Letting my body just BE.....

Have you read Vahni's latest post on Feel Fit February?  If you haven't click over, read it and come back please!  And while I was typing this, I clicked over and she already has a new post about the scale, so please read it as well.  I think you'll either see yourself or many of your friends in how Vahni describes her relationship with the scale.  
Body obsession has been a theme of my life.  My epitaph could read "She always wanted her mother" or "She dieted"!  Because I've spent the bulk of my life doing both of those.  And it doesn't make for a happy or content existence. Think about the demands we make on our bodies.  We expect it to give us....

• Our desired weight number
• Our desired waist size
• Our desired thigh, hips, butt, bust size
• Our desired clothing size
• Our desired proportions
• Immune against sickness

Surely, if our bodies could talk to us audibly, they'd be saying, "Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!"

Why, really WHY is it so hard to just be thankful for our bodies?  Why do we see our appearance as a barometer of how desirable we are?  Why does a number on a scale or the fit of a pair of jeans control our mood, our self esteem?  Why do intelligent, bright, creative and beautiful women obsess over something as fickle and superficial as weight/size?

No finger pointing here, because as I've said, this has been a struggle for me and I'm just OVER it!  At 46 years old, I don't want to head into my 50's STILL obsessing about my weight.  

I have a wonderful friend who is a trainer and an athlete.  Mandy and I have worked together and had TONS of conversations about weight and our/most women's obsession with it.  I love her healthy attitude toward her body. She feeds it real food and works out.   Mandy admonishes her clients to "let your body just BE"; stop trying to GET it to look a certain way".  Isn't this brilliant!  What a concept!!  Let our bodies BE!  Treat our bodies with kindness.  Feed my body well with the food it needs.  Rest it well.  Think on good things and relax the brain.  And then, wherever my body "lands" after that, that's where it supposed to be.  

And that's what I'm trying to live now!  Just let my body BE!

By the way, is this a cultural phenomenon among American women?  Do women in other countries give much thought to the size or weight of their bodies?   If you have any answers, I'm all ears!

Blouse:  Silk, Ellen Tracy, thrifted  Boots:  Jessica Simpson via TJ Maxx  Pants:  J Crew  

  Like how I used a butterfly sticker to cover the dumpsters??

While I'm not usually a fan of embellishments, I do love the corset laces in the back of the boots!

Okay, so I had to put on a bit for my sweet baby!  He played photographer and I played DIVA!

NUETP: Thrifting the one that got away!

NUETP:  Never Under Estimate The Power

Sometimes the planets align and you can actually thrift that expensive goodie that your pocketbook balks at!

Case in Point:

So check out this fabulous boot from Nine West that truly causes me to salivate more than a little!

And with a price tag of $250, it also makes me weep a bit too!  I just can't....especially on the heels (ha ha, no pun intended) of a $150 boot purchase for my birthday!  Oddly, as I'm sitting here typing, the wheels in my head are STILL turning as to how I can make these happen....Oh man oh man oh man.....

HOWEVER,

Quite a great consolation prize is this pair of VINTAGE 9West booties.


I thrifted these bad boys literally DAYS after I saw the current ones.  While not EXACTLY the same, obviously, they come a really close and contented second.  They have many of the same elements that make the ones above so special:

• 100% leather
• Cordoban tone
• Heel
• Rounded toe
• Same height
• Same shape at the top
• Same western feel

And guess what?!  MY SIZE!  For $3.50, I just about RAN out of the Goodwill with them!   Slight Problem:  When I got home and started to wear them, and they hurt like you wouldn't believe.  Apparently, years of neglect and un-use left the leather really tight.  I tried to bear through it a couple of times and thought my feet would cry genuine tears after 30 minutes.  

I tried stretching them with the water in the ziplock bag method, and while it helped a bit, not nearly enough.  I was concerned that I'd have to put them in my store, but I still had one more Hail Mary play - professional stretching.  For $10, a local shoe repair store was able to stretch them for me.  WOW!  What a difference!!!  While they're still a tad stiff, they are immensely wearable!  So for $13.50 instead of $250; I now own a very similar pair and they're still my beloved Nine West!

