Reader Request #2--Day 97

So today, I'm continuing my weekly challenge of "Reader Requests", in which blog readers, via comments, tell me how to wear my new clothes. 
Next up is a good friend, Kara. I'm lucky to know her in real life, as she's one of those friends who has learned how to tell the truth, but with kindness and support. She's pretty amazing!
Kara has a great website, karalambert.com, where she posts photos from her portrait sessions. She did a session for me and we had so much fun! I'd recommend her even if she wasn't a friend! 
Here's Kara's outfit suggestion:

KaraM said...

Cotton Puffed Sleave with skinny jeans and heels!

In her honor, I took photos at one of her (and my) favorite places. Can you guess where?

card catalog:

                 sunglasses--Target

                 top--Diane von Furstenburg (via Plato's)

                 belt--Miley Cyrus for Wal-Mart

                 jeans--Gap

                 mary janes--Gianni Bini

Reader Request #1--Day 95

So today is the first of "Reader Requests", in which a reader gets to play stylist with my new clothes.


First up is Melissa of "A Working Mom's Closet", who you should check out! She's great at taking affordable pieces and making stylish looks for work by blending color, pattern and texture. Pop over and check her out!


Here was her outfit suggestion:

 Melissa said...

Okay, I'm gonna suggest taking the cotton Topshop floral blouse (I'm seriously into florals right now) with the JCrew green cardi layered over top and belted (I have a thing for belting, I just love it) with a black/yellow/pink/white (any solid) skirt. Throw in some yellow shoes and YAY! That would make me happy.

Now I need to find a floral top like that along with a green cardigan.

Melissa, I've gotta admit, I wasn't sure how this would translate. But I should have trusted that eye for color! I originally was going to pair the cardi/top combo with a solid J. Crew skirt, until I remembered it was at the dry cleaners! I hoped this skirt still conveyed the look, even though it's technically a pattern. 

While I'm not a stickler for matching, I really do shy away from "clashing" tones of the same hue in an outfit. And this one has THREE different shades of green! The shirt has more of a mint, the cardi is kelly green and the belt is certainly olive. I was a bit apprehensive about pairing the olive with the kelly, but after trying several different belts, I kept reaching back for this one. I quite like the clash. 

The other thing I love about this outfit is the shape. I felt very feminine with the poofy skirt and belted cardi. I think it showed my shape well and I could even see wearing this outfit in the Fall with tights and boots. 

So, thanks Melissa! Thanks to you, I have a new year-round outfit to add to my repertoire. You did so great I think you get extra credit!

card catalog:

                   cardigan--J. Crew, via Plato's

                   tee--Topshop, via Plato's

                   belt--J. Crew

                   skirt--Forever 21

                   heels--Old Navy

What I Bought, Part 4--Day 93

So, after the Gap broke my will, I figured, might as well be REAL BAD.

Except remember, I'm a firstborn. My idea of a crazy night is running a stop sign in a neighborhood and maybe drinking out of a Coke in Wal-Mart before I PAID FOR IT.

I'd been keeping an eye on the jean leggings--jeggings, if you must--and saw some on Forever 21's site that were a good price to try a trend. To the mall I went. And The Boyfriend was with me. So that made it ok. He's pretty (AHEM, VERY) good at asking me if I need something when I'm buying it and also, he's pretty amazing at telling me the riskier things look darn good. So he's good for my wallet and ego, both qualities any man should aspire to have.

Here's what I got:

card catalog:

                    hat, leggings

During this challenge, I faced moving all of my things into storage, and will be moving in about 20 days out-of-state, so I took the opportunity to purge, purge, purge. I ended up taking 2 laundry baskets to Plato's Closet and EIGHT garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill. I would feel better about that if it hadn't just been sitting for so long and if there wasn't still a lot hanging in my closet.

Plato's, to my surprise, had the nice girl working that day. The one who didn't act as if my clothes all smelled and might have lice. She bought almost everything. On top of that, I had a 20% card, so between store credit and the discount, I got the following for $12. 

card catalog:

                   silk top--Petticoat (random brand?)

                   cotton puffed sleeve--DVF

card catalog:

                    cotton top--Odille

                    cotton tank--H&M

                    cotton floral--Topshop

card catalog:

                    faux fur down vest--Gap

                    corduroy blazer--H&M

card catalog:

                   swiss dot blouse--Fossil

                   tunic--H&M

                   silk/cotton cardi--J. Crew

                   silk/cotton buttondown--J. Crew

                   green striped buttondown--Ralph Lauren

And here it all is. 

So, faithful readers, you have an assignment. In order to get back onto blogging, I'm going to take requests. 

Take one item pictured from my new haul--anything from the last few posts--and tell me in the comments how I should wear it. I'll pick my favorite 5 (if there are that many!) and wear them all next week. You don't have to use only items from this challenge but play nice! (No fair picking the down vest. It's 111 degrees here!)

I'll post each day, linking to the Top 5's respective blogs and giving them credit as the stylist. Don't you think that will be fun?

What I Bought, Part 3--Day 92

So, after establishing that I was an emotional shopper, I started wondering why. Why do I shop at some times versus others? Why do I feel the need for shiny new things?

And I realized, that it's usually when I need to be in control. When something isn't going well, I can always count on shopping.

People aren't like that. People can be having a bad day, or not support you in a way you think they should, or say something offhand that hurts your feelings. Other people aren't controllable.

