Stuff to Wear

Promenade

April 30, 2012 · 9 comments

in Cute and/or Pretty, Family, Good Things, Makeup/Beauty, Stuff to Wear

Last weekend was India’s first prom. Strangely this has never been a moment I’ve thought much about as I’ve raised my daughters. Probably because I never had a boyfriend (or a date for that matter) in high school so the Prom was always a source of anxiety and frustration rather than excitement.

But India is a 16 year-old sophomore so she could potentially go to three proms during her high school career. Guess who is not excited about that? (hint: me.) Not that I don’t want her to go to the prom. Just that it’s expensive coming up with a dress and shoes and all that. Not to mention the three hours it took to do her hair, nails and makeup.

Mormons in the metropolitan Austin area have their own prom. The regular high school proms feature skanky half-naked girls, lusty teenagers gyrating all over each other and lots of alcohol. There are many parents who are of the “if you let them drink at home at least they’ll do it more responsibly” school of thought*. So while there isn’t much alcohol at the prom itself (just a few hidden flasks and “water bottles”), before and afterwards are quite a different story. Yet again, our teenagers get to feel like oddballs when tell their friends that they are going to the prom and yet not going to the prom.

Trying to find a modest prom dress is a fool’s errand. Most high school girls these days are aiming for a look somewhere between stripper and prostitute. If you live in Utah finding something at least knee-length and covering the shoulders can be a little easier, but we Mormons in the wilds of Texas have to buy something on the internet or get out the old sewing machine.

After a fruitless trip to the prom dress store (would you like something strapless, strapless or maybe strapless?), we sat down with my mom to create something similar, minus the hoochie factor.

My mom put her mad sewing skillz to use and came up with something similar to the dress India liked most at the Prom dress shop. She loved it and she and her date looked so adorable. He’s a really sweet boy.

I had to give India a quick tutorial on looking gorgeous:

1. Shoulders back, boobs out, hips to the side, front knee bent, toe pointed forward.

2. Your smile is your best asset. (She and I both have a similar curse: ugly serious faces. We should be smiling always. That is a hard pill to swallow for an introverted, shy teenage girl.)

I think she worked it pretty well for an amateur!

*If you think that letting your kids drink alcohol in your own house is somehow a better alternative, you are wrong. So, so, so wrong. And you are also a coward about telling your kids that their behavior is not acceptable. It is the job of a parent to tell kids what is right and what is wrong, It doesn’t matter what you did as a teenager; give them rules! (I’ll get off of my soapbox now.)

 

 

 

Sandals in March?

March 22, 2012 · 10 comments

in Cute and/or Pretty, Misc., Stuff to Wear

It’s March. It’s 80°. All week long.  Does this mean I can wear sandals?

You northern-y people are saying “Of course! 80 degrees definitely means sandals!”  But there is some unspoken code in warm-weather places. Growing up in Michigan I don’t know this code. In Michigan I wore snow boots with my Easter dress every single year.

But when it’s 80° in Texas, most people still wear pants. And if you’re wearing pants, you’re probably not wearing sandals either.

So are sandals like white shoes, dictated by the calendar?  Or are they for warm weather, no matter what the time of year?

Pros:

I’m tired of ballet flats

My toenails are cute

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Cons:

My sandals are all in a box at the very tip top of my closet. A mighty heavy box.

 

What say you?

Silky Shorts and Other Horrors

November 3, 2011 · 10 comments

in Bad Things, Craziness (jennie's), Family, I'm Not So Great, Kids, Stuff to Wear

I’m over at Segullah today posting this. But since I know you’re probably too lazy to click over there, let’s get a discussion going here too. I’m really interested in everyone’s opinions.

My 14-year-old son, York, has a pair of bright orange silky shorts. I loathe silky basketball shorts. I’m sure I must have bought them for him because I buy all his clothes. But what was I thinking? Was I so exasperated with clothes shopping that I just said “fine” when he waved them in front of me? Oh, we somehow ended up with a red pair too.

Every time he wears his bright shorts I want to tell him to go change. There is no way those are stylish in any crowd at high school.  I want him to look cute in public. But I also don’t want to be one of those bratty moms who has too strong an opinion about what her kids should and shouldn’t wear (except when it comes to Holiday outfits).

I have a friend like that. I love her but she’s always got some issue about what her daughters are wearing, whether its high heels to school, or a belt that’s really jangly, or anything striped (“stripes don’t look good on anyone!” she says.)

I reckon that as long as my kids are being modest then they should be able to wear what they want. But then I think of those stupid basketball shorts.  I really would like to “accidentally” spill bleach on them.

When I think back to the dreadful clothes I wore (anything fluorescent, T-shirts with biking shorts, the month where I wore shoelaces in my hair) and my appearance in general  (disgusting perms, purple and blue striped eyeshadow and, horrors, white lipstick!), I wish my mother had maybe stopped me once or twice as I was walking out the door and had me rethink my choices.

But it probably would have turned into a giant fight.  I’m not sure whether my mother was being wise or simply didn’t care.

Do you think that we have the right to help our kids make fashion choices?  It can be futile to insist that a three-year-old change her clothes but what about a thirteen-year-old?

What about husbands? Do you let the man in your life wear whatever he likes? Do you disagree? Do you even care? Does he?

