, there is a story to go along with my new do.

I got a haircut.  Notice I didn't say I went to get a haircut or I wanted to get a haircut.  I went to my stylist for a blowdry.  As we were getting ready, she commented on the amount of damage to the ends of my hair and suggested a little trim.  I responded that I have been growing my hair out for two years--two years of no heat styling, so this appointment would be the first in a looong time, and one year since I colored my hair.  While I don't really love the gray, although I am trying, I do love how healthy and soft the regrowth is, not to mention how low maintainence.  

A trim, she insisted, just to get rid of those damaged ends.  I relented.  Snip!  She held up a good 5"/13cm of hair and said, Is this Ok?  I replied, "If it's not OK, is there anyway you can put it back?"  Holding the hair aloft like Perseus with the baleful head of Medusa, she looked down her nose at me.  I shrank and replied, "it's fine."  She tossed the hair to the floor and continued about her work, pausing occasionally to remark at just how dry, damaged, and otherwise horrible my hair was.  I glanced at the wispy ombre chunks falling to the floor and tried not to cry.  At the end of the "trim" we proceeded with the blowdry.  An hour and a half later, I walked out to my car and tried not to cry--yes, still.  

 

I don't know what it is about hair, but it becomes a rather sentimental thing.  It's not like I put any work into growing it, it does it all on its own, and yet to see it hacked away feels like seeing my work of art destroyed.  It's the same with beards from what I can tell.  I have a friend who has had some kind of weird rash under his beard for over a year now and all other avenues have failed but he won't shave it so he can properly treat the skin underneath because he has been growing this beard for years and would rather live with the itch than dare be parted from it even though it has become unhealthy.

I suppose there are a great many things in our lives that we hold onto even when they have not only outlived their usefulness but actually become a detriment to our well being.  And sometimes it takes the opinion or advice of an outsider to open our eyes to how our comfort zone is bad for us.  This is the reason I have been so concerned over the trend in recent years of cutting people out of our lives if they disagree with us.  It's true that sometimes people's opinions are just bad and should be ignored, but the opposite is also true.  Sometimes people are telling us things we don't want to hear because they see something unhealthy and want to reveal it to us so we can get away from it.

So, was I mad at my stylist?  No, not even when I saw that first giant swath of hair freshly shorn from my scalp. I wasn't angry because as much as I wasn't ready to let go, I knew she was right.  I hadn't had my hair trimmed much in years and it was time for a fresh cut.  Even without the heat styling and the dye, it would have needed a the frayed ends removed.  In the end, it has to be said, that it's just hair and it will grow back.  Although it is much shorter than I ever wanted, it also feels so much thicker and healthier, it truly was time to let it go and start something new.  I'm glad that someone I trusted stepped in and showed me the light.  

Outfit Info:  Bibs and Bobbins dress by Knitted Dove, Cardigan from YeMak

Slow(er) Living

For most of my adult life, I made a commitment to getting up early nearly every morning and working out for 30 minutes first thing.  This past year has been the exception to that as I wake at 4:30 a.m., shower, dress, and am out the door no later than 5:30 a.m.   Sure, I've tried to work in an evening walk or stop at the gym on my way home, but I am really not an evening workout kind of person, so I haveb't been consistent with it and it's starting to show.  For me, working out has meant the difference between feeling good and pulled muscles, stiffness, losing flexibility, and poor sleep quality.  That's right, I've pulled more muscles from inactivity than I ever have from being consistently active.  So, my goal for this morning, was to once again begin working out as many mornings as possible.  It's the new year after all, and a time when most of us start thinking about making some positive changes.

Yes, today was my day.  It was going to happen.  And then I slept in.  Because I didn't have to go to work, so for once there was no rush.  And since this past year has been so exhausting, Mr. Bleu and I have developed a Saturday/Sunday morning ritual of making coffee and sitting in the sunshine, indoors or outdoors, where ever that may fall, and catching up on the goings on of our week and the future plans of the coming week, and I'm not in a hurry to give that up.  So, Ok, I had to compromise somewhere, because when I say that I've been in pain for the past few months of inactivity, I mean, it has been excruciating at times.  I chose to have our morning coffee and then have a late workout instead.  I hoped to follow suit the next morning, but this time all I got accomplished was coffee time.

