Happy Birthday...

So, I celebrated my Birthday this past Saturday (Oct 25th). I feel a bit differently about Birthdays than most people do. Its not that I'm not happy, I'm happy and feel blessed and privileged to live and be healthy enough to experience another year of growth. I think as you get older Birthdays lose the excitement that it had when you were younger. As I age (gracefully) Birthdays for me have become a time of intense self-reflection. I reflect on thoughts like, where I am in my life, where I want to be, and what I could do to improve myself. These thoughts don't depress me, but they make me think (intensely), and move me to set new goals for the next year. For the past few days leading up to my Birthday, this is what I've been doing: Re-thinking my goals, my choices, my habits, things in my life that I'm not quite happy about, and the things that I am happy about. I love this quote from Einstein and reflect on it often, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. My thought is that, most of our problems remain with us and never get solved, because we are trying the same solution over and over again.

Take for instance, this blog that I started. I've followed and read other blogs for many years. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I could write a blog that people would want to read. I don't consider myself a writer at all. The other thing is that I've been camera shy all my life! But, with the nudging of my daughter and the intense love and knowledge of fashion, shopping and beauty, I decided to give a shot. I think that I've got a lot to share with the world and with this blog I can do just that. This past week I drew a complete blank, and fear kicked in. That little annoying voice in my head was try to tell me, you can't do this, your not a writer, who's going to read your post. I had to draw from that inner place that I know exist inside of, and fight the fears and doubt. I told myself, what is worse that can happen, people don't read my post, or they read it and don't like it. Jeff Goins said in one of his newsletters "if only one person reads your post, continue to write, you show up and write, that one person can turn into one hundred and more".

I'll leave you with this these thoughts, It's never too late to start something new, take a honest self inventory. If you weren't happy with yesterday, try something different today. Don't stay stuck. Do better, do something different.

Below I'll share with you the outfits that I chose to wear on my Birthday. Please excuse the picture, I'm trying to learn my camera and use the cyber shots (self portrait). It can only get better.

Styling note: I choose this floral dress with hints of white, purple and blue (my breakfast outfit). I got this dress from Forever21. I got it in a 3x, this dress is made of a stretchy fabric, but it was very true to size. I wanted to break up the floral pattern, so I added this blue denim crop jacket (bought last year). I added a light purple necklace and earrings, a deep purple handbag and a sliver sandal ( all from my collection).

Styling notes: I wore this white dress to a friends party the night of my birthday, It was an all white affair. I choose to break up with the a soft  pink hand bag and shoes. The dress is a XL, I bought this from CatoFashions last year (sold out). I can usually wear some of their XL clothing, its sized like a 14. The dress is lined and has a bit of stretch to it, but its pretty true to size. Handbag is from my collection. The shoe is BCBG from DSW (sold out), I bought these earlier this year. This was the first time I wore them. I choose to wear Gold accessories to compliment the gold broach at the neckline of the dress. Earrings are from Bodycentral (wore these in another blog post). The gold belt is from Rainbow Shops (had for some tine) The gold watch and bracelet worn here are my personal items