Showing posts with label Mighty Swell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mighty Swell. Show all posts

Monday, April 8, 2019

Zebra Cape for the Win


I bought this cape at an estate sale that I went to in early March. It is hand made and utterly fabulous. 
That same night, I had plans to go to a 90s themed party sponsored by zubaz and I decided that there was no better time than the present to wear this zebra cape.
It was a perfect topper for the 90s outfit I already had picked out and it made me feel like a Spice Girl. The party invitation claimed that there was going to be a costume contest, but nobody handed me a trophy, plaque or roses, so they must have canceled that part of the evening

Friday, February 1, 2019

Jeans


The sweater is from Mighty Swell Vintage in case you were on the edge of your seat about it.

These jeans are the same cut Levi's as these, but they fit completely differently and serve a different purpose in my wardrobe. Jeans aren't really my thing, but I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about.

Friday, April 29, 2016

On Becoming Little Edie

Ever since my last haircut I've had an increasing number of bad hair days. I still get lots of compliments on my hair, but I'm not happy with it. I find myself battling a cowlick in the back that never existed before along with other hair drama. I don't know why this is happening, but it is. 
To alleviate the stresses of bad hair, I've come to rely on scarves. Scarves are not new to me. Tying a scarf in my hair as a fashion accessory has been a go-to Spring/Summer look for me for a couple of years now. It's only recently that I'm covering my entire head of hair in a scarf, accented by a big bow, brooch or flower. What I find interesting is that even though the reason for the scarf is to cover up the unsightly mess underneath, there's something glamorous about a head wrapped up in fabric. 
My new look reminds me of the movie Grey Gardens. I feel a fondness towards Little Edie. She lives in squalor, is held back by her mother, her hair is falling out, but that doesn't stop her from being fabulous. 
Of course, she's completely delusional, but who cares. It's all about attitude.


A friend asked me today, what it is about these jeans that make my legs look so long. I told her that my legs actually are long, but it helps that these jeans reach the ground even when I'm wearing heeled boots. There is a current trend that I'm not into, which is cropped wide-bottomed pants (wide-legs & flares). If you want to make your legs look super short, wear these.

Here's another yellow and black ensemble. The colors in this photo are way off. That sweater is actually a light yellow and white. I had to darken it up so that you could see the gray hounds tooth pattern on my skirt. Oy, I'm not so good with photo editing. Cute outfit though.

Since I started this blog, I've had a number of people ask me about this place called My Sister's Closet. "Is it actually your sister's closet or what's the deal?" No, I do not have a sister who's closet supplies me with endless amounts of fabulous clothing. My Sister's Closet is a store with two locations in the Twin Cities. They are consignment and they specialize in quality women's clothing and accessories, modern and vintage, at reasonable prices. I love this place. The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful, the prices are appropriate and the inventory is well-curated. Check it out next time you find yourself on Grand Ave or in Uptown. I dare you not to find something amazing.

I wore purple today in memory of Prince. I have yet to put into words the impact this news had on me, but I don't think I need to. Literally everyone I know and don't know has written about their feelings on the loss of the purple one and my sadness and devastation echos theirs. My heart is heavy.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Evergreen

This is the stripped down version of this outfit from January. I usually prefer versions like this, but in the frigid winter I tend to pile on the layers until I look like a bag lady. Good thing the temperature is rising.

I will not admit how many days I've spent in this outfit or some variation of it in the past two weeks. There's just something about it that I would compare to a warm cup of tea. It's mostly this sweater. I love everything about it. The muted green is lovely. It's wool, so it's soft and warm, but it's open on the sides allowing for ventilation. Seriously, guys. I can't get enough of this outfit. I'm even wearing this sweater over a dress as I type this sentence.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

January

This is my favorite winter dress! There's  nothing like a cozy calf-length sweater to make any sub-zero day a little more bearable. A coat like this helps too.

