New Year's Resolutions

So I shared this great video produced by Dr. Mike Evans on the effectiveness of New Year's resolutions exactly a couple of years ago, but it deserves to be seen again: "You are 10 times more likely to stick with a change made at the New Year." There may be a couple of reasons for this. The video is quick and informative, so give it a (re-)watch.



It seems that every time I make New Year's resolutions (serious ones that I write down rather than just tell people about offhandedly), I actually do stick to them for at least 6 months. And yes, changing habits a little at a time makes a difference.

This coming year, my resolutions focus on practicing and improving my writing. I've spent the past year helping students work on their writing skills. It's my turn to level up.

1. I'm planning to start this Jane-a-Day 5-year daily journal that uses Jane Austen's writings as prompts for very brief daily musings. I received it as a present a couple of years ago, but I could never get my act together. I start it in 2016. It requires just a quick sentence per day, so it shouldn't be too difficult to keep up (and yet I'm still probably going to miss days here and there).
2. I've also decided that November is a bad time to write a novel when you're teaching three classes, hence NaNoWriMo is not going to happen for me during their official month. But I'm happy to start a daily 30-minute writing habit, whether it's writing something new or revising/editing. But the writing habit has to be focused on a creative work rather than my journal, blog, or academic work.
3. However, it wouldn't be good to ignore my academic work. I have an essay that was accepted for publication (!!) so I'll be working on revising that once I get the readers' notes from the editors. I also want to write at least one essay on my new long-term project that I can submit for publication somewhere.
4. I've asked my significant other to get the writer's app Scrivener for me as a present so that I can revise my writing in a more orderly manner.

Looking at this list, I'm excited. For #2, I don't expect to write anything publishable. I just need the practice so that I can improve. (I tell my students this all the time -- writing is recursive. So you need to write, revise, revise again, get feedback, write some more, revise again, get more feedback, revise again, get even more feedback, and, if you're lucky, finally edit.) I'll need to ask someone to read a draft, which will be scary, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I also have to add a #5: the usual resolution to improve my health. In my case, I've gained quite a bit of uncomfortable weight, which I'll blame on teaching. I'm not a freak about becoming skinny, but teaching really screws up my daily life. For one thing, it's crazy how sedentary it all is. I stand for hours at a time when I'm teaching. However, my campus is not only super small but it's completely flat. There are no acres of hills for me to run across just to make it to my next class or appointment. Also, I can't tell you how much time I spend sitting so that I can grade all the writing I have to assign. Whew.

For another thing, I'm always up super late working on my class prep. I've mentioned before that I need to work on not changing up so much of my syllabi. In any case, when I don't get enough sleep, it causes a cascade of problems: I get hungry when I should be sleeping, I'm more likely to choose poorly (sugary and/or carb-y things), and my body doesn't have enough time to repair itself which leads to bloating and inflammation. Long story short, I'm not healthy at the end of a semester. It's definitely time to harness the power of a New Year's resolution to change things!

Anyway, good luck on crafting your own resolutions! Here's to an amazing new year. May it be peaceful, kind, and righteous.

xo, Gladys

Birthday Fun at the Huntington

So, I'm still struggling to finish the same dissertation chapter I talked about last time. But I'm getting so grumpy from lack of sleep that I thought I'd take a break to post here and fondly remember some recent events. My dear friend M and I had a ladies day out last weekend to celebrate my birthday. We went to the gorgeous Huntington Library and Gardens and of course we dressed up. It turned out to be perfect weather, and really the whole day and evening were fantastic. What a gift.

Dress and sash: Tulle via Modcloth | Cardi: Banana Republic | Leggings: ? | Shoes: Fluevog Erika (different colorways available)
M is also wearing a Modcloth/Fluevog combo. Her boots (compliment-magnets, I tell you) are still available (Bartoli in red).

My dress without cardi or sash

With cardi but no sash

Trying for fierce expressions

Closeup of my new glasses. This is my usual expression when I look at people/cameras.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Huntington, as expected. We loved walking around the place in our pretty dresses and even better-looking and comfy shoes. Our favorite thing was seeing the mind-blowing Archimedes manuscript exhibit. Archivists and restorers are hardcore. Seriously.

