I know I’m a little late for the party. Frankly, I don’t know what I’m doing posting on here, aside from maybe testing the waters. To be honest, I doubt that I have any plans to return to regular blogging here at Closet365. Although I have been making some half-hearted attempts over at All The Pretty Dresses. Blogging is strange territory for me these days, although I miss it dearly. It’s just hard to say what you really want to say sometimes, and so I opt to just keep quiet.

Still contemplating a new blogging avenue. As much as I hate to keep switching venues on those of you who are kind enough to follow along, I think I may have a lead on a permanent place of residence. I don’t even know. We’ll see. Why did I come here again? Oh yes…

True story. Being that I’m in a new place and still have yet to meet a lot of new people to do fun stuff with, I neglected to make real plans for the Fourth of July. Which is a real shame when you consider that I bought this dress back in oh…November…for the express purpose of wearing it today.

We have previously discussed my affinity for festive attire, so it should come as no shock that I fell hard for this little number, even back then. It was winter and I was selling off old clothes, which I no longer had the room or heart to keep. But this dress whispered promises of a better tomorrow, or at the very least a fashionable and exciting summer.

Cut to today, when I’m sitting alone in my apartment on my computer. It is about 100 effing degrees outside and then some. I’m also tired and cranky and don’t feel like going out to find fireworks, even solo, which I usually don’t mind. Still, I really couldn’t let the dress go to waste. If you can’t rock a dress like this on Independence Day, the really, when can you? Pssh. That’s what I thought. I mean, what was I going to do. Just sit at home and wither from lack of compliments on my fun dress? I think not. So when all else fails and you find yourself without the means to show off your festive duds? Just take pictures of yourself and post them on the internet. Duh. That’s what I’d do anyway.

So really, this is just a post to say hello. And I miss you guys. And Happy Fourth of July! I hope the summer is treating you well. Let’s keep in touch!

Dress – Thrifted
Shoes – c/o WantedShoes.com

Title courtesy of Kid Cudi - “Pursuit of Happiness”

I have another outfit post, which has been somewhat recycled from All The Pretty Dresses. As most of you know, I celebrated my birthday last week. And regardless of whether or not it was Pantsless Lent, of course I would bust out a dress for the big day. Here she is!

I had the occasion to wear many dresses, for my birthday. The day of, week of and even month of, now that you mention it. But this was the garment I dubbed my official birthday dress from the first time I laid eyes on it in a shop window.

I’ve actually worn it twice in the past two weeks, because I love it ever so much. I plan to style it many ways, but I think this one is the most quintessential Jenny. Black and white. Classic. Classy. With just a pop of color. The element of surprise. In short, a birthday get-up in the tradition of the the birthday girl. I mean, if you can’t design an outfit after yourself for your own GD birthday, then when the hell can you? Am I right or am I right? Of course I’m right. It’s my birthday. Or was. Anyway.

The weather was uber windy all week last week and into the next. The wind followed me pretty much everywhere. Ordinarily, I find wind to be the most annoying kind of weather, but this year I find it symbolic. With wind brings gusts of strength and it billows change to the horizon. Born on the very last day of March, to my mother who celebrates hers on the first, we’ve always been fond of the adage about the lion and the lamb. Early March this year was calm, making my mother the lamb, I guess. And while, I’d usually be put out by this, I think it’s fitting this go round. I’ve been a lamb enough times in my life, I’m ready to tackle 28 like a lioness.

Dress – Local Boutique
Sweater – Wet Seal
Necklace – Wet Seal
Shoes – Payless

Title courtesy of Switchfoot – “Always”

Actually, the only real reason I’m sitting down at my computer is because that’s about all I’m capable of at the moment. I got stricken with a most nasty head cold early this week and it has only worsened. So I did something that I really really absolutely hate doing. Which is, I took the night to rest. I know. BLECH! I not only left work a smidgen early but I also skipped the gym and am now Taking It Easy. And do you know something? I HATE IT.

