Epic Italian silk vest

What is the plural form of pegasus? Whatever it is, observe... Hey there fancy pants!

White ruffled blouse - thrifted

Vintage silk vest - etsy (www.italianpostcards.etsy.com)

Dress - thrifted at Fake Target

 Shoes - Michael Kors

 I LOOOVE these shoes. Black AND brown so they match everything? Yes! Kinda look like they are made out of electrical tape? Yes! Only start to hurt around hour seven (including my 30minute lunch walk)? Yes! Love you, Michael Kors. I can't wait for your bitchy comments and snide remarks during the critiques on Project Runway. They make my day.

f.u. h1n1 flu

Got that title? This swine flu business is ruining my perfect job. A million kids and their moms are now paranoid to the max... um, I think you just sneezed because it says right here in your file you have seasonal allergies. No, a bloody nose does not mean you have swine flu. No, you don't have swine flu because you ate bacon last week. That's great you were born in Mexico, you don't have swine flu. Repeat all day long. 

At least the kids are funny about it... the moms calling all day asking if we've had anyone with swine flu - NO! We have not! If we did, we'd all get a week off! Believe me, I'll let you know when that happens! Rawr, now I'm grouchy... is it Friday yet?

Jean jacket - thrifted Levi's

Necklaces - mostly thrifted

T-shirt - thrifted at Fake Target

Skirt - a local boutique when it was going out of business (Josi Wert)

Sandals - Charles David

ohhh, so THIS is how it happens

Once in a while, I come across something in a closet that I don't recognize. Don't know when or where I got it. Don't remember buying it. It's just there. Today I went to Goodwill with a girl (Holly) I met when my friend Tammy was in town last month. Lo and behold, what do I find as soon as it is nice out and I no longer need a coat...

Cutest. Vintage. Coat. Ever. So now, next November when I find this thing in the coat closet, I'll remember this post and thus remember when I got this $20 coat (ouch! but it's sooooo perfect!)

Short and well, short

I had a rather ho-hum weekend, and thus don't have much to report. Tonight though, I will be playing with clothes and updating the etsy! As usual, I've got too much going at once (printing some new t-shirts for the etsy, drawing some new graphics for t-shirts, sewing for myself, fixing some vintage for etsy... trying to spend time with the boy and my friends, trying to exercise every day to get rid of those extra winter 5 lbs... having to waitress all weekend, I'm overwhelmed, as always.)

One of these days I'll stop wearing so much mustard colored clothing. What can I say? I just like it.

Cardigan - stolen from a friend's "to the Goodwill pile", years ago

Dress - thrifted at Fake Target

Beaded belt - World Market

Tights - Target

Shoes - Michael Kors

I only got three hours of sleep, thus the uninspired outfit and the face. 

Scarf - TJ Maxx

Sweater - thrifted Target SAMPLE

Fanny pack thing - Built By Wendy SAMPLE sale

Pants - Target

Sandals - Old Navy, forever ago

Ooh, so excited - I'm going out dancing at Clubhouse Jager tomorrow night so be prepared for some twirly dress photos!

the important stuff

One of the fourth grade classes at my school got a new Anole today. What's that? This!

It's a little lizard that changes colors and eats crickets. And what is this Anole's name? Christine! Oh my goodness, when the kids came down to my office to tell me that they were naming it after me, I really almost cried. I can't believe how lucky I have to a have a job that I LOVE and where I am loved in return.

Speaking of luck, I am so lucky to have my friend Daniel in my life. My Thursday date. Every week. For years now. And hopefully, for the rest of my life! Yesterday we went to the park and went on the swings. Then we walked around this pond (about a mile) then Daniel wanted to walk backwards around the whole pond. Which we did. It took about 20 minutes to walk around it regular, then around an hour to walk around it walking backwards. Then we made pizza from scratch and then we stopped to get some cake batter ice cream. Man oh man, do I love this kid. 

Why am I dressed like I'm at a resort? My work is a crazy modern building where most of the exterior walls are glass. Due to a "green initiative" (yay!) we can't turn on the A/C until at least May 1st... the thermometer in my room read 83 degrees today (and I know, what a Minnesota thing to start whining about the heat as soon as we can stop whining about the cold... I just want to be sweating outside, not sweating at my desk!)

Cardigan - thrifted sample from Fake Target

T-shirt - Target

Skirt - thrifted

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

Alright kids, go have a good weekend, full of the important stuff! I'm off to watch the Twins (very important) and tomorrow I have to waitress the fancy pants $80 a plate wine dinner, and hopefully will play some baseball on Sunday (please don't rain!)

mad science experiments

Ok, one of these days I'm gonna stop talking about Sal every day (maybe), but I really liked her post on how to hone your style. I think I'm still in the experimental phase of finding my style. I know style changes as people age and as their body changes and as they mature and as trends change and etc. But! I'm ALL over the place still. See...

