Belle’s Weekly Reading: October 24, 2014

Oct 24, 2014

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1) The Guardian takes on the double-edged sword that is being a middle-aged woman.  “To be a female celebrity is to lose at every turn. Dare to age? Face-shame […]. Get noticeable plastic surgery on your face to combat the inevitable ageing? [And] be mocked for your narcissism and delusional attempts at hanging on to your youth.”

2) My jaw dropped when I saw this pierced-leather top from Anthropologie.  This relaxed, cowl-neck sweater dress looks so cozy.  I also love this tapestry drop-coat with vibrant, blue embroidery.

3) Vanity Fair has the story of how a high-school dropout stole a 300-year-old violin and triggered a federal manhunt for the stolen Stradivarius.

4) Reiss, always Reiss.  This belted overcoat comes in three gorgeous colors.  This sleeveless, navy sheath would be perfection under this plum-colored blazer.  And if you’re feeling something bold, this red lace dress is everything.

5) Victoria McGinley has an interesting post about “second careers.”  Essentially she’s asking what job you would like to be doing other than the career you are pursuing.  If I was abandoning my career today, I would want to be a television writer and producer.  If we’re talking about retirement, I daydream about owning a farm or a ranch.

6) This mixed-metal shimmer polish from Formula X is an adult take on sparkle.  I love it.

7) This video from Mental Floss discusses 30 unusual (and just plain weird) wills.  Because why leave this Earth without making a splash.

8) Still looking for a casual fall jacket?  This hooded field jacket from BP is cute, affordable, and comes in several colors.  BP also offers this cute, popcorn-stitch scarf.  And don’t miss this bar-detail tote for $54.

9) Ever wonder who’s responsible for removing offensive content from social media platforms? Meet the people who do a job that no amount of money could entice me to undertake.

10) Need rain boots?  I like a pair of simple Sorel Caribous.  You can’t do better than a classic.  Need winter rain boots?  I go for the Hunter’s with traction and their fleece socks.

11) A friend sent me an interesting article titled, “Your Wedding Is the Least Important Day of Your Marriage.” I don’t agree with everything in the article, but I do wish that women spent as much time talking to their future spouses about finances, family, and future plans as they spend talking about table settings and lace patterns.

12) I’ll take one of these, please. Oh, Elie Saab, I love you forever.

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  1. Love loe says:

    I get defensive about big weddings because we did have one, paid for by my parents. It was the first time in years they’d done any hospitality, so they were happy to use our love (they actually like my husband) as an excuse to brag. The best part to me about the wedding was having all of our friends and family there – that means so much to me, I would do it again at almost any cost (punch and cookies OR champagne and dancing). To me, that is what the wedding day is all about – sharing with guests.

    • R says:

      Absolutely agree. Having all of our close friends and family together in one place was AMAZING, unforgettable, and I would do it again in an instant.

    • Belle says:

      It’s not the big wedding that I take issue with, it’s when the wedding is the sole focus of a couple’s thoughts and they never talk about the big, life-related stuff until they’re down the rabbit hole.

    • Anna says:

      I agree that sharing with your nearest and dearest is what weddings are all about, at least that’s what I hope mine will be about. I think there’s a difference though between having a big wedding financed by you or your family when they are in a position to do so and making the sole focus of getting married having a huge princess fairy-tale wedding, often going into debt to do so.

  2. R says:

    I actually found the process of wedding planning itself to be a helpful exercise in preparing for a marriage. There’s way more to it than table settings and lace –it’s a year or so of navigating financial issues, family issues, possibly religious differences, decision making, compromise — all things that will come up time and again throughout the life of a marriage. You can talk until you’re blue in the face about how you will deal with a hypothetical financial situation or family situation, but wedding planning actually takes some of these situations and makes them real, and you work together to deal with them. Not to say it’s a substitute for talking about things, but it was definitely good “practice,” in a sense.

    • Jenn S. says:

      I agree with this much – but there certainly are people out there who are far more focused on their fairytale princess happily-ever-after wedding than they are on necessarily putting effort forth into their marriage.

    • jj says:

      SOOOOOO true!! The hubs and I (12 years strong) joke that wedding planning = marriage boot camp.

    • Belle says:

      I can see that. My complaint isn’t with those who care about planning a nice wedding, it’s with people who are primarily focused on the wedding. As the daughter of a divorce attorney, I’ve seen more than a few couples roll into the office who never talked about the important things because the second the ring went on, all thoughts turned to the celebration.

      If you want a big wedding, by all means, have one.

      • bigger isnt always better says:

        Agreed. For some, a big wedding makes sense, and by all means, have one. I’m totally agreeing with Belle on this issue. For some women the “wedding” and all its bells and whistles are more important than the actual marriage. I’m not saying all couples with big weddings are like this, and there are couples with small weddings who have eyes more on the wedding than the relationship. i think that it’s just more pronounced and visible when the wedding is a big hoopla of an event.

        I had a coworker who went ON and ON about her BIG wedding, even quit her job bcs they wouldn’t let her take up to 2 months off for wedding planning and honeymooning.
        I don’t know the details, and obviously don’t know the whole story but the marriage did not last 2 years.

    • I think it depends when in your relationship you get married. We had dated (sometimes across continents) for eight years and owned a house together – I don’t think planning it really changed our relationship (except I still posit that we would use a fondue pot). We had a small (by Indian standards) wedding and while it was lovely (and agree friends and family are the best part – but you only see everybody for like 5% of the amount of time you really want to spend with them), I would have been happy to skip it all and add an extra week to the honeymoon.

  3. V says:

    Hi Belle,

    Some of the ads coming up on your site are videos with audio, which are problematic for checking your site during work. Is there anyway you can prevent ads with audio?

    Thanks!

    • TheLoop says:

      I keep the volume on my computer at mute for this reason. So many sites now have autoplay videos that asking one site to take them down doesn’t do much to prevent them.

      • Belle says:

        I think I fixed it. I went into Google Ads and de-selected the video ads tab. Hopefully, that does it. I don’t always see the same ads you do, so let me know if it works.

    • Belle says:

      Google Ads aren’t supposed to video. I’ll get on it. Apparently, no one is happy with regular ads anymore.

  4. Sara says:

    I have a pair of Hunter rain boots and a pair of cheapie steve madden ones from Marshalls. I discovered a few weeks ago that the Hunter fleece socks work just as nicely in the other rain boots! So you could essentially ‘winterize’ any tall rain boots that way.

  5. Spiritmom says:

    I have no problem with big weddings, but check out this advice. When we got engaged, my dad said “weddings cost as much as you can afford”, meaning, we weren’t going into debt,. We were on a tight budget due to a tough financial time for my family so we cut a lot of corners. We got married at 1 pm so the reception didn’t serve a full meal and people drank less. We didn’t invite everyone we had ever met, no take home goodie bags, things like that. Our wedding was lovely, and 19 years later, we’re still married! Imagine that!

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