Eight days a week

...is what I need to be able to get everything finished by Monday.  Papers, group projects, papers papers papers!  Oh man, between work and school and Gus-walking and making dinner, the only thing I can do to keep my sanity is look cute.

I had a job interview today! This is what I wore (obviously) and I think it went well.  I wore this blouse to my last job interview and was hired, so it must work.  That is all I will say about that, as to not jinx it.

Today is Day 23, only a week to go; I have more than 7 outfits left in my "Post-Its of Planned Outfits".  Honestly, this is super fun and I'm way more creative with these selected pieces than I ordinarily am.  I might go ahead and do this every month.  Ok maybe not.  But really, I am enjoying this.

Short and sweet

Quick post today, folks.  Writing, reading, editing, and preparing for a very exciting event tomorrow!

I gave a final presentation today and man does it feel good to be almost finished.  Now only I can get through this week looking as cute as I felt today, I think I'll just make it.

All caught up

Here is yesterday and today.  Tomorrow I will get dressed and take a picture and then UPLOAD and POST it on the same day.  Yes, we'll see how that goes.

Sunday was another traveling and chilly day.

Ed decided that my poses have become too predictable, so he's taken up naming the poses I already have, inventing new ones, and shouting them at me while taking pictures.

This is the appropriately named "Over the Shoulder."  Except he said, "How 'bout you give me some over the shoulder action?"

Today was spent meeting with a group for our FINAL presentation tomorrow (whew) and general procrastinating.

This one was "Emo Headtilt," in case you were wondering.

I hope you all had a great holiday and are prepared for the worst Monday of all Mondays: The Monday After Vacation.

(Feminist Hulk Smashes Gender Binaries.)

Holiday whirlwhind

Ok, ok, forgive me.  Tuesday before we left was a long day at school and trying to catch up on homework; Wednesday we spent all day driving and traffic was TERRIBLE and I didn't want to blog; Thursday I told myself that if I opened the computer at all, I had to work on my paper, so yeah...; Friday we had a family emergency and a picture just didn't happen; that brings us to today.  Let's get started:

Tuesday was casual at work and by the time I got home from class and Ed got home from work, it was dark and I was grumpy.  So here's our yellow apartment:

I really like yellow with black; I've worn this combination before, but usually for work so not with jeans.  I like it!  (Also, can you believe it's the end of November and I can still wear short sleeves?!)

Wednesday was a busy traveling day, so I needed something that doesn't easily wrinkle: behold, plaid and cords:

I was going to pair this with boots originally, but again it was like 75 degrees outside.

Thanksgiving was great!  Ed and I were at my parent's house and my mom's parents and my mom's sister's family came (my brother and sister-in-law had to work on Friday and couldn't fly in from Maryland).   There was SO. MUCH. FOOD.  And wine. And card games.  And dogs! My mom's sister brought her 2 dachshunds, we had Gus of course, and my parents have a little dog named Lucy who hates me and never moves from in front of the fireplace.

I think I'm really winning her over.

Finally on Thanksgiving Day a cool front came through.  It felt like fall!  Also, I'm wearing a dress as a top.  I am so clever.

Like I said, we had a family emergency on Friday; my parents had to go out of town suddenly and Ed and I stayed to take care of Lucy and wrap up some odds and ends. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture but suffice to say it was a very uncreative combination of an undershirt, black cardigan, skinny jeans and brown boots (within the confines of the 30, yes!).  Y'all really aren't missing much.

In light of this emergency, I wanted to say a little "I'm thankful for" whatever.  I'm so thankful we have our health and health insurance; jobs, which was not the case just a few short months ago; that I have family all over the state that can jump in and take care of each other when we need to; that my parents are still married, financially secure, and healthy; and finally for my new little family, Ed who supports all my crazy ideas and life plans and who moved all the way to Austin without a job or knowing anyone to be with me, and Gus, who challenges us to be more communicative, selfless, and patient.

Happy holidays!

Half and half

Hello again.  Trust me when I say I have done nothing but watch Battlestar Galactica and work on final projects for the last 3 days.  I wore clothes, though! The whole time! Clothes in my 30-for-30, even!  Don't believe me?  See for yourself.

On Friday I was still riding the "I look so badass in a vest" wave; we also had a warm front. 

 The last post that featured this vest failed to show you its lining.  Really, a vest is only as good as its lining.

Surprise!

On Saturday I had to force myself to get dressed.  I cannot do anything productive in my pajamas; thus, I found the most comfortable, pajama like, doing-homework-appropriate garb I could muster.

P.S: The head scarf gives away that I did not wash my hair that day.