Yesterday...This might be a bit, um, MUCH, but oh well!

Ruffled blouse - thrifted

Vest - thrifted

Bowtie - thrifted little boys clip-on

Bracelet - thrifted tiny belt

Satin pants - thrifted

Shoes - Penny loves Kenny

And today...

Scarf - Chanel

Cardigan - TJ Maxx

Yellow tank - Target

Green dress (worn inside out) - Free People

Sandals - thrifted Isaac Mizrahi for Target

How does one girl go from the satin pantsed and animal print cage heeled fierceness of yesterday to the prissy and springyness of today? I don't know either. Oopsy-doops. One day I'll reign in the style. In the meantime, I shall experiment away! Remember how in The Cat in the Hat, the only way to find out where something is, is to find out where it is not? I'm learning where I am not. And that is helping me find out where I am. This is true in clothes and jobs and hobbies and well everything in my life. It's not very efficient, but I'm having fun!

the grey funk

I feel like I've been in a little funk for a few days (although miss Abby did cheer me up quite a bit last night!). The boy was mean to me on Saturday so I've felt terrible for the last two days (even though he has apologized many, many times). Sometimes things just stick around for a few days... I'll get over it soon. It's odd for me. The longest I ever dated someone before Ryan was three months. I always dumped them before the real issues came up. Now Ryan and I have been dating for two years and I'm not used to it... some days the littlest things he says or does will annoy the crap out of me and other days I think he's perfect! I certainly don't want to break up, I just ??? I guess I just need to get used to dating someone for so long that their little quirks can get under your skin and just get over it and realize he's not doing it on purpose to annoy me, he's just still a man-boy hybrid and one day he'll finish growing up. Hopefully. Oh, and realize that I'm not perfect either and I probably annoy and anger him just as much.

Ok, enough of that! It's been rainy and grey for the last two days and today should be better! Hopefully all that rain will get the green things growing and I won't have to look at skeletal trees much longer! Here are two outfits for you!

I feel like I'm looking very old timey and vintagey, even though the oldest part of my outfit are the shoes, which are from the 1970s.

Shirt - thrifted Banana Republic

Skirt - thrifted Christopher Banks

Brooch - thrifted

Sandals - thrifted

And today! I found this sleeveless dress in a thrift store last November and it's finally warm enough to wear it!

Cardigan - thrifted

Dress - thrifted

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

My friend Claire told me the dress made me look like a "cute lunchlady" at which point I got that Adam Sandler lunchlady song stuck in my head for like two hours. All the kids at my school are taking standardized tests today which means one thing... reading. All day. And getting paid for it. So I'm off to read, read, read (and maybe look at a few fashion blogs...) Bye kids!

reading and running

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be looking at the floor but I couldn't get to sleep last night and well, oh well. Nothing to report. Have been doing amazing on running 10-15 miles every week this year (with the exception of the crazy elbow/Vicodin haze week). I think it shows too - I've got to give myself a pat on the back for those legs... now if only I had any sort of motivation to do crunches. I just don't. I can't. I won't. I've also been biking a few times a week. It's FINALLY nice out, I THINK (and HOPE) for good. 

Glasses - Prada

Cardigan - it's a Jones NY I've had forever, years ago it got three burn holes in it from my idiot smoker friends (it was on a table while I was dancing and wound up on top of an ashtray, back when you could still smoke in bars), so I added a bunch of buttons to cover them up!

Dress - thrifted Converse sample from Fake Target - I don't know how it's supposed to be worn and it's way too big, but I think it's fun like this! Wrinkly and wrapped up with string and an unraveling hem! Click to enlarge and see the crazy wrapped up midsection!

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

Ok, I'm just gonna leave it at this little bit, I have headache (perhaps due to lack of sleep, perhaps due to mega eyeglasses prescription and I've been reading all day - it's a deadly combo!) Can't complain though, who else gets paid to sit around reading books at work?

spring in bloom and bloomers

Much to my surprise, these got many compliments from the teachers (and mostly puzzled looks from the students)...

