The Confidence Rive Gauche Provides

When it comes to Blue and Black, a certain iconic design comes to my mind: Rive Gauche by YSL. Back in the late 1970's the perfume bottle had a fixed place on my mother's dressing table. Her hair was black and glossy, the floor-length chiffone gowns lifted like sails, when she moved. I can't remember the scent, but the design intrigued me. And it still does.

YSL took a quite bold move back then, when he combined black and blue. Actually so very bold, it provides me with plenty of confidence today – not only to combine black and blue but also to pick hotpants. On a not-casual-friday but foggy, overcast monday.

Maybe you grew up in a region, where black/blue was considered as normal as beige/blue or black/white. Not around here!

Some say blue and black is a no-no. Others say hotpants past 30 are a no-no.

This is the ring I am wearing.

The tights are Wolford Velvet de Luxe 66

My legs actually have the same circumference.

The webcame prefers to take them out of proportion as soon as I take a step.

Two colleagues recognized my blue hotpants (H&M SS 2009). I could be their mother. They have the shorts sitting in their closet. A few weeks ago I overheard an elderly couple talking pejoratively about what they saw in the Tommy Hilfiger shop windows: mannequins wearing hotpants and opaque tights. Very much to my surprise, this combo not only works for teenagers but also for their mothers and other women around 40, even better when combined it with a fluffy, hooded duvet-vest.

Have fun!

EDIT:
Patti from Not Dead Yet Style hosts the Visible Monday-project.
Luckily, my Rive Gauche-moment happened on a Monday, so I joined them!

Thrift, Anti-Consumerism ... What's going on?

Having surfed through parts of the blogsphere during the past 2 years, I arrived at a point where I feel as if there are only to approaches towards consumerism "available" in the blogsphere:

1. the anti-consumerism that comes with de-cluttering and thrift on the one side
2. the compulsive consumerism that comes with shopping and often also returning the shopped goods.

Another step towards a clutter free home

Both approaches are time-consuming: it takes time to de-clutter and it takes time to shop and return goods. Shopping and dealing around with stuff (returning, feeling unsure, visiting another shop/website) feels like a waste of time to me. I rather spend the limited time I have with creating an evironment with less, not with more.

You can tell, I don't take it easy. Bloggers may attract other bloggers of the same kind. I would love to meet bloggers who don't care about shopping/fashion/no-shopping, clutter or de-clutter but focus on other aspects in life. If you are one of them, please leave me a comment! I would love to follow your blog.

Pictured above you see a part of the clothes I delivered at the facility for homeless, led by the church. The only take clothes you could wash in a washing machine. So cotton is more than welcome! Do you remember the red sweater? Here it goes! Mr Paula parted from some brownish sweaters, his pile actually outclassed my lousy pile of 2 mere sweaters.

What a long way away from shopping I find myself today ...

No doubt, my anti-consumerism against fashion is triggered by full closets and drawers, but mainly it comes from an profound feeling of having arrived at a point of abolute no-neediness. We have so much and we have enough. Plus: inflation is rising like crazy and I have to admit: shopping is no fun, when the price for a standard v-neck cashmere sweater went up by 18% within the past 10 months.

Maybe my resentment to shopping, especially fashion-shopping it has to do with the cashmere sweaters I bought last winter – they filled a gap and seemed to have shut the door towards consumerism.
[EDIT: I choose Cashemre, because it's the only wool you get in 100% quality in the shops, merino and lambswool is always mixed with synthetic fibres, the SA say it's to reduce the pilling. Aha.]
Also I choose to wear those 2 sweaters at least 2, 3 times a week. They are never too cool, never too warm, just perfect. Which means I need less alternatives to choose from. Plus: I figured out, nothing flatters me more than a starched white shirt. Which means I can let go plenty of T-shirts and I won't buy any new T-Shirts, because there are those 3 white shirts hanging in my closet, waiting to flatter me.

