Flower Child - Day 2

I know, I know, I’m waaaaaaay behind. Shush. I promise, I’m playing by the rules for the 30x30 and wearing this stuff every day (though I did cheat and swap out a dress – more on that later). I had a busy weekend, okay?

Anyway, I bought this dress in OHIO of all places. Not saying that Ohio isn’t a great place or anything – it’s just that it doesn't exactly come to mind when I think of fashion. I can’t remember what the little boutique I got it from it was called…something like The Juniper Tree.

Oh, and just so you guys know, it's not that I'm too snobby for stores like Gap, Old Navy, Target, or Loft - it's that none of those stores (except for Target) are close to where I live. However, there are several awesome little boutiques and consignment stores in my tiny little town, so they tend to be where I shop.

I love this dress for soooooo many reasons, but somehow it always ends up hiding in the back of my closet, and then I forget about it until I stumble across it again. It’s especially great for summer, obviously. It’s beautifully light, and I like that it’s white, but has all these great colors in it. I especially like the blue lines that I’m calling clouds – they give it a vaguely Japanese feel (though that could totally just be me going crazy).

I had to wear the cardi because I was teaching this morning, and it was COLD. When I wear a cardi over a dress like this, I normally belt it. I got this Abercrombie belt for $3 – awesome, right? It’s my new favorite belt, mainly because it’s teal, and teal’s one of my new favorite colors, though it takes a backseat to coral at the moment. I’m DATING coral, but I cheat on it with teal pretty often. I know, I know, I’m a horrible person.

 

Cardi - American Eagle

Belt - Abercrombie and Fitch from Change Clothes Consignment

Dress - O'Neil from (?)

Shoes - Worthington from Change Clothes Consignment

Flower pin - Ulta Beauty

Earrings - Somewhere in San Diego

Hippie Chic - Day 1

So, today I felt like a hippie that was trying to be fashionable. This is so sleek, but also super comfy and slightly bohemian. 

I love, love, LOVE this tunic – it’s so light that it almost feels like I’m not wearing anything, but I’m not worried about being arrested for nudity. I also love the detailing at the neck and arms – I feel like that’s one of the trademarks of a good tunic.

The color is also fantastic. I like to wear cool colors (though lately I’ve been getting into yellow and coral), so this pale blue-green is perfect. It’s also a great shape – longish, but not so long that it feels too much like a dress. You also can’t really tell in the pictures, but the fabric has a subtle golden sheen that looks beautiful in the light.

These are my favorite pair of trouser jeans, and one of the only pairs that I’ll wear to work. I could definitely get away with wearing jeans to work every day, since I teach at a small university, but I try not to for several reasons. First, because I’m so young – I feel like I need to dress older than I am so that I’m not mistaken for a student. Second, because I feel that it’s more professional, and third, because it’s fun to dress up every day. I’ve also got tons of clothes, and it’d be a shame if I didn’t wear all of them.

I love these shoes, too. The button detail especially appeals to me – I feel like they could be vintage 1950s heels, even though they totally aren’t. I actually went into the store and stared at them longingly three separate times until I finally gave in and bought them, and now they’re a staple.

I love earrings with dangles too - so fun!

 

Tunic: Celle from Change Clothes Consignment

Jeans: !It Jeans from Imagine Boutique

Shoes: Unlisted from Change Clothes Consignment

Earrings: A gift, originally from World Market

Something New

So, I've decided to do something called the 30 for 30 Challenge, which I first read about on the blog Kendi Everyday (which is a fantastically fun blog, by the way). Essentially, I pick thirty items from my closet (including shoes, but not accessories), make those into thirty different outfits, and wear them for thirty days. I'm also not going to buy any clothing or shoes during those thirty days, though I'm not going to let that exclude me from things like jewelry, hats, or lingerie ;-). Anyway, this is supposed to encourage, not only budgeting, but originality, which it's doing so far. I've made a list plotting out everything I'm going to be wearing on a day-to-day basis, and though I may deviate from that list, it's helped a lot. Now I don't have to think as much about my clothes because I've already done it! Go me!

I also found myself pulling out items (like my floral white dress) that I don't usually wear, so that's been fun too. It's like I'm meeting old friends after a long time :-).

The biggest challenge so far has been finding items of clothing that will translate well for work and play. I teach for four hours in the morning and then have my afternoons to myself, so that took some thinking. I also teach in a freezing classroom, and then go out into sweltering Louisiana weather (I avoid my apartment during the day because my A.C. can't keep up - it's just that hot).

Here are my thirty items:

Seven pairs of shoes

Six dresses

Two skirts

Two pairs of pants and two pairs of shorts

Eleven tops

I'm not going to be counting tank tops or vests as clothing in this equation. Tanks are really a form of underwear for me (I never, ever wear one by itself unless I'm chilling at home or sunbathing), and I've always counted vests as accessories since they can't really be worn by themselves, unlike blazers or cardigans. Unless, you know, you're Britney Spears or something, which I certainly am not.

