After taking photos of myself everyday for approximately a year, focusing on improving my style & composure, learning to pattern mix, and not be afraid of clothes. I think I have reached a style plateau. I am simply not that ‘into’ fashion, I’m happy with the way that I look, and the paths I’ve been taking lately, but there isn’t an urge to continue pushing myself in new directions.

Everything in my life has felt a little bit materialistic lately. I don’t blame blogging but I just need something new in my life for a while. I thought taking a week or two off might swing me back to the other side of the pendulum. But it hasn’t yet.

I am not shutting down, or signing off. I just need a couple more weeks away from here if you don’t mind. This blog will be coming back, and it will definitely be focusing on a wider variety of topics. And probably have WAY fewer photos of me on it.

So for his birthday party last weekend I was trying to decide on something relatively easy and fun to serve 20 odd people for dessert. (I’m not the best baker.) Then I thought ‘soda floats’! We purchased four cartons of ice cream and five kinds of soda, a big stack of mason jars & straws and then let people go to town.

Sodas

• Grape
• Creme Soda
• Orange
• Jones Fufu Berry
• Root Beer (naturally)

Ice Creams (We avoided anything with chunks in it)

• Vanilla Ice Cream (Obviously)
• Original Tart Fro-yo (Ours is from Menchies, but every fro-yo place I’ve been too has a similar flavor)
• Peach Fro-yo (Kroger variety, we are big spenders!)
• Chocolate Ice Cream

Some fan favorites:

• Grape Soda + Vanilla Ice Cream
• Jones Soda Fufu Berry + ‘Original Tart’ fro-yo
• Orange Soda + Peach Fro-yo
• Creme Soda + Chocolate Ice Cream

Curly-haired-boy & I tried all of these combos and agreed that the orange + peach and the creme soda + chocolate were the best tasting. I’m also big fan of the Fufu berry + Original tart, but Curly-haired-boy isn’t a big fan of either or those things, and the two mixed together didn’t make them taste better.

Other combos I haven’t tried yet but probably will with all the left overs!

• Grape Soda + Peach & Vanilla ice creams
• Orange Soda + Chocolate Ice Cream
• Grape + Original Tart
• Creme Soda + Vanilla & Chocolate Ice Creams
• Orange Soda + Original Tart

Warning: Do not attempt to consume four soda floats very quickly in order to taste all the combinations before they melt. An ice cream headache will occur.

If you are considering purchasing a murder mystery game the ‘Dinner & a Murder: Murder at the Four Deuces‘ is probably the game you should go with. The mystery itself is very intricate and filled to the brim with details and misleads. Our party was overrun with side murders, black-mailing, extortion, and all kinds of bribery. We had about 20 party guests so it was probably a little more complicated than if we’d only had 10 people playing. I should also note that many of my friends are actors/role-players/involved in theater. So most of them are used to picking up a part to play & improvise. But even the people who weren’t actors really enjoyed themselves. I would absolutely consider buying another game from this company.

***Please note, nobody paid me in any way these are just opinions that I thought interested parties may enjoy reading***

A lot of our friends really got into the spirit of things and everyone looked amazing.  So the rest of this post will mostly be pictures of me, Curly-haired-boy, and our friends looking cute. Hope that’s cool with you guys.

We sometimes, could maybe, definitely be accused of pampering our pup. Since we are planning a murder mystery gangster/flapper costume party this weekend Ian-dog is invited, he’s going by the alias ‘Pugsy Malone’ and needed a costume. I’ve ben a little obsessed with this tutorial since I read it on Katherine’s site a while ago. So I followed it, to make this adorable little collar/tie combo. His tie is (I’m pretty sure) a baby’s accessory. It even has a tiny rhinestone on it, which I refer to as his ‘bling’.

In general Ian loves costumes. We’ve only got a few items for him. But we are always sure to give him extra loving and encouragement when he wears them. To the point that when I pull out his little kerchief he gets genuinely excited.

We headed out on Saturday night with friends, these are the ‘boring’ chambray shirt & jeans I was wearing during the day. To walk the dog, clean house, and curl up on the couch and watch Bob’s Burger’s on Netflix instant view (I’m in love with Kristen Schaal). When we decided to met some friends for drinks I wanted to take my clothes and turn them into an outfit. I’ve been working on these steps for a while now, and while I don’t follow this list every time, having quick go-to steps helps me decide what to do next. Like any medium ‘You have to know the rules before you can break them’.

1.) Tuck it & belt it.

• Add a belt to your outfit, and if you are wearing two pieces tuck in your top. This helps define your waist, and breaks up long stretches of color.

2.) Roll up & Unbutton.

• My mother used to have to tell me to unbutton my top button, because I thought ‘if it’s there I should use it.’ That’s not really true. Unbutton your top couple buttons, you can wear a bright-colored camisole to add some interest here.
• Rolling up your sleeves breaks up the color. I feel like it makes my arms look longer and less stuffy.