Of course we had to eat somewhere special, so we went to the famous soup dumpling restaurant, Din Tai Fung, in Arcadia, just a few miles away from the Huntington. If you've never been and you love delicious fresh Chinese food and you live in SoCal or are visiting, I highly recommend it.

Then of course we got dessert, despite being already stuffed. These were from J.J.'s in the same plaza as the restaurant.

Then, what do you know, in the same plaza we found a cute little clothing store. Their markups were unfortunately too much. We tried on a couple of things anyway, including these adorable rompers that caught our eye from the window. They're certainly well-made and of good fabric, but much too expensive (at least for us -- does $140 for a romper sound reasonable to you?).

Special thanks to dear M for making my birthday special this year! Oh, and thanks also for drawing this for me:

Can you guess who it is? Ah, she knows me so well. Hee hee! #Cumberfangirl

xo, Gladys

New Year's Healthy Resolution

Happy New Year, everyone!

Like everyone else and their mom, one of my New Year's resolutions this 2014 is to get healthy and fit. Since last summer, I've been doing yoga once a week and Zumba with friends every other week or so. When the swimming season ended, these two activities kept me on track. I also started logging my food and exercise on MyFitnessPal.com, which was easy to do with my iPhone (with the bar code scanning). And it all worked: I stopped eating such huge portions, dropped some excess weight, and toned up my arms and especially my legs. Even my waistline shrank a little, though not to 2011 and 2012 levels.

But also like everyone else and their mom, I slacked off around November when the holidays rolled around. I didn't stop doing yoga or Zumba, but I did quit logging my food on MyFitnessPal. I started eating whatever sugary and grain/carb-y thing people offered, and I bought and ate such items for myself even though I knew they would give me gas and bloating later on. (For me, pasta is a huge culprit.) I didn't do any extra workouts to compensate for extra calories coming in. Even worse, I took a couple weeks off from any aerobic activity. My skin started to break out severely from all the cheap chocolate I was stuffing in my face (cheap because they're made up more of sugar and milk than the good stuff, real chocolate). Let's just say I wasn't at my best for most of December.

Thankfully, the week between Christmas and New Year's gave me some time to reflect on how I wanted to get back on track. I've been a fan of the Primal (paleo-ish) living philosophy for years now, but to be honest I've had trouble with the "move more" part. I was always athletic growing up, but it was never about disciplining my body; it was about fun. Moving more as an adult takes a lot more effort and discipline, especially with a child around (strangely enough). If I want to work out, I have to budget the time for myself, something I haven't had a lot of practice doing because I've always preferred my physical activity to be either purposeful or FUN (hence the fact that I don't run or do CrossFit -- those aren't fun to me). When I was in school, it was all decided for me: move intensely during P.E. or track or volleyball or weightlifting practice. In college, I didn't really exercise but I did have to walk up and down hills across a huge campus to get to classes and work. Now I'm a stay-at-home mom trying to finish a huge writing project. All of these factors put together have led me to a mostly-sedentary life. Yoga, while I love it, can only do so much with weight-maintenance, especially if it's just once a week. I need to move more. Period.

The good news: my younger sister splurged on all her siblings for Christmas and bought us cool FitBit fitness trackers that you can wear on your wrist all day (you can take it in the shower and you can sleep with it to track your sleep patterns, too). You can see me wearing my Flex wristband in the photos here. The system displays your daily stats on the computer or smartphone. It's the same idea behind logging your food intake, to make you more aware of how much you're moving around. And if you make your daily goals, your wristband buzzes you and on the stats page you get big green happy faces that say "Hooray!" :-) I know it sounds cheesy but it feels pretty good to see it. Another neat thing is that the app links with MyFitnessPal, so you can tell at any given time how many calories you've taken in versus how many calories you've burned. One consequence of this? I've now done several quick workouts (15-30 minutes long) late at night before the stats turn over to the next day! Haha.

It's early days yet, but so far it's fun and interesting to track all of this info. Even if I don't do it for the whole year, at least I'm getting a good sense of my baseline, and for now I feel good about taking control over my habits. I started a week ago, on New Year's Day, and it was kind of a scary revelation to see just how much food and snacks I had gotten used to eating (I was trying hard not to waste all the leftovers in the fridge) and how little I was moving around to compensate. I knew I was bloated and my pants didn't fit as well as they used to, but I didn't realize how badly I was doing. I really fell off the wagon! So far, though, it's been working. I'm down half a pound already from last week, mostly from losing some of the water my body has been hoarding, and my belly looks and feels a little less puffy.

