Five Favourites: De-frumping!

I'm not sure whether I conveyed what I had intended to with my last post; I am not wallowing around, feeling unattractive. While I certainly have moments of feeling insecure about this or that aspect of my appearance, for the most part, I look in the mirror and feel quite delighted by what I see.

I believe myself to be beautiful.

The problem is, to what extent do I need to 'enhance' or 'adorn' that beauty with physical things?

That question can't possibly be answered right now. I think it will be a continuous process of examining my heart (as in, in dressing in a certain way, who am I trying to please? What am I trying to say about myself?).

For now, I want to be a bit more practical... and fun!

So here is a little sampling of beautiful things that are inspiring my upcoming Operation: Defrump-ify.



 1.

This dress from eshakti.
 I love the colour, the neckline, the little cap sleeves, the embroidery. 
It's gorgeous, I say!

2.


I could see myself wearing these earrings, from etsy, which is taking a mental leap for me, the un-pierced wonder.

They are very pretty, kind of dangly (!) but not so glamorous that I couldn't see myself wearing them while at home reading Laura Ingalls to the boys and making bread.

3.

Carey Mulligan's hairstyle



So here's my charming BATHROOM selfie next to Carey Mulligan. Ah, humility.

(I am actually completely unaware of who she is, or why she thought she needed that much eyeliner {I bet she is exceptionally pretty without it}). 


Anyway, the point: Isn't her hair lovely?

I'm seriously considering this style and length. But... my version of "styling" my hair involves washing it minimally (seriously. Only twice a week, because it's coarse and prone to frizziness) and brushing it. How much work would it take to pull off a hairstyle like this?

4.


The fashion advice from Rachel at Small Notebook is just stellar.

I love her description of her style as "Comfortably Dressy." 

I think that's perfection for a mom like me.

Sure, there are times when I need to wear scruffy yoga pants and t-shirts to scrub the floor or do a workout video, but for the most part, being pretty and put-together enough to have someone stop by unexpectedly without me wishing I could go get changed is a good goal.

Interestingly, for me, at least, I think I need to scale it back a little bit. Wearing skirts almost perpetually hampers the on-the-floor playing-with-babies life I am living.  I need to work on the "comfortable" part as well as the "dressy."


5.

Alert the police! There is an impostor blogging under my name, who is suddenly drawn to shoes that aren't Mary-Janes!

Comments

  1. ElenaMarch 28, 2014 at 9:20 AM

    I really like all five things. I love the dress but that style makes me look uber frumpy. If I have discovered nothing else in the past twelve years, it is that sheath dresses an d wrap dresses are best on my figure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ElenaMarch 28, 2014 at 9:23 AM

    I got cut off by my evil iPad. I have a pair of earrings very similar to those and I liek to wear them with a button up shirt and denim - nice juxtaposition. Also, that hair is awesome and I would run and get it cut immediately except that you and I have very similar hair and (I have a lof of experience in this area) it wouldn't work without a daily wash and a lot of

    ReplyDelete
  3. ElenaMarch 28, 2014 at 9:25 AM

    Product is the end of that sentence. If you are willing to use product, go for it. Ask the hairdresser if she thinks it would work first. And those shoes, very Kate Middleton. I don't know what it is about moving here, but I went off Mary Janes as well!

    ReplyDelete
  4. lauraMarch 28, 2014 at 12:06 PM

    I love the hair! I think Elena is right in that it would take a bit of product to tame it. Such a sweet style though :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. SarahMarch 28, 2014 at 5:14 PM

    That dress is gorgeous…as are the earrings and shoes. I think the colour would look great on you too. I'm with the others on the hairstyle though…while I really do like the style, it would take quite a bit of styling daily to get it to work so I wouldn't do it if you know you can't put the time in. It'll just frustrate you to no end.

    The question you raised in your last post made me think. I mean, adorning oneself in a godly and real way is tricky. We have to not get sucked into ourselves and our appearance too much, yet there is something uncomfortable in just "letting ourselves go" as well. There must be a happy medium in there somewhere, and I like that you're trying to find it for yourself because it makes me think about it too. (thanks!)

