Conference Fashion

We are now less than a month away from Surrey. I’m focusing on the important things to get ready.

Wardrobe.

A few weeks ago I was in Name Droppers. It’s a high end consignment shop. In other words, it’s a used clothing store. I bought two shirts and four pairs of pants. They were clearing out summer merchandise so I got it all for $12. Two of the pants still had original tags on them. I’m not crazy about Lee pants, but they are good enough to work in and I was sick of wondering if my pants were going to fall off.

Yesterday, I went to Luskey’s Western Wear to look for some Rockies, Ozarks or Cruel Girl jeans. Nothing in my size that didn’t look like they should have been in the Salvation Army. Hey, I’m a thrift store junkie, but I’m not buying jeans so worn they look like I should be making quilts or potholders out of them.

I did find a very pretty mint green blouse, but not in my size. They had some cute camisole tops I may go back and get. I would wear them under my shirts. Yes, I’m a prude, but the current fashion of not caring if your bra straps show or trying to emphasize your underwear doesn’t enthuse me. If I’m wearing a shirt that is not heavy enough to hide my bra, I wear a camisole. The trend seems to be to unbutton the shirt a bit so the tee-shirt or camisole shows and I can live with that.

They also had a turquoise shirt I liked.

My original thought was to find colors that would go with burgundy since I will most likely wear my burgundy boots and, hopefully, my burgundy leather coat. I also have turquoise and red. I gave the rest of my boots away, darn it.

So, being an autumn complexion. Meaning I have golden tone skin even though I am very fair, auburn hair etc, I gravitate to rich, dark colors and jewel tones.

I had planned on wearing a plain, white, starched shirt one day with turquoise or sapphire jewelry and dark blue jeans. Heavily starched, of course. Starched so heavy you have to start getting dressed fifteen minutes early so you can get the legs unstuck because they are starched together.

I found a green, red and black plaid silk shirt that would fit the bill.

Yesterday, I went back to Name Droppers because Luskey’s had nothing I wanted for the price.

I found three shirts I liked and for the price I couldn’t resist. Yeah, name brand shirts for next to nothing. I was paying out and noticed a nice brown and black leather handbag behind the counter where they keep all the expensive stuff. I asked about it.

“Oh, it’s a Brighton and only $89.”

All right, not paying $89 for a used purse.

“We’ve had it a while so I’d mark it down to $30 to move it out.”

All right, I have a purse. One more thing off the list.

I get home and realize the shirts I bought a pretty little pastel things with powder blue and pink. One of them has several pastel colors with black squares. It looks like you’re looking at a rainbow through a heavy mesh screen. What the heck? I’m planning on fall colors, deep, rich colors that hide the inevitable stains. What? You thought I was being fashion conscious? Oh, no, my friends. I am being practical. Even if I am unerringly careful, invariably someone or something will get me dirty. I’m like a smudge magnet. Pastel colors are not good even if I liked them.

The white shirt, of course, was planned for the day I pitch. Plain, simply businesslike. I figure I will be able to keep it clean until the pitch at 11:30 am. After that there are no guarantees.

So, have I found any teal, purple, burgundy, rust clothes? Oh, of course not. Everyone wants neon colors or pastels. The neons are so bright I will have to wear sunglasses just to put them on. With a body this shape, no one should draw attention to it.

Cody, my middle son, thinks I need to concentrate on new boots. I don’t really want to buy new boots now because I hate the styles. Most of them look like something out of Lil Abner or have those gawd awful elongated pointed toes that look ridiculous. What happened to simple, classy boots? It’s like some comic book artist went wild and fashion was entranced with a horrible spell.

Cody and Ally are going to Fort Worth this weekend so they are going to look for a hat for me. If they can find a good hat at a good price at the outlet store, I will get it. Hopefully, they will have some imperfects there.

hat.

And the hat is bought. I found one on ebay. They had a 200x I lusted after, but it was too big.

That is what I was looking at. I have a 75x, but Don was wearing it and ruined it. I need to send it off and get it refurbished, but it takes a few months to do.

I have a hitched horsehair belt I am going to wear. I may need to get it cut down a bit at the saddle shop. Dad bought two of them at the prison consignment shop. Both of them are really nice belts and worth several hundred dollars each. Just need to find my buckle.

Well, enough about fashion. Going to work on the new chapter a bit. I had hoped Joseph would have good news for me about the computer, but no word other than the fan got in. I may have to break down and buy a new printer this laptop will recognize.