F for Effort

Whoa dudes, I fell way behind with the six year wrap-up and randomly playing hooky from work - so here we go. A classic photo dump.

This day was super rainy, which meant I didn't bike to work so I wore a maxi skirt - generally a biking no-no. It rained for like 24 hours straight. It made me want to stay home and nap but I didn't.

Cardigan - Old Navy

Polo - from the golf club

Skirt - thrifted vintage Aileen

Wedges - thrifted Nine West (they're under there somewhere!)

I am hoping this was the last cold day. It was only in the 40's and it was super annoying! It's mid May! Nate picked me up from work and we looked at three houses. Two of which were not good and one which had accepted an offer an hour before we got there. House hunting is so frustrating!

Sweater - Gap

Pins - thrifed, flea markets, etc

Polo - from the golf club

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - Minnetonka Moccasins

Woo! Tuesday - a very warm and bikeable day! It was like 78 degrees and it was glorious! Then I had to go waitress until 11pm. Boo.

Vest - thrifted (no tags)

Dress - Target

Wedges - Ralph Lauren

This was yesterday, also an awesome bike day (though it was windy as hell!)

Necklace - thrifted

Oxford - thrifted little boys Cherokee

Skirt - thrifted Express

Ballet flats - Target

This necklace kinda looks like it's made out of rock candy...

Ok, now that that is out of the way, we'll go back to regularly scheduled blog programming. Whatever that is.

Jonathan Livingston

I've worn these seagull pins a lot over the past few years, but I haven't worn them in quite a while! Sometimes I forget about my pins and brooches... I guess because I own a lot of bold, patterned, or statement articles of clothing, and there's no point in cluttering up an already loud outfit. These look better on something a bit more subdued. Although, there is nothing subdued about this shade of red. It'll burn your retinas clean off if you stare at it too long.

Cardigan - thrifted vintage

Seagull pins - thrifted, flea market

Jeans - Earnest Sewn

Shoes - Minnetonka Moccasin

Yesterday was a really good day. I didn't have to waitress so I got caught up on a bunch of random shit I haven't had time to do. I unexpectedly got to see a friend, went running, got a lot of laundry and dishes done, talked to my mom, got a work training assignment done, and kicked ass in fantasy baseball. This is very important. I've played fantasy baseball for a few years and I'm somehow always the only girl in the league (I've been on several different ones) so I feel the need to kick ass to prove myself. After all, (baseball) diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Merit badges

Well, it has now been 7 days since my 2nd doctor appointment and 6 days since my MRI... I have called my doctor seven times to get my MRI set up, to check on my blood test results, to see about getting pain meds, etc. And he has called me back ZERO times. So, I'm in full-on bitch mode this morning and demanding answers as well as a new doctor. We'll see how that works. Despite the ankle pain, the weekend was great. I gave up my photo booth shift since I didn't think standing for 6 hours was a good idea. Otherwise, I went to two BBQs and spent the rest of the time relaxing and keeping my leg up. Being forced to take it easy isn't ideal, but it isn't the worst thing in the world either.

Blazer - thrifted little boys TFW

Pins - thrifted, garage sales, antique shops, etc

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

Jean - Gap

Shoes - thrifted Minnetonka Moccasin

Sooo many little pins, badges, and medals...

Also, wearing flats all the time? It's getting old.

Grandpa and grandma

An old man sweater with old lady brooches.

Cardigan - thrifted vintage SportsWear by Sears

Pins and brooches - thrifted, garage sales, etc

T-shirt - Target

Owl necklace - thrifted

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - MIA

Also, this:

Just my nephew, Henrik, rocking a onesie I screenprinted for him. I can't wait until he gets bigger so I can make him a million t-shirts and hoodies.

