Two more outfits from last week, probably closer to how I've been dressing regularly (with one step more paying attention).  I've been wearing a lot of pants, but am trying not to slide into the "jeans + basically a t-shirt" look.


This was from last Tuesday.
Pants: Express (and I love them!)
Top: Gap
Sweater: Caslon
Shoes: Clarks
Earrings: really old...maybe from Target?



Thursday's outfit
Top: Uniqlo
Jeans: Gap
Shoes: Clarks
Necklace: purchased a few years ago at a random boutique at, if I remember correctly, Kronborg Castle in Denmark (otherwise known as Elsinore, to Shakespeare and Hamlet).

Also fun: I've had a raspberry plant in a pot on my balcony for the last 3+ years (started as basically a stick), and this year it finally flowered and has the first handful of raspberries!  Tiny and very few of them, but it still feels like a success.


Didn't get pictures of outfits from over the weekend, but it finally got really warm  in the Bay Area, so sandals and skirts without tights and shorts all came out...

Hope everyone's having a good Monday!

Long time, no blog...

Is this thing on?

I've recently come across a number of style blogs that I remember from 7-8 years ago that are still posting.  It's been really fascinating to see that, while there are so many bloggers that have stopped blogging, a whole bunch of people ARE still sharing what they're up to and what they're wearing. 

I'm at a point where I'm typically wearing a jeans + a top formula that I'm not especially thrilled with, so thought that coming back to this blog might help give me some accountability for paying attention to what I wear (+ crafting/refashioning fun).  Perhaps I'll be posting occasionally, again?

You also might ask, what's happened in the past ~6 years?  In the short version, I:

• Finished my doctorate
• Married the boyfriend K. (now husband)
• Moved to CA
• Have been working as a software engineer/prototyper (in various fun fields), and still do theater-related things on the side.

So, yesterday's outfit!  Worn to work for a day of meetings + prototyping.  The office is cold, which is a limitation on my choices.  But this outfit actually felt pretty put together.

Sweater: Caslon, bought on a shopping trip with my mother in law several years ago.
Top: maybe Gap?
Skirt: thrifted
Tights: Wolford
Necklace: I think snagged from a friend's "moving and getting rid of stuff" party?
Shoes: Clarks
Belt: thrifted

Anyone still around?  :)

Daily Outfit: Skirt Refashion, "Before"

Yesterday's outfit started with this long skirt, which I haven't worn in a while. The bright print caught my eye today, probably also because I'm still picking blue clothing to go with my toenail polish...

However, I'm not too thrilled with the final outfit. I think that I'm no longer really interested in long loose skirts. I used to wear those all the time in college, but I'm liking a somewhat more polished look these days. So I suspect this skirt may be about due for an immediate refashion (actually, its second refashion...it started life as a much-too-large skirt, which I took in at the front to create a deep pleat. I've also worn it as a strapless dress, but I have too many of those already...)

ABC's About Me

I'd seen this meme going around blogs a few months ago, meant to do it then, and then just found the start in my draft posts...thought it'd be fun to finish up!  

A. Age: 26 going on either 15 or 35, depending on the day. (Would be interested to know if that's younger or older than you expected...)

B. Bed size: Queen.

C. Chore that you hate: taking out the trash.  Never mind that this basically only entails going from the apartment to the trash room on the same floor, it is OUTSIDE the door and therefore similar to carrying the trash to Siberia. 

D. Dogs: None, unfortunately. Never had any as a kid as my mother is allergic, and K. is allergic now. I do like them, though.

E. Essential start to your day: Breakfast! If I don't eat within half an hour of waking up or so, I'm starving (unless it's a workout day, in which case I'd better start running before that half hour runs out...)

F. Favorite color: This is a surprisingly challenging question for me. Probably forest green? That's definitely one of my favorite colors to wear, at least.

G. Gold or Silver: Generally I prefer silver for jewelry, gold in general.

H. Height: Just about 5'6".

I. Instruments you play: Mostly I sing (that's what I took lessons in during high school), though I also play a little bit of piano. A very, very little bit of piano.

J. Job title: Research Assistant (/doctoral student)

K. Kids: Some day when I no longer think of myself as one.

L. Live: in the Boston area.

M. Mother’s name: I generally just call her "mom".

N. Nicknames: Well, technically Elly is a nickname, even though that's what all my family and friends call me...my real name is Elena. Other than that...my mom calls me Jellybean, but only she is allowed to do that.