Sunday still pulled me to finding the most comfortable clothes in the mix, but I had to work at the library, so I had to at least shower.

Nevertheless, I was going for Mad Scientist Hair.

Which catches me up to today.  Today is Day 15, halfway.  In commemoration, I busted out two articles in the 30 that have yet to be featured: this navy dress and floral blouse, both thrifted.  I really do love this dress: it has a cinched waist, a work-appropriate hemline, buttons and pockets.  But I can't quite figure out a way to make it not look so School Marm-y  (as fashion guru Tim Gunn would say).  Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  I paired it with a ruffled blouse for the sassiest School Marm look yet.

"Just what do you think you're doing, young man?"

So there, I'm not a liar.  Despite my best efforts, I wore Kendi-approved clothes.  If you can't trust a graduate student with inconsistent posts, who can you trust?

Highlights of my weekend

• Writing six pages of my final paper for Classification Theory (that's almost halfway there!)
• Going to bed by 10pm
• Starting the 3rd season of Battlestar Galactica
• Getting my ass kicked in Scrabble by Ed and Rachel

Dream big.

Menswear

Can I live in this outfit? I really want to wear it again tomorrow. And the next day.  And the next.  I just felt so damn sassy in my loosely fitting shirt, tightly fitting pants and a vest.  Frankly, I always feel sassy in a vest.  They're really the redhead stepchild of the accessory world, and whenever I wear one, I feel like a total badass.  When in doubt, vest it out.

What makes you feel unstoppable?

Theory vs. practice

It's already day 10 and I'm still really excited for the rest of my remixes!  30 articles of clothing is really quite a lot, especially if your peices are versatile.  And because I'm such a planner, it's nice that I wrote out about 20 combinations right from the get-go and every week I can map out what I'll wear and when.  I might just make this a regular thing!

Today's outfit was better in theory.  The tights are always more blue than I imagine them; in my mind, they're a nice navy, in the pictures they came out more BLUE.  By the time I got out of class it was warm enough to ditch the tights, which ended up being a lot cuter, but alas, The Boy only signed up for one photo shoot a day.  Anyway, I really love the sweater vest/shirt dress combo; I think it's the right amount of prep for me.  Any suggestions on how to make it a bit more cooler-weather appropriate without looking like a Smurf rubbed against my legs?

Sweater vest-Yes, another Ann Arbor boutique; Tights, UO

It's 6:45am! You can't laugh so loud at my awkward poses!

Reimagining

This striped shirt is my first remixed item!  It was like $5 at Urban Outfitters probably two years ago. I still wear it all the time and have to really force myself to not wear it 3 or 4 times a week.  Every outfit needs stripes, don't you think?

One of my co-workers told me last week that she couldn't pull off knee-high socks with boots.  I assured her she very much could and today she rocked it.  Everyone complimented her and how cute the pair was! Go me! I mean, go her, really.  But also go me!

What the what?! And other exclamations

Finals!

That is my excuse for missing a day, and yes I will continue to use it well through the summer, thankyouverymuch.  My absence was on the blog only, I assure you.  In fact, I was so busy this weekend with sleeping school work, I channeled Liz Lemon for my outfit on Sunday.

My shirt is wrinkled because I desperately need my mother to iron my closet.

Obviously I was trying to be as awkward as possible.  After I ate a bag of Sabor del Soledad, I wrote some sketch comedy, was mentored by my boss and avoided meaningful relationships.

Today was a fresh start! Except only for me, not for Ed.  Yellow pictures are what you get when you have to take pictures in a poorly-lit apartment because your photographer boyfriend is too tired sick to wake up at 6am with you to take your picture so you have to wait until after its dark. 

Brown scarf-small boutique in Ann Arbor; black tights-TJ Maxx; "leather jacket"-another small boutique in Ann Arbor. Yes I realize I could've gotten it for much cheaper at Target.  Supporting local business and whatnot...

Don't you just hate it when people don't drop everything for you? I mean really.

Just look at it

My favorite thing about Monday mornings:

• a super boring user-study class lends itself beautifully to catching up on blogs
• the long walk from my bus stop to the information school has an ATM only two doors down from a cash-only coffee place
• a new This American Life podcast

Happy Monday, everyone!

Siempre era mi favorito

I wasn't crazy about today's outfit. I realized that I didn't include enough "weekend" clothes in my 30. Or really any weekend clothes at all.  All I wanted to wear today was a sweater and a big scarf, but alas, I made do. 

Because I wasn't loving the duds, we took pictures at my favorite graffiti spot in Austin. Aptly named, really.