I got the idea for this outfit from this chart that was all abuzz on Pinterest at the time. It illustrates some obvious ways to wear a blanket scarf (2, 4, 5,8), some questionable ways (3,7), and something that I had never considered, belting. The dress I am wearing has a belt attached, so I just used that to cinch the scarf at my waist. It looked good, but ended up hindering my movement throughout the day, so I ended up wearing it like a cape by midday.

I think I was inspired by my scarf belting experience above when I put this outfit together. I belted this bulky cascade cardigan to give myself a little shape and it really worked for this look. I'm also really enjoying the absence of color here with a pop of excitement from my sparkly statement necklace.

Here's that blanket scarf again worn a little more conventionally. I did not intend to wear this scarf all day, but in case you didn't know, January is a cold month.

I don't think I've had the chance to rave about these jeans yet, which is interesting because I've worn them at least once a week since I got them. These are some form fitting, super long, ultra-soft flares and I love them. Personally, I am very happy that flares have come back into style. I've always liked their fun retro appeal.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Feeling Blue

Blue is not a color that I wear very often, but apparently, I was feeling it in November.  The color is especially dynamic when paired with my new orange corduroy jacket.


I came up with this outfit in an attempt to wear this little blue sweater. I think it's OK, but it would be better in warmer weather so I don't have to wear the awkward socks. 


The chambray shirt is becoming one of my new favorite clothing items. I call this look, the cool professor.


This is a dress that I love, but have only ever worn for special occasions. It's not terribly fancy, but there's something about it that makes it more formal that casual. I wanted to wear it as an everyday dress, so I paired it with this corduroy jacket and I think it does the trick.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Chuck Taylor Love Story

Earrings by Dottir

For many years, Chuck Taylors were my go-to shoe. I would buy a pair, wear them for about 3 years until they literally fell apart and then begrudgingly buy a new pair that I quickly broke in to that perfect comfort spot. My last pair wore out nearly 5 years ago and at that point, I could no longer find my size in stores. I'm not too fond of buying shoes online, so I just didn't replace them. Finally, I was so sick of my lack of casual shoes that I gave in and bought a pair online. And I've gotta tell ya, I have no regrets. I bought the charcoal color, a first for me and I absolutely love it. The color goes with everything. Even though I didn't get to try them on before I purchased them, they fit perfectly. Now whenever I'm not sure which shoes to wear, I just put on my Chucks and that's almost always the right choice. 


Ooh, lovin' on the dress. I got this trapeze dress at a Buffalo Exchange in Denver, CO. I love thrift shopping when I travel. I used to love to buy souvenirs, but now I just buy used clothes. I believe that every piece of clothing holds a story, not only my story, but the untold story of the previous owner. This makes me feel like I'm collecting a part of the town that I visit. Now every time I wear this dress I have fond memories of my time spent in Colorado, which is linked to the dress' hopefully fond times with it's previous owner in Colorado. Who knows, maybe this dress was abused, but I like to think it was loved in some way.


I got this dress because I was at a buy 2, get 1 free sale at Urban Archaeology and this was the freebie. It's too big, but the colors in the plaid are incredible. This outfit was OK, but I think this dress is gonna need some alterations to really work.


Two hours into the day and I ripped the heel of my boot right off. Super bummed and I let everyone know it throughout the day.
Bye boots.
You were loved.


Back to those Chucks making everything come together.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Clothing Dilemmas and a New Dress

This dress is from my last visit to Sioux Falls. There's a new vintage store downtown and they were having a sale. Buy 2, get 1 free. Of course I found 3 gorgeous garments to take home for way less money than I would have spent in the cities.

I bought this jacket at Lula. At the time, there was a dress with it. The dress was kind of hideous and it did not fit. I asked if I could buy the jacket separately and was denied. She said that it's rare to find vintage separates like this still paired together and did not want to break them up. Respectfully, but disrespectfully, I bought the set. It was no loss to me because I've worn the jacket enough times to offset the cost of buying a dress that I would never wear. However, it was a loss to the vintage fashion community because I ended up consigning the dress alone without it's pair. Years later, while walking down the street, I spied the dress in the window of a different vintage clothing store (not the one I consigned it at). I guess the lady at Lula was right because without it's jacket, this orphan dress keeps getting passed from store to consumer to store and that's my fault. While I felt bad about it at first, I've made peace with my choices because dresses don't have feelings.

