Sunday Brights

I don't have much to talk about today- I'm working my way through a closet purge of sorts, but its kind of loosey-goosey. I maybe should have spent a little more time thinking through what actually needs to be purged, but maybe just ousting a handful of for-sure-no's will kick start thinking about my closet as a whole. I have a lot of things I like, but I haven't started thinking through what fits into my "intended overall look" and so I don't want to donate what might still be in the running. Aaaanyway, it's good to get into it.

I hope your Sunday is shaping up nicely- I'll see you all in the morning!

Pants: Gap...Shirt: thrifted...Cardigans: Target...Shoes: Nine West Outlet

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BTW- Get excited for Kayla's 10 Day Challenge! I'm so happy and grateful to have found the original 21 Day Challenge juuust as I was beginning to blog, having a little direction and making some friends along the way was such a gift!

Check it out, link up, and have some fun with us!

Rebel without a Cause

There really was no need to keep piling on more dark neutrals. But I did it. I'm baaaad. A fashion rulebreaker. With totally safe, unassuming, borderline dull articles of clothing. Too bad I like it. Maybe I am a little boring if neutrals-mixing is as "naughty" as I get. Brown, navy and black can all be buddies, I think.

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Tee: H&M...Cardigan: Target...Blazer: Tinley Road via Piperlime...Shoes: Kenneth Cole Reaction via Piperlime

Happiest Friday- I hope I'll have some good stories to tell you all this weekend. And I hope I get dressed. Yoga pants are always so tempting when your grand plans are to walk the dog around the neighborhood.

Stuck on You

I glued my hand to a mug yesterday. It was, indeed, every bit as idiotic as it sounds. I repaired an old ceramic beauty that was cracked all to hell to be used as a pencil cup and the seams were a little tricky. So I used some of that creepy craft-store super powered stinky glue, applied only a little bit too much (with the knowledge that I could actone the extra off the surface) and clamped it between my index finger and thumb. It held beautifully. The tricky part was when I lifted my hand away to discover that a bead of glue dropped onto the final chunk of mug that still needed to be done (and I braced my hand on the desk/chunk to glue the initial two together). The chunk was firmly stuck to the heel of my palm. Oops.

Pants: Zara...Buttondown: J Crew Outlet...Cardigan: Target...Belt: Target...Shoes: Nine West Outlet

Absurd Vintage Goodies

What has two thumbs, stinky photos and camera settings that still aren't right? THIS GUY! Oh, well. I'll figure it out over the weekend, I'm sure.

A few notes from this week: the weather here is glorious. I used foaming tanner and showed my bruise off to avoid another day in tights. Boss lady's grandkids are so funny and sweet, I could hurl (I gifted them a few pastel bottles of nail polish a few weeks ago and they giggly show off their mani's with the colors I gave them. So adorable!). I'm not a very good fried rice maker- I made tons of it, but had low sodium soy sauce and a reeeeeally hard time cooking the egg in. This absurd green faux-snake belt with shiiiiiiiny gold hardware made me chuckle every time I looked down.

I'm also very glad to be in a mostly thrifted outfit again- the last few days with Gap-heavy lineups were a little depressing. I guess that's bound to happen when one works there for 1 1/2 years. A collection of sorts tends to accumulate.

I should do a post on the collections I have going. There's some weird stuff in my house.

Skirt: Banana Republic, thrifted...Blouse: Gap, thrifted...Belt: thrifted...Shoes: MaxStudio via DSW...Bracelets: Beijing Cart Vendor

And speeeeeaking of weird stuff, check out this groovy new floor lamp boss lady let me take from the cast-off corner of her storage unit. I'm in love. (Pardon the dog clutter, he's a toy hoarder)

Roasting.

As it turns out, tights were a functional mistake. The whole "look" turned out a little better with them (two points: 1. My legs are paaaaaaaaale. 2. There is a 4" bruise on the back side of my leg. Don't know where it came from.) but holy bejeez, it's humid.

Also, my camera seemingly ignored every setting I programmed and pictures came out wildly dark, so here are my grainy digitally quick-fixed masterpieces. It's a good thing this is a daily documentation blog, not a hoop-de-do high fashion blog, huh?

Skirt: Banana Republic via Buffalo Exchange...Buttondown: Target...Cardigan: Gap...Tights: Gap...Shoes: Kenneth Cole via Piperlime

Good Mornin', Good Mooooornin'.

