Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Can I be her when I grow up?

Anna Piaggi
Apparently, I should know this woman but as the blog where I acquired the picture is in French, I do not know who she is. Nonetheless, I want to be one of these fabulous women who throw all the fashion rules out the window when they age and look stellar doing it!

P.S. Evidentally, she has something to do with Vogue Italia. Photo courtesy of http://blogs.lexpress.fr/cafe-mode/.

Flight Attendant Gone (Ever so Slightly) Naughty

I don't know why but this outfit makes me feel like a naughty flight attendant, but it does. Basically, I wanted to pit "contradictory" prints against each other. I attempted to achieve this with the cheetah camisole and the floral print shoes. By the way, it's time I invested more money in floral prints and prints in general. I feel that I have too much solid going on in my wardrobe. Also, it's time to lay off on the camisoles. Enough already--it's just too much.



This picture was meant to look incredibly serious.
Skirt: Michael Kors
Blouse: Rummaged out of mom's closet
Camisole: Lane Bryant
Necklace and Brooch: Vintage
Headband: Decade (a boutique off of Broadway)
Shoes: Vintage
Scent: Dolce & Gabbana Sicily

Italian Blog

I got an e-mail from Eugenio wanting to exchange blog links today. I went and checked out his site and though it is Italian (which I can only barely decipher due to my marginal experience with Spanish), his images are awesome. I also loved the recipes (or rather the pictures of his recipes) and I am considering investing in an English-Italian dictionary just so I can translate his culinary creations. Here's an image for you to savor. The website is http://internapoli-city.blogspot.com/.

La Haine


I, like every other card-carrying, self-proclaimed fashionista, love beautiful heels. As it turns out, and as the title of this post suggests, shoes are also the bain of my existence. This post came to mind today when I put on a pair of shoes this morning that I have only worn one other time. The memory of my last sashay in these shoes was so painful that it has been over a year since I was able to dull the memory enough to brave them again. So far, they are not nearly as excrutiating as I remember. This is more than likely due to my flare for drama when it comes to pain.
This episode got me thinking about shoes and the ridiculous adventures that I have endured because of my love. Most of these stories are permantly memorialized by my family, who are not as smitten with fashion as I, and who see my shoe fetish as crippling (quite literally). Nonetheless, I thought it appropriate to further commemorate my idiotic moments while standing sky-high.
I have multiple scars from falling down in heels. The worst culprits are platforms for me as they seem to give me a false sense of security. One Friday after coming home early from work, I was walking up my driveway in a pair of Vince Camuto platforms when I rolled my ankle. I thought I could save myself from falling despite the fact that my hands were full. This was a mistake. I tumbled to the ground, scraping my knee, the heel of my hand, and (of all places) the top of my ankle. When I say the top of my ankle, I am talking about the part of your ankle that you see when you look down at your feet where the foot joins to the shin. How on earth you acquire a scrap there is beyond me but I managed it beautifully. I was in so much pain I wouldn't even clean out the wounds. To add insult to injury (no pun intended), there were group of teenagers walking by and as they attempted to surprise there laugh, which they certainly could have done better, they offered to help me up. I felt like the old lady who just fell down and broke her hip. Still have scars, still have mortification.
Another less embarrassing, more ridiculous tale involves a pair of boots and a blizzard. About two years ago Colorado was bombarded with three blizzards within a week and a half period and then we had significant snowfall for two weeks after that. I had subjected myself to entirely too many days of flats and I was over it. So, while venturing on a snowy date with my then-boyfriend, I pulled on a pair of modest boots with only about a 2 1/2 inch heel. Mistake. On the way to his apartment, I thought myself stable enough to climb over the snow drift that blocked his sidewalk. Everyone can predict that I slipped and scraped my bum along the cold, sharp ice. I felt so ridiculous that I just sat on the ground on giggled, my chapped butt freezing to the parking lot. My date attempted several times to help me up, but I was too riddled with the giggles to even bring his attempts to fruition. Finally, he resignedly sat down next to me and waited for the hysterics to dissipate.
By the way La Haine means the hate (it's also a French movie). I felt it was appropriate.
Images courtesy of http://www.net-a-porter.com/.

Monday, September 29, 2008

My Tumultous Relationship with Ebay

I am constantly in and out of love with ebay. It's more like an on-again-off-again relationship. I will go in spurts of bidding where I'm like a morphine addict shaking from withdrawals if I haven't placed a bid in the last 12 hours. It's completely disgusting. Then, I won't touch my ebay account for months. As of about 15 minutes ago, I having officially fallen off the wagon after four months of ebay-free purchasing. Within five minutes, I placed four bids on two pair of boots and two pair of vintage pumps. We'll see if I winning anything, though I'm thinking it would be better for my incredibly shallow pocketbook if I didn't get my fix this once.

