as close to a little black dress as I'm gonna get

Here's a quickie...

Cardigan - Ralph Lauren

Dress - Free People

Sandals - Reaction by Kenneth Cole

Wow, none of this outfit is thrifted... how odd for me! I'm still spazzing out over my huge vintage sale tomorrow, I'm sure I won't get much sleep tonight, but hopefully it will all be worth it tomorrow! If you live in MPLS and want the info, last chance to convo me and I'll send it to you!

I've gotten a lot done, I just have a LOT more to do because well, I have a LOT of stuff. Sheesh! I'm excited, I think it will be fun. Since the boy is still on the east coast for a few more days, hopefully my friends Nate, Jeanette, and JRod will be coming by to hang out. I've bribed them all with promises of swimming in the pool when it's over, grilling and having some daytime cocktails (I'm planning to make some St. Germain/champagne cocktails. St. Germain is a liqueur made from Elderflowers and is crazy delicious and refreshing mixed with club soda and champagne.)

Bye kids, wish me luck! (I'm totally paranoid that only stingy haggling garage-salers will show up and be appalled that I'm charging $15 for a wool blazer... we'll see. I hung up a few signs about the sale around uptown in the record stores and on telephone poles full of local band signs... I'm nervous! Which explains the need for day cocktails.) Bye!

erm, suddenly I wear too much navy?

I love this little jacket I found at 50% off day at the Salvation Army on Monday. I'll find a better way to wear it, but here was how I wore it yesterday:

Blazer - thrifted

T-shirt - Bitten by SJP

Skirt - Betsy Johnson

Gold sandals - Target

Third day in a row wearing navy... what's going on there?

Necklace - Kohls clearance, years ago

T-shirt - Target

Dress - thrifted

Shoes - Unisa, DSW clearance

The bottom third of the dress looks like this:

$8 clearance sandals:

Oh yeah, and the vintage garage sale? Still sucking up all my free time. So much stuff. So many racks... here is just one of them, and there are SEVERAL more, plus shoes and belts and hats and purses and and and! Email me if you live in MPLS and want to come, I'll send you the details!

We keep the funk alive by talking with idioms

Heyyyyyyy there kids, sorry I've been gone for a few days. Unfortunately, I may be gone for a few more, I'll try to do a few small posts this week though. My condo complex is having a huge garage sale on Saturday, I'm having a "Yes, it's in the garage, but it's not a garage sale, it's a vintage sale" sale. So basically my house is a huge avalanche of clothes (well, more that usual). Also, on Saturday, I went to sweep out my garage and to move all my stuff to the top shelf to get ready for the sale this weekend. After killing about 15 spiders and choking on all the blown around gravel, I was ready to head inside. So I grabbed my stepladder and the broom and paper towels and closed the door... with my keys still on the shelf in the garage. So I had to break into my own house, criminal style, through the window (good thing I had the stepladder with me!) I still can't get my screen back on... oh goodness, I'm such a ditz sometimes.

I found some great deals on 50% off day at the thrift stores on Monday. They were pretty crazy and crowded though. Otherwise I had a pretty chill weekend. The boy and a few of my friends are still out of town, but hung out with some other friends a few times and watched some baseball with the boys. Business as usual, but with a Monday off.

Here is what I wore Friday. I'm trying to get over my hatred of hats and I found this one at a thrift store last month for $3... cutest. hat. ever. Still don't know if I like it on me.

Everything I'm wearing - thrifted.

And here is what I wore today... I know, I'm not much of a sports t-shirt kind of girl but I love my 1987 Twins World Series Champs shirt (and sweatshirt from that year. I wore it today when I got cold. It says "There's no place like Dome." I love it.)

Again, everything is thrifted. 

The kids were perplexed by the shirt, one fifth grade girl even said, "Eww, what's that? I'm more stylish than you today." Which just goes to show, set the bar low and people will never be disappointed. Clearly my fashion bar is set too high.

whew!

