There is such a thing as a free lunch

I just arrived home from my free dinner. It's too late to write much about it, but I will say that it went well. Standby for a full report as soon as possible.

Wearing Escada (Source: Rue La La)

Yours truly dining out Wednesday evening

Fashionista Wednesday

Black opaque tights with black patent high heel pumps

I am very busy this week packing for my daughter's move to Hartford, but I will be going out to dinner this evening and am looking forward to dressing to the nines.

In light of my Fashionista Wednesday, I recommend reading Rhonda's must-read "your style" post.

And over at Who What Wear, Kat Collins writes about three fashion blunders that may be aging you (and me).

Meanwhile, Romney recently asked me, "What is the 'rule' for color/shade of stockings in consideration of the color/shade of skirt?"

I really don't consider the skirt or dress color when choosing a hosiery color. I am more concerned with the shoe color, for example, I would never wear a shade of hosiery that is darker than the color of my shoe.

Being a fashionista, I usually wear a nude shade of hosiery because fashionable ladies don't wear any hosiery at all and a nude shade is as close to achieving the same results (I don't think my legs are good enough to go without hosiery.)

One look I love is wearing nude hosiery with nude high heel pumps. It creates the illusion of having longer legs (as if I needed that!).

For dress-up occasions, I often wear black or off-black for a sexier look. Dressing for my company's Christmas luncheon, I wore pin dot pantyhose, which added a bit of pizzazz to an otherwise plain off-black shade of hosiery.

If I wear tights, which I often do in the winter to add a little warmth when wearing a skirted outfit, I usually wear black opaque tights, which look very fashionable when worn with black patent high heel pumps.

I hope that was helpful. If not, ask again.

Black opaque tights with black patent high heel pumps (Source: Pinterest)

Alan Manson femulates in the 1943 film This Is the Army.

Dressing Daddy

I mentioned that my daughter gave me a Kate Spade handbag — an early Christmas gift to wear to my former company’s Christmas luncheon.

Christmas morning, she gave me three pairs of jeans. When I finally put on a pair last week, I realized that they were woman’s jeans.

Now that she is preparing to move to an apartment, she is going through her stuff to decide what to take, what to discard and what to give away. As a result, she gave me two Coach handbags, two Jessica Simpson handbags, a Victoria Secret makeup bag and a black pleated mini skirt.

Maybe now would be a good time to ask her to show me how to apply liquid eyeliner. She is very good at it; me, not so much.

Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)

Professional femulator Vicki St. James recounts "My First Time: Getting Caught in a Dress."

Dining Out

Recently, I have been receiving invitations from various financial investment businesses offering me a free dinner if I was willing to sit through their sales pitch on how to handle my retirement savings. I thought about taking up an offer and attending as Stana, but I did not because I was not impressed with the restaurants being offered.

The last invitation I received a few weeks ago was different — I was impressed with the restaurant. It is a dining establishment where I have eaten in the past and was always very pleased with the food. So I RSVP'd and will be going to dinner Wednesday evening.

It should be an interesting experience dining and socializing with a room full of strangers. I will let you know how it goes.

I fell in love with this outfit when I saw it in the daily email advertisement from New York and Company. So much so that I ordered the leggings, cardigan and blouse.

The result of Image-Googling "beautiful crossdresser" is this girl from Chile.

Someday Funnies

Wearing Veronica Beard (Source: Veronica Beard)

Lewis Bailey and his mother, Natalie

Coincidentally

My daughter has been anxious to leave the nest for awhile now, but has been unsuccessful finding a nest to purchase. So she has decided to rent and found a studio loft apartment in a converted factory in Hartford.

We visited the apartment on Monday, fell in love with the place and she will be moving in soon.

Coincidentally, the old factory also houses the offices of an LGBT organization on my list for potential volunteering.

Originally, the organization was low on my list because I was a little leery about the neighborhood and I was not enamored about the commute to and from Hartford.

I researched the neighborhood and it turns out it is rated one of the safer neighborhoods in Hartford. And the commute is not too bad... 25 minutes door-to-door. Since I will be a volunteer, I can probably choose my hours and avoid the morning and evening rush hours, so that makes the commute even easier.

As a result, the organization is now at the top of my list.

Wearing a Prada bag and a Tahari suit (Source: Rue La La).

Freddie Mercury femulating in a music video for The Great Pretender.

More Face

Tuesday's post mentioned Anja's collection of femulations from television's Your Face Sounds Familiar (YFSF). I would be remiss if I did not mention other online collections of femulations from that show.

My own TV Femulations Pinterest page features all the YFSF images that I have posted here in the past.

Aunty June maintains a flickr page, The Gurls of Your Face Sounds Familiar, containing images of the show's femulations. Aunty's flickr account also has over 9,000 images of femulations from the stage and screen.

Elle's Gossip Gurl blog regularly features videos from YFSF, as well as videos of other femulations that Elle has discovered on the net.

If you visit the YFSF Wikipedia page, it lists the official websites of the various incarnations of the show where you may find images of the show's femulations.

Also, Googling "your face sounds familiar femulation," "your face sounds familiar crossdress" and "your face sounds familiar drag" will also be fruitful.