    I'm just thinking out loud here but if we approach our physical beauty (and with it our femininity) as pure gift, than doesn't it follow that we should, in some way, delight in that gift? How we delight in our own particular gift of beauty is personal I suppose. My mother, for instance, rarely wore makeup or jewelry but she always wore skirts. Skirts for her communicated her beauty and her femininity in the way she wanted.

    For me, I think I am trying to appreciate my beauty through developing my own style. When I get dressed in the morning I'm usually thinking of two things…do I look like me, and is there an element of "trend" in my outfit. I like perusing the trends and freshening up my wardrobe every season. It's not extravagant (I'm a thrift-er as you know), but I like pops of modern colours, modern cuts, etc. mostly small details. For me there is also an element of dressing for my husband as well. I love it when Jason "notices" me again. It's not everything to me, but I'd be lying if I said what he likes (or dislikes) doesn't come into play when it comes to clothes.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ambiance PaintingsMarch 30, 2014 at 12:34 AM

    Funny post! Go for it de-frump to your hearts content. I am on the same de-frumping mission; just today I got a haircut and it feels great! Finally taking steps to care for myself again and not put myself as an afterthought, after every other thing on my to-do list. Dare to go for it, it is totally worth it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 QT: Homeschooling with a sick baby & fangirl Pinterest moments

Image
~1~ I'm rather behind the eight ball on the first day of school blog post, seeing as though we've been at it for over a week, but oh my, what a week it was. On the night of Labour Day, my husband and I stayed up much later than we normally do getting our little homeschool nook in order. I wanted very much to have it look appealing to the boys because this is our first year formally homeschooling and I want to have them excited about it all. Anyway, we managed to create this little space: and I was quite pleased with it.  The boys each have their own IKEA-hack shelf with their daily read-alouds picked our for them, as well as a little calendar to learn more about the seasons and weather (mostly for Isaiah) and laminated prayer cards of the Morning Offering, the Act of Contrition and the Anima Christi. Oh, and the lunar cycle there for good measure. We love the moon a lot around here. Anyway, I went to bed that night thinking I'd sleep the sleep of ...
Read more

And the millstone award goes to...

Image
On Monday I needed to do some errands -- the weekly groceries, a trip to the bank, and I was in need of a gift for my mother-in-law who's birthday was coming up. She is an avid bibliophile, and I thought she might like One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, something I haven't read (yet!) but based on my exposure to Ann Voskamp's writing, it really seemed up my mother-in-law's alley. Rather than wasting the gas by going into the city another day during the week, I decided to bundle the kids up and do all the errands in one packed morning. We had a grand ol' time. We always do, really, when we head out (especially when we are lucky enough to have  this song  play on the radio while we cruise around). When we arrived at Chapters, I quickly found the Voskamp book, found a nice day-planner for myself at 75% off (yipee!) and then told the boys we could play around in the kids' section for a while. They have a Thomas train table set up there, as well as other vario...
Read more

7 Quick Takes on things that are bringing me JOY

Image
I don't even know if anyone still does 7 Quick Takes anymore, but I was in the mood for an old-school blog post, so here goes. 1. The Nester on Instagram . Her stories taking her followers shopping are DELIGHTFUL. She goes to antique malls or home goods stores and explains why you want feather throw pillows, not poly. Or why you want accent items that are at least as big as pineapple (any smaller, these items will begin to feel like clutter). It's really tremendously helpful and she's just so sweet and uplifting! {Do you not use this app? Never fear. Even without an Instagram account, you can open the website on your computer browser, and because her profile is set to public, you can access her photos and stories.} The Nester is just really calming, wise and has such great home decor advice. While we have quite different style, I devour her insights to apply to our own home. 2. Nature journalling with the kids .  Oh my, I always thought this was like, some lofty thing that ...
Read more