After being in the 90s with 25mph winds the past two days, today is back to normal temps and winds. The boy and two more of our friends are leaving today to go on a road trip out to D.C. and Syracuse to visit our friend Peter. I'm sad he's gone like 10 days, but I'll get so much done! I'm designing and printing like 20 onesies, I've got a ton of vintage stuff to put on etsy, a huge sewing pile, some additional t-shirt designs to put on etsy too, a swimming pool that's about to open, some tax stuff with the shop to figure out, and a million other little to-do lists that I want to finally actually DO. Plus, 50% off day at a bunch of thrift stores on Monday, so I may just get up bright and early and hit a few up at 9am before I spend the rest of the day grilling and lounging.

My office is cold. Seriously. So even though it's in the 70s, this is perfect:

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

Tank - thrifted (I think this was someone's camp project or something. It's a Fruit of the Loom undershirt that has been tie-dyed. Score!)

Cropped pants - Marni

Sandals - Old Navy, long ago

I get a lot of compliments and "where did you get those?" whenever I wear these sandals. They were the only pair on clearance at Old Navy about six years ago and they just so happened to be my size. $5!

Yay of the day: my new exercise ball chair at work! Feel the burn, all day long, without doing anything. Yay to progressive schools! Our middle school kids all got them in their classrooms too!

Boo on you: Anna Wintour. She did an interview with Morley Safer for 60 Minutes and they were talking about the inspiration behind an article on obesity. She said, "I had just been on a trip to Minnesota, where I can only kindly describe most of the people I saw as little houses." Erm, what?!? We are the 3rd fittest city in the NATION! New York? 5th fattest. Boom.

pebble dress

I found this terribly '80s dress at a thrift store a few months ago and just finally got around to shortening it. It's amazing what hacking a few feet off an ugly dress will do! It still had the old '80s tags on it, from Marshalls. Compare at $30 elsewhere, only $18 here. I paid $3 for it.

Dress - thrifted Joy Gordon (shortened by me)

Belt - thrifted

Shoes - Charles David

I'll have to raid my mom's closet next time I'm home. I know she's got some of these dresses lying around in the back somewhere. I'm really hoping to find someone to take my shift next Saturday... my condo complex is having a garage sale and I have a ton of stuff I'd like to unload rather than have to measure and photograph and put up on etsy.

I went for a 15 mile bike ride yesterday. It was supposed to be in the lower-mid 80s. I was biking and just sweating and sweating and thinking there was something wrong with me that I was so hot. Then I got home and the news said the current temperature was 97. 97?!?! In Minneapolis? In May? Strange. It is CRAZY windy today... my tupperware container that had my peanut butter sandwich in it? Blew away. Three kiwis for lunch. I'm hungry...

Maxi dress madness

I've had this '70s maxi dress forever but it was a little too long. I've been meaning to hem it a few inches since all my really tall shoes were too fancy for this dress. Yesterday:

Sweater - Free People

Dress - thrifted and altered (just sucked a few sizes out of it)

Shoes - thrifted (Deegow Boutique brand)

Then I found these mystery shoes at Arc's Value Village on 25% off day. No hemming needed, these babies put me up an extra 4.5 inches, which at only 5'3" is pretty amazing. Only problem is, when kindergarten kids some in, it's hard to get down to their level.

Today: Whooo! It's supposed to be 85 degrees today!!!! Yesssssssss!

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!

Tank - little boys Fruit of the Loom

Skirt - made by me (it's a thick white elastic top and the bottom is pleated black.)

Shoes - Dezario

Seriously, detail shots Christine! This skirt is so pleated and awesome, but you would never be able to tell (especially since an overhead light in my living room blew out this morning and I didn't have time to change it before I took this picture)! Am spending every available evening with the boy this week, he's leaving on Thursday with a few of the boys to go on a road trip out to D.C. and Syracuse to visit our friend Peter. I'm mad jealous, but it will give me lots of time to update the etsy while he is gone. I've also got a big order for 20 onesies for my friend Courtney who is out in Harlem, doing her residency in a hospital and apparently all her friends are popping out babies at once. Fine by me, they are gonna be so cute! Also, only 12 days of school left and I'm done for the summer! Only three more days until my pool opens and my condo complex turns into Melrose Place (not really, but there are some awfully tan people who LIVE by the pool... it's a little gross. The boys all think it's terribly funny when they come over to swim every Sunday before baseball.) Bye kids, I'm off to draw!

