What in the heck is Glen Plaid?

Fashion:

There are actually different types of plaid that originate from different areas of the world.

Glen Plaid actually originates from "Glenurquhart in Inverness-shire, Scotland in the 1920's. It's from woollen fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks.[1] It is usually made of black/grey and white, or with more muted colours, particularly with two dark and two light stripes alternate with four dark and four light stripes which creates a crossing pattern of irregular checks.[2] Glen plaid as a woven pattern may be extended to cotton shirtingand other non-woollen fabrics." Wikipedia.

I just could not explain it except through pictures on my own, so I had to cite this quote to do so. However, here are pictures.

How many other types of plaid are there? Quite a few actually.

Tattersall Plaid
"The pattern is composed of regularly-spaced thin, even vertical warpstripes, repeated horizontally in the weft, thereby forming squares.The stripes are usually in two alternating colours, generally darker on a light ground.[1] The cloth pattern takes its name from Tattersall'shorse market, which was started in London in 1766.[2] During the 18th century at Tattersall's horse market blankets with this checked pattern were sold for use on horses.[1]" Wikipedia

Madras
"Authentic Madras comes from Chennai (Madras); both sides of the cloth must bear the same pattern; it must be handwoven (evidenced by the small flaws in the fabric).[1] Cotton madras is woven from a fragile, short-staple cotton fiber that can’t be combed, only carded,[1] resulting in bumps known as slubs which are thick spots in the yarn that give madras its unique texture. The cotton is hand-dyed after being spun into yarn, woven and finished in some 200 small villages in the Madras area.[1]" Wikipedia

Gingham
"Gingham is a medium-weight balanced plain-woven fabric made from dyed cotton or cotton-blend yarn.[1] It is made of carded, medium or fine yarns, where the colouring is on the warp yarns and always along the grain (weft)." Wikipedia

Houndstooth
"Houndstooth, hounds tooth check or hound's tooth, also known as dogstooth, dogtooth, dog's tooth, or pied-de-poule, is a duotone textile pattern characterized by broken checks or abstract four-pointed shapes, often in black and white, although other colours are used." Wikipedia

Border Tartan
"Border tartan, sometimes known as Northumbrian tartan, Shepherds' Plaid or Border Drab, or Border check is a design used in woven fabrics historically associated with the Anglo-Scottish Border, including the Scottish Borders and Northumbria." Wikipedia

Tartan
"Tartan (Scottish Gaelic: breacan [ˈbɾʲɛxkən]) is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns." Wikipedia

So there you have it. More than you probably every wanted to know about plaids and their origins. Whatever the history, plaid is here now and will continue to be a staple for the future.

---

The photos above are from 1988, in honor of TBT. They are while I was a lead in a musical called 'Under The Apple Tree'. I was in Chicagoland at the time.

---

Health & Wellness:

How do you feel about yourself in the evening, versus in the morning?

My guess is that you don't feel the same way about yourself throughout the day, especially from morning as opposed to at night.

Why? Because of our internal dialogue, our daily experiences, our interactions with other humans, and our outlook in general, our mind will change on our self love/like/dislike/hate throughout the day.

What can we do to help ourselves have more self love throughout our day?

Gratitude practice and Affirmations. When you practice these throughout your day you will find that your brain gets rewired toward positive thoughts, which helps your internal voice view you as lovable. 

Practice daily gratitude (writing down at least ten items you are grateful for), as well as affirmations (at least ten, writing them, reading them, saying them out loud) each day. You will notice a huge difference!

Love story:

...continued from last post...

After he asked me, I don't remember a lot from that night. I think we went to his mom's house to show her that I had said yes. I don't remember going home or telling my parents, although I know that I did. You know, the blur when things happen that are amazing and frightening at the same time.

The planning began. We didn't have long. The date was December 30th and it was already mid-October. Again for the note: no I was not pregnant. Just the culture to get married soon after you find THE ONE.

I didn't have extra money at my disposal and my parents really didn't either. They had 12 kids with their blended family so there were a lot of expenses (even with most of those kids living away from home). However, my mother said that they could help me with $500, which was very generous.

When it came time to plan, however, Steve said that we were not going to settle for having the reception at the cultural hall of the chapel if I wanted a reception center. We actually both wanted the reception at a center and so did Steve's mother. So, she paid for a reception center and most of the food. I paid for what I could with the $500 (which again was very generous). 

It's usually the job of the bride's family to pay for the wedding, so I didn't really know what to do. It was not exactly traditional circumstances. I had a child, had experienced a divorce, and had just been through the LDS temple for myself.

When it came to the invite list, Steve and I didn't really have much of a say. We just took the names that our parents gave us and sent out the invitations to them. In hindsight, I think we should have taken more control of that so that we could have spent less on the food, etc.

Actually, in hindsight, we should have eloped. 

With the whole charade of weddings being so celebrate the happy couple...and I don't want to diminish that aspect of it...isn't it funny how the couple's money all goes into the wedding and reception, so they start of their life together with debt?!

It's funny that we didn't know many many of the people that came to the reception and many, many of the people that were invited had never even met us. There were people that I wanted to invite that I knew and had as friends, but because of those on the parents' invite list, I didn't opt for that. On that note, I encourage my kids to invite people they know and I let them know right now that those that I may want to invite come second. It's their day, not mine.

The dress was again a trade from my step-father's business to a bridal business. I was not going to wear the same dress from my first wedding. (I am a bit superstitious, and also it wouldn't have been special)

The wedding was at the Jordan River Temple and the reception was at a center in Sandy, Utah.

The plans were interesting and expensive for the budgets at that time. However, compared to my friends' typical weddings in Chicagoland, where they paid out $10-20,000 per wedding, expenses for us were quite minimal. Of course, we were not having a sit-down meal with multiple portions and an open bar. We were having refreshments and punch (no alcohol).

The reception center was old, but nice. It was near our parents' houses and easily accessed by guests. There was a little area for dancing, tables for eating, and a place for our bridal party line. We were decorating in burgundy and green because of the time of year. It's quite an easy time of year to decorate for anything.

​...continued next post...