OOTD: Is It Spring Yet?

Because I would really like it to be Spring already.Here's what I wore out to brunch on this rainy San Francisco day.

Outfit Info

• pink floral dress with ruched sleeves (I should have taken a picture of the sleeves!) – ASOS
• faceted stud earrings – Adriana Orsini on Saks Off 5th
• blue leather wrap belt – ADA
• pink faux suede trench – Zara
• fuschia leather saddle bag – Coach (available on Amazon!)
• blue suede mary janes – Camper

Hope you're having a frank, productive, springlike day.... wherever you are.

OOTD: Redrum

Had a pretty shitty holiday in terms of my health. It turns out altitude sickness is extremely serious, potentially fatal, and fucking TERRIFYING.So, today, I kicked off the new year and my road to recovery with follow-up visits to the doctor and a brand new therapist for my brand new altitude-sickness-near-death-related anxiety! Hooray! This dress and scarf combo featuring the carpet pattern from The Shining just felt right for the occasion. You know?Anywho, pics and info behind the cut.

Outfit Info

• dress and Scarf – The Shining - Overlook Hotel Carpet pattern by goatboyjr on Redbubble
• trio scarf ring – Hermes
• green faux leather jacket – Bagatelle via Bloomingdales
• black suede wedge booties – Taryn Rose via RueLaLa

Hope you had better holidays than I did! HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

OOTD: Just Say No to Pants

I've said it before and I'll say it again: pants are for jerks. Don't let cold weather sway you from an anti-pants stance. Stay strong! Individual pics and outfit info behind the cut...

Outfit Info

• purple sweater dress – ASOS
• checked wool belted blazer – H&M
• charcoal wedge over-the-knee boots – Stuart Weitzman
• yellow leather clutch – Baggu
• "No Pants" pin – PINTRILL

Have a frank and productive day, friends.Follow my blog with Bloglovin

OOTD: Pink Yarn Print

I like red and I like pink and I like putting outfits together and taking pictures of them. Oh, look! Here are some pictures now!

Outfit Info

• "Pink Yarn" dress and scarf by etherize  – Redbubble
• hammered silver studs – Gorjana
• giant red safety pin used as a scarf ring – Amazon
• red faux leather moto jacket – Zara
• turquoise leather clutch – Baggu
• red leather booties – Topshop

Hope you're doing swell!

Holiday Dressing, Part 1: Christmas

Maybe you've noticed my love of Redbubble dresses (examples here, here, here, here, and here). Maybe you'd prefer to call it an obsession. Maybe you should stop judging and get off my back for once. Maybe you're kind of jerk. Maybe you can fuck right off.WAIT! WAIT! Don't go. I'm sorry. Look! I picked out a whole bunch of Christmas-print dresses for you. 12 of them, in fact, for the 12 days of Christmas. Isn't that cute? Forgive me and look at these awesome dresses!BEHOLD!Please send one of each to my home immediately.Anywho, as the title suggests, this is but the first in a series of posts with my picks for holiday dresses. Over the coming weeks, I'll cover Hanukkah, Festivus, Birthdays (because it's almost my birthday), and New Year's Eve! STAY TUNED AND LET'S NEVER FIGHT AGAIN!

OOTD: All For Moe

Well, now I'm just putting outfits together for the fun of it. Here's an outfit inspired by one of the greatest television shows of all time, The Simpsons.

Outfit Details

• Thames Fog long-sleeve mesh dress in "azure" – Universal Standard
• cream turtleneck sleeveless tunic – Gap
• yellow silk wrap belt – vintage, but here are similar in cotton and suede on Etsy.
• yellow zippered jacket – Lafayette 148 New York
• Moe Tassel Clutch – Skinnydip London
• Call Me Mr. Burns enamel pin – Skinnydip London
• Sam Edelman embellished mules – Amazon

There it is. Now take off and have a frank and productive holiday. 

OOTD: Playing My Cards Right

Had a terrific dinner at The Progress last night. Go there and eat all the things immediately!ALL THE THINGS.IMMEDIATELY.This is what I wore. Bigger pics and details behind the cut.

Outfit Info

• Scattered Pack of Playing Cards dress by HotHibiscus – Redbubbleblack
• mesh top – H&M
• black suede wrap belt – Bloomingdales
• black leather Michael Kors booties – 6pm

HAPPY WEDNESDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING, FRIENDS!

