Work In Progress Wednesday

After fifteen years of marriage, my husband finally asked  me to knit something for him! To be fair, for most of the marriage, I was only crocheting, and mostly afghans, so...

So anyway, I had him look through some patterns and he chose this from the October 2007 issue of Knit N Style:

Here's what I got so far:

I took him with me to Joann's Etc., and had him pick out the yarn. I was skeptical that the Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool was going to be soft enough, so I had him rub it against his neck. He was fine with it. Hopefully he will still be fine with it when he's wearing it!

A slightly closer close-up.

The other day, I got these cute little wooden ear buds:

And I thought, "Ear buds as cute as these, ought to have their very own cute drawstring case!" Sure, the box they came in is fine, but it's kind of bulky if I want to put them in my purse. So, I started a side project, making a little drawstring bag for the ear buds:

I only have the bottom of the bag plus a small portion of the first row going up the bag.

You can see that first row (at the back of the piece) better in this photo.

I'm using Red Heart Cotton in Frosty Green.

That's all for now....

Write or Die Creations -- NaNoWriMo Vignette #5

This is yet another example of what happens when one uses the Write or Die program. I set it at 500 words to be completed in 15 minutes. Below are the results of my panicked writing. This did not make the cut for reading aloud during our NaNoWriMo TGIO party. This has only been edited for typos and the most basic readability.


e was embarrassed by the flap of his belly. Stewart Jones had recently lost a lot of weight and now he had the saggy flesh to show for it. No amount of sit ups were going to get rid of this floppy apron of flesh hanging across his pelvis. In jeans and an untucked shirt, no one could tell, but it wasn't like he wanted to get into a pair of trunks in public. It wold be kind of obvious then.  He couldn't afford the surgery to get rid of this hanging flesh and of course his insurance company wouldn't pay for it. It wasn't a necessary surgery. Just vanity. At least when I was fat, all this was filled out and I didn't look like some grotesque Dr. Moreau experiment of a man combined with a Sharpei puppy. On the other hand, I did kind of look like the Michelin Man, so I guess this weight loss was more of a parallel move. Stew was getting attention from the opposite sex. The good kind of attention, not the OMG--look at how huge that dude is--kind of attention. He didn't used to get that kind of attention in high school. More like the OMG...EWW kind. The only problem was that he wasn't able to go anywhere with dating. He couldn't have any more than a couple of dates before they became suspicious. There was no way he could let them see his flap. He tried telling young women he was deeply religious and didn't believe in sex before marriage. That worked until Lydia, the woman he was dating at the time, began to notice he never attended any church services, He tried to make up other stories like how he was horribly scarred, but she wanted to see. She told him it didn't matter because it wasn't his fault. She lifted his shirt and saw the flap.

"I don't understand, Stewart. First, you tell me you want to wait till we are married, then I find out that was a lie. Then you say you were horribly scarred in an accident, and I find out this is a lie. I don't care about this," Lydia flipped his flap, "but I do care that you lied to to me twice. I'm sorry, this isn't going to work."

"But Lydia, wait--don't you remember what House, M.D. said? 'Everybody lies!' I'm sorry! I thought you'd be repulsed by my flap,"

"I'm only repulsed by the lies, Stewart." Lydia walked away. The last Stewart heard, she had moved to Alaska to run a bar in a quirky town with a moose wandering around the streets.

Facebook Foibles (NaNoWriMo vignette #4)

This is one that did not make the read aloud cut. It is obvious why. It was written using Write or Die set at 500 words per 15 minutes. I have edited it to be in script format. Originally, it was only the words of the dialogue with no character names, scene heading or description. If I were to keep any portion of this for an actual complete script, I would prune it down a bit. I might have one of the characters acknowledge that all "Man" has to do is un-tag himself in the photo --just as my husband reminded me. Still, un-tagging wouldn't get rid of the photo, nor of the account holder's ability to tag it again. Okay, so for your reading...uh...pleasure? "Facebook Foibles"

INT.-- master bedroom - day

A MAN and WOMAN are having a "discussion."

WOMAN

Okay, so I don;t understand why your ex thought it would be funny to take a picture of you in the shower. How did she manage to get inside anyway?

MAN

I really have no idea. I changed the locks after she left.

WOMAN

What company did you use?

MAN

Company?

WOMAN

Locksmith.

