ScanFair

This is hardly an inspiring outfit, but man, it's been a long time since I last posted, so I thought I'd put it on here anyway. I wore this on Saturday to ScanFair, a festival put on by the Scandinavian Heritage Foundation in Portland every December. The women in my family have a tradition of attending every year, and buying each other Christmas presents there and eating delicious Scandinavian foods, like æbleskiver, and fruit soup and rice pudding.

I try not to pick on my appearance in blog photos too much, but today if I had a magic Photoshop wand that I could wave, I would fix the odd grimace/smile in the top photo (people were staring at me), my apparently missing eyebrows (they really don't show up well in photos), and the droopiness of the scarf (which is supposed to button neatly at the neck, but clearly didn't cooperate).

Striped blouse: Forever 21

Leather jacket: MICHAEL Michael Kors from Nordstrom Rack

Jeans: Levi's

Flats: ShoeMint

Necklace: Bauble Bar

Scarf: made by me

Election day

It's been unseasonably warm here lately, so I was actually slightly too hot in this outfit. I'm okay with that. If summer wants to hang on through November, I don't mind. It's winter lingering through June that bugs me.

Today is election day here in America, as most of you know. Don't worry, I won't get into my political views, but I do hope that all of you who are American vote today. I learned that this is the 100-year anniversary of Oregon women winning the right to vote. I feel proud when I think of all those women a hundred years ago, demanding a right that should have been theirs all along. There aren't many things that get me fired up, but women's rights is a topic I'm incredibly passionate about, especially when I consider the fact that my great-great-grandmother wasn't allowed to vote. I'm not sure where I'm going with this - I guess I just wanted to say that I'm grateful for all those suffragettes who stood up for themselves and insisted that they were the equals of men.

Striped blouse: Forever 21

Black maxi skirt: TJ Maxx

Beige boots: Jeffrey Campbell (Rumble boots) from Urban Outfitters

Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx

Red necklace: free from my aunt

Bracelet: gift from my mom, from Yosemite

Women of a certain age

Every now and then I'll hear someone make a comment like, "Women over thirty shouldn't wear mini skirts." I hate it when people say that, because I'm almost thirty, and I love my legs and plan on wearing mini skirts until the day I think my legs look bad. (Which may be never - I might still be rocking mini skirts at 80.) It bothers me when people try to create fashion rules based on age. Obviously certain situations call for clothing restraint (I never have and never will wear a mini skirt to a job interview or church), but other than that, I say wear whatever the heck makes you happy, no matter what age you are.

Striped blouse: Forever 21

Hot pink skirt: Zara

White wedges: Sam Edelman (Kendall wedges) from Piperlime

Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx

Earrings: free from my aunt (probably from the 90's!)

Necklace: Urban Outfitters

White bracelet: H&M