In any event. I thought I’d use this time to do a little work on the blogs and while editing photos, I discovered a cache of outfit photos I’d forgot I’d even taken. Nice! So here they are, from several days ago.

I have worn several variations of this outfit since the beginning of Pantsless Lent. Which is another reason why I haven’t been up to daily documentation. There have been a rather lot of repeats going on. But oh well. Wearing a different outfit every day is so 2010, don’t you think! Ha.

There has been some debate as to whether wearing leggings is technically cheating at Pantsless Lent. However, I vote no, on the grounds that leggings are not standing in, in the place of pants. But rather acting as leg covering beneath bottoms which are decidedly not pants. So there. And anyway. What else is a girl to do in the midst of schizoid spring weather around here? One day snowy. One day rainy. Another windy. And a few days which are all of the above. Layering is my friend!

So now there are just three more weeks of Lent to go. I’ll try to post some more in said three weeks, but as always, don’t hold your breath.

Happy Monday everybody!

Dress – F21
Teal Tank – Work
Necklace – Wet Seal
Cardigan – True Love
Leggings – Work
Shoes – Thrifted (Candies)

Title courtesy of The Fray – “The Syndicate”

March was SUCH a whirlwind month. One of the very best by many counts but I’ve scarcely had time to breathe! There are a lot of doings going on in my life right now which are keeping me thoroughly distracted and busy. I’m kind of hoping to just shake some of it off soon and return to quiet normal life. We’ll see.

And I admit, I’m kind of missing pants. I feel like I’ve cycled through most of my favorite skirts and dresses and my favorite tops are just sort of hanging out waiting to be worn again. Oh well. Here is another recent outfit.

I love this outfit a lot. A LOT. Mostly on account of my super awesome elephant necklace! I think I’ve mentioned before that elephants are my favorite animal. I have a small collection of trinkets, given to me as gifts by people who know this strange tidbit about me. I even have my amazing gold elephant belt.

Actually, collecting elephant accessories has been a thing of mine since fourth grade. I adopted the elephant as my favorite animal sometime in the third grade, but a year later it became a full-on obsession. Back in those days I was also thoroughly obsessed with saving the environment, conservation and species preservation. I sold friendship bracelets to save the rainforest and cried about the ivory trade. Oh yeah. I was cool kid. So cool in fact, that while my peers were donning the latest fashions of the late 80s and early 90s, I was rocking out in my oversized elephant t-shirt (African elephant profile on one side, Asian on the other. SO COOL!) and…wait for it…matching bronze elephant earrings. I ACTUALLY WORE THIS FOR MY FOURTH GRADE CLASS PHOTO, YOU GUYS.

In hindsight, it’s not like I was any geekier than my peers. Early 90s fashion was way bad. But just to be on the safe side, I now try to keep my pachydermata love a little more subdued. Still, I can’t help but be drawn to things like this necklace. I wanted an elephant necklace for a very long time and I finally scored this perfect one while in L.A. I was ecstatic. It was all I could do not to wear it with my belt. And also my elephant bracelet. And…oh dear…things really aren’t getting any better are they?

Screw it. Will somebody just buy me THIS DRESS already?

Dress – F21
Cardigan – Thrifted (Charlotte Russe)
Necklace – True Love
Tights – Work
Shoes – Old Navy

Title courtesy of Joanna Newsom – “Go Long”

Well. No need to scold me. I will be the first to admit that I feel terrible for not posting much lately. The good news is that PANTSLESS LENT continues on in Jennytown. The bad news is that I’ve been positively awful about documenting it. What’s going on? Well. Lots of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. Some good. Some bad. A lot in between. My best excuse is that I’ve given myself two weeks of laziness for my birthday. But really. Life has just been hugely distracting. Which is sometimes a welcome change from the blogging pace. But I assume, not a favorite thing for you, the reading.

