Drifting away :: imagination information innovation inspiration

Let me know if you're the artist and I'll link your site here ::) 

Why log on
Or why not is more like it.  The world is becoming two sides no matter how you look at it:

* white or colored
* black or white
* christian versus islam, or vice versa
* the east and the west (unlike Game of Thrones slant 
       that it's a conflict between the North :: soon to be 
       South)
* in any category, there is an either or an or that also 
       applies
           * the good and the bad
           * the kind and the evil

* you're either home or at work
           * which one defines you

* you're either goofing off or getting things done
            * which one defines you
            * which one do you lean towards

I love this site
This site is magnificent.  It has a lot going on.  It responded to my query with this incredible escape.  Why so fantastic.  Well, firstly it was all in the name

Trendy
You can't even determine what's trendy unless you are on the pulse.  These tricksters are sending a beat out to the ones, regardless of age, what to be considered the hipsters not the hippies.  Where a gang of like minded gravitate toward it and bounce back to their following.  The site probably has what is the definition of the

Hipsters
Depending on what era you're from, you're like a crew out of 
* Happy Days :: a show that is fun, light-hearted and Family Approved, or First Date Recommended.  
* 90210 :: I really never watched it.  I don't even think I've really thought about it.  This show was really explosive around GENxers.  The first bubble of hipsters.  Hipsters times a poof of popularity.

Believable
That's why some shows or movies really resonate among us.  Who do you think should be considered the #bestofeverything most popular?  Well if it is not filtered paid for media, what else can be the voice but a hashtage of merit #bestofeverything :: to be tapped on a clicked out :: setting the benchmarks by the people.

#bestofeverything
Is a pulse, whether echoing or with force.  Triumph over paid media.  Hahahaha where the Neilson's Ratings become instinct?  

Why not?
The best example in humbleness was a young lobby barman/server at the Hilton's Lobby Bar named Oscar.  I will have to scrounge around and see if I have any pictures of him.

The problem with pictures
I find it really difficult to attribute | credit | most if not all of them.  The artists, whether by stroke of a brush or click of a photo.  They deserve to be 



Noted
For their brilliant vision :: captured.  Spurning the vibration across all nations.  

The creators
Who are the creators, innovators, imagineers, informative, inspirations?  The are the instigators.  Of an idea, a positive movement.  To outcast the evil to ban it from our world.

The ones who are digital orators
You know it is really tempting to want to approach a publishing machine like The New Yorker to give a Canadian viewpoint of the great metropolitan center of the universe.  It used to be The London Post wasn't it that used to define London, England and now called the UK?

Why for?
I mean seriously.  They take my content (after a bazillion attempts) and completely implode it across the universe.  To be translated.

Nobody thinks like me
At least I haven't found any.  Sure I know of quite a few I would absolutely look up to.  They could be even contributors in the expression that envelopes me so closely, then sends it out like shooting stars across the universe.

#bestofeverything
Was hatched here on this blog.  Date stamped if you will.  With multiple references on the seeds that were sprinkled around the best social media giants glued on two, allowing it to rise even more as an upside down pyramid.  Only the best float to the bottom because only the very best of #everything had to start at the bottom at some point.

Reminisce
The first published site(s) for the #bestofeverything was under the author, Jeannette Marshall.  Creating a link back back back back.  Hoping for a demand for a spot on that ever-present voice.  What are folks doing, how are they using such a powerful tool like #bestofeverything :: racism, violent tendencies, mean vibes, bullies, cheaters, haters :: are kept between those two sets of dots.  Never permitted to escape, confined by the borders.  So that only truly great stuff emerges at the top of the pyramid upside down.

A release
This blog has given me such a release on ideas, creativity, imagineering like a puff of misty dust.  A writing language often experimented with.   Forming foundations for ideas like #bestofeverything :: which will be the main #hashtag that will define everything. 

For sale
From the beginning the soul purpose of creating #bestofeverything I kept returning to the dream of just writing.  Helping people.  Making them more fashionable, respectful, creative souls.

A matter of commerce
Taking it to be a major brand.  Nothing skewed.  No recounts.  The social media brands will shout the statistics :: what is the 

* best brand 
           * where the best things are branded by the                              people

We know about the left and the right #brain but this explains/shows example. #bestofeverything 

Welcome 
if this is your first visit to my brain implosion.  Where nothing is kept in and the more I exercise it, the more it allows to filter in. 

