In answer to all those slutty brides out there!

I am amused by the ads for "modest wedding dresses" on Facebook. Is the average wedding dress, a floor-length gown for a formal, often religious family occasion, all that immodest? I mean, I want mine to be midriff-baring, but given the designs I typically see I'm rather in the minority there.

But no matter! You don't HAVE be one of those slutty brides out there in their whorish off-the-shoulder sin-slips. You can keep your base female form from inspiring any wickedness until the end of the ceremony where you'll safely enter into the legal dominion of a man who can lock you away from the lascivious eyes of slavering, impulse-driven beasts.

Heehee. ;-)

Also, why do all the social sites show me so many ads for wedding stuff? Why does the Internet seem to think I'm getting married?

Post-Summer Black-Out Challenge

So now my silly little self-indulgent fashion experimentation has reached its end. I actually really enjoyed doing it, and I like how it forced me to be more aware of my typical patterns of putting together outfits. It made me be more creative with my colors and try combinations of clothes that I might not have normally. It also brought to my attention how nervous I am to combine different colors, which is something I should experiment with to get better at, and not always rely on neutrals (black, brown, white, khakhi, denim, etc) the way I typically do. I will be glad to not be taking pictures of myself every day, though. My iPhone is not totally up to the task, and it usually takes me eight million shots before I get one I don't hate. (As a side note, I really need to figure out the auto-shoot function on my real camera.)

Funnily enough, what I felt like wearing today doesn't actually contain any black. But I look forward to being able to wear the color of my dark tormented soul again. ;-) I think I've earned the banner:



So continues my personal odyssey on the road to learning how to dress. And just because I'm thinking about it, just to call out someone I think has nailed this sort of thing, I've always thought v_cat* to be a really stylish person. She is someone with a really distinctive personal style that always makes her look good. I don't know if it's something she works at or something that comes naturally, but I would like to reach the point where I'm regularly noticed for nailing my own great look the way I always notice hers.

Summer Black-Out Challenge, Day 8

Today is the last day of the Summer Black-Out Challenge. Though it was sort of a week, the challenge is technically from June 7th to June 14th, so I'm going in for the eighth day. Today's color is SILVER to round things out, though I had a hell of a time arriving at that conclusion.

You see, I think my mother has finally won.

So when I was in high school, my style of dressing was purposely all over the place; I was really into people not being able to categorize me in those days, and wearing all different kinds of clothes helped confuse them. ;-) One odd phase I went through was I wore a hell of a lot of gray. To this day, one of my favorite colors is charcoal. It drove my mother crazy, and she went through a long period of trying to dissuade me from getting anything else in gray because I always wore it.

So when trying to figure out what to wear for today, the last day of my Summer Black-Out Challenge, I looked over the colors I've already worn and the only ones I really missed were yellow, white, and gray. Now I really like yellow, but while I lucky enough to look good in most bright colors yellow is the one I sadly can't really pull off. And I both love white and look good in it-- in fact another one of my weird high school quirks was all-white ensembles I referred to as my "Tennessee Williams suits" --but I no longer have the white slacks to make it work. So I thought I'd go to my old favorite gray.

But digging through my drawers and closet I discovered I don't really have any gray anymore. Besides sweaters that were too heavy to wear, I found all of one gray top in all my wardrobe. It seems that as time has gone by and pieces have worn out the gray has gradually been weeded out of my wardrobe. I think my mother has finally won! Took her years and years, but she finally eliminated the gray.

So what I ended up doing is collecting a handful of silver things I had and throwing them together. I think this is my least favorite ensemble of the week, but hey, I tried something different.



Silver pashmina
White sleeveless ruched blouse
Silver bird brooch
Anniversary necklace
Gold and silver hoop earrings
Mossimo jeans
Silver pumps

The wrap is fun and interesting and kind of feels good to wear, but it looks a bit poncho-y for my tastes. The bird brooch holds it in place.



Yeah, probably not a style I'll be wearing too much in the future. I prefer the look of a wrap just over my arms. Maybe I'll switch it.



Do we like that better? I think I do. It makes the scarf less of the focal point of the outfit, which diminishes the power of SILVER as today's color, but it I think it looks better that way. 

Summer Black-Out Challenge, Day 7

Dressed way down today, as the only things on the agenda were running my tabletop game and going to rehearsal. So I decided to wear just a camisole, so the color of the day could be a great bright ORANGE.