While I'd still love to own the current pair, if they never end up on my feet....how could I even complain?  This pair that I thrifted is a most delightful, Candy bar from God!!

Suede in full! Or Don't be Suede by imitators!

And my love affair with all things suede and leather continues!  I thrifted this vintage suede skirt at a little shop that I found not long after moving here last year.  The color is so vibrant (shown better in the second picture).  And it really can be worn all year long!

Top : Hand me down from my aunt.  It has a white leather panel on the front.  Previously worn here.  

Skirt:  Thrifted & Vintage

Boots:  New!!  My birthday gift from my sweet husband!    These* boots, from Nine West, were a really big splurge!  My husband told me to go get them, and was prepared to pay $200 for them.    When we got to the mall, they had a sale!!!! and we got them for just under $150 including tax.  For us, that's a HUGE splurge.  HOWEVER, we justify this cost by the fact that about 98% of my wardrobe is thrifted at usually no more than $4 a piece.  So to invest in a FABULOUS pair of shoes or boots that will last and look great for YEARS, just makes sense to me!  What you can't see from the picture is that these have about a 5" heel on them.  So 70s chic!!

BTW, take a look at these.  Oh be still my heart, I would love to own these!  But $250?  Yeahhhhh, I just can't.  But I WILL be watching them for a sale!

Purse:  Thrited.  No brand label, but the strap is genuine leather and it's actually lined with the softest black leather you can imagine!  I washed it via my leather washing method (which I learned from a customer of my store)  and BAM!   FABULOUS!!

See?  It wears great in the summer as well!  Here's the original post.

I'm hooking up (FINALLY) with Patti and Visible Monday!  To be sure, I felt very visible today!

*No affiliate link or commission here, I just happen to love me some Nine West!  They always have gorgeous shoes and boots at a price point where buying groceries is still viable!

NUETP: The Black Pointy Toe Pump

Never Underestimate the Power of a great pair of black pointy toe heels!

Silk Blouse:  Thrifted, Leather Skirt:  Vintage Thrifted, Black Heels:  Nine West Thrifted

Patti did a great post yesterday on "Out with the drab.  In with the fab!"  in which she explores finding ways to build on great basics to start adding fun to her wardrobe....

    "One definite spicy seasoning for me is The Shoe.  And that's fairly recent in my life.  For many decades I stuck with safe choices.  In my corporate years, the nice stacked pump or sling-back.  Simple flats or brown sandals made do for casual hours." 

I think my friend is dead on!  And, in my most humble opinion, where better to start than a black pointy toe pump!  There are so many variations of this, with the upside being that you can choose your heel height for maximum comfort.

The black pointy toe is classic, reminiscent of Chanel, and just about goes with EVERYTHING!  When I put on this outfit, I originally had a different shoe....a platform strappy heel that looked great but a bit too va va voom for church!  So I grabbed my standby and POW!  What could easily look a bit funky (and there ain't a THANG wrong with funky!!), went straight to classy.

The beauty of a black pointy toe is that it can be worn with jeans, slacks, skirts, bright prints, white, longer shorts (I'm not really a fan of heals with short shorts), cropped pants.....just about everything!  And it just makes everything look GREAT!

If I had to go on a trip and take only ONE pair of shoes with me, I think it would be these.  I really think it's one shoe that would be at home in any woman's wardrobe!

Take a look a these celebrities and their pointy toe heel looks.  And while you're looking around, head on over to Patti's Visible Monday and take a peek at some gorgeous ladies sporting their very visible looks!
   

Can you REALLY machine wash leather???

From my recent experience, I'd say YES!*

A couple of months ago, I sold a gorgeous suede skirt through my store and the buyer sent me an email letting me know that, because she is allergic to perfumes, she washes EVERYTHING even her suede and leather skirts.  WHAT?  How can that be?  Everyone knows that you have to go the dry cleaner to get those skins cleaned!