Life isn't like that either. Things change; people move, get married, have babies; sickness happens; death happens. Life isn't controllable.

I'm not like that. I could have forgotten to mail a bill on time and have to pay a penalty, have a work meeting that's less than stellar, disappoint someone I care about, or say something mean unintentionally. Sometimes, I'm not controllable.

But shopping IS like that. With the high volume of merchandise, I can always count on the Gap, Loft or Target to have something to buy that lets me feel better. With any amount of money, shopping is controllable.

Which is really just a way of saying: I like being in control more than I like feeling out of control.

I'm a control freak. And instead of dealing with that, I was buying stuff.

I'll put what I think about all that tomorrow...if you care to still be my internet therapists, dears.

After The Gap, I think my next favorite place is Target. Mostly because there's literally one right across the street from my neighborhood. Every time I go anywhere, there it is, drawing me in with its bullseye like a homing beacon.

So here's what I bought there:

card catalog:

                   Converse Long-Sleeve Paisley Top, Merona Printed Cardigan, Mossimo Elastic-Waist Skirt

Items #1 and #2 still have tags. Should I keep or return?

Outtakes--Day 92

A while ago, when I was, you know, actually blogging, I bought my camera remote and took several pics with it. The only problem was that I had my camera on manual focus. Oops. 

There was also some unfortunate shadowing. 

So I never wound up posting these photos from the little photo shoot that day, but just to get back in gear on blogging, here they are. I read blogs often that seem to always have "perfect" pictures straight out of a photo shoot and it's very very easy to quickly get self-critical. It's much hard to remember that my blog has a voice and yes, it is worth something. Maybe not to thousands of readers, but even if just to me, that is something.

And that is enough. 

card catalog: 
                    t-shirt--American Eagle
                    skirt--Old Navy
                    bracelet--Target
                    shoes--Payless

(I look so unhappy...)

card catalog:

                    dress--J. Crew

                    hoodie--Splendid

                    belt--Target

                    shoes--Target

card catalog:

                    headband--Target

                    silk tank--Old Navy

                    shorts--H&M

                    sandals--Cynthia Vincent for Target

(This outfit felt very "E from Academichic" to me...probably because she also has this belt.)

card catalog:

                   t-shirt--Target

                   belt--Old Navy

                   skirt--Ann Taylor Loft (vintage via thrift)

                   shoes--Target

What I Bought, Part 2--Day 91

This "not shopping" exercise was good in lots of ways. I learned a lot about my shopping habits by not having them and subsequently secretly re-instating them.

For one, I learned that I am completely an emotionally-based shopper. I work in a field that requires me to raise my own salary and have meetings with LOTS of people in order to do that. When one particularly tanked, that was when I felt the NEED NEED NEED to shop. Logically, this doesn't even make sense, to spend money because I'm worried about money, but there I was, doing just that.

For two, I learned that the Gap clearance rack is my gateway drug. Especially when they're having "Additional 40 Percent Off Sale Items" Sale! It's like they're paying you to shop, kind of.

So here's what started the binge. And I'm shaming myself a bit by listing the prices and links:

card catalog:

                   belted pleated skirt, bright capped-sleeve ruffle top, pocket t, striped tunic (can't find it online!)

Oh and yes, note that two of these items still have the tags. Which means I can return. And maybe I should?

More "What I Bought" coming tomorrow!

                   

What I Bought, Part 1 of Eleventy Billion--Day 91

By overwhelming reader demand, here's the first installment of "What I Bought". More posts will be following. Maybe (cough, cough) quite a few more.

I ordered two pairs of boots from Target, because I had two pair last winter and wore one of the two pairs every single day. After looking at stevemadden.com, I'm sure both are knock-offs of his boots. They haven't arrived yet, but I'm kind of excited.

Target "Kaden" boot

Target "Karassa" Boot

For reference, here's the links to the Madden boots here and here. Pretty close matches, even down to the red zipper down the back on the first one. 

Day 90--Utter Failure

So, this one time, I started a blog about not shopping for 90 days and promised to update it.


Then I totally didn't update it for several weeks. 


So much so that The Department of Internet Services came and took it away for blog endangerment and severe neglect. I had to attend a "Successful Blog-Raising" class by court order at a Junior College and pass several inspections by a judically-appointed Blog Advocate. Meanwhile, my blog thrived under the care of a wonderful Foster family, and I'm only slightly hurt that it now calls Donna, "Mom". 


Finally, though, we were reunited. But I do have to confess something:


I didn't post because I.........


SHOPPED.


And the subsequent guilt made me not want to post. I felt dishonest, like I was letting you guys down. When really, you all probably would have more readily forgiven me than my debit card is going to.


I think I was doing well until I started the "30 for 30 Challenge". And no, I'm NOT blaming the challenge (or Kendi). I think it was hard enough with the not shopping for such a long time to the added stringency of only 30 items.


So I...failed. And I'm a firstborn, so you know it just KILLS me to say that.


Officially, the challenge of 90 days is now almost over. But it's not a total loss. 


I discovered a wonderful world of fashion bloggers and would like to continue, though I'm not exactly sure where to go from here. I think this blog title might have to be changed, so I might be relocating. (And I'll post my forwarding address once I figure out exactly what it is...send me suggestions, if you still read and don't hate me forever?)