the details make the outfit

Thank you all so much for laughing at my post yesterday. Funny is a big part of who I am and pretty much how I am known among my friends and acquaintances. I find it hard to convey through written words though. I have my high school theater teacher to thank for bringing out my wit. He attended Second City (improv) with Mike Myers and Chris Farley and bunch of the other '90s SNL guys... I performed improv for three years under his tutelage and even got a scholarship to go to London to teach improv when I was 16. It was amazing. He totally changed my life and I'm not sure he knows it. He moved away the year I graduated. :( Back to the clothes!

Yesterday...

Shirt full of pearls - thrifted

Tank - little boys Fruit of the Loom

Skirt - made by me out of an old pair of unflattering pants

Shoes - thrifted

Today...

Brown ruffly dress (worn under skirt) - thrifted

Skirt - thrifted in Chicago when I was like 16

Shoes - Michael Kors

Have an excellent weekend kids. I'll be doing the usual - waitressing, biking, and baseball. Any exciting plans?

let's play with Google Analytics!

Ok, so in like January or so I finally set up Google Analytics for my blog. I love it. My favorite part is where it shows how people got to my blog. Some came on their own because they know how awesome I am, some came by a link off someone else's slighty less awesome blog, and some came here through the magic of searching Google. Oh how I love all the beautiful little weirdos out there. In the spirit of that, here are some of my favorite search terms (Am I pretty much ripping off Winona and Inadvertently Ask Daddy Likey? Yes ma'am.)


crap i have nothing to wear to work tomorrow, can't figure out what to wear to school tomorrow , "nothing to wear" t shirts , going to my friend's house! have nothing to wear? , i have got nothing to wear , i have nothing in my wardrobe , i have nothing in my wardrobe what can i wear to party , i have nothing to wear and no money, any ideas? , i have nothing to wear help me find an outfit , mondays blues, nothing to wear , oh no i've nothing to wear, and my TOTAL FAVORITE OUT OF THESE, nothing to wear very hot boobs too
Ummmm, there are like 100 variations of people wanting to know what to wear when they have nothing to wear... maybe I should actually address this problem and do a post on this topic... I've let you all down :(

tranny cruise
Hmm, if these actually exist, I'm THERE!

im itchy
When I was itchy, it was due to Vicodin, so maybe you should sit around looking at style.com and critiquing designers

nothing but lint blogspot
close, but clearly you are looking for an inferior blog, I would never wear "nothing but lint" and neither should you

"five ants" tattoos
yep. got 'em. on my foot.

"fu h1n1"
really? someone was looking for that exact thing?!

"investors in sunglasses"
I only rock the cheap ones. And the thrifted ones. I also don't think you should invest all your money in Sunglasses Hut. Maybe a nice tropical beach hut instead?

"like what you like"
Always a good idea, I hate it when I like things I hate.

"not bad" boots
My boots are more than "not bad", they are amazing, epic, legendary, and well, good.

adam sandler lunch lady inspiration
Yeah, I rock a lunch lady dress sometimes.

awesome worthless advice
Are you looking for that Baz Luhrmann sunscreen song? Cause that is full of awesome yet worthless advice.

boyfriend makes me wear sunglasses when we go out
Is this out of concern for your vision and your eye's exposure to UV rays or is he just a dick? Either way your boyfriend can not "make" you do anything, so I suggest you don't "make" yourself listen to a douchebag. "Make" yourself a cocktail, then "make" like a tree and leave.

cute outfits to wear in vegas
no. such. thing. Skanky? Trashy? Like you just rolled off the couch in a trailer? Yes. Cute? No.

fancy pants adventure coolstuff.gr
I don't know what this is, but it sounds pretty neat. I hope you found your way there.

free science experiments
My favorite as a kid was one involving making your own rock candy. Big jar of dissolved sugar + string + time = science candy. Deliciously smart.

