This Is Gonna Be Reality, You Can Never Dream it Down

Tags

black braided strap sundress, bright eyes, peacock bracelet, peacock earrings, teal bangle bracelets, turquoise and gold shoes

Good morning!

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”

This Is The New Stuff, I Go Dancing In

Tags

gold bangles, painted 80s dress, Peter Gabriel, turquoise and gold shoes, white shell disc necklace

Exhale.

Well, I don’t want to jinx anything just yet. Because technically the kids aren’t back in school until Tuesday. But we can almost, almost, almost close the books on my smoothest Back-To-School weekend ever. I will say that business was lacking ever-so-slightly. But the real triumph was the absolute lack of shenanigans this year. It was amazing. BTS usually brings high levels of drama, but this year went off without a hitch. No argumentative bargain shoppers, no massive storm-outs at the fitting rooms, no mother-daughter brawls, no creeper dads, no run on double zero jeans, no high-maintenance teen divas. Not even one person yelling at me over the lack of boot-cut jeans vs. the abundance of skinny-legs. Amazing!

We had one small mad rush tonight at 5:45 (Of course, because the mall closes at six on Sundays) but otherwise, it was a blessedly low-stress weekend. Or maybe I’ve just gotten better in my execution over the past three years. Either way. I just have to get through tomorrow and then Tuesday calls for some serious R&R. I haven’t figured out just how I’m going to celebrate but I will figure out some way to adequately decompress from all of it.

 So, if you’ve been reading since clear back in January, you might remember that I am so NOT an 80s fan. Hence 90s week. My loathing of the 80s covers just about everything from the music to the clothes. The 80s are not back in my book and they never will be. Therefore, I do my best to shun any piece of clothing that is even remotely 80s-inspired. My oft recycled retort when faced with anything with a large bow or with obnoxious geometric leanings is Yeah, that looks like something I’d wear to a baby shower circa 1985.

Funny though. That’s exactly what I said, when this dress caught my eye. I was just about to leave a rather sketch little thrift store on the outskirts of town when out from a rack of gnarly-looking old sweaters jumped this colorful little number. I was in a hurry to leave. I didn’t dare try it on. It didn’t even have a tag. I had a $5 bill to my name in a cash-only establishment. So I politely inquired as to the price, knowing that if it was meant to be, it would be. The cashier croaked a quote of $3 at me and I gladly forked it over.

This dress is old and delicate. I’d defend my purchase of a dress that pre-dates me graduating kindergarten by claiming it looks more sophisticated. I’d say, well this isn’t your grandma’s 80s dress. But then again, it just might be. This would make a nice church dress for a reformed member of the Brat Pack. Or maybe I could just wear it for another day heading up the music program at Alta Dena Middle School. Hot mic, anyone? 

They say everything that’s old can be new again. And I usually beg to differ. But every now and then, and with the right gold accessories? It just might be a little true.

Dress – Thrifted
Necklace – Wet Seal
Gold Bangles – Work
Shoes – Charlotte Russe

Title courtesy of  Peter Gabriel – “Sledgehammer”

When The Pretty Birds Have Flown, Honey I’m Still Free

Tags

Liberty floral blouse, pearl and crystal bead necklace, turquoise and gold shoes, white capri pants

Oh Monday, Monday. I feel like this is going to be a long week. Back-to-school business is finally starting to trickle in, so I should be fairly busy at work. I’ve also been trying to catch up on all my blog reading and I need to figure out how to do that via Blackberry. But also just FYI, if you use Blogger, I haven’t been having any luck leaving comments without getting a big mean error message. This makes me sad.

I am going to wrap this up so that I can spend some time with the husband and then go to bed. I have an early morning run tomorrow and I feel like I need to pace myself for the duration of the weeek. But how about some reader questions? I know there are some new faces out there, so why not introduce yourself? What’s your name? (if I don’t know it already) What was the best thing you did all weekend? Enjoying the summer or looking foward to fall? Favorite show on TV right now? Any guilty pleasures? (TV or otherwise. I’m nosy, so I’ll take anything you want to share.)

So I mentioned Friday that I may have inadvertently gotten an Anna Wintour haircut.I had an odd experience at the salon. My stylist was an obese 50-year-old dude named Tracy with a bleach blond goatee and a bunch of random tattoos. He convinced me that an A-line bob was the way to go and then proceeded to cut and style it very slowly. Meticulously I must say. But hours later when I left the salon I was a little jarred. I looked in the mirror and thought I recognized someone besides myself. I keep expecting her to jump out of the mirror at me and tell me that my clothes are out of season and I need to lose ten pounds. But other than that I dig it.

