Yellow, sunshine!

It was a bright, beautiful, sunny day today. The kind that just makes you smile. And, here I am at the end of it, one day closer to a week off. The challenge ahead: assessing student work and finishing grades BEFORE I leave school on Friday. We'll see how that goes. I am the Queen of Procrastination, after all.

My week off will definitely include a road trip up north to visit mom. These visits are always love/hate trips for me. The town I grew up in is one of a string of towns that are called the Iron Range. Booming at the turn of the century, the area is now suffering from high unemployment as the mining industry struggles to keep the communities alive. I play the 'guess which business has gone under since the last time I was here' game every time I roll in. Sadly, my hubby won't be traveling with me this time, as he doesn't have a week off for spring break, so I won't be able to enjoy the 'night life' and the fashion faux pas that nostalgically and triumphantly pay homage to past decades. (Fringe leather vests are alive and kicking in the small corners of the world, and not in biker bars, either; you go, girls! And guys! And grandparents!) What's to be expected when Walmart, Fashion Bug and Fleet Farm are the main retail clothing suppliers.

I do enjoy the slow pace of the small town life, though. For an hour or so. Then I'm searching for something to do. I usually bring knitting with me, as reading books seems anti-social, but my current (over ambitious) project on needles is a pair of fair isle leggings. I've got one cuff done. I had more knitted, but I ripped it out and started over (can't remember why) and it's been untouched since then. I love to knit, but man, is it expensive! I really don't care for those artsy obviously homemade sweaters the knitting stores display. If I'm going to knit, it's going to be something that looks like it came from a store. That necessitates expensive yarn. I quickly reassessed my opinion of retail prices for sweaters and other knit garments when I took up the hobby. A cashmere sweater for $100+ is actually not such a bad price (unless you can get yarn for cost). And I dread going into yarn stores because of the scorn I usually draw from the employees there who LOVE their craftsy asymmetrical sweaters with chickens or (and) stars on them, or baubles of fuzz and glitter woven in. They get frustrated with my "particularity" (as one of the kinder sales women called it). I like my particularity. I embrace it. I thank my chickens and stars for it.

But I digress.

One thing about the towns up north, the people who live there LOVE them. They are a tight-knit, hard-working, trusting people with integrity, the likes of which a big city doesn't know. (I like to think I have these qualities and thank my parents and my hometown for them.) Which brings me back to my mantra that life is too short not to love the things in your life. Power to them.

My OOTD:
(H2T J.Crew): navy capris, gray silk ruffle sleeveless blouse, yellow cardigan (with amazing yellow/white striped buttons), patent yellow driving mocs, patent gray belt. (Forgive my lack of item names--too tired to research tonight.)

Thanks for reading!