O. Overnight hospital stays: I got dehydrated when I was three and had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. Not my favorite time.

P. Pet peeves: Incorrect use of apostrophes. I was trying to come up with a longer list, but really...this is the big one.

Q. Quote from a movie: The one coming to my mind is from The Princess Bride "Inconceivable!" "I do not think that word means what you think it means..." (Did anyone else read the book of The Princess Bride by the author of the screenplay? SO much detail!)

R. Right or left handed: Right handed.

S. Siblings: One younger brother.

T: Time you wake up: Generally 7-7:30 on weekdays (at least that's when the alarm is set for...sometimes I'm up earlier). Not much later than that on weekends unless I'm exhausted.

U. Underwear: Is typically necessary, yes.

V. Vegetable you hate: Probably my least favorite vegetable is bell peppers (more so when fresh...I'll eat them cooked in things).

W. What makes you run late: The Internet, waiting for K. to get ready to leave, forgetting things and having to run back to grab them.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Just the standard dental x-rays, I think.

Y. Yummy food that you make: One of my favorite easy dinners is pasta with meat sauce...cook some ground beef in a pan, then put it in a pot with a jar of tomato sauce, maybe a splash of red wine and some frozen veggies. Serve over any kind of pasta (though I especially enjoy bowtie pasta with this).

Z. Zoo animal: I do really love to watch elephants.

If anyone else wants to do this survey, leave me a link! I'd love learning more about you all.

(On another note, I finally made a few visual changes around here, heading toward a simpler, cleaner design. What do you think?)

Daily Outfit: Zebra-Print Zebras

Yesterday's outfit centered around a top I'd picked up on sale last weekend at H&M.  The print was what sold me on it.  From a distance, it's basically an abstract black and white pattern...but then you look up close:

It's a zebra print with zebras hidden in it!  A little cheesy, but I love it.

Hoping to take this weekend fairly low-key...catch up on some of the sleep that I lost over the past week, just going to bed a little too late and then waking up before my alarm went off.  Anybody have exciting weekend plans?

Daily Outfit: Even More Black and Turquoise

Apparently, I'm now coordinating most of my outfits to my latest toenail polish, a pretty blue shade that I got in a box from Julep...got sucked in by an offer they'd had to get your first monthly box of polish for only a penny, then ended up getting the next monthly box as well. We'll see if the September box looks good enough for me to get it...but it's definitely great quality polish, and I've been enjoying the colors a lot so far.

My toes aren't quite this neon-bright in real life...

I'm trying to make a bit more of an effort to play with the nail polishes, makeup, and perfume samples I own... I like all of these pretty things, but I think I don't wear them often enough! In particular, I'm aware that my colleagues are used to my generally not wearing makeup or fingernail polish, so I feel like it would be very noticeable if I changed that too obviously. Granted, I went through this with my overall style a couple of years ago when I shifted from casual tops/jeans all the time to mostly wearing dresses and skirts...got a lot of comments asking if I had an interview scheduled, and then everyone eventually forgot how casually I used to dress. (Evidenced when a coworker said that he thought I never wear jeans. I still do, on occasion...)

Daily Outfit: Black and Turquoise

Monday's outfit started with the sleeveless black top.  Then I realized that this skirt, which I've had for years and years but rarely wear, would complement the turquoise trim on the top.  The tights were added once I got to work, as a matter of necessity (not shown: the also-necessary sweater).  It's funny that I wear this skirt so rarely and yet manage to spill something on it every time I do. Fortunately it seems to clean up easily enough with some water dabbed on it (and is full enough to cover any temporary water discoloration).

 

This week hasn't been keeping me especially busy, but for some reason I'd been really stressed out since around Saturday night through this morning.  I also haven't been able to sleep enough the last few nights.  I'm not sure if there's something in the air or what...my best friend was also dealing with emotional stress of no known cause over the weekend.  So yeah, I'd been spending a lot of time feeling my heart racing and stomach knotted and mind making everything into a very big deal.  It seems to have passed for now, though after a mini-breakdown this morning...weird weather?  Not enough sleep?  Mercury retrograde?  (Okay, that last one was a joke, but I just looked up the dates to see if we were even in a period like that and it appears the most recent period of Mercury in retrograde ends today.  Not that I'm going to give that credit for improving my mood.)  Has anyone else been experiencing a particularly stressed week so far?