My hair also came in handy this morning while trying to talk myself into this top. See, one of my frequent thrifting laments as of late, is that Goodwill has turned into a virtual Target graveyard. It’s wear unsold merchandise goes to die, which sort of takes the fun and originality out of thrifting. BUT, other times it works to one’s advantage if you just happen to find that item that piqued your interest but wasn’t worth paying full price for. Enter Liberty for Target blouse. While totally intimidating in its original habitat - among the racks at GW - it suddenly seemed worth snatching up.

I’m not totally surprised this blouse ended up among the walking dead at Goodwill. It’s not for everyone. Maybe not even me. Such an ostentatious ruffle requires that we proceed with caution. But that print?! Oh, the print. Now that part is worth taking a chance on. I feel like there are other styling possibilities for it, waiting to be discovered but for today I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. Some simple white capris worked fairly well. And pearls for good measure.

I’m still not totally sure how I feel about the shirt. It didn’t really garner any fans. It’s avante garde, even for me. (Read: I kind of felt like a birthday clown.) I just kept telling myself that between my haircut and some large sunglasses, I could just pretend to be too cool for school and carry the look. But really, I think Liberty for Target is one of those things that thrives only in style blogland. It gets lost in translation elsewhere. I’ll probably try and work it a couple more days and then donate it back from whence it came. Although, I am open to suggestions.

Top – Thrifted (Liberty for Target)
Capris – Thrifted
Necklace - Wet Seal
Shoes – Charlotte Russe

Title courtesy of Abba - “Take A Chance On Me”

There’s a Whole Lot of Rhythm Going Round

Tags

brown floral dress, George Clinton, gold bangles, turquoise and gold shoes

Happy afternoon/evening/weekend everybody. It never gets any better trying to come up with a greeting every day. Sometimes I wish I could skip right over it, but that feels rude. Manners. Tsk.

The show last night was awesome. I have never seen so many wasted OLD people in my life, but it was pretty amusing. Tom Petty put on a great concert and I’m still stoked that I got to be there. I don’t always enjoy concerts because I’m claustrophobic and not really keen on sweaty strangers. But when the show is good, it’s so worth it. I’d say more, but I’m posting this on the fly.

Correction. Was posting on the fly. I thought I had plans for the evening and they fell through. I love my friends, but they are a highly disorganized lot. It’s quite the point of contention for someone as anal-retentive and planny as me. I’d make new ones, but something tells me it wouldn’t be as much fun. In any event, now the husband and I are talking a date night. I need to get cleaned up again after the gym.

Not loving today’s outfit, simply because it was thrown on in a rush. What was I just saying about planning? I’ve worn this dress once before back at the very beginning of the project in a winterized version. You can expect to see a lot of my old dresses coming out to play summer-style. It’s FINALLY time.  I’m finding the heat makes it harder to put together crazily layered and concocted outfits. Simple is going to be the name of the game, until I figure out just kind of look I’m going for this summer.

I do love the dress though. It’s been with me through a lot and it acts as a sort of comfort piece, if nothing else. I call it my travel dress, because I wore it all the times I flew last year. It’s an incredibly comfy dress to wear on a plane (or when stranded at DFW for five hours sitting against a wall playing Oregon Trail on your phone) and still be able to arrive  not looking like a total schlub. I guess that theory also applies to my landlocked summer. Rushed for time as I may be, I can still throw this on and not feel like I got dressed in the dark.

Also loving headbands for summer. Or maybe it’s just that I’m due for a haircut on Monday. I doubt I’m going to do anything different this time. But I did stop trimming my own bangs last week, so as not to get yelled at by my stylist. Everything is a little shaggy for my liking just now. In the meantime a hairband is the only standing between me going crazy.

But enough about my stupid hair. Happy weekend all!

Dress – Charlotte Russe
Shoes – Charlotte Russe
Gold Bangles – Work
Necklace – The Icing

Title courtesy of George Clinton - “We Want The Funk”

Came To My Senses and I Chilled For a Bit

Tags

aqua ribbed boy tank, brown beaded necklace, brown braided belt, brown flower printed sundress, colored cluster earrings, Salt 'N' Pepa, turquoise and gold shoes

Hello Sunday!