So, this morning while still waking up, I edited some pictures from about a week and a half ago.

If it makes you feel any better. My real life is just as disorganized as my blogging lately. There is a tower of laundry in my room. My other blog sorely neglected. But at least while all this is going on, I still look dressy?

If anything, maybe we can blame Lent for my slacker ways. All this dressing up has me wanting to Go Out and Do Things! Which is always a lethal equation for not being a shut in and sitting at my computer tap, tap, tapping away. Yeah. That’s it. This is all the fault of Pantsless Lent!

In any event, I wore this cute polka dot dress out to work one morning not too long ago. The weather has been all over the place lately, but mostly lovely. So it was a joy to finally wear this dress all springy-like as opposed to the heavily layered version I did with it last winter. Polka dots really scream SPRING to me. Or maybe even summer. Either way. It’s impossible to feel contained when you’ve got a spring red polka dot dress on. As an added bonus, no one compared me to Minnie Mouse this time. Heck yes!

 Dress – Thrifted
Tank – Work
Necklace – 5.7.9
Shoes – Thrifted

Title courtesy of Elvis Presley – “Spring Fever”

But you actually won’t be seeing that outfit just yet. I’m behind on blogging by a few days and still working through the back log of photos. As PANTSLESS Lent continues, I’m doing my best to document all of my skirts and dresses. Although I may miss a day here and there posting, I remain firm in my shunning of pants. Here is what I wore Sunday:

Yay! Remember this fun tunic dress of mine from days of yore? I wore it a couple of times last year and I still really love it. Enough to even find yet another styling for it. I went a little bit more noir with it this time, adding black accents and big chandelier earrings. I had to put on my Sunday best, as I was attending the theatre in Denver. I say that really pretentious-like with the italics and the British spelling but I can’t be too high and mighty about it when you consider that I was actually taking in a showing of “Avenue Q.”

Yes, smut-addicted, closeted homosexual, racist (a little bit) puppets don’t exactly scream hoity-toity. But it was a good excuse enough for me to get dressed up. And it was also…HILARIOUS. I seriously didn’t know exactly what I was getting into, when I coerced some friends into hitting this one up. However, I’ve been hearing for years just how fabulous it was and it did not disappoint. My insights into Sesame Street are now completely warped and I’ve had “The Internet is for Porn” stuck in my head for several days running.

In any event a good time was had by all. (If  you haven’t seen it, you’re just going to have to trust me on this one.) And I’m glad my tunic dress got a proper outing to the big city. A perfect Sunday. Now if only, I can just get caught up to the rest of my week. Phew.

Dress – Thrifted
Black Tank – Work
Black Tights – Work
Shoes – Payless
Earrings – F21

Title courtesy of Avenue Q – “There’s a Fine, Fine Line”

In fact, I am really digging the challenge. It has really helped me get back in touch with dressing up and how much I love it. It’s something I had sort of lost track of post-project because I was just so burnt out. But now I remember how much fun it is to put effort into everyday dressing. I AM SAVED!!!!! Okay. Maybe a slight exaggeration. Still. Suffice to say that I’m enjoying myself very much.

Here is what I wore Saturday:

Pretty simple outfit. But you know what’s interesting? Even though the year of my 365 is over, I haven’t bought a terrible lot of new clothes and I still find endless new combinations with the stuff I have, to create new outfits. My only problem now, is that I hit upon some new arrangement, I feel kind of guilty if I don’t have the time to photograph and post it. Like it’s somehow being wasted? Oh, if only I had endless hours in the day to keep a log of all of my ideas, execute them and then post them. I would love to be so calculated. Alas, I’m pretty busy, so we’ll just have to make due.

Back to black and white, once more I’m afraid. But I like to think this outfit still has some panache with the addition of the giant white flower bow. I love this thing so much. It makes any outfit it touches. Even this otherwise boring black and white number. It ended up being a little too cold to be wearing this on Saturday as the weather turned cold and cloudy. But So far, the weather has mostly cooperated with my pantsless expedition. Hooray spring! It just keeps getting better!