The new Hipsters
Recognizing something neat or instinctively thinking it will go to the stratosphere.  Assemble, follow each other and beginning #bestofeverything in only positive observance.  

The uncommon
Where the unknown or unaware had not hit a radar.
The blast they creating by their repetition of that hashtag.  To be officially credited by stats on where the viewers are i.e. The United States being 80%.

Top 20 percent
Earn the recognition for 80 percent of making our world a better place, solving a great problem, like global warming.  The top 20 percent of anything great, nice, kind, creative where :: violence, hatred, radicalism, racist, corrupt unhealthy :: stay outside the confines of this trend.  Where the super Socialmediameisters like Google, Twitter, Facebook stand against the other traditional media brands liked

* Magazines (established first in print and not online) which exclude Socialmediameisters who they follow.

* Radio going from station signal to digital access driving listeners to traffic to their site where they are still, but more subtly now, attracting very instinctive and savvy advertisers.  

*Buyers so focussed on the bottom line without creating masterpiece marketing success.  They will have website stats, from the start, like me.  To the finishers who set the high bar as the great :: as in MASHABLE.  

Mashable
Just pow!  (What was that movie or TV show that used that term? SNL perhaps.)  But that is what and how Mashable makes me feel.  They are so intune with the nuances of my moods, curiosities, and unfound treasures amongst the noise of constant chatter.

A one woman show
Well, this my honeys, is a one lady goal.  To be full of optimism as I face challenges of growing older.  Wanting to fight it with a awesome attitude, gregarious personality that is turned to low audio compared to this voice I get to show.

Who can question
Whether she is right or wrong.  Well you can't.  Because you see.  We are a one person opinion.

An open opinion
Used faithfully, positively and openly to look at the bright side of most everything.  Turning the knob face down at anything negative :: abuse, bias, hatred, rants :: are kept aside.

Strength in number
Firmly, optimistically am convinced will unfold.  I mean, really.  Do you want to only hear about things that are geared towards your explosive in numbers Millennials to drown you out?  

A meeting of minds
Where the need for optimism matters.  For with optimism drives making our world a better place.  Not any borders.  No areas to :: discriminate, violate ::  human rights take command.

Where the artistic or creative
Assemble when they see themselves or their mentor rise to the top.  Because their image, cartoon, art, photograph, illustration, musical will be celebrated.  The rise to the top determined by #bestofeverything

People will speak
Where only the people who are beyond the :: bracketed :: words will join.  Give opinions.  I'm just the narrator, instigator, navigator, orator, communicator for everyone agreeing on who they really think is

#bestofeverything
As the originator, proven by datestamp originated in this blog.  Only the best in categories I can extrapolate, eventually with the help of the social media platform, springboard to real information on what matters.  Because if you ban those :: bracketed :: words.  Then only the very best can float to the bottom, peacefully.  Focus on keeping that up in both your life and your work.

A prediction 
I made a year ago.  A blog on how I was going to be able to predict the next groovy trend, whether it be by fashion or beauty or smarts.  A little sophisticated in the approach.

Released
No creative imagination parts were ever left off nor unexplored.  Just scan across your information zone on here.  But you can certainly can establish it on here and then I'll ReTweet, Post and share.  

At the top of what's trending
Or maybe at the bottom with the seed being scattered.  To folks that are the Hipsters.

* THANK YOU IF YOU SHARE :: Tweet, Like, Post, Pin, + let me know if I missed your point of view because as far as I'm concerned @Vine hasn't made it on the register of the great innovators

* LINKED IN 
was my first approach to socializing through media more like wirelined and now wireless. I rarely admit this but years ago, like 10, I had hit on Yahoo chatting.  It must have been the infancy of professional bloggers abound.  We could chat, emote through typed word, and it was not refining egos but defining quality.  

Survival of the fittest
That's what life's all about.  The survivors, the champions, the leaders, the gifted, the talented, the musical, the creative mingle.  Inspiring, constructively criticing each other, push the other to move higher.  

Egotists
Will continue upwards, as my described upside down pyramid.  Floating before dispersing after their mad energy to stay at the top, exhausted the natural talent and burnt out the best.  Those that worship what others think are the egotists.

Emoters
The strongest philosophies will traverse across written spheres, mostly on computers, rarely on television unless a savvy Millennial producer catches the positive vibe surfing across the waves, both wired and wireless.  