I also actually started this challenge on June 13 - I'm just late in posting my stuff. I'll get it all up, I promise! I was waiting to post everything I'm wearing until I did laundry, which didn't happen until a couple of days ago since I don't have my own washer and dryer, and must therefore resort to using my parents'. It's like I'm still in college...ah well. Kisses!

Sugar and Spice (and Everything Nice)

So, this outfit is based entirely around my shoes.

Why, do you ask? They’re just cute little brown oxfords – nothing particularly special.

Because these shoes, while I love them, have proven notoriously hard for me to style. I think it’s because they’re so obviously menswear shoes, and menswear can be tricky for most women (myself included).

Now, I like menswear as much as the next girl, particularly suits, blazers, ties, fedoras, and oxfords. I also especially like the whole boyfriend look, where the jeans and shirts are cut just slightly bigger than normal so that it looks like you borrowed them from your boyfriend. I mean, actual men's shirts are INCREDIBLY comfortable - I'm totally going to start raiding my guy friends' closets. 

Anyway, lots of girls can wear these styles and look AMAZING. However, the problem with menswear is that you have to walk a fine line – if you don’t have enough femininity in the outfit to counteract the menswear, you end up looking manish rather than cute.

My solution? Wear lots and lots of flowers. See? I think it works out nicely.

Another thing that works is to make sure that the menswear items you have fit you like a glove - hence the reason for the vest over the denim shirt. This is especially important when you're trying the boyfriend look. Make sure that if you have on a loose-fitting shirt, you're wearing skinny jeans or a short skirt to make up for it. 

Seriously though, these shoes, in my head, cry out for a floral skirt or a ruffled shirt, preferably in a pale color. So I obliged.

 

Oh, and I love my nail polish - I think it's the perfect color for this summer. It's Guy from Gal-veston, by OPI.

Floral hair pin -  Ulta Beauty

Shirt - American Eagle

Vest - Old Navy

Skirt - American Eagle

Shoes - Miss Me? from Obsession Boutique

Bracelet - from Imagine Boutique

And, since I wore so much floral today, I felt the need to be extra girly. Here's me acting extra girly. Kisses!

Too Hot to Trot

See? I told you I’d do better at posting more often!

So first, you get two outfits for the price of one today. Exciting, right? There’s a story there.

My favorite boutique in the very small city that I live in is called Imagine. The clothes are well-made and decently priced, the staff is great, and the owner is wonderful. She’s also been using text messages and Facebook to promote her store – she’ll send messages to customers who sign up for it about various deals. Well, one of those deals was yesterday – if you were one of the first five customers to come in after receiving a text, you received any pair of jeans in the store FREE with a purchase of $25 or more.

I was the fifth customer. Can I tell you how excited I was? I mean, I normally don’t need any excuse to visit Imagine, so this was like, a bonus. These are the ones I got, and the awesome flowy top was my $25-or-more purchase.

Aren’t they cute?

Normally, I go for the more professional, dark wash jeans, but these were just sooooo cute I couldn’t resist. Besides, it’s summer – I’m only teaching for six weeks anyway.

Unfortunately, because it’s summer in Louisiana, it’s waaaaaay too hot to wear these today, so I’m wearing this instead.

Rest assured, however, these jeans WILL be making a frequent appearance, especially when it cools down a bit.

Anyway, back to the outfit itself. Tops like this tend to scare a lot of women because they can be hard to style. Many women also have the misconception that tops like this will make them look fat. That’s actually not the case 90% of the time, though invariably, there will be one flowy top that WILL do that. This is why it’s important to try them on, and to keep in mind the idea of proportion: if you have something billowy on top, wear something fitted on the bottom.

This top in particular is nice because it’s so light and sheer – it literally feels like all I’m wearing is the tank top underneath. I also love the colors in it – it’ll go with nearly everything that I wear! It’s going to be making a frequent appearance, I can promise you. Because it's so bright, I kept to fairly simple gold jewelry. Silver or other metalics would also work, but because of the yellow and red in this top, I wanted to stick with warm tones.

 

 

Oh, and by the way this is the hairstyle that I wear when either a) I wake up and my hair looks like crap (usually b/c I washed it and slept on it), b) I washed it but don’t have time to dry it (which happened today), or c) I want to put it up in a style other than a pony tail. I found the idea for it here, on Stylish White Female’s blog (which is one of my favorites, by the way). It’s really easy, and if you do it with wet hair, you get awesome ringlets! I recommend using really strong bobby pins instead of the regular ones – they tend to fall down, though if you use enough of them (and enough hairspray) they work in a pinch. 

