EYEGLASSES...SHOPPING ONLINE + A TIP

I was looking at Advanced Style yesterday. Images of older men and woman shopping or simply taking a walk in NYC just fascinates me. I could not help but notice how LARGE their glasses were!  In an article the writer wrote for us today he talked about the late Mimi Weddell and included several pictures of this beautiful older woman.  One of those pictures was of Mimi sitting up in bed with her reading glasses on.  Now she knew how to select glasses.

WHY WE SHOP ONLINE FOR GLASSES
As we grow older we seem to need more glass in our glasses.  Though  many women are vain enough that they will not wear glasses in photos or even on the street, there all those of us that cannot see without our glasses...we are dangerously blind.   I personally have two pair of glasses...one for seeing (no joke!) and one for reading. I could use a third pair for the computer and another for golfing but it just seems wrong to own so many!!! That is why those of us that are older wear big glasses...with progressive lenses. The bigger the better.  Big big glasses!  (I might add here that surgery for my problem is not possible at this time.)

 The women pictured in Advanced Style seem to pull it off the big beautiful glasses. They wear those huge glasses with a lot of flare. I have to admire them for that. My problem is I cannot find those glasses here in Hillsboro, Oregon.  Darn!

SHOPPING ONLINE HOW-TO
So, just for fun I went shopping online for glass frames and I found a website that actually lets you try on the glasses so you can see how they look on your face.  You take a picture of yourself with your webcam and down load it on the website then choose the option of bifocals/progressive lenses.  This choice will give you all those glasses that have enough lens to accommodate your needs. I did find one that looked very good and worked with my oval face.  Virtual try-on might be something I will try in the future.  The site I looked at was called The Glasses Shop but I am sure there are others that would work for you.  If I were to do this, I would take the frames to the place I buy glasses and have them order the lenses that fit the frames.  I did this very thing last spring with an old pair of frames that I did not purchase from the place I had my prescription filled.  They trace your frames and order the lenses.  It is not a big deal at all.  If your vendor gives you a bad time about not buying their frames, go somewhere else.  

TIP
As long as I am on the subject, I suggest you always get a copy of your prescription when you are refitted for glasses.  I carry a eyeglass prescription card in my purse.  There is nothing worse that broken glasses in a far off place and no way to get a new pair.  Once when I was in Hong Kong I decided to have a pair of glasses made...they are very cheap there.  Because I carried my prescription it was possible for me to do that!  Cool, huh!!!

WHAT I WEAR NOW
My last pair of glasses feature an upper end man's (unisex?) frame in basic black. The frame is big enough to hold quite a lot of vision options. Even though I still I need reading glasses, I can read the labels on the shelves at the grocery store...a very good thing in my world. Really what I need  glass frame maker to do is remember not everyone is 23 and cannot wear glasses that are 1/4" deep...we need more GLASS not more GLASSES!!  And please dear glass people, make them beautifully stylish!

Thank you for listening

b

Style....How to dress for travel!

I was writing a blog yesterday about having company. Friends from Great Falls, Montana and Sumner, Washington came to visit us here in the Portland Metro Area for 5 days of talk, shopping and discussion.  I found myself thinking about style and how it fits in a travelers life.

Arizona Inn...Tucson, Arizona

Sunset Over the Desert

Cow Girls at Tanque Verde Ranch

For example, when my husband and I return from Tucson, Arizona sunshine to our beautiful northwestern USA, we are always surprised by how different the two styles are.  In Tucson we wear the colors of the desert...cactus green, terra cotta and sand stone accented with turquoise, sunset oranges and of course yellow...lot's of yellow.  We always wear sandal and if it is cold we wear long pants.  Cowboy boots and blue jeans are always in style...Arizona is dude ranch country.   We feel comfortable in those colors and styles because they reflect the natural beauty of the area, the life style of it's people and the climate.

Oregon beach Nasturtiums in bloom.

Here in Portland we are more subdued.  Blacks, browns, moss greens with splashes of primary colors fill our closets.  Classic styles, hiking clothes and sensible shoes fill our closets.  People in Portland tend to put shorts on as the calendar changes without regard for the weather.  In the heart of the city tailored suits and trendy "dressy clothes" are the order of the day.  I have gone downtown for lunch in the fall in my "Arizona" colors...I really did feel out of place.  Even the young people with orange hair and black lips turned to see if I had landed from outer space!

Icy cold Pacific waters.

 

If I were to travel to Paris I would do a little looking around online to see what they are wearing.  I am a people watcher and love to catch an image of someone or somethings without being noticed.  Dressing in open toed shoes and teal green in the wrong place does not allow that to happen.

Really, I do not want to look like a clown!!!  REALLY!!

