Me-Made May 19 and 20

For Day 19, I went pretty simple. This was another day when I had to get by with just me-made jewelry, mostly because it was cold and raining and I really wanted to wear some warm clothing. This implies that I need to do some more sewing this weekend!


Details:
Jeans: Seven, thrifted.
Jewelry: me-made
Top: Banana Republic, thrifted.
Shoes: thrifted.


I've been finding it interesting to see how thrifting has allowed me to have some more "grown-up" brands in my closet... For example, I tend to really like things now from stores like Banana Republic and Ann Taylor. Back when I was doing my clothing shopping at the malls, I would only buy clothing from those stores on rare super-sale occasions, generally turning to Forever21 and Wet Seal instead (sometimes Express as well). At the dollar-a-pound I shop at now, I run into a fair amount of Banana Republic/Ann Taylor/various other more tailored/polished/adult-seeming brands...so my closet has gradually shifted. Anybody else experience this with thrift-store shopping?

Day 20: polka dots!


So there's a bit of a reason for this outfit... one of my favorite style bloggers, The Glamourai, (actually, she was one of the first style blogs I started following...) had a week of wearing multiple polka-dotted items, and encouraged others to try it as well and send her pictures. Thus, the dotted skirt paired with the tiny dots on the blouse collar and cuffs. (and I wore my trench coat with the pink/brown polka dot trim, but that was completely unintentional, I swear!)


Details:
Dotted skirt: Liz Claiborne, thrifted and refashioned.
White skirt: Forever21.
Black top with built in collar: Voice, thrifted.
Shoes: Steve Madden, thrifted.
Belt and bag: thrifted.

Anybody else glad it's almost the weekend?

Days 8 and 9

This was a lovely, busy weekend! My best friend/college roommate for three years/overall amazing person visited me from California. She got in Friday morning (very early!) and stayed through last night. It was just amazing to see her!


We met the first day of college, as we were assigned to be roommates...I was really lucky! We roomed together for the next three years, then next door to each other senior year.


Saturday night, we went out for a drink at a nearby restaurant, after a day that was spent mostly with me working on a class project (but it was still social...we were at my home, my partner for the project was there too, and another college friend came by for a while). Also, my mother and brother kept popping by. So I admit that most of the day I was wearing the refashioned jean skirt and a fitted t-shirt...but I took pictures of the better outfit, when we dressed up a bit to go out.


Details:
Skirt: refashioned
Patterned blouse: J Crew, thrifted
Leggings: H&M, thrifted
Pleather jacket: thrifted
Shoes: thrifted


Day 9, Sunday, we both went to the dollar-a-pound and lunch with my mother. (Happy Mother's Day to everyone, too! Lovely seeing people's "Mom" posts!) So I had a pretty casual outfit, also affected by the fact that it was suddenly back down in the 40's and I have relatively little wintery me-made/refashioned clothing.

Details:
Velvet top: Me-made
White shirt: thrifted
Jeans: Seven, thrifted
Shoes: Ann Taylor, thrifted

(You may have noticed the absence of Day 7! I wore a refashioned dress and some sandals and didn't get a picture of it because I was busy having fun with people. Oops.)

April!

It's SPRING! Yes, I know I'm still in Massachusetts and we're only in early April and there may still be storms and bad weather and snow. But...the magnolias are blooming and it finally was sunny today and I've decided that it's spring.


I'd had this outfit in mind, or parts of it at least, for a few days now, since I hemmed this floral dress from an unflattering mid-thigh length. I knew I needed to get up the nerve to wear it, and thought it would be an interesting contrast with black tights. Then I'd happened to have the dress next to my purple cardigan and realized they matched (yes, I know I wore the cardigan yesterday. I'm remixing!) And this morning, added the boots, necklace, and hat, after trying to accessorize it in a couple of ways. This look is a bit of a stretch for me, but it was fun to do. Though I admit I only wore the hat to and from work.


Here's the dress without the cardigan. It's got interesting puffed sleeve details, which I'm still trying to decide whether I like or not. Also, the strange face in this picture comes from me attempting to take pictures in semi-public! I was done at the lab very close to sunset and decided to try to find someplace with a bit of light (and an appropriate post on which to rest my camera) on my walk home. I'd missed the late afternoon light on this wall, but these still turned out all right. During this picture, though, there was someone walking by -- and I'm not yet used to the public-picture-taking thing! (or when I do, I usually am having someone else take my picture).


This is with the coat... a very different look when you can't see the floral print!


Details:
Floral dress: thrifted (dollar-a-pound), hemmed by me
Boots: thrifted (dollar-a-pound)
Hat: vintage, Ebay
Brooch (on hat): vintage, Ebay
Coat: thrifted (dollar-a-pound)
Black tights: Hue
Necklace: Ebay


Another quiet day at the lab. Working on the thesis writing, reading a lot about systems of dance notation, getting books from the library, working on a class project. All of my labmates and I are absolutely exhausted for no really good reason...we think it's the rain from earlier in the week? Or some disease going around that just makes everyone sleepy?


Also, did I mention it's spring? I can't wait for the weekend!

Is it spring yet?

Despite the fact that we were going to be hit by a number of inches of snow yesterday, I was drawn to this little dress I’d gotten recently at my favorite pay-by-the-pound store. (Any Bostonians/Cantabrigians out there who know about the Garment District's Dollar-A-Pound-Plus? You should come shopping with me…) I think this is intended to be a little dress for going out in the evening in the summer…it’s a thin drapy fabric, and has a semi-open back. But I put a black shirt under it, along with a ruffly skirt (for a bit of extra shape), and two pairs of tights. Thus, winter-appropriate and warm-- at least when paired with my latest thrifted coat!


Though we did get hit by a lot of snow...heavy, thick, wet snow. It's supposed to be warmer today, so perhaps it won't stick around for too long.


And yesterday was productive in terms of the thesis performance/rehearsal progress. Code and sensors and gesture recognition started doing what I wanted. Always a good thing…I might be able to pull this off yet? I actually felt really productive, which was great. And I had a good rehearsal in which the technology was (mostly) on my side. I also figured out that a change I made (trying to recognize gestures only after triggers, rather than all the time) took my program down to needing around 20% of my CPU, rather than around 80%...so.





The belt is also from the dollar-a-pound. I've gotten pretty decent at pulling out interesting things there, I think...

However, this is what happens when I'm doing self-photography around midnight:

I suspect I should leave the jumping style pictures to those slightly younger than I am! Or at least save it for when I take pictures outdoors...