OOTD: Thanksgiving Prep

If everything goes according to plan, I'll be spending most of the Thanksgiving holiday in some variation of jammies – jammies with a jacket to go get some coffee, jammies with some slippers to head to the fridge, jammies and a blanket to catch up on some Netflix. Jammies with some jammies to sit and think about jammies. Jammies.Anywho, I reckoned I should get a little dressing up in before jammies-gedon. I wore this yesterday to go pick up a turkey and gather provisions.Outfit info and a closer look at this awesome Redbubble print behind the cut. I want to go to there, but part of me suspects a demogorgon inhabits these woods. Only one way to find out...[gallery ids="7632,7631" type="rectangular"]

Outfit Details

• Forest Creek @ Sunrise in Fall dress – DyrkWyst on Redbubble
• Cream turtleneck sweater – (currently 40% off!) from Old Navy
• Green leather wrap belt – Ada Collection 
• Yellow leather saddle bag – Coach, but deeply discounted in other colors on Amazon
• Saddle leather campus boots – Frye

Side note: I've had these Frye boots of TEN (10!) years. They really hold up. 13/10 would recommend.How's your Tuesday going? Good? Good. 

OOTD: I Have to Return Some Video Tapes

Dipping my toe back into #ootd posts! Turns out they're a lot easier to pull off when my stupid face isn't in them ruining all the pictures. Hooray!Remember back when I posted about Redbubble? Let me assure you my enthusiasm has not waned. So far, I've purchased 15 different dresses, some with matching scarves. Here's one now!The print is vintage video tapes! If only this dress had my favorite 80s movies – Big Trouble in Little China and G.I. Joe: The Movie – it would be the ultimate garment.Anywho, I wore this outfit for an afternoon of goofing around the SF MoMa with the always awesome Candace of The Real Food Effect. Good times were had by all.

Outfit Details

• Yellow faux-suede jacket from Zara
• 80's VHS Tapes dress from Super-Tees on Redbubble
• Leather clutch from Leah Lerner on Etsy
• Waterproof Teva booties from Amazon (perfect for a rainy day and standing around for hours on end)

Hope you've been swell! 

Matchy Matchy

After last week's spot-on color matching of shoes to dress, I began to wonder what other items I own that might coordinate so perfectly. It turns out I have a lot of inexplicably, perfectly matching clothing items. How? Why? It can't be that clothing/shoe/accessory manufacturers all collude to favor a given palette each season/year (despite what Pantone would have you believe) – many of these items were purchased several years apart. Is it simply that *I* favor particular colors? No way. That can't be. I'm, like, a complex and ever-evolving woman whose tastes are informed by and are a reflection upon the zeitgeist... YEAH!Or, I just really like blue.[Vince Camuto dress, Bagatelle leather & tweed jacket, Baggu clutch, Donald J. Pliner platform sandals, vintage belt purchased on Etsy.]

Tiger

You know, I was really excited to wear this outfit and thought it was going to be so rad (TIGER PRINT!), but, as soon as I saw the pictures... ehhhhh. I think what's bothering me is that it's a much shorter dress than I would normally wear (I am scandalized by the appearance of my own knees!), and the white jacket just looks a lot boxier than it did in the mirror (oh, those filthy, lying mirrors!) Also, It looks like I'm flexing my big toes. I should probably paint those suckers, too.I was really hoping I'd be better at this by now. :(But, hey, I've managed four straight weeks of outfit posts! That's gotta be a new record for me![Wearing: Julie Brown dress, Eliza J jacket, Taryn Rose sandals, Hobo wristlet.]

Crazy Hair, Don't Care

I think I've mentioned before that I always put my hair up when I know I'm going to be outside for any length of time. The above is what happens when my hair thingie breaks on my way home.To be honest, it's not a half-bad look. Maybe a little frizzy, but I do love myself some big hair.P.S. A post with my hair down means one more week without cutting my hair. Woohoo![Wearing: Michael Kors dress, Taryn Rose sandals, Mimic Designs clutch.]

So I Guess I Own a Vest

If there's one thing I never thought I'd be, it's a person who owns a vest. Growing up in the Texas panhandle, vests had fairly specific and unironic use cases: working at a hardware store, going to the rodeo, being a mom at Xmas. So, naturally, as I'm not particularly inclined toward any of these activities, I find myself genuinely surprised to be now in possession of a vest. Who am I? What have I become? And, what exactly do I do with this vest?Today, I endeavored to answer all of these questions, but the first one turned out to be really hard and the second one kinda depended on answering the first. So, I settled on answering just this last question by attempting three separate outfits using my vest. "My vest." What a strange and alien phrase. I'm glad I'm only typing it. I doubt I could speak it aloud.Anywho, since I'm only a beginner at this whole wearing-of-vests thing, I elected to simplify the effort further by wearing the same boots with each outfit. And the same hair. And the same makeup. And no accessories. So... yeah, I kinda only switched out the dress each time. That still counts, right? C'mon, I'm learning.How'd I do?First Attempt: Eliza J DressFor my first attempt, I picked a really simple boatneck dress I got sometime last year, but never got around to wearing. (In fact, this is the first time I've worn any of the dresses in this post.) While I think the color combination came out alright, I just felt really... covered up. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with dressing "modestly," but I fear that I have taken to "covering up" as a response to my discomfort with my body. That's something I'd like to remedy.