This is a crop top that I've been trying to figure out how to style. We all know that I'm into crop tops, but I generally wear them fitted. This one is all loosey goosey and makes me uncomfortable when paired with a skirt, like I'm Christine Ricci in Black Snake Moan. I honestly don't understand the physics of her boob/shirt situation.
Here, I paired it with a fitted Maxi dress. Very cute and comfortable, but too hot for late July.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Spring Uniform

Similar earrings

I love this outfit. One of my favorite shirts and favorite skirts combined to create what I think encompasses my overall spring aesthetic. 

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Casual Sunday


I wore this for a slow paced day of grocery shopping, dog walking, and art making. To my delight, the day became too hot, that I ended up losing the sweater tights and replacing them with red knee socks and boots. Both outfits were very cute and comfortable.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Blonde hair makes me look better in Summer clothes.

Monday

This dress, these glasses.  What else could you want?

Tuesday

This skirt is 100% linen and the care instruction tag says "guaranteed to wrinkle."  I love that.  Obviously it's going to wrinkle, that's what linen does.
Also, this shell is pretty spectacular.  I have a hard time drawing it so you'll have to just trust me.  
Did I mention the shoes?  Maybe I didn't have to.

Wednesday

So, this headband is actually a belt from the dress that I wore on Friday.  Strangely, the dress fits me just right, while the belt is only long enough to fit around my head.  How does that work?

Thursday

Dale's Dale's Dale's

Friday
Similar belt - Savers

Here's the aforementioned dress.  I wore this to a wedding of a childhood friend.  The wedding was in SD and I brought three different dress options with me because I wasn't sure how fancy to dress.  I chose this one because it was the most casual out of all three.  Thank goodness I went for this over sequins.  Let's just say that I probably could have worn jean shorts and that would have been fine.

Monday
Similar shirt - I Like You
Similar pants - Forever 21
Similar flip flops - Target
Similar earrings

This shirt is really quite fluorescent.  I almost feel bad for other people's eyes when I wear it.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Going Blonde for a Minute

As I put this post together, I realized that all of my outfits involve some combination of yellow, blue and white.  I do believe that I have acquired a new color scheme this spring.  While, last year I was exclusively wearing camel, orange, blazers, and oxfords, this year I'm light, springy, nautical, and YELLOW and I love it!

Monday
Similar sweater - Urban Outfitters

I don't normally buy things for full price at Urban Outfitters.  I think that while their clothes are on trend, the craftsmanship is questionable and the prices are too high.  I did, however, buy this sweater a few years ago at full price after a couple weeks of full on coveting and I have had no regrets about it.  While I don't wear it terribly often, it is one of the favorite tops in my wardrobe, mostly for the design.  It's relatively long, nautical (of course!), and the deep v-neck is mirrored in the back, making this sweater pretty dang sexy.  I think the reason it doesn't get worn that often is because it's a short sleeved sweater.  Too hot for summer, too cold for winter.  There are literally 2-4 weeks out of the Minnesota year that I can comfortably wear this little gem.

Sunday
Ah Mother's day!  I can't help myself from dressing up on holidays.  In my head, this is something that everyone does, but in reality, I'm the only one.  Oh well, maybe it was my goal to be the chicest lady at the nursing home.  In fact, that was my goal.  Once, as a fat, acne prone teenager visiting my Grandma in her nursing home, a cute old lady asked me if I was a model.  I was very flattered and have been trying to impress old ladies ever since.  It's actually not that hard.

Tuesday
Similar earrings

This is what I was going for back in April.  I really love this skirt.  It's so classic and flattering and all around wonderful.  If only I had the patience or cared enough to iron all of those pleats.  Alas, ironing is the worst.

