Stick Close To Home

I'm very happy to participate in Carol's "The Little Black Dress" party. Many thanks to our hostess Carol @ Charli and Me, she has a wonderful blog that is full of inspiration, advice, book reviews, Bible quotes, and prayer, and Carol also takes us along on her many travels and tours, she shares her family and her Faith, and her precious Charli, and so much more!
I hope you will click on her blog to view the others that have opted to participate in her party too!

Now I don't have just one special 'little black dress' with a story attached to it because I have so many black dresses! Black is my favorite color for clothing and as I shop I have to force myself to reach for other colors! But especially when I am shopping for dresses, black is beautiful!
My dresses aren't exactly "little" black dresses either, as I am not exactly a very little person (in fact I am something of an Amazon as I am five foot eight inches tall and tipping the scale at...No! No! Let's not even go there!).

I'm sorry the pictures are so bad, it's hard to photograph black! I am far from a professional photographer, and I am the furthest thing from a model so I did not do these designs justice at all.
Also, while trying the dresses on, I was getting tired of changing and my personal photographer (my four-year-old grandson Jayden) was getting tired of snapping pictures of me!

He did have fun at first though:
"Umma, stand over there!"

"Action!"

"Cut!"

"Oh, wait, Umma, I didn't get your shoes that time!"

"Umma, hold this book!"

"Umma, fix your hair, I don't think it looks too good like that."

And, finally...

"Umma, I quit!"

Me too, Jayden! Good job!
(Actually the pictures are a little blurry, but very good for a four-year-old, and he did a great job of centering! Much better than I do!)

First I'll start with two favorite black jackets I like to wear with these black dresses (and with other dresses too).
I love this little brocade topper, I like it's boxy shape, big buttons, and three-quarter ruffled sleeves:

This black jacket is also a favorite, I love the peplum style, and the material is comfortable.

I tried to get a picture of the pretty seam details but I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it.

And here are some of my favorite black dresses (I didn't spend more than $100 on any dress or suit, and most were under $50 and purchased at TJ Maxx, a few were purchased on sale at Macy's, and a few were purchased on sale through on-line catalogs):

This is a plain long black velvet dress. The thing I love most about this dress is the blue/black velvet duster that came with it. My daughter used this dress once in high school when she had to dress as Stevie Nicks!

(Look, see my heel slipped on the floor there and I caught myself on the file cabinet and Jayden was laughing, I think that's why this one is blurry!)

This dress is very comfortable and I reach for it a lot. It's an empire waist style and I love how it's gathered at the bodice. The details of why I love this dress do not show up at all in the pictures!

(Jayden didn't laugh while snapping this one and it's pretty good, but I was laughing at him yelling "Action!")

I wish you could see how pretty this gathered bodice looks. Oh well.

This is a very simple long black dress, vee neck and aline. This dress I've had for years and years, and thankfully due to the A-line style, it still fits!

This is just a plain shift style black dress. This one I've had for years and years too, but this one was tight when I tried it on (it's on under the jacket in the first photo). Time to think seriously about dieting! Well, even if I lost the weight, it's too short for this old lady now, time to pass it on I think. (And that way I can keep satisfying my sweet tooth too!)

I love this simple Evan Picone dress. I especially like the white piping and the double hem. I got this dress in TJ Maxx for fifteen dollars!

In the warmer weather I usually wear this dress with a white cardigan (I couldn't find it though, I guess I stored it away for the Winter already).
At this time of year I wear one of the black jackets or a black cardigan, which I should have had on to cover up a little more!

(When Jayden snapped this one I was saying to him, "It's not a video camera!", because he wanted me to dance!)

This is a mid-length evening dress, with three-quarter sleeves and it's a faux wrap style, with a handkerchief hem and with a jewel detail at the waist. I love the style, I really don't like the jewel details though. This dress I had bought to wear to my niece's wedding when I heard she got engaged. But then she decided to have an outdoor picnic wedding! So I haven't gotten a chance to wear this one anywhere yet.