Wearing New York and Company (Source: New York and Company)

Mihai Trăistariu femulates Thalia on the Romanian version of television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Got Face

Anja wrote, "I often enjoy browsing your site Femulate and notice that you often feature images from the television show Your Face Sounds Familiar in its various incarnations around the world. I have a Pinterest board that tracks the femulations on the show quite closely, so I thought that you might be interested to know about this and take a look. I may have spotted femulations of interest that you may have missed. The link to my board is https://www.pinterest.co.uk/canja0128/your-face/."

Anja has indeed spotted femulations on Your Face Sounds Familiar that I have missed... lots of them!

In my opinion, Your Face Sounds Familiar is the best source for excellent femulations in this day and age. It is too bad there is no longer a version of the show on USA television.

Wearing  Petar Petrov (Source: Moda Operandi)

Jan Révai femulates Cher on Czech television's version of Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Tony's Gang

Saturday night, I binge-watched the last six episodes of The Sopranos Season 2 on HBO.

I was not an early adopter of The Sopranos, but I could not remember when I started watching it regularly. The first three episodes I watched Saturday night were new to me, but I did recall seeing the last three episodes, so I must have started watching the series three-quarters of the way through Season 2.

HBO is rerunning the series because it is the 20th anniversary of The Sopranos' first broadcast. Unless they show Season 1 and the first half of Season 2 again, I will probably not binge-watch it again. However, I will watch my favorite episodes, especially the "Pine Barrens" episode (Season 3, Episode 11).

While I was watching The Sopranos, I ate a corn muffin that my wife had baked earlier. Tasted great, but it was very crumbly and some crumbs ended up in my lap. So I brushed them off and as I did, my wedding band went flying off my ring finger.

Having lost so much weight, I noticed that the ring was loose and I had a few close calls, but now it finally happened. I searched the area where I thought it was most likely to have landed, but I could not find it. So I decided to wait until daylight and resume the search under better lighting conditions.

After breakfast Sunday morning, I resumed the search, but it was not in the immediate area where I was sitting. So I expanded my search and finally found the ring on the other side of the room nearly 20 feet from where I was sitting!

To avoid future losses, I put the ring in my jewelry box until I get it resized or buy a ring size adjuster. I've worn that ring day and night for over 35 years and now my ring finger feels naked without it.

By the way, you might consider brushing the crumbs off my lap was slovenly and inconsiderate, but I fully intended to vacuum the crumbs before I went to bed. And since I perform most of the housewife chores in my domicile including vacuuming, I was not being inconsiderate of my wife because I am also a wife.

Wearing Solace London dress, Kenneth Jay Lane earrings and Alexandre Birman sandals (Source: Intermix)

Krystju Wapcarow as Lily Ivanova on Bulgarian television's version of Your Face Sounds Familiar (Source: www.potv.bg)

Someday Funnies

Wearing Venus (Source: Venus)

Diana Grant, Femulate reader

Second Act

I enjoy retirement and recommend it highly, but I do have free time on my hands and I would like to use some of it productively as a woman outside of the home.

We are lucky enough to live in an area replete with museums and art galleries that are always looking for volunteers. There are also LGBT organizations in the area that welcome volunteers. And the national ham radio organization that I used to freelance for is also nearby and needs volunteers. On the other hand, a part-time job that pays would be nice, too.

So I am ready for my second act, but is the world ready for a woman like me?

I assume that the LGBT organizations would not have a problem. Museums and art galleries are usually run by open-minded folks, so they would probably be OK with me, too. But I am not so sure about the ham radio organization and paid positions.

What to do?

Wearing Tibi blazer-jumpsuit and The Range turtleneck (Source: Intermix)

Contestants in the 1974 Los Angeles Miss Cotillion pageant.

Tasi Zuriack, Rest in Peace

I received reports that Sister House founder, Tasi Zuriack, died.

Tasi was a woman after my own heart and we exchanged many emails over the years. She wrote to me once, "My feeling is if you want to look like a woman, then you better know how the fashionable ones look." Her website reflected that opinion as she tried to educate girls like us how to become women like her.

I will miss Tasi. Her death leaves a big gap in the world of femulators.

* * *

Tasi's death reminds me of how important the Internet has become to femulators. Trans-sister, Jenn, addressed this very topic in a recent email exchange.

"Over the years, we have seen such a great improvement in access to information about our 'condition.' (Sorry for such a clinical term, but I just don’t quite know what else to call it as an all-inclusive reference to those who despite having male genitals wear female clothing.)

"I’m a few years older than you and remember at a very young age going through the card catalog at my library for references to 'Transvestism.' Precious little was available then in my small home town library. I’d have been too afraid to actually request any of the books I found anyway. Those librarians were very imposing to a young femulator.

"Fast-forward to the dawn of the Internet and its precursors the bulletin boards, which later transitioned into services like AOL and CompuServe. I remember many hours using a 14.4-baud modem accessing various sources of information. And, wonder of wonders, actual pictures of similarly situated individuals.

"From those and the subsequent explosion of resources available on the Internet, we now have a huge knowledge base from which to improve our presentation. So, it seems that the Internet has greatly benefited us all in both our understanding of the condition and for our actual presentation.

"We all learn from each other and hopefully, we can teach 'outsiders' as well."

Wearing Venus (Source: Venus)

A recent womanless beauty pageant contestant and her proud family. (Source: Pinterest)