I’ve been blogging now for going on 5 years. One of my favorite and most unexpected things about it is…
THE STORY
…the actual friendships that I have developed with many of the like-minded blogging babes I’ve met since I first started. It’s a funny thing, social media and the internet. It can be such a dichotomy. While on one hand we run the risk of being so caught up in all of it our interactions with people and our actual lives can suffer, it also provides us the opportunity to meet people and form friendships that would have otherwise not existed. Like everything in life there’s a light and a dark side, and we have to find a balance somewhere in the middle.
I couldn’t begin to list them all, but Jennie, Sheela, Shelbee, Paula, Jodie, Bettye and Kellyann all jump to mind. I would hang out in real life with any one (or all) of these women in a hot second. Although we communicate via technology, that does not make them any less important in my world. Our initial common interest was fashion and blogging sure, but over time I have shared secrets, laughter and a few tears with these women. Our bonds deepened over the commonalities in our hearts and our minds…and if that doesn’t define friendship I don’t know what does.
So although it’s true that technology can narrow our world, it can also expand it, deepen it and make us richer for the experience. The argument could be made that one cannot be “friends” with someone that they’ve never met. I beg to differ. Yes, people with nefarious intentions can pose as something they are not online. But when you have the opportunity to get to know someone over the course of years through their writing, their photos and the sharing of their lives you get a pretty solid picture of who they are. Our basic human instincts give us a sense of who belongs in our tribe.
I changed the topic of today’s post because of an email I received from one of my other blogging friends. Linda and I hit it off years ago and we share an affinity for the apocalypse and…plaid suits! Seriously, how could she and I not be friends? When she emailed me in regard to a “non-collaboration” of course my response was “hell yeah my friend”!
Why a non-collaboration? A few weeks back Linda wore her “Sheldon suit” as I like to call it, and it occurred to her that we should do a post together since I own the same suit. But alas, that same day she saw on my Instagram that I had just worn it. So instead of an actual collaboration, she put together this super cool collage of the two of us sporting our Sheldon suits over the years. See what I mean about the Internet? Had Linda and I not found each other years ago, you all would be missing out on this fabulous collage of a multitude of ways to style a plaid suit…and I’d have one less friend in my life…
THE OUTFIT
While the colors that I wear are all over the spectrum, I’ve found over the years that warmer Fall-ish colors work really well on me. Be it burgundy, mustard yellow, olive, even burnt orange which one might not think would work on a redhead…all of them just play really well with my hair, eyes and skin tone.
I found this chenille sweater months ago at JCPenney and had to have it. It’s like wearing a soft fluffy blanket out in public. My only regret is not picking it up in the other colors. The same goes for the velvet burnout cami; I picked it up the same day and now wish that I’d also gotten it in blue. I went with my block heeled ankle boots because they haven’t come out to play for quite some time. Normally they are pretty comfortable, but I found that the right one was a hair too tight across the area where I had my foot surgery last Spring so back to the attic they go for now.
THE TIP
I’m a huge advocate of wearing what you love no matter what. That means even if a color isn’t necessarily your color soulmate, but you love it, then wear it anyway! With that being said, if there is a particular color or colors that you know accentuates your stunning gorgeousness, then by all means wear them with abandon. When you feel good in what you’re wearing, you can’t help but look beautiful.
THE LINK UPS
Check out the weekly link ups I participate in for even more fashion and style ideas…
Cardigan: JCPenney; Cami: JCPenney (Similar); Jeans: Old Navy (Similar); Boots: Similar
