Tuesday: The History of the Mustard and Pink Scarf

I was skimming through old posts last night and I realized this is a formula I often adopt when I am feeling lumpy and fat: dress + cardigan + big colorful scarf to distract and cover everything up. This variation is a skirt and turtleneck instead of a dress, but you get the idea. Not that I really care if it's a formula; it's one that works for me and I certainly have enough scarves that I could wear one a day for a month and not repeat myself, and probably longer.

This particular scarf is actually more of a wrap; I bought it two summers ago to wear with a raspberry floaty-tiered dress to my niece and nephew's bar/bat mitzvahs. I spent so much time and effort finding all the right pieces for that outfit; I ordered the dress from Igigi, a large-size online dress store, I found a matching raspberry clutch from another online store, the shoes were a lovely light gold strappy sandals that took forever to find in real stores, and then there was this scarf. This gorgeous, expensive silk wrap with Pucci-style pattern with a fabulous mix of mustard and pink, two colors I don't think I had ever, ever seen together but somehow worked here. I paid a ridiculous amount of money for it, but the color combination delights me to this day.

That said, this is the first time I've worn the scarf since the bar mitzvah. We took family portraits at the party, and my sister-in-law had them all professionally framed and gave them as Christmas gifts to each of us last year. When I unwrapped the photo, I was shocked; all that effort I had put into looking pretty in my perfectly put-together outfit, and in the end all I could see was how FAT I was. How huge my husband and I both were, standing uncomfortable and sweaty in our suit and heels to the side of the rest of the family, how visibly uncomfortable we both looked in our own skins.

A week after opening the photo, both of us had started Medifast and began shaving that weight off. A hundred-plus pounds and nearly a year later, we're far away from that unhappy couple in the photo, but it's a moment captured forever anyway. It's on the wall in our office, it's the main photo visible in every one of my in-law's houses. There is no getting away from that reminder of the moment when reality crashed into my fantasy of what I looked like, and so for a long time I just stuffed this pretty wrap in the back of my scarf drawer and pretended I had lost it. Finally yesterday I took it out of hiding and put it on again. It's not the scarf's fault I hate that photo!



Man, it is still so pretty. Maybe I should think of that when I look at that photo. I'm going to wear this pretty scarf more often, give it new memories. It deserves that. I deserve that.

Lastly, here's a tip for those of you who want to try layering your tights: don't layer two pairs of Spanx together, unless you want to spend all day feeling like sausage casing that is about to explode at any minute and could possibly take out a corridor wall when you blow. (Hee.) A regular pair of tights and Spanx together is fine, but two Spanx makes moving and breathing a chore, and putting yourself back together after going to the bathroom is damned near impossible. Let my torture be a lesson for you all! :)

But I did love the texture combo from the tights and skirt together!



Sweater #1: cream ribbed turtleneck, Old Navy
Sweater #2: Grey boyfriend cardigan, Martin + Osa
Skirt: textured black pencil skirt, Forth & Towne (part of the suit with the ribbon waist, Shopping Friend!)
Tights: floral black and plain black, both Spanx
Boots: black Vince Camuto cowboy wingtips, Nordstrom
Scarf: pink and mustard silk wrap, Von Maur

ETA: Day 2 of Week 1 of the Couch-to-5K plan is complete!
ETA2: The Glee soundtrack(s) are kind of addictive. Don't tell anyone I admitted that.