Because I can

Today, I am dressed like a 25-year-old. Maybe 22. Why? Well, other than the obvious fact of liking the outfit, my answer is… because I can. People never believe me when I tell them my age (classmates, co-workers, cooperating teachers, students…), and consistently guess that I’m 25. Quite a nice problem to have, really. It seems to be genetic.

Anyway, do you ever see 22-year-olds wandering around wearing who knows what, and you wonder why in the world they are dressed that way? I think the answer is… because they can. They still have 22-year-old hips and thighs and waists, and are brazen enough to not care if someone else disapproves of their outfit. It’s just a theory, mind you. When I was 22, I was working at a church. I wore running pants or jeans with a t-shirt to work every day, and people thought I looked dressed up when I wore khakis. I was also a firm proponent of dressing modestly, and needed to model that for the youth I was entrusted with. I touted the necessity of one-piece bathing suits, long shorts, shirts that didn’t show belly, no strapless tank tops… you get the idea. It can be really exhausting to monitor adolescent clothing choices, depending on who you’re stuck with.

Wow, I’m easily side-tracked today.

What I was trying to get at was… I’m wearing this outfit today because I can. It might not be age-appropriate (33 next week, thankyouverymuch), and it might be negotiable that the skirt length is in fact work-appropriate. But I don’t care. It’s cute, and it makes me happy.

It’s still gloomy here (it was pouring rain this morning), with nary a sunbeam in sight, so these pictures are not the best. Of course, taking pictures of one’s self  just before leaving for work is always a bit awkward anyway. I didn’t manage to get a picture of me wearing New Look 6388 yesterday, because it was rainy and I was running late for work. But tomorrow I’m wearing my completed Simplicity 2257, which I am in love with, even though it is a much bolder print than I would normally feel comfortable wearing. Seriously, y’all, it’s fabulous.

But, I digress. Here’s that Simplicity 2655 (the third one) that I finished the other day.

I swear I'm wearing nylons. They're just... pale. Like I am. I bought darker ones, but they seemed so... fake. Do you like how I coordinated my shoes?

I’d not made the short version (my other two versions have a band below the panels… well, you can see here and here) before, and didn’t realize how short it would be. But, I did a really narrow hem with pink hem tape, so it is as long as it possibly can be.

Now, while I intentionally wore it on a day that wasn’t very windy, I think that this skirt might be less likely to get tossed about in a gust of wind than the longer ones. Something to do with the hemline not being as wide, or there not being as much fabric to blow around.

Seriously, I’m thinking of making another one of these. Perhaps an inch longer. Not much.

I'm quite pleased with this picture. I made my pink shrug that I'm wearing, too. Maybe I should take all my pictures facing this direction. Maybe it's just this skirt that seems to be flattering to my derriere.

In other news…

Monday night we got all of the pieces cut out for the second built-in, except for the backs of the bookshelves (because we didn’t buy enough material). They still have some prep work before we can paint and assemble, but we’re much closer now. While doing this, we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. It made us work faster.

And last night I finished up Simplicity 2257, as mentioned earlier, though I should have been working on ‘s quilt. No worries. I really want to make up Simplicity 2263, so I’ll use that as my motivation to make significant progress on the quilt. (It is so very hard to resist such a simple project, though!) Hopefully I can have the sashing completed by this weekend, so I can do a final layout and then assemble that side. Unfortunately, this means re-counting the blocks and then cutting out that many 1×10″ strips out of three different green fabrics. I am starting to be afraid that I will run out before I get enough.  was kind enough to measure the initial on ‘s quilt, so I can get to work on the initial side for this one too. I may have found the border fabric for the initial side – I have to check at Hancock Fabrics to make sure the one I found there isn’t a better match. I bought 1/2 yard of the JoAnn contender last night. approves of it. I suppose I need to buy some batting, too. I also need to test drive some quilting thread and give free-motion quilting a try while I’m at it, just in case I happen to be good at it (I find that unlikely, but I bought myself a free-motion foot a year ago and should probably try it out at least once). You’d think that since I should have had this quilt done 3 months ago, I’d be a little more prepared to finish it up. I do have all of the binding cut, though. Not pieced together, but cut out at least. That’s something, right?