Almost all my family qualifies to be called “Clothes Horses.” Most of them also qualify to be called “Fashionistas,” too. My youngest niece, who will be 17 in just two months, may now be the leader of the pack!
This weekend the ladies of the family decided that they would do a little shopping. We all got ready and headed for the car, and I was amazed at what she chose to wear. I SO wish I had a picture, because she was beautiful, and trendy, while still having a very personal look.
Her astonishingly curly long hair was piled up on top of her head. She had boutique sun glasses that made quite a statement. She was wearing a plum ribbed knit skinny top, and stovepipe jeans that looked like they were painted on her size 2, five-foot nine or ten-inched frame. I think there was a fashion belt and a jacket, too, but I’ve forgotten what they looked like. She wore a long strand of turquoise beads with two tight wraps around her neck and one long drop of beads.
But what blew me away were the shoes. These shoes had high heels, perhaps three inches, spike heels, not the platform kind. The toes were pointed, and there was a little decorative strap-like piece across the opening over the top of her foot. And the shoes were turquoise to match the beads!
I have given up heels. Since Dear Husband is shorter than I am, it was a kindness at first to him that I gave them up. But, as time passed, it became a kindness to me that I no longer had to squeeze my feet into fashionable shoes and hobble around painfully. Yes, there are times when my outfit cries out for heels, but I no longer care. The ability to walk is more important than the need to be fashionable. So, when I looked at her feet, the first thing that came to mind was, “You’re going SHOPPING in those shoes???”
She smiled at me, and acknowledged that it might hurt, but she really needed to have that pulled together look. Heck….she’s not even 17 yet. She’ll learn in time, and she’ll enjoy herself along the way.
I can’t wait to see what she’s wearing the next time I see her! *G*

Too often, we get wrapped up in our lives, trying to deal with all the appointments, and chores and surprises that come our way, and I think we forget about the simple things in life.
Here are some of the simple things that have brightened my day, today.
There is a German-style bakery/restaurant in a small town in Indiana that is on the way to my sister’s house. We feel compelled to stop there whether going to visit, or returning home. They have the most amazing loaf of cinnamon bread! The night shift baker must roll the bread out to paper thickness, about five feet long. Then he spreads it with this wonderful cinnamon-sugar mixture, and rolls it up to make a loaf that will eventually be six or seven inches high. Each bite of the bread is filled with that lovely cinnamon taste. Nan and her family brought us a loaf of that bread, and we finished it off this morning. What a lovely way to start the day!
Speaking of sisters, I suspect that she, or one of her family members, picked up the weeds for me. I was weeding the front beds last week, and got to the point of gathering them up when I ran out of steam, and time. So there they sat as my guests arrived. I tried to ignore them, hoping that Dear Husband would save me and take the weeds to the back. Uh-uh. As I left for exercise yesterday, I noticed the weeds and the wheelbarrow had disappeared! Someone……was VERY good to me. Thank you, Secret Santa!
It’s been a pleasure to wake up to an overcast day, with the promise of more RAIN!! YEA!!! WE GOT RAIN!!! We seem to have broken the pattern of only one rainy day a month, at the very end of the month, and the plants are thrilled! I’m not good about hooking up the hoses and letting them run. We are only allowed to use sprinklers on even days, and I can never keep in mind when it’s my turn. I can, and do, water with a hand-held hose and watering wand, to keep the gardens going until Mother Nature comes through. We really needed the kind of soaking rain that goes into the soil, rather than running off, and I think we’ve had at least two sessions like that in the past four days. We’re hoping for more, today, so that the trees get the drink they need.
What simple things please you, today? A baby’s kiss, a child’s hug, help around the house, patient drivers? We just need to think about the simple things to brighten our days.