Workout time is important, no mistake about it.  But, I'm also beginning to realize that coffee time is super important too.  I think I've reached a balance by simply making room for two of my favorite things in my life.  Ok, maybe I am working out less, but maybe it's time to slow down a bit and make room for some peaceful quiet mornings too.

From Aspirations to Reality

I spent 2023 doing a lot of thinking.  I thought about things like my fantasy life versus my aspirational life versus my current life.  My fantasy life is somewhere between homesteading and cottage core with a dash of Little House on the Prairie thrown into the mix.  My aspirational life, is just a simple, quiet homestead that is highly self sufficient and beautiful.  My actual life is a little shabby farm, a tiny, heavily cluttered shabby house, and a whole lot of time spent at my job or on the go rather than farming.  I thought about the fact that my life is changing in some pretty major ways and what that would mean and look like in the near future.  I had to do a little separating reality from fantasy to decide which parts of my dreams would only ever be fantasy and which I could actually make come true.  That was tough because it meant letting go of some things that just cannot be in this life, but then again, that was also a good thing because it means that I won't be spending any more time, money, and energy working toward things I'll never have or be.  

If you're unfamiliar with these terms, let's take just a moment to define them.

1. Fantasy Self--The person you dream of being.  Think cloud castles and all the cores such as cottage core, princess core, fairy core.  They are the perfect dream world.  This is the kind of thing Tyler Durden warned us against when he said we're all told we'll be movie stars and rock gods, but we won't.  Well, it's the same message holding us hostage except now it's influencers telling us we should have these perfect lives we'll never have and even they don't actually have.
2. Aspirational Self--This is the person you aspire to be.  It's different from the fantasy self because it is achieveable through effort.  For example, you may not live a cottage core life, but you could start a garden and get some backyard chickens or start keeping bees.
3. Real Self--The real self is the way you are, right now.  Hitting snooze instead of going to the gym or getting up to garden, working long hours instead of having a family picnic or just a relaxing glass of wine while you watch the sunset, etc.  Sometimes it's not at all where you want to be, sometimes it's a healthy blend of I do what I have to but I aspire to do things I want to.

One major realization that I came to is that after six years here, we won't be building a house.  Sad, but also good because realizing this meant that I could move forward instead of being stuck waiting on something that was not going to happen.  So, after that epiphany, it was time to make our lives and our belongings fit into this tiny house.  I spent my summer, from July up to this very day, so eight months and counting: cleaning, organizing, remodeling, decluttering, and donating.  Have I been talking about it a lot?  Yes, and I do apologize to everyone except this one rusty old heffer who left a bunch of nasty comments that no one will ever see and even I didn't fully read, but the thing is, this has been a pretty big deal for me and it's my blog, so I'm probably going to go on talking about it. 

I have given away at this moment in time nine huge trashbags filled with clothes.  I didn't bother to count all the bags of kitchen gadgets, books, and other household goods that I donated, and I shudder to think of all the things that got thrown away.  I know I've said this before too, but again, this is pretty major for me.  However, something amazing happened during all this work, the more I gave away/threw away, the lighter I felt.  I have been ashamed to even let people into my home the entire time we've lived here because, quite frankly, it was kind of a dump.  We never really made it into a home because we were just waiting until we built a new house.  The more we remodeled and decluttered, the better it looked, the more I felt joyful and content and proud I felt of this home and this place in my life.  Heck, I might even start inviting people over once all the renovations are done.

