sallyinstpaul
- Nov 1, 2021
- 5 min read

OOTD: Inspired by Rena, Mireille, and the Zork Lantern

Back in August, Rena at Fine Whatever posted a "classic stripes" outfit consisting of a navy and white striped cardigan, navy top, olive crop pants, brown leather sandals, and a pendant necklace. The cardigan she featured reminded me strongly of this thrifted CJ Banks cardigan that joined my closet in December 2018 for $5.99. I loved the classic button front style with the V neck (which I find much easier to wear than the ones with a rounded neck), the even width navy and white stripes, and the button detail on the cuffs. And since I own versions of all of the items in Rena's outfit except for the sandals (substitute: brown leather flats), I thought it would be a cute outfit to replicate.

But time got away from me as my job went into overdrive in the latter part of August and when I remembered the outfit later, it was past crop pants season here in St Paul so I put the outfit idea aside for the moment. Then earlier this month, Mireille at Chez Mireille posted her own version of Rena's outfit with a black and white striped waterfall cardigan, black tank, olive joggers, and pendant necklace. This got the outfit back on my radar and inspired me to put my own early fall in Minnesota version together.

I replicated the navy top and classic striped cardigan part of the outfit first, but before selecting pants, I realized that I really wanted a lightweight scarf headband as part of my outfit...which serves a practical purpose of keeping my hair back and offers the opportunity for a print mix, which I find difficult to resist. I immediately glommed onto this thrifted blue/peach/brown feather (or leaf? I can't tell for sure) scarf in a very thin gauzy material that seemed very fall-themed. Since I already was planning to wear brown flats, I decided to substitute a pair of brown jeans for the olive pants.

The value contrast between the navy top and brown jeans is very low, to the point that at a distance, it wasn't obvious that the two pieces aren't the same color. This is quite different from the inspiration outfits with olive pants that are clearly lighter than the navy or black they are worn with, but the overall dark look here felt in keeping with fall to me, and I liked the result.

OOTD 10/24/21

The addition of the feather/leaf scarf was a good excuse to add one of my newest DIY bead stretch bracelets to my daily stack: a dull orange-rust stone bracelet. (I'm not sure what kind of stone it is; it came in a set of mixed stone beads.) I also included my DIY brown tiger-eye and gold spacer bead bracelet and two navy seed bead bracelets, as well as two gold-tone bead bracelets from Amazon.

I don't wear brown as often as other neutrals, but when I do, I often like to add this brown faux tortoiseshell bead necklace to the outfit. For the long necklace, I selected the open circles necklace I was inspired by yet another blogger (Fonda at Savvy Southern Chic) to buy a few years ago. As for the middle pendant piece, I had something special in mind!

Back in the 1980s, the young Sally Not Yet in St Paul was introduced to the text adventure game Zork on a visit to my mom's sister and her husband. When you start up the game, you see this text:

West of House

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.

There is a small mailbox here.

And from that simple introductory text, the player is off on a game of adventure, puzzle-solving, treasure-seeking, and occasional combat that is driven by the choices you make at each point...for example, by typing open mailbox to find out what's inside. This interactive fiction game reminded me a lot of my beloved Choose Your Own Adventure books that I devoured...and mimicked for myself with plot points that crack me up now, such as the intergalactic travel story in which a terrorist attack hinges on your decision to wear a pink or red outfit that day (yes, I'm serious! Even as a little kid, I was interested in chaos and colorful clothing).

I didn't finish Zork 1 on that visit, but when we got home, we purchased it and my mom played it with me. I drove the keyboard and my mom drew the maps (and good maps were crucial to the game). Over the years, we played the Zork trilogy of Zork 1, Zork 2, and Zork 3 as well as other text adventure games from the same company (Infocom). Any Zork player knows that one of the biggest risks of death in the game is going into a dark place where you might be eaten by a grue! Hence a source of light is absolutely critical. Throughout the Zork trilogy, your life depends on the brass lantern, which is introduced to you thusly:

Zork 1: A battery-powered brass lantern is on the trophy case.

Zork 2: A strangely familiar brass lantern is lying on the ground.

Zork 3: Your old friend, the brass lantern, is at your feet.

By the time I finished the trilogy, I was quite sentimentally attached to the brass lantern. (Notice that the designers cleverly positioned the brass lantern physically closer to you at its introduction in each game to represent how much closer you feel to it as time goes on. I mean, I don't know if that was intentional on their part, but it's cool either way.) Even though that all happened a long time ago, I still have a soft spot for brass lanterns that remind me of Zork. So when I was perusing the Fire Mountain Gems website to finalize a bead order and saw this brass/copper/glass lantern focal, I felt a rush of "OMG it's the Zork brass lantern!" I thought it would make a very cool pendant option for my gold-tone paperclip chain necklace with the hinged front clasp, and I was right. Behold: the Zork brass lantern of my childhood imagination!

I absolutely love how this Zork lantern pendant fits into my layered necklace. (And yeah, I played with the photo a bit so it appears that everything is glowing a bit in the light of my buddy the brass lantern.)

I suspect this Zork lantern pendant is going to make its way into all kinds of outfits, much as the White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, and the Slothlorien necklaces have. These sentimental pieces are definitely putting the personal into my personal style!

I link up with:

Niky at The House on Silverado (Sundays)

Nike at Life as a LEO Wife (Sun, Mon)

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge (Mon, Tues, 3rd Thurs)

Michelle at My Bijou Life (Mondays)

Mica at Away from the Blue (Mondays)

Debbie at My Random Musings (Mondays)

Roxanne at Glass of Glam (Mondays)

Anita at Anita Ojeda (Mondays)

Tamar at Random-osity (Mondays)

Laura at I Do deClaire (Tuesdays)

Emma at Style Splash (Tuesdays)