pins and needles

Thursday:

Blazer - thrifted

Pins - all thrifted/garage sales

T-shirt - Target

Shorts - Isaac Mizrahi for Target SAMPLE

Tights - Target

Shoes - thrifted Sasha Too

I think a big bunch of tiny pins is so cute! So here's some pin porn:

Seven of the twelve pins are from old boy/girl/cub scout uniforms, and I still have a few more that are still on some uniform pieces that I wear.

Today. This outfit makes me feel like a child. In the seventies.

Blazer - thrifted little boys

Shirt - thrifted

Jeans - Built by Wendy

Boots - thrifted Ann Taylor LOFT

Gearing up for one of the busiest weekends of my life followed by one of the busiest weeks of my life followed by destination wedding cruise! My friend Megan flew in from San Francisco this morning. Friday - Dinner, bachelorette party! Saturday - brunch, Hilary's birthday festivities, Halloween party! Sunday - Vikings vs. Packers! All fun but exhausting too! The good news is my costume is finished (already wore it to a party on Wednesday) and I only have the crown left to finish for the Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) costume for my friend James. Have a fabulous Halloween and I'll be back with 1,000,000 pictures on Monday!

how to wear colors without looking crazy

I am a huge fan of colorful clothes, and the more colors the better! I am not a fan of wearing only two colors, I'm usually in 3-5 at one time. I know that can be intimidating to people who don't wear much, so here's some tips I've learned by wearing lots of color! (I KNOW this has been discussed to death in other forums, but I've heard I do color well so thought I'd throw this together rather than just the usual "here's what I wore" style. The outfits from yesterday and today are the big ones.)

This first look is something I like to call "The Anthropologie Effect." Having never set foot in an Anthro (gasp! I know - what a bad fashionista I am), thanks to the interwebs, I am pretty darn familiar with their aesthetic... So here I am wearing turqouise and orange, two colors that most def don't "go" but because the tones are subdued and the whole outfit is a bit whimsical thanks to the poof and fringe and t-straps (always whimsical!) it looks fine! Plus grey and white/off white are good to balance it out.

Glasses - Prada

Cardigan - Only Hearts

T-shirt - Target (fringe added by me)

Skirt - DKNY

Tights - Target

Shoes - MIA

More whimsical, Anthro-style outfits:

Here is the other way I like to inject color that doesn't seem too harsh... three bright colors but not a ton of them. Neutral black and brown with three seperate punches that somehow "go" due to their brightness. Pops of color kids, get into it!  It's been a while since I did a smiling picture and I actually had a few minutes this morning to take more than one picture (I'm usually half-blinking in most of them, and thus look stoned, so I tend to just look at the ground - it saves time!)

Vest - thrifted

Necklace - thrifted

Ribbon rose - Michael's? Jo-Ann Fabric?

T-shirt - Target

Skirt - vintage - www.stephaniegeisler.etsy.com

Tights - TJ Maxx

Shoes - Michael Kors

More color pops (when people do this, it's usually bright accessories or shoes, but keep in mind that t-shirts, vests, cardigans, tights etc can be little bright pops too!):

So there you have it, color, not scary at all.

Dolls, Thriller, and reliving 8th grade

Friday, two little girls at my school came in to my office. One said, "You always dress like a doll." The other said, "What's wrong with you today? That's not fashion-forward. That's so eighties." Um, what? Had to get dressed in about .2 seconds this day... should not have stayed up so late watching The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with my #1 gay boyfriend... oops.

Bow - vintage clip-on bowtie

Dress - www.areyoutakingmeout.etsy.com

Tights - TJ Maxx

Shoes - Unlisted by Kenneth Cole, inherited from sister

Saturday:

 I did the Thriller dance at a local school along with over 23,000 other zombies around the world at the exact same time. www.thrilltheworld.com for info

Today:

Jacket - Brooklyn Industries

Tshirt - Target

Pants - Target

Boots - Dr. Marten's

Yes, I totally had these boots in 8th grade (after saving my babysitting money for months!) They no longer fit so I bought these ones off ebay a few years ago, because well, they are awesome. Still.

grass fairy

In high school I played soccer for two years (midfielder - wha-what! Well, except for the time that we were beating the other team like 10 to 0 and our coach told us to stop scoring. Our goalie was bored and wanted to play so she took my spot and I went in the goal. I was a gymnast and promptly started doing backflips across the goal. My coach yelled at me and told me I was being unsportsmanlike... what?) Um, anyway, everyone called us "the grass fairies"... which was silly because we were pretty hardcore - our chant before the game was "Blood makes the grass grow, kill, kill, kill" which was a joke, but still, we were tough. Also, one time I got stung by a fuzzy bumblebee on the back of the knee in a tournament and I had never been stung by a bee before and I have a ton of crazy allergies. I told my coach and he said "Smear some mud on it and get back to your post." I'm done talking about soccer forever, I swear. That's all the stories.

