Infographic | Cocktail Dress Season

Well, now that Halloween is behind us…and I had a dismal October of keeping up on my blogging, maybe it’s time for me to settle back into and try to come up with a more productive routine. While I’m a huge lover of the warm summer months, from a social calendar point of view, the season right before Christmas is also one of my favourites. It’s a time when I have a few more opportunities to dust off some of my dresses and nicer clothes and get out to have some fun.

With that in mind, I found a fun little infographic on cocktail dresses…and I know how much you enjoy seeing a woman all dressed up and ready to flirt madly!

With This Ring…Well, Sort of…

As someone who is married, and obviously engaged in a sexually-active lifestyle, there are some statistics that stand out to me as rather interesting. One stat from a British survey I shared the other day generated a bit of chatter on Twitter; which I can never decipher if it is plain interest, or touched on a nerve.

The topic was about how married women view the wedding band. Not the guys in tuxedos singing bad versions of Rod Stewart ballads, but the little gold ring that rests on the third finger of the left hand.

Overall, the survey found one-third of the women who responded said they removed their wedding rings “depending the situation.”

The statistic that generated responses to my Tweet was how 22% of the women of that one-third admitted to removing their wedding rings when they went out clubbing with the girls; and of that total, 59% said “in order to appear single.” Further to that, 11% of those women admitted to further intention of trying to look single in order to hook up with a man who wasn’t their husband.

I find this in contrast to my own experience. When I was young, single and had a young, single body, the majority of guys I knew treated me with an almost sister-like quality. In fact, outside of a couple horny requests in high school, the approaches were dignified and respectful. When I became engaged, it was almost as if the challenge was on – the level of sexual approach increased. Even my male roommates at the time – I was in college when I got engaged – looked at my taken status as a game of trying to see if they could successfully end my engagement. Men at bars only started buying me drinks and trying to chat me up after the ring went on the finger – and even more so when the wedding band joined the engagement ring.

Maybe the men in my life just prefer an insurmountable challenge, as opposed to meeting a truly single young woman.

I’ve been told that men – once they reach a certain level of maturity – aren’t necessarily looking for the commitment that a single woman may expect. I’ve also been told that women – when they reach a certain level of sexual frustration – aren’t necessarily willing to wait for things to improve at home.

I already fall into the category of how 35% remove their rings for work. As I earn my paycheque by spending a portion of my shift rotations in a sterile environment, jewellery of any kind is forbidden … as is make-up (Yikes, I know). Of those of us who do remove our rings for work, another justification was the perception that a wedding ring would harm the career. I guess those workplaces must be the ones with the casting couches, but regardless … still intriguing.

Andee     xoxo

Sex | Something You Haven’t Done

Every now and then, when these kind of questions come up, I get the strangest thoughts in my head. I’m sure the intention behind this one is to detail some swinging-from-the-chandelier rendezvous, but despite the collection of explicit fantasies in the recesses of my mind, one answer immediately emerged.

What’s the one fun thing you would like to do sexually that you haven’t done yet?

As simple as it may sound, the one thing that sits in my mind as something that would be an absolute blast, and maybe not too out there when it comes to sex, is playing strip poker. I’m not much of a card player, but it’s one of those things that I know a lot of people have done in their life and I think it would be something a little wild and crazy. Plus, it generally involves a healthy bit of exhibitionism and voyeurism … and if you play it right, sexy naked men.

And for me, it would have to be a co-ed game, because that would be a great way to see where else some of the bets could go … maybe an intriguing post-strip game of spin the bottle or truth or dare, all adult versions of course.

Naturally, I would wear lots of layers to the game … or if I was feeling lucky, maybe I’d show up commando!

Andee     xoxo

TMI Tuesday | ‘Tis The Season

Is everybody getting ready for another great festive season? I love this time of year, even if things do get a little crazy. For today’s TMI Tuesday, we start getting into the Christmas spirit … and while you are reading, I’m probably getting into the Christmas “spirits!”

During the December holiday season, do you:
   a) Go away to join other family?
   b) Have holiday fun with immediate family?
   c) Get to be alone with a lover?
   d) Enjoy the peace and quiet and downtime of being with yourself?
While it’s not as bad as it used to be, Christmas for me is a whirlwind of activity – and spending time with my own family, and then with my immediate family. My husband kind of views his family as a “if it fits my mood and schedule” Christmas, which often means we don’t see too many people from his side.

What is your favourite holiday tradition or thing you like to do every holiday season?
For me, it’s decorating my Christmas tree. It’s not something that is shared with the same level of sentimentality in our house, but I just love taking my time and reflecting on what each of the ornaments mean to me.

You are walking down the street and a sexy person is standing with a sign that says “Kiss Me” and mistletoe hanging above their head.
   a) Would you kiss the person? Yes or no?
   b) Why, or why not?
Sadly, a cop-out answer here: it all depends. It would depend on my mood, on the circumstances and the level of sexiness that the sign-holder is giving off. Being married also means that my level of smoochable freedom is somewhat restricted to my husband and the occasional clandestine pucker with a certain Office Guy.

