Paul

Now that winter is almost over, I'm resisting the urge to start dressing springy and instead trying to wear all my very wintery sweaters/jackets/cardigans one last time. Because I'm a nerd, I made a list last night of all my warmest, winteriest things I'd like to wear again and this was the first one on the list. My inner Paul Bunyan loves this jacket.

Glasses - Prada

Jacket - thrifted The Woolrich Woman (previously worn 1, 2, 3)

Striped shirt - JC Penney clearance

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - Seychelles

I've got the day off tomorrow so I'll be back Monday! Hopefully with a clean-slate of a to-do list!

Ants in the pants

I am getting antsy... antsy for spring, gardening, bike rides, and even though it's a long way off - my swimming pool. I'm excited it's almost March though! So close! I am not excited to start looking for a summer job though. The past few years I've worked summer school (which is only 4 hours a day for 6 weeks) but it's always a struggle to make ends meet for those few months. When I was a waitress/bartender/bev cart girl at a golf club I was rolling in dough in the summer. Unfortunately the club closed, but I'm hoping to find a similar job for this summer. Wish me luck! I've got Friday off work due to conferences so I'm gonna spend the day job hunting!

Glasses - thrifted vintage, lenses replaced

Blouse - vintage Bryn Mawr from Seoul Folk Flea

Sweater - Old Navy

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - vintage Mason Shoe Co. (from Jabot's Boutique)

Clearly Lucite

Shirt - c/o Jacob

Necklace - J.Crew outlet

Bracelets - thrifted, garage sales, etc.

Skirt - thrifted vintage Ann Tjian for Kenar

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Shoes - Seychelles

Details... I love clear/lucite things but they sure are hard to photograph... the flash turns them white but it's hard to take a sharp photo with no flash... eh, oh well! You get the idea! Things are see through!

Winter wandering

Sweatshirt - thrifted vintage Jerzees

Dress (worn as skirt) - Marc by Marc Jacobs

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Wedges - Ralph Lauren

It's true...

This past weekend, Nate and I drove 3 hours to his mom's house to surprise her for her birthday! She had no idea we were coming, so it was fun to see her so shocked. His sister and her family were also there and it is his nephew's 10th birthday today so we celebrated that too. I'm glad we made it - it snowed on Friday so we were worried the weather would ruin our plan but luckily the snow wasn't too bad! 

Burnin' love

It's snow, snow, snowing (again) so I felt like it was a hot pink kinda sweater day (previous tribute to the wonder that is this 1960s day-glo sweater here). 

Sweater - thrifted vintage Devon Original

Blouse - thrifted Juster Woman

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - Madeline

Woo! It's the weekend and I've got seeeeeecret plans! See you Monday!

Rosie

The sleeves of insanity sweater today... I've never worn this sweater with this skirt because the colors are very similar but not the same and I though it would drive me nuts. But it doesn't. Good enough. 

Sweater - DKNY (previously worn 1, 2)

Skirt - thrifted vintage (no tags)

Tights - ??? But they're dark brown, I assure you! 

Shoes - thrifted newstock Target

The deets...

I stopped by the Optiz Outlet in St Louis Park last night because all their winter coats are 90% off. So I got this cute wool Kenneth Cole coat for $35 (down from $345)! Woop! Now's the time to go buy a coat for next year! I don't own a black coat so I thought it was a smart choice. My go-to winter coat is pastel yellow tweed so it gets a bit gross since I ride the city bus twice a day. 

Don't worry, I put a hat, scarf, gloves, big socks, and boots on before I walked to the bus stop but I just took this photo quick so you could see it without all the cold-weather accessories in the way!  

The Champion

Well, I did it! I wanted to wear this sweater more than once per winter and this is time #2. The key to reaching your goals? Making really pathetic goals, apparently. It doesn't hurt that this sweater is insanely warm and this winter has been ridiculously cold compared to the last few MN winters.

Cardigan - thrifted vintage (no tags)

Tee - Target

Skirt - thrifted Banana Republic

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Boots - Rockport

What you'll see as I walk away...

Ms. Jackson

I'd only been at work for about four minutes before a student told me "You look like Michael Jackson in that one video. Err, um, his sister in that one video." Nice save. 

Jacket - vintage, buttons replaced by me

Shirt - Target

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - Tracy Reese

I had a relaxing extra-long weekend. I had Friday AND Monday off! And I mostly wasted them! Hooray! I have no motivation left to work on stuff until it stops being freezing cold. See you in late March, productivity! Though I did get to see my friend Megan who was in town for a few days from Denver. My two best friends are both named Megan, it gets confusing. Especially when the three of us lived together forever. Sorry, I can't show photos of the three of us from this weekend on the blog though. One is a therapist so we don't want her patients randomly coming across photos of us old ladies reliving our glory days! 

Romance and insanity

I'm wearing red. And pink. On Valentine's Day. I'm so original and revolutionary I just blew your fucking mind, didn't I? 

Glasses - thrifted vintage, lenses replaced

Cowl - crocheted by me

Oxford - vintage Wrangler

Cords - thrifted Banana Republic (altered from long flares by me)

Shoes - Tracy Reese

Eh, I probably won't do anything special tonight. I'm taking my special needs buddy to his drumming class and making him dinner (just like every Thursday!) and then I'll head over to Nate's to watch Project Runway and Parks & Rec. Last year on Valentine's Day, we drank a bottle of champagne while we watched Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Plus I did make him those rather ridiculous Valentines last year, and he bought me a box of Duraflame logs for my fireplace. It's not that we aren't romantic, we just have our own kind of insanity that works for us. And it doesn't involve flowers or chocolates or restaurants.

