Blazers and Scarves – your time has come!

Hello, friends – I am not dead! I have been quiet for a few weeks because 1) I’ve been busy with work, family, friends, farm – normal life, and 2) I am SHOCKED to discover that blogs don’t write themselves! Actually, I could sit down and bang something out every week, but I feel like there needs to be some kind of coherent theme (one of the ones the whole thing is supposedly about), and photos – pretty photos! We’ve had some spectacular sunrises & sunsets lately, though….

I haven’t written about clothes in a long time, although you’ll be relieved to know I have been wearing them, every day. I look forward to each new season, but I especially look forward to fall for blazers.

I love how you can throw one with jeans, use it for a light coat, wear it over a dress or with a skirt or dress pants. It immediately adds gravitas to an outfit, and makes people take you more seriously. As the fit is really crucial, it also speaks to what quality you can afford.

I chose three blazers this week. They are at least 15 years old, as I’m trying to shop my closet these days. I’m wearing the same black tank and pants with each one, and decided to accessorize them with scarves.

I often think I should open a scarf store. Some I never wear, and some I wear every couple of weeks. Most of them have great stories, but some were just on sale at Charming Charlies…

This brown suede blazer has also been lightly dyed with gold, but you only notice it at certain angles. I got it 15 years ago at NY and Co., and have worn the heck out of it. It was my sole piece of “outerwear” while stranded in Chicago overnight one February on one of my first business trips. So many things I learned NOT to put in my checked luggage – like COAT and cell phone charger (back when they were new…)

Anyway, this is in the slightly-shrunken style, and it still fits like a dream through my linebacker-shoulders. My favorite scarf to wear with it is this leopard-print ruffled one. I pair them with these brown suede peep-toe pumps, also at least 12 years old, and smoky topaz earrings. Enough going on so I don’t need a necklace.

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The blue tweed blazer is from L.L. Bean, and was given to me by a dear family friend a few months before she died unexpectedly. A Kentuckian by birth, she was in her heart an English country woman, and I can picture her striding through the village in this soft tweed.

It’s a tricky color to coordinate, so I just held it up against the Door O’Scarves, and came up with some I really liked. This one has tassels at all 4 corners. I finished the outfit with black patent pumps, blue topaz pendant and silver earrings.

This red Land’s End blazer is lambswool and cashmere, and must be 20 years old. This is what I wear when I want to get someone’s attention and be taken seriously.

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Again, no necklace as the scarf is busy enough, but a black wreath brooch and red and black glass earrings. The black suede pumps were a thrifting find as well.

Other Stuff I’m reading, watching, etc….

I just started on audio the latest Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling pseudonym) mystery – Troubled Blood. I find her Cormoran Strike series very similar to those of Elizabeth George (Inspector Lynley) and Kate Atkinson (Jackson Brodie)- flawed male protagonists with integrity (always sexy), who attract and appreciate strong women. And I love them all!

Like many of you, we have been sucked into watching “Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix. It’s set in my hometown of Lexington KY during the 1960’s, and they capture that vibe beautifully (although it’s not filmed here). It’s beautifully acted and directed. I know I’d enjoy it even more if I played chess…(it’s about a young orphan who’s a chess prodigy).

Also on Netflix – “Enola Holmes” is about the sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes – a delicious romp through in Victorian England, in a similar style to the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes’s. We watched the new “Rebecca” with Armie Hammer and Lilly James – quite beautiful.

Old movies on Turner Classic Movies included “Wuthering Heights” with Laurence Olivier and “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable – both movies I’ve heard about all my life but never seen. And both with female characters that give women a bad name…

And the best thing I cooked was a Moroccan chicken stew, with recipe from Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. See y’all again soon!