Hello, world

I've lately been feeling bad for my best bud, Gus. Yesterday I didn't take him to the park, Ed and I went on an impromptu date which resulted in him being home alone for a few hours, and today has been pretty rainy.  Gus hates the rain.  As a consolation prize, I let him be in today's photo shoot.  We even match.

I promise he's happier than he looks.  He's a basset hound, he always seems kind of sad (or stoned).

See, he's happy!  Oh no wait, that's me.

Ok, so maybe he didn't like it so much.  But I do think we can use this gem as our next holiday card:

Have a good weekend, do it for Gus.

Go-getter

The road to today was paved in good intentions.

Belt-thrifted

Thanks to Veteran's Day and working for a governmental agency, I had no work today. I wanted to still be really productive because I have a lot of final projects coming up and a housework to-do list a mile long. I woke up early to go to a Hot Yoga class, came home, ate, showered,  got dressed in an outfit that was supposed to inspire me and took some pictures before Ed had to head to work.  And then...bupkus.  I don't know what I did all day exactly. I didn't do the dishes, I didn't clean the bathroom, I didn't take Gus to the park, and no, I most certainly did not work on a single final project.  I did manage to lose my glasses for half the day, though.

I also really really want to watch a movie that I promised Ed we'd watch together and it's taking every ounce of willpower to not just go ahead and watch it anyway. In fact, all the energy I'm mustering to refrain from said movie-watchingvis making me sleepy.  I might have to pencil in "nap" on the to-do list.

Business casual

I wasn't crazy about this combination, but its comfortable and gets the job done.

Vest via Mel

This outfit is a bit deceiving.  This outfit says "I work in a professional environment," or "I attend a graduate school at a large public university in central Texas," or it even might say "I can find where the batteries go on my boyfriend's camera."  But there, that last one, that one's just not true.

Cheers

I love this outfit, y'all. 

Socks-Target

It felt really easy, comfortable, put together, and a little bit of edgy.  Perfection, if you ask me. Which you do, because this is my blog.

Something like a sailor

Day one was no problem at all, though Ed didn't know proper fashion blogging rules: you have to show the shoes!

Belt-H&M; Scarf-small boutique in Ann Arbor

This little experiment is also going to chronicle my Growing Hair Out files.  Around May I decided to cut my hair pretty short; although I LOVED it, I decided longer was a little bit more my style. It feels like it's taking forever, so we'll see its progress over 30 days.

I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing pictures of myself.  I look so weird!  So uh, from now on, just marvel at my cute outfits, ok?

The final cut

I spent all day thinking about different combinations and swapping things out.  It was surprisingly easy to choose my 30 pieces, mostly because I don't have a ton of clothes to begin with.  The hardest part was narrowing down my cardigans--as someone who spent the last 5 years with snow and is trying to build a stereotypical librarian wardrobe, I have a lot of sweaters. 

A whopping TEN tops:

Left to right: Plaid button down-via Savers; floral blouse-Petite Sophisticate, via Ann Arbor Thrift; chambray blouse-Brooks Brothers (!) via Savers; white ruffle blouse-H&M; white short sleeved sweater-via Mel; black and white striped blouse- H&M via Ann Arbor thrift; striped button down-Fossil; horizontal gray and white striped-UO; yellow blouse-Target; black and white print-LOFT via Kjrsten

 3 dresses:

Blue and white striped-Old Navy; black ruffle-Gap Outlet; Navy-F21 via Ann Arbor Thrift

4 sweaters/jackets:

Black blazer-via Savers; blue and black striped cardigan-Express; brown cardigan-H&M; black cardigan-F21

5 skirts:

Black-Old Navy via Elaine; burnt orange triangles-Tulle via ShopRuche; gray tulip-UO; burgundy cord-Gap via Ann Arbor Thrift; navy linen-Gap via Ann Arbor Thrift

3 pants:

Black cords-UO; navy pinstripe-Gap via Savers; denim skinnies-Old Navy

And finally, 5 shoes:

Black boots- via DSW; brown boots-via DSW; red TOMS; hounds tooth flats-UO; brown oxfords-Target

There's the 30!  I have a slight confession; in Kendi's challenge, we are only supposed to use belts, jewelry, tights, or hats to accessorize.  While I have loads of tights, I have only a handful of belts, no hats, and virtually no jewelry.  Instead, I have vests. Lots and lots of vests (ok, five).  While I'm sure it's technically cheating, I will be using vests to remix and not counting them in my 30.  It's my challenge and I can cheat if I want to.

I apologize for the terrible quality (these pictures taken on my bathroom floor?! NEVER!)  I am a complete novice at using a digital camera and editing software (Hello, 2010, nice to meet you!).  Fortunately, my daily outfit pics will be taken by my talented and very handsome boyfriend.