Autumn is Having its Effect

It is probably no secret that autumn is my favorite season for a variety of reasons. The evidence of my infatuation is evident in the colors of today's outfit. Rusts, deep purples, and a mocha brown make this a (nearly) October outfit. The dress is pretty short for me and with the empire waist I worry about how covered I actually am, particularly when the wind blows ever so slightly. I usually wear it only with high boots so that I feel a little more covered, but I've been all about the risks lately and I'm going to say that it appears to have paid off.
Also, I'm trying something new today that I stole from The Cherry Blossom Girl. For each outfit, I will include a song that either expresses my mood or the mood of my clothing. I have also decided to include the scent that I wear with each outfit as well.
Dress: Conversation Pieces
Tank: Old Navy
Scarf and necklace: Vintage
Bracelets: Shopbop and Madame Bijoux
Shoes: Marc by Marc Jacobs
Scent: Lavender Essential Oil

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Midterm Exam

I had a take-home midterm for my philosophy class (which turned out to be so much harder than I expected). It damn near cracked my brain. Anyway, I celebrated its completion with a fun outfit and now I am settling into a glass of Pinot Noir will I sit outside with the Chimnaya (an outdoor fire pit) and listen to E-town.

This bracelet is Arab and the charms have scarabs and tea karafs. It is the coolest bracelet I own, I think.

Jeans and tank: Old Navy

Camisole: Cosabella (purchased at Nordstrom sometime in college)

Clutch: Hobo (purchased at Nordstrom Rack)

Necklace and bracelet: Vintage (found at a flea market)

Sunglasses: Vintage (found at the Mile High Flea market)

Shoes: Aldo

This is Why I Love Colorado

The leaves are beginning to turn here in Colorado so I took the opportunity to go for a walk with my mom and the dog and take some pictures. As I was snapping photos, I realized how much this reminds me of the Brambly Hedge children's book series by Jill Barklem. These were my favorite books when I was a kid because the images are so beautiful and I had all of the season series. I decided to theme my photos in light of the Brambly Hedge series so I have interwoven photos from the walk today with photos of the Autumn Story book.
These are hops (like for brewing beer). Since my dad is a homebrewer, my mom and I spent the afternoon picking them for him to brew. In fact, he used them today to brew a cream ale!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

My Latest Fetish

These ankle cuffs would be my latest obsession. I may have to splurge on a pair. The lovely images provided here are from Greenbelts.

Gutting the Bulging Closet

Today I cleaned my room and I engaged in a much needed excorcism of my closet. I also found a creative way of displaying my broaches and bracelets. I did this mostly to see every thing that I own because once I can't see my clothing/accessories, it mostly becomes forgotten. As it is, I don't have much to work with in my room so I have been forced to improvize, as you can see.



Going for a beer

I spent the day cleaning my room and completely gutting my closet (which you will see in a later post). Afterward, I went for a beer and watched the CSU (Colorado State University, my alma mater) football game. After the game, I proceeded to eat a lovely Oktoberfest dinner and play Rock Band on my sister's new Wii.



Pants: Old Navy
Top: Every Little Counts
Necklace: Unknown
Bracelets: Vintage (purchased at a flea market)
Scarf: Ross
Shoes: Frye
Bag: Vintage Coach (purchased at a garage sale for $2.50, I believe)
All pictures taken by my lovely sister.

New Acquisitions


I'm on a t-shirt kick right now, which is somewhat depressing because I've also been somewhat uninspired when it comes to creativity with my t-shirts. Lately, I've been looking to Face Hunter for inspiration, which has helped. Here is one image that really popped for me. Anyway, here are two tees that I just bought from a seller called The Full Spectrum.

Keeping it Simple

Yesterday, I volunteered at my sister's school (she's a special education teacher). Since I spent a lot of time teaching, walking, swimming, and what not, I kept the outfit pretty simple. Unfortunately, I my hair looked really cute in the morning, but when I went to gym class and swam with my students, I couldn't resist getting my hair wet and completely ruining it!



You can tell that I'm really uncomfortable in this image! I guess I'll get better at this blogging thing eventually...

This was taken in our garden. I was checking the tomatoes.
Skirt: Anthropologie
Shirt: Thrifted at Savers (it says "Ciao Bella Italia" using the Coke logo)
Scarf: Ebay
Aviators: Ebay
Belt: Hot Topic