Purposely Mixing Faith and Politics

I tried to do this last election - take the claims and promises that Candidate McCain and (then Candidate, now -) President Obama made during their campaigns and look to see how they really stacked up against my faith. I didn't finish last time - didn't even get close - because I bit off more than I could chew. This time I'm going to set myself some more stringent ground rules and hope that helps me to actually finish.

First of all, last time around I made one decision that I am going to stick with this time, as well. I was baptized as in infant in the United Methodist Church, confirmed in the United Methodist church when I was in 7th grade, and am still active in my United Methodist Church. My brother is a United Methodist Church pastor. I was brought up with, in, and surrounded by the faith and love that is the United Methodist Church. Therefore, as an easily accessible and already-written down proxy for my own personal faith, I am going to refer to the Untied Methodist Church's Social Principles (found here http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2294683/k.B1A4/Church_and_Society.htm). I have read them through on more than one occasion and I agree with them - mostly wholeheartedly, though there are some points that I have more or less enthusiasm for.

Last time, I tried to wade through the Social Principles point by point and then looked through each candidate's website to find evidence that they did or did not promote policies that agreed with each given point. That's where I tripped up and couldn't finish. The candidates' websites were a hodge-podge of different points, all of them very vague, and the points on the candidates' websites rarely matched up with just one of the Social Principles and vice versa.

So this time I am going to go about it a different way. I'm going to take each of the two national parties' Platform documents, and go through each plank of the platform, and then look at the Social Principles and try to determine how well the plank matches up with what I believe.

A final note: the Constitution of the United States explicitly states that there shall be NO religious test for elected office. Therefore, I'm NOT going to address whether Mormonism is Christian or not, whether President Obama is a closet Muslim or not, Rev. Wright and whether he is loony-tunes or not, or anything like that. 

Since the Republican Platform is out and the Democrats' isn't yet, I will start with the Republicans and see how far I get.

Introspection again

The next post in the series on fashion refreshers or makeovers is here  http://youlookfab.com/2012/01/12/analyzing-your-favourite-outfits/, and it is all about analyzing your favorite outfits. Favorite OUTFITS? Well, I do have my "uniform" outfits, the stuff I throw on everyday, but she says she wants "her clients" to think about "the outfits that you wear quite often, and that make you feel fabulous."

And she goes on to say that "You know what they are!"

Well, no, I don't; if I did, I wouldn't be reading fashion blogs, I'd be reading gardening blogs 'cause that's the next thing I need to take the time to educate myself about, ha!

So, next best thing - how about the outfits I've gotten complements on? Oh, there aren't so many of those, either. The only one I can think of off the top of my head was a black-and-white twill skirt that hit right above the knee that had sewn-on ropy black stuff in a large black pattern, with a big droopy turtleneck collared green sweater, black tights, and high black boots. Except the skirt is too big and I gave it to charity, and it's spring now and the sweater is too warm.

Another wintery outfit I like that I've worn recently is one that I sort of took from a blogger I discovered when I was exploring the http://www.thecitizenrosebud.com/2011/02/never-too-old-fashion-bloggers-over-40.html style bloggers over 40 page. The original outfit is here: http://media-cache8.pinterest.com/upload/172614598187827698_XWguOzl1_f.jpg from this post: http://www.unefemme.net/2012_02_01_archive.html
I used a black pencil skirt I got from Chadwicks, with a black long sleeved tee and a big, square rust-colored sweater I got from Target. It isn't a cardigan, but I thought the silhouette was similar, and I wore a long necklace with it to simulate the vertical line down the front that I read that I'm supposed to wear.

I also get complimented on specific "statement" tops sometimes. I like the gauzy, flowy tops that aren't too overly feminine - well, I guess they are, if they're gauzy and flowy and flowery, which almost all of them are. That doesn't fit with my "tomboy" look very well. I guess I could pair them with my army green casual jacket more often. Even in the summer my office is always cold, so I wear a jacket or a sweater over things almost all summer.

I also felt pretty good in the outfit I wore yesterday. It was a Vera Wang shirt with a droopy neckline, tunic length, over some leggings I just got from Chadwicks that were of a thick enough fabric that I could fold them under at the bottom to be the right length without you being able to see it. I didn't look in the mirror very critically though, after I got dressed - just enough to make sure it wasn't showing things I didn't want to show. So I really know if the outfit was like most of the outfits I think I look pretty good in - most of the time, I feel like I look awesome then I look in the mirror and I just look dumpy. Or frumpy. Or both.