At least I’m not making everyone march to dinner

April 21, 2011 · 6 comments

in Craziness (jennie's), Jennie Likes, Kids, Stuff to Wear

It occurred to me a couple of days ago that Easter is this coming Sunday. I mean I knew that. There are giant bags of candy hidden in my closet. (I’m on top of the really important things.) But I kind of forgot about the whole Easter dress thing. Which is kind of a big, humongo deal at our house. In case you missed this basic fact, I love to dress my kids alike. There has not been a Christmas, Easter or family portrait in the last 14 years that has not featured matching clothes*. I realized this week that I simply do not have the wherewithal to track down a bevy of coordinating outfits. Especially when I now have to shop for India and York in the grown-up departments. No longer can I swing by the Children’s Place or Hartstrings and buy everything I need in 20 minutes.

So I tried making my peace with our motley assortment of church clothes (nobody even has anything new, let alone matchy). But I could not. I tried to tell myself that the days of matching clothes are over. However, I found myself wandering the aisles of the fabric store this morning. Surely I could whip up at least a few skirts. And then I could maybe make something for the boys**. Right?

Right! I got out the sewing machine and serger and went to town. I made three skirts for the girls this afternoon. The Fates smiled on me: I bought enough fabric. I had the right thread and elastic. I didn’t even sew any pieces together wrong. There were perfectly matching shirts at Target ($5 each!) and only one child threatened not to wear her ensemble (India, of course. Like I care what she thinks. So what if she’s fifteen?)

Tomorrow I’ll attempt to make neckties. I’ve never made them before but how hard can it be? (famous last words!) I even asked York if he’d wear a tie made of the really bright pink and green floral fabric I used for Arabella’s skirt and he was like, “yeah, whatever.” (I love easygoing children! They are the best ever!)

*I don’t know why I love matching clothes so much. One too many viewings of the von Trapps, I suppose. Which might also explain my large family. Whatever the reason, people give you major props if your kids are dressed alike. They believe–erroneously–that matching children indicate superior parenting skills. Chumps! But I’m not about to tell them that.

**It’s pretty much because of my obsession with dressing my children that I became good at sewing. My mom taught me how as a teenager, but it wasn’t until I tried to find coordinating brother-sister clothes that I buckled down and really figured it out. So it hasn’t all been pointlessly superficial.

How to create great weather

February 26, 2011 · 14 comments

in Making Stuff, Photos of Jennie, Stuff to Wear, Weather

If you’re suffering from too much snow and frigid temperatures, here is the foolproof way to end them: Knit yourself a lovely scarf. The whole time you’re knitting, the temps will hover in the 20′s. You will knit madly, so excited to finish! Finally the day will come when you cast off the final stitch. That day will be 71º. And it will not be below 65º ever after.

You will not get to wear your fluffy woolen scarf, no matter how pretty it turned out. Everyone else will be so happy to put on flip-flops once again, and it will all be because of you. You, meanwhile, will enjoy staring at your scarf neatly folded on the shelf until next November. Sigh.

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Accessories–I have a bit of a weakness

November 16, 2010 · 10 comments

in Good Things, Jennie Likes, Stuff to Wear

Don’t most girls like accessories? I think we do. Especially since accessories always fit. You can just have given birth and weight the most you will ever weigh, and your necklace will still fit just fine. I love that.

I happen to be a fan of cheap accessories. I’m not the kind of girl who’ll spend a lot of money on a purse. For one thing, I prefer quantity over quality. I’d rather have a bunch of cute, cheap things rather than one expensive, nice thing. For another thing I happen to find expensive things (purses in particular) are more for people who need the status that they imagine a fancy purse brings. Those purses with the big logos all over them are the worst! Why don’t you just carry a sign that says, “I have a low self-esteem and need the validation that a logo provides!”

Don’t even start about quality. That’s always the excuse people give when they’re trying to justify an expensive purchase: that it will last forever. Most everything is made in China (even fancy companies have been busted for importing things from China then replacing the labels with “Made in France”) Besides, who wants to carry the same purse for ten years? After one or two seasons I’m done.

All the fancy jewellery I have has come from my favorite jeweler, Costco. I even got the stone in my wedding ring from Costco. I just love the feeling of getting my money’s worth. But for the day to day jewellery that I wear, I like it inexpensive. I don’t want to stress about losing it. (I don’t mind spending a little bit extra for something handmade, though.)

So when I heard Sam Moon was finally opening a store in Austin I screamed with delight (literally, I did). Sam Moon is a group of stores here in Texas (yet another reason why it’s the best state!) that are HUGE and full of nothing but accessories. Well, they do have a few other things (luggage and lots of Longhorn paraphernalia) but mostly accessories. And this stuff is CHEAP. I doubt there is anything in that store for more than $20. It’s so incredible.

I took a few photos last time I was in there to show you what they have.

Wallets? Yes, they have a few.

Purses? Oh yes. Although most are the large variety which I dislike because it makes me feel like I’m carrying around a diaper bag and those days are (happily) over.
Necklaces, anyone? Every color and variety under the sun.
Let’s not forget belts. Sparkly or plain, they have what you need.

Next time you’re in Texas, you need to stop at Sam Moon! (Dallas/Ft.W, Houston and Frisco all have stores).