Two (maybe three) Tips...

Lord knows I am not claiming to write a fashion blog here. We have already witnessed my pathetic attempt at modeling my tights-shorts outfit, so you will notice that this post does not include my face in the photos. You're welcome. Anyway, even though I am clearly not a stylist, I do like to think I can look decently put together if I choose to. And today, I would like to share two tiny tricks I have employed over the past week. I would never have thought of these on my own, and once again, I have to credit the powers of Pinterest for my discoveries. Here they are:

I had this baggy sweater ("jumper") that I really liked wearing until I rubbed two lines in the shape of an X across the front when I wore my cross-body purse. Wah, wah. (That was the sound of the Charlie Brown teacher saying, "Uh, oh." I don't know if that is the proper spelling. Phonetically, that's a toughie.) So, how do you salvage a pilled sweater?

With a disposable razor, of course! Who'da thunk? It really works. You just shave the pills right off.

Tah-dah! Restored to acceptable level of pills. That's tip #1. So, tip #2...

...Wear a button down shirt like you would a cardigan! Throw a belt on top to give your hips some shape, and that's it. Comfy and cute. I might be the only one that thinks this is clever, but I don't care. I like it. If I owned a denim shirt with pearl snaps, I think it would look better. But, I was working with what I have, and I always like stumbling upon new methods to incorporate old things into an updated wardrobe. Thanks again to the wonderful world of Pinterest, I have saved some money by using what I already own in an unexpected way. Hope you're inspired!

In other unrelated-to-clothes news, a quick and funny story... Matthew and I were riding home from the grocery store on our overloaded bikes. (You probably expect us to way 500lbs. by the number of trips we make to buy food. But, we do not, despite the fact that we do go quite often.) He was dangling bags of food from his handlebars after already stuffing a couple in his backpack. I had a full basket of milk, juice and, heavy jars with one bag of cereal and other lighter products looped around my right wrist. Add to this scenario gusting, Oklahoma-type winds, and you can imagine that it was quite a balancing act. We had placed our lone loaf of bread on top of the items in my basket and kind of smooshed it down in there so it would stay put. Well, apparently we did not smoosh it enough. As we were going down a hill on a particular patch of narrow road where one direction has to yield in order for the oncoming traffic to go ahead, we were flying down the hill to get out of the way of an approaching dump truck. He had kindly stopped to wait for us to proceed (probably out of pity for how ridiculous and loaded down we looked.) It was smooth sailing until I hit an unavoidable pothole, and the loaf of bread jumped out of my basket and flew into the street! I let out a sad yelp sound, knowing our bread would be mercilessly crushed by multiple vehicles. Matthew was riding behind me and swerved in an attempt to kick the grounded loaf out of the trucks path. He thought if he punted it far enough, he could pull off to the side and save it. Instead, the poor bread just rolled repeatedly across the asphalt and came to a stop square in the middle of the narrow passageway. Since it was the dump truck's turn, he went ahead and straddled the loaf with his wheels and left it untouched. Matthew and I had stopped our bikes on the sidewalk, and the nice car that was behind Matthew stalled long enough for hubby to dismount and run out to rescue our purchase. Twenty slices of floured, white, farmhouse bread had stopped Cambridge traffic. Miraculously, the plastic covering the loaf was unscathed, and our bread made the rest of the journey home in my hand. Moral of the story and tip #3: When cycling, secure your belongings and watch out for potholes. Items may shift during the ride.