Top: 5^th Culture at Imagine Boutique

Jeans: Anoname at Imagine Boutique (a similar style is The Artist at American Eagle)

Shorts: American Eagle

Tank: American Eagle

Shoes: Steve Madden

Bracelet and Earrings: Thrifted from Change Clothes Consignment Boutique

Oh, and I FINALLY have a Twitter account, so everyone should totally follow me. Have a fun day! Kisses!

To California in Seven Days

I am so very, very sorry, dear readers, that it has taken me this long to update my blog. It all started with a trip to San Diego…and as such, this blog will be devoted to travel fashion!

I went to San Diego to visit my cousin for Spring Break (I still get one of those because I’m a teacher, for those of you who don’t know). When I fly, I have what I call my “traveling uniform.” Everyone should have one of these, though they can vary from person to person. I, for example, want to be comfortable, but I also tend to get cold. Then I take into account the weather at the airport I leave from and the one that I arrive at, and the fact that I can’t have anything metal on my person when I get body-scanned (which is soooo much fun, by the way). I also hate being barefoot, particularly in areas where a lot of other people have walked barefoot, like the gym, or the airport security line. As a result, I’ve come up with a basic outfit that keeps me comfortable and generally doesn’t set off any alarms.

   1.    A comfortable dress or tunic in a jersey-type material. I want something that doesn’t wrinkle and is long enough to cover my ass without getting bunched up around my waist when I sit for too long.

   2.     Leggings or jeggings (preferably leggings). Again, I want

    something comfortable, but cute. Leggings are preferred when I’m going somewhere warm, like California, or returning to the New Orleans Airport. That way I can just take them off when I get to my destination.

   3.     Boots (or booties) and socks. I HATE being barefoot at airport security – it’s just gross. Boots I can pull off are just as easy to deal with as tennis shoes.

   4.     A lightweight cardigan for when the plane is too cold that I can remove when it gets warm.

   5.     A lightweight scarf for the same reason. 

None of these items have any metal on them (except for perhaps the boots) and I don’t generally wear jewelry when I fly so that it doesn’t confuse the machines. When I left San Diego, I wore a comfortable dress with a big zipper down the back, which confused the scanner. I'm sorry - if it's so dumb that it can't recognized a zipper on a dress, it's not smart enough for widespread use.

If I really don’t want to wear boots after I arrive at the airport, I just bring cute heels or wedges that I can change into after, and then I’m good to go! For example, I wore this awesome stripped-down travel uniform all day today, and all I did was drive to the next town.

 

 

Until next time! I promise it won’t be so long – travel threw me off, and then finals and final grades made me a hermit that did nothing but grade for three weeks straight. It won't happen again! Kisses!

Dress - from Change Clothes Consignment Boutique

Wedges - Pink Studio from Obsession Boutique

Earrings and Bracelet - from Ruby Boutique

Leggings - from Target

Boots - from Ruby Boutique

Cardigan - Alternative from Ruby Boutique

Scarf - from American Apparel

Suitcase - from Samsonite

Clutches and Handbags

So those of you that know me may have observed that I generally carry a giant bag. This is due to the fact that unfortunately, as an English teacher, I have to carry at least some of my work with me nearly everywhere I go. However, I can appreciate tiny little bags too (in fact, I wish I could carry them instead of my “suitcase”).

I saw this today and thought, “Wow! That would be so awesome – I want one!” I love the idea of a clutch disguised as a book - it appeals to my intellectual side in addition to my fashionable one (though not as much to my fashionable side).

More info about these "book clutches" here.

Granted, I’m also an English nerd (as you may have noticed – if not, it’s okay – I’m good at fooling people). Would you carry a novelty purse/clutch like this? I think it’s super amazing, particularly the Dracula version, but I’m not sure that I would ever actually carry it as a purse (though I might as a wallet). I actually use a clutch as a wallet – it’s the roomiest clutch I’ve ever seen. See? 

(please forgive its rather ratty appearance – I’ve had it for a couple of years now)

This is my favorite clutch, though – it’s small, but also large enough to carry all of the crap that I find myself thinking is absolutely necessary for a night out.

Ultimately, I think that a clutch should be sleek, but unique (Ha! I rhymed! Totally unintentional). It’s one reason I love this one: it’s a nice, square shape and a great neutral gray, but it’s subtle pattern and the detailing make it something that you’re not likely to see out and about more than once. That being said, I’ve got a slim black one that I rather like, but as it’s my most basic one (read: boring), I don’t use it often.

I also have this great vintage one that my grandmother carried – this one doesn’t come out often, but it’s still super cool, I think. That's all bead work, believe it or not.

And sadly, there will be no fun and awesome outfit tonight, since I'm already in my pajamas. I promise to have one posted later this week, though. I hope you enjoyed this post, despite it's lack of fashionable clothes. Kisses!