Somewhere around the new year, I began to realize that I truly had been stuck for the past six years here.  I was stuck waiting for a house we were "going to" build, a life I was "going to" have, things I was "going to" do.  I want to live right now, in this life, actually taking steps to build the kind of life I want to live.  Part of that does include my wardrobe and how much I spend on it.  The kind of life I want to live is quiet, practical, and simple.  In that life, my family and I don't spend every waking moment at work or on the way to or from work.  We have free time because we live frugally and well within our means.  So, that meant cutting spending and you know the number one place I spend is on my beautiful clothes.  My beautiful, gorgeous, totally-impractical-for-the-life-I-am-aspiring-to-live-clothes.  That's why I gave so many away.  And it made sense too because so many of those clothes went to young girls who needed them for prom or homecoming or their athletic banquet, it wasn't a fantasy for them, it was reality with a real need for a gorgeous dress and I got to be part of making that happen for them.  And then there was a whole other age group of younger girls who got the less fancy but still fun stuff that made them feel beautiful, and I got to see the way they felt confident and glamorous.

I have done a lot of looking back during this time of introspection, a lot of sorting through all the feelings and the facts, call it emotional delcuttering.  And now I am ready to move forward.  In fact, it's become sort of a mantra for me.  Lately, I often find myself looking at the way things have been, taking a deep breath and then saying, "That's in the past.  Moving forward, let's____."  I feel like I have not only been stuck, but completely lost and now it feels like I have some focus, some reachable goals and some hope for the first time in a very, very long time.  I think I am finally on the verge of living the kind of life I truly want to live, of making my aspirational life a reality.

Home Renovations: Closet Makeover

I did a thing.  I know, I've been doing a lot of changing things around my house, but this was a renovation that had not even crossed my mind once during all these months of home-makeover-ing.  It actually all came about because of an entirely different project I was working on.  I was considering doing a month long minimalist capsule wardrobe, so I pared down my closet to about 10% of its usual size.  I put everything else into storage thinking it would only be for this month long challenge, but at the end of my 30 days, I realized how much I really loved having less.  As much as I love my clothes and putting together outfits, my closet was so overly full that making any kind of decision about what to wear was not a quick process; I usually devoted a Sunday afternoon to planning outfits for the week.  If said Sunday afternoon didn't work its way into my schedule and I was left to try to decided each day before work, that process was usually accompanied by a certain degree of stress and indecision from too many options.

Having this extremely pared down wardrobe took all the stress out of it.  Yes, this is what my closet looks like when "extremely pared down." Plus, the feeling of getting so much wear out of closet clothes means it doesn't feel like a waste of money to invest in really nice pieces because I know they won't sit on a shelf.  In the midst of this experiment, this space was suddenly very empty(er than ever before) and I noticed something: My closet is extremely ugly.  With all the renovations going on in major rooms of the house, this dinky little closet hadn't really crossed my mind at all, mostly because it was so full of clothes, it didn't really matter what it looked like.  But now that I can see the walls and floor again, I decided it was time for a closet makeover. 

(Side note:  See those photos directly above?  They seem pretty harmless, right?  I never thought that sharing photos of my messy closet would open me up to ridicule or criticism, because it's just a closet for pete's sake! and I've rarely seen a clean one no matter who owned it.  But, unfortunately after I poseted these photos a few years ago for a spring cleaning post, one woman thought it the perfect fuel to attack me.  Super weird!  Because I knew this woman personally, I can say with all certainty that everything about her life was a total mess and I loved her anyway, but in order to make herself feel better about her own insecurities, she chose to attack me for this.  Like, "Ah Ha!  I knew you weren't perfect!"  Um, yes, I know that too, which is why I never said I was and also why I didn't mind sharing photos of my messy closet.  It was so strange and desperate, so please, do not follow in that woman's footsteps.  We all have messes in our life, I'm not judging you for yours, don't judge me for trying to clean up mine.  Actually, you can judge if you want, I know you're a mess too :D)

I wanted to take these photos at a time when it's been a few months since I have cleaned and organized because while it doesn't always look this bad, this is the state I am constantly struggling against.  Since there wasn't much storage when we moved in, I installed a shower curtain rod on the left side of the closet and used it to hang up skirts.  It worked about as well as you would expect.  No matter how I stacked all the shoe boxes, the floor was always totally covered in shoes, and I have always wanted to have some kind of shoe rack for proper storage.  

