Rosie the Riveter

Here's the deal - I don't really like Halloween.  When I was a kid, my family didn't go trick or treating, and I don't remember ever dressing up as anything (although there is some evidence that it happened in preschool).

Anyway, this year, John and I helped out at our church harvest party again, but didn't really dress up.  I just wore jeans and a red/white striped shirt and told people I was "Where's Waldo."  Kind of like this.

Afterwards, I went over to a costume party that some of my friends were hosting, and felt like I needed to try a little harder, but I had limited time and resources.  I've seen a few "Rosie the Riveter" costume ideas on Pinterest (here and here), and that seemed pretty easy without having to buy anything else.  Not everyone knew who I was, but I think it was a pretty decent last-minute costume idea.

I just want to add that I would be the worst riveter ever.  When John and I went to Washington DC a few years ago, the American History museum had this little station where you could practice using the rivet gun.  I couldn't even do it.  So shameful.

Brooke was a pinata, because she's awesome.  

Last year, I shared 2 pretty cool couples costumes that John and I have done in the past.  The first paragraph of that post is basically the same as my first paragraph above.  At least I'm consistent!

Anyway, I hope you have a safe and happy day.  I may be a Halloween Grinch and turn my porch light off to avoid the trick-or-treaters.  We'll see how I'm feeling.
 

October Closet Additions

Since October is birthday month, I'm not really allowed to do any shopping, because I have to leave gift ideas for people.  I got some pretty fabulous presents this year, so I'm feeling pretty spoiled at the moment.  And then I did a little shopping on my birthday and over the weekend to pick up a few other things.  Here's the breakdown:

Presents:
J.Crew Factory Coat
Harvey's Seatbelt Bag
Elephant print Scarf
*Steve Madden boots

Purchased:
*Limited White Skinny Jeans:  $25 (originally $74)
*Limited Oatmeal Boyfriend Cardigan (similar pictured above):  $14 (originally $55)
*Converse Chuck Taylors:  $45
*Gap Leopard Loafers: $25 (originally $50)
Old Navy gray tights: $10
Old Navy Pointy-Toe Ankle Strap flats: $23

Total Spent: $117 (originally $257)

The items with an asterisk in front are from my wish list.  I'm particularly excited about my new shoes.  All 4 pairs have been on my list for quite awhile.  Shoes are a particular area of my wardrobe that I just need to make myself spend money more wisely.  Now that I'm almost 30 (eek!), comfort is more and more important, but I'm not willing to sacrifice style, so it's harder to find good options in the price ranges I want.  I mean, spending $23 on some Old Navy flats seems ridiculous, but they are cute and comfortable, and I've been looking for a pair of navy flats for a few years, so I think it's okay to jump at the opportunity.

I keep almost buying the J.Crew Factory Sylvia wedges, and then talking myself out of it.  First of all, I can't decide if I should get the black or tan option.  My nude pumps are looking pretty rough close-up, but they are still wearable.  My black wedges are peep-toe, so not great for the winter.  So which color should I get from J.Crew??  If I like them, I'll probably end up getting both.  If I don't like them, I'll probably end up returning whichever pair I order, so I'm not sure why this is so hard to decide.  With the 30% extra off right now, these shoes are $70.  That's still a lot for me to pay for a pair of shoes.  I'm going to try to hold out until they have a bigger sale.  Also, a factory store is opening here in about 3 weeks, so I should probably just go try them on in the store.  Maybe they will have a big 50% off everything grand opening or something.  That would be great!

Overall, I'm still under budget for the year.  I also have some birthday money that is going right into the clothing budget.  I may save it for a few weeks so I can use it at the new outlet mall.

As always, I'm linking up with Fran and the other Budgeting Bloggers.

Circular Inspiration

By the lack of leaves on the ground, you may guess that this is from a few weeks ago.  You'd be right.  This was an outfit I had in mind to use for Stripes Week, but then I had too many striped outfits.  And now it's a couple weeks later.

This outfit was inspired by this pin, because I really liked the green jeans with the navy stripes.  Then I felt like I had worn it before, and searched through my archives.  It's really similar to this outfit that I wore back in March.  Inspiration is a strange thing.  I think I came up with the first outfit on my own.  Then did I like the Pinterest outfit because I remembered liking that combination when I wore it myself?  I don't know.  And when I clicked through to the original source, I'm pretty sure she's not wearing navy at all, but black.  So, my interpretation wasn't even true.  The internet is so weird.

I'm linking up with Pinned It & Did It, What I Wore and What I Wore to Work.

