I'm over 30. Where's the fashion for me?

Be forewarned, this is a bit of a rant. I discovered a major point of irritation to me personally this morning and I am really wondering if anyone else has noticed.
I am a woman over 30. I have a dressy, all adult holiday party to attend in the near future. I have a dress picked out, Liz Claiborne wine and black floor length velvet. I am a bit nervous as I have been out of the social arena for quite some time, so I start looking up current styles. This is where the problems start. I start noticing almost everything targets females under 30, and while I could still wear much of what is offered, all too often the looks were inappropriate for meeting your husband's boss for the first time.
I found a page with a list of what I shouldn't wear, which was decidedly unhelpful. I did not need to be told a micro mini or regular mini skirt would be inappropriate for my age or that I should avoid glitter because it accentuates wrinkles.
Where is the style? Where is the elegance? Am I forsaken by the fashion industry courtesy of my over 25 status? I don't want a matronly version of some twenty-something's club wear or even a slightly less sparkly version of her showy holiday dress, vintage inspired or not.
I want glamour that isn't the neon and flash kind. I want clothes that are tailored, feminine, and have a bit of slink to them even if you are wearing a three piece suit.
I have no desire to look like some plastic fashion doll. I have wrinkles and I earned them. I would like clothes that respect that and the fact that women over 30 are sexy, without having to dress like they are barely twenty.

Really and Truly Thankful for the Internet

I lost a friend I've known since high school in a car accident on Saturday. This morning, almost one hundred friends, many from those same high school days, have been able to come together to mourn the loss off such a wonderful woman. It isn't the same as crying together in person, but it does let us cry together.

Ummm Happy Halloween?

Suffice to say silly costumes were worn, treats were consumed, and pumpkins were carved. There is even photographic evidence around here somewhere to prove it.
I have been primarily consumed with gift knitting. Eight hats have been completed, four in the last week alone. One out of yarn that stuck to itself constantly. Another was my first proper colorwork project. The rest are acrylic, not my favorite but washable, in dare I say, eye-searing colors. Button eyes have been painted and one holiday menu planned.
I've also been tending my winter garden. It takes a bit more research and work to have green growing things when it's below freezing at night now, but possible. I have radish seedlings to prove it.

I've been busy!

I am really really pleased with how things turned out! Yes I used purple and gold. It's kind of freeing not using a neutral color! I used cream stencil paint and a paint sponge with great success and minimal mess, (unless you count having gold fingers).
I decided this morning that what I really needed with my costume for Halloween was a green silk blouse. Not long after, I realized I had more than enough faux silk in a dark forest green laying about to make the design I had been pondering. Guess who is going to finish designing, cutting out and stitching together a whole new shirt out of scraps to go with her costume in time for Sunday night? Did I also mention I am having company over that night? I am not deluded! I like to think of myself as a bit overly ambitious and vaguely super hero-esque. ;-)

I love paint!

Paint is so amazingly fantastic! It really is a inexpensive way to work a major transformation in your house, while feeding my need to play interior designer.
Today I was experimenting on my laundry doors with a lovely shade of mahogany brown to see if I could get the Victorian-type look of elegant wood doors with matching frames. To my great delight, it seems to have been a success! It should be noted that I had chickened out of trying this before, just painting the edges, worried that it would be too dark. Now I am wondering what took me so long to make the jump and do it!
I will be adding some elegant (and maybe some odd) stencils done in an antique gold/brass colored paint and eventually some curtains for the archways in the living room.
Even better is the fact that it can all get done in two weeks or less primarily with supplies already on hand.
I will take pictures once I have a door in decent light properly painted.

It's October!

Which means first and foremost, joyous birthday wishes must go out to my lovely sister, Mara-girl and my grandfather!
It means the painted skulls can be put on the front porch, that the kids have their costumes all figured out and are eager to put them together and that I have not a single clue as to a costume at all. My darling husband even has one figured out for this year. I'm feeling a bit behind. Hopefully inspiration will strike this weekend. If the costume muse doesn't visit me, I may have to start picking other people's brains.

A Hurried Update

As my computer time is limited, there will be minor coverage of major events.

Happy Birthday Girls! (Yes, this is late. I'm sorry but I haven't had a computer for days!) Three girls, two generations, one week of birthdays. I still find it amazing.
One of the places we went for Daughter's birthday was The Chocolate Cartel . I highly recommend them!

Holiday gift knitting has commenced, along with the "Ack! It's cold in the morning!" knitting of wool socks and warm sweaters for me so I can continue to knit the gifts. I am finding it difficult to focus though as The Sanguine Gryphon has posted it's fall 2010 patterns

I admit having given in to Spatterdash, Zylphia Pilots Her Airship, and Innsmouth Bodice already. Two of my greatest weaknesses combined, knitting and steampunk. I also have a deep love for this yarn as well as it's other haunted location compatriots, but there is a very personal adoration of the Winchester Mystery House.