Captured
Where comments will be where the commentary is gathered, willingly while captured by the creativity and fellowship that spreads farther and father.  To drown out the fear mongers, violators, terrorists to a faint whisper.

Resonation Nation
Is established its home on this blog.  Because that is the only banner over our heads, faceless, only identified by its shear exuberant positiveness.

Thank you for visiting again.  You thought I forgot you?  Heck, golly, jeepers be gone.  That idea.  No.  A special shout out to the earliest readers.  Then there are the sharers.  Maybe once in a very long while.  I know there are only a few who read this.  

My mother
Marie probably reads this.  At 81, she has to do click exercises and since she can always nag me, reads this. I'd love to be a fly on the wall if we could do a seniors jinx trick, capture it on video and make it go viral under #bestofeverything :: where people share their greatest stories.  

Y'all comment
My favorite champion I've ever met was my "sister from another mother" down in the US who did our introductions to the tools at HP.  Training?  You can't be serious.  Only the smartest assemble to say that they have worked or work at the greatest corporation of all time:  HP.  

Theatrics
Became more of the norm at HP.  It completed moved the spindle from one side to the left.  As in the creative side set aside for the more practical.  Showing you that only the best, most enduring and endearing companies are those ones that had a lot of moving parts in our world :: think Disney and that Graphic Interface fueled completely by the strength of HP.  When fools that think stock price is more important than human innovation :: be gone.

BIGGEST SHOUT OUT TO DONNA IN MARYLAND with LOVE and AFFECTION #RT #bestofeverything
Your CANADIAN Ginny Pig.
Or is that spelt Ginnie Pig?  Help!  Ah, thank you Chrome spell check.  How do you do that?

A culture of work ethic and optimism

Any smart employer or start up would be smart to consider an Inbetweener (1960-65) for hire.  Just take a look at what The New York Times said dispelling the myth that older workers are less productive and generally are weighing down the economy.

I agree with their observation.  Why?  Simply because I’m an older worker and I was hatched when there was a lot going on.  In fact, the first cold war, economic downturn not experienced since the 1920s depression.  There is a strong likelihood that my parents were children of the Great Depression, and raised me to be able to cope with such an event.

Think about it, the next recession to hit occurred just as I was graduating from high school, completed college, ready to get started with optimism and a strong work ethic bestowed by my parents.

Employers are missing the key element that brings the younguns the right example and proper expectations to reality.  We were born to be responsible, accountable and soldiers of work.

 

This same group that is debated also worked through the optimism that emerged in the late 1980s.  Some of the greatest discoveries and technological wonders impacted the world just as we were getting started.  There were no fancy training courses or charts to reference, we simply had to have a “can do” attitude to survive.  If we survived the prolific foreclosures of that era, unscathed, it was likely because we capitalized on others’ misfortune and scraped our pennies together to buy our first house.  Our aging parents were perplexed as to why were were putting home ownership before having children.

Not really surprising, looking back.  Almost anyone could have a child, but mostly everyone was uncertain whether the economy and opportunities were going to get any worse.  So we had to seize the moment and dive in.

 

 

We were fueled by the fear of not wanting to have to face what our parents’ childhood did, nor did we want to be victim of what was circulating around us:  doom and gloom.  Not just economically either.  There was a cold war going on.

I watch CNN’s series on the 80s and it sometimes makes me wonder if I was asleep during this period?  However, the biggest news stories of the day did register on my radar.  Yet I was simply too busy buckling down and working to keep from drowning from economic disaster.

 

One could take a look at that period and extrapolate a culture of survivorship, strong work ethic and ingenuity that came along with that era.   We weren’t afraid to start at the bottom and work our way up from the bottom.  So different from the sense of entitlement expounding today.

So, if I happen to be surrounded by Millennials, they should be so lucky.  Anyone in their 50s, born of the 80s careers, has an element of work ethic and the right attitude that an employer should want to sprinkle into their workforce.

 

Today’s employers think they’re pretty nifty to use technology to prove who is producing and who should be perished to the unemployment line.  Metrics have displaced instinct and doing what is right for their business and their customers.  Why, because they have strengths that are likely not acknowledged, never mind recognized:

1. They know how to get it done right the first time – slower does not mean stupid.
2. Speed and agility is aligned with accuracy – what happens when it’s done wrong?
3. They have pride in their work and are often overlooked because employers want to fast track the younger workers to ensure that they are cultivated to perform.
4. Beauty is often disassociated with age.  When there are so many beautiful people that are aging and setting strong examples for the youth.
5. They avoid sitting around feeling sorry for themselves because they were not brought up to think that way.
6. They were taught that if things aren’t going your way, it means you have to work harder.