My best "move more" day was last Saturday, when my little family went hiking so my husband could test out his new GPS tracker. (We like our devices in this house, apparently.) We did a 3.7 mile hike at the famous Vasquez Rocks that included some steep hills. Even the 5-year-old managed it. He got tired midway through, but we took several breaks, drank water regularly, and had snacks. We made it in about two and a half hours, and it felt good. I probably would have preferred moving a little faster and maybe not having to push/carry my kid up and down the hills (it was a little scary a few times), but it was a wonderful experience overall. And it was literally all about taking small steps to get to your goal.

And that leads me to make this corollary to my New Year's resolution of getting more fit: I want to be smarter about how I do it. More mindful. Hiking or just walking with my family would be one way to make that happen. It felt as good as when I meditate during yoga. And so far, an extra 15-30 minutes of Zumba in the evenings (using YouTube videos) has been pretty fun. To be honest, I'm not a diehard fan of doing a full hour of non-stop Zumba the way I do it with my friends (I get exhausted by the 30-minute mark and that's no fun); I just like dancing with friends because of the great company, and sometimes we have brunch together. But our Zumba sessions also aren't as regular as I would like. Hopefully, the quicker version I do at home will be more sustainable on a daily basis and thus do a better job of keeping me on track.

I wanted to end with this photo of one of the huge outcroppings that we saw on our hike. It immediately made me think that a sperm whale or a blue whale had become petrified into rock. Of course not really, but I thought it looked cool. Doesn't that look like a sperm whale's eye to you?

xo, Gladys

Dark Mustard and Navy + Sale PSA! [ENDED]

Dress: Lowie via ModCloth | Ravenclaw rugby knee socks: Sockdreams | Boots: Fluevog Volunteer (Prepare family)

Detail

Dress: via ModCloth | Tights: Sockdreams | Maryjanes: Fluevog Luxon (20% off on Amazon)

Skirt: Old Navy | Boots: Fluevog Bartoli (Operetta family)

MP isn't in this one because she was running late and we didn't have a photographer to take pix of all of us.

Blame it on the upcoming holiday season, on the absolute fun we had the last time, or on the fact that we love to dress up and leave our kids behind for a few hours, but our mutual love of Fluevogs once again led us -- me and my dear friends E and MP -- to the Melrose store last weekend. This time it was for MP, and yes, she did get her second pair of Fluevogs! But more on that later.

I love the dress I'm wearing, which is 100% cotton, lined, and made for cool weather. (The only thing I don't like about the dress is how it squishes my chest area; I think better undergarments are in order.) However, I hadn't worn it in over a year because I wasn't able to fit into it this past winter and spring (late 2012 - early 2013). Thanks to yoga and Zumba, though, I can just squeeze into it again, even with the extra muscle on my arms and shoulders. Hallelujah! This is one of those "just in case" dresses you keep in your closet -- just in case you can fit into it again one day. I loved it so much I couldn't let it go when I did my last closet clean-out.

Speaking of which, the dress that E is wearing and the skirt that MP is wearing were both mine until recently. While I think both items are lovely, they look so much better on E and MP, don't you think? This wasn't a case of the clothes not fitting me; but rather they were clothes that I knew were better suited for other bodies and other tastes than mine. MP simply loves plaid skirts, especially warm ones. And E looks amazing in tea dresses (such dresses don't flatter my quarterback shoulders lol).

Here are some views of the dress from the back, courtesy of E's candid shots on her iPhone:

At the counter with dealer Anthony paying for something very special!

Falling in love with the burgundy Elizabeths (ok, I confess, this was posed.)

So what was that something special? Well, these AMAZING blue embroidered oxfords:

Not only are the shoes TARDIS blue leather, but they're one of a kind -- at least, they're only available at the Melrose store, and there's only one pair per size. I simply couldn't let these get away ... so I put my size on layaway. :-))) I really am obsessed with blue shoes this season, aren't I? Well, can you blame me? Anthony brought them to my attention because they match the navy blue details on my dress, but of course the dealers know how in love I am with the blue leathers at Fluevog this Fall. If you want your own blue Sight oxfords, you need to call the Melrose store!

