White Dresses, Flowered Midis and Smartphones

I'm a party girl today. Pictures first, then, of what I wore to some lovely, summery linky-parties:

I'm finally getting to come out to play with the always- glamorous Sacramento of Mis Papelicos at the current Share In Style with her partner for this week, the very lovely Alicia, our own fabulous Spashionista. Their theme is Flowers. Yummy idea.

Of the skirts I've made for myself this spring and summer, this wrinkle resistant, faux-linen skirt is my favorite. I like my florals to be a little stylized, and although these big blossoms break the rules for petites, I love them anyway. They make me think of my favorite white-floral fragrances, an obvious choice to wear with this combination as well. As if I need an excuse. And the top is from Calvin Klein, happily had at a deep discount at TJ Maxx. I see why it was on sale; it was boxier even than you see here and hip length. I cropped about half of it off and I just love the effect of the drapey fabric and the tailored front detail .... nice to have a little breeze going to show off the movement. I wore this out to dinner with Dan, and I felt fabulous and smelled really good as well!

My  LWD ... for "How I Wear My ____"

And later in the week, you'll see this LWD at How I Wear My _____ , hosted by that ultra-chic and unstoppable team comprised of the fabulous Adrienne at The Rich Life on a Budget and the gorgeous Jill at Everything Just So. The theme this time is White, so I also submitted the skirt and top above as one of the ways I wear white; in a creamy shade combined with other neutrals.

 I've never had a LWD, and thought that this summer might pass without finding one. But my style-luck has been with me of late, and I found this Crown & Ivy eyelet embroidery dress at a summer sale. I wear white with trepidation, but I love the cut of the upper bodice of this very forgiving sheath style dress. It wasn't too short, too young, too tight or too expensive, and once I tried it on, it was true love. I liked it best with my little coral d'Orsay pumps (hope these stay around for a while, 'cause I have a mini-collection of them now) and a cute cork clutch.

When I wear this combination, I can't help remembering that deep down, under this old lady skin and psyche, there's still that California girl from 1968 who wants to dance in her dress, barefoot on the moonlit beach of a summer night.

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An update on my post mini-disaster phase:

After last week's Snicket-ish series of unfortunate events, you'd think that I'd choose to kick back and savor the simple absence of catastrophe.

But no. I just couldn't manage it. I was still too adrenaline-pumped to quit, so I let Dan draw me into further adventures with communication technology, right after the router debacle. Not really up to the level of adopting a Transformer as a pet, nor was it a mini-disaster like the flooded business, but still a little daunting; we changed mobile carriers and got our first smartphones.  Woo hoo.

Ch-ch-ch changes, especially for Dan. He has to bid his battered old flip phone goodby. We're learning our way around new phones in between doing everything else, but Dan is completely in love with the ability to do it all by voice. Voice texting, voice generated email, voice Google searches, voice generated grocery and to-do lists ... all that has eliminated his frustration with little buttons and big fingers. He maintains that phones are for talking, and it seems that technology is finally his friend. And our bill is cut in half (!!!) and we have tons of data and voice that we didn't have before. Worth the effort, absolutely.

As for me, I'm looking forward to being able to use new ways of communicating with customers and keeping up with so many of you guys that use Instagram! I have Twitter loaded, but no account yet. I will figure it out sooner than later.

But what I want to know from you, my style-and-tech-savvy friends, is how you use your mobile technology to support your personal style fixations? I need to make this little smarty-pants-phone work pretty hard for its keep. Obviously, it's easier than ever to shop on-line, but what else can a smart phone do to to make my life easier or more interesting in the wardrobe department? Any ideas?