This is a shorter evening dress. I like the ruching at the waist and I love the double straps.

This Dana Buchman black suit is more a Fall/Winter weight suit, but I've worn it at other times of the year. I've worn this to a lot of functions, I feel like it's dressy enough for a special occasion and it's plain enough for a not-so-formal occasion. Sadly, lately I've been wearing this suit mostly for funerals.

The suit jacket has a velvet collar and velvet cuffs with a pretty scroll work design.

It's hard to see in this picture but the jacket has velvet covered buttons too:

(Here Jayden was saying, "Don't look at me, Umma, read your book!")

Detail of the cuff:

Okay, now I have many, many shoes to go with these dresses but I won't show you my whole shoe store, I'll only show you half:
Again, the pictures are not great, and I guess it doesn't help that I propped these black shoes on a black dresser top to photograph them!
And also it's very hard to take good pictures of shoes when you are wearing them! Oh well.

These Steve Madden Mary Janes are a favorite pair. I love the plaid, I love the button closure, and I love the comfortable heel size.

These next ones I love more for their comfort rather than the style.

These black suede shoes are very comfortable too and I loved the white stitching on them.

I once had a pair of Steve Madden black suede Mary Janes with a three buckle closing that my sister-in-law Susie loved, so I gave them to her. Then I happened to spot these Naturalizer Mary Janes that looked very similar (only one strap, but I still loved them!):

I like these sparkly mules, the heel is high, but with the open back they are still comfortable.

These shoes are very similar but with a much lower heel, good for when I am walking long city blocks!

These pretty silver slides my girlfriend Barbara bought for me when I had admired a pair that she had!

I have lots of bags and purses too to go with my black wardrobe, but today I'll just show my two favorites.
I like this bag because it's big enough to fit a greeting card (great for a wedding!) along with a few other items:

And this mesh drawstring bag I love because it's very roomy, it's unique, and mostly I love it because it belonged to my Mom (I wrote about this bag in one of my 'Friday Favorites' posts):

Okay, there you have some of my black wardrobe! (I actually have lots more black dresses! And I have tons of black pants suits too, but this would be a never-ending post if I showed them all!) Now please visit Carol to view the little black dress she has waiting for you!
Carol, many thanks, this was lots of fun! Especially after I got Jayden involved in the project!

And here is my little photographer now...Smile! (Or I guess I should say...Action!)

And here he is...

...peeking at us from behind the camera!

Thank you, Jayden!
and
Thank you, Carol!

I'm taking a little break from blogging and hope to return late October or early November when I will be having a giveaway!

I've enjoyed participating in a few Tablescape Thursdays hosted by Susan @Between Naps On The Porch, and I had a great time too at the Rooster Party hosted by Barb @ Bella Vista, as well as Rhondi's Welcome To Fall Party @ Rose Colored Glasses, and I've also enjoyed visiting the blogs of so many friendly, creative, generous people!

You've all given me so many wonderful ideas and I thank you all!

Before I take my break I'd like to show you these once poor, sad looking roses I picked up at the grocery store. I was looking for a bouquet of Fall flowers for my dining table, but I saw these pathetic looking roses, wilting, and I felt sorry for them, and something told me to pick them up and take them home. I wish I had thought to take pictures of how bad they looked! They were so sickly looking that I didn't bother to put them on the dining table at all, I just cut them down very short , more to prop them up because they just kept bending and drooping, and I stuck them in a vase on my kitchen window sill. One of the stems was broken so I put that one in it's own separate little vase, and I sort of forgot about them.

Well, two days later this is what greeted me as I went to my kitchen sink:

And five days later they are still going strong!

And here's the little broken one, it never really opened, but it's still standing proud!

I'm going to try and participate in Carol's "The Little Black Dress" Party over at
Charli and Me on October 22 (let's hope Blogger cooperates this time and publishes my scheduled post!). It sounds like lots of fun and if you'd like to participate too you can find the details here.