MAN

Oh. I just went to the hardware store and picked up a bunch of new door knobs and did it myself.

WOMAN

Oh. Did she know you did that?

MAN

Well, she must've figured it out when she broke in today. I mean of course her key didn't work.

WOMAN

I thought you said you got that back from her.

MAN

I did, but I thought she might have made a copy. Whey do you think I changed the locks?

WOMAN

Good point. So how do you think she broke in?

MAN

I don't know. Maybe I forgot to lock it when I got the paper this morning.

WOMAN

That's weird. You always lock the door.

MAN

You say that like you think I left the door unlocked on purpose so that my ex girlfriend could walk in my house, take a picture of me in the shower and then post it on Facebook.

WOMAN

You know, you can get that picture taken down.

MAN

I know, but it's so much trouble. I don't want to get her banned from Facebook or anything.

WOMAN

Well, it not like she can't just get another account with a different email address.

MAN

No, she'd also have to use another computer because they have that information, They can look up those number thingies that tell people where your are, what computer you are using.

WOMAN

Oh, well too bad! She made a choice to post that picture. I guess poor baby's gonna have to use a public computer now, or someone else's computer if she want to go on Facebook. I'm sure she'll have no trouble getting soneone to let her use their computer. She's very friendly.

MAN

Umm...okay...

WOMAN

You know, I can get that picture taken down for you if you want, and I can't do it wout having to contact Facebook.

MAN

How? Are you going to hack her account?

WOMAN

No. I'll just send her a little notice in legalese threatening a lawsuit. I'll also let her know that if she doesn't take it down, we will go to Facebook and she will have her account suspended for refusing to take it down.

MAN

I guess that might be okay.

WOMAN

Yeahm but you know, it would be better if you did it.

MAN

Why me?

WOMAN

Because coming from me, it'll sound like it's your jealous girlfriend. She might think that you don't mind your picture being up there. That you don't mind all of our frinds on Facebook thinking you were willing to give her access to you while you were in the shower so she coud take tha picture.

MAN

Oh come on! No one is going to think that!

WOMAN

Why wouldn't they? It's not like there are any captions there except for Stacey's "Ooopsy! I didn't know you were in the shower! LOL!"

MAN

Okay, but clearly by my expression, you can tell I wasn't expecting it.

WOMAN

Yeah, but you could have had that expression even if wer allwoing her to be in this house while you took a shower. What would seem more outrageous is if anyone thought she actually broke in to your house to take that picture!

I Do Not Resolve!

In 2011, I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions. I won’t make any Official resolutions for 2012 either. A few times during the year I said to myself, “I should start eating healthier...okay, starting tomorrow, I will make a plan and start eating healthier.” This would last about three days and then every day after that it would be, “Oh, well just for today I’ll eat what I want.” This same routine applies to exercising, though for me, it is easier to eat healthy than it is to get in extra exercise -since I’m already eating anyway, why not find something healthy rather than completely give in to my cravings. Oh, and don’t even start with offerings of reduced fat products—they do NOT taste the same! Same goes for sugar free products—at least the ones with sugar replacements. Not only do they not taste the same, they wreak havoc with my digestive system! How can it be healthier to use sucralose based sweeteners when they they make me writhe in pain and then run to the nearest toilet? And yet, here I see all these products with “Sugar Free!” on their labels. A closer look reveals, “Sweetened with (insert sucralose based sweetener here)!” They are so very proud. Why don’t they just say, “Sweetened with laxatives! Yay!”

Truly, in the back of my mind, for this year I am determined to get more serious about certain goals, but I am afraid if I speak them out loud,or write them out for public consumption it will somehow sully my progress. Back to the old Nike slogan, “Just do it.” So if anyone happens to notice I’m looking a bit more trim and healthier later this year, I don’t want to talk about it, or everything will be ruined! If people happen to notice I’m writing more and making more blog posts this year —shut up! Sure, comment on my individual posts—but that’s it! Yes, I am superstitious! I’m doing fine, then people start to notice. They want to be supportive. They comment. A few comments here and there, and it’ll be okay, but when people start to really make big effusive comments about how well my progress seems to be going, some THING snaps —in my head? In my body? My psyche? Was “psyche” already covered by “head?” When that “thing” (whatever it is...) snaps, everything falls apart. Progress comes to a standstill and it all goes backward. I don’t blame the well wishers, it’s just what happens. How can they possibly know? I think my mother must know though. That can be the only explanation for why I have never heard her compliment me on obviously large amounts of progress that I have made in certain areas of self improvement in the past. She must be superstitious too!

