The Janus Syndrome

Janus was the two-faced Roman god of portals, who looked both forward and backward. He gave his name to our month of January, hence he is a fitting entity to take note of this posting of my achievements (or failures) in 2011 and goals for 2012.



2011 achievements:

without corset / with corset

1. In May, I bought a corset, something I had been considering for many months. The difference it makes in my look is obvious from these pics of the same outfit without the corset and with it.

all digital eye makeup

all real eye makeup, including mascara

real eye makeup, mascara digital


2. Over the summer, I began doing all my makeup for real, rather than digitally applying it. By late fall, however, I decided to go back to digital mascara...because the real stuff simply didn't photograph as well as I'd like.

3. Made some new on-line friends--Hi Meg, Paula!; maintained some other friendships--Hi Karen, Linda, Gwen!; established some acquaintances I hope will develop into friendships--Hi Stana, Janet!

2011 failures:

1. I've stopped trying to achieve hypnotic trance. I think I was fooling myself that it was working with the Virtual Hypnotist program, and when a computer crash wiped the program and associated files from my system, I decided to stop the attempt.

2. I have yet to acquire a real 1950s style petticoat to wear under some of my skirts that could really benefit from it. Yes, I could order on line, but the dangers of home delivery are still a problem. I keep searching for a brick-and-mortar source nearby.

3. I never went out in public in female attire this year--not even one of my "adventures" in semi-drag (a blouse and jeans and kitten heels, for instance). Part of that was that younger son was living home and cutting into dressing time for most of the year...part of it was just fear, after a couple of bad experiences in 2010.

2012 goals:

1. Find that petticoat!

2. Get out at least five or six times for a semi-drag "adventure". I need to build my confidence.

3. Find an excuse to shave my mustache (hoping a theater role will require it this spring), so I can stop digitally removing it in photos.

4. Experience hypnotic trance. I've concluded this will require a real person as the hypnotist, at least on the phone, as virtual programs and recordings do not seem to work for me.

5. Meet one of my on-line friends in person.

I'll keep you up-to-date on whether I achieve any of those goals.

Christmas Surprise

The family bought me a new digital camera for Christmas! I can't wait to try it out...first with some ordinary snapshots over the next week or so to get the hang of it, then setting up to do some Dani photo sessions later in January. First impression is that it should give me some really good shots.

FTR, it's a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W530--with 14.5MP and 4X optical zoom.

Happy Christmas to All--2011

[My annual Christmas greeting, first posted in 2007.



...and to all a Good Night!"...as Clement Clark Moore wrote. (And, yes, he did write "Happy Christmas," not "Merry....")

I'll probably not be blogging very much over the next few weeks, so Happy New Year as well. I thought this was an opportunity to thank everybody who has commented here, who has linked to here, who reads here regularly.

And a chance to talk about how I feel about Christmas. I'm with Charles Dickens, who put these words into the mouth of Scrooge's nephew, Fred: "I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

There is practically no version of A Christmas Carol that I cannot stand to watch at least once, although I have a favorite--the 1984 TV version starring George C. Scott, which I consider closest to both the spirit and the letter of Dickens' work. I will confess a soft spot for The Muppet Christmas Carol, in part because my kids love it so (despite their being college graduates now).

So I will close this post with the immortal words of Tiny Tim:

God bless us, everyone!

December Art: Lana & Clara?

December Art: Collared Cutie

Poll Results

You all have chosen this picture as the best of the first six:

The next poll will not be until some time in January, since dressing is suspended until after the holidays.

December Art: Lesbian Sissies #41

Don't forget the poll; details here.

Pre-Christmas: Party Hearty

This will be the last dressing session posted until after New Year's. The rest of this week is too hectic and one of the kids will be home for the season next week. As of this posting, all of "Dani" is living in the storage locker until 2012.

That said, today's outfits are both intended for celebrations, beginning with the bright red party dress from Wal-Mart.

Accessories are red headband, gold jewelry, black hose and red patent pumps.

The second outfit is the very first I ever bought as potential partywear--a two-piece set from Burlington Coat Factory consisting of a gold paisley top and a black skirt with a flirty handkerchief hem. I loved the look of this when I first bought it and, now, with the corset underneath, it's just gorgeous!

I love the "gesture" of the head in the shot on the right. Accessories are black headband (I really need to find a gold one to go with this), pearls, black hose, and gold peep-toe pumps.

And a portrait from each set:

More pics on Flickr. I'll try to fill in with art and other things (including my annual Christmas message) between now and Dani's "return".

Don't forget the poll to the right; details are here.

Poll: You Pick the Best

Once a week or so, I'm going to post what I think are the best pictures from my last few dressing sessions...and then ask you to pick the best of that batch. The "winner" from each batch will go into the file for my annual slide show on my anniversary at the beginning of December next year.

Here are the first set:

A

B

C

D

E

F

Just choose the one you like best in the poll to the right. You have until next Friday to vote.

December Art: Mistress's Commands

Here's another look at the mesmerized, feminized Archie:

December Art: Stay Right Here

Another one that just wrote itself--once I saw the image, I knew what had to be added and what the dialogue would be.

Pre-Christmas: Two at Once

Unlike my usual practice, I'm posting both of today's outfits in one swell foop.

Tanning Session

Here's the tan twofer top combined with the tan straight skirt, both found earlier this year in separate thrift shop explorations. The top is originally from Macy's White Stag line and the skirt is Alfred Dunner, showing you can find really nice stuff in a thrift shop.

Accessories are white print bow, gold jewelry, light hose and neutral peep-toe pumps.

I'll post the portraits at the end.

Scarlet and Gray

Oddly enough, those were the colors of my high school. Even more oddly, both my sons went to colleges (different ones) with the same colors. Here's a gray blouse from the Rider line teamed with a long red skirt from the Kmart Jaclyn Smith line.

Accessories: red bow, red jewelry, dark hose and gray fabric pumps.

And now, a couple of portraits:

Many more pics on Flickr. I don't think I'll be dressing anymore this week--but I'll have a poll ready on Friday and some art in between.

Pre-Christmas: Black-and-White

Here's one of my fave dresses--a zebra-print shirtdress from Target. I decided to go for black-and-white photos to go with the dress.

Accessories: white bow, black-and-white jewelry, black hose, black belt, black patent pumps.

Even in monochrome, this portrait works:

More pics on Flickr; more dressing tomorrow.

Pre-Christmas: Violet Vision

Here's another outfit that's entirely from the thrift shops...in fact, found on the same trip. As I recall, I found the violet skirt first and went looking for a blouse that would go with it, soon discovering the lilac satin blouse.

Accessories are white bow, silver jewelry, dark hose and wine suede mary-janes (from Kmart, one of only a few pairs I've found there).

As usual for the blonde wig, I used a lighter lipstick and digitally switched my eyes to blue.

More pics on Flickr; a different outfit and a different kind of photography later.

Pre-Christmas: Office Party?

Well, having dressed for the office earlier today, maybe this is the dress for the office party. It seems a bit fancy for just wearing to work, don't you agree? It's from Fashion Bug, a favorite place that I learned today may be in financial difficulty. I'd hate to see it go out of business!

Accessories are a pink bow, pearls, light hose and pink pumps.

The hand gesture in this pose seems very lady-like, doesn't it?

More pics on Flickr. And an announcement--in the past, I've determined the pics to be used for my annual slideshow all on my own. This year, I'm going to leave part of the decision to you...you'll see how in a couple of weeks.