Upstate Style

Cute, right?  Simple, right?  Not in these parts!

We ventured out into the frozen tundra that is the northeast for just a bit today.  It's Sunday and I had dedicated this day to sweatpants, sweatshirts, fuzzy socks and no make up.  I did shower, so I am clean and my hair is combed (even the back..I do own a handheld mirror to check), however I knew I would not be exiting my car, even though, come to see, I would probably be looking much better than the people wandering around in public today.  Now don't get me wrong...I am no style star by any stretch of the imagination, but the outfits I saw out in public in my area seriously makes me scratch my head and wonder...what are they thinking?!?!   As you read through, this is for both men and women.  There doesn't seem to be a difference in that department around here.

Hair
Let me start with hair.  OK, clearly some people are not washing their hair in the morning...I understand, maybe they wash at night...but don't you look in the mirror before leaving your house for the first time each day?  Well some people need to start looking at the BACK of their heads.  I saw combed and clean looking heads of hair coming at me, then nesty, frizzy bed head walking away from me.  I swear that some of the backs of heads I saw today would reach out and touch someone walking behind them.

Jackets
When I dream of a new winter jacket I start looking at things like shearling, The North Face, and wool, to name a few.  While North Face does seem to be popular just about everywhere, including here, so does anything and everything made out of camouflage and/or your favorite football or Nascar team.  That seems to be the outerwear of choice in upstate New York.  I didn't realize just how many items were produced with camo and/or team logos.  Up here there is an endless parade of hats, jackets, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pants, socks and even cars all adorned with such things.  Who knew?

Jeans
I say jeans and not pants because unless someone is coming or going from their office job (and who am I kidding, they are probably wearing jeans too), everyone is in jeans around here...all the time (except for the select few that regularly wander around in public in their flannel pajama bottoms).  That sounds normal right?  There are plenty of cute jeans out there that flatter all kinds of shapes and sizes so what's so odd about jeans you ask?  Well, it's the one and only brand that seems to make it's way into Fulton County...Wranglers.  I am not talking about just on men either.  I regularly see them on women as well.  What is the reason that Wrangler jeans are so popular up here?  I seriously don't get it.  We aren't cowboys in Texas wrangling horses.

Boots
We're deep into winter so it seems about right I would mention boots.  What you probably didn't realize is that I could write about boots even if it were mid-July!  Work boots seem to be the crowning glory of fashion around here year round.  They are worn with Wrangler jeans, sweatpants and shorts....with and without socks.  Hot right? 

You think we can't see you but we can!

What do you "wrangle" in these?

The upstate "Ugg"

     

Our House: Welcome to Our Bathroom

I noticed something really odd about myself tonight, and I am glad I did.  It gave  me a laugh.  I have not one, but two welcome signs in my hideous upstairs bathroom.  What am I thinking?!?!  Who puts a welcome sign in a nice bathroom?  Who puts a welcome sign in a scary bathroom?  Who puts a welcome sign in their upstairs bathroom where no guests will go?  Who puts TWO welcome signs in their eye sore of a bathroom that's upstairs where no guests will ever go?  ME!  That's who!  Our house was built in 1890 and I think our bathroom was put in right around the same time ;)  It is seriously outdated.  When we moved in there were other rooms that needed our attention first, and this bathroom was upstairs, so it was really for just our use, so it stayed as is.  It had old, worn out flooring,  peeling wallpaper, and terrible lighting.  Those few things we attempted to fix, but about now, ten years living in this house, and I am ready to run into the Bathroom Crasher from HGTV anytime.  We keep putting off any big redo because it will be severely inconvenient.  It has our only shower/tub, our laundry room is attached to it, and it is right next to our bedroom.  We would almost have to move out to do a proper makeover.  So Bathroom Crasher guy, come my way!  We have pink tile that surrounds the entire bathroom.  Can you imagine the mess in taking that out?  When I decided to take the wallpaper down and paint a few years ago, I got impatient and not only took the wallpaper off, but most of the top layer of the dry wall too.  Jamie loved me for that one!  A few years into living here we decided to do a short term redo of the old, grungy floor.  We bought the laminate, made an outline of the bathroom, and cut away!  We had this one in the bag, we nailed it.  Was going to look great!  Well, being new homeowners (and lets face it...just being generally stupid), we soon realized we traced the outline on the back of the new flooring instead of the front, so it was reverse of what it needed to be.  In it went anyway, while attempting to hide our incorrect cuts under garbage cans and hampers. The year of Anna Nicole's death trial (2007 I think), I decided to tear apart and clean the laundry room off the bathroom that February break, and since I was addicted to that trial by then, I just about demanded that I needed a TV in the bathroom while I worked so I didn't miss a thing... and then it would also be great for bath time and stuff (yep, I'm weird), like nice hotels have LOL.  So a TV went in. Funny, I don't feel like I am in a fancy hotel.  So here it is.  I refuse to show the whole, awful thing but you'll get the picture.  Please don't judge me ;)

The pink tile

TWO welcomes

The botched floor (although you can't tell here)

My favorite piece...the TV!

     

MY Scrapbook

Almost forty...yep!  Two years to go and I fully expect age 39 and 40 to be tough for me.  Living in Fulton County...yep!  Not exactly the most hip and happening place in the world.  Trying to make the best of both the age thing and the location thing.  This is why the title made such sense to me.  I have been blogging about my love, dogs, for about seven months now and I have discovered I love to blog!  I don't expect anyone to want to read what I write, but I enjoy it whether 1000 people read it or if my eyes are the only ones to ever see it.  I have decided it's my version of scrapbooking.  I have always loved looking at my crafty friends' scrapbooks, but any attempt of my own to start one was ridiculously frustrating.  It just came down to the fact that I hated cutting, folding, stamping, gluing (and every other damn thing people did to that paper)...all for the presentation of ONE FREAKIN PHOTO!!!  I just don't get it, it's not my thing.  Beautiful, yes, but not for me.  Blogging is though!  I love the thought that this will be like a regular journal for me that I can look back on and enjoy the memories as time goes by.  Yes, blogging is much more public than scrapbooking, but I am not an overly private person.  Of course I keep some things private, but if you know me well, I am pretty much an open book.  So, in a nutshell, this will be my place to share my thoughts, happenings, friends and life!  My dogs are sure to appear...they  make up a huge part of my life, but I will try to keep most of their stuff to my other blog.  Can't wait to get this rolling and make some fun memories!

PS...Weird..even though I share photos on Facebook without a problem, I am finding it difficult to choose one to start here.  Ugh, anxiety.  I will stick with this.