All things EARTH...

I love that skirt, and how smart it looks on you. I'm hoping to have a similar effect with my new skort.

You know, I love my skort! I never had one before but I think I will be wearing it all summer. I wish it came in other colors besides black. It will come in handy if my dad and I get to play golf at all this summer.

In the space shuttle photo I'm actually wearing my gold skirt. I didn't realize how similar they look in photos until today. I can tell which is which because the skort is a little shorter.

Here are the two dress pics we took. You've seen them both before. Again, the lighting ain't so great, especially in the turquoise one. :( I should have taken a picture of my hair, I did a French twist and put turquoise flowers in it. So cute!

Sometimes I really shouldn't listen to DH; he didn't want to get a second night formal picture taken, and the only photo he took came out really bad. Here is why, and it's my photography tip for the day: sometimes the flash is your enemy.

My short brown formal dress has a synthetic underlayer, and the flash lit it up and made it really shiny. It is shiniest where it sticks out, if you know what I mean. Not very flattering at all, as you can see:

However, this dress was so comfortable and I love love LOVE these shoes. After dinner we went dancing because it was ABBA night in the disco. :)

This is my last photo. I love formal night! In the professional photo my dress came out really dark, so I actually like this one on our balcony better, in spite of the water on the lens:

This is the best underwater photo I took, a pretty fan coral from our snorkel in Cozumel:

Margaret...I'm glad that you reposted your photos. Again...I say that you look fabulous. You are so elegant in your long brown gown...it's just LOVELY.

I'm currently writing a review of our cruise. I wore what I wore to morning Zumba and my swim suit more than any other outfits on our trip!

Hello all! I've had such a busy week, I haven't been online much. Margaret, I'm loving all your dresses!!! As much as you may not have liked the shorter brown dress in that picture, I love it. Both of your formal dresses were stunning.

The turquoise dress really looks fantastic. I can sometimes have trouble finding that "mid range" dress....one that isn't formal, but isn't just a sundress. I found one not too long ago, and I'm hoping for it to make in the cruise. The color is iffy, I admit. It has a muted feel too it, but at the same time, the color itself is strong. It's rather orangey. I think I'm going to get my daughter's color cards out since she is fire. (I have one of each - a daughter who is a fire, and one who is an earth like me)

I really love the fit and style of the dress, except that it is too big at the shoulders, like usual. It has a fit similar to your turquoise dress, except it has a v-neck in the front and back. Different fabric and all, but similar styling.

I am going to start looking a bit at clearance fleece online for Alaska. I've heard that the weather can vary greatly. I currently have two ivory fleece pullovers and a bright orange one. I wear them a lot in the winter when it's cold. Otherwise, I wear long sleeved knit tops with cardigan style sweaters. I'm looking to be able to layer without a lot of bulk, and seeing that I wear my ivory fleece pullovers so much, I know that if I get the right colors, there will be no waste. Then I can throw on some of those scarves I have!

Anita, you know how we've talked about re-wearing things? Well, Alaska will be one of those times where I definitely re-wear clothing. Jeans I always re-wear, and the fleece will be over another shirt, so it's not going to be dirty. This is all a very good thing, because I want to still wear dresses to dinner. Can you imagine the luggage for a 7 day cruise if I didn't? I'm already worried about all that.

Plus, I am a very cold person. Put me in a cold climate, I will still have the hot flashes but I won't have nearly the issues I have being inside or that I have in warmer weather.

Anita, do you have pictures of you in any of your outfits? What matters is having a great time with your family and capturing memories, but I love pictures. ;)

If any of you see earthy fleece, let me know! It's hard to come by.

Laurie, LL Bean has some fleece on sale now. They have some ok, not great, colors esp. teal blues, and they last forever. I used to wear them often when I skated.

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/504732?page=womens-fleece-jackets#/llb/shop/502281?nav=ln-8979&page=sweatshirts

Sports Authority has some on sale too but their colors tend to be very bright.