The Miracle | Sight oxfords aren't available at Fluevog stores in any other color either. The whole style was nixed by Mr. Fluevog for his stores -- but NOT at other retailers. They're available at Amazon in black. Here's the big PSA: This weekend, they as well as almost ALL other Fluevogs are on sale for 20% off for Veteran's Day holiday through Tuesday, November 11. Seriously, Fluevogs in classic colors that will probably NEVER go on sale at Fluevog stores -- the Elizabeth, the Liz, the Viv, the Qtee, the Promise, the Sandra, the Arabella, the Amie -- are 20% off with free shipping. Good luck finding your sizes and happy shopping! There are some blue faux-snake skin Amie's calling my name. :-)

By the way, here's a link to the men's styles on Amazon.

xo, Gladys

PSA: Fluevog Boots Sale on Amazon [ENDED]

Amazon is killing me with all of these Fluevog sales! I did buy from their previous sale, so my wallet is quaking in fear. The current one is another great deal: 25% off their boots over $100, including previously-discounted boots. There are 38 styles available in women's, and 13 in men's.

You'll need to enter the promo code BOOTSFAM during checkout.

If you're concerned about sizing, there are sizing reviews of many of these pairs (mostly the women's shoes) at my other blog, For the Love of Vogs. Do a search for the boot name at the site and hopefully you'll get at least one hit. Happy shopping!

The list of women's Fluevog boots on sale:

* * *

The list of men's Fluevog boots on sale:

xo, Gladys

Fluevog Visit with Friends

I went on a Fluevog run over the weekend with two of my favorite women on the planet. MP and E joined me on my visit to the L.A. store, where we hung out with amazing Fluevog "dealers" Kate and Anthony for a couple of shoegasmic hours. This was big for the three of us, because it was the first time we'd been able to go out together sans kids in a very long time. Even dealing with L.A. traffic and parking couldn't undermine our excitement. You don't know how much it takes to schedule an outing like this! Finding reliable and inexpensive (i.e., free family!) care for our kids is a big headache. But it happened and it was SO WORTH IT. We had a blast. After Fluevogs, we went down the street on Melrose to a delicious Asian fusion restaurant called Pingtung, then we hit Koreatown for some seriously-good boba tea before going home. Aside from the driving and parking, it was heavenly -- but luck was on our side even for the parking! Such a fun afternoon/night.

On me (right): Top: Ellison Ellison Ellison via ModCloth | Jumper: Ezra via ModCloth | Tights: Worthington | Shoes: Fluevog Guide (exact)

So what's funny about our outfits is that the other ladies are wearing my clothes -- or, rather, their clothes now. I was incredibly happy to be able to find new loving homes for many of my garments. For a long time, I'd been meaning to go through the jungle of my closet and ruthlessly thin out my collection. It was shameful to me how many clothes I'd hoarded. Clothes that simply don't look good on my body shape. Clothes that don't fit well and never will. Clothes that do fit but will rarely if ever see the light of day again because they're not really my style (anymore). Our outing gave me the impetus to finally go through my closet. We found an afternoon when we could all hang out together (with kids, of course) so the two ladies could try on the clothes and see which ones they'd want to keep.

MP is wearing a dress that you may remember from almost two years ago, and it looks so much better on her!! And E is wearing a top that I fell in love with -- it's delicate and lovely and feels wonderful on your skin -- but that I've NEVER worn. It was on my "What to Wear this Summer" list and I tried, I really did, but it just didn't work. Given the shape of my shoulders and upper arms, the top made me look like a balloon, especially since it's shapeless at the waist. On her, though? Wow. And with that gorgeous princess hair, so many guys kept eyeing her as we drove and walked in L.A.! It made me and MP giggle because it was so awesome. It's like, when a dear friend you love finally feels as beautiful as she really is, it is a wonder to witness it.

Slightly different poses

A fun candid

I couldn't figure out which shoes to wear with the outfit. Below were the two finalists. What do you think? Did I choose the right one?