Selected blogs:

• Paris Breakfast...how to dress and what to eat in Paris.

• Advanced Style...what older people are wearing in New York
• Desert Style...a website from Egypt that reflects those beautiful desert colors.
• The Satorialist...pictures of stylishly dressed men and women from around NYC and Europe

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Beautiful Condominiums....links for decorating ideas + ++!

small flower...big impact!

So you have purchased that beautiful condominium in the city...maybe not that big.  Should you give up stylish?  I don't think so.   Retirement (55 living) can be all about style.  Downsizing or beginning small does not mean we have to live in a cluttered and less than stylish space.  I have a few links I have been gathering that give us a better image of retirement style (even clothes girls!) and living in a small space.  I thought I would give you the list of links so you can use it as a reference:

Advanced Style  I have no idea how I found this website but when I did it went onto my link list immediately.  The blog, as I understand it, began as a emulation of a blog from New York called The Satorialist (listed as one of the the top 100 design influences by Time Magazine).  Advanced Style and Satorialist writers photographs people on the street...generally beautifully dressed.  Advanced Style was born with a theme..."You are never to old to be beautiful."  You will love it!

Small Place Style  What a wonderful blog site!!! When they say one picture is worth a thousand words the truth has been spoken.  This is a discovery I will save so I can return often.

Apartment Therapy  This is a great site that keeps us abreast of what is going on in small spaces by posting photographs from readers around the country.  I have used several of these ideas myself.

The Kitchen  This blog is included in the tabs at Apartment Therapy.  Living small does not mean we need to give up a wonderful kitchen...even a very small one.  Gadgets, easy food preparation and cool tools are still ours to enjoy. The Cool Kitchen Contest pictures are worth a look...dreaming is always possible!

Re-Nest  This is a site that allows us to dream about a remodel or a new (old) purchase while staying GREEN.  Those of us that are retired came from a generation of savers/reusers!  This is perfect for us.

Unplugged  If you are a techno buff you know that when you live in a small space you need to be very creative...this is the website for you! 

Style At Home  This is a magazine website from a magazine published in Canada...the land of Candice Olson and many other wonderful designers.  I love this magazine and the website has a feature that allows you to clip the idea they post and save them in a folder on your desktop for future reference. 

Design Blog List   If you just want to roam around in the design world this is a page of links that will keep you busy...forever. 

Martha Stewart   Need I say more...there is always a wonderful idea from her people!

I am adding to this list daily...as time permits.  Do you live in a small stylish awesome place???  Let me know by leaving a link in the comments section.  I would love to visit you.

b

Fashion for the Silver Haired Set....finally getting some attention!

     I was invited to join  Lookville a while back.  Lookville is a website that deals with fashion and style.  Members post a style, either a picture of them self or one taken from another source, and invite comments or advice on the appropriateness or stylishness of the picture.   This website just appeals to my love for beautiful clothes.  I posted a look and posed the question "Is it possible to be fashionable after a "certain" age?" along with a look taken from More magazine.  As a result of this post I received comments from a number of women varying age from 19 to mid sixties.  It seems that woman do speak the same language when it comes to style.  The common theme resonated with me...looking beautiful really has nothing to do with our age.  Attitude and elan do count.  It is all about pulling it off!

Image from Advanced Style

     One of the women that commented or offered advise referred to a blog called Advanced Style: Proof from the wise and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.  The writer of the blog, Ari Seth Cohen, has a wonderful eye for what becomes fashionable as we become older.  The New York Times had this to say about Cohen:

As the founder and editor of Advanced Style, a Sartorialist for the superannuated set, he chronicles the stylish and often eccentric get-ups of a crowd that’s largely ignored by the fashion system. “My eyes have always been drawn to older people,” said Cohen, 28. “And from a style point of view, I find them more interesting because they are of an age where they don’t have to impress anyone and can wear what they want.”

     I was so taken with the images of older men and women dressed beautifully and sometimes as outlandishly as a rapper or a disrespectful teen.  The blog is just delightful.  I for one have bookmarked the website and will follow it as faithfully as I follow Paris Breakfast, another favorite of mine.  Both of these blogs lets the reader get a glimpse of the lives people living in cities where fashion reigns.
     When I started this blog, I set out to bring value to the notion that being "ignored" by the fashion industry and those people that work in the interior design business is simply not good business.  Every item of clothing or interior designed for retired people should not be centered around a wheel chair and a ramp!  
    Have a wonderful day!


b

 

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• Respect Your Elders (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Ari Seth Cohen: the man who blogs about the silver stylistas (telegraph.co.uk)
• Silver stylistas: the man who blogs about the over sixites (telegraph.co.uk)
• Over sixties fashion icons (telegraph.co.uk)

Decorating a Tiny House/Apartment...Link to Links!

photo from Land Choices http://www.landchoices.org/media/index.htm

Apartment Therapy...At both ends of our lives we seem to live in cramped spaces.  When we are starting out, we live in a space that barely lets you change you mind let alone rearrange the furniture.  I am one of those people at the other end of that life...the retired, downsized mature person living in small spaces once again.  And you know what....I LOVE IT!!!  I rearrange my furniture and change my mind...maybe I  have less of both at this time in my life.

