Happy 2011!

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata” has been a constant inspiration and comfort to me over the last year. There always seems to be a few lines in there that speak what I need to hear in times of self-doubt, frustration, or stress. So to close 2010 and welcome in 2011, here are some passages from “Desiderata,” in the hopes that they will speak to you as well.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

As I grow older, I find myself being more and more thankful for my friends. This year, I’m especially thankful for the ones that I’ve managed to keep close to me, even though we might not see each other very often. I’m thankful for people who both inspire me and are inspired by me. People who impress me with their determination and goodness and manage to bring out the best in me as well.

Whoohoo!

Happy New Year! It's a bit sad to be back in the dreary Midwest after an awesome time in the Caribbean, but eh, my house certainly feels as warm as the Caribbean, anyways. (Thank you Grandma who has an even lower endurance for cold than I do.) Nina would hate it - we constantly fought over the thermostat in our cruise room. ;) I'd walk in, shiver, and jam it up 5 degrees. 10 minutes later, Nina would grumble and turn it down by 7. Hey .... reminiscent of our dorm room in college. :)

All right, Anthro reviews.

Lucillae Dress ($99)

This is an old dress, but I just randomly found it for the first time on a sales rack at a store I don't normally frequent (thanks for not showing up in any of my usual stores!) so I had to try it on. I saw it on a SA in my usual store and it looked gorgeous! I normally can do a 2 in Moulinette Souers and luckily enough, that's what this was. Or, not so - it was insanely tight for the lower half of my body. The top fit well enough, but ... you know that saying, where people say they shimmy into tight dresses? I shimmied, literally. I jerked and pulled and yanked on the dress to put it on, and then I realized ... oops, this thing has to come off, and it is clinging like a baby clings to it's bottle. Okay ... shimmy shimmy shimmy shimmy shake shake. As you can imagine from my descriptions of how tight it was, it was horrible to walk in and the dress cut your stride off in half. Too bad, because this would be great to get with the 25% off sale. I wonder if a 4 might work, but maybe it would mean that I could walk a 3/4 stride instead of a half. And then the top might be drowning on me. Oh well. It means I save money for ...

Traveling Anthro Addicts

Sandy joined my family for a Christmas Caribbean cruise (more on that later), and our flights left the day after the cruise ended. That left us with almost one full day in Miami. What to do? Check out the Anthro tag sale that we’d been deprived of while on the boat. A quick and easy $2 bus ride got us to Village of Merrick Park, an upscale shopping mall only a few miles away from the Miami airport and the closest Anthro store we could find.

The sale items had been pretty picked over by the time we got there, but I did manage to find a few things to buy. I was definitely less picky about what I chose to try on, so there were some things that REALLY didn’t work out.

Posh Peasant Tee – $29.96 (original: $58)
Got this in purple XS. Not a highly rated item, and I’m still debating over whether or not I’ll keep it. It’s a really comfy fit, and I like the top, but the looseness and the weirdness with the varied length might make it a little too unflattering. The neckline is really pretty, though. I normally do NOT wear an XS, so this tee is not an option for anyone who wears smaller sizes.

Stripey Scarves

At least 4 years ago, I found myself in need of a winter scarf. I have some major itchy issues with wool, and I can’t wear anything with even a little bit of wool content in it, so it really narrowed down my choices for warm scarves. At Target, I ended up picking a blue, olive, white, and black striped scarf that was the least offensive reasonably priced scarf in the womens section. I’ve been wearing it ever since: in Europe the winter of 2006, on cold hikes, skiing, etc. This time when I went to Europe, I was expecting cold weather, so it made sense to pack my stripey scarf.

(stripey scarf in Belgium ~ stripey scarf on a hike)

I get to London and walk around for a day or two. Mike vocalizes what I’ve been thinking: everyone has my scarf. So many stripey scarves. Many even have the same color combination. I am unintentionally fashionable! Except… it’s all men wearing the scarf. Oops.

(men wearing stripey scarves, images courtesy of the Internet)

Mike was on a scarf hunt after that, searching for his own perfect stripey scarf. He finally found one (of the orange color variety) in Paris.

Anyway, just goes to show that fashions cycle. Sometimes across genders. (See also: plaid flannel shirts that women are wearing now)

Parking sucks.

Well, two weeks out from Christmas, and on a lunch break on a Wednesday morning, the mall parking lots are jammed full. Usually the nice upper deck of the Nordstrom parking lot has maybe 20 cars total. Today - all full, and I had to circle a few times before staking out my chosen shopper and stalking her back to her car, and then warding off two old ladies (I know, I know) to get her spot. Well, I was there first. :D Then I got to watch the exact same scene being played out as I left. I turned around to back my car out just in time to watch a lady suddenly jam on the gas on her minivan, dash forward five feet or so to block off another car (and er, blocking my back out escape route), and turn her head and scream at the other car. Note to self: avoid weekends at the mall for the next two weeks at all costs.

So, this is what all the stress of getting in and out of the mall frenzy parking lots got me:

Daylight Aurora Top ($78.00)

I was hoping to try on the pink, but couldn't find it, so here's the black. Grabbed this on Jenni's recommendation, I don't think I would have thought about it otherwise. I thought this was very well made. The shirt below felt nice and thick, so no sheer see through problems with that. It felt very heavy, for a short sleeved shirt. However, not a whole lot of stretch with the material. This is an xs and I'd definitely would want to size up to a s. I did really like this shirt though, although I would have liked to try the pink color as well.