With the Fluevog Giulias (exact)

With the Fluevog Guides

* * *

Our Time at the Melrose Store

This was the first time E had visited Fluevog or tried on their shoes. She'd seen my collection over the years, of course, and loved the shoes, but she wasn't ready to try them on until this fall. Until she was happy with the results of her healthier eating and regular workouts, she didn't want to buy any new clothes or shoes. The plan was to lose all the excess weight she'd gained from having three kids, and woohoo she did it! She looks amazing. MP and I demanded that she leave her beautiful long hair down for this excursion, and you can see why. :-)

PSA: Fluevog Sale on Amazon! [ENDED]

I JUST found out about this sale on Fluevogs and lots of other brands (and handbags) at Amazon, and I had to share immediately because I don't know how long the sale will last. It's a whopping 30% off the newest Fall styles of Fluevogs, some of which probably won't go on sale during the January winter sale. If you're worried about your size running out (like I am, since they don't make many in the smallest and the largest sizes), this might be a good time to invest. I have a feeling I will, but I'm going to sleep on it ... hopefully the sale won't be over tomorrow!

You'll need to enter the promo code 30OFF100 during checkout.

The list of 32 women's Fluevog styles on sale is here (or click on the photo).

* * *

The 10 men's Fluevog styles are here (or click on the photo).

xo, Gladys

PSA #2: ModCloth Last Hurrah Summer Sale

Oh dear, the 70% off Last Hurrah Sale is on at ModCloth! Um, I may or may not have gotten a couple of things already. Okay fine, I did. I mean, come on, 70% off! I had to at least peek at what was available. But hurry hurry hurry, because things go FAST during these sales. Something got pulled from my online cart while I was still shopping, and I'm still bummed about it (a fun mustard-colored top with a cute ribbon at the nape). Sigh. Happy hunting!

(Do keep in mind that these items are now FINAL SALE, no returns accepted. So please go through the reviews as much as you can.)

Daily Double-Take Dress $13.99 SALE

xo, Gladys

PSA ModCloth Summer Sale

You know how much I love ModCloth, right? I'd be remiss if I didn't share that they're having a 50% off Summer Sale right now. Bathing suits, sandals, and of course cuuuute dresses. For desert climates like mine, there's still plenty of summer left, months and months (even if my kid has already started school!). So tempting! I want another summer/spring dress.

Cottage in the Country Dress

xo, Gladys

Melrose Meetup, Part 1

From left: Cheryl, Joanne, Mae, and me

As promised, here's the story of my last visit to the Fluevog store on Melrose with Joanne last Friday. Along with two of her best friends, Mae and Cheryl, who live in the L.A. area, the four of us took over the place as we did "research" for possible purchases during the upcoming International Fluevog Day this Wednesday on May 15 -- when you can get 15% off regular-priced shoes and accessories IN STORE or free shipping with every online order. (Yes, this means that I will probably be back to the Melrose soon!)

Awesome dealers Kate, Alice, and Kimberly were on hand to help us try on at least 25 pairs of shoes all together (and also to take some of our photos -- THANK YOU!!). I ended up with a lot of photos but I don't think I was able to capture every single try-on. The dealers were very patient with us, and it was lovely to chat and hang out with them as well.

Since there are so many photos, I'll break this up into two posts. Today, I will be reviewing the shoes I tried on. Tomorrow I'll post photos of the other ladies trying on shoes because, even without fit details, a photograph of the shoes on someone's feet can be super helpful. The stock photos are beautiful, but the question is whether the shoes will look good on. The nice thing is that you'll get to see an array of different shapes and sizes wearing the same or similar styles, tomorrow. Without further ado, on to my reviews.

My sizing note: I am a true size US 5.5. I have relatively-flat arches, wide toes, and narrowish ankles. I wear 5 in the Operetta, Mini, Attention, and Bellevue families; 5.5 in the Fellowship family; 6 in the Radio and World families; and 6.5 in the older styles of the Miracle family. My other shoes are most often in size 6 but run slightly large on purpose (because they’re boots or ankle boots).