Necklace - thrifted

Silk dress - thrifted Nine West

Seafoam lace bloomers - thrifted

Sandals - thrifted 

I found these bloomers last month when I fell off the thrifting wagon and bought like six vintage slips. I love them. I pranced around downtown on my lunch hour and was stared at more than a few times. I love when it first gets warm here and everyone comes out of hibernation. I went on a 12 mile bike ride yesterday around a few of the lakes and there were SO many people out (and I SO have not ridden at all since like October - my butt hurts today!) On my walk downtown, everyone was walking around, eating outside, I saw a ton of street performers (three guitarists, a trumpet player, a sax player, a violinist, a three man doo-wop band, and a crazy old clown making balloon animals). Whoo! I'm off to go running, nothing else new to report except I have my first pregnant teen on my hands at work, which is a little scary to me, but she'll be fine. I know it.

mostly I wore my waitressing apron

Sorry kids, I had a crazy weekend. The parental units were in town (yay!) and I had to waitress all day Saturday (now that the golf course is open) and all day Sunday (Easter brunch, I hate you. One year I will eat the brunch and not serve the brunch. At least I didn't have to wear the bunny costume this year...) The boy's family was in town too and I didn't get to see them at all, but they understood since my family was in town. The most exciting part is that my dad brought up the new boom for the boy's boat! My boy has a sailboat. We broke the boom (the long thingie that holds the sails when they're up) when it was SUPER windy last year and we were going really fast. Oops. It was pretty old anyway. So my dad took the cracked one at Christmas and whipped up an exact copy in awesome nautical wood! It will be time to sail soon! Yay! The other exciting thing is they brought me a gas grill! We bought my grandpa a huge new grill for his 85th birthday three years ago. Then he moved into a retirement community with my grandma and gave his giant $600 Weber grill (with a rotisserie and side burners!) to me! Pool parties at my house just got a whole lot fancier!

Seriously, I have the best summers ever. Not to brag, but I work like 25 hours a week (waitressing, bartending, and driving the bev cart at a private golf course - great money, no stress!), go sailing with the boy, have pool/grilling parties at my condo every Sunday morning, play baseball every Sunday afternoon in Kenwood park, ride one of my three bikes everywhere I go, go camping, go to outdoor movies and the drive-in, go to Twins games, go to outdoor concerts... I'm so excited! Summer is just so freeing!

Here is yesterday's outfit (Hey Sal, check it out, TWO smiling pics for you!)

Cardigan - thrifted at Fake Target

T-shirt - Target (neckline fringe added by me!)

Pants - secondhand Marni

Sandals - thrifted vintage Candies

And today's $6 outfit!

Scarf - street vendor in NYC $4

Dress - crazy $2 outlet store (Opitz Outlet annex)

Boots - inherited from aunt (she got them in Italy in the '80s)

I always feel like I look like a bitch when I wear sunglasses and one of my leather coats...

But I'm not! I assure you!

P.S. Anyone who wants to be added to my blogroll (aka MY SIDEKICKS), let me know, and we'll do a link exchange!

More squealing!

Jacket - thrifted

Dress - thrifted 

Socks - Target

Shoes - bought in London 11 yrs ago, brand wore off long ago

I have three or four of these little jacket/blazer things that I've thrifted. I think all or most of them are College Town brand. I never know how to wear them! Does it look too outerwear to wear inside?

I got the best compliment ever on my flickr for this outfit, which is that I look like Bernadette Peters in Annie. Hooray! I loved her in that movie. In fact, that was the inspiration behind the second outfit from this post (I think it's the hat that reminds me of her character!)

Oh and remember THESE which I loved but was too cheap to spend $165 bucks on?? Who just ordered them off amazon.com for $62 including shipping? ME! Hopefully the fit (they only had sizes 5-7, I usually wear a 7.5 but can often fit in a 7... here's hoping!) I am also hoping I can rock them once or twice before it gets too warm!

Still feeling giddy today... plus the boy's roommate who has been out of town for weeks is coming back tonight! Whoo! We have this odd greeting where you grab the other person's face with both hands, give them a really big and wet kiss on the lips, and then slap them across the cheek (not HARD but well, kinda hard. Oh, and he is gay. Does that make the kiss and slap better? Or at least make a little more sense?). I don't know why! We get odd looks when we do it in public, but most of my friends are used to our antics! I'm excited to see him! Plus, the parental units are coming to visit this weekend!!!! And so is the boy's family! AHHHH! Will my parents meet his mother?!?! I'm such a grown-up (not really!) BYEEEEE!

idealogy and et cetera

You all read Already Pretty right? Well, if you don't, you should. Beautiful Sal is pretty amazing and pretty insightful and pretty pretty. Ok, I'm done with all that. Her post on describing yourself in five adjectives gives me a reason to go off on a tangent for you all!

Here were my five words (and why I chose them!)...

kind (As Kurt Vonnegut said, "There's only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you've got to be kind." Being kind and helpful to others is the most important aspect of my life.)

silly (Serious is boring. Loosen up darlings.)

creative (Some days, there is just something inside me that NEEDS to get out, some days it's on paper with words, on others with canvas and paint, and others with fabric and thread but damn is creating things fun!)

thoughtful (I read, read, read. Learn learn learn. Think think think. Try try try.)

active (I fidget. I run. I have too many jobs and way too many hobbies. Turn off the tv, world.)

