Ever Evolving....

Getting in touch with my inner fashion maven once more....
"Striking a Pose" 

Some call me fickle. I say that I am ever evolving, and that change is good, refreshing and well, it keeps things interesting. This theory of mine touches on every part of my life. I am always changing things within the four walls here at Muse Cottage, even if on a small scale. One can get so bored with the same thing day in and day out. I tend to go through phases with the music I listen to, currently I am into listening to country if in my car, but Celtic if at home. I used to change the color of my hair a lot... and if you have been following my blog for any length of time, you will have noticed the length and the style of my hair tends to change a lot as well. I also change how I dress quite often, that too has been documented in many blog posts over the life of it.  What woman does not like an excuse to go shopping? To switch up their look a bit? As one ages, or as life and what it holds for one on a day to day basis almost demands things to evolve. 

Life changes often dictate how I dress. When raising my children through the baby years I dressed in the typical mommy clothing, you know the type of fashion that comes to mind.. easy to wear, easy to wash and not real fashion magazine material ( not to say that there are not fashionable moms out there, but where I lived and so many years ago it was not often seen). I went through what I called my "church lady" look, long loose dresses and high neck shirts.... hair long and simply pulled back and nearly no make up.. what I felt was proper. Then after loosing a lot of weight after having yo-yo'd for a few years , I was working in an environment where I was surrounded by 20 somethings while I was in my 30's I took on a sexy rocker chic look. Shortly after, as the Rockabilly look was coming into my area and being in love with Lucille Ball and Audrey Hepburn for many years, I started to dress with a 50's flair, full skirts, pumps and pearls..... I did have fun with that look, until we moved to Texas. I tried, oh I tried, but where we were living,  velveteen pants and hoodies  paired with flip flops was the every day look, and the weather was always close to being in a shower most days, well being the only person dressed in the 1950's esq look was just not practical.. I caved. When we came back to California, my style evolved again, slacks and dress shirts/blouses or nice LBD's , occasionally a colorful skirt and blouse with a lady like feel... just a touch of the 50's coming back in. 

This was every day wear for me, even for Wal Mart!

When having lost our house and moving into an apartment came to pass, my look fell into a depression just as I did, but eventually things turned around a bit, and having many hours on my hands at home I began to watch old black and white movies and fell in love with fashions, the music, pretty much everything that involved anything from the 1920's through the 1930's. I obviously always had a fascination for the past and in dressing with a nod to the past, I was doing that even in high school, but with needing to put my focus on anything but what was going on in my life and as it would have it, with my health, I decided to jump into creating a look that made a serious nod way back in time. I did not have the budget to buy true vintage fashions and for many of them, I did not have the figure either, so instead, I shopped at big box stores and managed to create a unique look that blended both the 20's and the 30's and just a bit of the here and now. 

I grew out my hair to a Louise Brooks bob and colored it a deep dark brown and this was my wardrobe, my look for a good nearly 2 years. 

My take on a blending of  the
1920's and 1930's
*day wear 

*a special event 

Life changed again just over a year ago. We bought Muse Cottage, we had a death in the family, our oldest moved away again, and our middle daughter moved into what was once our garage, having had it converted to a nice living space. In the middle of everything my health plummeted and suddenly I was forced to be a  hermit. Comfort and ease was important. I stopped wear make up, gave up coloring my hair, for awhile stopped cutting it as well. I could not concentrate on any of it. I truly did not care. My focus was not on myself. During this time a book by Jamie Cat Callan , "Ooh La La " came out,and I was actually featured in part of it; Jamie had fallen in love with my blog and my look and was kind enough to feature me within the pages, but at the time of it's release I was living in my PJs and flannel at that! I had lost my Ooh La La, that is for darn sure. 

T shirts and jeans about as fancy as I
got this whole past year. Very little
make up and a touch of lip stain was it.

My health is still not great, I am exhausted and hurt pretty much all day. I still have bladder issues, tho I am not confined to the house because of it, and I have a long road to even get back to what health level I was at where Fibro was all that I had to deal with as if that is not enough on a daily basis, even with it not being nearly as bad as what many have.  I now finally have an official diagnosis/confirmation of fibroids via an ultra sound , and iron deficient anemia that comes with it as a side effect from killer monthlies, so as I said my health is not great, BUT, I made a decision when the new year came to be that I was going to wear make up every day, well nearly, and I was going to put a spot of perfume behind each ear, get my nails done again, so gone are the nubs they had become, and I was going to do my best to get dressed each day, even if I was in sweats I was going to look nice as I could doing so. I cut off my hair, again, deciding it was easier to care for and though normally when I go through a change of mind like this I run for the hair color, I am fighting temptation. I was going to work on finding my Ooh La La . The clothing I wore to create the looks shared above no longer fit... laying on the couch for a year tends to put a bit of weight on a gal , so I had to evolve to a new look once again. I will say this, I am NOT getting rid of my lovely clothing as I have often done in the past, one day I hope to be able to fit in it again... and if not, well I KNOW the hats and shoes will still fit and I can in my own creative way make it work with how ever I am dressing at the time. 

Proof I am wearing make up again! I have
been "living" at CVS buying new eye shadow
colors, once home, trying new ways to combine them.

Here showing off my new pearls from Tiffanys, a gift from
my loving hubby, and my pretty purple nails...
a non neutral color as new to me as these pearls. 

Recent day out

Sunday Morning in the park

Recent night out with hubby .. ok, yes, I LOVE
black and white/cream stripped clothing!
*giggle*  I would normally wear a bit more
"hip" jewelry with such an outfit, but  hubby had
just given me the lovely pearls so on they went. 

I am not sure just yet exactly what my style is now, or how it will evolve, but for now it is just to be comfortable, but stylish... a work in progress. Nothing that stands out too much, not like my previous looks, but that could change too, as I said I am ever evolving. Maybe you might actually see me in color!