I love to learn. I am a teacher after all, so I suppose at least a passing interest in learning is necessary. Many of the skills that I do have, whether my ability is middle of the road (creating and managing a blog) or borderline genius (coloring my own hair), I have taught myself…
THE STORY
…I often prefer to teach myself, hence the reason I am a Google master. I think a lot of that comes from my past; I had to learn from a very early age how to be self-sufficient and how to survive out of necessity. Something that I’ve noticed about myself though, and that I suspect may be true of many people is that once I’ve learned the basics of something, I stop. I simply stop. Not because I think I know all that there is to know, I just know all that I need to know. And that’s not really a good thing.
Case in point: my Canon DSLR camera. I was gung ho when I first got it. I was photographing anything and everything. The same is true when I got my 50mm lens. Once I had mastered taking good family photos and shots for the blog I just stopped. Yes, it’s true, I do shoot exclusively in Manual mode which is no easy feat. But my skill set lies solely in shooting immobile people or objects in varying degrees of daylight or low light. And my friends, that is a total and complete waste of a camera.
Every year a neighbor that lives on the street perpendicular to ours puts on a totally kick ass fireworks display for the 4th. I mean top of the line professional grade fireworks. And thanks to the position of our backyard, we can simply kick back and enjoy it. Well, I decided that this year I was going to take some photos. I studied up, played around with the camera and the settings, and got my tripod all set up on the picnic table. I have to tell ya, I got a plethora of frame worthy shots; I’ll share a few with you in a minute. They came out so well (at least in my opinion) that very little editing was necessary. I cropped and added a bit of saturation and that is really it. And I did edit out the thick electrical wire that runs from our garage to our barn/shed that cut through several of the fireworks.
See what I mean? Had I not ventured out of my comfort zone, or perhaps “apathy zone” would be a more apt descriptor, I would have missed out on these gorgeous shots. I really need to make a conscious effort to continue learning about things even after I’ve reached the point of knowing what I think that I need to know. I think it would behoove me to find my inner child and set her loose so that she can always be asking, “How?” or “Why?”and therefore challenging me to keep learning and stop cutting myself short.
THE OUTFIT
This months prompt for the #AgelessStyleLinkup was vacation wear…hmmm…how’s a girl to choose when every day for three months is a vacation? I’m sorry, that was rude of me to rub it in. Anyhow, I decided to go with my blue print sundress because a sundress pretty much transcends any and all vacations one might take. Okay, not if you’re climbing Everest or visiting an outpost in the South Pole, but in most cases a sundress is a given in regard to vacation wear. The last time I wore it, it was layered up because it was still March, but today it got to be just a sundress. Since it is on the short side in the front, I added a lace skirt extender under it. I actually picked up a couple of half-slip extenders for summer since layering a full one might be too much in the heat. The denim jacket, besides instantly making anything just that much cooler, was needed in the morning due to a chill in the air. The fringe bag and layered necklaces added a touch of boho, and the wedge sandals are pretty much my go to’s during the summer and they work well with most anything.
THE TIP
Skirt extenders are your best friend. Whether they be the full or half version, they had miles of versatility to your wardrobe.
THE LINK UPS
Check out the weekly link ups I participate in for even more fashion and style ideas…
BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND LINK UP WITH MYSELF AND MY LOVELY CO-HOSTS FOR THIS MONTHS AGELESS STYLE LINK UP!!
Dress: Three Bird Nest (Similar); Sandals: JustFab (Similar); Bag: Boho Bags
1.Ana @Mrs. American Made
2. Daenel @Living Outside The Stacks
3. Diane @Fashion On The 4th Floor
4. Jennie @A Pocketful Of Polka Dots
5. Nicole @High Latitude Style
6. Shelly @The Queen In Between
7. Tania @50 Is Not Old
8. Yvonne @Funky Forty
LINK UP GUIDELINES
- Have fun and make some new friends! Please visit at least 2 other links.
- Please link to your actual post and not your blog’s homepage.
- Please link back to the Ageless Style Link Up in your linked post.
- Feel free to use #AgelessStyleBloggers in all of your social media posts
- Please follow each of your hosts on at least one social media channel via the links below.
Ana ~ Mrs. American Made bloglovin, instagram, pinterest, twitter, facebook
Daenel ~ Living Outside the Stacks blog, instagram, pinterest, twitter
Debbie ~ Fashion Fairy Dust bloglovin, instagram, pinterest, facebook, twitter
Diane~ Fashion On The 4th Floor bloglovin, instagram, facebook, twitter
Jennie ~ A Pocketful of Polka Dots blog, bloglovin, instagram, pinterest, twitter
Nicole ~ High Latitude Style blog, pinterest, twitter,facebook, google, instagram, bloglovin
Shelly ~ The Queen in Between instagram, bloglovin, pinterest,
Tania ~ 50 Is Not Old blog, facebook, pinterest, instagram, twitter, bloglovin
Yvonne ~ Funky Forty blog, twitter, facebook.com, bloglovin, instagram, pinterest