Can you think of other attributes that the aging workforce contributes?  I certainly can think of at least a dozen more.  But I’m more excited to write this commentary and send it out into the universe to capture others that agree and stop the downward spiral of misinterpreting value that should be embraced, not shuffled off into obscurity.

 

Then again, there are some of us that write a Blog to expel our wisdom to the masses.  To head off mistakes that surely are happening from this mistaken philosophy.  There are simply so many of us that began our careers at the worst time in decades, until recently, that can be learned from, not banished.  We’re survivors, we’re really smart, and we have the “can do” attitude that no metric or test can uncover.

 

 

RE-POST from The Zeit

Finding alternative uses for vegetables keeps your taste buds guessing, and boosts your nutrition! Cauliflower contains sulforaphane, which acts as an antioxidant and helps detox your system utilizing enzymes. Cruciferous vegetables are believed to lower risk of cancer due to these beneficial sulforaphanes. Ricing or mashing cauliflower allows you to mold the flavors you desire […]

via I Mashed and Riced Cauliflower – This Is What Happened! — The Zeit

I'm a "10" for sure!

Yayyyyyy I am a 10!  I reached the milestone of 55 on April 18th and in looking at the cup half full, I recognized that I'm finally a 10.  In 1979, the movie "10" starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore and hit the big screen, and forever after gals wanted to be scored a ten in looks.  

I may be taking liberties with my own definition of being a ten (55 years old:: 5+5=10) but there is so much to be thankful for, I reckoned why not.  My personal benchmark may be different than others, yet they are mine alone:

1. I'm happily married to a wonderful man who to this day makes me appreciate him and the life we have formed together.
2. Through blending our family, we have four awesome kids aged 21, 23, 25 and 27 where the eldest, Kyle, has been working at the same corporation for 8 years, Des is solid in her career and engaged to be married this year, Chantal is finishing up her 2nd year of university and Kelsey is off to make her fortune in Vancouver with a great job in a law firm and with the man of her dreams.
3. Ones own happiness is often defined through motherhood and my kids are happy, healthy and really great people.
4. I am working for an excellent Canadian corporation that sets the bar in many ways.
5. I have discovered my love of writing and blog as often as I can.
6. I have found balance with work, life and love.
7. I am a fashion forward fashionista where even the young gals where I work often comment on my ensembles.
8. I have my mom who is 81 years old and still there for me with love, support and an example of how healthy living can carry you to a longer life still able to travel, dance and be true to herself.
9. I have a beautiful home which I am continually redecorating and improving.
10. I have an adorable pet dog named Buddy who makes my day every day.

I guess those are pretty basic to most.  Yet, we should stop every once and a while and just appreciate what we have to be thankful for and give gratitude to those who make our lives meaningful.  I am lucky to have a few great friends whom I've known for years and years.  

Aging is all about continual improvement, seeking more knowledge, being satisfied with what we have while still stretching ourselves towards new goals.  

Material things and money are easy targets for setting goals, however, the simpler things are sometimes harder to appreciate.  Certainly, when I was in my 20s, my list was fairly long.  I've experienced great success, great disappointments, periods of sadness or melancholy, and times of money.  

At the end of the day, what makes me the most content are:

•  spending time with my kids, family dinners and playing games like "Heads Up" or having a backyard fire pit just hanging out and talking.
• sharing time with my best friend and her husband whom Rob and I really enjoy hanging out with.
• talking on the phone with my mom or sister, to discover the quick hello evolved into an hour.
• my youngest daughter calls me almost every day from Vancouver, although I miss her tremendously, I love talking with her on her updates, news, happiness.
• my stepdaughter, her fiance and my son drop in often just for a visit and sometimes a sleep over.
• My older brother Greg and I get to go have dinner when he is in Calgary on visit.
• My sister and I have been on vacations together to Mexico three times and there are wonderful memories that I would like to add to by going again.
• My husband and I have been able to travel on tropical vacations, we like just going for drives in the beautiful country surrounding us, meandering through garage sales, or me just sitting on the driveway soaking up the sun while he putters around on our "Getaway Car".
• While so many are unemployed, I have a job with a great company and have learned that my job title no longer defines me.
• I have Buddy to take me on walks with, snuggle up with and who protects me faithfully.
• We have a beautiful home that can accommodate our kids and their friends, hosting get togethers and celebrations.
• I love working on my garden and transforming it year after year into a haven of beauty to be enjoyed not only by us but those who walk back the green belt pathway that goes along our back yard.

