More Than One Way to Skin a Cat!

Another way to wear the polka dots! Part of the beauty in shopping in my closet is getting to mix and match things.  So many of my pieces go together in so many ways, that I am fortunate to not be married to the same outfit every time (well that’s weird for me to say, “fortunate not to be married”……sigh…..dating blows….but anyway!).

 

I wore jeans instead of a skirt and threw in red accessories. ❤️ It still feels just as sassy as with the red skirt. My only regret is that I didn’t remember my red suede heels! But, I had to be up and ready by 6:30, so we won’t judge too harshly. I also struggled on which glasses to pair with this. Would polka dotted glasses be too much? Psshhh…why did I even ask? Of course not!! It is so strange to me to be so in love with so many things I would’ve never considered before.

 

I want to make two points today thanks to the inspiration of this outfit 🙂  My mind is going 90 to nothing, so hang in there.

If you’re from the south, you surely have heard this before!  I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  Ok, mostly I have been thinking about it while I drive to work because traffic and construction have been a total bear lately.  I was so angry at it the other day, but then realized, there is literally not a place in my town that I know of, that you can’t get to from more than one place.  There are very few places that only have one way to get there.  So quit griping and take another route.

Which brings us to the obvious point I am trying to make.  Just because something doesn’t work out the way we tried it, doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to try it.  You probably tried it the way you did in the first place because you think you had it all figured out and you have to be in control (or maybe that’s just me).  So failing wasn’t bad after all.  Why?  Because now you are forced to try it a different way.  Potentially a better way.  Should you keep trying and failing?  That’s up to you.  But you should never give up after the first fail when there are other ways to do it.

Huh?  Like I said above, I have fallen in love with things that I never considered before.  Worthy of a whole blog on it’s own, but I’ll try to hit the highlights.  Of course being able to fall in love with new things meant I had to be open to the idea of it at all.  And, it’s no secret that to do that, you have to start with some work on yourself.  We could go into that for days, but let’s pretend you’re already there and ready to discover new loves.  Does that sentence alone not excite you?  Say it out loud “ready to discover new loves”.  Oh, it just gets me pumped!! I’m smiling just typing it!

You have to make a conscious effort to try something new.  But even more importantly, you have to agree from the start that negativity is not allowed.  You can’t go into the new and allow dread to come with you.  Most likely, it will win out every time.

For example, polka dots.  I have always hated them because I have fed into the fact that it doesn’t do anything flattering for my body and I didn’t need any help drawing attention to “all this”.  But when I started seeing polka dots everywhere and loving what I saw on the rack (and on stationary, and crafts, and 4 million other things), I tried it.  I literally sat in the dressing room, looked in the mirror and said “if you are going to try this on, you are not allowed to say one bad thing about yourself in it.  You can not like it.  That’s fine.  But you cannot hate it and you cannot degrade yourself in the process”.  I try it on and think “hmm, not so bad there fancy”.  Then I start imagining all the things I could do with it!  Add a belt, which helps eliminate the bulky look by showing that I actually do have a waist.  Throw red in the mix, because, duh.  Wear it with a skirt. Wear it with jeans.  Wear it with colored pants……..see what I mean…..it just happened.  I left the store with a little extra pep in my step!

Once I fell in love with polka dots on my body, I felt like I couldn’t stop falling in love with other things.  I wanted to try so much new stuff, that I started a list.  I was actually quite distracted by it and am so happy to have an even longer list of new things I love.  And all of that leads to our favorite word….happiness.  Can’t type that without smiling either.

In fact, I have typed this whole blog with a smile on my face.  Because as I type it out loud, I am realizing (even though it’s simple), how happy I really am.  It’s such a good place to be!  I am happy despite illness.  I am happy despite a broken heart.  I am happy despite being unsettled in a few areas.  I am just so happy.  And I want you to be, too!

(P.s. No, I didn’t wear the shirt two days in a row 😝- this skirt variation is from a weekend shoot)