This skirt was begging for a b&w look, but I told it to shut up and then I put on some color.

 Tank - little boys Fruit of the Loom

Sweater - Target

Skirt - www.modcloth.com

Tights - crazy outlet store by my house

Shoes - MIA

Byyyyyye kids, I'm gonna go start reading Other Voices, Other Rooms.

Suddenly totally obsessed with girl scout uniforms (in addition to the usual obsession over boy scouts)

Yesterday:

 Jacket - thrifted, vintage. It think it once came with a dress

T-shirt - Target

Skirt - thrifted (note the awesome fringe at the bottom that flings around when I walk - so fun!)

Boots - Charles by Charles David

Today I feel like Shelley Long in Troop Beverly Hills, where she chic-ifies all her Girl Scout uniforms into "cocktail frocks."

 Hat/fascinator - thrifted

Shirt - thrifted in Halloween costume section

Pants - Target

Shoes - next

Nothing exciting to report. Stayed home last night and sewed/cleaned. I think I've mentioned that I'm making a Max, from Where the Wild Things Are costume for a friend. My whole house is COVERED in fur. Everywhere I go, every time I sit down, just full of hair. Cutting faux fur is bad, bad news. Fortunately it is turning out rather awesome... "so at least I've got that going for me." (Bill Murray reference anyone?) I also finally started on my Maude Lebowski from the hallucination scene costume (you know, where she's like a viking with boobs made from bowling balls). I nearly cut all my fingers off several times last night trying to saw plastic toy bowling balls in half with a huge serrated knife - oopsy doops? Digits still intact. Score!

vintage dresses

Here are two dresses I found at Arc's Value Village in the Halloween costume section:

 Dress - thrifted

Socks - Target

Shoes - Michael Kors

Glasses - vintage American Optical

Dress - thrifted

Tights - Target?

Shoes - Unlisted by Kenneth Cole, inherited from sister

While I do love me some vintage, I usually try to modernize them a little bit more than these... but these two dresses were so lovely I didn't want to detract from them by funkifying too much.

I'm still super busy, as usual. Finishing up sewing two Halloween costumes, waitressed the hardest wedding ever on Saturday (three of the six waitresses who were supposed to work were home vomiting or in the hospital) it was insane but oh well, I survived. There are a TON of sick kids at my school so I'm trying to be extra healthy and extra careful. Wish me luck!

geek glasses

I've become obsessed with glasses. I've had them for 22 years, but have usually worn contacts since 6th grade. My prescription is ridiculous! -8.5! That's terrible! So the lenses alone cost like $400. I've been picking up vintage glasses at thrift stores for years, I don't know why, I just think they are fun. I paid to get anti-glare lenses with no prescription in my vintage American Optical horn-rimmed glasses. Then a friend who works at an optical store told me he could shove lenses in the rest of my vintage frames FOR FREE... so be prepared for a lot of kooky glasses to make an appearance over the next few weeks. In return I am secretly designing a shirt for him that will have a reverse mermaid on it (fish on top, legs on the bottom). It's ridiculous and so funny!

Thursday:

 Glasses - thrifted American Optical

Jacket - thrifted

T-shirt - Target

Cropped pants - Target

Shoes - thrifted Sacha Too

Friday:

 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!

T-shirt - Target

Pants - Target

Clogs - www.thrush.etsy.com

Monday:

 Collar - thrifted

T-shirt - Target

Skirt - thrifted Target SAMPLE

Tights - Target (little girls section)

Shoes - Steve Madden

Ok, just a short post! I have the day off and am making a Max from "Where the Wild Things Are" costume for my friend J-Rod all day. There's fur all over my condo!

all rights reserved, all wrongs reversed

Thursday, Oct 1, I dressed like Easter. I found this dress at Arc's Value Village in their Halloween section and it fit perfect! It's terrible thick polyester but who cares? Look at those pleats! This dress also doubles the amount of purple I own, I don't know why, I just really hate purple. 

 Blazer - thrifted, used to be part of a little boys rental suit

Necklace - thrifted

Dress - thrifted

Tights - ?? probably Target

Shoes - inherited from sister, Steve Madden

On Mon, Oct 5th, I got a little big rugged for fall. Remember when I reallllly wanted these boots? Well, I resisted. They were too expensive for such impractical boots. Then I found them on Amazon.com like a month later for half price and in my size. So I bought them. But then I realized it was spring and really, these would look ridiculous in the spring. So I've been waiting for six months to wear these babies... and then I looked at them and had NO IDEA how to wear them. This worked though. They also came with a set of black laces so I'll play with those too.