Orange camisole
Green cotton pants
Anniversary necklace
Silver infinity earrings
Brown suede Pumas

These pants are my venturing into alternatives to jeans. I'm only just learning how to use dull shades of green as a neutral; I find i like it best with orange, purple, and pink. The camisole is a wee bit tight on me; it would probably be a bit more flattering if it were just a little bit looser, but I like the cheery bright color of it.



I've always liked how these earrings match my anniversary necklace, which was one of the reasons Jared chose it. Wasn't he clever?


Summer Black-Out Challenge, Day 6

Went to a great birthday party last night, and wanted to look nice for all the friends. Pardon the EVEN worse photo quality; the light is my bedroom is pretty bad for this. Today's vribrant summery color is GREEN.



Green fluffy sweater
Sweet Dreams jeans
Amber beads
Dangling gold earrings
Brown suede Pumas

I don't usually call out brand names, because there is nothing less stylish than being a label whore, but this sweater is BCBGMaxAzria, making it one of the few pieces of actual couture I own-- which surprises me because I have no idea where I would have had to have shopped to have acquired that particular designer's stuff. I know I didn't thrift it, that's for sure. But well-fitting and quality is way better looking and more tasteful than big stupid labels showing. I am endeavoring to never show a label again.

I love my amber jewelry; I wore lots ofi this week. It's one of my favorite stones, and the rich yellow-gold color complements and adds pop to lots of different shades.



Rawr. It's so dark you can hardly see the proper colors. Ah, well, you get the idea. Bright green + yellow-gold = pretty for Phoebe.

New Goo Goo Dolls stuff?

Because I can't be bothered to follow any news sources on these things and don't listen to much radio, I had no idea the Goo Goo Dolls, despite being my favorite band, have had a single I've never heard out since last year, and have just released a new single for an album they're planning to put out at the end of August. Huh. I guess the upshot of not staying on top of these things is once in a while I get a nice surprise.

"Real" evidently was made specially for the 2008 Olympics and has never been collected on any album. I like it a lot, and probably will listen to it on loop for a whileas is my wont when I find a new song I like, but I find it a bit... generic for them. Like, exactly to my taste, but it sounds very typically Goo Goo Dolls, similar to lots of other stuff they did. I like that sound a great deal, but it isn't really anything particularly unique or special as far as they go. I'm not disappointed, but I remember how stirred I was by pretty much EVERYTHING on "Let Love In," and I hope that can happen with this new one.

"Home" I can't tell if I like yet. All that exists on YouTube is concert recordings which I kind of hate because the sound quality is low and all messed up by the screaming crowd-- although I was highly amused by the one I listened to including Johnny Rzeznik telling people to go download bootlegs of the song off the internet, and then thanking the "d-bags" who were recording this because it would get him in trouble with his record company for basically encouraging them all to steal their music. Point is, though, that I really couldn't tell from that if I liked the song. The snippet available on iTunes makes me optimistic, but it's so short I'm not sure I can pass judgment yet. I should probably buy it anyway, but I hate spending money on songs I'm not sure about.

Also, Johnny, I love you, but you are not allowed to have any more songs with "turn you inside out" as the second line in the lyrics.

Summer Black-Out Challenge, Day 5

I've been trying to make these outfits kind of unusual for one reason or another, but today's I decided to keep subtle. I am a big fan of the flattering fitted T-shirt on women with with well-fitting pants, so I just tried to work the sharp simplicity of that look to my advantage. Today's color, I suppose, is a dusty rose PINK.



Dusty-pink fitted T-shirt
Khakhi dress pants
Anniversary necklace
Garnet and silver shield earrings
Silky brown and white scarf as belt
Brown wedge sandals

The only really unusually touch is I used the scarf I wore in my hair yesterday as a belt today. But I think I like it, it adds interest. And I get points for doing something that's not hyper-coordinated, right?



It's so much easier to take a picture I don't hate when my hair is down. I wonder why that is; perhaps I have a displeasingly-shaped head that is concealed by the drape of hair. I could believe that. There's also the problem inherent in how I have always firmly believed myself to be prettier when I don't smile (what a metaphor for my life that is!) and so hate smiling in photos. But the whole fashion-model-beauty-is-pain-you-couldn't-possibly-understand-me look seems like it might be taking myself a wee bit too seriously in shots of my outfit I do in the bathroom at work for my blog to a variably-interested audience. :-) 

Summer Black-Out Challenge, Day 4

Yeah, remember yesterday when I said I should try to be less matchy-matchy? That did not happen today, because apparently today is MONOCHROME RAWR DAY. These things are also kind of turning into "the color of the day" deals, which was not really my intent, but whatever, at least I'm focusing on being colorful. So, according to that trend and my love of coordination, today we have a brunette who is wearing all BROWN.



