You can find five things here if you squint.

[mrissa]

It's autumn here in Baja Canada, which you can tell because I'm wearing socks again, the tomatillos are going berserk, and my tisane consumption has gone from appallingly high to truly unbalanced. That latter, of course, may be due to the fact that the first chest cold of the season has arrived right on schedule, so I am occasionally alternating in what Midori's Floating World labels a honey-ginger latte, despite the fact that it contains no coffee whatever, which I thought was a requirement for a latte. It's just hot milk with honey and ginger. Really intense, but good on the throat. timprov figured out how to make them at home. He, too, is trying to rid himself of bits of lung. (markgritter too, but he is doing it in California at the moment, and also he refuses the goodness that is honey-ginger latte. timprov refuses the goodness that is tea. Only I know what's good, apparently.)

Yesterday's city, the capital of Britain's dearest ally in 1955? Oslo, Norway. Surprising Brits and Norsk alike, I expect. Well done, mastadge, although guessing all across Scandinavia at once does seem a bit...anyway, well done.

We have candidates for the dress for my godfather's wedding. We also have yet another reject. You know what I hate about those shows where they make people over, other than everything so I don't watch them? They are apparently constantly telling people to try things on in styles they don't usually wear. I do this. You know what happens? They don't fit. You know why I don't wear those styles? They don't fit! (Or else they look terrible on me.) Who are these people, who have styles that fit them perfectly well and are perfectly flattering, and they go around not-wearing them on a whim? Oh, tra la, I think I shall just not-wear perfectly good clothes that will look lovely on me, because there are just far too many perfectly good clothes looking lovely on me in this world, tra la! Also, they are far too readily available at reasonable prices, manufactured by people who are treated humanely and with reasonable environmental practices, tra la! Shut up, those people!

(Tried on a sheath dress in a perfectly beautiful shade of blue, which my mom purchased and brought over and will now have to return to the store with sad and dragging feet. It had a wide belt that would have accentuated my not-wide waist. Guess what? Did not fit. Surprise! Yet another Neal Stephenson dress. What, ask the newcomers, is a Neal Stephenson dress? It is a garment in which I could fit the complete works of Neal Stephenson in the waist of the thing with me. Gigantic cul-de-sacs of fabric, people. Why do I not wear sheath dresses in non-stretchy fabric? Because I am not shaped like a sword aaaaaaaagh the end.)

Comments

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

Many of the women on those shows believe they aren't pretty enough to wear pretty things. Or believe they aren't smart enough to wear clothes that imply they should be taken seriously. So they stick with what they know and figure they can't do any better.

Also, the way a dress hangs on a hanger isn't the way it hangs on a body. I once reluctantly tried on a dress whose waist appeared to be the widest part of it on the hanger. But it looked really good on.

[carbonel]

Also, the way a dress hangs on a hanger isn't the way it hangs on a body.

Word.

I still remember when I was 16 and shopping for a long dress (because that's what people wore for dress-up in 1972 or so) with my mother. She pulled a dress off the rack that I thought was ugly, with terrible lines. She said "try it on," and I did. It looked great on me. I still wasn't wild about the colors, but the fit was perfect and it did all sort of flattering things for my body shape.

I still mostly can't pull that trick off for myself, but it makes me a lot more willing to try things on.

(There was also the beaded dress that had been marked down from $900 or so to $300 that I had to try on because I knew it would be gorgeous on me -- and it was -- even though I was no way going to spend that kind of money for a dress. I was right, too; but I'm still not sure what about it caught my eye that way.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I have to remind myself of the hanger thing, because yes -- things can go from hilariously bad to "you know, that's actually kind of hot."

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

Also the other way. Had that happen a few times, too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was lucky enough to have a really memorable experience with "how it looks on the hanger isn't how it looks on" age the age of 9. My very favorite dress that year was like that. So that knowledge stuck with me forever.

The down side of this is that I often try on hideous things thinking, "Maybe they'll be like that blue dress when I was 9! and look really awesome on!" And then no. But still, better not to miss out.