lavender & black

green & yellow

red, blue, & black

Proper-fitting jeans

I hate shopping for jeans. If I try on thirty different styles, maybe one will look good. Maybe. If I don't see a muffin top staring back at me in the mirror, it's a huge gaping chasm over my butt that has me tugging the jeans up every 2 seconds. If my thighs aren't being squeezed like sausage in a casing, they're flailing around in a sea of denim - and I can't swim. And don't even get me started on the length - either they're so long that hemming them would ruin the entire line of the jeans or they're so short my ankles are showing. Petites are usually too short, so I have to look for "short" length in the regular department. I'm only 5'3", for Pete's sake - jeans should never be too short for me! It's depressing. I wear a size 8 short, so it seems to me that it shouldn't be that difficult to find jeans that look decent. But apparently, size isn't the issue.

I recently came across a wonderful blog that discusses the proper fit of jeans, including the importance of:

• Pockets - placement & length
• Tightness
• Flare
• Color/Feathering/Stitching

You can check out this proper jean fit post on the Grasping For Objectivity blog. There are a ton of pictures that show bad, good, better, & best jeans for different body types - and ages. It's amazing!

There is a follow-up post where the blogger (Rachel) tries on different GAP and Old Navy Jeans to show why they don't fit well on most people. Thank you!! I'm always wondering why GAP & Old Navy jeans not only do not fit me, but actually make me look bad. Now I know it's not me - it's the jeans! :-)

As in the original post, there are a ton of great pictures, so be sure to check out the GAP & Old Navy jeans post here.

Best jeans to date for me are: Levi 515 straight leg & Tommy Hilfiger Spirit Skinny. (And I only paid around $30 for each at Macy's during a sale.) I'm going to face jean shopping with a whole new attitude now - it doesn't matter if I have to try on fifty pairs of jeans to find one great-fitting pair - because it's not me, it's the jeans!! And one great-fitting pair is worth the time it takes to find them. Just ask Gus. ;-)

scarlet

black & red

brown & red for fall

Helpful Eye Makeup Pictorials

Do you love those smoky eyes you see in magazines? Love to do a cat eye, but can never get it to look right? I recently came across this article on Glamour.com and it has great pictures and instructions, so I thought I'd share - Five Super Helpful Eye Makeup Pictorials. You can see:

• The sultry smoky winged eye
• The traditional cat-eye
• The smoky metallic eye
• The multi-tonal eye
• The 'natural' eye    

(from India-Jewel Jackson on Pinterest)

I've tried the natural eye and it's so easy to do. It takes just a couple of minutes to do both eyes and it's great for an every day look! Now if only I could get my eyebrows to look like those in the pictures...

brown & coral/red for fall

Dayton Celtic Festival

This past weekend, Gus & I made a little trip to the 11th annual Celtic Festival in downtown Dayton at Riverscape Metro Park...

The park was very pretty!

 Love the kilts & bagpipes!! Gus didn't wear a kilt.

There was plenty of Guinness - as a matter of fact, I think it was the only alcoholic beverage offered!

There were a lot of food booths - and also booths selling clothing, souvenirs, and handcrafted items...

Yes, we tried haggis. How can you go to a Celtic festival and not try haggis? It wasn't served in a sheep's stomach - and it was made of sheep's liver, beef, oatmeal, and spices. I don't think that's quite how it's made in Scotland, but we decided to try it anyway. And yes, it's pretty much as disgusting as it looks.

Here's a booth that had tartans displayed as flags...

The Celtic rock band, Enter the Haggis! They were really good! I recommend their CD "Gutter Anthems" - love "The Death of Johnny Mooring", "Did You Call Me Albatross?", and "Murphy's Ashes"!!

We had a great time - can't wait for the Scottish Festival in September!!

tan & red plaid for fall