Interrogating the Cat

Me: Who did this?

The Cat: Did you ask the dog?

Me: We don't have a dog.

The Cat: Oh. Well, then, I have no idea.

Gilda and George (NaNoWriMo Vignette #3)

This one made the cut to be read aloud. Please keep in mind, all vignettes were written using Write or Die set at 500 words per 15 minutes. They have only been very slightly edited for spelling and readability.

Gilda and George

The grass was a lovely shade of green. Gilda could smell the crispness of it as she and George spread out the picnic blanket and laid out the food. A little rabbit rushed by them. No need to follow him though since a little blond girl in a blue dress with a white pinafore was already chasing him and getting ready to follow him down a hole.

"Should we do something about that?" Gilda asked.

"About what?" George had been looking at Gilda the whole time except for when he was spreading out the food. Then he was looking at the food. There were chocolate chip cookies, and fried chicken. Cold of course, but still tasty! At least he assumed it would b tasty. He could smell the chicken through the plastic food storage bag Gilda had zipped them in, and the chicken smelled great! There was also some potato salad, and crackers, and some kind of soft cheeses. Gilda liked to try out different kinds of cheeses. George thought that some of them kind of tasted like feet, but, hey, as long as he got some of that chicken and the cookies, he would be fine. Oh, and speaking of fine, there was that wine, too!

"That little girl...she just followed that bunny rabbit down that hole over there," Gilda pointed in the direction of the girl's last known whereabouts.

"I don't see any girl."

"Well of course you don't, now! She's gone!"

"So then what am I supposed to do about that?"

"She has gone down the hole, George! Maybe she's hurt!"

George stifled a sigh and closed his eyes to hide their rolling around from Gilda. She would be very irritated if she knew he was rolling his eyes at her Very Important Suggestion.

"Okay, I'll go check." George started to get up.

"I'm coming with you." Gilda followed.

They walked toward the direction of where Gilda thought she saw the rabbit and the girl go down. There was a fairly large hole. Large enough for a young girl to fit, but not quite large enough for an adult man or woman --unless they were small for their age. Perhaps if they had smaller frames, well, maybe not George. He was fairly tall. But maybe Gilda. She was petite, but she was still too big to fit in the hole.

"Hello!" George cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled into the hole.

"Hello!" Gilda did the same. It went like this for about a minute or so, both shouting, "Hello!: into the large gaping hole in the ground. Oh, did I mention there was also a tree by this hole? So it looked like the roots of the tree were framing the hole. It was actually quite lovely, almost as though someone had purposely trained the roots to grow around the opening in the hole.

"I really don't think there's anyone down there," George said.

"Well, I'm not crazy! I saw a little girl chasing a white rabbit down this hole!"

"I'm sure you're not crazy, but why don't we go sit down and have out lunch now?"

"Okay," Gilda seemed hesitant, but she slowly followed George back to their picnic, still looking behind her toward the hole.

"Oh, here, honey," George held up a baggy with a variety of tablets, pills, and capsules, and handed it to Gilda, "You forgot your vitamins."

"Oh, thank you, sweetie!" Gilda smiled. That George, always thinking about my health. What a sweetie! 


As they finished their meal, and were beginning to eat their cookies, George turned to Gila, "What a lovely day for a picnic!"

"Yes!" Gilda nodded, "Oh, and I think I saw a little bunny over by that tree there. Did I mention it earlier?"

A Visit to the Doctor's Office (NaNoWriMo Vignette #2))

This is the second of my NaNoWriMo vignettes. This didn't make the cut for reading aloud either.