I'm sure there is a lot of advice here on CC about Alaska. I took a parka because you will find it can be very cold by the glaciers no matter what time or season you will be there. We were parked there facing the ice at least an hour watching the calving and it was freezing. Later that day as we headed away from the glacier we were on the sunny side of the ship and I sat in the sun on our balcony in a tank top and shorts. :) So, be prepared for many changes of clothes throughout the day. Layering is your friend. Also be prepared for rain on the southern part of the trip. At that time I had a reversible fleece long jacket that was waterproof on one side, very handy. Keep in mind that Misty Fjords is the only rainforest in North America. My two formals were both sleeveless, btw. Everyone else is dealing with the same bulky clothes/packing woes and re-wearing is the order of the day in a climate like that.

I'm thinking of wearing my turquoise dress to a May wedding (it's at 4pm). It's linen, so I'm concerned it might be too early in the season to wear it. Maybe the gold one would be more appropriate. What do you think? I guess a lot depends on the weather that day. May temps here can be 55 or 85, you never know.

My favorite store, Coldwater Creek, is filing Chapter 11. I'm so sad. I went online late last night and ordered two pairs of the pants I wear to work almost every day in a size smaller for next fall. The stores are going to start clearance sales next month. :( Most of my favorite t-shirts come from there. Unfortunately this spring they've been heavy on the black/white trend.

I just got this catalog, and I love these shoes! I wish they weren't so scary expensive, though. Can you imagine how dirty they'd get in the City?

http://www.jjill.com/jjillonline/product/itempage.aspx?BID=464764078&rPFID=52&item=HM056A&h=A&sk=A

I also love this t-shirt, the proportions are awesome. It's nice to see a low enough neckline to wear a great necklace with it. How pretty would that be? I'm wondering about the coral and cashew colors, having never shopped at j. jill:

http://www.jjill.com/jjillonline/product/itempage.aspx?BID=464764078&item=HM059A&h=M&sk=M&ac=search

I heard someone say that these kind of shoes are a great for that in-between time in spring before you're quite ready for bare toes. And then I saw these in cognac, and the cute stone-colored dress. Got me thinking, what a great spring outfit!

Oh, that's j. jill also.

We've been talking about our next cruise, and top of the list right now is the Panama Canal. Full transit is 14 days, though, so we'll have to really think about how that's going to work with our job schedules. So glad we got our money back on the last one plus the future credit. I had no idea the PC was so expensive!

I have a PILE of magazine photos that I've collected over the winter. I'll have to see what I can do about that. In the meantime, it's fun seeing Laurie's cruise wardrobe! You're up next, girlfriend. :)

Hi Margaret! I love the links you share. I think we all have favorite stores to shop at, and when we don't see what we want, we get stuck a bit. It's great when one of us posts a different store or finds a great item to share.

With LL Bean, we have an outlet store not too far away. We are never really near this area, but there I mentioned to my husband that I wanted to stop at a place soon that is right in the vicinity, so I may also check and see what they have there as well. Outlet stores tend to be a few seasons behind, but I figure why not check them out?

I'm also thinking that we have this gift card for a restaurant and that too is in that area. So, we definitely have a reason to travel out that way! :D

We have a JJill at the mall. I admit that I haven't shopped there before, but I knew a few people who have that love it. Every time I go by, it seems that they carry a great deal of summer/air clothing, so I haven't been enticed to go in. However, with the things you've posted, I now know there are other colors there as well.

Since the weather was so pleasant today, my husband and I wanted to get out of the house a bit. You know how a nice day can do that...you just want to hop in the car and go somewhere! So we took a little drive, got some lunch, and ended up at an antique place in the city. We are always in there for quite some time, since it is 4 levels. After that, we stopped in the mall to say hello to my daughter who was working. (the mall is within site of the antique place) She pointed out the fleece they have. Eddie Bauer is very airy and when it's not, it's ice. They had a few tops here and there, but I have the two that are in earth like colors. My husband was looking at some shirts, and there on the table was men's fleece....in a great rust color, a chocolate brown and olive green!!! There was a lighter green, bit it was a bit cooler. My husband is an air, so it would look decent on him, I think. Then there was black, red and a fantastic shade of blue for him.