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Second Attempt: Fuzzi Dress (Purple)For my second attempt, I picked a slightly more revealing v-neck Fuzzi dress with sheer sleeves. I admit that this is hardly revealing by the average person's standards. But, if you know me at all, you may have noticed that I never expose my upper arms. This is thanks to some unpleasant scars that folks always feel the need to comment on. When I chose this dress, I had hoped that the sleeves would obscure the scars enough to go unnoticed. Not so much. So, full disclosure: I photoshopped out my scars. Still, I felt like the overall outfit came out fairly well and was definitely a step outside my comfort zone. (Did I mention the arms thing?)

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Third Attempt: Fuzzi Dress (Blue)For my final attempt, I figured "fuck it," and went not only for the sheer sleeves, but also the very deep v-neck of the most form-fitting dress I own. I thought I might be able to pull it off as the vest would offset and/or disguise my most troublesome area (see: big ole belly). You know what? I think it kinda worked. I might even feel comfortable enough to wear this outfit outside the house. Vest magic!Perhaps I've misjudged vests and the ownership thereof. Perhaps I'm wrong about a lot of things. Perhaps I should reevaluate other of my long-held beliefs and prejudices.Or not. It's just a vest.[In all outfits: Bagatelle leather vest and Stuart Weitzman boots.]

Letting My Hair Down

I have a habit of always putting my hair up in some sort of claw or clampy thing. I adopted it when I was taking public transit and/or walking to work all the time and just didn't want my hair blowing in my face all willy-nilly. But, it's gotten to the point where my hair is almost always up and that just needs to stop. Why even bother having such long hair if I'm just going to pile it on top of my head for none to see?I'm going to make an effort to wear my hair down at least once a week. If I can't do that, then I should probably just cut it short. Deal?Anywho, wearing yet another Leota dress and another pair of Stuart Weitzman boots (this time with a wedge heel). Kinda felt like the print of the dress was too busy to add accessories, but perhaps a solid white scarf would have been a nice addition. Next time...

Big Plaid Scarf

This scarf is ginromous. It is pretty much a blanket. It has its own zip code. Lesser scarves are trapped in its gravitational pull, only to be crushed, devoured, and absorbed into its own supermassive core. You do not wear this scarf, it wears you. It is also plaid.In a bit of a hurry this morning. Wearing another Leota dress (I love Leota dresses... so comfy), Calvin Klein jacket, Stuart Weitzman boots (again), and a big plaid scarf from the oldest corners of the universe.

Back in the Saddle

A few years ago, I vowed to start taking outfit pics of myself every week for a year in an effort to 1) become more comfortable in front of a camera, 2) come to terms with my size/weight and 3) put more effort into getting dressed. That first attempt lasted about a month. But, hey, what a month! Let's hear it for unrealistic expectations!In the spirit of the new year and all that that entails, I'm revisiting the outfit pics project with newfound vigor and determination. At the very least, I intend it to last longer than a month. Let's hear it for realistic goals!Anywho, today I am wearing a Leota Amelia dress in Day at the Races (purchased on super sale via Rue La La), a Daniel Rainn jacket (via Hautelook), and some Stuart Weitzman 5050s (via SaksOff5th). There's some jewelry and even a handbag in there, but you can't really make them out. :/Happy new year, etc.

Closet Organization

Outfit posts are on hold while I figure out how to take a self-portrait. There doesn’t seem to be a good space in the house for it and the back yard attempts failed utterly due to poor lighting and a general lack of photographic know-how.So, today I offer a little peek into my closet and how I’ve chosen to organize it. My closet is, for the most part, chaotic but for the few little havens of organization I’m sharing today. I have a little arsenal of products I like to keep on hand in case of emergencies: products to keep bra straps from falling or boot necks from sinking; products for cleaning and buffing and polishing; products for generally keeping one’s appearance tidy. At some point I will do a post about my favorite products and their uses. It will be thrilling informative.Did you know that the average woman will spend $25,000 on shoes in her lifetime and will own around 470 total pairs of shoes? I did, and to this I say: We really must do something about heart disease, because women must be living some exceptionally short lives. Shoes > leading killer of women FOREVER.Anywho, I like shoes. I like looking at them almost more than I Iike wearing them. The pictures on the boxes help.BELTS. When I think of my belt rack I think of that scene in Wayne’s World where Stacy (Wayne’s ex-girlfriend) gives him a gun rack as a present. “A gun rack? I don’t even own A gun.” Not too long ago, I didn’t even own A belt. Something mysterious and unsettling has happened since then, I guess, but the net result was BELTS.Yes. Fascinating stuff.