Santa made up his list and he has checked it twice. Turns out you are on the “naughty” list. What is the naughty thing you did that put you on that list.
That all depends on how much room Santa has on that list to outline the naughtiness that has been my 2012! But cutting to the chase, probably the naughtiest thing I did in 2012 that I am willing to confess to is the time I managed to convince my married Office Guy to join me for some seriously sexy fun back in March. Without a doubt, there are many who would consider that to be an exceptionally naughty thing for me to do – but I stand by my defence: I had permission to fool around that time.

As for the rest of it; surely Santa knows that sometimes it is better to keep some of those secrets and share the occasional little white lie in order to protect the innocent … right?

If Santa knows more than that, he at least better have been holding the video camera!

For being naughty you have been locked in a room where you will have to watch 24 hours of a holiday movie. Which movie would you choose?
   a) A Christmas Story
   b) It’s A Wonderful Life
   c) White Christmas
   d) A Christmas Carol (original 1938 version or the 1992 Muppet version)
Easy answer for me: A Muppet Christmas Carol. It has become one of my favourites of the holiday season. Although, if you were going to look at this as punishment, It’s A Wonderful Life would be the worst possible thing I could have to endure for 24 hours. I don’t get the appeal of that movie as a “Christmas classic” and it would definitely not put me in the holiday spirit.

BONUS: The holidays can be a hectic time of year, so much so that romance might take a back seat to festivities and such. Give us your sexy tip for keeping away the “chill” and “heating up” the holiday season.
A few years ago, my husband and I started a little Christmas Eve tradition affectionately known as the Naughty Stocking. It’s a cheesy animal-print Christmas stocking that my husband would fill with certain items meant for those “couple moments” and “adult fun” as a small reminder that, despite being parents, we were also a couple.

This was how I got a lot of my naughty lingerie and sex toys for Christmas … because opening a package from Victoria’s Secret in front of my children usually results in a raucous meltdown of prepubescent boys being grossed out by the sight of a woman’s naughty knickers.

Andee     xoxo

Sex | True … or Urban Legend

Every so often, when the mood strikes and the planets seem to be aligned, the conversation at work turns to something intriguing. This time, instead of regaling each other with stories about our wild and crazy weekends (mine almost always involves kids’ sports in the summer time … and the winter time), things turned to sex stories.

Someone had mentioned the old “I heard …” and proceeded to tell everyone sitting there about how the had learned that a certain couple they knew (not us) were involved in “the lifestyle.” This, for those of you who prefer the old goldfish bowl description, is best known as being swingers.

And, it’s often in those discussions that I find my tongue hurts from biting it, or I have to give a friendly boot to those in my life who know just a bit too much about what my weekends are occasionally like.

Regardless, without rehashing the story of what has gone on in my own personal life over the past few months, truth be told, there aren’t very many wild and crazy sex tales for me to share. Even the few occasions when my husband and I tested the waters of swinging, it wasn’t anything like the stereotypes you might associate with it; no orange shag carpets, bean bag chairs, satin jumpsuits and guys with big cheesy moustaches. Just two overly excited married couples, a bit too much to drink, and our imaginations.

But the question in question was: “What is the wildest, most unbelievable sex story you have ever heard?”

I don’t know … this is kind of where I always feel a bit naive and sheltered. Where I grew up, sex usually earned you a reputation. Then in college, it was a bit more experimentation; and though I shared a house with three guys, they knew well enough not to dish out too much of the sexual BS. None of them were exactly Casanovas.

Despite knowing these days that it was just our own small town version of the story, there was one of those urban legends going around back when I was in high school about a girl who tried the old “frozen hot dog” as a sex toy. As I am sure many of you have heard, the story goes about a girl who uses a ballpark frank to sexually pleasure herself, only to discover the hot dog breaks and has to go to ER to have it removed from her vagina.

At my school, the story began after one of those crazy bush parties that happened pretty much once a year. I remember the girl they said it was, and I still wonder if she ever knew, if she cared or if it left her with some sort of emotional pain.

The other story that I found kind of wild and unbelievable was one that was going around about one of the girl’s in my grade. It apparently happened after senior prom at one of the after parties. The girl, who had been drinking (these always revolve around too much alcohol), followed her friend and the friend’s boyfriend into one of the bedrooms at the house where the party was taking place. She then, rumour has it, successfully seduced the other girl and put on a display of lesbian sex not seen outside of movies about the Swedish Bikini Volleyball Team.

I think I am way more intrigued by this tale than the one about the hot dog, mostly because of my own bisexuality and how I would love to have the opportunity to ask the girl if that really did happen.

The thing about sex stories, I believe, is that few of us would tell the whole truth about our own experiences to people who are a regular part of our lives. In my own experience, I’m sure that quite a few people who be speechless to learn of the things I have done, even though none of them would prove to be the genesis of a trilogy of trashy erotic novels about bdsm, billionaires and red rooms. Despite the adventure I am having right now, there is little in my own sexual history that starts with “So, I met this football team after I won a wet t-shirt contest during Spring Break in Daytona …”

But, who knows … maybe someone out there is talking about this somewhat shy and quirky Canadian woman they know who has her own raunchy website and porn videos.

Andee     xoxo