Sure, I wouldn't be me without some things we call bucket list as we grow older, transformed from goals:

• a dream job doing marketing or maybe even dabbling in sales again
• my writing starts to generate an income, for the extras in life we want:: travel first and foremost
• I'd love it if my writing were to evolve more into reviewing items geared towards the female 50s crowd, with samples arriving from Brands who value my opinion and a following that trusts it.
• My mom and sister are always telling me to write a book.  Humbly, I think everyone wants to write a book or thinks they can.  To be any better would be egotistical.  I recognize one just has to "do it".
• I'd love a chance to go with Rob to Seattle to watch a Seattle Sea Hawks football game.  So strange for a Canadian hockey fan to put an NFL game on her list ... eh?
• It would be fun to be invited to help decorate a show home or a room to stretch the imagination and challenge myself.
• See if my painting hobby of re-purposed objects could actually be sold as art :: more designed for the garden.
• Maybe get a second dog, smaller, for a companion for Buddy, like our teacup poodle Coco was before she passed on at 13 years old and who will trot after me as I putter in the garden (Buddy is too busy running around and playing bodyguard to follow me).

It is safe to say I am able to stop and be grateful for what I have and yet energetic enough to want to stretch farther and reach higher.  I am content for the most part yet still have a restlessness to want to do more.  The next decade is going to be interesting to see what unfolds.

Deal makers or deal breakers

I'm a mom with three beautiful daughters and I share the advice that I constantly reinforce:  understand the deal makers and deal breakers in any relationships.

It applies to woman of various ages.   Take all the complaints of a feminine kind, on the men that become part of their lives.

It is time to stop complaining and whining.  You are your destiny.  It is within your own determination and boundaries that set the limits to the man or men you allow to be in your sphere of consideration as to whom you willingly embrace a relationship with.

I am talking about whether you go online and go on to a dating site, or whether you are a millennium woman or a mother of one.  What you both have in common, with the exception of the older lady who is impracing life on a new path solo with the men options before you, or a young 20-30 year-old-something that has moved beyond the dating scene and beyond tangling your heart with a prospect boyfriend.

Do you really know what you want?  Pleasssseee don't be cutting yourself short for a man who is breathing and who says he's looking, waiting, or willing to embrace a real love relationship.

Its time to take stock, regardless of age.  Reality has to be completely and comprehensively taking stock.  Throw off the candy coated eyeglasses before you set your sights so high.  Seeking a romantic relationship is not all about listing a tall list of must haves which I call deal makers, and listing the deal breakers.

I'm divorced, happily married to my second marriage with whom is what I consider and nickname him as a hunkster hubster.  What makes him so?  Well, I evolved over some times, that encompassed my prior ex-husband, there were qualities that allowed him to qualify to be the man that I would hand over my confidence, believe, dreams for  the forever-after.

The first go around, it wasn't like it was the wrong route.  He met many of the checkpoints that my sub-conscious told me that he was the right one to cast all of my preconceptions and dreams behind.  As a 20 year old he met the criteria that was important for  me at the time:

• he was responsible and was reliable and provided security that is far more important in my 20s
• I'd envisioned him as someone who was solid, steady, and someone whom could be relied upon.
• He was the ying to my yang - he was the opposite of me and created a balance that I craved.
• He was handsome, had some awesome qualities, was an ex-pro-hockey to my serious competitive figure skating ...so athletic balance was a given
• He was committed to his career and showed signs that he was ambitious.
• He was accountable and responsible.
• He had his guy/guy activities, but he was relaxed about me doing my gal/gal stuff
• There was a balance :: we were happy to hang out at home, yet there was a balance to socializing independent and as a couple

And so on.  It various.  What is your deal makes (solidifies the commitment to the relationship) and the deal breakers ( the red flags, identified as intoler-able behaviors that you cannot see yourself associate with over the long haul.  Things that you know right off as habits or weakness that your honest self says this is just not going to be something I can overcome and give acceptance to.

