Monday Musings: Eyes, Handbags, and Outfits

Our weekend was stormy, wet, and cold! I dragged myself to the gym on Saturday and found it easier to do because I was wearing one of my new workout outfits. Some may find it shallow that a new outfit helped motivate me to strap on my sneakers and drive to the gym, but it did, and I’m OK with that. We all need to do what helps us feel good about ourselves and take the best care of ourselves we can.

My ocular rosacea has been on my mind a lot lately because its latest flare-up is not improving with the eye doctor’s latest plan of attack. I’m using my heated eye pad nightly, washing my eyes with special lid wipes, using preservative-free eye drops, adding flax seed to my diet, etc., etc…but they still burn, I feel like I have gravel in them, and they’re very red. I know there are other protocols to try because I’ve been reading government research studies on other successful treatments. I’m going to check in with him today to ask about some of these other treatments and see what else we can do.

I’m one of those people who does a lot of reading and Googling on subjects rather that blindly (bad pun) taking the advice of a doctor. This probably saved my life many years ago when my melanoma went undiagnosed by several dermatologists. I’m sure it drives some of my doctors crazy, and I’m fine with that. Obviously, there’s a lot I will never know or understand about medical conditions, which I do leave to my doctors. Ocular rosacea isn’t one of them because the literature is huge on the subject.

Here are a few outfits I wore last week.

I wore this for a trip to the eye doctor, followed by a trip to Nordstrom. I’m glad I snapped up this Loft single-breasted trench coat last year because double-breasted options seem more prevalent. I prefer the simplicity of single-breasted styles for many reasons, not the least of which, they look as good open or closed. I found a few similar ones here and here. My turtleneck and pants appear black in this photo, but they’re charcoal which is one of my new favorite neutrals. The snake print booties are several years old by Dr. Scholls and are super comfy. I found similar ones here and here. My shoulder bag was a gift to myself at a duty-free shop on the way home from my trip to Japan with my daughter several years ago. It’s a splurge, but its camera bag shape holds a lot, yet it is very compact. There are lots of less expensive options here, here, and here.

I ran a ton of errands this day, and it was raining cats and dogs. The lighting is not good here, but I am wearing black jeans :). I’ve got a post coming up on some of my favorite brands of jeans, and this is one of them. Many upscale jeans are not meant to go in the dryer, but mine inevitably do, so they need to hold up, and these Mother jeans have. I’ve ruined two pairs of Paige jeans by unintentionally running them through the dryer. I’ve decided to save myself heartbreak by only buying jeans that will hold up to my laundry preferences. The sweater and booties are burgundy, and the shirt is black with ivory animal print. The sweater is sold out, but I found similar ones here and here. My Munro booties are super comfy and great in the rain, which is just what I need for this time of year.

Here I am sporting my new best friend…a wrist brace to try to stop my De Quervains Tenosynovitis in its tracks. Imobolizing my thumb and wrist for 4-6 weeks is our current protocol to, hopefully, calm down the inflammation and prevent the need for surgery. This day I was handbag shopping and met my shopping pal for coffee. I’m wearing a black Vince cashmere sweater that I got during the Black Friday sale. Yes, Vince cashmere is softer and worth the price. I also love and wear the heck out of my Quince $50 cashmere, and my Nordstrom brand cashmere. I am an equal-opportunity cashmere lover :). I’m wearing it with these comfy Spanx pull-on pants and my Birdies flats.

I have this Kate Spade bag in colored block neutrals of black, taupe, and cream, and I love how versatile it is. I’m not sure I want the same bag again just in a different color. I am looking for a smaller wallet, but I’m still unsure how useful a tiny bag would be for me, so my hunt continues.

I worked from home this day, then went to a crab feed in the evening. I wore an indigo-colored cotton sweater and slim pants from Talbots, along with my new woven Birdies. Our weather has been so wet and nasty that I haven’t been able to wear them outside, but they’re nicely broken in from wearing at home. They actually didn’t need much breaking in (10 minutes) because the woven leather has some give over my bunion, so they’re really comfy. I debated over the colors of these shoes and am glad I went with this two-tone blue which will go with so much this spring.

This has been a rather rambling post, but I do see a theme 🙂 The few extra pounds I’m sporting have me feeling more comfortable in pants with stretch, and I’m reaching for a column of color more often than not.

Do you have dry eyes? How do you treat yours?