The last outfit I can think of now that I've had some time to reflect is another outfit I wore recently and got complimented on, to church last Sunday. I wore that plain black pencil skirt I also just got from Chadwicks, with an old banded-bottom, gauzy green-and-blue top I got from Kohl's last year.  Mary Lou said that it looked very fashionable, but I am not so sure, it didn't really give me a waistline or any kind of vertical line down my front like I'm so worried about making now that I've been reading fashion blogs.

Anyway. Now that I've thought about outfits I like, even though they aren't "FABULOUS", what do they have in common? Well, either big-top-skinny-bottoms, or a waistline. So I guess I should be going for that. Keep to greens and browns, even though I've been thinking "I have tons of green, I should get something different this time." I've been doing that so much that I don't have a whole lot of greens in my closet any more, and the few green things I do have get over-worn. I'm also going to try wearing more outfits with skinny bottoms, either leggings or pencil-type skirts (even though I only have one of them right now), with longer tops. The other look I like is wider leg pants with something on top that I can belt to give me a waistline.

Specifically, for spring and summer I want to get:

• More tunic tops
• More greens and browns in tops
• A nice pair of black flats for this summer (I know, that wasn't in my musings above, but since I'm making a specific list I want to add it here). Actually, 2 pairs of black flats; one that I can wear with socks under pants for spring, and a pair of ballet flats for with lettings and skirts.
• A belt in something other than black. I haven't done that, but I like the look. And belts are relatively cheap, so if I decide I don't like it, I'm not really out a whole lot of money.

I think that's it for now. Since I have a list, I will probably do better at sticking to it instead of just grabbing things I like, but that probably won't look that good on me.

Introspection

I didn't realize it had been 3 years since I was on here last. I was thinking that every spring I get on this kick that I'm going to be more fashionable and pretty, but I guess it isn't EVERY spring. Anyway.

So I've gotten on a kick about being more fashionable, and I remembered that this blog was following a bunch of fashion-type people from last time I went on a kick about fashion. And this time I found some more blogs to follow, and I discovered pinterest. Woo hoo! Ha. One of the new blogs I've been reading is YouLookFab, and she has a series about defining your personal style and style goals here http://youlookfab.com/2012/01/09/describing-your-style-persona/. So rather than just pick things I pinned on pinterest and try to copy them (I personally think that Sunday I did pretty good, yesterday and today not so much), I'd see what I could do to follow her series.

So the first one is about describing your current personal style, and then what you want your style to be. She says to write down five to ten adjectives for each list.

Oh, by the way, if you're one of my two followers and you've gotten this far, thank you for taking the time to do so, but you needn't feel obligated to continue. Unless you just want to, because you're bored or masochistic or something. I guess I'm saying I obviously don't care if you keep reading, because I *am* writing this on a blog after all, but I'm warning you it will be boring.

Anwyay, without further ado:

My current style

I really have two different styles, or at least two different "uniforms" - summer, and winter. In the summer, I generally wear plain, solid-color work pants, mostly black, a black turtleneck, and a sweater. In the summer, I still usually wear solid color pants or capris, and a "statement" top; or sometimes a pattered skirt, usually a broomstick skirt, and one of my few plain solid black t-shirts or a tank and sweater. But I think that both my summer "uniform" and my winter "uniform" have a lot of commonalities. I think.

• Safe (I was originally going to put "uninspired")
• My favorite colors
• Shapeless (again, I was originally going to put "fat clothes")
• the casual side of Business Casual
• Uncoordinated
• Tomboy

The style to which I aspire

This one is harder. Not because I don't know what I want - I do. I just like several different styles. Walking through stores, it's the punk and the goth that grab me first, the ones that I really want to buy, but then my sense of what I can wear to work - and to be honest, what I would be comfortable wearing to work - sets in and I get something safe again. Back when I started thinking about style, one of the first things I wanted to update was my hair. I did - I got it cut short - but the haircut I liked was Madame Hooch from the Harry Potter movies. Specifically, the haircut and overall look that Madame Hooch had in the first movie, when Harry is learning to ride a broom for the first time. Granted, she had robes on, but I imagined her as being wonderfully classy and scarily competent, which are also things I would like my style to say about me. So we will start with those, and see what else I can come up with.

• Confident
• Competent
• Dressier side of Business Casual
• Pulled together
• My favorite colors - earth tones
• Tomboy

The style I do NOT want

OK, one more of her suggestions before I head off to bed. She suggested making a list of what you do NOT want your style to be. That one is pretty easy.

• Frilly or girly
• Overly modern
• Over done
• Big money or blue blood
• Frumpy
• Too young for my age

Ok, enough naval gazing for one night. I'm going to head off to bed, though I still have at lest this much more stuff running around in my head. Maybe I'll actually make more than one post this time :)