Looky What I Got!

   I think it’s fair to state, “Rayna got a new purse and wants to show it off!”  I was beyond excited to learn that Coach was doing a collection featuring the artwork of Keith Haring.  In my opinion, Coach overall has been nailing it lately which has been very bad for my pocketbook.  Especially since the Haring pieces came out shortly after the Elvis Presley series.  What the hell Coach?!  Are you reading my mind?!  All you have to do is create the Hello Kitty collection and this broke woman is going to have to actually live in her handbags. 

   I’m happy to report the latest Disney line is not my cup of tea.  Thank God, I may now get a short reprieve until the next gut-wrenchingly awesome collection comes out.  I can see it now…”Coach redefines the many bags of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick!”  If that ever happens this purse junkie will be forced to check herself into rehab…with what money I really don’t know. 

   While I adore the fact that one of my favorite brands is spot on when it comes to my interests I can’t help but feel legitimate pain towards the fact that I simply can't afford to buy the entire collections.  In fact, usually I’m lucky to obtain one item from a beloved series.  It doesn’t seem fair that by the time I save up enough coin to purchase another piece everything is sold out!  Don’t these people know how much I love Haring!  I mean, this former art major grew up in the 1980’s listening to, “A Very Special Christmas,” on vinyl mostly because my childhood self adored the album cover.  Well if that isn’t reason for me to own the entire Coach/Haring collection I don’t know what is!

   Unfortunately, for now I must be satisfied with the one bag featured in the photographs above.  Honestly, I’m more than satisfied with it.  I cherish it.  I even decided to spring for the matching purse charm and couldn’t be happier.  When I walk around town wearing this thing I feel like a rock star. In fact, this feeling was solidified the day I took these pictures.  I was doing a quick cruise through my favorite Goodwill when a young sales dude with long green hair and Buddy Holly specs yelled at me, “I love your Haring bag!”  “YES!!!” I thought… “confirmation that the rural Midwest still knows what’s up and this old lady can keep on pretending to be a cool.”

-r.

That hat!

   I’ve always been hot for hats.  Basically, I’ve never been that impressed with my hair. As a result, I’ve found hats to be a great way to shake things up a bit.  For example, currently I’m in the middle of a hair crisis.  I recently decided to grow out my beloved bangs.  Admittedly, this decision was one made out of pure laziness.  I mean...you miss one hair appointment and suddenly your whole identity is off the rails!  Not only am I going through that ugly, "in-between," phase with the front of my head, I decided I didn’t want to spend the extra cash to color such a messed up mane.  As a result, currently my hair is almost at its’ natural color.  This is something I’ve not been able to state since I was about fifteen years old.  

   I must add, it’s a tad unnerving to be confronted with my unaltered self.  All I can say is, “Thank you camera apps!” At least technology allows me to twist the color of my hot mess into something less morose.  In addition, it seems unfair that upon finally accepting my natural hair color I’m slapped with the reality that I’m starting to go grey!  There's this pesky little patch towards the front of my face that seems to be multiplying by the minute.  I can only hope to get some bad ass white streaks in the future.  If not soon, this lady will, "just say no," to natural.

   Of course currently I'm fully engaged in the idea of my boho hippie summer.  Ironically, I'm daring to expose a bit of my true self while furiously trying to cover it up with accessories.  Honestly, I believe a lady can never have too many hats…at least one who is growing out her bangs and swiftly coming up on the age of forty.  The hat I’m wearing in the above photographs is a definite favorite of mine.  I can’t help but feel a little, "Glamour meets Country Joe and the Fish," every time I put it on. 

   In the end I think that’s the best thing about a hat.  One can change their persona simply by putting it on.  Maybe there will come a time when I won’t feel the overwhelming urge to digitally alter my self-portraits.  Maybe the key to finding one’s ideal identity is as simple as changing a hat.  

-r.

Hitch A Ride On The Ark

   Usually the success of an outfit is all about one’s creativity.  For example, the potential “meh,” ensemble featured above was one that I constructed almost entirely out of secondhand items.  I remember literally gasping upon finding this four dollar Banana Republic blazer at St. Vinnys.  “Certainly I can do something with this,” I thought while mentally redefining my hippie themed summer into a nautical one. 

   Upon further exploration I became befuddled by my beautiful blue blazer.  While I found this purchase to be a total no-brainer, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea of how I was going to translate such a, “preppy,” piece into boho beachwear.  Basically, how was I going to make this jacket not look like just another day at my desk?