The only caveat to any changes I made to this space is that ultimately, the hot water heater is directly behind the back wall and has to remain accessible.  Its access panel was just a piece of sheet rock which had gotten wet a couple of times when we had to fix the hot water heater, not to mention that every time we had to access it, the sheet rock crumbled a little more and got a little more flimsy.

I knew I wanted this closet to blend well with the color palette of the bedroom and yet still be its own unique space.  Plus, I had a lot of pink paint leftover and didn't want it to go to waste.  I spent at least a week looking at different kinds and prints of wallpapers before landing on this pink hydrangea print from Rifle Paper Co.  Are they pricey?  Yes, but when one roll covers 60 square ft., and it takes at least three rolls of the cheap peel and stick stuff on Amazon to cover the same amount of space, the price difference really isn't so huge.  At $35 per roll for 3 rolls, the cheap stuff would cost me $105.  One roll of the good stuff from Rifle costs $130.  I think I can swing a difference of $25 to have something really lovely.  ***Hahaha, it ended up taking 3 rolls, so the joke was really on me costwise, but this was the paper that I really wanted to use, so I guess it's worth it.  So, this was the little idea board I created to help me visualize putting it all together.  Yes, in the end, we did decide to get a closet kit from Lowes to make better use of this space.

You may notice from the before pictures that this closet was rather hastily and cheaply thrown together.  There are raw edges and nails sticking out everywhere, plus this shelving hangs down over the bar making it really difficult to put hangers on there without breaking the necks off the plastic ones.  Eesh, it was just such terrible work and ugly to boot.

My first step was to take all the hooks out of and off of the door, spackle the holes and then paint over it in pink.  Behold the "Before" Door! 

Once it had dried, I went back and waxed the paint so it would set and shine a little.  After that, I had a plan, and foolishly thought it would really only take us a day.  Yes, after all this time fixing up this house, I was still dumb enough to think that.  I might have been right if I had ordered enough wallpaper to begin with, but I didn't, so that set us back an extra week.  In the mean time, with the door painted and one roll of paper on the walls, I decided to go ahead and put in the flooring.  You may think that peel and stick tile is easy.  To some degree it is, but first the floor had to be thoroughly cleaned, then tile applied, then a layer of sealent applied to the tile and lastly, a gloss layer to protect the tile from scuffs and make it shine.

The next steps were to: strip all the shelving and cheap molding, hammer in all the nails and staples left sticking out everywhere, and spackle the gaps.  Then Mr. Bleu put up this beautiful blush hydrangea wallpaper for me while I tackled the tile on the floor.

Mr. Bleu built a new door for the hot water heater so we would have easier access. Then we bought some new molding that matched the decor and didn't look so chintzy and put it up along the floor and ceiling.  We also bought a closet kit from Lowes and installed it to have a better organizational system.  Yes, yes, it does mean having less clothes, but isn't that what I am aiming for anyway?

The last and perhaps my least favorite thing to do at the end of this very long day was to get all my clothes off the floor and put everything away neatly.  But, I did it because the finish line was so close I just had to get it done instead of letting it sit unfinished for one more night.  So, let's take the tour!

Do you love it?  I DO!!  Now, obviously there are some things that no longer fit in my closet and I will have to go through them to decide if I should part with them or find a place elsewhere.  But, I am willing to do the work and make those hard choices because I absolutely love how this closet looks and I don't ever want it to go back to the way it was again.  Suddenly this seemingly tiny closet has enough room that I use it as a changing room too.

I am looking at getting a shoe rack that will fit in this space because I don't want to put them on these very nice shelves, but other than that, I think we're all done with this space.  It cost more money than I thought it would and definitely took longer than I thought it would, but I definitely wouldn't take it back.

This closet may not have been on my radar in the beginning, but I now have an absolutely stunning space that I love and truly want to keep mindfully minimal and clutter free.