With this evaluation process, you can easily fall into a comfort zones of what are the deal breakers and deal makers.  What is important in those two identifiers, allows you to develop a backbone and admit to yourself that there are things that are red flags and by frank reflection, you determine that are just too large to overcome.

The easy deal breakers are dishonesty, drug usage, drinking to excess.  

You need to take notes.  What are the items that are the deal breakers or you:  those habits, poor judgement, personal habits (i.e. aggressive behavior, rudeness, disrespectful impression, poor first impressions) that sends someone to the "off" pile right away.

Evaluate the deal makers:  polite, embraces the other parties' family relationships (especially if it is communicated to be important), being true to your word, honest, not telling us what they think we want to hear.

I think it is critical, regardless of age :: someone re-entering the dating and relationship hunt scene or else those that are younger and entering the dating scene.

Regardless of which side you fall on to, there are complicating factors like recovering from a breakup or optimistically putting yourself out there.

You have no business entering the fold unless you have come up with a semi-list, I discourage an ever-ending list.  

Examine yourself :: if you are light sleeper, you may not able to be able to stand a snorer.  Then again, if there is respect, quality of interests, and agreement on not being into substance assistance (i.e. drugs or alcohol) .. be realistic that you can deal with snoring if there is no drugs, a lot of respect, gets along with friends and families, understand that snoring is just one weakness that is easier to accept than so many of the other destructful habits ones would have to deal with :: investigation into sleep apnea, or any other solutions available.

Having said all that, there are clear deal breakers:

• drug dependancy
• anger control
• habitual dishonest (telling right from wrong)
• exhibits of disrespect to what matters to you:  family, career desire, or any other matters of importance like the environment
• you are expected to carry the weight of the relationship :: carry the values that have been identified as important

"What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me."                                          ~ Helen Keller

Be honest in yourself with what you are hoping for

• Look for good qualities in a person:

• honesty
• where the word is a quality that they prioritize
• has interests, involvement with long-term friends that they wouldn't give up even for you
• politeness, manners, reliability
• support:  altho they may not agree with your stance, they are going to back you
• your greatest cheerleader:  someone who has taken the time to understand you, understands your weaknesses but wants to champion your strength

We rely on each other, vulnerabilities uncovered nor weaknesses disguised.  You should be looking for your champion.  The last thing you need is anyone who is not fairly trying to massage your weaknesses and champion your strength.

These are a few ideas on the dating scene.  The world is conditioned for a team.  You have the choice to decide what makes someone an advocate, cheering in your corner.  You don't need someone who is trying to belittle you or misrepresent who you are all about.

Do your homework.  Decide what are the deal makers and breakers, based on your unique DNA, to create your own unique formula on who should be there for you.  Accept that there are some that meet a majority of your criteria, while understanding what you can live with.

It would be nice to be swept off our feet with a magical partner.  However, once the first giggly dates are behind you, don't be snowed.  Understand that the perfection can wear off.  

Just decide what you can live with and live without.  If you are truly committed to meet someone meaningful, be honest on what would drive you crazy.  Open yourself up to the fact that some deal breakers will not always eliminate a potential date or mate .. because you've identified some qualities you understand bring more value and can cancel out the deal breakers.  

Write down, be honest, on what you know are a write off (can't hold down a job, can't manage finances, lousy job, won't do their share) or whatever else you come up with, then cross-reference the deal makers (punctual, respectful, likes having an extended family, doesn't clip the nail during a movie).  

At some point, you have to realize that some of the deal breakers are very small when offset by some great other qualities.

Have a notebook, write down the opposing forces:  in the long run, you will be thankful and discover that there are people or dates or relationships or possible spouses that can still make the grade.  

You just might find that some of your strongest qualities minimize the other's weaknesses and there is potential laying there, just waiting for you to take the leap of faith.

Jump into Jumpsuits 2016

I'm mad about jumpsuits ::  A trend that started last year and starting to catch on this spring.  For someone who is a curvy, 5 ft. petite gal, they're a great way to get a great look, create a lean façade.  They're a must have for anyone's wardrobe, being casual or corporate.

I bought one at the end of last summer, and to say I've had a lot of use, would be an understatement!  The nice part, is they go with various body types, young or old.  Dress it up with a blazer or cash it out with a jean jacket.  Optimize with the right accessories and you've got a slam dunk.

To show you what I mean, I sifted through Pinterest and then a goldmine for cheap stock by www.sammydress.com where everything ranges from a couple of bucks to $20. 

