Stylin'

"Never confuse fashion and style. Fashion relies on unattainable looks on women with unrealistic bodies. Style is about utilizing the best aspects of you." -Stacy London

Uh oh. Some of you are already thinking SHE is going to write a blog on STYLE??? Rest assured you will not be getting any style (or fashion) tips from me. I'm pretty much nil in knowledge in this area. My first day of school picture from my senior year shows me in some mom-type jeans a size too small, an old t-shirt, and my dad's old red flannel shirt (probably about 4 sizes or so too big). Granted, grunge was "in" at that time, but definitely not the way I was trying to pull it off. To be honest, I never cared if what I wore was in style or even if it looked good on me.

Somewhere along the way I started caring...well, a little bit. In that post-college time when I became a "professional" I started caring about if a pair of pants fit and were flattering or if a color matched my skin tone. Note: I was not "good" at this, but it started to matter to me. But it seemed the harder I tried, I never quite pulled off what I thought I should look like. I could never pull off the latest styles. I mostly stayed safe and conservative, but its just not a knack I have...getting a polished look all together. And once I threw two kids into my getting ready routine, the ability was even less.

That's why I loved this quote from Stacy that was in Better Homes & Gardens. I used to love watching her on What Not To Wear (where I learned the value of a jacket). I did stop watching because it still left me feeling like my closet was never good enough, which is not a good place to be. We need to embrace our own personal style, wear it to the best of our ability (in the correct size, no matter what the size on the tag is), and that our own personal style is more than just the clothes we wear.

Some of you rock the "fashion" world...you can really pull off the latest styles and can put an outfit together into some magical complete look. It's just part of how you are gifted. Some of you (like me) are bent toward casual/comfortable...and we can't allow ourselves to spend our lives in sweat pants, but have to feel confident that we can still wear clothes in that genre without looking frumpy. Some of you rock the black socks with sandals look (okay, maybe I don't have any middle-aged men reading my blog...)

So wear who you are...and remember above all that our beauty does not come from outward adornment.