 T-shirt - Target

Shirt clip - big bag of costume jewelry inherited from gma

Skirt - vintage - www.stephaniegeisler.etsy.com

Boots - Timberland

Am I bringing back the shirt clip? I THINK SO! This shirt was just too long for the skirt and it looked silly tucked in so I just busted out the shirt clip thing and totally rocked it like I was 8 again.

On Tuesday, Oct 6, I went to my FINAL (for real this time) Twins game at the Metrodome.

Cardigan - thrifted Old Navy

T-shirt - thrifted

Pants - Marni

Shoes - thrifted Minnetonka Moccasins

One of the secretaries at my work said to me, "Only you could wear flood pants and have it look good." I said "No, not me, only Marni." To which she said "Who's Marni? Do I know her? She doesn't work here, does she?" Too cute.

SO excited, I have Thursday and Friday off! So I'll be able to finally get sewing on Halloween costumes!

i'm a spaz

Hey dudes, as promised here are two more outfits from last week!

Tues, Sep 29, I wore some dizzying patterns

 Cardigan - Isaac Mizrahi for Target

Grey tank - little boys Fruit of the Loom

Polka dot skirt - www.pangs.etsy.com

Boots - Diba

Wed, Sep 30, I decided to dress like a cheeky boy:

 Oxford - Target

Tie - www.stephaniegeisler.etsy.com

Cropped pants - Target

Shoes - Tracy Reese

Also, sheepystitious (hi!) also asked me to do a post on how I organize my closets and how I pick out my daily outfits! While I am TOTALLY nervous to show you all my five closets... I will do it. Just give me a few days... it's a crazy month.

I'm planning a bachelorette party for the end of the month, getting ready for a week long cruise/wedding in less than a month, making two halloween costumes, and basically freaking out every day... The good news is I finished reading the 352 page book that I got to read before it's published because the author asked me to comment on the book for the back cover based on my love of vintage clothing. It was fun and it will be crazy to see my name on a real book!

phew!

I'm finally back! The nerds have worked their nerd magic and fixed up my laptop! I've got a ton of photos to share, so I'll probably do double outfit posts all week to catch up... before that let's talk about this...

My friends and I went to "one last Twins game" at the Metrodome on Friday, Oct 2... well, then we wound up tying the Detroit Tigers for the central division title and the tiebreaker was here... so we had to go to "one last Twins game" again!

Lookie how many people were there...

It was the most people EVER in the Metrodome.

And... they WON! In the 12th inning!

And the place went NUTS! I hugged strangers, I high fived until my hand went numb, I lost my voice! So so fun, I was so proud to be there! And I'm SOOO excited for their brand new outdoor stadium to open next year!

On to the clothes!

Friday, Sep 25... I was lazy and wore a lot of blue:

 Dress - thrifted Converse Sample

Bead necklaces - thrifted

Skull necklace - Disney Couture

Shoes - thrifted Nine West

Monday, Sep 28... dressing like a beeee:

Cardigan - from a friend's "to the Goodwill" pile

T-shirt - Target

Polka dot skirt - thrifted NY & Co

Tights - Target

Shoes - thrifted

Alright kids, there are tons more coming, so I'll leave it at that. I'm trying to catch up on everyone's blogs and on flickr and whatnot, so sorry I have been absent for like two weeks, I still love you all!

my sad Mac

Sorry I have been MIA lately... after being an abusive girlfriend to my MacBook for two years, he has up and left me. Well, his hard drive is "damaged" and has been in the capable hands of tech nerds for a few days... I'm supposed to get the diagnosis on Friday or Saturday. Boo. I assure you I am alive and still traipsing around in ridiculous outfits out in the real world. In the meantime I am taking this lack of computer time in stride and spending some quality time at thrift stores... this is HANDS DOWN, THE BEST time to thrift. So many thrift stores save up all their crazy stuff and vintage and then throw it out now for Halloween - I went to one yesterday and got SO MUCH great stuff! GO NOW! Later dudes and I will hopefully be back next week! In the meantime I can leave you with the last outfit photos I uploaded before the demise of the Mac (um, last Thursday's outfit?)

Cardigan - thrifted Target Sample

T-shirt - Target, fringe neckline added by me

Pants - thrifted

Shoes - etsy (VintageVogue - no longer a shop)

Jacket - thrifted (and my total fave fall coat!)

Byyyyyyyyyye!