futurelint.blogpot.com
I do not blog about pot. Or on pot. Or about pots. But I guess the same is also true about spots.

how do you wear boring shirt
You don't. Use that boring shirt to clean out your bird cage and go buy a shirt that is chock full of excitement. Buckle up.

how to have a quirky style
Be born me. Wear quirky things. Repeat for 27 years. Boom.

i take my ice love with you
What? Are you in love with a yeti?

i wear too many necklaces
Yeah, some days, I do too. It's okay though, I think it's a fine look and an easy way to add interest to a boring outfit. However, I usually just wear this one every day.

my elbow exploded
I am hoping yours exploded like mine exploded, and there was not some sort of a firework incident.

pardon me do you have any cheap yellow mustard
No, no I do not. Mustard is the worst condiment ever. I do have a lot of cheap mustard colored clothes. You may not borrow them or put them on hot dogs.

pretty granny tranny
Yes, yes I am.

puke in boot and wear
I do not in any way endorse this activity. I think it will smell. Bad.

poto poto five minutes
I will not "poto poto" for any minutes until you tell me what it is! And where that word appeared on my blog!

the 2009 has been the year
the yes the it the has!

the important stuff about ice cream
Um, that it's tasty, that it's cold, that it's a dairy product, that it's not a very nutritious breakfast, and that if I eat more than a few spoonfuls I want to die.

what to wear to circus
I think the style at the circus is pretty laid back, I think you're fine going with a t-shirt and jeans. Especially if you're gonna ride the elephants before the show. I do love to dress like the ringmaster though! See? See?

what to wear to the woods
A waterproof jacket, layers and bug spray?

what to wear to see fiddler on the roof
A yarmulke? I wore the outfit on the right. Say hi to Topol for me!


And finally, GOOGLE ANALYTICS, WHY DO YOU HATE ME?


my boyfriend is amazing and i feel like i have nothing

im shallow worthless and have no life

Really Google? Really?

one year of standing on the stairs

I realized yesterday that today is my 1 year blog birthday! blog-o-versary? (is that a thing? You know what I mean...) So thank you, thank you to everyone who ever reads this thing. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little embarrassed that I have a style blog... it just seems so self-indulgent. But well, I guess that's okay. I am amazed at all the wonderful people I have come to know thanks to the crazy world of blogs and wardrobe remix. I feel like I should treat myself to a new pair of shoes or something to celebrate, but I won't. I did go to a thrift store yesterday since it was 25% off day, does that count? I think this blog has thrown me deeper into the thrifting which may or may not be a good thing. Anyway, I will be updating the etsy tonight (finally!) I have SOOOO much stuff to list. Jaws. I'm terrible.

Shirt - thrifted yesterday! It's kind of a mystery... the brand printed inside is Quatre-Franc... I can't find any info on it, but am guessing it's French???

Pants - Old Navy

Belt - thrifted (I know you can't see it in the pic but I assure you I am wearing a rather amazing brown belt... you'd think after a year of blogging I could remember to do detail shots... one day!)

Sandals - Indeed

Laterz and thank you for always being lovely and never being blue meanies.

polyester and vacation clothes

Well, while the Star Trek movie was awesome and there were a lot of nerds there, unfortunately there were none in elaborate costumes. Is it wrong that I totally want to bang the new Spock? Sooo hot. Sorry.

Here is what I wore on Friday (don't worry, I wore long knee length white shorts to work and changed into these short shorts to go see JRod's play.)

Shirt - thrifted

Shorts - Target

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

Here is yesterday, where I felt like dressing like I was on vacation:

Sweater - thrifted

Pants - thrifted The Limited

Shoes - Nicole (inherited from friend)

Necklace - Disney Couture

I bought myself this necklace to try to make up for the fact that I will never own a Christian Dior skull ring... boo.

