The Real Thing, as written by a Late Bloomer

You know, there are some important things you need to remember about me whilst we are hanging around the old clubhouse:

1) I didn't see Europe until I was 45 years old.  Some would call me almost provincial in the fact I had not left North American soil.  I could defend it based on having children and other such nonsense, but then, I am 50 and don't feel the need any more to defend anything.  Isn't that awesome?

What surprised me the most about this not going to Europe until I was 45 years old was that neither of us (me or Europe) realized what we were missing by not being together.  Now we know, and she sends me emails all the time about cheap flights to get me back.  And I want to go back.  Again and again.  I have had other love affairs, but I think this may be the most time and financially consuming.

2) I did not have diamond earrings until I was 49 years old. 

Despite my best hope, it turns out that real diamond earrings just feel,  and look like, well, 'real" compared to cubic zirconia.  Oh the latter are fun and good in a pinch.  But they are not diamonds.  And it seems that diamonds want to breed more diamonds - diamond pins, necklaces, bracelets. Will the madness never end?  I spent the first 49 years only glancing sideways at diamonds.  Now I stare them straight in the face.  As the desire for better, as opposed to more, begins to settle into my 50 year old bones, diamonds are carving a niche for themselves. This has even infected my husband who chose garnet earrings with wee diamonds.  I think buying me diamond earrings has now impacted the kinds of stores he now shops for jewellry for me in.

3) I didn't receive my first Tiffany Box until my actual 50th birthday!  And when I saw it I was almost as giddy as the first time I saw the Bay City Rollers perform live on TV in 1975!!  Yes, we are talking THAT kind of giddy!

Thanks to my good friends Dani & GF, I now own something from Tiffany's - a beautiful keychain with a star on it and my initials! 

5) And now at 50 days + 1 week, I own "real" cashmere! 

oh I have owned cashmere for quite awhile, the vast majority of which is from J Crew.  Like others, I have noticed a decline in quality.  I still like it, but it was really the only cashmere that I was intimately familiar with.  I kept hearing about Brora and the quality of its goods.  Dani should be the official spokesperson for Brora, since not only does she rave about the company, she wears its clothing so well!

At full price, it is expensive for North Americans; the sweater I wanted was originally £229 - approximately $360 CDN!  I waited a long while to order a sweater, worrying incessantly about both my size and if I would really love the quality.  Finally, at the beginning of January, the sweater went on sale and I bit.  And crossed fingers and toes!

Yesterday, the package finally arrived.  I was initially a little shocked - I had recalled it being a truer blue on my computer monitor, but when I went back in the afternoon, it was indeed the colour it purported to be!

Isn't it beautiful?  It is darker and a teal-ier blue in real life (see below).  I was wearing the Pagoda Blue cashmere sweater when I opened this one and the difference in quality when touching both was startling.  The Brora is more tightly knit, the yarn is softer and feels more substantial than J Crew.

And the sweater on me:

I am wearing the pagoda blue sweater underneath it, so you can get a sense of the colour.  The colour is described on the web as a sapphire, but for me, it was a very dark teal-y colour.

I wondered if I was always wrong as to what I thought the colour sapphire was, but when I googled it, this colour comes up, which is what I was expecting, a truer blue:

However, I also noticed that sapphires can have a greener tinge to them:

Regardless, I love the sweater.  When I revisited the website this a.m., it looked like the sweater I got,  so I am blaming my confusion as to colour on three weeks and my eyesight! And two little birds named GF & Dani had bought me the matching wristwarmers!  Aren't they lovely?

(can you tell I now have my camera working????)

And on top of that, I noticed that the sweater that my crush, Michelle Obama, wore to the inauguration yesterday is the same colour:

And speaking of Michelle Obama.  Did you love her dress?  I did!  And I loved the first waltz to one of my favourite songs ever, "Let's Stay Together".  This is a couple who loves each other.  In other words, the real thing.

So what I am discovering is that

a) it is okay to wait for the real thing if you do not have the funds to acquire it or go to it.  And there are certainly substitutes you can happily use along the way.
b) as you get older, and as funds free up, it is not a bad idea to get a few "real things", whatever those might be.  Your real things will likely be completely different than mine.  But once you have real, quality things you realize that
c) quality does trump quantity.  I have 5 or 6 j crew cashmere sweaters.  One of the ones that I was wearing yesterday, the pagoda blue tshirt, I have only worn twice.  The pilling is already terrible and we are not talking little pills - we are talking big ugly pills across the whole front of the sweater.  So I think I would be better to wait and get one good cashmere sweater once a year as opposed to three lesser quality ones for the same price.

For too long, I have been on the hamster wheel that more was better.  More clothing meant more choices.  But in reality, more clothing caused me confusion in the morning.  More clothing meant less money for travel or for whatever.  I have taken bags of cheaper clothing and donated it or consigned it over the last 5 years.  Probably at least a thousand dollars worth of things, if not more.

Now I want much less, and I want better quality.  And it has only taken me 50 years to start to get this!  Guess I am a very slow learner!

Sorry for the long ramble this morning - Now i am off to put on my new sweater for the day (and take a real picture with my good camera!)  Stay safe out there