WIWS: In the Pink (and Spreading Happiness)!

I haven't linked up for What I Wore Sunday since bellbottoms, hip-hugger jeans, and Nehru jackets were all the rage (slight exaggeration, but you get the idea).  But I just suddenly got it in my head that it was time to join the fashion party again, and what better day than today?  Maybe it's just that the coat I wore for Mass this morning--at St. Thomas Aquinas, the church on the UVA campus that was the site of our middle son's December 2013 nuptials--is so...so PINK!  It's the brightest, happiest shade of hot pink, and I think when I wear it, it makes me a happier person and therefore helps me to spread happiness.  (More about that later.)

I got this lovely new pink wool coat at the Talbot's winter sale--and that's what I wore this Sunday (although by the time we exited the church after Mass, the temperature here in the balmy state for lovers was about 60 and I really didn't need a winter coat at all).  Normally $250, it was marked down to $80--still a lot for me to spend, but I know this well-tailored, high quality item will last forever and its classic lines will never go out of style. 


Did you notice my brown lace mantilla?  It blends right
in with my hair and almost "disappears."
(I'll be making myself a silver one soon!)

My new coat is very pink, isn't it?  I am drawn to this vibrant color, for the simple reason that my husband likes it on me.  Below is his favorite picture of me with his sons, taken on the Notre Dame campus back in 2007; and look at the color I was wearing.  (By the by, this photo was taken in the off-campus apartment of son #3, and the above photo was taken earlier today in that same son's house, the one he shares with his wife Preciosa and his baby boy G-Man.  And let's just say that his new home is bigger, nicer...and infinitely CLEANER!)

One of my husband's younger sisters is a huge Talbot's fan, and she shared with me her philosophy for shopping there (which I have since adopted): she decided long ago that it's worth it to buy well-made, quality clothing in which you feel pretty, put-together, and comfortable in any situation (on clearance, of course!), because then you take all the focus off of yourself ("My outfit is all wrong!" "I wish I'd worn something different!") and focus completely on those about you.  Feeling calm, confident, and unworried about your own appearance, you focus your attention on others and the happiness you feel just spreads far and wide.  (How's that for creativity when it comes to justifying the need to hit the Talbot's sales?) 

Aside from my happiness-spreading coat, I wore a simple black skirt and black wedge shoes (both TJ Maxx bargains, both old as the hills).  And I also wore a pair of sparkly teardrop-shaped earrings gifted to me by my newest daughter-in-law, Ginger, on the occasion of her marriage to son #2.  She thought I'd like them because they're blue and gold (Notre Dame colors).  She thought right.  She definitely spread some happiness my way when she gave them to me.

Then there was the bracelet my husband got me for Christmas this year--with five birthstone-colored pearls, one for each of my boys (from Pearls by Laurel); I might have hinted fairly broadly that it was something I wanted, but it made me very happy to receive it nonetheless!

I'll never be a hand model with a hand like this one!  I'm
not even sure where those scratches came from!

Well, that does it for me.  Now do you want to see what G-Man was wearing this Sunday?  Check it out.  It's proof that the clothes don't make the man--or the baby.

White onesies: spreading happiness like nobody's business, whenever this little guy wears them.

Okay then, to find more happiness-spreading outfits and accessories, stop by Fine Linen and Purple!