Even my PJs are vintage

Polo - from when I was a bev cart girl at a golf course
Sweater - Old Navy (old)
Brooches - thrifted
Skirt - American Apparel
Tights - Cynthia Rowley
Shoes - MIA

I had a pretty fabulous weekend. Saturday, Nate and I got up early and stood in the cold to go to an estate sale. I found a bunch of vintage tourist pennants, a crazy pair of shoes from India, and an old boy scout knapsack. Then we went out for brunch and spent the rest of the day and night holed up from the cold and snow in front of my fireplace, playing Trivial Pursuit a million times while watching AFV (which I love a pathetic amount and I was so happy when it appeared on Netflix). Sunday we made fancy tacos and margaritas and watched football all day. My goal was to be as lazy as possible and stay horizontal the whole day. Nate fashioned me a giant straw so I could drink a margarita while laying down and watching football at the same time. That's love, folks. I even have the photo to prove it. Prepare yourselves for the glamor of "the laziest day ever:"

Yes, my shirt says "I've got the crabs." I bought it for fifty cents at a garage sale when I was 15, and I've worn it constantly for the past 15 years. It's so soft and old and awesome. It's from a crab shack in Florida, originally. Hey, I can't be dressed up all the time!

Gimme a "B"

Even though this is just a cardigan, not a letter sweater, it has that vibe to it... so between that and the headband, I feel excessively preppy today! 

Necklace - belonged to my great-gma
Cardigan - thrifted vintage Tarni
T-shirt - Target
Seagull pins - thrifted
Jeans - Gap
Boots - Seychelles

I used to wear this necklace every single day, for years in high school. It belonged to my great grandma, who we all called "Grandma B". For some reason, in middle school, I thought she was really cool and wanted to go visit her all the time with my mom. We would always stop at an apple orchard on the way to her retirement community and buy apple cider donuts to eat with her (I still want to cry like every time I eat one.) When she died, I got to pick a few of her things to keep. This necklace is my favorite! It's five pieces of jade on a tiny chain. I used to call it "the pickle necklace." Now I'm too paranoid I'll lose or break it, so I keep it hung up in my bathroom so I still see it all the time, but only wear it once in a while.

Cranes and seagulls

Blouse - vintage via eBay
Sweater - Gap
Pins - thrifted
Skirt - thrifted vintage (no tags)
Tights - Cynthia Rowley
Boots - Rockport

I know these are technically cranes on my shirt, but I couldn't resist wearing a few seagull pins... same dif. Put a bird on it and all that.

Operation "Don't Lose Your Mind before Christmas" has been going okay... I got a lot organized and figured out last night... I just get easily distracted. My whole t-shirt operation is in my kitchen, which is not ideal, but I live in a one bedroom condo so it's all I've got. But I tend to start to spaz out about how it's taking over everything and start trying to re-arrange things to fit things better and neater and then all of a sudden it's 2 hours later and things are slightly better but I probably should have just been printing t-shirts that whole time... eh, it will get done. Somehow. In the meantime, birds! Birds make everything better and happier!

Neon & neutral

I was planning to wear this sweater on Sunday, but then I remembered I was going to visit my three week old nephew, Henrik and didn't want to compromise his retinas. Seriously. Who knows what will happen if you wear this sweater near a baby?

Sweater - thrifted vintage Devon Original

Brooches - garage sale, thrifted

Skirt - vintage via www.pangs.etsy.com

Tights - Cynthia Rowley

Heels - Bakers

I don't really think of myself as a huge fan of neon, but looking over past outfits, I've certainly got a few neon items in the closet. They are hard to photograph properly though, either I look totally blown out or I have to tone down the colors to make me look normal and it takes away some of the brightness of the neon. Eh, oh well. I assure you that all these things will blind you in person.

I guess being born in 1981 means I'll always love the fluorescent. Next let's bring back Hyper Color (no, actually that was always a bad idea.)

Imagine

It's Spirit Week at the school where I work, so there are dress-up days all week. Today is "Twin Day," where the kids are supposed to dress exactly the same as a friend. All the staff are dressing the same by wearing our school shirts (it says "IMAGINE" on it) and jeans. I can't "imagine" a harder thing to wear in a stylish manner than an oversized orange t-shirt but here you go! 

