Greeking Out

My coworker told me my patina-hued hair reminded him of ancient coins from the bottom of the ocean. He said I should dress like an ancient Greek, because that would be cool. I thought it would be, too, so I did!

My favorite part of this outfit is the hairstyle, which, though a little imperfect—typical for what I can do on my own in 10 minutes before work—sort of resembles the way ancient Greek ladies did their hair, without looking too anachronistic.

Giddyup Getup

One of my favorite (OK, let's be honest—one of my many favorite) clothing motifs is a floral dress with cowgirl boots. It's such a fun juxtaposition of ladylike and Wild-West tough.

The challenge with today's outfit was how to turn a rather shapeless and and slightly too-revealing dress into something that qualifies as ladylike in the first place.

Problem 1: With its empire waist, the dress just kind of sat on me like a sack. Problem 2: The halter neck just shows too much skin for the workplace.

To cover up my back and shoulders, I threw on a long flowing white cardigan. I then cinched it with a braided leather belt that gave the ensemble some structure—and just happened to match the shade of my Western boots almost perfectly.

How does your garden grow?

 A monochromatic top and a pair of denim shorts hardly strike awe into the hearts of the fashionable, but this outfit makes me proud, and I'll tell you why.

1. The shorts are DIY cutoffs, made from a pair of jeans that don't fit any more. The cool thing about jeans that ride too low because they're slightly too big, is that if you cut off most of the length, they weigh a lot less and make make great-fitting shorts! I thought about many ways to style these into shorts, including the classic frayed edge, dip-dying them with bleach, or just hemming them like I did the pink ones. Ultimately, though, I went with a cuff, which opened up the possibility for cutesy additions like #2.

2. You last saw my oversized rose pin last year, when I used it to close a shrug at the front. In this outfit, I wore it as a purely non-functional accessory, sticking its stem into the cuff and using my shorts as a vase!

3. The shoes have proven very difficult to wear, with their rainbow of stripes and an orangeish background (orange is the most underrepresented color in my wardrobe), but they go very well with red. And I have to say that when I do find an opportunity to wear them, they make quite a statement!

See Green

I wish you could see in this picture just what a lovely shade of green this dress is. I bought it last fall and waited patiently all winter and spring for an opportunity to wear it. It's strapless, making it less than appropriate for work, which is why I ended up wearing it with the teal shrug.

Green and teal together put me in mind of the Atlantic ocean, so I added my mermaid pendant to the mix, and then topped it all off with green chalk at the roots of my blue (fading to teal) hair.

With all that blue and green dominating my outfit, I thought it wise to keep my shoes neutral, so I wore my trusty tan sandals.

How cat ladies dress

 

I really only wanted to show you this outfit for one reason: The jewelry I wore with it was just perfect. I mean purrfect. Here it is!

Scarf Face

This is my first post since I left for my trip to the Pacific Northwest earlier this month, and in honor of that, I will share another first: wearing a scarf as a fashion accessory.

While I've worn winter scarves to keep my neck warm, and once or twice even worn them to spruce up a plain-looking outfit, I have never before sported the light, gauzy style of scarf that is primarily worn for decoration.

My mom bought me this butterfly scarf for Christmas, and I've been scouting the streets and thinking long and hard about the best way to make it look good on me.

Eventually, I decided to wear it almost like a shawl, wrapping it around my shoulders, throwing one end behind me, and letting the other hang down in front. This served a dual purpose: adding color to my monochromatic dress, and keeping me warm in the office, which is sadly still cold—though it's finally warmed up outside, it seems they have notched up the air conditioning since last year, because it's still freezing in our building....And I was so comfortable last summer! Sad face.

The sandals are also new, and though they are simple, I'm enjoying them immensely.

Oh, yes, and you might have noticed that my hair is blue. That is also a first; I have never before dyed my whole head an unnatural color, though I have worn streaks on occasion. I like having blue hair. I get so many compliments on it! The downside is that I have to be careful that it doesn't clash with my clothes. When this color fades out, I'll probably give it a rest and go back to my normal dirty blond for a while.

This is crazy

Are you noticing a theme in my blog posts lately?

If you're not, I'll give you a hint: The theme is "It's too cold."

I'm so sick of wearing winter clothes, and I'm bored with all my winter shoes. I really want to break out my sandals, if only for the variety, but my feet (paragons of poor circulation) would freeze in an instant.

So I decided to take the plunge and pair sandals with socks. Carly Rae Jepsen did it! I guess I can too.

By the way, the dress? This might be the last time I wear it, because it was already kind of worn out when I got it, and it's not getting any younger! Plus the neckline is just a wardrobe malfunction waiting to happen. Plus it kind of makes me look fat.