I'm tempted by the following ideas as well as give some hints and tricks I'd recommend to keep it classy with a zest of fun:

I'm not a fan of the sandals here :: they're too dainty for the appeal of this look, which would be better suited with a pair of wedges like these, even if they are white (show you're brave and throwing the rules out the window by creating your own style statement):

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These have my footprint all over them!

Piece de la resistance :: the must have bag this spring are big, bulky enough to carry your tablet, your smartphone, the makeup bag and wallet ... along with a piece of fruit and water bottle:

Don't worry that the charm is gold, as long as it says "Michael Kors" you've got it made!  A little pattern to create a little contrast works in showing that you aren't too anal about being too matchy matchy.  

Toss in the right accessories and you're all set.  This pendant elongates the theme, especially if you are short or curvy, it subtly says your taller:

I'm not going to get caught up with the fact the charm on the purse is gold.  I wouldn't be too busy with the earrings either.  Again, to create a classier look, I would try to match them:

Notice the hair?  That blue grey is hip and in.  Imagine younger gals, who find the look appealing.  Who would have thought grey would be the bomb!

Denim on denim is a going concern.  The mixed but matched is coolio.  You don't have to look to far for denim jumpers this spring either.  You can appear chic, while not trying too hard to hide your age, just find the look and line that suits your figure and hides your flaws.  I wouldn't have a belt to cut myself in two, to avoid appearing shorter:

I found this whimsical ring with turquoise that goes with denim splendidly. 

Jumpers with prints are A-ok, I just don't go with anything too overpowering, unless you are much taller and slender than moi. 

Have you noticed that the looks I go for have the cuff narrow?  That is intentional to give the taller, slimmer illusion.  Aren't these fun?  For spring or summer, I'd have more fun with the shoes, as I usually do to make a statement.  I adore these sandals.  Clunky heels lean toward comfort while the peep toe shows off those awesome toesies from your last pedicure (no more than three weeks ago):

Black is a faux pas for anyone trying to look taller or slender :: plus it makes it easier to accessorize.  Check out the shoes I drooled over to dress up a jumper ensemble:

Throw on a blazer over to say:  professional.  Although, I'd say that the sandals are not the right ones to complete the look.  Especially with silver zippers and buttons :: the purse got it right on (I have an exact one only in steel blue).  Mix up with patterns for a more casual flare:

You're getting into the groove I hope.  You've spotted how badly the outfit is completed by the wrong shoes that are too fuddy duddy , the purse awkwardly held, would be better replaced with a cross-body purse, and get rid of the silly hat .... unless you really do want to look like a grandma!

Color on color, especially cream colors are favorites of mind.  The sunglasses are wrong and so is the purse.  A nice necklace can say chic, be brave with the floral headband when you have long tresses or a pop of red to say you mean business :: to be noticed!

Speaking of red and colors ........

Finally a look that is together with the right sandals and purse and chain belt.  Nice if you don't have chubby upper arms, you would be able to accessorize with the bracelet.  You can omit the belt if you have a waist you don't want to accentuate. 

These earrings would go marvelously with the bright royal blue jumper wouldn't they?  I'd bypass any other jewelry to let them jell together, and speak class and elegance.  I'd probably choose a subtle clutch and perhaps silver sandals to complete the statement.

I'm proud of you :: you have already identified how wrong the belt is with this popping pink, with shoes that are boring.  (Whoever choreographs these images, is being lazy on the details).  So, yeah, the lipstick matches, but hardly anything else.

To prepare for balmy spring or summer days or holidays, I pulled a few rompers that caught my fancy:

BRAVO :: accessories!  Polyvore is a great site to play with fashions, accessorize and create looks that are applauded by other fashionistas critical eyes.  They certainly emphasize how important pulling the whole look together is by the shoes you choose or accessories that compliment but don't crowd.  Sometimes, I want to be comfortable when shopping, on the ready to welcome company :: this works for me:

Eeegawd ... another example of the wrong accessories and shoes :: this is a casual jumper, not for elegant sandals or clutch.  And have your buttons down to your belly button, and you may attract glares from other women :: a leopard print t-shirt under would have still bespoken wildness:

Fun comfort:

Purse gone wild:

Don't you dare :: unless you wear it under a see-through dress or over-sized shirt or for bed time lingerie:

Whatever you wear, accessorize it :: and have fun!