Making a Statement (Necklace)

In the 80s and 90s, my Nana Pauline ROCKED the beaded necklace.  I clearly remember rifling through her tall lucite jewelry case, as a child, touching the smooth, cool, colorful beads of the magnitude of necklaces she owned. She had one for every outfit, it seemed.  Images of appliqued sweaters and bedazzled blouses come to mind paired with long beads that traveled to practically her navel.

Somehow, in my 20s when she sadly passed away, I inherited a ton of said beaded necklaces.  I seriously never thought I would wear them and for a period of time when dress up was such a big deal in the life of my daughter, those beaded baubles made their way into her tiny hands and she adored them.

Enter 2012, earlier this summer, and after seeing the words "statement necklace" repeated over and over again on the Net I thought about those necklaces.  Digging through dusty basement boxes, I hit jackpot and as I sat on my bed touching those smooth, cool, colorful, and amazing beads, I felt that I could ROCK the beaded necklace too!

Check out some of my personal collection of statement necklaces, left to me by my Nana Pauline!!



Black rounded square beads with shiny grey beads



Large white beads with yellow and gold accents



Natural stone "jelly bean" necklace




Asian blue floral beads doubled over but can also be worn long





White beads with elongated octagon



Colored rocks doubled over



Light blue with Asian blue floral bead accents

Go ahead, raid those jewelry boxes of the awesome (more mature) women in your life...you may just find a modern treasure to wear over your heart! 

  





  

Belts: Becoming a Believer

Well friends, wearing belts was something I NEVER, and I mean NEVER did.  Years of awesome elastic waist bands kept me from needing one and tucking a shirt in was something I just didn't do.

BUT, the evolved me, has come to my senses and realized that The Belt, and yes I capitalized that, can accentuate you in all the right places. My elastic waist band pants have disappeared! Hallelujah!

My belting experimentation, as illustrated below:

Okay, bear with me because I am going to try to sound like I know what I am talking about.  If you know me well, you will likely laugh at me, but I am confident enough in the NEW ME, that I will take your laughter (and probably laugh with you!)  The picture, above, shows me wearing an army green tee under a button white blouse.  I am working a 1.5 inch brown belt and greenish/brownish cuffed shorts.  I am wearing reddish brown sandals from the Charlotte Russe outlet.  I like the way the belt falls on my hips.  Without the belt, the shirt just hangs and leaves an undefined shape. My head is cut off because until I figure out a way to take pictures of myself, my 7 year old daughter is in charge!

In the picture above, I am wearing a black blouse with flower accents, a grey, and might I add my new favorite, skirt.  It has a lot of texture and if you twirl in it, you kinda feel like you could be on the set of Dirty Dancing.  I am wearing a turquoise beaded belt (thanks Mom!) and black espadrille shoes with bows. 

In this third picture, I am wearing a long black and white printed blouse with black capri pants. I used a black belt that is 2 inches wide with this one.  I am wearing turquoise jewelry for a pop of color! (I love when people use that phrase, "pop of color!!!" It is hilarious and I will use it often to sound cool...you try it...say it out loud...I AM ADDING A POP OF COLOR!  Fun, right??

Notice the difference between the picture above and this one below WITHOUT a belt...looks better WITH the belt, right?

So, there you have it...I am now a belt believer and I feel that wearing a belt instead of hiding under an untucked shirt can be a fantabulous, yes I said fantabulous, way to draw attention to all the right places!

Garbage Bags of Change

Calling myself cheap, when it comes to spending money, makes me sound, well...cheap.  I would say that I am a bargain hunter and as of lately, a clothes deposit bin.  In the last 18 months I lost 50 pounds, got divorced, and to say that I have to be careful with money, is fair.  

I don't like to pay a lot for clothes. That's the truth. I think this comes from the fact that I always seemed to change sizes often and never wanted to spend the money.  Now that I have maintained the size that I am now for as long as I have, it is time to define my style. I spent one year moving down in size but really ended up with a new body I didn't know how to dress AND a closet of clothes of varying sizes and styles.

One of the best fashion related phone calls I ever received was from my dear friend Annie. She was calling to let me know that HER friend, who was now a size negative 4 or something like that and who had once been my size, was looking to donate her expensive wardrobe to a poor soul who needed help.  Those bags of clothes were about five seconds away from going to Good Will, but Annie rescued them for me. 