 Blazer - thrifted, little boys section, pins added by me
T-shirt - from my school
Jeans - GAP
Shoes - thrifted Santorini

I'm excited that you can buy flared leg pants again because I love the look, but man does it show off the fact that I am bow-legged! Oh well! I wore the fitted blazer to hide the way too big sleeves! While this is not as cute as when I wore the blazer last time, it's not too bad considering I had to work in the orange shirt! 

Some safety pin detail shots from last time I wore it... I just left the pins on the lapels because I have another  plain little boys navy blazer, so this one can stay permanently decked out! 

I'm a loser, baby

I fell in love with the nerdy proportions of this outfit... the cropped vest with a longer t-shirt hanging out and cropped pants with super nerdy white socks sticking out. Love! And to finish it off, I guess what has apparently become synonymous with my style - a grouping of pins!

 Vest - eBay (came with matching cardigan)

T-shirt - Target
Pins - all thrifted
Pants - Marni (secondhand from The Garment District in Boston)
Shoes - thrifted Enzo Angiolini  

The pins:

Whenever I wear these pants I remember the old secretary at my work who said to me, "Christine, only you could make flood pants look cool." And I replied, "No, only Marni." And she said "Marni? Who's Marni? She doesn't work here does she?"  Oh, how sweet and oblivious...

The best worst day ever

Today I am sick (just a cold), then I fell down on the ice while taking out my garbage, which caused my coffee tumbler to pop open and all the stuff in my bag to fall out, which apparently loosened the cap on my aluminum water bottle enough for it to leak all over my bag during my bus ride to work... yet I'm still in a fabulous mood, believe it or not!

Lace top - thrifted Target (sample)

Sweater - GAP
Band medals - antique store
Boy scout pin - thrifted
Jeans - GAP
Boots - Seychelles

The pins:

Can you tell I finally spent my Groupon to GAP on Friday? Which is why I'm wearing two new things! I can't even remember the last time I bought new clothing (with the exception of shoes) from a real store instead of a thrift store... it was so odd. So many sizes of the same thing, amazing!

Ack! Le Kodak!

I lost/misplaced my camera cord... so I figure, no biggie, I'll just go buy another! I did! And it didn't fit! So I returned it and bought another one! It didn't fit either! So I stopped at an actual camera store and they told me that since it is a Kodak camera, they don't use the standard USB cords. They only use Kodak cords. Um, a big "f you" to Kodak on that one! So I bought a nifty little thumb drive reader for my memory card to stick it to them! Boo on you Kodak. Whatever, that is the reason I've been missing so far this week! But, on the bright side, that means you get two outfits today! Both of which are a bit modern-seventies!

Yesterday:

Glasses - Prada
Oxford - thrifted vintage

Sweater - Bitten by SJP

Brooches - thrifted (The gold one that is all alone is from a garage sale when I was seven. It cost a dime. Buying second-hand and frugal since birth!)

Skirt - thrifted Express 

Socks - Target

Shoes - thrifted

Brooches:

 

Today: 100% thrifted!

Necklace - thrifted

Blazer - thrifted vintage (and it's made of camel hair! Which is weird! And feels... hairy!)

Blouse - thrifted Kenneth Cole

Jeans - thrifted Banana Republic

Shoes - thrifted Joan Helpern Signature (Of Joan & David! They were $3 and were handmade in Italy!)

Necklace and shoes (lets ignore my super awesome athletic socks... they were never gonna be seen under the pants and then I realized I've never taken a photo of these shoes before, so I took one in the bathroom at work because I am a Classy Bitch.)

Bye kiddos!

P.S. Also, on Sunday, I got stuck at the Milwaukee airport for like nine hours flying standby. And since I am super-awesome and smart, I left my phone at my parents house. Stand-by. No phone. Geez-Louise! The good news is, I survived thanks to my wits (and the glory that is Facebook so I could look up my little bros # to get in touch with my mom and cry to her that I was stuck at the airport. Boos.)