I'm off to write about how to develop evaluation criteria for a general use thesaurus for a special collection.  See, I'm practicing the librarian stuff already.

Make that no more food for 30 days, too

Y'all, I just ate this:

That, dear readers, is a Flying Pig doughnut from Gourdough's Donuts.  It is a glazed donut, covered in maple glaze, topped with strips of crispy bacon.  I cannot, as long as I live, eat another doughnut and expect it to come within a fraction of  awesome as this doughnut.

This afternoon, Ed, Gus and I trekked to Auditorium Shores to check out the Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival.  For all the shit I give Austin about being too expensive and just generally overrated, Austin has some badass trailer food.  And this festival showcased them all.

I stuffed myself silly and need to pass out on top of all the clothes I'm deciding on for the 30 for 30.  So long, Saturday.

Wherein the 3 people that read this blog will stop

Let's chat for a moment about clothes, shall we?

Ever since I was little, I was allowed--perhaps encouraged--to dress however I wanted (within reason, of course.  I grew up in the 90s, where thigh-high socks and babydoll tees were all the rage and I, a mere grade schooler, could not participate without some age-appropriate modifications).  I've always considered the way I dress to be an integral part of self-reflection and identification.  And hell, if you have to get dressed anyway, might as well make it fun.

Since coming into my own as a young professional (yes, I did barf a little in my mouth as I typed that), I've had to navigate my sense of style with what is appropriate for my age and work environment.  Y'all, it's been tough.  When Ed and I first started dating, he joked that I didn't own any dresses, only long shirts.  And he was right!  Man did do I love showing some leg.  I try not to take myself too seriously and wear things that I like and are maybe a little different.  Though obviously cannot have a hem mere centimeters from my lady bits at work, I will not compromise my own sense of style and comfort for an office dress code that will always kind of make me feel like a little kid playing dress up.

But what is my style now? I am older, I do like to dress a little preppier and I still try not to take myself too seriously.  And so, in the last year or two, I've become an avid "fashion blog" reader.  Tania, Kendi, and E. have provided me with endless inspiration about how an everyday person with a tiny budget and a large style can effectively be taken seriously by employers and co-workers, and be a little fun and self-aware at the same time. 

All of this lead-up is to say I'm embarking on a short, and what is probably going to be very boring for you,  journey over the next 30 days.  I'm participating in Kendi's 30 for 30 challenge.  The rules are simple: 30 articles of clothing for 30 days and no shopping.  I'll take a picture everyday to help hold myself accountable.

Getting dressed and carrying on with your day should be fun! Seriously, whenever I see a woman around campus who isn't wearing those godawful running shorts, I want to applaud and give her a hug.  I like looking cute and a compliment about something I'm wearing--particularly if it's something I thought was "weird"--makes my day.  And, after all, isn't dressing kind of weird what it's all about?  

I'll post my 30 articles of clothes tomorrow and the challenge begins on Monday.  Hopefully all the remixing and outfit thinking won't stop me from being as snarky and sarcastic on here as I usually am. And really, I get all my best snark on days I can feel smug about my outfits. 

A broken spoke

Overheard on my bus home; Voter Guy (VG), a young male undergrad carrying a Bill White sign shouting at everyone to GO VOTE! GO VOTE DEMOCRAT! DON'T LIKE TUITION, VOTE BILL WHITE; Wanting-to-be-informed citizen (IC), also a young male undergrad.

VG: Go vote! The reason we have high tuition is because Rick Perry  degregulated tuition increases in 2003!
IC: Give me 3 good reasons I should vote for Bill White.
VG: Uhh, ok. 3 reasons, huh? Ok. Um, he went to Harvard and graduated Magna Cum Laude! And uh...well, what's important to you?
IC: I'm concerned Texas is going to follow Arizona's footsteps about border control.  What does Bill White think about border control?
VG: He thinks we should have tighter border security and stricter penalties for illegal immigrants.
IC: Oh...so I disagree with him about that.  Anything else?
VG: ....
IC: ....
VG: If he doesn't win, the last 4 weeks I campaigned for him will have been a total waste!

And that, my friends, is the future.

Where everybody knows your name

Things I miss about Ann Arbor:

• Fall and the changing of colors
• The relatively little traffic
• The  Gus-walking routes
• Bearclaw Coffee's chai teas

November just isn't November without August-like temperatures, eh, Texas?

Can you tell that I'm avoiding the part where I mention how long its been since I blogged and then excuse it with "I'm busy!"  Can you tell, can you?  Not to worry, I've got big plans.  And in the meantime, my favorite sign from Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity: