Weather or Not !!!

Intentional misspelling. After many years of drought, this year is California's year to catch up. In the last week since my birthday, it has rained every day except for today. One afternoon, I spied the end of a tiny rainbow.

You can barely see it. This is the view from the skybridge at the hospital today. Those beautiful snow covered mountains are about an hour and a half away.

I got a few cards and gifts for my birthday. One of the gifts was a set of solar lights to go up the path to the house, but they need to charge in the sun for three days, and today has been the first sunny day.

From Doc and from Mimi, my MIL.

From Doc and from Tawn, my SIL.

My MIL gave me an Anne Klein purse that she found in her garage. It had a scuff on it, but was otherwise perfect, and even had tags attached.

The best way to remove scuff marks from patent leather is with nail polish remover.

Thar she blows, all shined up.

But I wasn't the only one who had a birthday. One of my coworkers, Jen, had hers on January 31st. The way it works in our office is that whoever had the last birthday has to plan the next one. So I planned an anonymous brownie contest, since brownies are Jen's favorite.

There were seven entries. The awards were:
Most chocolaty
Most Store bought pretending to be home made
Most original
Chewiest
Gooiest
Best brownie made by someone who does your performance evaluation
Best in Show

Jen did the judging - all the contestants were in identical foil pans so she couldn't tell who made which brownie.

Awards were handed out.

Vicki won for most original and Best in Show. Now it's Jen's turn to plan the next birthday.

So what have I been wearing lately?

Let's go way back to January 29th. I wore brown wool slacks from Ann Taylor, a tweed blazer with floral embroidery on it, and a turtleneck from Caslon, a Nordstrom brand.

You can see the embroidery and the ruched front of the turtleneck. The amber double strand necklace was my mom's.

 On January 30th, I wore a red cashmere cardigan from Neiman Marcus, a black turtleneck from Bebe, and this weird skirt that is plaid with tie dye over it. And as if that is not unusual enough, it can be zipped open at the top, so you can have as much or as little of the fabric draping as you want.

I usually unzip it half way.

As you can see, in my pictures, it got caught on the top of my pirate boots.

My iron cross type necklace was the choice of the day.

On February 4th, it was pouring. It would have been my mom's 99th birthday. She died at 96. I wanted to be warm, so I wore brown corduroy jeans, a tan ribbed turtleneck, and a sweater knit poncho from JC Penney.

My smoky teardrop necklace was purchased at the Taste of Charlotte a few years ago. It has matching earrings. We put flowers by my mom's picture for her birthday.

Yesterday, still raining. I wore this vintage knit set. It wasn't very warm, so I don't think it's wool. It's probably rayon and acrylic.

It is cute, however. I wore a black satin trench coat on top, and I realized that with the coat over this, I looked like I was wearing a 1900 swimsuit.

There are stripes on the cuffs, the waist and the hem. I wore one lapis and one sapphire necklace.

Today, I wore a hand me down suit from Petite Sophisticate. The skirt is green and black houndstooth.

I wore a black linen top with jet crystals at the square neck, a matte goldtone necklace and a gold twist belt.

And that's about all for now!! The high today is 57, which is downright frigid for SoCal. So I didn't go for a walk outside today like I usually do. I will take the dogs on a longer walk tonight. Everyone wins.

My Entry to the Seventh Decade!!!

So, I turned the big 60 yesterday. Go me!!! Despite colonoscopies, fire alarms at work, and the stupidity of the Homeowners Association of the condo I rent out to a long term tenant, I have made it alive!!!

Let's start with last week. On Monday, this is what I wore:

This is a pearl trimmed cardigan from INC. I have had it for about 10 years, but it hasn't gotten much love lately. I am wearing it over a black INC sleeveless sheath dress.

Here's a better look at the trim. It is pretty lush, and no necklace is needed.

My crystal trimmed shoes are Badgely Mischka.

On Tuesday, I went to a postponed holiday party. I wore another INC outfit. The skirt had vertical lurex stripes, and the top has cold shoulders.

The necklaces are both costume. I bought the maroon one for another outfit, but it really matched this one well.

On Wednesday, it was time to donate another unit of blood. I wore this wrap dress. Although it looks very nice, the wrap doesn't go all the way around like the pricier ones do, so I had to be extra careful getting up and down.

I wore my black coral necklace, another gold necklace, my Hermes CDC, and some garnet bracelets.

 On Thursday, Doc was at work, so I made a rather sad attempt to prop my phone up to take a selfie. Obviously, more practice is needed. I wore a cashmere sweater dress and my favorite grey suede boots, which have also been ignored this year.

Along with this, a silver herringbone chain and a garnet cluster necklace.

The office had a little party for me - balloons on the ceiling, food from Fortune Cookie, and a gigantic chocolate cake.

Here was their gift to me - a giant bottle of vodka.

When I got home, Doc had gotten me another gigantic gift - a huge bunch of flowers.

Yesterday, we had dinner at Maggiano's, an Italian restaurant. They still have the buy one, take one home deal. I had spaghetti with meat sauce (their sauce is my all time favorite) and Doc had Beef Al Forno. We also had a Maggiano's salad - lettuce, blue cheese, red onions and creamy Italian drssing.

We took home another spaghetti with meat sauce and chicken alfredo. They also gave us a giant piece of chocolate fudge and caramel cake.

I did my hair on Saturday, and although it's darker than I wanted, it is something different for a change. Today, it's back to work - I am wearing a Tommy Hilfiger knit dress.

In the closeup, you can see that it's navy, with horizontal textured lurex stripes.  I wore three necklaces - two were sapphire and one was a KJL miniature Faberge egg.

On top, I wore my Bloomingdale's warmup jacket - it has white trim and gold hardware.

My first Birchbox of 2019 arrived on Friday.

From top to bottom:
1) Estee Lauder Revitalizing Supreme Plus Global Anti-Aging Cell Power Creme
2) Model Co Baked Highlighter in Moonshine
3) Sand and Sky Australian Pink Clay Pore Refining Mask
4) Beautaniq Nourishing Mascara
5) Manna Kandar Lip Oil
6) Fab Me - The Mother of All Hair Treatments


And that's about it for this episode. I Kon Mari'd my workout tape collection this weekend. Whenever I have a few minutes, I am going to Kon Mari more of my excess of possessions and give away the stuff I don't use or wear anymore. I have so much, mostly because I like shopping and my size hasn't changed much. So some will no longer spark joy and gots to go.


See you all soon !!!