The conversation that ensued was funny. Brian: "I like that one a lot but it's not my color." Me: "No, it's not your color. But that's never stopped you before." Brian: "which ones are my colors?" Me: these over here." Brian: "who's colors are those that I like? And why do I like them then?" I swear, he was just trying to agitate me. ;) Then he says, "If all those colors are good for you, why don't you just try them on in a smaller size?" He's a pretty smart guy. The medium actually fit very well, so I got two.

Like you have said, Margaret, I think I will need layers that I can add or remove as needed. I was thinking shirt, scarf, fleece, coat. Then if it is warmer, I remove a layer at a time until I am comfy. With the two things I just bought, I have 4 things I can bring, and one that is iffy. I should definitely be re-wearing these, so I should be okay for a 7 day cruise? Maybe?

I have a lot of time - over a year. The reason I am looking now is that I figured I could grab some clearance items. I find Eddie Bauer expensive, but my daughter always tells me when there is a special sale. The fleece was $29.00 with $10.00 off, and then I got 30% off of that. So, those were pretty good for great earth colors. I think I would love a teal one from LL Bean.

Now, after the next few days, it is going to get cold again for a day or two. Then it will go back to more seasonable weather. After Easter, I plan to get out my warm weather clothes so that I can finalize what I'm wearing a bit. We have about 6 weeks, so I'm getting quite excited. May is super busy. Two weeks prior to the cruise, my daughter comes home for graduation. She will have one week left to finish on her internship, so she has to go back to Albany on Sunday. The following week, we have to move her back home from Albany. We will move her Saturday, but then she drives back to see her boyfriend graduate and will be officially home on Monday. That gives her just a few days to get ready. We've been working on it already though, when she has come home for the weekend. She has her dinner dresses, shoes and accessories all picked, she has enough bathing suits and so forth. She just has to decide officially which tops to go with them.

I love the turquoise dress, Margaret. I too associate linen with summer, but if the weather is warm, it will be a perfect time to wear it. I would only bypass it if it's a cooler day. I have a wedding coming up in Garden City in June, and we are still trying to figure things out. My husband is not looking forward to the bottlenecked traffic in the NYC area. Plus, the wedding is on a Friday. We aren't sure if we should drive in that day and see about early check in to the hotel? It's about a 5 hour drive, and we really don't want to wear the wedding clothes the whole time. I haven't figured out what to wear yet. We don't have the invite yet, but the church is small and unassuming. However, the reception is in a castle.

Oh, Garden City, if you come over the Triborough Bridge you will be in my hood. Come over for coffee and change at my house. We are about 45 minutes from there, depending on traffic. :)

I'm off to Seattle to see my new nephew. :D:D:D I can't wait to see my sister, too.

I'll have a lot of airport time to get my pics ready to post....

So, I did it. Despite the fact that is snowed last night, I took a little time tonight to get out my sleeveless tops and shorts and actually put them in my dresser. I took the super heavy stuff and put those in the storage bags. At least now, I can toy with different ideas without the hassle of having to put things back away.

You know what I found interesting? The things I have that I should get rid of, but don't. An example is this top I have had for 4 years and have only worn once. It has ivory and a few different beige shades, along with black. I don't know why, but I just keep saying I will keep it. I have a few things like that. I think part of it is just not wanting to get rid of something that is "still good." yes, I have things to replace this shirt. That is easy enough to do when you don't wear something, you know?

I have considered consignment shops since some things I have are like new. I just never get around to checking these places out. Another example is this fabulous green tank top I have. It's a great color, nice fit and style. I don't wear it because it is a weekend kind of shirt, it's knit, and is a wrinkled mess. I have to iron it just before wearing it, and it's just a knit shirt! I can't even iron it and hang it up...it will wrinkle unless I wear it right away. Really...

I've worn it only once a year over the past 3 years that I've had it.

Anita, I believe your cruise was on Celebrity, right? Was it your first cruise on this line? I've wondered about Celebrity quite a bit. I love RCI and haven't really felt inclined to venture over to different lines. I am really curious though about how they are the same and how they are different. Margaret, have you sailed any other line besides Princess? My brother had a job for a while where the best selling offices would win a cruise. His job wasn't a very good paying one, but he won a cruise twice. Both were on Princess. What was interesting was that he is completely, totally informal. He and his wife just loved eating at the buffet each night, and watching movies under the stars near the pool. I think it shows that cruise lines have ways to appeal to all sorts of different people.