Skirt – Wet Seal
Sweater – Target
Belt – 5.7.9
Necklace – Wet Seal
Shoes – Work

Title courtesy of CAKE – “Sick of You”

Happy Sunday to everyone. It’s so weird posting in lag time, but I haven’t yet figured out a better way to do it or get caught up really. I haven’t even posted over on my other blog for a week. A WEEK?! But I have plans to get caught up. Life has taken on a rather busy quality this month and I wouldn’t want it any other way. But Yeah. Just…yeah.

If you’ve just tuned in, the cause for resuming daily postage here at Closet365, is that I’ve taken on another unusual style challenge. I gave up PANTS for Lent, and I’m now documenting my daily outfits to prove I’m being dutiful to my own cause. Here is day three:

Wheeee skirt time! Par for the course of doing my project and also just being Jenny, I own about a million skirts. And I love wearing them but skirts can be tricky. Not only do you have to be in the right mood to wear a skirt, but also the weather has to be right. And then you have to pick the right top and the right shoes and so on and so on. Phew. Tricky business! But on the other hand, few things are more fun than busting out a cute skirt and just rocking that thang.

This crazy green skirt was thrifted and then became part of my September Issue theme week (ah memories!) but I haven’t really worn it since. The original styling of it was quite crazy, and there is a lot of color to contend with to wear this skirt. I recently upgraded my old white button down blouse to this one. It’s a wardrobe staple I was desperately lacking. Just a crisp clean white shirt. I really love it and I knew right away that it would be perfect with skirts.

Of course, once the skirt and blouse were paired, I couldn’t help but go crazy with the old-fashioned styling. It called for t-strap pumps and a hair ribbon. Despite my feminist leanings, I have a total soft spot for the good old days when ladies wore nothing but skirts and dresses. And I had fun prancing around all prim and proper that day. It’s really fun for me to just go vintage now and then. I really should do it more often.

Skirt – Thrifted
Blouse – Target
Shoes – Payless
Belt – Thrifted

Title courtesy of Regina Spektor and The Strokes – “Modern Girls and Old-Fashioned Men”

I hope this has been a good week for everyone. So far, I am actually really enjoying my latest 40 day challenge. If you haven’t heard, I gave up a regular fashion staple for my Lenten resolution, and as a result I’m attempting to keep up posting to hold myself accountable.

So far I’d have to say that the best part about giving up PANTS for Lent is telling people and watching their reactions. I can be kind of silly like that. But also, I’m just enjoying getting to get dressed up again! Observe:

As warm temps continue, I persist in dressing like it’s summer. Apparently. I wore this out night before last after a day of 60-degree weather and could not have felt more splendid. Well, at least not until the sun went down and I had to cover myself up with a cardigan and shiver like it was winter all over again. BUT. It matters not, for it was fun while it lasted.

I think I’ve been in a very Bohemian mood lately with my attire. I favor flowy dresses and big accessories. In fact I really enjoyed dressing up an LBD with colorful jewelry and shoes. Not something I do all that often but now I can’t see why. It works perfectly! It adds just the right amount of flair and really brings attention to detail. I think I’ll be doing more of this from now on.

Lastly, the best part about my Pantsless Party is that getting dressed in skirts and dresses really inspires me to get frilly again and feel pretty. My last couple of days worth of outfits have garnered more compliments than all of my style rut getups as of late. It was something that I didn’t even realized I had missed from doing the project. When you put effort into your outfits, people notice. Even perfect strangers and compliments are really the best gift. I look forward to feeling the love as I go forth with this dressy business. Ahoy!

Dress – Local dress boutique
Shoes – Charlotte Russe
Earrings – Work
Bracelets – Wet Seal

Title courtesy of Bright Eyes – “Devil In The Details”