Skirt Poems

This morning I was inspired to write a poem about skirts. I have always loved this famous work by Robert Lewis Stevenson. When my daughters were young and I read this to them, I remember acting it out for them. I put on a skirt and came walking out of my bedroom while reading it to them and told them to imagine I was wearing a flowing, victorian skirt!

Today I wrote my own poem as well!
Enjoy!!


Aunties Skirts

By: Robert Lewis Stevenson

Whenver Auntie moves around,

Her dresses make a curious sound;

They trail behind her up the floor,

And trundle after through the door.

Skirt Splendor

by: Adrienne Freas

Enduring and Wise

Cascading liquid

Gilded in silk; tender, sincere

Hemmed in with grace
Dainty, soft and tender
Heaven's blanket of kindness

Delicate flowers abloom

The princess beckons her maidens "Come!"

Join in the dance;

Refine your golden glow!

Darn your stockings!

Polish your shoes!
Bustle up your petticoats!
Amble in the garden;
Adorned in radiant beauty,

Femininity renewed!

Chivalry and Skirts

Seriously, have you ever seen a princess in jeans or pants? Every image of a princess that makes its way into your mind is a beautiful maiden wearing a dress. It crossed my mind that maybe men have lost their chivalry because women have lost their skirts. Women have lost their skirts in more ways than one. First of all, many women don't know how to keep their skirts on. Secondly, many women have decided to dominate men and try to be their equal. Have you ever seen a female in combat wearing a skirt? Do you really want to be treated like a man? I DONT! I want to be treated like a princess.

Let's face it, we all want our man to lead the family. We all want to be married to a man who will stand up for what it right, be faithful, protect and provide for us, and fight to the death for us. The reason for so much success in romance novels and stories is that women constantly fantasize about that "perfect" man who will love her and treat her with tender care. We love to be adored. Nearly every successful movie has men being MEN. Most heros on film are MEN doing what they were created to do.....be our hero. If you don't beleive me, think about the top 10 movies in blockbuster history; most of them have chivalrous men as the protagonist.

So why has this century lost chivalry? Why do men open their own doors, while leaving us wavering about trying to get into a car while carrying everything in and out of the house? This scence is so prevalent in my home. I am carrying armloads to the car and then, fumbling about trying to lock the house when I leave, while dropping everything. Then, when I finally make it to the car, I am doing a juggling act while trying to open the car door, while the man is oblivious to the entire performance. You finally get intot he car and the family asks "What took you so long?" Seriously, why does the man not ask " Is there anything you need me to carry out to the car?"

Well, before we blame it on the man. We need to evaluate how we usually answer them. Do we have an attitude of  "Supermom" and refuse help? How often I have snapped, "I can handle it" and then I stomp all over him when he does not ask if I want help the next time. How many times have I tried to take control of situations that really if I stepped back and watched, he would handle it? Men are slower and more calculated when it comes to making decisions. They often do not handle things as quickly as we would. So, we jump in and take charge. I think this may have a lot to do with the loss of chivalry in this century.

About a month ago My husband and I were going out. I was on a roll with wearing skirts. When we got to the car, he OPENED the car door for me!! We were driving along, and he declared: "You didn't even notice!!!" I said: "WHAT?" He pronounced, "I opened the car door for you!" Talk about feeling like an idiot. I love having the car door opened for me and he NEVER does it. We have fought about this so many times. But, we both grew up in the 70's and have lived under the destruction of the feminist movement ( another topic for later).

Later that evening, I asked my man why he opened the car door for me. I was floored with his response:

"Because you were wearing a skirt".

Day 3 and 4

Day 3
I wore a skirt and felt good all day. My feet were a bit sore. It is hard transitioning from always wearing tennis shoes to a fancier shoe. I need to re-think this. I saw a shoe store today that was called The Walking Store. They had some nice looking shoes in the window. Maybe I will check them out.

