Blog time-out

(Unfinished mural of Lincoln-Douglas debate, Ottawa IL, 2007)

Having a bit of a rough week. Will return more "sketched in" soon! ;-D

Hope you all are well and staying warm.

Rock-a-Kristen

The other day I commented on Angie's You Look Fab blog that I felt my signature style was classic, colorful and coordinated.

"Classic" to me means classic shapes: straight-leg and bootcut pants over skinnies, sheaths and empires over hi-lo dresses, tidy jackets and cardigans over angled-hem tunics.
"Colorful" means bright jeweled tones: turquoise, teal, purple, hot pinks, cobalt blue fill my closet. I have also invested in building up a fair assortment of neutrals, that now can either stand alone or blend well with my colors.
"Coordinated" means, as my co-worker complimented me this week, that I make sure that every piece of my outfit "goes" with the rest. The choices of jewelry, shoes, bag, and coat are made to go with the rest, not necessarily in matching colors but in coordinated styles and/or colors.

Most of the time that translates to a preppy, polished look. 



But lately that's been changing,and I didn't even realize it. With the help of Gwynnie Bee, I have been pushing beyond that look, adding a little more edge and glam to my style, like Thursday's outfit.




The top is Edista, with a sheer neckline and ruched seams and arms. It's SO flattering and pretty and glam; I got a ridiculous amount of compliments on it all day, even from Hubby!





The cropped denim jacket is Old Navy; I love the collarless neckline because it makes the jacket seem more dressed up than a basic denim jacket would. The plastic ice necklace is Banana Republic that I bought a few months ago, and the bracelets are a bunch of cheap ones I got from Charming Charlies ages ago.



Black Gap straight-leg pants and olive suede Artisan from Clark booties, and the outfit is complete.

It's all my regular, classic, basic pieces, but when you add in the edgier top it veers far away from the preppy look!



When I look through my photos of the last few months (many that I never posted here), I can see that this has been happening more with my Gwynnie Bee items.


Alfani key-print peplum top



INC black knit drape neck top


Talbots cowl neck tee


Soft Surroundings cool cowl shirt

And many others. For me, Gwynnie Bee has definitely been a good resource for clothes. Not everything has worked, but a lot has. Here are my stats.

Gwynnie Bee stats:
Joined Sept 12, 2012
On average, items are out 2 weeks (includes shipping), several were kept 3 weeks.
Paid $351.83 (2/out for 3 months, 3/out for 2) since September

That seems like a lot, so I broke it out into cost/item and cost/wear. 

29 garments in 4 months = $12.13/item

12 were returned unworn (mostly too big, a couple because of fabric issues), leaving 17 that did get worn = $20.69/item

Most get 1 wear, 7 pieces got 2 wears, one got 3 wears = $13.03/wear

I could probably cut down the $/wear if I was better about wearing it and sending it back sooner, but sometimes I like to let it percolate in my closet while I dream up the right outfit for the right day. I do want to get better at rotating too so I have at least one item in transit while one or two are in my closet; for a while there around Christmas I was shipping both out at once, then had both in my closet at once.

Since I buy retail and not thrift, if I had bought the same 17 items in the store the cost would have been $510 (assuming $30/avg top), and knowing me, they probably would have gotten the same number of wears in the same amount of time. Plus I would now have these 17 tops, some of which I loved and some I only liked (and some I didn't like at all) clogging up my closet. Instead I sent them back and already have another 30-plus new ones sitting in my virtual closet waiting their turn to be sent and worn. 

Gwynnie Bee saves me money and guilt. Works for me!

As always, if you are interested in signing up for the service, send me your email and I will send you an invite. I think they are still doing a 30-day trial period.

+++++++

Now I am off to try on a new tunic that just got sent to me. Hope it works with my cords or jeans!

Nothing Much to Say

It's weird when you run out of things to say. But that's my excuse for not posting so far this week, sorry! Work is stressful, all the links I have been reading are about soap operas, and the most complicated dish I have made in two weeks has been spaghetti and meatballs.

But! I did manage to get some pictures of my burgundy Gap cords! I got them last month during December's shopping spree but I hadn't gotten any shots of them for the blog until now.



First I wore them for Friday casual in the office. I am still working my way through my white shirts, so I started with this Lauren Conrad embellished tee from Kohls. This one has lasted nearly 3 years now, and is still going strong. For a scrappy little shirt, it's kind of amazing to see it still in my closet.

The top has a bit of a rocker vibe, so I added one of my metallic long pendants and my Sam Edelman embellished animal-print flats. The brown long cardigan softened all of that up and worked well with the colors. Wish I had gotten close-ups because it definitely worked better than it appears in the full picture; my co-worker kept complimenting on the details coming together so nicely.

I re-wore the cords on Saturday for an entirely different look.



I had to cover a full day of brunch with my girlfriends and Babyfriend, hanging out, possible shopping (didn't happen), and then a night out at the casino. I think this look covered the events nicely.



I had a good hair day that day, at least in the morning.



The infamous blogger bubble necklace, and an Old Navy tie-neck cotton blouse. The blouse is loose and flyway, so I usually wear a black ribbed tank underneath to provide coverage around my middle and butt. Since the cords are low-rise, this prevents any "I See London, I See France" incidents.



Love the color and feel of these so much! I wish they had come in other bright colors, but there was only the burgundy/purple left when I found them on Gap's site. I am considering a black pair, though...