Wednesday

I think I was in college when I bought this dress with big plans to alter it into something extraordinary.  I can't quite remember what it looked like then and I know that it sat in an "in-progress" sewing bag for years.  I almost threw it away many times.  After all of that, I think the only thing I changed were the sleeves that were probably long with cuffs.  And you know what?  This dress is and probably always was extraordinary.  The fabric is lightweight and slick, almost like silk, but obviously synthetic.  The print is really subtle and interesting, while the bright red collar is bold and screams 1980s waitress.  The skirt length and button up collar make it modest enough to wear to work, while still being eye-catching.  All in all, I'm glad I didn't toss it in some life cleansing fit, as I tend to do.

Thursday
Similar earrings - Everyday People

After many months of pinterest plans to get a cute pixie cut and dye it blonde, I finally went through with it.  I'll admit, I was a little scared of how it would turn out.  Will all of my hair fall out?  Will blonde hair make my pinkish complexion appear red?  Will I have more fun?  All valid concerns.
It turns out that I adore it and my biggest problem so far is dealing with all of the attention I'm getting from other people who also adore it.

Friday, May 30, 2014

When Sketchy Attire was truly sketchy

Since I've been a little lax on doing outfit drawings these past few weeks, I thought I'd show you some drawings from 1 year ago when this all started.  

Saturday
This was like my uniform last spring.

Sunday
Brrr.  I get cold just looking at this.  I can see how much I wanted it to be spring, but the temps were still too low to not wear all of these layers.

Tuesday
Ah ha! Eyebrows!  I knew I was missing something. 

 Wednesday
Basically the same outfit from Saturday.  Like I said, my uniform.

Thursday
This is when part of my hair was blonde for a minute.

Friday
That is the worst houndstooth I have ever attempted to draw.

Saturday
Ok, so I took the earrings off to interact with a 1 year old too because I'm not stupid.  They're just too cool not to include in my drawing.

 Sunday
Ahh, sunshine, music, food trucks, vodka camelback, Sunday evening hangover.  Grand Old Day!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Has an orange leather jacket no limits?

Monday
Similar earrings - Savers

On Sunday, I imagined myself in this outfit, strolling through the Art Crawl in Lowertown St Paul. Too bad it rained all day and I never changed out of my pajamas...or even got out of bed.  It rained again on Monday, but I had to wear clothes and go to work so here it is.  It's a perfect outfit for a rainy Spring day.  If only I had drawn an umbrella.  What was I thinking, not drawing an umbrella?!

Tuesday

I started out with a completely different outfit.  I was going to wear a new to me vintage dress that I was busting at the seams to wear.  Literally.  Late for work, I got in my car and the side seam ripped all the way down from my armpit to my waist.  I ran inside, flung my ripped dress off and threw this trusty old jumper on.  Never has this jumper failed me.  If my house caught on fire, I would grab this and run.

Thursday
Similar earrings - I Like You

Surprise! I have yellow corduroys!  You weren't surprised were you?

Saturday
Similar earrings

I bought this sweet orange leather jacket almost 2 years ago because I thought that I needed it in my life.  Since then, I have been intimidated by it.  I tried wearing it a couple of times and just felt foolish and over the top, which is ridiculous.  I've worn way more over the top garments than an orange leather jacket.  So now, I've made it a point to try to include this jacket in as many outfits as possible until I feel comfortable wearing it.  Here is my first attempt.

Sunday
Similar belt - Savers
Similar earrings - My Sister's Closet


Sweet dress, right?  The best part is, it's reversible.  This is the what it looks like inside out.  

P.S. I wore the orange leather jacket today and felt a little weird about it, but I did receive a couple of compliments.

P.P.S. As it turns out, the orange leather jacket is working.  While catching up on reading a few blogs, I spotted myself like a celebrity in US Weekly.  The woman who took my picture for her blog a few weeks ago, unknowingly blogged about me again.  Clearly, she likes my style and again, I am very flattered.