WT-Related Quandries I Already Know I Have, and Other Reflections

This is what the inside of my brain looked like when I sat down to write this post:

So you can see why I felt the need to get it down on paper.  Ahem.

• I've lately been fascinated by the idea of saddle shoes.  I really don't know how I could make them work for me.

• Problem: transitional season.  I finally figured out that it's a lot easier to wear skirts whenever possible.  I know there are still people who run around in dresses almost every day all winter in the north country, but despite the abundance of advice about layered tights, that's not going to happen for me.  I currently have a cast of pants that work well enough that I don't resent wearing them, but I figure that if I mostly reserve them for occasions when they're climatologically necessary, I won't have to find replacements as often; skirts are far easier to fit.
  
  The problem lies beneath.  April (etc.) is time for neither bare legs nor woolly tights, and ordinary sheer stockings have their useful limits, especially when the aesthetic being supported calls for something other than sensible business pumps.  But I definitely feel weird in most of the patterned stockings I've tried, though I've had some luck layering them over solids.  I think it's mostly a matter of scale.  So I'm trying to figure this out.
  
  Not as problematic, though far from obvious, is what comes in between knee-high boots and sandals (not ballet flats - they look gimmicky on me, most of them hurt my arches, and I feel like I'm standing in a hole).  Especially if we get a replay of last year's monsoons.
  
  Slightly related rant: What is it with the movement of the last few years insisting that women outside the sex trade embrace fishnet stockings?  I don't understand it at all.

• I need someone to explain the difference between different types of hair styling products and how to purchase them, if desired (because except for "mousse" and "gel", the categories typically discussed in the beauty press never seem to match up to the product names on the shelf).

• Note to self: STOP trying new colors of lipstick.  When was the last time that worked out well, hm?

• My mother often tells people that I was born at 40, meaning that I spring from the womb as an 8-pound, middle aged person.  She's spot-on there, though we've only occasionally discussed what it was like to be the 20-something caretaker of a toddler of a certain age.  In reality, I turned 30 last summer and have started to notice that I feel far more like a real person than ever before.  This is a good thing.  But I suspect it's contributing to minor style confusion. (I think I'm navigating the confusion very well, but it's confusion still.)
  
  I'm finding myself drawn to, and able to successfully pull off, things that never seemed to work before.  Larger scarves, brooches, drop earrings, slightly (very slightly) more interesting shoes.  I had a momentary existential crisis one morning as I was getting dressed and felt (gasp) bored with my gold hoop earrings.  Now, I don't think I'm at risk of becoming fun (I'm quite unfun), but my most successful recent efforts have been refining in a clear direction, and I think I'd do well to expand on the pattern.  I've started by accumulating an unseemly number of very plain cardigan sweaters, but every time I start to second-guess myself about them, I put one on and notice how devastatingly legitimate I feel. 
  
  
• In conjunction with the above, a functional rendition of the old notion of "accessorize your fabulous basics" has suddenly clicked for me.

Some other things I could add, but I think I'll wait to address them with weekly assignments.