When I picked up those bulging black garbage bags and began trying on these pieces that actually fit me, I held my own private fashion show.  I showed no shame in accepting this gift and really, all that was missing from my small runway was a soundtrack and flashing bulbs.

I gained a few things that day.

+More pants and jeans than I would ever need...I mean, seriously...and while I am eternally grateful to this friend of a friend, who needs ten pairs of jeans??

+The knowledge that these clothes from Macy's and higher end designers would be the first and last time I would acquire such items

+An opportunity to rethink my style

I had received the basics and after a year of putting together many sort of boring, getting by the seat of your pants (figuratively and literally) outfits, I found and became mildly obsessed with Pinterest, and particularly the creation of two boards, the first that I simply have called, "Desserts" and the second, lovingly, "Fashion...Not My Strength, But I am Trying." HA!

These two boards which I have pinned to my heart's content all summer long have caused two things to happen.  A weight gain of 7ish pounds...thank you self-control for failing me now. AND for my foray into women's fashion.  

While my teacher friends have been posting multitudes of education related pins as July has turned into August, I have likely surprised them with my own pin additions of outfits, ways to tie scarves, accessories every woman should have in their wardrobe, etc, etc, etc. 

I noticed something though...the outfits posted on Pinterest would fit your average size 2 woman! (Dare I mention that I am, at times, prone to sarcasm?)These beautiful clothing ensembles with everything you could use from head to toe to make the perfect outfit are for women that look like Annie's garbage bag toting donating gal pal and I certainly, in my 5 foot 3, size 8 body want to see what it looks like on ME!!!

So here we are. You and me. New friends. Please be my wing girl on this new venture into finding my style.

Hugs 4 you,

Dana

Who Am I?

Welcome to Da.n.a.life.4.you! I shall explain the name of my blog by saying that my name is Dana, pronounced Day-na and if you read my blog's name, paying close attention to the careful placement of the punctuation, then it should read: Day in a life for you.  

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UPDATE: 7/7/2014: It has been almost two whole years since I started this blog and boy, did I drop the ball! And might I add, my concern for fashion. In these two years I got married and had a baby, kiddo number three! These days, I could care less about what I am wearing but more so I care about what I am reading and writing. That is why I joined Teacher's Write, basically summer camp for teachers and librarians that know the importance of this idea: Teachers of writing, must be writers themselves. I can't wait to explore more writing through TW and I will be posting my writing here because, well, it can be a record of my experience. 

When I had set out to create this blog, I was immensely afraid of people reading it and I still am! The same worry: Do I have anything useful or important or meaningful or worthy to say? still come to mind. I am gonna go with it for now and see what happens!

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I am not quite sure where this is going, but I am trying, I mean really trying to end the internal jokes in my head about Stacy and Clinton of What Not to Wear showing up at my door.  So first and foremost I want to share my journey into the world of fashion. BUT...I am not going to limit myself to just writing about this foreign topic, because yes, foreign is the best word to describe how the idea of being fashionable is like me visiting another planet. I also would like to impart my wisdom on many other fascinating topics that you might connect with.  I hope you will find that Da.n.a.life kinda resembles a day in your life. And maybe, just maybe we can make our way through this world together, one day at a time!

As a bonus, I can check "start a blog" from my bucket list and anytime i can check something off my bucket list, I feel pretty darn excited and while it is the middle of the night and I am a wee bit green in the area of blogging, I am gonna give this a shot. 

So, ...who am I?  Here's my list that is truly ever changing and growing but if you can relate to just one of the things on my list, then perhaps you should keep on reading!

In no particular order...I am a...

Human (oh my gosh...so are you!!! Keep on going!!)

Friend

Woman

Mom

Full Time Career Girl (September through June)

Stay at Home Mom (June through August)

Daughter

Sister

Aunt

Niece

Cousin

Girlfriend

Sister-in-Law

Ex-Wife (hee hee)

Crafter

Recipe Tryer Outer and Sometimes Recipe Screwer Upper

New Word Creator

Over User of the Ellipse (...) and the Exclamation Point (!)

Classroom Teacher 

Instructional Coach

Writer

Reader

Dog Owner

Peanut Butter Cup Lover

Constant Learner

Goofball

Procrastinator

Former Fashion Police Most Wanted Criminal

And the list goes on and on. I plan to periodically add to this list and elaborate on these areas of my life.

Try It: Hit your favorite dollar store and pick up a composition book...make your own "Who Am I?" list...you might be surprised to put into words the roles and silly things that identify who and what you are!

Hugs from me,

Dana