Don'ts from About.com

Don'ts

1. Don't get too skinny (think Nan Kempner, who looks like a "Best dressed" bag of bones) and don't gain too much weight!

2. Don't wear baggy, shapeless clothes.

3. Don't wear ditsy and fussy prints like tiny florals.

4. Don't wear overdone, fussy styles or details (gold buttons, gold trim, etc.). They are terribly aging.

5. Don't think you have to wear skirt suits to look well dressed. Even though they may be "in," some skirt suits can be very aging. Pants are generally much more youthful, so a better choice would be a pantsuit or a pant and coat ensemble.

6. Don't shy away from all black. It looks great, especially when textures are mixed: leather, crocodile, patent, fur, vinyl (this lightens it up a bit and gives it life).

7. Don't expose your upper arms and neck: these are both tricky areas for most women over a certain age.

8. Don't wear your skirts too short.

9. Don't overdo the grooming. Helmet hair, and too much color -- red nails, red lips, eye shadow and blush (especially when used together) -- are terribly aging.

10. Don't think you have to cut your hair: a chic ponytail always looks smart and youthful.

11. Don't wear fussy, frilly evening attire. Go for tailored instead!

12. Don't wear shawls (too granny) or capes.

13. Don't overdo the glitz! Despite the fact that maximalism is in right now, you don't want to look like a Christmas tree.

In short you will find that many of the rules of dressing your age are common sense and have a lot to do with wearing things that are attractive on.

Oh the pain

Well, if I needed more info I have it now. The Doctors told me I have Spinal Stenosis. That was some time ago and I never thought much more about it. But now I have discovered that the weight I gained back has become pain in my joints and back. Back to the plan. I had gone hog wild with sweets and food in general. I now know that eating the way I was before the diet started has put me into more pain now than I had then. Age I guess. So I am going back to low fat, high protein, complex carbs. It is the easiest way for me.

I have been reading that a man restricted his calorie count to 1800 a day but ate only twinkies and such. He lost a lot of weight. And his cholesterol dropped. Apparently the calories have more to do with the weight loss than previously thought. I am happy to hear that except I don't have a feeling of energy when I eat sweets. So for me it is interesting but not a problem. I need protein to have any sort of energy. That is what I'll have.

I never said not growing old was easy.

Winter coming

I am looking forward to winter this year. I have been going through my closet and I have lost enough weight to get into many of the winter things I already had. Bring on the snow!!!!!

Permission

I have given myself permission to look awful. I found myself asking my honey(quite a bit younger) how he would feel if I ran around in "old lady clothes". He looked at me and said "I'm not going to touch that one." I didn't think so at the time but the clothes I have been wearing are the result of purchasing anything that would cover me at my weight. I have bought some things that were really inexpensive,(cheap), and have been wearing them thinking that if I put on a little bit of equally cheap jewelry I am fashionable for my age.

Now. I am looking at the things I have purchased and worn and I am wondering what was I thinking. I even purchased some things that were not so cheap and were just something to throw on. Ugly. I have looked at the people in the advanced style blog and I really admire their work on style. There are some drawbacks to doing what they are doing. I am not in New York. I don't go out every day. I am a large woman and most of the vintage clothes are smaller and are not really available in my area. I hate stockings. Having been many sizes, I don't have a wardrobe of long standing that I can SHOP in. I have a great eye for color but none for cut and fit. Due to my large size I hate to try on clothes and when I do go shopping I inevitably go to the things I already have, missing anything different.

But there are some things I can do and that I am going to do. It is not yet fall here(91)but as I put away my summer things, I am going to go through them and remove the cheap, the ill-fitting, the ugly, and anything that doesn't make me feel good. For instance, a top I wore Sunday is so inexpensive that after one washing it is looking not so good. Also I will get rid of things like sandals,(I have many pairs, don't wear sandals anymore), items that have gone dingy in the wash, and purses that I think are wonderful but have not carried in a year.(except straw) I love jewelry and have many pieces that are fairly good quality but I have piled it up to the point that seeing one piece isn't easy.

I suppose what I am saying is that the people in the upper age group are people I admire and one thing I can see is that they work at their style. They put effort into pairing the accessories with the outfit. They are always well groomed. They try.

I found it

For several years now I have been wearing clothes because they are big enough to get into. I have begun to lose a small amount of weight and I daydream about being thin and gorgeous. And looking 25. Yeah right!

My mom was a garage sale fanatic. But she was not interested in vintage, high dollar fashion. No, my mom wanted 5 cent t shirts and shorts. And stains didn't matter much. Just as long as they fit her ok she was happy with her bargain. However when she needed to she was able to pull out some presentable clothes from the closet that had never been culled--- ever.

We often have no other role models available to us than our own parents. It was that way for me. I live in a very conservative part of the country and fashion, unless you are wealthy, is for those in magazines. Well, that bothers me. I don't mean to say that I want to follow every fashion trend that comes down the pike. The youngsters are already taking care of that for me. But I do, now that I'm retired and have time, want to put some thought and effort into carving out a style or styles that interest and express me. I am a grandmother 4 times over. Sorry, but I don't want to wear what my grandmother wore.

I am pleased to announce to any who don't know that there is a wonderful blog on this blogging site called Advanced Style. I spent 2 hours today devouring the pics and write ups in this blog and I have finally seen the light. I may not live in New York, or Milan, or Paris. But I am an artist and there is no reason I should not use that to add interesting things to my totally boring wardrobe.

How will I do that? I copied the pic of things I liked and put then in a folder on my computer and I can access it when I need help. But basically, I have been hesitant to wear things which might get me noticed in any way. And yet when I am out at a store and see a lady who has put a lot of thought and work into her appearance I am impressed. I don't see it as being self-centered but as being self-confident and self-assured. And don't we all deserve to feel that way? I will also keep reading the wonderful blog as I have for the last couple of months and now be more aware of it as not just eye candy but as a wonderful suggestion in ways to better my life.

What fun the path could turn out to be!

Hello

I have discovered some truly interesting things in the last 3 months. I turned 65 in July. I expected it to be awful and I will admit that it wasn't much different from the day before and the day after. However, being 65 isn't the bummer I used to think it would be. That's probably because I was pretty happy being 64.

I have found that I don't have a clue about how to dress 65 so I'm still doing it like 64.

I have found that the money needed for "stuff" has declined in the last few years which I take to mean that I don't crave things as much. What a relief!

I have found that my worry over what other people think of me has declined also. I don't know what to think about that except that I was my own worst critic anyway so maybe my inner voices are quieter too.

I have found that no matter how old I get, I still want to be skinny. Not slender, skinny.

I have found that I am not good at making my self diet. I hate it. I get mad when I can't have something I want to eat. I seem to lose track of the fact that worrying about a diet seems to keep me focused on food.

I have found that when someone has a passion for some part of life, the rest of life seems better too.

I find myself not worrying about the future(I can't do much about it), money(it's either enough or it's not), and deadlines. Deadline is an amazing word anyway. I guess it means you're dead if you get out of line.

I find myself telling myself to think less and do more.

So I will try to do that.

Some People

Some people grow older gracefully. Some don't. We fail to do the right things to take care of ourselves in our youth and expect surgery or medical intervention to fix everything. Obviously it doesn't work. Maybe if we would just work at being a better who we already are, things would end up better.