Seriously, I don't know if it's the spring finally being here or my vacation last week or what, but I just feel like my heart is bursting this week (in a good way!) I am not a very emotional person on the outside and really don't often want to sit and discuss feelings (lucky boyfriend!) but sometimes things are just so beautiful or sad or both where I just feel this swell inside. This happens a lot at good concerts. When I look at my photos from when I worked in a Dominican Orphanage. When I think about all my kids (not my "real" kids, I don't have those - my disabled teens that I worked with and loved for years and am still in contact with a lot of them). I am just having a heart swelling kind of week and everything is just so damn vivid. Anyway, go out. Enjoy your days. Your tragedies. The beauty. The sadness. Mostly the glory.  Oh, and the outfits.

Yesterday's b&w outfit...

Jacket - thrifted little boys wool jacket

Vest - ebay

T-shirt - Target

Jeans - Old Navy

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

Today's insanely patterned nerdbomber outfit:

 Argyle sweater - GAP (I've had this sweater since 8th grade!) 

Necklace - had forever, added vintage clip-on bow tie 

Tank - thrifted GAP 

Skirt - secondhand Elevenses 

 Shoes - Naughty Monkey

Boston and NYC

Friday - arrive, drink $60 bottle of champagne to celebrate my friend Megan getting into a PhD program for psychology, walk to Chez Henri - have amazing Cuban sandwich and two mojitos, cab home!

Saturday - Megan and I start cooking (she's Cajun so we're making gumbo now and will let it simmer for hours and eat it for lunch), walk around parks, most of the Freedom Trail, see various historic things, I fall in love with the old graves (new t-shirt design inspired by them on the way!), wait in line for a half hour to get cannolis at Modern Pastry (totally worth it, I recommend the chocolate edged kind with ricotta), dinner at The Helmand (seriously the best Afghani food I've ever had!), stopped in a few bars on the way home, at Megan and John's I beat the pants off both of them in Scene It Seinfeld Edition!

Sunday - it is raining. I am sore (what?!? from walking all day?!?! it's odd...) We have a leisurely Sunday brunch at Sonsie and walk home in the mist. John goes home to study while Megan and I go to the Garment District (secondhand shop, reminds me of Ragstock) where I find a skirt and a pair of Marni pants, we cook dinner at home then go to Wally's Cafe for live jazz with Megan and John and their friend Nicole, which was insanely loud but really fun. Um, I don't have any pictures from this day (I'm such a bad tourist, I never take pictures) So, here is what I wore today (including the Marni pants from Boston!)

Monday - we are up and moving early since we have a 9am bus to NYC, subway to the bus, three and a half hours on the bus, get to New York! Walk MILES to our hotel in SoHo, drop off our stuff, get pizza and sangria for lunch at Lombardi's (awesome!), shop on Canal Street (no, not for fake Louis Vuittons or Faux-lex watches, I just bought two cheap scarves), wander to Magnolia bakery and find the cupcakes kind of meh, Megan drags me to Times Square against my will and it is horrible, go back to the hotel, get ready (eat leftover pizza for dinner), cab to Little Branch (shh, it's a secret!) and have DELICIOUS cocktails, cab home!

Tuesday - wander Central Park, imitate statues, get a little sunburned, lunch in Chinatown (Big Wong's or some such place - very good!), go down to World Trade Center against my will, is creepy, wander some more and bus ride back to Boston (get in around midnight!)

Wednesday - make awesome breakfast, Museum of Fine Arts, see giant baby heads and ancient artifacts, go to Angie's for lunch (rather awesome Mexican food!), time for me to be dropped at the airport!

So there you go, it was fun, I ate a lot, I drank a bit, I walked a TON, it was exactly what I needed (minus a tan). Laterz kidz - I've got home opener tickets for the Twins tonight! Going out for Thai food downtown with the boy, my friend J-Rod and my friend Matt beforehand! Yay! I am SO SO SO excited for baseball season (we all drafted our fantasy baseball teams yesterday, the weather should be warm enough to start PLAYING baseball in a few weeks!!!! BASEBALL, I LOVE YOU!)

"Spring Inspirations, Vicodin Style" Marni

Ok, I'm back from Boston/NYC and will do a "real" post later... for now I've got laundry to do and groceries to buy, so this will have to tide you over. Marni! This was one of my favorite favorites, obviously, since I already attempted an outfit inspired by this collection. I'll do another one once it FINALLY WARMS UP HERE! I got spoiled by the 50 degree temps on my vacation (I even got little sunburned on my face in NYC!). So, here you go - MARNI! (click it to make it big and readable)

Oooh, and guess what I bought while at the Garment District in Boston??? SOME MARNI! Will show later!