   Not that I haven’t enjoyed wearing this item to work.  In fact, most of my favorite articles of clothing are ones that I can dull down to wear professionally.  The reason being my classic excuse that, “Hey, I bought this for work!”  However, on my days off I tend to, “let my hair down,”…a little.  I like to jazz up my wardrobe a titch…get a tad edgy…let my freak flag fly.  Unfortunately, sometimes letting ones’, “freak flag fly,” simply makes an individual look like a freak. 

   In the end, I decided to resolve the conundrum I couldn’t wrap my head around with yet another one of my head wraps.  Honestly, hats and head wraps have become my answer for every, “bleh,” outfit.  I truly believe the key to curing most boring ensembles lies in accessories.  I certainly think this philosophy proved true in the above pictures.  Not only do I want to give myself creativity points for styling this outfit, I would like to toot my own horn for making the actual head wrap I’m wearing.   A while back I had been fumbling through my closet, shamefully looking at a bunch of cast off clothing I would never wear again.  Just as I was starting to feel the extreme guilt of hoarding take over I realized I could convert that too young tube top into a pretty bad ass head scarf.  Bony back be damned!  That rather spendy shirt I never felt confident wearing was finally going to pay off!

   I’m also proud to report my craftiness did not stop there.  Not only did I create a rather nice hair accessory out of a top that initially made me look like a skeleton, my creativity allowed me to finally scrape together enough dough for the Cult Gaia bag I’ve been eyeing for over a year now.  It took me forever to decide on a color and when this breathtaking lapis beauty finally arrived in the mail I instantly knew what jacket it was destined to debut with.  I left the house that day feeling like a million bucks…while carrying exactly no cash…which one could easily observe by looking through the gaps of my rather translucent handbag.  Despite the fact that I have been shamefully spending all of my money on funky purses lately, I believe a truly creative woman can justify this kind of frivolous behavior.  I mean, if these photographs don’t prove how damn cool the Ark Bag is then…

-r.

"Lost In Sp...are Time"

   “Whew!”  Well, that was weird.  I’m sad to report that last week was the first in, “Little House Of Haute,” history that I did not publish a blog post.  I simply didn’t feel like it.  Let’s take a moment to reflect on that.  Last week was the first time since this blog’s 2014 inception that I didn’t feel like rambling on about mindless crap.  What has the world become?!

   To be totally honest I was still babbling gibberish last Sunday. However, it was to real people instead of a computer screen.  Tonight I sit here pondering which form of communication I prefer.  While it was definitely nice to have some people…actually, it turned out to be a whole lot of people…which started to freak me out after a while…over to the house for the holiday weekend, I will state, this creature of habit is much more comfortable talking at an empty Word document.  After last weekend’s socializing extravaganza this exhausted blogger found herself literally out of things to say.

   The odd thing about shirking last week’s post was that it felt totally natural.  All this week I waited for feelings of regret, intense guilt, or even a random lightning bolt to hit me.  However nothing ever happened!  I skipped my weekly post and the world kept turning!  “My God!”  I wondered.  “Maybe I could do this more often.”

   While I think it's fairly obvious I immensely enjoy writing, what I consider, witty commentaries on my life it does take an enormous amount of time.  It also has occurred to me that other personal style bloggers…"eh hem"…much more successful in the field never seem to write much to accompany their pictures.  Perhaps that’s one of the reasons they prosper.  They don’t put their readers through a weekly endurance test.  Lastly, I've been really ruminating on the idea that all the time I’ve spent writing these posts I could have probably been actually telling these anecdotes to real people…like face to face.  Basically, blogging has hurt my social life in a big way.

   Right….because I would’ve been out on the town every time I was blogging.  Okay yeah, that’s not even slightly believable.  However, I will state sometimes I do find these mini essays to be a chore.  Especially when I could be reading that insane thriller novel I just started or catching up on the next episode of, “Lost In Space.”  In addition, Instagram certainly makes it easy to continue posting glamour shots while not committing to a lengthy commentary. 

   Of course, we all know the madness of, “Little House Of Haute,” will not end.  I just can’t part with it.  It’s played too big of a role in my leisure life.  What in the world would I do without it?  I suppose I could go record shopping.  In fact, the day I took the above pictures that’s exactly what I did and I had a wonderful time.  However you can be damn sure I got my blog post written before I did it.

-r.