Margaret, we were posting at the same time!

I sure wish we would get our darned invitations. :rolleyes: We really need to know what exactly is going on with this wedding!!! So much is still up in the air. I would love to be able to meet you in person!

Hi Ladies I'm back!

I had an awesome time in FL. The DH and I had a great time taking a short trip to Daytona Beach with my DB and SIL to look at property. We're thinking of retiring to FL part time when the DH retires. We laughed the whole way there and we were having so much fun we decided on a whim to spend the night. My SIL and I got a little blasted (okay a lot) drinking some Jerry Garcia Iced Teas. We never have drank together and rarely drink as individuals so it was so much fun to get silly together. The four of us ended up going to a Spring Break beach party at a dance club that was in the bottom half of the restaurant where we ate and had the drinks. They had a live band and we danced the night away. It was such an unexpected, out of the ordinary, wonderful time!:D We were most definitely the "oldie goldies" in the club but we didn't care and neither did anyone else. We had so much fun! At about 5am we were awaken when a bunch of fraternity pledges were being made to run out in the cold morning surf in just their "briefs" and they screaming and yelling because they were so cold. It reminded me of what the DS just went through when he pledged his frat at the U of A.

By the way Laurie, we're also moving our DS from school coming up in May. I just made our hotel reservations today. I can't wait to get him back home for the summer. :D I can't believe he's finished his first year of college already.

So, enough of me!:D

I don't know where to start...but I'll start with Margaret...Wow! You are a knockout in your long brown formal dress! I love your hair color too. I also love those beige sandals with the t-strap that has two oval links on it. They're so great looking and just my style too.

Laurie, I love the pictures of all the things you're planning to wear on your cruise. You have great taste and I can only imagine it must be awesome fun having your daughter help you out.

And last, but not least, I'm looking forward to seeing pictures from Anita.

Welcome back! It sounds like you had so much fun. :)

Thank you for saying such nice things. I love that brown formal and I'm trying to find another opportunity to wear it, sooner than later I hope! You are so right about Laurie's wardrobe, I want to snatch some of her clothes every time she posts. :) Anita has been working on quite a substantial review of her last cruise, you should check it out, she's a great writer and it's fun to live vicariously. It sounds like she had so much fun, and it's obvious to me now why she hasn't been posting here as often. What an undertaking!

Here are the shoes. One of the things I really like is that they make me look taller but the heel height is very manageable because of the wedge:

http://www.dsw.com/shoe/unisa+oralee+wedge+sandal?prodId=295041&category=dsw11cat260004&activeCats=cat10006,cat20034,dsw11cat260004

I wore them after too much champagne while the ship was rockin' and rollin' and I did just fine. :) They also go with absolutely everything. They are a little stiff to dance in, but I managed.

Laurie, we have cruised on other lines, but mostly those were specialty cruises on smaller ships. All our big ship cruises have been on Princess, probably because our first one was and so it is familiar to us. In this last instance, we were choosing between snorkel itineraries and the finalists were Princess and Windstar. Since the airfare to Antiqua was $800 and to Houston was $250, Houston got our vote. The difference meant we could have a nicer cabin on Princess which I think allowed us to have a more upscale Princess experience, which we really enjoyed -- especially since we didn't actually go anywhere!

Everything I had read about the Grand Class ships seemed to be true in our case, and your brother's experience bears it out too, which is that they were designed to provide multiple types of cruise experience on one ship. You want silly pool games and a calypso band? check. You want a private adult area and tea on your balcony? check. You want bingo every day and many trips to the buffet? check.

Actually, aside from maybe Carnival, Disney, and some of the mega ships, I would be able to have an enjoyable cruise on any of the majors if I planned carefully enough. We have had some pretty sparse cabins along the way, but we don't care if the itinerary is wonderful. That being said, my impression is that the closest fit for us to Princess would be Celebrity, and it wouldn't surprise me if we ended up on one someday.

(Please don't anyone jump out of the blue to flame me about my preferences: I am not intending to dis anyone's favorite cruise line, but rather to demonstrate that I know our cruising style very well at this point and therefore am able to make some educated guesses for us alone.)

