Olive and Gold

I didn't actually wear these BCBGeneration booties with this outfit (I wore the Kenneth Cole moto boots), but they had arrived when I got home and I thought they'd look cute with the bronze-y Athleta corduroy skirt.

I think they work. I have on olive tights, my tweed jacket, and an olive Talbot's tee underneath. Man, I wish I had bought that tee in every color they offered. I did at least buy it in green and brown.  Here's a closeup of the bootie.

See, they're suede in front and a distressed crackly gold leather in the back. Business up front, party in the back, baby! I have a terrible weakness for gold shoes, but they're hard to find in a style that looks modern. I'm very pleased with these.

Brown and Gold

Still thinking about colors. Today I'm wearing a brown Talbot's jacket, a gold Athleta corduroy skirt, brown textured tights from Target, a brown and green necklace from Kohl's and my trusty Golcs.

I must be rigorous whenever I pick up something brown and clutch it to my bosom. "The reason you like it," I tell myself, "is because you have five things like it at home." Off the top of my head, I have at least six brown jackets and sweaters, as many skirts, three pairs of pants and half a dozen tops. Conservatively.

Brown is my comfort color. Black has been a little too severe for me since I passed 40, and brown seems to be both dark (concealing!) and warm (flattering!) at the same time. Plus there are so many yummy shades. I love navy, it goes with many colors too, but in the end there's really one true neutral navy and everything else becomes a COLOR, and you have to start CONSIDERING it and what will work with it. And navy can easily make you look like a flight attendant. Navy and GREY makes you look like airport security. Brown has the UPS connection, but really only if you are wearing shorts.

The day started with the necklace.

It's still fairly cool outside, so I thought about tights, and from there it was a hop, skip and a jump to chocolatey happiness.

Weeding

Most of what is useful to me in my personal life, I learned on the job. For instance, don't just sprinkle commas into your paragraphs willy nilly (thanks, Eugenia Bryant!), and your collection will feel fresher and circulate more if you systematically weed out some items.

1. Condition. That Sandra Brown paperback is wildly popular - and it looks it. Throw out anything that is frayed, limp, stained or nonfunctional (broken zipper, missing snaps). There's a brand new edition of Texas! Chase available to purchase for your patrons.

2. Dated Style. Diva, Lola, Luna etc. (the crime novels by Delacorta), were fantastically popular in their day, but that day has passed. If you loved them, it makes it even harder to face that fact and take them off the shelf. That ladylike pink tweed jacket that you embraced when you were a new manager is starting to look a little 90's prim. In fact, don't you have a LOT of lady jackets? How many of them have shoulder pads, hmmm?

3. Fads and Duplicates. Maybe your library has the definitive macrame collection, or perhaps has four shelves of feng shui books, but that doesn't mean they're still needed or appropriate. If you have 19 of anything and you notice nobody else seems to be wearing that style, pick one or two that you just love and put the rest aside. If you have harem pants, shame on you.

I'll post a pic of the pink tweed jacket tomorrow. Carol liked it and voted to keep it. Heather liked it as well, and had some ideas about styling it. The snap below is just for fun. Denim Boden shirt, Athleta cord skirt, fabulous Miz Mooz boots. Riley was completely mystified as to why I kept leaping on and off the island and smiling at that clicky object.

What a big furry fellow!