We have had only one minor snowstorm this winter so far, and the snow quickly disappeared. So I can still wear my suede and faux-suede shoes. These are a pair of Target boots I got a few months ago that I love.



I was really pleased with how my hair turned out. Last good hair day I've had since -- when the temps drop and the heat goes on everywhere, my whole head becomes a giant static ball, so it's been up for days now.





It was Jessie's birthday celebration, so I treated her to dinner at the delicious buffet at the casino. Save room for dessert; the bread pudding is fantastic, especially with one of their gelatos. This flavor was apple -- worked great with the caramel of the pudding!



What have you guys been up to this week?

Hot Flash

Been wearing my hair up lately. Most days I try to wear it down, but at a certain point in the day the clip comes out and up it goes. Yesterday that point was before I even left the house.



The reason I have been wearing it up is that at the ripe old age of 44, I have started to have hot flashes. I'll be talking to my doctor about them at my annual physical this month, but in the meantime they are just a nuisance. My skull and nape are always the parts that get hot and sweaty when I overheat, so that's where the hot flash impacts too. Having thick hair doesn't help as it gets immediately soaked. Ugh.

Anyway. I have been purchasing a lot of clips and nice elastics. :)

Onto the outfit!



The post about Forth & Towne made me nostalgic so I opted for one of my few remaining sweaters from there, a sweet coral short-sleeved wrap. It's getting a little faded but I am not quite ready to edit it out. The coral still stands out, and I love the way it looks against my grey pintstriped Gap bootcuts. It's one of the few colors I have that blends nicely with them.





The necklace is another little-worn goodie, from a local jewelry store as they were going out of business. Three strands of grey pearls on brown knotted string -- it's an interesting mix of dressy and casual, you know?



Funny, Angie just had a post this morning about the benefits of outfit repetition, and this is definitely one I have repeated in the past. The colors work together nicely, and as I just noticed, on their own, I don't any of these individual pieces enough. It's only as this outfit that I am most satisfied with all of them. Hmm, that's something to ponder.

I also did a little more closet rearranging, moving some of my summer shirts that I had left in the closet down to a drawer, and bringing the winter layering tops from the drawer up to the hangers. In doing so, I realized I have a lot of layering tops of certain colors, like white, and they aren't getting enough wear.



I think the problem is I tend to select my outfit from the statement piece first, then build from there. So I pick my blue blazer then find the top and pants. Or I choose my red polka-dot blouse and select the right pants and blazer. That often means that some layering tops rarely get chosen at all.

So for the next week or so I am going to go by color; all of the white tops will get worn, and we shall see what combinations come from that. I suspect I may end up pulling out jackets and bottoms that also don't get as much rotation, like I did here with the coral sweater and grey pants.

Oooh, it's casual Friday. This should be fun!

My (not so) secret friends

Hello, strangers! Found a new place to take indoors photos for the winter months -- Hubby finally cleaned out the basement enough that there is some blank spaces of wall for me to use. So here I am!

The top is one of my new Lane Bryant purchases, one I got with my sister on my Christmas trip. We both had a good time shopping together, and I am sure she will pleased to see that I did actually buy something for myself too (I was a good Santa to her there, LOL). It's a snakeprint in grey and black, sorry I didn't get a closer shot. I added my beloved short-sleeved LOFT sweater to it, just to add a minor layer, a pair of medium-faded Old Navy Dreamer jeans, and my silver Privos sneakers.

Perfect outfit for bumming around on the weekend, I thought. Not too lazy, not too casual.

Monday, I went to work.



The key top is from Gwynnie Bee. I wasn't sure if I would like a peplum tunic top on me, but it turned out to be awesome. I am keeping it for a second wearing, maybe for a casual look this weekend. The pants are Gap modern bootcuts, and the shoes are my new Clarks booties.



So, um, have I ever told you guys that I own mannequins? I can't remember if this ever came up before.

As long as I am telling you about them, I should tell you that I own two.


(When you are a size 20, it is never a good idea to stand next to a size 0. Just sayin'.)

I got them from Forth & Towne years ago. As we were closing the store down, my boss asked me to bring my camera and get photos of everyone. I did get some incredible photos of everyone, but I also became obsessed with taking photos of the displays and mannequins as they piled up, and the store itself. It was a gorgeous, elegant store.











We sold bubble necklaces years before J Crew. :)



As a photo subject, I could not resist the mannequins.








"Thanks for coming. I've called this meeting to plan our escape..."



Or the empty space. Seriously, it was a stunningly beautiful store.







Each dressing room was uniquely decorated, with a vanity and stool.





Everyone had fun with mannequins. In the end I had to buy a couple of my own. $20 each, what a deal!



I put some clothes on her once I got home. The sitting one stayed in the backseat of my car for years, causing much mayhem and laughter as drivers passed me on the roads. :)



But in the end, they have been relegated to my basement. I've purged lots of things, but I can't get rid of them. They hold such fond memories for me of a special time in my life, working with really lovely people in a gorgeous place. That's where I met Shopping Friend, for goodness' sake -- and I'm standing up in her wedding in a few months. The mannequins will always remind me of her too, and everyone else from Forth & Towne.



I miss you guys!

I think I might need to move the mannequins around in the basement so they can be in more pictures. Hubby moved the standing one over by his new workbench, and dressed her in his fishing straw hat and his high school tennis shirt, and ---



-- hey, she's not wearing any pants!

;-D