Fluevog | Amazon SALE 25%-32% off

Big Presence | Faraday in ivory and taupe patent. These shoes were the star of our collective visit. I completely missed these when they first came out this Spring, but after I saw that they were on sale at Amazon along with quite a few other Spring styles, I wanted to try them on at the store. And once the other ladies saw them on me, they all wanted to try them on, too, hence the awesome group photos. You can see they look great under skirts/dresses, business pants, and both casual and dressy jeans. These shoes are a combination of elegant, delicate, and kick-ass with the pointed steel toe. The black-and-gold colorway didn't move me (though I should probably try them on sometime just to see), but the ivory and taupe are fabulous. And guess what? They're incredibly comfortable! No lie. J-Ro said she didn't think she'd like these shoes, but she said the steel toe would make her students think twice before complaining to her about their grades. (Amen.) And we cracked up when Mae said the shoes looked like you could fire people while wearing them. LOL! Size-wise, I think these run true to size ... I'm wearing size 6 here and you can see in the solo photo that they're a little long on my size 5.5 feet, but the slingback elastic and the oxford style keep my feet pretty securely in the shoes.

Fluevog

7th Heaven | Angela in acid green. I was definitely surprised by this one. In the stock photo, they look big and clunky, but they are absolutely adorable on! And the colors are amazing. The green/aqua/yellow is my favorite. These are size 6, and I'm not sure how to describe the sizing. They're quite wide, but I noticed that my toes were touching the toe of the shoe. So I guess they run 1/2-size small in length, but are very wide. Bottom line for me, however, was that they were too loose given the width. The maryjane wasn't quite enough to keep me in. Which is a shame because I think they're fantastic. I'm surprised they haven't flown off the shelves, but honestly, there's been such an embarrassment of riches this Spring season that some amazing styles are bound to get overlooked. If you ever get the chance, though, I urge you to try them on and see if they'd work for you!

Fluevog

Integrity | Amie in aqua patent. I'll admit, I used to think that I couldn't spend over $100 for ballet flats, but after getting my Amies in cream (on sale but still over $100), I am a convert to Fluevog ballet flats. They are so ridiculously comfortable, and they're a breeze to slip on and off. I use my Amies most days of the week even though you're supposed to let your leather shoes rest and dry out. It's been 7 months now with my Amies and they're still my go-to everyday shoes; I need to take better care of the cream leather, but the lining isn't gross and ready to be thrown out like most of my flats. I am seriously jonesing on the newest colors, aqua and purple. I tried on the purple as well but the photo didn't show the color very well so I won't bother to post it. But you can see how amazing the aqua color is, even with my washed-out photos (sorry about the photo quality, by the way: the sunlight was super bright that day, and I only had my old iPhone 4 to take photos). These are size 6, and the Spring colorways all seem to be running 1/2-size small, so these fit perfectly on me.

Fluevog | Amazon SALE 21%-25% off

Big Presence | Desmond in ivory patent. Another beautiful pair of ivory Big Presence shoes. The leather is the same used in the Faraday above, but for a very simple and elegant pump style. They'd be perfect for an office job, but I love the way they look under my casual skinny jeans. They're pretty comfortable, though strangely not as comfortable as the Faradays. I think this family is one of the best families to come out in the last year. I tried on three sizes of this shoe -- 5, 5.5, and 6. The size 5.5 fit best, so I'll say that these run true to size.

Fluevog | Amazon SALE 20% off

Prepare | Portage in aqua. I'm always excited when a new style comes out of the Prepare line -- again, in my humble opinion, one of the best families to come out in recent years, though some don't like the clog / platform style. The Portage slingback is like the Guide but with more coverage at the vamp (and this extra coverage is reflected in the higher price). I love the colorways it came in this Spring, aqua and purple. I now wish I'd tried on the purple so that I could photograph it, because you can't have too much of purple shoes! I tried on the size 6 in the Portage, and my feet felt pretty secure while walking around the store. These run close to 1/2 size small in length.

Fluevog | Amazon SALE 21% off

River | Seine in coral and fuchsia. These are one of the more interesting pairs to come out this season, and this particular colorway is lovely. The three-buckle style is a little confusing, but they're color-coordinated (no suck luck with the black colorway, however!). Even though they're interesting, I don't know how comfortable they'd be for me. They don't have any arch support, for one thing, and the lasts/soles aren't very flexible. But the soles are made of alternating stripes of leather and rubber so it provides more traction than if they were all leather. These are in the same family as the Loire (reviewed here), but they are not as narrow. I'm wearing the size 6 in this photo, and they actually look fine lengthwise, so these probably run close to 1/2 size small in length, and they're average width. Pardon the unsightly tattered hose, the try-on hose I chose was pretty flimsy. I'm thinking the sandals would look much better on my feet without the hose, and I'd definitely indulge in a pedi if I ever got these. :-)

That's it for today. Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of the Melrose Meetup!

xo, Gladys

This Week

The Onion gets how I'm feeling about this week. Warning: lots of swearing in the "article." Sorry for not posting much. I just couldn't. And this isn't even a real post.