I hope this Sunday finds you well. If not, this is a reminder from me to you – it’s okay to take a deep breath. I know this now, firsthand. Two weeks of stress from illness, injury and inclement weather found me pretty tightly wound by the end of this week. I ended up having to go back to the doctor for my ridiculous side pains which was just added nonsense. Turns out that coughing for a week and a half can pretty much wear out your ribs and the muscles that surround them. Which then leads to excruciating side pain. 

I was given painkillers and told to take it easy. Easier said than done for me and I had a small breakdown about this. Someone joked that I perhaps needed to be locked in a sterile padded room for the next two weeks, lest I end up with some other affliction before the big race day. I agreed, but only on the grounds that I needed to be locked up for my mental health less than my physical.

Still, as today wore on, I realized that the freaking out wasn’t worth it and I’m trying to just chill out a little. I got some reorganizing done around the house to make life easier and bought what was probably wayyy too many groceries. But I feel better now. I have a quick meeting at my store and then I think I am going to make the husband take me out for a casual date. Take some more deep breaths. It will all be okay.

For the record, today’s title song is the greatest song ever written. Ever. Or at the very least, the first truly great rap song that I ever memorized. It marks the beginnings of my gangsta aspirations and I can still recite it verbatim. If nothing else, it cheers me up today. Can I get some fries with the shake shake booty, if looks could kill you would be an uzi or a shot gun bang…

Speaking of being twelve. I feel a little childish in this crazy little printed dress. It was kind of a wild card, when I bought it for $2 at a thrift store. I knew I’d wear it maybe once, but I wasn’t thrilled about it. Still, for $2, I knew it would come in handy on a day like today when I wasn’t up to much and wasn’t going to be out and about. There are days when you want to bust out the fine China and other days, when you just want to use paper plates. This is a paper plate kind of dress, but now that it’s on, I quite like it. The print is less overwhelming than it was on the hanger. I would even go so far as to say it’s cute.

The husband actually likes it a lot. He says it reminds him of something to be worn in a retro commercial and deemed it my best thrifting score to date. I don’t know if I agree, but it will get me taken out for frozen yogurt. So I’ll roll with.

(Chocolate chip, honey dip, can I get a scoop? Baby take a ride in my coop…)

Dress – Thrifted
Blue Boy Tank – Work
Necklace – The Icing
Earrings – 5.7.9
Shoes – Charlotte Russe

Title courtesy of Salt ‘N’ Pepa – “Shoop”

It’s Dangerous Work, Trying to Get to You

Tags

Fiona Apple, red print dress, tan trench, teal bead triple strand, turquoise and gold shoes

Hello, Hello!

How did Wednesday treat you? I have to say I love, love, loved all the answers to yesterday’s music questions. If you haven’t answered go back and do so. Or at least read them. The concert tales are my favorite.

For today I have a few more questions to get to know the readers. Today we’ll play it random: What do you do for a living? What is your favorite smell? Pet peeves?  and… What did you eat for lunch? Those are questions everyone can answer, yes? Or at least choose a couple of them. You know you want to. Or at least you know that I want you to.

So, I got some bangs today. I think I like them. They were a little Betty Page for my taste, when I first left the salon, but I’m not gonna lie. I lightened them up a little with my own clipping shears when I got home. I’m not usually one to go DIY on my own hair, but trust me. They look better than they did. Color-wise, after careful consideration I’ve got back to my native brown. I was going to go red one more time before summer but thought this color would better suit the cut.

One dress. Day four. As theme week continues, I decided to go sophisticated. Partly in celebration of my new haircut, but also because we just don’t get enough opportunities to wear trench coats and big sunglasses. We really don’t. The dress continues to surprise me, in its ability to take on the properties of its surroundings. It totally chicified itself with the addition of bright jewelry and secret agent lady accessories. That’s what I’m calling this look. Secret Agent Lady. I have totally always wanted to be a detective and I think I’d be good at it. I already watch “Law & Order: SVU” like it’s my job. Plus, I’m nosy. I’m able to slip through a crowd unnoticed. And I like doughnuts. Why didn’t they ever put those things on career aptitude tests?

 Dress – Thrifted (Fossil)
Necklace – Wet Seal
Trench – 5.7.9
Shoes – Charlotte Russe

Title courtesy of Fiona Apple – “Red, Red, Red”

 p.s. More pictures behind the cut!