Doctor's Office

Julie sat in the doctor's office. The decor was Southwestern even though the year was 2011. Southwestern pastels. Even the chairs were upholstered in a Southwestern print. It reminded Julie of the sectional sofa her parents used to have when she was growing up --in the '70's.  she looked around. There was a stack --if you could call it a stack-- of magazines on the table next to her. Parenting magazines, news magazines, skiing, home decorating. Nothing that really interested Julie. Her phone was almost dead. Why didn't I think about charging it before I left? God, I hate having to sit waiting with nothing to do. The door opened and in walked a giant rabbit holding a squirrel. Julie looked around to see if anyone else was seeing this. No one seemed to notice. Great, I'm having hallucinations. Well, at least I'm in the right place. Except not really, since this is a gynecologist's office and not a psychiatrist's. The giant rabbit hopped up to the sign-in window and asked the receptionist, "Excuse me, but is there a Maria Cosgrove here?" The receptionist was on the phone and held up her index finger to indicate to the rabbit that she wanted him to wait just a minute. Julie began to count to herself, one Mississippi, two Mississippi...to see if it would be a real minute or a metaphorical minute. Forty-five Mississippi.."Okay, how can I help you?" The receptionist didn't bat an eyelash. While she did indeed see the rabbit--giant rabbit standing in front of her, she seemed unfazed. "Do you have a Maria Cosgrove working here?"

"Yes, she's here. Do you want me to get her?"

"Yes please."

The receptionist got up and walked away from her desk for a few seconds and returned with what was presumably Maria Cosgrove.

"Maria Cosgrove?"

"Yes?"

The rabbit began singing a song to the melody of Al Jolson's "You Made Me Love You.":  "Some bunny loves you! He didn't wanna do it, he didn't wanna do it, but this bunny loves you you true, ya know it's true, yes you do, indeed you do! Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme what I cry for, ya know you got the kinda kisses that I'd die for, you made this bunny love you!

"Jeremy?"

The rabbit got on his knee Al Jolson style and held the squirrel he was carrying out to Maria.

"Maria, will you marry me?"

Maria began to cry.

"Oh Jeremy! I love you so much, but there's something you need to know about me first," Maria reached around behind her neck and began pulling at something, bringing the hair on the back of her head to the front  and peeling off her face --which turned out to be a silicone mask-- revealing the head of a ferret.  she pulled at her arms and they became the forelegs of a ferret.  A giant ferret.

"Jeremy, I love you and I want to be with you forever. Now you understand why I'm a vegetarian, but my parents...they aren't vegetarians, and they will eat you alive. Literally.

True Meaning of Christmas

Click on this to see it full size

"Ferrell" Cats

I belong to a Yahoo Groups community bulletin board. People post announcements, items for sale, etc., and these emails show up in my inbox. Today, this was one of the posts:

Subject: Looking For Farm For Ferrell Cats

If anyone is looking for ferrell cats for their barn, we
have captured ferrell cats and they have been spayed or
neutered and checked out by a vet. They just need a place
to live out their lives. Let me know if you know someone
who has a barn and would like one or more ferrell cats.

Sooo... are we talking about something like this?: 

Or maybe this?:

I'd ask if they meant this too:

But to be honest, Colin spells his last name, "Farrell." Okay, to be more honest, I just wanted to post a picture of Colin Farrell.   MeOW! ........Too much?

While I hesitate to label myself as a member of the "Spelling Police," I just wanted to use this post to get something off my chest:

It's FERAL cats! FERAL, FERAL, FERAL!!!!!  Gaaahhhh!  Sure, it's just an email, and sure, we make typos from time to time, but this email gets sent out to hundreds of people. It made me wonder if the person who sent it was perhaps a feral person? Am I being mean? Well, hopefully the person who wrote this email doesn't read this blog. Odds are, they probably don't. Also, I only think I'm being mean if the person who wrote that was truly trying their best, but they are newly literate or learning disabled.  So really, I'm just assuming they are being lazy.

Long Way From Southern California (NaNoWriMo Vignette 1)

I made it to slightly over 30,000 words for NaNoWriMo 2011. My original story was going to be about a girl who gets kicked off the school newspaper due to what she she writes in the advice column. She begins an "underground" advice column, and things were supposed to get bizarre from there. The trouble was, I had a hard time making decisions about story specifics. I might discuss that in a  later post, but not right now. In spite of my frustration with my original story, I wanted to keep writing. I wanted to make it to 50,000 words even if I  wasn't going to work on my original story idea. After a few false starts (all of which remained in my manuscript--gotta keep the word count going, right?) I managed to come up with several vignettes, or flash fiction pieces. All of these were written with the help of a wonderful program called "Write or Die" which can be found on the Dr. Wicked website. I set the timer for 15 minutes and the word count to 500 words. For reasons that I hope I don't need to explain, these pieces might be more or less than 500 words. I plan on posting at least one piece per day for several days. I haven't decided if I will post them every day till I run out --which will be in about six or seven days--or if I will post them in between my other non-fiction posts. Some might be ever so slightly edited for easier readability --at least hopefully that will be the result. Here is my first one (after the brief introduction):