Day 4
I wore jeans today. I bought a really nice new pair at Christopher Banks. They make the best bottoms for petites with larger tooshes. Their prices are good too. Click here to see my new jeans (they come in short instead of petite). These particyular jeans don't have pockets that are stitched on the rear. For larger rear-ended women, like me, we certainly do NOT need to accentuate that area by adding fancy pockets.   Make sure you sign up for their email adds. If you do, then you will get $10 off your first purchase. Plust right now everything is buy one, get one half off! So, I got these jeans for half-price because I bought this skirt too!

I got this faux denim skirt in the mail today from http://www.hannahlise.com/
Their advice on how to measure your skirts instead of your waist it GREAT. If you have a skirt that fits, use that to figure out what size to order. I am glad I did. I would have ordered a medium ,but based on the size description, I needed a large, and it fits. I have not decided on whether to keep it or not. I thought the stitching was ivory, but it is olive green, so it is not as versatile as I had hoped. But the fabric is 100% rayon, so it will go for all seasons and it looks like denim, but has that feminine flow, since rayon is thinner than denim.

Day 3

FAIL!

I woke up this morning and decided to wear my capris. I contemplated, but really did not want to treck all over town with my kids in a skirt. I had a lot of driving to do today and I knew it was going to be near 80 degrees today.

Disappointeed in my failures, I came out of my dressing quarters. To my astonishment, my oldest daughter who is 15 and NEVER wears skirts was looking lovely in her only dress. I was shocked, yet arrayed in pride that my good example must be exerting great powers of influence!

My pride came to a crashing HALT when I remembered that the only reason she was dressing up today was because she HAD to! Her teacher requires dress clothes on speech day. Her speech was on something or other about Achilles.

My youngest quickly snapped a picture of her for my blog, but she made her delete it. So, we have no evidence that she actually wore a dress today.

I was so disappointed when I arrived to pick her up from class and she was in JEANS!!! She had taken a change of clothes. This was the moment of utter failure. My example has forever tarnished my eldest. She must have surely been dieing, as have I, to take off her dress and garb herself in jeans!

My only hope is to redeem my example. I must polish my skirt wearing and perfect it and succeed. Tomorrow I shall conquer the day and wear a skirt once again!

Day 2
Dressing the turkey!

Hannah decided she wanted a new skirt. Yesterday while we were shopping for me, we found a cute clearance rack skirt for her at The Children's Place. Today, she wore it with her brown leggings and a brown top with a ruffled hem.

"Hannah....you look like a turkey!" exclaimed Elizabeth and we all burst out in laughter including Hannah, who took it all like a good sport. She did not mind at all and strutted around the rest of the day doing her daily duties and schoolwork with a good attitude.

 I had to buy new shoes today. The boots I wore yesterday cut into the back of my ankle and they are the only shoe I own that are comfortable. I certainly was not going to wear fancy heals all day, nor was I going to sport around in tennis shoes for that matter! If this skirt wearing thing is going to be a success, new shoes were now imminent.

During the fittings, I quickly realised that clogs with skirts = Clodhopper!

The next option was boots. The style of boots today are intended to go to the knee, but on me, I am certain they would go to my middle thigh. Given the size of my thight, I doubt that the zipper would go past my knee! Not to mention that they are like pumped up mukluks and I would surely break my ankle in an 8 inch heal!

Alas, I found the perfect pair of shoes. They are versatile, look nice with the skirts, are comfortable and were under $35.

I am not sure if I am going to wear a skirt tomorrow.I think it might be a little warm out and all that I own, by way of skirts is for cooler weather.  I will see in the morning!

Day 1

Yesterday was my first day of wearing a skirt ALL DAY and not absolutely dieing to rip it off.

My friend said that she loves wearing skirt because they keep her warm and it feels like she is wearing a blanket. You know what....she was right. It was wonderful.

One of the tricks for me was this. I DID NOT wear my spanks....you know that terribly uncomfortable tummy tucking devise that rips into the roll(s) of flab that you are trying to hide!