We've done three Radissons, which is now Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and they were wonderful, but only about 350 pax on the largest of the ships we took. They are AI, so much more expensive than MMCL, but the excursions were incredible and generally lasted all day.

Margaret,

Thanks for the link for the shoes. They are so chic.

Where would I find Anita's review? I'd love to read about her adventures.

By the way, I think it's awesome the way you made the best of the circumstances on your recent cruise. Other would be complaining all over the place but it seems you had a good time in spite of the not so great conditions.;)

You can find Anita's review here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2021390

She has such an approachable style, really wonderful.

I spent my weekend with this little dude. I think he's going to be an EARTH:

Not fashion related, but please keep my daddy in your thoughts, he had a mild heart attack today. We were very relieved to hear that he's going to be fine.

Reds. In a spring full of AIR and ICE, there are actually some nice tomato reds.

I love these collages that W does:

Ralph Lauren:

Fendi:

This is not an EARTH photo, but I just keep coming back to how beautiful yet subtle her makeup is: just gorgeous, and so elegant:

Love these:

Blue and orange is a combo I like, and there is a lot of it this spring. If you look you can find it without white:

I think this is Alexander McQueen:

Carolina Herrera:

There's still teal out there if you look.

Jimmy Choo:

Judith Lieber:

I don't know what this is, but it's gorgeous and a surprising combo for spring.

Gucci:

Every spring there is a safari-inspired photo layout somewhere:

Cute champagne dress by Ferragamo:

Awesome gold skirt by Dries van Noten:

Ippolito bangles:

Margaret, I love when you post pictures!

I've been absent here for a few days. I cut my finger pretty bad on Saturday. it's the thumb, so it doesn't affect my typing, but it has slowed me down a bit. Especially since I'm covering someone at work and doing two jobs at once. Since it's an office job, having my thumb all bandaged up thick doesn't help things! But I'm thankful...it could have been much worse, or it could have happened so close to my cruise time I couldn't go in the water or something like that.

First, your shoes: those wedges are cute! I'm trying to find a sandal that has a modest heel to it, but is super comfy and casual. I tried on a cute pair of shoes at Famous Footwear that had a wedge that was covered in jute. I'm thinking about them. What I have in mind is a heel that is lower, so that they are extra comfortable yet give a little nicer look to things. I have a pair of cork wedges that work really nice, but I guess I'm focused on about a 2 1/2 inch heel, or maybe 3. I'm really liking the ones you posted though.

I think we all like different cruise lines, for different reasons. I've only sailed Royal Caribbean. It was highly recommended by a friend, and since my girls were around 15 and 19 at the time, it seemed like an ideal family cruise line. I had heard that Carnival was a bit party like and more crowed. Princess and Celebrity were thoughts, but I wasn't sure if they were ideal for the girls. I was concerned Disney would be too young.

All in all, I had a small budget so it took a few years to save for our first cruise. It was the one of the best experiences of my life. I think the fact that I've enjoyed all our cruises on RCI so much has made me very content with sailing with them.

Our first two cruises were 5 days each to Bermuda. The next was a 4 day on Monarch out of Cape Canaveral. The next was a 7 day Freedom cruise, then the 4 day getaway on Majesty. Right now, I really like the 7 day cruises so we give a lot of thought to where we sail from. We don't want the flight to take up too much time if we are only taking a week off from work.

I love to hear about other lines to see what people like and dislike. My first two cruises were interior rooms, the next was an ocean view. Freedom was a balcony cruise. Majesty was an ocean view. For a short cruise, an ocean view is good. Honestly though, I can't imagine a cruise any longer than 3 or4 days unless I'm in a balcony room now. it adds a whole new dimension to the cruise.

Those pictures you posted! Wow. I love paisley. I can't imagine wearing it from head to toe, but it's one of my favorite prints. I love animal prints too. I don't have that many, because they tend to throw in black but I have few that only have black as a minor, less dominant color.

And red...well, I'm certainly partial to red!

I read some of Anita's review, but haven't had a chance to go through the whole thing. I hope she has some pictures to share with us too!

I don't feel up to dragging much out of my closet right now with my sore thumb, but I know I will get impatient and start looking through my clothes again. I am thinking a lot about my dresses. I think I definitely want to bring a few more casual ones.