Cardigan & Top: Gap
Skirt: Target
Shoes: BCBGeneration

Dress Shirt

 

This polka dot blouse is a dress.  Or at least, that's what they want you to believe.  It might be an appropriate length of dress on some people, but it is not a dress on me.  I'm trying it out as a shirt today, and I think it works okay.  The biggest problem is that the back of the dress is longer than the front, so if I wasn't careful, a little bit showed out of the slit in the back of my skirt.  Awkward!

Anyway, I felt very ladylike in this outfit, and also kind of edgy with the moto jacket.  Also, when did we stop saying "pleather" and start calling it "vegan leather"?  By "we," I don't mean me.  I will keep saying pleather.  I should really dig up a picture of my 1997 pleather jacket.  It was awesome until it started peeling. Then it was not so awesome.  Maybe I'll have to bring back Throwback Thursday!  

Top: Old Navy (dress)
Jacket: Relativity
Skirt: J.Crew Factory
Shoes: BCBGeneration

Birthday Recap

As I mentioned last week, Thursday was my birthday!  On Saturday, John said we could do whatever I wanted to celebrate, so like the mature 29-year-old that I am, I decided we should go to the zoo.  I specifically wanted to go on the "Skyfari," which is a ski-lift that takes you from one of the zoo to the other.  It was pretty cool, but we didn't see as many animals as I thought we would.

Saturday evening, we went out to dinner with John's parents and then went back to our house for presents, cake, and cards.  I'm pretty excited about my new purse!  I've been wanting a Harvey's Seatbelt Bag since about 2001!

And here's me posing with the delicious birthday cake John made.

And here's me posing with the best husband ever.  I promise we didn't match on purpose!

So here's to my last year as a 20-something!  Thanks to everyone who called/emailed/commented to wish me a happy birthday!  It's been a pretty great one!    

Book Review - Harry Potter #5, 6, 7

After being unimpressed with the first couple Harry Potter books, I was completely hooked after book 4 and read the last 3 books pretty quickly.  I honestly don't remember what things happened in what books, but I figured I should round out my posts about Harry Potter, so here are a few thoughts from the end of the series.  There may be spoilers, but I'll try to put them in invisible font.

• I wasn't super surprised by most of the things I was supposed to be surprised by.  I suspect this is because I've heard spoilers over the year that I didn't register at the time, but then when I was reading, it seemed like I knew what was coming.  Or I'm just really brilliant.  Probably that. 
• Why oh why did JKR kill off so many nice people and then let Draco Malfoy live??? 
• I'm really happy she had the last little chapter.  When I started reading the books, I said something to a co-worker about how I hope Ron/Hermione and Ginny/Harry get married at the end, but I guess they'll only be 17, so that may be young, unless JKR does one of those "10 years later" chapters at the end.  See, I'm brilliant!
• I was still laughing/annoyed at how frequently Harry and his friends are described as furious/fuming/other angry words.  Harry seems to have the same reaction to Snape killing Dumbledore as he has to something trivial, like Quidditch practice being canceled.  It's confusing.  But then again, he is a teenager, so maybe that's accurate.

Hmm, what else to say.  I liked the ending, but book 7 took a long time to get around to the action.  Did JKR do this on purpose, so we would feel as frustrated as I assume Harry/Ron/Hermione felt?  Maybe.

Oh, and I didn't cry during these books.  Several people told me I would.  My theory is that since I read them over such a short period of time, I wasn't quite as emotionally invested as those of you who had to wait a few years for the next book to be published.  I mean, how did you survive the wait between book 6 & 7???

Anyway, I'm watching the movies now.  I'll probably write up a big movies vs. books post for the whole series. 

In conclusion, if you are one of the 7 people in America who haven't read this series yet, I'd recommend it. 

Acai

I didn't mean to skip yesterday, but I was pretty busy being as lazy as possible all day, and I wasn't super excited about my "carafe" outfit.  Maybe I'll post it next week some time as an example of a not so awesome outfit.  I'm jumping back in for Acai, which I was pronouncing wrong for a couple years, but apparently it is purplish, so I'm wearing my color blocked purple dress in the hope that one of them is the appropriate hue.  Go check out the rest of the Pantone Inspired Challenge with  Marissa  and Heidi.

In other news, I'm 29 now!  For the first time.  The problem with turning 29 is that older people always joke on their birthday that they are turning 29.  So I have to explain that I'm REALLY turning 29.   I'll be celebrating my birthday as much as possible over the weekend, so I'll probably do a summary post next week some time.  For now, I'll just say I had a really nice day.  I took off work, got a manicure/pedicure, and went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant with my favorite guy.  Then I went to the mall for a bit and felt kind of old at Forever 21, and took refuge at The Limited where I found 2 items from my Wardrobe Wish List.    Pretty great day! 


