Quietly Understated? Phhht. Who Needs That?

I've had so many comments about the new background on my blog. Sooo many! People keep coming up to me and saying, "I LOVE the colors and the pattern. It's so you because I know you love bold colors and patterns, even if you never wear them. You mostly wear black, blue, and green solids, so I love that you've branched out and put something up there that is as daring as the patterns you'd love to scatter throughout your home. But never wear."

All right, I lie. I've had two comments, and only because I asked Husband and one of the girls what they thought. Both of them diplomatically said, "It's very colorful!" Husband added, "It looks Indian."

When given a choice, I will always pick bold, saturated colors. Even when I (shudder) go clothes shopping, I'll pick the bright colors first; it isn't until I get into the dressing room with the crappy, florescent lighting that makes any person -- even skinny, attractively mopey-looking Kate Moss -- look like they are at death's door, that I decide I'd rather not stand out too much in a crowd. Besides, I just look better in dark, solid colors. (I do have to say that the Old Navy store I visited recently has great lighting in their dressing rooms. I bought a dark gray sweater because I looked so good in it. Also, they size their clothes much larger compared to other stores, so I had to go back out and find a medium instead of a large. I knew it was just because of the sizing, but I still felt illogically elated.)

I do, however, have an extremely difficult time resisting the urge to buy chunky necklaces. I will confidently wear a weird necklace where I won't don highly patterned, brightly colored clothes. Case in point is this one, purchased last week at Rue 21. It was on sale.

Yes, it is composed of real metal strips attached to a chain. I wore it to church yesterday, but I slipped it under a V-neck sweater (black) so that only a small portion of the strips showed through. It kind of looked like I was wearing a metal tank top, but because I tried to move as carefully and gracefully as I could to keep it from clanking, no one asked if I had on chain mail.

It has a certain elegance and industrial sophistication, don't you think? But what it really says is please don't walk near me if you are carrying powerful magnets.

As for my blog background, I beg you to tolerate it at least a little while. Soon enough, I will get bored with it and change it to something else, although I can't promise it will be anything quietly understated.