In many ways I am a Girly Girl. I love flowers and ribbons. I am irreversibly drawn to the color pink and
would paint every room in my house a soft, pinky hue if Mr. Kim would stand for
it. Shabby Chic was invented with me in
mind. My favorite magazine in the world
is ‘Victoria’ and I have YEARS of back issues just in case we ever win the
lottery. If that happens, I will hand
them to an interior decorator and say, “this is what I want”.
My heart thrills to the idea of a perfect tea party and
vintage Valentines. And I am like a
monkey when I see jewelry. I go for the
sparkliest! My hands just naturally
gravitate to gems like aquamarine, peridot, amethyst – anything faceted and
pastel. And should we win the
aforementioned lottery, my first purchase will be the twee-est cottage in all
of England. I already have it picked
out:
I’ve always had basically the same taste. My wedding china (chosen almost 33 years ago)
is Haviland Limoges in the girliest pattern I could find:
Scalloped gold edges, pink flower sprigs and the rims are
the palest green imaginable.
Bless Mr. Kim – what he puts up with! Other men might impose certain
restrictions. They might object to a
pink bedroom and family room. He did, a
bit, but capitulated when he saw just how pale it really was. They might insist on an overstuffed cushy
leather couch (BTW – is this a rule now when you are setting up house? Do you HAVE to purchase a leather sofa? You can hardly find a fabric sofa in the
stores anymore). Other than shoes there
is not a piece of leather in our entire house.
So why, with all of this unbridled girly-ness, does it come
to a screeching stop when it comes to clothes?
Why does my ‘wardrobe’ consist of khakis, black pants, plain long
sleeved shirts and t-shirts? Why do I
wear sensible walking shoes instead of dainty heels and flats? Why do I feel like a fool in a hat and like
Clodhopper McDoofus in a dress? I don’t
dress ‘butch’, just very plain. I’ve
always said that my design theme is ‘collage’ and that I never met a lily I
couldn’t gild, but that ends in decorating and influences my dress not at
all.
It just goes to show that people are odd and I am one of the
oddest.
PEAS IN A PODDD, Pretty Girl!! Ruffles and flourishes and chantilly and blooms the size of your (nonexistent) hat. Everything pink and frilly and floral in the house. Remember my asking Chris if it felt too Girly, and he said that he didn't care if I strung Kewpie dolls on ribbon all around the walls, as long as I was there?
ReplyDeleteThinking back with gentle regret of furnishing our first house with not one but TWO immense sets of BLACK Naugahide furniture in the den, when there was a great gaggle of growing boys making us and our table Meeting Central for several years.
We're sisters under the skin (and what's covering it), for my wardrobe is solid cotton---T-shirts and shorts and capris (wearing my one pair of baggy-butt MOM jeans this minute, for I'm invited out to lunch), and never a twin-set shall meet.
At least you wear SHOES---mine are all a rainbow of rubber clogs, so comfortable and matching every single outfit I own (God Bless Lane Bryant Catalog), and worn Summer and Winter, for every occasion, chore, and outing. Well, there IS a demure black pair for VERY solemn occasions, to go with my Black Dress, which is really an extended T-shirt with a couple of sleeve-gussies to make it presentable.
Better go---my escort's headed for the car.
love and,
me
Yes, we are definitely peas in a pod! And our husbands, too. Lucky ladies!
DeleteI can totally relate to this post.
ReplyDeleteThis sounded exactly like me down to the Victoria (and Teatime) Magazines.
I, too, dress very basically. But, I have had to add scarves to my wardrobe for both coping with the air-conditioned environment in Florida, and as sun protection around my neck. Some beautiful floral scarves really dress-up and outfit and I frequently get positive comments about them.
Also, I have to wear big sun hat 9 to 10 months of the year. Not only do they rectify a bad hair day, but when you wear a big sun hat with sunglasses and a strong lipstick, you look extremely glamorous no matter how you're dressed from the shoulders down.
Methinks it is time for you to visit some of those lovely vintage shops around Richmond and keep your eyes open for floral scarves with lace or fringe.
Maria, so glad you ‘stopped by’! I remember someone (perhaps a Gabor sister?) saying that with a big hat, sunglasses and bright red lipstick you could go anywhere! I did bring back a big fringed scarf from Paris – I was going to use it as a pattern to make more to dress up my drab attire. Haven’t done so yet!
DeleteThe plain close make perfect sense. How else would the sparkliest jewelry show up?
ReplyDeleteI don't think odd is the right word. I like different better. And don't we all have our differences?
Now, if you ask me, rap music is odd! Actually, I think it shouldn't even be music. Going somewhere in company where the "music" is so loud that you can't have a conversation, that's odd. Wearing jeans which are on the brink of falling down, that's odd.
Concerning the lottery: are you playing? You know you can't win if you are not playing?
I like it when you blog!
You make a good point about the jewelry showing up! Your jeans comment made me laugh. My stepdad, Ted, used to always wear his jeans droopy, because he didn’t have much of a butt. When they became ‘the thing’ we used to tease him that he’d been stylish for years and we didn’t even know it!
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