Maybe my resentment comes from the pair of diamond studs I have bought earlier this year, they will hopefully last and maintain their value – something you could not say about clothes you get to buy today. It's not just me, even our friends are somehow afraid of spending money, because we know/feel the quality we will receive in return will be nothing like the quality you used to get for your money 10, 15 years back. This is actually quite sad.

Don' get me wrong, there are still plenty of things, I would love to own:

• a white balance lense cap for my SLR camera
• an altimeter for ski-mountaineering
• a black cashmere cardigan.
• ...
  

Black cashmere seems to be out of fashion these days. Cashmere cardigans, too. I am patient. I can wait. I had been waiting over a decade for the return of the flats (ballerinas etc). When they appeared on the fashion radar a few years ago, I bought 3 pairs. Because they will leave the fashion radar (actually have already left). Too bad I was not ready for the black cashmere cardigan when it was around the last time. But it will come around again. No doubt!

The trees behind the house are de-cluttering like crazy these days:

I don't recall a past autumn-season that came with leaves like that! Usually the snow surprises the trees and their leaves have no time to turn yellow/red/brown. Not this year!

Blank and Vast - a Perfect Match

INTRO
Above: True vastness. A wide valley, italian mountain tops in the far back, the valley covered with blanket of fog, seen at the end of an autumn day

Below: The sight that makes me long for the vastness as pictured above: sunset at the Schönbrunn palace gardens

Hello hello!

I am back and I did not just take a blog-break but also almost took a photo-break. Most of the time I left my camera(s) at home.The following photos have been taken November 1, 2 and 3. Please enjoy them. Those of you, who spend their days living under a banket of fog early November and those who don't live in 4 seasons (not speaking of the hotel) like we do: Maybe you love the images as much as I do. What you won't get from looking at the photos is the cute dialect which is spoken there. A lot of people make jokes about the dialect, I find it heart warming.
This region in the south of Austria offers everything I long for after months at the office. I actually did not follow a single blog during the past two weeks, the few times I went online, I checked opening hours of restaurants or the weather forecast. Funny, how easy disconnecting can be!

The best forest is a "mixed" forest with all kinds of trees.

Austria is a tiny country, compared to the USA or Australia, but still you can find blank areas and vast areas.

Another perfect match: me and my thermos. 1850m above sealevel/ 5°C after a 3 hours hike.
We were lucky the paths where free of snow.

Mr Paula compared my turban-style head- gear with the style a certain type of warriors in the middle east fancies. I won't name them, because I don't want my blog to show up on certain lists.

The Dior scarf actually was the only gear I had with my to cover my forehead and ears at 5°C. I should learn a decent knot and everything would be okay.

Above the tree line, somewhere between Nepal and Afghanistan, sweaty shirts blowing in the breeze. Not picutred: small stone-pyramids.

The past two weeks proved: cashmere v-necks in navy and camel reduce any traveller's wardrobe to a minimum. I recommend Benetton's men's section-cashmere knits, basic staples that keeps you warm, for example while standing on top of your best friend-grandmother's grave.

Social life under the blanket of fog on All Saints.

All families stood ON the grave, ON the gravel (as seen to the left), while the priest walked by. The more members of the family gather ON the grave, the better. On behalf of friend B's family we stood ON her grandmothers grave. Haven't I been told "DON'T you step on the grave!" like forever?
:-o

Too bad, there was not a get-together after the devotions, with cake and coffee. I love to socialise in the country. The photo above was taken after two thirds had already left (I did not want to disturb the ceremony and waited).

During the past two weeks I've enjoyed Bergdorf Blondes, once even while soaking in the tub! Though the ladies travelled Europe too much for my liking. I prefer to read about exotic destinations, such as the Bergdorf Salon. Apropos salon: my roots are really showing by now. I know some women get their touch ups every 2 weeks. I hope my stylist won't panic when he sees my hair this wednesday.

In case you wonder: yes, I baked the first trays of Christmas cookies and Mr Paula fancied them. No chance for them to turn bad until Christmas.

Coming back it did not felt like a two-week-absence at all. Strange ...

Hey, this blog deprives me of my sleep. Anyhow, writing for you is a pleasure, it's nice to be back.

Good night/Good morning!