Secondly, under my skirt I wore my comfy, silky, thin long johns that I got from Target last year. They are spandex and polyester and fit skin tight like leggins. Target calls them Cuddle Duds. These were the KEY to staying comfy and warm in a long skirt all day.

Finally, I just accepted my figure as it is. I did not fret about my flab. I just let myself  BE. I also layered a cute denim jacket over my turtleneck so that those layers of thick sagging skin would not show.

I went shopping too!! I decided that if I am going to make this thing work, I need to completely change my closet. I cleaned out all the skirts and jeans that don't fit. I bought most of them cheap and at yard sales and re-sale shops, as I am a bargain shopper. But, instead of wasting a lot of money on in-expensive finds that don't fit, and loading my wardrobe with 10 skirts that just hang and never get worn, I decided to spend the money on ones that I will ACTUALLY WEAR. Why waste the money on 10 cheap skirts, when you can spend the same amount and own 4-5 really nice ones that you will really get your moneys worth out of!?

I found a few really nice skirts at Chicos and Coldwater Creek....all on CLEARANCE and they feel and look great! I also used my coupons, so I got even MORE off.  Now, that I know what fits me, I can actually buy some on ebay and I know if they are from these stores, they will fit!

My husband informed me that he DOES NOT want me to own a denim skirt. This falls into our category of "not cool". My kids would probably be utterly embarrassed if I wore one. See my first post on "A NEW BEGINNING" to understand why.

But, since I really like jeans..... I want a denim skirt...you can do so much with denim!!

Hence......

I just found a wonderful website in my search for a nice denim skirt. I really wanted a denim skirt that has a nice flow and is made out of tencel, or rayon, as it is also called. I spent an hour searching the internet and found it! I am going to order this today!!! It is called Faux Denim Embroidered Skirt and is at this wonderful website:

http://www.hannahlise.com/ specializes in modest clothing for women and girls. Go ahead and search their site for this skirt. Type in the title " Faux denim embroidered skirt". It is a very feminine and flattering design. As soon as I get the skirt, I will post a review and pictures of me with the skirt on.

A New Beginning

This is my journey into the world of skirts.

I have never owned a skirt that fits properly. I am short and stocky. Entering into the realm of trying to feminize my self, I knew that wearing a skirt would certainly not be the answer. One does not picture Bozo the Clown tripping all around in a tent, dragging along the ground as feminine!!

Recently, I have noticed that a good friend of mine always wore skirts. My daughters and I would comment to one another about how beautiful and feminine she looked. Her tall, slender figure was very becoming and skirts flattered her figure. Surely I would never look that pretty in a skirt or a dress for that matter. I am built completely the opposite of her. She was built for dresses, but NOT I !

I have never had one that fits, I look stupid in them, I immediatley want to rip them off after coming home from church because the waist is usually rolled down in order to fit my height. My undergarments are always cutting into my flabby waist and it makes me mad and grumpy! The journey home is always expectant with the joy of putting on a pair of jeans, that really don't fit either, but they are the better of the 2.

I also homeschool and God forbid that I would ever fall into the category of the "denim dress syndrome" and fall into the category of what my kids have labeled "homeschool freaks".

Conviction is a good word for all of these experiences. First of all, I was judging and teaching my kids to judge other homeschoolers who "aren't hip". Secondly, I just did not know how to buy skirts. I was so focused on buying jeans and pants that would somehow fit my larger toosh and my smaller waist. I did not want to fall into that "homeschool freak" category, especially in the eyes of my kids.

This week I decided to go for the "skirt thing". Something just came over me. So, I went shopping for a nice skirt. Armed in my grubby jeans and t-shirt I ventured into Coldwater Creek and felt like a drabby, going gray haired, slob. I left with the most comfortable skirt I have ever worn and knew inside that I could make this thing called "skirt wearing" work!

I have set forth determined that I can do this. But, currently unwilling to give up occasional jean days!

This blog will be my daily journey into the new world of "homeschool freaks" dressed in style and feeling feminine and comfortable and looking radiant with the JOY of the LORD. I am armed and equiped with convictions to make it work and truly be comfortable!