Well, Kris (the buyer) was kind enough to elaborate on how she launders her leather.

     I always just use Murphy's Oil Soap.  If you haven't used it before, you can usually find it at 
     Walmart and at hardware stores.  Some grocery stores carry it.  My skirt is in the washer 
     right now.   I just use a couple of tablespoons or so.  Then I throw most things in the dryer and 
     iron them if necessary.

I couldn't believe it could be that easy, but really wanted to give it a try.  I have 3 Coach purses that have absolutely taken a beating and looked pretty bad.  Spots, coffee spills, and a stain of unknown origin on the smallest one that was actually thrifted.  I had tried everything,  leather cleaner, polish and they still looked REALLY bad.  Furthermore,  NOTHING could take that spot out of the the small Coach satchel.  

Having nothing to lose, my purses being unusable,  I started with my bright pink leather Coach purse.  I figured I couldn't make the bag look worse than it already did.  (I want to insert here that the older Coach handbags hold up much nicer than the newer ones, in my opinion.    I even purchased the Coach leather cleaner and it didn't help my pink bag that I purchased new for almost $300!)

The Experiment 

I put about 1/4 cup of Murphy's Oil Soap into the washing machine and put it on the gentle cycle.  I closed my eyes, clinched my teeth and dropped in the purse!   I was so surprised when I took it out and it looked fine, even BETTER with it still being wet.  The real test was yet to come.  The dryer.    I loaded up the dryer with a few towels and jeans to buffer the purse while it was being tossed around and set the dryer on the most delicate setting.  I decided to dry it just long enough for the inside fabric lining to dry.

I took it out while the leather was still damp and hung the bag on the back of a chair.  It air dried the rest of the way.

I can't tell you my surprise when I took the purse out and not only was it unharmed, but what an improvement!!!  So then I decided to do the next two together since they're both brown.

This brown Coach bag was already pretty worn when I received it as a very generous hand me down from a friend.  And that's cool, because in my opinion, good leather just gets better the more it's used. But it's the stains, water spots and fading that I just can't deal with.

This is the one I thrifted and can you see that?  Big greasy stain is nowhere to be seen!

The Final Step

My husband made a suggestion that turned out to be the crowning touch to the whole experiment.  He suggested that I saturate the bags in furniture polish (I always use furniture polish to clean a leather chair and ottoman that we have in our living room), and let it soak in.  Again, I was a bit apprehensive expecting all kinds of spots, but I covered the entire bag with the polish, rubbed in as much as I could and let just let it all soak in.

Worked like a charm!  Now it feels like I have 3 new bags!!  I have yet to try this with my suede and leather skirts, but I have a small suede skirt that I thrifted just for the leather to use in a project.  I'm thinking this will be my experimental skirt.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Simple Instructions

1. Totally clean out contents of your bag
2. Set washer to gentle cycle, pour in about 1/4 cup of Murphy's Oil Soap (amount depends on size of bag).
3. Drop bag in, close lid and go have a drink to calm your nerves!
4. When washing is completed, remove bag and place in dryer along with a few other fluffy items that you don't have to worry about any fading.
5. Set dryer to the gentlest setting and keep checking about every 10 minutes, JUST until the fabric lining dries.  If there's no lining, just eye ball your bag and take it out when the leather is still damp but not soaked.
6. Reshape if needed and hang to dry.
7. When your bag is completely dry, spray the entire bag with a good furniture polish (Pledge?) and  gently rub in all over.  
8. Once again, hang to dry to allow the polish to set in.
9. ENJOY!

*Disclaimer:  This worked for me, but I can't guarantee these results for everyone who may try this.  Please launder your leather at your own risk.  Start out with something that is pretty much unusable to begin with. 

And speaking of leather, I've got some leather goodies in my store right now!  Be sure to check out the leather cross body bag that I just found!  It's like BUDDAH!