I Got Stripes Around My Shoulders

Not shared: the one where I'm being myself and am all "Nature, eew!"

Earlier this evening, I was reviewing the pics that Catt sent over to me for this booger post--and if you haven't already gathered this, either from being my Facebook friend or from the numerous photos I've used here, I love Catt and I love her photos; if you are a fan of looking at interesting, beautiful, or neat-o things, I suggest following her Flickr--I was lamenting my seemingly undefeatable, unreducable gut. That sort of pudgy look is cute when you're the Michelin baby or an elderly grandmother, but it's pretty frustrating when you're 36 years old and are have been doing stupid planks and Supermans and mountain climbers for nearly two months.

Luckily, after moping a bit, then showering off the Michelin-baby-tear sweat from my time at the gym, I then tried on my very last (for a while) eBay purchase, a size 12 green summery dress from Dress Barn. And while numbers don't matter and sizing is all relative, et cetera, female power, Dove True Beauty... I could have cried when it fit perfectly.

Suddenly, life has new meaning to me. There's beauty up above. And so on.

Fun fact: this song is also great for singing to your pets (or, like, a partner or spouse, if you have one of those, you weirdo), because it's flexible. For example, you can sing, "There's Buddy up above, things he never takes notice of" or "Plum wakes up, suddenly, she's in love." Try it! I guarantee you'll enjoy yourself.

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On the outfit front, Gwynnie Bee sent me not one, but two stripey cardigans, so I thought I'd ask Catt to take better photos of me than my stupid cell phone provides so that I could do a theme-type post.

The first one was an Eloquii diagonal-stripe cardigan, and I was so excited that I finally had a reason to bust out my "signature" Lia Sophia Curio necklace.

I hope to see basket hats as a booger must-have accessory soon; also, mosaic dresses

Action! shot that gets you a little closer to the necklace

And Catt's favorite shot, which she affectionately named "Derp"

We went over to the Waters Garden for those shots; it's so pretty and full of screaming children, who you think may be getting kidnapped, but it turns out they're just loud jerks.

Today, I wore the Rafaella Zig Zag cardigan with one of my eBay Loft skirts I had yet to take for a spin. Once I decided on the cardigan with the red tank, it wasn't a stretch to add the skirt with the pink ribbons and my new necklace that I picked up at Banyan Tree on my weekend trip to Cleveland (on clearance) and go all-out with my Valentine's Day-walking Russell Stover heart-shaped-chocolate-box look.

I'm not trying to be Janice Dickinson; I'm just mid gum-flapping.

Adorable that my every attempt at Serious, Y'know, Like a Model ends up Smug A-Hole

Photographer's favorite; delightful, since I was basically trying to creep her out

So my big plan for the weekend is to wear my cute Jane Eyre tee shirt again, eat something BBQed, go to Hard Body, and for goodness sake, get back on the stick with Couch to 10K. Sadly, I don't think there will be any fantastic bxw glamour shots of me doing all of these things. But I think you guys will survive.