We've been watching a lot of Will and Grace reruns lately. And Debbie Reynolds is easily one of my favorite guest stars. And I had to tell my guy why her entrance into a scene singing "Good Morning" was funny. He's such a kill-joy musical-hating music-snob. Thank goodness most of the rest of his musical taste is agreeable.

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Tee: GapBody...Cardigan: Gap...Scarf: Gap...Boots: Target

Tennis Golf Sunday

Oh, man. Beer Golf is silly business. You hit a tennis ball with a golf club around an open area (Rice University is our location of choice) and try to knock something within a random number of strokes while dragging a cooler of canned beer behind you. Long Drive challenges or a losing a round may incur a beer chug penalty. (And we figure we're relatively accepted around campus- a different Rice U tradition is called "Baker 13" during which shaving cream smeared nekkid goons from the Baker Dorms run around campus on the 13th of each month- we're tame in comparison)

The dog and I kept score and cheered everyone on and the rest of the group each did their fare share of knocking divots in the University's lawn and ricocheting tennis balls off trees and archways. Beautiful sailing shots that actually went somewhere rather than getting stopped by a tree limb were few and far between. It was a fun day.

My guy and I also ran around our neighborhood for a while this morning scouting locations for a new headshot for his website. So, I have a goodie for you all today: OUTDOOR PHOTOS. I'm still sooo very nervous and weird about scuttling around outside on my own to do timer shots. I'll gain confidence, maybe one day it'll become a regular thing.

Jeans: Gap Always Skinny...Buttondown: Target...Sweater: J Crew, thrifted...Blazer: Gap...Shades: stolen from My Guy...Shoes: Sperry via DSW...Bag: D&B via Buffalo Exchange

Aaaaaaaand:

Season Opener 

Long Drive Challenge

A Poopy Day

We fought earlier today. Ugh. Kinda ruined the mood of togetherness for the day.

It's over now, thank goodness.

But the weather was great, the dog needed to run so we spent the day at the dog park and I was in cheerful colors. 

Tomorrow will be better. Beer Golf. Hecks yes.

Jeans: Gap Always Skinny...Tank: J Crew Outlet...Cardigan: Target...Shoes: Sperry via DSW...Scarf: thrifted...Shades: Gap

Signature simplicity

This is another example of why you stalk you local resale stores. How cool is this jacket? A little hip, a lot lovely, and designer for under $25. Yup, I just purchased that Free People boucle jacket with little cordovan leather accents in all my favorite neutrals for $24.50. (I also tried on a Prada cropped boucle jacket, which fit beautifully, but it was $60. Nope.) Of course I gave it a test drive with a simple black on black base and added a mix of ivory and grey pearls, all my basics. Throw in a 4 day old vampy manicure and call it a winter outfit success with minimal effort.

I'll temper all this excitement with a few quick notes: I'm not a "designer slut"- if it fits and it's beautiful and within my price range, I'll appreciate the designer status as a likely indication of a more quality made item and not a status symbol. Also, I'm a cheap-skate. This is the first article of clothing I've fallen in love with and purchased since sometime in mid-November. I think I bought socks somewhere in there. But, that's the fun of shopping your closet, not the store- it gives you a chance to get reacquainted with your wardrobe as a whole, allows you to digest the notion of "your style" or "your signature look" and to move on with new purchases accordingly.

So, what's been your recent favorite find and personal style statement?

Pants: Zara...Tee: GapBody...Blazer: Free People via Buffalo Exchange...Shoes: Naturalizer...Pearls: J Crew and from Beijing

A Rude Awakening

My cat is a jerk. A need machine. A pillow-usurping nightmare. I spent last night on barely a  corner of my own pillow. Because she slept like a little princess right in the middle of it. Let's take a moment to discuss the frequency with which I steal a majority of the blankets and "snuggle up and borrow a corner" of my guy's pillow, but seriously? RIGHT in the middle? And what's worse is that I felt a little bad about disturbing her. I mean, her normal happy place overnight is on the windowsill that is behind our low headboard, shrouded by snuggle curtains. It's her own little cave, but it got cold and she needs a little warmth, I get it.

And then she got up at 4 am, stretched, stepped on my face and pranced down the length of my body and proceeded to squawk about being hungry (she only gets dinners). I quit feeling bad after that.

It got chilly again, guys. Back to tights and wool-blend sweaters. Dangit.

Dress: Marshalls...Cardigan: Banana via Buffalo Exchange...Tights: Gap...Shoes: Naturalizer...Necklace: J Crew Outlet