It is a Tradition during our Riverside County Wrimo's Thank God It's Over party, for everyone (or most everyone) to bring a small sample of what they wrote during NaNoWriMo and read it aloud for the group, who will then applaud, no matter what they actually think of the piece. Of course, in our group, the applause is always genuine as we only have amazing writers who only ever write amazingly each and every time we write. Stop rolling your eyes.
In preparation for the reading portion of our festivities, I printed out several little pearls (perhaps more the "freshwater" variety than the "cultured.") and had my husband help me pick three. This is one that didn't make the cut. A possible title for it could be, "A Long Way From Southern California"


don't know what he was doing there. He just stood by the counter and smiled at me. I gave him a look of acknowledgment, but he still just stood there. I walked over to him as asked, "So, are you going to just stand there, or are you going to sit down and order something?" He appeared to be a bit startled. He looked at me for a moment as though he was trying to figure something out, then, without a word, he climbed on a bar stool and picked up a menu. I went back to my other customers. I had flapjacks to deliver. I don't know why they call them flapjacks here. I grew up saying "pancakes," but then, they have grits, hush puppies and serve waffles with their fried chicken, so who am I to ask questions? I'm a long way from Southern California.I walk over to him and ask him if he's ready to order. In a quiet voice, he answered, 'Yes. I will have the flapjacks with bacon and eggs and grits." His voice was quiet. He didn't sound like he was from around here. Not that I sound like I'm from around here either, though when I call my sister back home, she swears I've picked up a Southern drawl.

"So how do you want your eggs?"

He looked a little surprised, but it passed quickly. "I'll just have the the usual way that everyone has them."

"Everyone has them different. do you want them poached, over easy, over medium, over hard, scrambled?"

"I guess the easy one will be fine."

"Great. That's two eggs over easy, with bacon and flapjacks. Now did you want the buttermilk or the buckwheat?"

"I guess the buttermilk?"

"Okay, coming right up. Oh, and would you like some coffee too?"

"Oh, I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Would you like anything else to drink then? Orange juice? Apple Juice? Tea? Water?"

"Water will be fine."

"Okay, I'll be right up with that." I put the order in, then poured him a glass of ice water.  He thanked me, smiled a little and just stared at his glass. Now, I wouldn't say there was anything creepy about him, even if he did start off by just staring at me. He's not the only man who's come in here and tried to have a staring contest with me. I think he was from maybe the mid west? No. Not there. He sounded kind of business like and a little bit emotionless, like a scientist. Not that scientists are emotionless, but I guess more like how they are sometimes portrayed on TV.

When I go to give the guy his food, he is still staring at his water. He doesn't even move when I put his plate in front of him. "Enjoy your meal," I say. That's when he slowly looks up at me, then he looks at his water glass. He points to the ice cubes floating in the water ans says, "Ice." Then he sort of gives me a short nod like we're conspirators sharing a piece of information known only to us. I decide to humor him, "Yes, ice," and I nod my head, "I have to go tend to the other customers now. You enjoy your meal and I'll check back with you in a bit, okay?"

"Okay."

I went to see if any of my other orders were up yet. They weren't, so I checked my tables to make sure the natives weren't getting restless while waiting for their food. I refilled waters and coffee and made small talk with Malcolm. He hangs out here most days through breakfast and lunch and works on his laptop in between meals till dinner. "So how's your story doing?"

"Ah geez. I can't seem to focus on the story that I'm supposed to be writing. I feel like I'm just blocked."

"But I see you typing on here all day long. What're you doing, playing Farmville?"

Mal laughed. "No, I'm just typing whatever comes into my mind so I can just keep on typing.

End.

(The beautiful drop cap was designed by Jessica Hische. I found it on her Daily Drop Cap site. I found Jessica through NaNoWriMo's blog. She was one of the artists in the 30 Covers in 30 Days entries.)

Ceana's Doppelgänger?

Below are pictures of Caitlin Blackwood. She plays young Amelia Pond on Doctor Who.