Brown knit top
Mossimo dark jeans
Silky brown and white scarf as headband
Anniversary necklace
Dangling gold earrings
Brown leather belt
Brown suede Pumas

Even my hair fits the color scheme.

I'm not sure I like the scarf-as-headband look, or at least I've never quite figured out how to wear it so that I am totally satisfied with it. But it's interesting and I'm experimenting and will continue to. At least it looks less awkward than when I first started trying it. It looked like somebody was trying to giftwrap my head.



Happy birthday, world. I got you a head.

For some reason I could not take a picture of me wearing it where how it draped down the side didn't remind me of the way a nun's habit falls. In real life I swear it doesn't look so Sister Mary Phoebe.

So much gaming coming up!

The next week and a half promises to be jam-packed with gaming for me. It will be of both the tabletop and larp varieties, and I will be participating in the capacities of both player and GM.

This Friday night, Joe will will be running a prewritten Call of Cthlulhu game set in World War I. I've played in his Lovecraft games before and really enjoyed them, and he says this is a particularly fun mod, so I expect it to be good. My only concern is that we won't be able to get started until late, and I have a tough time staying up past midnight these days, even on the weekends.

Saturday will be the off-day. With much of the desired player pool depleted by Rage Across the Cape, no other games will be scheduled for this day. I don't mind, it's probably good to have a break in there somewhere, and I want to have nothing conflicting with the birthday party I am looking forward to attending in the evening.

Either Sunday afternoon or Monday evening will have my Burn Notice game. I really want to finish the adventure they're currently on, and I am certain it can be done by the end of this session. We haven't played since January; after the last session my play started up, like, immediately and there was never any time. Over the next few days I must buckle down and plan the thing. I know the gist of it, where I'd like it to go and all, but it's been long enough since we played that I must rethink some things, and just try to prepare for the eventualities. I am excited for the conclusion of this job; the climax of I expect shall be well-received. I like to think it's quite a kicker. :-)

Monday or Tuesday night will be a mod designed to test some of the rules devised by Bernie and Joe with the intention of being used in larp projects. I am not certain I'm the best person to be involved in such a playtest, but I have been told my aversion to rules, particularly complicated ones, will give me a perspective useful in determining what will be too unweildy and byzantine for larpers who think like me.

Wow. That's a lot of tabletopping, especially for me. And then, with Thursday comes the day we prepare for The Labor Wars the following weekend. We have cooking to get started with, and of course stuffing the game. And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shall be spent watching things unfold. I can't say enough how very, very excited I am. It occurs to me that we GMs once discussed assuming the roles of house servants to add to the verisimilitude during the run; I should ask if we're actually doing that, and figure out some appropriate costuming.

Ah, so much to do. I am at once daunted by the work and anticipating the fun. Yay!

Summer Black-Out Challenge, Day 3

Today I decided to go for something kind of weird. I wanted to wear a brightly colored skirt, but most of my brightly-colored skirts are a wee bit short to wear to work. So I turned to one of my favorite versatile accessories-- scarves. The color of today is RED.



Red pashmina as wraparound skirt
Off-white lace camisole
Fluffy red scarf
Garnet and silver shield earrings
Brown wedge sandals

I just wrapped the pashmina twice around my waist and tied it at one corner so the fringed edge drapes along the front. It's a beautiful vibrant color, though it's so wide it makes for a slightly-beyond-knee-length skirt. I wished it stopped above the knee, but it still looks nice.

The fluffy red scarf I was a little less sure about. I knew I needed something red up on top to sort of tie things together, and the only other red accessory of this kind I have is this one, which I thought would look odd because it's so clearly intended for warmth in winter. But I decided to take a chance, knotted it in an interesting way around my neck, and let one end drape down each side of my shoulder. I actually think I like it.



There. That doesn't look too weird, does it? My hair over it makes it subtler, which helps.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to put together outfits if I were more comfortable throwing different colors together, but I like a little bit of coordination. Even my earrings today have red stones in them Still, one must never become too matchy-matchy or else you start to just look silly. Maybe if I'd been able to use black, or if I had a scarf in a color that complimented red more. But this turned out pretty cute. Tomorrow I will try to mix up the colors a bit.