Mickey and Eames

Glasses - thrifted vintage American Optical, lenses replaced

Blazer - thrifted JH Collectables

Shirt - thrifted Mickey & Co.

Skirt - American Apparel

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Wedges - Ralph Lauren

I can never resist an old Mickey Mouse shirt or sweater when I find one at the thrift store. So two weeks ago I stopped in an estate sale that said the person was a Disney collector. She sure did have a TON of shirts and sweatshirts but most of them were too big and too modern for my tastes. I wandered around the house and stopped in the basement. Next to the furnace, I saw a chair that was buried under a small filing cabinet, some linens, and a cushion. I pulled the stuff off the top and tried to remain calm as I looked at the chair. I flipped it over and there I saw a paper tag and embossing in the fiberglass - Herman Miller. It was an Eames! I plunked down my $5 and got the hell outta there, trying not to scratch it as I shakily loaded it in my tiny hatchback. As stupid as it sounds, I've always dreamed of finding an Eames ridiculously cheap at a garage sale or thrift store and now it's happened! Wooooop! It's fun doing research on it too! I've learned it's a DSS 1956 in Seal Brown fiberglass (which is a rare color) with stacking legs. And worth $300-$400! 

Rugby

I found this shirt at a thrift store on $1 day and wasn't going to buy it because it's almost identical to a shirt I already own. Buuuuuut, I decided that I would get it anyway, and perhaps save it's twin for weekends only from now on.

Rugby shirt - thrifted boys Polo Ralph Lauren

Necklaces - garage sales (found by my mom)

Skirt - thrifted vintage (no tags)

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Loafers - Plenty by Tracy Reese

This other shirt was my mom's "painting shirt" in the '80s and I wore it anyway, and my work doesn't care if I do. Because, hey, if you can't wear a paint-covered shirt at an arts school, where can you where one? But for now, it's nice to have it's non-painted twin too. I just really love kelly green and navy together! 

Three days early

I feel kinda Valentine-y in this outfit today... oops! I'm a few days early I guess!

Sweater - thrifted vintage

Shirt - c/o Jacob

Skirt - American Apparel

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Wedges - Ralph Lauren

Friday night, Nate and I babysat my nephew, Henrik. He was really good but did not want to go to bed. At all.

Henrik, looking skeptical about Nate's book-reading abilities...

Oh! Now I get it! Ha ha!

On Saturday we went over to Megan and John's house. Megan made us chicken scampi for dinner and  we played Seinfeld Scene It? (I kicked everyone's ass) and Battle of the Sexes (the girls won!) Sunday it was snowing/sleeting/raining ice all day. Nate has never seen Breaking Bad so we watched the whole first season on Netflix. I've seen all the seasons, but it was fun to watch it from the beginning again.  

School spirit

Today's the last day of spirit week at the school where I work and today everyone just had to wear our school shirts. I jazzed it up a bit with these old jeans. I made them when I was 19 and wore them all the time... 12 years later, I still like to whip them out once in a while and wear 'em. In fact I just noticed that they're on my header! 

Jacket - c/o Jacob

T-shirt - from work

Jeans - thrifted Abercrombie, patches added by me

Loafers - Enzo Angiolini

Since today was a pretty boring dress-up day, lets revisit some of my past faves!

Two different years of '80s Day...

Followed of course, by one year of '90s Day...

Superhero Day and Celebrity Day...

I wish we had dress-up days at school all the time! It's so fun and the kids look hilarious! And sadly I just have all these insane things laying around to make all these costumes. 

A sporting we will go

Today is "Sports Day" for spirit week at my school. (Speaking of which, after I put up my post yesterday, I saw one of the Kindergarten teachers in her wedding dress for Formal Day - it was AMAZING!) I'm a big Twins and Vikings fan but I don't really care about hockey or basketball, which are the two sports in season right now... so I'm supporting spring training! I found this sweatshirt for $5 at an antique shop in the middle of nowhere when I went camping with Nate's family last July. It was a really awesome yet heartbreaking antique shop. We looked through the whole downstairs and all I found that I wanted was this sweatshirt. Then I went upstairs and discovered an entire floor of the most beautiful and impeccable vintage clothes I have ever seen... unfortunately the upstairs was the Historical Society, not the antique shop, so none of it was for sale! Eh, it's good that it's there being displayed and preserved for the future. Besides, I wouldn't have known what to do with Victorian mourning clothes anyway! I sure wish I could've taken some of the '20s to '70s stuff off their hands though! 

Hair scarf - thrifted vintage

Polo - from when I was a bev cart girl at a golf course

Sweatshirt - vintage Twins (from an antique shop)

Jeans - Gap

Boots - Rockport

Formal day

Today is "Formal Day" at my school. The kids and staff are all supposed to dress up today as part of our school's spirit week. They are all adorable, of course. Seeing all the little girls in parkas with big foofy dresses sticking out with snowpants and snowboots on underneath for the walk to the bus stop was just too funny! And all the tiny boys wearing their dad's ties, which are way too long on them.

Fascinator - Amy New York brand (found at an antique shop)

Blazer - thrifted JH Collectables

Dress - thrifted vintage, handmade

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Wedges - Ralph Lauren

Ridiculous overhead shot of my fascinator... it's the one I found while antiquing with Nate the day before Christmas. I think it was $8. Not too bad! 

Brass tacks

Unexpected blog break there... I got a bit overwhelmed and something had to give. Buuuuuut I'm back and even have a new camera! After 5+ years with my crappy old point and shoot, I bought a new crappy point and shoot... it's crazy how much better this one works, but it might take me a few days to figure it all out!

Jacket - Brooklyn Industries

Dress - Rodarte for Target

Cuff - J.Crew Outlet

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Shoes - Bakers

I also updated my etsy with a few things...