Now, I'm not saying they are identical twins separated at birth, but tell me what you think when you compare pictures of Ceana: here and here. Ceana says they don't look alike at all. Ceana's dad, who spends a considerable amount of time with his daughter, said that if I showed him the middle photo where Caitlin is wearing the blue scarf, and told him it was a photo of Ceana, he would believe me.

Caitlin Blackwood is Scottish. Ceana is of Scottish ancestry (she is also of English, Irish, Welsh and German ancestry). Without initially realizing it when we chose her first and middle name (Paisley) we chose Scottish names for her. When I did a search on the name origin and meaning, there was some dispute as to name origin. One site says Ceana is of American origin, meaning "God is Gracious." Another site claims her name is of Irish origin, also meaning "God is Gracious." However, her name also appears on a site actually called, "Scottish First Names."  There is little dispute however about the origin of her middle name, "Paisley," which is a town in Scotland. 

Regarding how to pronounce her name (we chose to pronounce it, "See-AW-nuh."). Apparently, there is as much disagreement as to whether one should pronounce the "C" as a "K" or as an "S" as there is with the word "Celtic," (personally, I think "Celtic" should be pronounce as a hard "C" unless one is talking about the  Evil Boston basketball team [GO LAKERS!]). I managed to find an entire web page dedicated to this discussion. It was almost enough to make me reconsider how we have been pronouncing her name, however since we have been spending over 10 years trying to get other people, (including her grandfather--hi dad!) to pronounce it "correctly" it probably wouldn't go over too well to go back and say, "Oh well, now we are pronouncing her name, 'Key-en-nuh.'"

So, what do YOU think? I mean, about the physical resemblance. Of course you are free to comment on anything else in this post if you wish!

Cheers!

Examples of Lapis Lazuli

Just a couple of pics of a Lapis bracelet:

With flash

No flash

No flash, On flesh

Can You Identify These Minerals?

Some of these I found at the beach. If they look shiny and like they have been tumbled, then I probably got them in some gift shop where you can fill a little bag and get a bunch of little rocks for a set price. Some I found at the beach in La Jolla and some I got from a mixed bag of river rocks when I was taking a hot stone therapy class for massage school. With the exception of rocks #1, 2, & 8, they are all on the flat side which is what makes them good for hot stone therapy --they lie flat on the body. If you have any ideas as to the identity of these rocks (for instance, I think #8 is a rose quartz and #9 is a crystal quartz), please feel free to leave them in the comments. Thanks!

 #1:  Above is 2 shots of the same rock --probably gift shop. About the size of a quarter.

#2 gift shop?  About the size of the top third of my pinkie finger.

Clockwise from LEFT: #3, 4, 5, and #7 on the bottom. Rock on left is about the size of a quarter, but smaller than the blue one above. These are fairly flat rocks. I don't remember if I found some of these at the beach or in a gift shop.

2 photos of #8 & 9 --I thought it might help to see them with different backgrounds. Similar in size to the rocks 3 - 7. Most likely a gift shop.

#10. about the same size as my thumb mound on the palm of my hand. Either a river rock or the beach. Until otherwise indicated, the next several rocks, I believe came in a mixed bag of river rocks --not sure of the actual source.

#11. About 2/3 the size of the rock above.

#12. 3/4 the size of #10

#13. About the same size as #10.

#14. Same size as #10

#15. 1/4 bigger than #10

2 shots of #16. About the same as #12. Bent in the middle -so it's sort of like a tent.

#17. About the same as #12

#18. Slightly smaller and flatter than above.

#19 --this is even more glittery than the picture shows. About the same as above. Got this at the beach

#20. Same as #17. Got it at the beach.

#21. about 3/4 of #18. Got it at the beach.

Inspiration

kaffe fasset - inside my fort:

'via Blog this'

New School Clothes! (Day 4)

Guess what her favorite color is?

New School Clothes! (Day 3)

I made the hat. The main color on the hat is purple, similar to the shoes though it looks more bluish on my computer

New School Clothes! (Day 2)

Next ensemble:

It is hard to see the stripe pattern in her capris, but they are there. The scarf she is wearing around her waist came with those capris to use as a belt. Personally, I think the shirt would look better without the belt because it cuts off the picture on the front. She prefers it this way in spite of my opinion.