Alright, I promise to be a better blogger and post again tomorrow. Mondays are just tough sometimes and I really didn't feel like doing the whole internet thing.

the best vest

Last Saturday, I was supposed to waitress and while I was driving there, my boss called to cancel me. What's a girl to do? It just so happens I was right by a Goodwill that I never go to because it's not near my house (but halfway to my weekend job). I found this vest in the men's section and was so glad it wasn't TOO big. The back is silk and has awesome Scottish lions on it. Loves.

Blouse - thrifted (I could wear this thing every day in the spring, it's so versitile!)

Vest- thrifted

Lace skirt - thrifted

Shoes - Linea Paolo

Tonight? I've got my pal Daniel until 7:30 and then... STAR TREK! As I've mentioned before, the boy is a Star Trek NERD and I'm pretty excited to go see it. I hope there are some people in costume for me to take pictures of... I love nerds. I love costumes. Should be a good night!

polka dot dress

I found this kind of hideous dress at Goodwill when I was with Holly. Very conservative mid-west housewife in the '90s looking. It was floor length and too wide, but I liked the collar and the detailing on the top. A few snips, a blind hem and a few sizes were sucked out and ta-daaaaa... new dress.

Dress - thrifted and altered by me

Shoes - Chinese Laundry

I know, the face. I'm exhausted. By everything. And everyone. I'll perk up in a day or two I'm sure. In the meantime, I am happy this very moment because it is a slow day in my office, I'm reading a decent book at work, I have kiwis and carrots and a peanut butter sandwich to eat outdoors in a half hour, my office smells like insulin (which I love the smell of, I don't know why!), and the pool at my condo just got filled (even though it won't open until Memorial Day weekend). Ahhhh, the little things are gooood.

Cinco de Mayo outfit!

Reason 159,098 I love my job? It's a great excuse to dress up for any and all holidays. Do I really care that today commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862? No... but in the United States, Cinco de Mayo is now more of celebration of Mexican heritage and pride anyway. That I fully support. So, I will dress up and perhaps hang out and watch baseball with my friend JRod, who is Mexican, but that's pretty much what I do every day anyway. So, Happy Cinco de Mayo, whatever it means to you!

Dress - Santoki Vintage (www.santokivintage.etsy.com)

Bracelets - thrifted

Shoes - thrifted

My Weekend! (with too many exclamation points!!)

Yay! Megan is in town from Denver!

The boys raid my collection of vintage sunglasses from my car!

Jason and Jim leave some advice for everyone! (in case you can't read it it says - President Obama says "Wash your hands.")

Rode our bikes down to see In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater's MayDay Parade! It's a freak show!






Then it's time for baseball in the park! We had a home-run derby and guess who won the girls division? ME!!

Today's outfit!

Cardigan - Free People

T-shirt - Target

Tank - Target

Skirt - was a vintage dress with a horrible long sleeved black turtleneck top, I turned it into a skirt!

Sandals - MIA

How was your weekend?

Ruffled dress madness!

Dress - thrifted Lady Carol of NY

Shoes - Dezario

Not the most exciting photo but navy is hard to photograph with my crappy camera. You'll just have to trust me that this ruffled neckline and ruffled wrist dress with puffy shoulders looks fab in real life! I was so excited when I found this dress at Goodwill with Holly the other day! All the seams were coming apart and it had been shoddily hand-sewn in a lot of spots. I had to pretty much re-sew all the seams, but SO SO worth it (and the $1.50 I paid for it!)

I'm super excited for this weekend, assuming the weather cooperates. My friend Megan is in town from Colorado! Unfortunately her grandma died, but fortunately that gives her a reason to come back to Minneapolis! I'm also gonna see my friend Benny tonight! He's a marine and has been in Djibouti for a year (the last time I saw him was the night of my Augustache birthday party when he secretly was in town and then just showed up at my party to surprise me! I almost died!) Tomorrow I have to waitress but that's okay. It's the Kentucky Derby and I'm gonna wear a giant hat I found at a thrift store a while ago! Sunday I'm going to the In The Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater's Mayday Parade! Then it will be the first baseball Sunday of the year! Whoo! I can't wait to play baseball again! There should be a lot of friends and grilling and drinking beers and playing baseball - assuming the weather is good! What a weekend! Whooooooo!