Margaret,

I love your little roommate!:D

Sorry to hear about your dad and hope he's doing well.

I love, love, love your pictures. I'm partial to the safari look and always have worn it at some point. I have everything one would need to rock that look.:D

Laura,

Sorry to hear about your thumb and hope it heals quickly.

Margaret, I hope your father mends quickly. Thank goodness it wasn't much worse. I'm sure it has given you a big scare.

I'm pretty excited about my cruise. The good thing is, my thumb should be pretty well healed by then. Who wants to go on vacation and wear bandaids in their formal pictures, right? ;)

I found some cute things wandering around today in Target. I didn't buy anything, but if you are looking for basic knit tops in different styles, there seemed to be a good selection to choose from. I'm noticing that fire orange is still very popular this year. My daughter tried on a bathing suit in that color, since she is a fire. The color looked so good on her, but she is rather small on top (doesn't take after me!!) and it was the kind of top that flattens you out completely. I really wished they had another option for the top, because I loved the bottoms and the color on her. She ended up with a cute bathing suit that had a few fire colors in it, and a few that I would say were ice. Overall though, it was pretty nice.

I don't think I saw much of anything at all that an earth could wear, except for a selection of ivory (deeper, like a tea stained color) and a soft gold. At least there was something, right? Nothing for non-bikini wearers.

Well, my last dress has been adjusted. I hope to make my official selections this weekend. Gee, I only have a month to go....so excited!

Margaret, my husband and I have talked about the Alaska cruise a lot lately. I finally got enough courage to explain to him that as excited as I am to go to Alaska, I was envisioning my birthday cruise some place warmer. He was so understanding. As a result, we are moving it to 2016 since Alaska cruising season is only a four months long. We are going to do a junior suite this time, as they have loungers on the balcony, more closet space, and more space in the room. On RCI, a balcony has two regular chairs but no loungers. If money wasn't an option, I'd go up a notch so that the table that is out there is at more of an eating height as well!

But money is an option, so we will splurge for the first ever suite, for this particular cruise. I'm looking at an option that includes San Juan and St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. Should be a lot of fun, and warm!!!

I'm wondering why I can't seem to decide on dresses! I'm going to bring two printed, more casual dresses from my February cruise for sure, plus there are two others. I need to decide on the 5th one yet. (I haven't swayed on formal night dresses - those 2 have been picked out for a while.)

I'm going to ask my husband his thoughts just so that I can decide.

Here is something that is a bit more complicated for me. There is this casual dress I have that I love and plan on bringing. It has a muted sense to it, but I'm pretty sure it is fire. It has very simple lines to it, and I've decided to keep it looking more of a smart casual. I'm trying to decide if I need to do something to make sure I bring something more muted to the outfit. The sandals I'm bringing will do that, but it definitely needs a necklace and I'm thinking I have to make sure the necklace is more bronze or antique gold. I'm not sure I have the right thing, or if this is the right way to go.

Does this necklace and earring set:

work with these shoes:

http://www.famousfootwear.com/en-US/Product/36601-1030167/Italian+Shoemakers/Beige/Womens+Wedgewood+II.aspx

and this dress?

http://www.jcpenney.com/bisou-bisou-sleeveless-double-v-neck-striped-dress/prod.jump?ppId=pp5003720055&catId=cat100210008&deptId=dept20000013&topDim=Color&topDimvalue=orange&dimCombo=Color%7CSleeve+Length%7CSize+Range%7C&dimComboVal=orange%7Csleeveless%7Cmisses%7C&currentDim=Size+Range&currentDimVal=misses&colorizedImg=DP0217201418302686C.tif&urlState=/women/shop-clothing/dresses/orange/sleeveless/misses/_/N-1nnujcZ134Z1muZ1c2/cat.jump

I should probably try it all on together and have my daughter take a picture to post. If I don't have a picture taken, I should at least see for myself how I like it all together. I'm trying to create a less fussy look than usual, but this is the dress that I said seems to be more fire than earth, and I feel I need to offset it. I admit that I am pretty sure I'm bringing it no matter what.

I'm also definitely bringing these two dresses here: