A new neutral.

I tend to go through phases when it comes to neutrals. Five or six years ago, I had almost exclusively black or charcoal grey bags, shoes and coats. Then I switched to browns and creams, and bought almost nothing else. This year, I am finding myself drawn to navy blue and lighter greys. And it all started with this bag:

 

Penelope Leather Large Shopper in cobalt, from Coach

Since I rarely wear an outfit with large swathes of black, this goes with nearly everything I own. The pebbled leather nearly matches the patent trim in person, so it’s much more navy than it appears. It’s also just about the only bag I can stand from Coach right now – have you seen this?

How are these even coming from the same place? Not a fan.

The navy dominance began with the bag, and has seriously impacted the rest of my wardrobe. My favorite of the recent additions is from Martin + Osa, my J. Crew replacement (sad, but true… I was a J. Crew web shopper till last summer. I still get little boy’s shoes when I click on “dresses”.)

 

Pleated rayon t-shirt in echo navy, Martin + Osa

I wear this with brown tweed trousers, brown patent peep toes and gold earrings for teaching, or with jeans, grey heels and my Valentine’s Day present for dinner with friends. Prepare yourselves for lots more navy in my future.

Personal Blog

Writing about myself is far less time-consuming than writing about stuff. I’ll still update here occasionally (maybe even monthly!), and if you’re interested, you can now find my personal blog at http://thisisforgood.wordpress.com

Not dead.

But almost. I’m averaging 5 hours of sleep per night. It’s 6:33 Pacific time, and I’m debating whether to eat dinner first or just go straight to bed. First year of teaching? Is HARD. Because, you know, these kids show up. Every day. And they expect you to have stuff for them to DO. Like EVERY DAY. And maybe, at the end of the year, they should remember some things about integers and fractions and like terms and the distributive property. But mostly, they’ll remember that you gave out Jolly Ranchers if they caught you making a mistake on the board, and that the first day of school you told them the only gum they were allowed to chew was the gum they found already stuck under their desks.

But, I do wear clothes. Every day. And I’ve found some really cute ones recently. Like exactly the white shirt I’ve been looking for – the sleeve length is perfect, especially layered with this, which I own in 3 colors (the kelly green is a favorite). And like this, in both black and grey. I wore the grey one with a light blue button down shirt tucked into the waist, which prompted all my students to ask me why I was so dressed up.

One day, I also wore my hair au naturale (read “CURLY”) which prompted one of my students to ask “What happened to your hair?”

Ah, 8th graders.

Photos of the things I mentioned are below. I’m off to bed, grateful that tomorrow is polo-and-jeans day, because I think all of my other teacher clothes have to be either washed or ironed, and that is simply not happening on a morning when I get up at 2:30 to grade papers. (Yes, for reals.)

Merona Pinstripe Skirt, from Target

 

Essential short sleeve button front shirt, Calvin Klein

 

 

 

Essential cotton short sleeved cardigan, J.Crew

I confess…

I (sometimes) buy cheap shoes. I know, they won’t last beyond this season. But Payless? Rocks my socks. I think they do a fantastic job following current trends, which (let’s face it), often change so fast that those expensive shoes end up in the back of your closet anyway. AND it’s BOGO time. How could I resist?

American Eagle Captain Boat Moc in Navy, Payless Shoes
These also come in red and a terrific kelly green. I bought them as teacher work week shoes – more appropriate (and OSHA compliant!) than flip flops, but not as dressy as my other teacher shoes. I have a terrible time with in-between clothes. Either I’m in jeans, flip flops and a t-shirt, or I’m in something that’s probably dry-clean only. What to wear to school when there are no kids there and I’ll be standing on ladders hanging stuff on my walls?? Anyway, the shoes are a nice addition to that in-between wardrobe.

 

Linen Kastle Tassel Sling, Payless Shoes
I’m going to wear Payless shoes with the poplin BCBG dress. I think in some circles that might just be a fashion crime, but they’re exactly what I was looking for. Quit judging me!

Why I will always love brick-and-mortar stores.

I went to the Americana yesterday with a mission – to find a dress to wear to a rehearsal dinner this Friday. Really, everything had been looking a little blah online, I’m fed up with J. Crew’s redesign (still!), and with less than a week to find the right dress… it was time to hit the streets.

I’m an overachiever. I found two. And bought both. They were on sale, plus an additional 20% off in store, AND I wear dresses to church almost weekly. Totally worth it.

I would never have ordered either of these dresses after seeing the pictures online – they look kind of boring. But on a real person? Adorable. This is why I love real-shopping. If I can’t touch it, turn it around and try it on, I have no idea if I’ll like it. Weird lighting and grumpy models can totally ruin the online-shopping experience. And the salesperson at the store was incredibly helpful, which is more than I can say for most online “customer service.”

It was tempting to just leave this post until later, when I could take pictures of myself IN the dresses – but I don’t have time to do that today, and I could really use the internet’s advice. So without further blathering on…

 

Matte jersey dress in frost combo, from BCBGMaxAzria
An empire waist dress that shows off your waist and doesn’t make you look pregnant. I promise. CM said it looked like a “princess dress”, which I translated as male for “lovely blue color with a pretty neckline.” This fabric is amazing and absolutely refused to wrinkle when I wore it to church this morning, which makes this a great piece for travel. It’s cool and comfy and I think I could wear it every day. Oh, and a twiggy little girl working at Gilly Hicks complimented me on it today. (Seriously, I could have put her in my pocket. She was tiny.)

Cotton poplin dress with colorblocked cummerbund, from BCBGMaxAzria
Crisp and pretty, and the waist is low enough that it actually accentuates your waist, instead of making it appear that your ribcage is your narrowest part like some dresses I’ve tried (ahem). The cummerbund is super flattering; that dark color really narrows the waist. I felt like I had dropped 5 pounds just by putting it on. And the pleated skirt makes me feel like a girly-girl.

So? Opinions? I need to have a verdict by Friday! Which do you think I should wear for the rehearsal?