3.) Accessorize.

• I’m admittedly not great at accessorizing yet, so I typically limit myself to one big statement piece. Dangly earrings (in this case), or funky bracelets, or chunky necklaces. I like to keep it simple by just choosing one.

4.) When in doubt. Bright lips.

• Bright red lips are definitely in vogue this spring. In a couple more seasons you might try a bright pink, or a coral, or a dark mauve, or whatever complements your skin color. It adds a bit of contrast to your face and really adds that extra oomph to make you look put together.

Tada! Loren is ready to rock & roll! Or just dance with her friends and try to avoid all the night club creepers. Do you guys have steps for going from drab to fab?

Last week I wore double florals for the first time to work on Wednesday, and then my car broke down. Which means that I now consider double florals to be bad luck.

Also the broken car threw off the end of my week.

The car is already 16 years old, I’ve been driving it for 8. I’m not saying I want the car to die, but I’m preparing for it to die… by browsing for a new car. Like a very old, very sick pet who’s quality of life has really fallen. Maybe it is time? I’m thinking Prius C? Go ahead and judge my decisions now. But tiny car, major MPG, probably won’t need to be replaced for MANY more years. And I have a big ole’ chunk of change in my savings account with no defined purpose…

After my ‘practice shoot’ Ian-dog asked to get in on the fun. This is he.

Really he is just asking ‘Come on! What do I have to do to get those treats in your hand?’

Click here to download the parts above that I made. Check out the Oh Happy Day website to view instructions on making them/download the props that she has there.

I snagged this dress from the sale rack at Target for a couple bucks and wore it to work on Friday and then out to the ‘clubs’ that evening. I wanted to show off my ‘restyling’. For work I tried to keep it classy with a little undershirt and chunky necklace (to neutralize any cleavage), and some flats.

For the bar that evening I put on my very favorite tallest ‘karaoke shoes’. And got ready to dance the night away. I know, this one isn’t exactly a big swing. But I always love how much ‘cooler’ I feel in a pair of good heels compared to plain flats.

We’ve had a lot going on at the casa de Cline lately. So I’ve been a little absent from the internet. Sometimes even when I have time to blog it seemed important to make a little other things a priority. Like the boyfriend, reading fantasy novels, taking naps, and realizing that my brunette roots are REALLY obvious, so I’ll be stopping to get some pick-me-up dye on the way home form work today.

I ordered this top (dress) from Modcloth a couple of months ago and even though I love the pattern & the cutout on the back I literally cannot wear it as a dress because the skirt part does not fit me.

I am pretty much totally happy with the way I look. I love my curvy bits, and my freckles, and my short legs, and my funky short hair.

But still I find plenty of things that don’t fit me, or aren’t flattering, or are just plain weird.

In college I took a business writing class. The professor went into specifics about ‘I language statements vs. you language statements’.

You Language

“Your joke wasn’t funny.’

I Language

“I don’t think that was funny.”

‘You language’ puts the blame on the receiver, and can easily be interpreted as an attack.  So you shouldn’t use in business writing (or arguments with your spouse).

When I am in the dressing room it’s easy to fall into those familiar “I language statements’

‘I am to fat for this dress’

‘My hips are to big for this’.

The truth is that the dress isn’t right. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with me, or with you. We are not at fault when an inanimate object doesn’t look good on us. It’s weird that I still use these statements because the clothing doesn’t have feelings, I won’t disappoint a skirt when I tell it ‘Things just aren’t working out’, there’s no reason to say to a dress ‘It’s not you, it’s me’.

I think ‘you language’ belongs in the dressing room. Lately when I step into a dressing room I’ve been practicing my ‘you language’ statements like.

‘This skirt is to small.’

‘This top doesn’t suit me.’

‘This dress is not proportioned correctly.’

Which is exactly the problem I ran into with this Modcloth dress, the top fits me well but the bottom will not pull over my hips, because my hips are wonderful and this dress is to not proportioned to fit my body type.

This painting was lying on my neighbor’s front lawn with some other obvious ‘art rejects’. I grabbed it quickly on a whim, because I think canvas art is almost always cool. And I didn’t want my neighbors to notice me going through my neighbors trash, because apparently I live in constant fear of what casual acquaintances  think, but will tell the entire internet about my ‘gross’ habits.

I know that it is a painting of someone else’s children but I think it’s pretty firmly in the class of ‘cool portrait art’, curly-haired-boy says that it is CREEPY.And now every time he passes by it he makes an over the top ‘surprised’ noise and yells about how weird they are.

So I threatened to paint over it so that only their eyes & smiles were left…

Or tell everyone that it was a portrait of us when we were kids. And when they asked why Kent is so much smaller than me I’ll say that I’m the blonde ones and he is the brunette.

So naturally to settle this argument I turned to the internet. Portrait of strangers’ children. Creepy? Awesome? Awesomely creepy? Creepily Awesome?

YOU TELL US!