• A Little Fashion Friday

    Next week, it’s back to campus, and back to being a little more professionally dressed than wearing leggings and jeans every day. It’s been a comfortable month, but I am always excited to see my students’ faces and be back in the classroom with them–and to have a reason to wear some of my new things to school. I’m hoping to post more fashion this year here on Steph’s Scribe besides just what I do for FROCKTOBER in October…I just love it. It’s my little thing I do for fun. I’ll be sharing my wardrobe on Fridays on Instagram (stephanie.verni), and I’ll post here, too, although sometimes I like to…

  • Week One Recap: FROCKTOBER 2018

    WELCOME TO FROCKTOBER FOR OVARIAN CANCER This month is all about fashion–but it’s also to raise money and heighten awareness of Ovarian Cancer. As my beloved colleague and friend, Chris Noya, fights her battle, I will do my part to make this month meaningful. I’m looking forward to the challenge of posting 31 outfits in honor of Chris and women everywhere who are battling this disease. My love to you all as you bravely carry on. We are with you. ❤️ FROCKTOBER | Day 1 “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some…

  • Welcome to #Frocktober | What I Wore & Style Tips

    _______________________________________________ frock [frok] noun def. 1. a gown or dress worn by a girl or woman. 2. a loose outer garment worn by peasants and workers; smock. _______________________________________________ Today begins my version of Frocktober, whereby I will showcase what I wear for the next 31 days of October. I’m an average woman who is petite in stature and who also happens to love shopping for clothes, reading about fashion, and creating a personal style. In my former life as a fashion consultant, I helped other women try to find their style. We don’t have to be runway models to feel good about ourselves; women of all shapes and sizes are…

  • Acceptable “B” Words for a BETTER You

    Bonjour, Beautiful Blogosphere Buddies, As I’ve BEEN thinking about how to make the world around me prettier and lovelier, I BEGAN thinking about how when we make changes in our lives, everything can become more positive. As I pondered this, I was getting dressed this morning. I had to run errands, and I wanted to wear something pretty and feel good about myself. Positive affirmations are real, and we need to accept our lives for what they are and be happy and contented with ourselves. I truly BELIEVE this. I searched for “positive ‘B’ words,” and from the site Positive Words Research, the list BELOW popped up indicating positive words…

  • 6 Ways to Wear Makeup That Doesn’t Age You

    * * * You can probably tell if you scroll through my past posts over that last few years that I’m kind of dreading turning 50 next month (I just lied…I am absolutely dreading turning 50 next month. Yikes.). I’m not quite sure how I got here, but alas, it is about to happen. You can control some things, but you can’t control aging. So, without turning to Botox or plastic surgery, I have to resort to other tactics that will help me feel beautiful and fresh (and young), and they pretty much revolve around using makeup to my advantage. I’ve heard people say that makeup ages you. This is…

  • A Wrinkle in Time: Fighting Those Dastardly Lines on Your Face

    I guess you could say I’m somewhat blessed. I come from a long line of Italians and inherited medium olive skin that tends to be oily. The nature of my skin alone helps keep the wrinkles away…a little. Most of us have to take good care of our skin—myself included, especially as I approach the magic “50”—and if you ask my friends with whom I went away for a weekend and did the “spa thing,” I’m slightly obsessed with keeping my skin as youthful as possible. Mother Nature doesn’t always allow this to happen naturally, so we’ve got to use some products to help us along the way. Of course,…

  • Booted: The True Story of A Disappointing Christmas

    It was Christmas Eve many years ago. My family and I were sitting around a lovely dinner table in Annapolis discussing our most disappointing Christmases ever. My mother recounted her story of when she was a little girl and how tragically disappointed she was to wake up one Christmas morning only to find there was not a pony in her back yard as she expected. Santa had apparently let her down that year and given the pony to someone else. Try as I might, I couldn’t recall a time when I was disappointed; all my Christmases have been relatively happy ones spent with family. My brother, on the other hand,…

  • Getting The Boot(s)

    It’s September, and here in Maryland on the east coast, we are enjoying gorgeous fall-like, blue-sky, crisp-air weather. I’m not one to go on and on about the weather or weather changes, nor am I glued to The Weather Channel, but I have one particular thing to say: I love it like this. My friend, Jenny, tells me this is “San Diego weather.” She and her husband lived there for five years, and she claims the weather is one of the best aspects. (I’m glad they enjoyed living there, but I’m not at all sad they don’t reside there anymore. Who else would I go see “Hope Springs” with on…

  • Fall/Winter Wardrobe Checklist As We Continue Fashion Fridays

    Today, I decided to post something helpful and useful for my readers for Fashion Friday. When building a wardrobe, you want to purchase nicer pieces that have staying power for all your staples. You can discard and add the trendy stuff more cheaply, but the staples are the ones you want to be in your closet for a while. Using this checklist will help you put together a very functional, basic wardrobe from which you can add on and get creative. Just click on the checklist below to print the worksheet. Stuff it in your bag and take it with you when you go shopping. But before you do that,…