My husband and I fill our spaces with our being and living.  We are not big people so we don't require much space.  The kitchen dance has gotten to be a kind of ritual with us...if we are cranky, one person just goes away and waits their turn. This works when we live with one small bathroom too.

If you are like me, you probably are interested in seeing how other people live.  If you live in 650 square feet or less, you won't find much information to help you make some useful changes.  I guess that is why I was so excited when I found the Apartment Therapy website today.  Resources and Sites for Small Spaces was one of the articles they listed as a top blog. This link led me to another article in Mindful Metropolis called Small Solutions, Finding Peace in a Pint Sized Home.  Discardia is a lean and mean little website that has suggestions for simplifying our life plus you can sign up to get twitter tips on de-cluttering every day.   

Discardia is the time to get rid of things that no longer add value to your life, shed bad habits, let go of emotional baggage and generally lighten your load. (Discardia website) 

 These are just samples of what you will find.

If you are interested in looking what the younger designers are doing, you can start with Pure Style Home. 
Have fun.

b

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• 4 Small Space Solutions In One Space (apartmenttherapy.com)
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Sold the RV....holy cow martha...did you know what a loss you take on those things!

Moonrise over the RV resort
2008
iphone

How to Sell a Motor Home
in the know information
(from a RANK amateur)

We have sold our motor home, a golf cart, given away a refrigerator, sold a park model and donated a pick up load of books to the library...all with in the last year. The things we gave away were things we absolutely could not sell. Believe me we tried.

We sold the RV by putting a listing on Craigs List...with almost no information!!! It said simply 35' RV for sale NADA price...$55000. We had two calls in one day. I have had it on Craigs list with a complete description forever and NOTHING!!! Very interesting. We sold the golf cart in one hour. I may sell my husband...we are on a roll!

The books were just a truck load of memories so we did not miss them...not yet. The refrigerator was older than God so we figured all we needed was for it to find a good home. The park model went to a 80 something woman that loved it...and we had bought another for the same price so it was a good trade...no extra money out.

But the RV...how cow Martha...did you know what a loss you take on those things. I feel like we have been sucker punched. Now I don't blame the buyer. I do blame the seller AND I blame myself. That had to be the dumbest thing we have ever done!!!! We are a whole lot wiser (notice I didn't say smarter) but there is no was to get it back.

But do I regret it...not one little bit. We traveled all over this country and saw things from the ground that we had flown over countless times. The experiences were worth every minute of it. The money would have been spent in other ways if we had not bought it and we would not have done all the things we did. When I say "life is not what happens, it is how you see the journey" that is what I mean. We shared experiences with our children and grandchildren, friends and we pleased ourselves! It was so much fun.

The deal will be completed within a week or two. There is still more money to be spent by us before we can complete this part of our lives. Then we are moving on to another adventure.

Oh, by the way, we will probably have a trailer (55/12, two awnings and a shed) to sell in a Mesa resort. And so it goes....sigh!!!

b+

Bicycle Road Riding...Tucson, AZ life style!

Road riding bicyclists returning from a road ride to the Vail Flea Market. A beautiful day in Tucson, AZ.
2009


I think that retirement is ALL about quality of life. When you choose the lifestyle that suits you, be it golfing, travel, hiking or biking, the location you select will make all the difference. The thing that will surprise you most of all is that it does not have to be expensive.

My husband and I winter in an RV resort on the eastside of Tucson, AZ. The award winning park is called Rincon Country East (8989 East Escalante Rd.). We live in a Park Model (trailer) that is about 12 feet wide and about 35 feet long. It over looks the Pantano Wash and the Rincon Mountains in the east and the Catalina mountains in the north. It cost us less than $15,000. ( We also own another park model that is for sale or rent. We rent it for $50 a day.) We do rent the park model spaces but it is a small price to pay for a million dollar location!

Now comes the life style part. We live a 5 minute or less drive from the beautiful Fred Inke public golf course. Road riding bicyclist can ride to leave the park and take the Saguaro National Park loop or get on the Old Spanish Trail road to go for a day ride.

We have not sacrificed one single thing in the "life style" department and we can still afford to do almost anything else we want. What a deal!!!

b