Halloween decorations are already in progress and my confused tomato plants are just starting to fruit. Enough herb tea has been mixed to last me through the winter months. Sewing will soon commence as the upstairs is no longer roasting at midday. New Dutch Hex signs are being designed and painted.

I believe that covers most things, hopefully I will be able to add more detail and pictures in the next week or two.

Out and About

For the last three days I actually had a social calendar! Friday was a ceremony for my husband at his office. I played dress up in a black and white polka dot '50's style dress with ruby red kitten heels and black pearls, looking very much the part of housewife. I was reconsidering my choice of outfit after a very well meaning colonel began extolling my wonderful child rearing skills, informing a rather large group of people (more than 50), that I was adding to our great Nation by raising such fantastic young people. Those of you who know me would have been impressed by my amazing self control. I did not roll my eyes. I did not even twitch. I kept a smile on my face and said, "Thank you sir" after the ceremony was over.
After that was the gathering at a local pub, where more than twenty people joined us for lunch. There was the discussion of everything from genetics to tattoos that went on for hours.
Saturday was a barbecue for the end of summer at a neighbor's house. An enjoyable evening of talking to other adults (for the second day running!) about everything from baseball and yarn to the current state of the school systems.
Sunday was Darling Husband's birthday and the harvest festival put on by the local Unitarian church. We enjoyed it last year and they run a food drive for the local food bank. Husband was more than willing to spend his birthday in the park, with beautiful weather, in a Ren Faire style atmosphere with friends and family. Afterward, friends took us all out to dinner for his birthday!
It was a very busy three days!
The downside to all this social time is the interruption in my housekeeping routine, which means my Monday has been even less pleasant than usual. Did I mention I found out last night we may be having company for the coming weekend at least? At this rate, I may get time to stop and breathe for a few days during the first couple of weeks of October....maybe, if we don't spend much time at Balloon Fiesta or the festival in Taos. There is also the chance of me getting over excited and planning for Halloween early!

Wahoo! It's Friday the 13th!

Yes, this does make me very happy as Friday the thirteenth tends to be a good day for me. And after yesterday, which resulted in a lump on my head, a bandage on my thumb and me afraid to eat ice cream lest I drop it on the floor, today has got to be an improvement!
There will be a battle with caterpillars over who gets to eat my watermelons. There will be knitting, which I would love to tell you about but three of the four projects within arms reach are presents for other people. The fourth is a cotton sleeveless top I have been working on since mid-April that I realized I should probably finish before it was wool sweater weather again.
There has been weight lifting and some minor bellydancing, which had to be done before the hot and humid afternoon confines me to the couch and minor housekeeping.
On a rare political note(gets out soapbox); thank goodness a judge with some sense got a hold of the prop 8 case! I would love to argue with folks about it, but I've read the Constitution. There is really nothing to argue. Sexual orientation does not make you a second class citizen any more than race, sex or creed do. I rather figured we would have learned that lesson by now. It's freedom and justice for all folks, not just the people you think should have it (puts soapbox away).
Now off to knit and tend my plants to stave off the irritation, depression and worry that stems from reading the news, contemplating current society and the political landscape.

For the sake of homemade beauty

This morning my face is green with honey and clay. My hair is also green, coated with henna and piled in a great mound on top of my head. Time was spent yesterday over a double boiler, melting and blending cocoa butter and coconut oil, creating a golden liquid that will keep my skin healthy and (hopefully)wrinkles to a minimum. There is a bottle of witch hazel on my bathroom counter that is now a deep, mossy shade of green, courtesy of the green tea and bee pollen that was added to it almost two weeks ago.
Each ingredient researched. Small batches made to test. Pretty jars bought to hold the larger batches when a recipe works.
It takes a bit more thought and effort to make these items. It takes truck loads more will power to not pay attention to all the commercials. Fancy containers with contents promising to make me look like the luminous woman on the screen. Then, a little voice in my head starts in with things like: well, yes, she's lovely,but I would love to see her without her makeup artist, hairstylist, and the photographer who insists on perfect lighting.
I like to think she would be prettier without them.

One of my favorite distractions ever!

I love playing dress up. Always have. Always will. The problem for me has been finding eras, genres, or styles that I like enough to have more than one outfit or piece of art from. I have made Renaissance Faire costumes, belly dance ensembles and 1950's house dresses.
In the last year or so, I have found steampunk. I love it. It allows me to incorporate almost everything I adore and then some. The decor in my home is slowly steampunking itself through choices made not only by me, but my Darling Husband as well. Leather and antique brass paired with darker wood and lush silks and velvets. It is a wonderful way for us to combine elegant and eclectic without being hodge podge. Someday, the whole house might actually be done.
My kids have also latched onto it in their own ways, so it's becoming kind of a family thing.
Now I just have to figure out how to get them all to dress up with me! :-D