Dress: Limited
Scarf: H&M
Jacket: Izod
Shoes: BCBGeneration

Koi

According to J.Crew factory, this cardigan is "vibrant flame," but I'm going to call it "koi" for today's link up with Marissa and Heidi.  I almost cheated and used a coral colored outfit, but then I remembered my legitimately orange cardigan and went with it.  

The color orange doesn't have much representation in my closet.  I like it, but it starts to feel very Halloween-y to me sometimes, so I have to be careful about wearing an outfit of mostly orange and black.  I actually planned my outfit the night before I wore it, and then switched out my plain black skirt for this striped one in the morning, because I'm just spontaneous like that. 

Chambray & Cardigan: J.Crew Factory
Skirt: Old Navy

Turbulence

Another day, another ridiculously named color.  Turbulence = gray.  But we can't just say gray, because FASHION!   

I'm linking up with Marissa and Heidi again today.  Go check out the other gray, I mean turbulence outfits. 

Sweater: Urban Outfitters
Dress: Old Navy
Belt: Limited
Boots: Wanted

Vivacious

It's an exciting week for 2 reasons (well, maybe more, but 2 that I know of):

1. My birthday is on Thursday.  I'm kind of obnoxiously enthusiastic about birthdays (particularly my own), but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.  
2. Marissa and Heidi are hosting another Pantone-Inspired challenge this week.  I participated in the spring, and met some of my very favorite bloggers, so I'm excited to see who I find this time!  

So, today's color is vivacious, which is basically just a bright purplish pink, so I figure this skirt qualifies.  I want to know who gets paid to come up with these color names, and then I want that job!  

Also, this sweater and boots combo will be back tomorrow, because they are TURBULENCE-colored.  

Tee&Skirt: Gap

Sweater: Urban Outfitters

Boots: Wanted

Necklace: Phoenix gift shop

Closet Inventory - Dresses and Scarves

Remember how I was like "yeah, I'm going to do a closet inventory!" and then I neglected it for several weeks?  Yeah, me neither.  Anyway, I am going to try to get back on track with this.  So, dresses and scarves are the topics of today.

My dresses hang in the middle of my closet in the only "tall" space available.  By my counts, there are twenty-one.  Most of them are wearable year-round, and I feel like I have a pretty good mix of colors/styles/patterns, etc.  I'm not currently looking for anything specific to add to this section of my wardrobe, but I like dresses, so I'll probably buy more when I find pretty options for a good deal!  

My scarves hang on the left side of my dresses, but I pulled them out and straightened them up a bit to make sure they were all visible.  I have twelve.  This seems like a lot, but as I look at them, there are only a couple that I haven't worn recently.  The blue/green plaid one was an impulse buy at Old Navy last summer and I think I wore it once.  It might need to go.  I'm not really looking to buy more scarves at the moment.

I've been wondering when we will get tired of these long fashion scarves, because they are a fairly recent trend.  I mean, when I was in high school (we're talking 10 years ago), I thought it was cool to wear the little neck scarves, like they did back in the 50s.  I don't remember anyone else doing that (other than my sister, who I was probably copying in the first place).  Or are scarves already not cool again and I just haven't gotten the memo?

Fashion Blogger Poses

For some reason, I happened upon the GOMI forums the other day.  I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I do think there are some interesting opinions out there, and most of the comments I read were more constructive criticism than just bullying/hostility.  (Granted, if I found anything mean about myself, I'd probably have a different opinion).

One of the threads was about annoying things fashion bloggers do, and I found myself being guilty of several!  One big complaint was having 10 pictures of almost the exact same pose.  I had to laugh.  I usually only post 3-4 pictures, but they tend to be pretty similar poses.  Both hands on my hips, only one hand on my hip, looking off to the side, looking down.  If I have on a jacket, I'll put my hands in my pockets for a bit.  And in my last picture up there, I just have my thumb in my pocket.  No idea why.  It's SO FASHION!  (I should really watch ANTM to get ideas)

So GOMI convicted me that I should have more diversity in my poses, and maybe even some close-up shots.  I'll try, but no promises!  I hope the critique is aimed more towards full-time bloggers.  I mean, if I didn't have a job, I could spend more time practicing my model poses and taking 100 pictures to choose from instead of about 10.

Finally, I've had a few people ask about color/fabric of this skirt.  The sparkliness doesn't always show up in pictures, so here's a closeup shot.  There's a sparkly gold thread overlay on the more shimmery gold netting of the skirt.   *It should be noted that my feet are slightly paler than my legs, but this is exaggerated by the way the sunlight was falling in this picture.   