Except: I'm sending healing thoughts and love to the survivors of the Boston bombing, to all of Boston which is on lockdown right now, and to the families of the Newtown shooting victims who had their broken hearts pulled out of their chests and crushed once again by the soulless, cowardly politicians in Washington DC. I'm hoping for justice to come for all of them, and all of us.

Much love, Gladys

Halloween and Holiday Outfits

Hard to believe it's already Thursday! It feels like the week has flown by. My son didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday (and Tuesday night was spent waiting on election results), so I guess my Wednesday felt like Monday. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few photos from Halloween last week when we went trick-or-treating with our friends.

The great Batman shirt came from Target; he changed from the black short-sleeved shirt he wore earlier that day because it was actually a little chilly here on Halloween (for the past few years, Halloween has been pretty warm at night). He really enjoyed himself, and so did his friends. Of course, he got way too much candy for one little kid. Thankfully he's already forgotten about the remainder. Hoping to keep it that way and use the rest as sporadic treats through the next year.

Marginally related: I've been looking for a holiday party outfit that will match the soon-to-be-mine Fluevog Elizabeth maryjanes. (I'll have them in my hands by the end of the month!) What could match the style of these?

This outfit that young Sasha Obama wore on Election Night really caught my eye. I could definitely do a black and green two-piece outfit.

Photo from the HuffPost

Sadly, however, that skirt is from a 2010 collection by designer Chris Benz. Highly doubt it was mass-produced. (Plus it was probably several hundred dollars.)

So instead I've been scouring ModCloth for some possibilities. I'm considering maroon and red dresses along with green, and trying to find a party style that's appropriate for my husband's company party: so not too prom, but dressier than the kind of outfit I'd wear to an office job. I wore this last year (terrible photos) and might go for a similar style again, just in green or red. We'll see how it goes when I'm able to try on the items I've ordered at ModCloth. By the way, they're having a 25% off holiday sale right now. It won't match the coming sale in December, but if you're looking for a holiday outfit now, it might be a good time to look there.

xo, Gladys

Elsewhere on the Interwebs: For the Love of Vogs

It's no secret that I'm a Fluevog shoe addict ... or Flueddict as my friend Joanne would say. Well, she and I and two other friends have joined forces to share our love of Vogs in one (online) space. The new blog is called For the Love of Vogs.

Fluevog Elizabeth (Queen Transcendent family) in green

Look at this shoe! I mean, come on. How can you blame me for my addiction? :-) The new Elizabeths are a new style in a new family just out this fall season. The name of the family, Queen Transcendent, perfectly describes that heel. The 3.5" height is slightly offset by a 3/4" platform. And Fluevog specialist Alice at the Melrose store tells me they are pretty comfortable. They are available in black and burgundy as well, but I am in love with the green. I've been looking for green shoes for a while. I am thisclose to getting them.

I'll let you know after I try them on.

xo, Gladys

Jennifer Crusie Crochets

It's not everyday you find out that one of your favorite authors -- who wrote the most perfect romantic comedy novel ever -- crochets ... much less that SHE CROCHETS STEAMPUNK DRAGONS AND BUNNY SLIPPERS. She says she did this as part of her brainstorming/story-making process and calls it "yarnstorming." (Sounds like barnstorming, ha!) Could she get any cooler?

Oh wait, you haven't seen how amazing her crocheted creatures are:

Nelson, the dragon

Lefty and Bob, the bunny slippers

These guys, in her story, were real people whose souls/hearts were trapped inside these items by a mad, mad inventor. So, yeah. Jenny Crusie just got that much cooler. Way cooler. Too bad I can't get Nelson the dragon included when I buy her books. LOVE HIM. And I totally want to read that (not-yet-written) steampunk book right now. :-)

Go read her super-fascinating blog post with a couple more photos of her fabulous crochet yarnstorming projects. I wish I could undertake projects like this that helped me write that novel I've been meaning to write forever now. Sigh.

xo, Gladys