I am dressed (don't ask much more of me)!

I like to peruse "real fashion" blogs. You know, real people showing off how they turn real clothes into cute, always-put-together, stylish-with-personal-flair outfits, as opposed to blogs dissecting the latest runway weirdness.

But, confession: pretty much none of this makes it into my real life. I own all sorts of clothes; too many, I'm sure. I have no idea how to put them together, though. I suspect I sometimes own the exact same pieces I see women wearing on these fashion blogs, yet I would never think to put them together into the adorable outfits they do. (I suffer from the same problems when it comes to interior decorating, actually: the house is just a hodgepodge of nothing-matches-but-I-liked-it, while my wardrobe is a mess of it-all-matches-but-it-doesn't-look-interesting.)

Every once in awhile I am inspired and print out color wheels and study up on belts or whatever. But honestly? It is too much effort to coordinate an outfit every day. Also, it's cold in my office, so even though I have a whole pile of dresses I bought "because they're nice enough to wear to work," I never wear them thence, because I would freeze. To death. Literally.

So every day I end up in one of my five pairs of slacks (two black, two grey, one brown) and some sort of shirt. I always called these shirts blouses, because to me they are nice, as opposed to a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt or something. Apparently most of the world still considers them t-shirts, though, and blouses are some fluffy concoction I would normally only wear to a fancy-dress party. This is what happens when you grow up poor in the relaxed Southwest with a mother who hates shopping and a father who occasionally wears shirts with holes in them to work because "it's just a little one on the side there and I can never find shirts with pockets like I like."

You see why I think this is too much effort. I also never wear makeup, and I have long straight hair that I wear exactly one way: twisted up in a claw clip. "Effortless" is a nice way of describing my personal style, but it doesn't look like the "effortless" style advertised in magazines, that's for sure.

Occasionally, though, I feel inspired in the morning and put something together that I think actually qualifies as an outfit.

Exhibit A:

I wore black heels to work, but shoes come off once
I come in the front door and don't go back on until I leave.

Turquoise is possibly my favorite color, but I tend not to wear it often because it's so bright, and I'm a muted-neutrals sort of girl. I've had this shirt since high school, I think. It's old and pilly and doesn't really fit right and it almost went into the give-away pile recently.

But then I spied this belt I snagged at Goodwill last month and thought perhaps the shirt could be saved after all. And I think it was. The wide black belt broke up the vast expanse of brightness, and nipped in the shirt to give it a more flattering fit--otherwise, it and the slacks basically make one straight line from my armpits to my ankles.

And in my second bit of fashion news, allow me to show off the handiwork of my beautiful and talented friend Tiffany.

Exhibit B:

"Effortless" also describes my approach to lawn maintenance.

Isn't that just the best of hats? It is the best of hats. Tiffany is the best of knitters and crocheters, and she kindly knit me this excellent hat in my favorite muted-neutral: gray. Yay!

The trees dress much better than I do this time of year.