Top & Skirt: Gap
Shoes: Target

Praying Mantis Invasion

I feel weird about this outfit.  It seemed like a good idea when I put it on, and then when I got to work, I felt like a clown.  I think there's just too much going on here.  So, it was an awkward day, made all the more awkward by the following story.

In a rare turn of events, I took outfit pictures before I went to work.  It was a fiasco.  The sun was coming up over the house, so there was just a little corner by the screen door for taking pictures.  I set up and started snapping away, when I noticed...  PRAYING MANTIS INVASION!  That may be a bit dramatic, but there were TWO and they really looked like they were trying to break into our house.  Terrifying.  THEN a squirrel jumped off the roof onto the tree branch right over my head and a bunch of leaves fell.  And then I couldn't see what happened to the one praying mantis, so I felt very nervous.  Then I found him, and he was lower down on the screen, but still looked threatening.  They are just very creepy creatures! 

And on top of all that, our neighbors are getting new siding, and there were 2 worker guys walking in and out of their backyard who were probably wondering what the weird girl next door was doing.  Oh, nothing - just taking pictures of my outfit to post on the internet, and scheming how to get back into my house without riling up the praying mantises of doom.  

Tee & Cardigan: Gap
Necklace: won in giveaway
Jeans: Limited
Shoes: Payless

All the Birthdays!

October is birthday month!  John's birthday was last week, and mine is next week, so I usually try to make as many excuses for celebrating as possible.  We should really just take the whole month off work and go on an epic vacation or something.  Maybe next year...

Anyway, I wore this to work on John's birthday and then we went out to dinner.  I took advantage of the brick wall of the restaurant, because that's what fashion bloggers do.

This also marks the first time I've worn this blazer with the sleeves unrolled, but I didn't count on the neon lining still showing.  Oh well, it kind of goes with the skirt, right?

Blazer & Tee: Gap
Necklace: Bass Outlet
Skirt: Loft
Shoes: BCBGeneration

Stripe Week - Sweater and Link-up

Stripes Week is coming to a close, but I'll probably have stripes on the blog most of next week, because I kind of over-prepared.  I could probably keep this going through the rest of the month, but I'd get tired of that (maybe).

Anyway... you guys!  FALL!  I mean, BOOTS and LAYERS!  There are even recently fallen leaves on my shoe in the first picture.  Seriously, though - it got kind of cold over the weekend, and we had all the windows in our house open.  I think it was about 50 degrees inside when we woke up on Saturday.  Not awesome.  But I did bust out the boots on Sunday.  And then it was 80 again on Monday.  I'm hoping we won't see snow until December.  Come on, Nebraska!

Stripe Week - Blazer

This blazer.  It's ridiculous.  I knew it was ridiculous when I bought it, but it was only $7, and I'd had a rough week, so some emotional shopping was inevitable.  And I thought a coral striped blazer would be a pretty good addition to my closet.  And then it hung in my closet for a month, because I didn't really know what to wear with it. 

Pinterest was almost no help.  I guess a white and coral striped blazer just isn't that common.  But I wasn't going to give up.  Then I saw this pin, and decided to flip the colors around to suit my ridiculous blazer.  I really like how it turned out!

I've since thought up several other outfits for this blazer.  I just had to get over the initial block.  Now I'll probably try to wear it a lot before winter officially arrives.

Remember to link up with Kate and me tomorrow with your striped outfits!      

Today I'm linking up with Pinned It & Did It, What I Wore to Work, Look What I Got, and Tres-Chic.

Blazer: Jones New York
Tank: Gap
Skirt: Old Navy
Shoes: BCBGeneration

Stripe Week - Dress

Let's be honest - I had a bit of a "BUY ALL THE STRIPED DRESSES" phase earlier this year.  In my defense, I think it was more an issue of supply increasing than me being completely ridiculous.  There were just more options in stores at good prices this spring.  Not that I'm NOT completely ridiculous, but whatever.  Let's move on.

My husband rarely has specific comments about what I wear.  When he does have something to say, it usually surprises me.  He likes this dress, because the stripes get kind of "zig-zaggy" on the skirt part.  Okay. I like it because it's pink and striped and very comfortable and has pockets.  I don't like how wrinkly it gets, but I've already mentioned that!

We're at the midpoint of Stripes Week!  Are you ready to link up with A Journey in Style and me on Friday??

Today, I'm linking up with  What I Wore and What I Wore to Work.

Dress: Gap
Blazer: H&M
Belt: Old Navy
Shoes: Seychelles