Everybody Everywear: Pink and Red

Today, for Valentine's Day, the EverybodyEverywear challenge is to wear red and pink outfits. I haven't done an EverybodyEverywear day for a while, but actually remembered to jump in on this one! Tricky, though, because I realize that I don't actually own a lot of pink. Pale pink is one of my least favorite colors (and pastels don't look great on me in general), and I seem not to have any hot pinks...so this pink skirt was one of my few options. (Also, red and pink has always been one of those combinations that I feel is a "holiday" matchup...like black and orange or red and green. I guess it's appropriate today, though!)


I've been having a fairly quiet day...the boyfriend and I had dinner at home and are settling into our general Tuesday night TV routine. We chose to go out to a nice dinner last weekend instead, since I always prefer not trying to go out to eat along with every other couple in the world. If you're celebrating Valentine's Day, hope you're having a lovely one (even if you're not celebrating, hope you had a nice day)!

Sunny yellow days

Today is this month's Everybody Everywear day! This time around, the unifying feature is the color yellow..


This outfit therefore got carefully constructed to highlight my closet's favorite yellow pieces. By which I mean, I have one piece of clothing that is actually yellow. This is it. And it's not the easiest shirt for me to style thanks to its low neckline, high waist-thingie, long drape, and fabric that basically shows the lines of anything underneath it. I've recently been a fan of white and yellow, so that color combination prevailed.


Okay, it's not exactly true that I don't have any other yellow clothing...a lemon-print dress arrived a couple of days ago from Ebay, a piece from the UK that I'd been stalking since I saw it here on Annebeth. This was really the only time I've ever seen a piece on another blogger and liked it so much that I wanted that particular item... funny! But I'd had to guess quite a bit on the size (UK sizing plus apparently running small), so I need to alter it a tiny bit before I can take it out for a wearing.


(This one's not a great photo, but it's in front of a yellow wall, so I had to put it in! Everything...everywhere... is yellow?)

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Things are still fairly quiet at the lab this summer... I'm just reading a bunch of research papers, figuring out what directions I want to take my work next. Potentially in the next couple of days I may have a meeting with my adviser to talk about next steps, which will hopefully help with those directions. But all else is fairly quiet! Trying to stay cool in the ridiculous heat we've been having recently. Cleaning up and organizing things a lot at home, cooking a lot of vegetables thanks to the farm share, and watching tv shows with the boyfriend (anyone else a fan of Star Trek: Enterprise? I know, I know, I'm a nerd...but we'd already finished the original series and got hooked on this one!) Summer going well for you folks out in internet-land?

Bright Flowers for a Gray Day

Today's outfit is part of Everybody Everywear, a monthly event where style bloggers all take a particular clothing item or pattern and incorporate that into their outfits on the same day. May's pick was "florals," so I decided to use that as an excuse to wear this incredibly bright floral dress that hadn't made it out of my closet yet. The day's gloomy weather wasn't completely consistent with my cheery outfit, though! Hence the layering...


The dress is vintage from probably the 60's or 70's, and came via a neighbor of my mom's who was cleaning out her attic and passed on a handful of items to me. It actually has a trapeze shape that's just overwhelming on me. I found recently that belting it gives it a shape that suits my body much better.


Dress: vintage, gifted. Sweater, thrifted. Tights, LOFT. Shoes, Jeffrey Campbell via Ebay.


Look at that bright pattern! I was glad I finally had the nerve to wear this out in public. Through my last year or so really playing more with my outfits and keeping this blog, the range of clothing I'm comfortable wearing has really expanded.

Hope everyone's week has been going well! I had a busy last week and weekend, finishing up a couple of projects, making a dress for a wearable art show, and spending the weekend at a festival where one of my art installations was included. Lots of fun, now trying to figure out what my next projects look like!

A Hard Day's Work in Polka Dots

Today's Everybody Everywhere challenge was to incorporate polka dots into our outfits today. I've become a bigger fan of polka dots over the last couple of years, so have a handful of fun dotted pieces.



However, in picking my outfit today, the main limitation was the day's activities - the first day loading our group's opera production into the theater. Now through mid-April, I'm basically going to be busy on the opera. We've got a few days to setup now, then rehearsals, then performances, then we head off to Chicago and do it all over again! Exciting stuff.


This red shirt is one of my only polka-dotted pieces that is not a skirt or a dress. Add pants and flat shoes for climbing around in the theater, and all pieces that can handle a bit of heavy lifting.


Details: Red dotted shirt, Andrew and Co, thrifted. Pants, Old Navy. Tank: Express. Boots, Steve Madden, thrifted. Earrings, handmade.

Going to be a crazy busy few weeks...early mornings, late nights. Tonight may be the last evening for a while that I make it home reasonably. I'm not so good with the lack of sleep...but it should be a fun time.

Everybody Everywhere wears blazers!

So my outfit today is inspired by today's challenge from Everybody Everywear. Basically, the goal is to construct an outfit around a blazer, and wear it on February 8. I particularly wanted to join in on this challenge as I have a number of thrifted blazers in my closet that I never/almost never wear... I keep thinking they'll be a good piece, I see great outfits with patterned and colored and tailored blazers, and then I have difficulty actually making an outfit work proportionally on my body. I think part of it is because many blazers have well-defined, often padded, shoulders, and I have somewhat narrow shoulders and a curvy figure... so I haven't quite figured out how to make the proportions come out in a way I enjoy. Anybody have any suggestions? (Looking forward to seeing a range of ideas from Everybody Everywear, too!)


I went through a couple of iterations of blazer + dress, trying to find something fun, and was drawn to this summery jersey dress I'd thrifted a couple of months ago but hadn't worn due to its non-seasonal nature. Adding all the black pieces winterizes the outfit, but the dress may reveal how much I would like it to be spring, and soon, please! (An earlier outfit version had a cream blazer, too...) We had a couple of days of sunny 40 degree weather over the weekend, which was a tantalizing taste before we plunge back to 9 degrees and snowing tonight. These pictures are taken in a stairwell at my lab...lots of natural light, though quite gray since it's currently raining.


Details: Calvin Klein Dress, via Goodwill. Max Studio black blazer, thrifted. Black oxfords, Nine West. Tights, Ann Taylor Loft.


What else? Weekend was very, very busy with all day Saturday spent at the lab working on an electronic music event that my group was mostly responsible for (panels, demos, and a concert in the evening). Then Sunday we had to strike everything we'd set up for the concert. Sunday night involved my hosting a Jewish food/Super Bowl party with friends from lab, which may become a tradition. This involved making enough latkes and noodle kugel to feed 8 people for dinner, and ended up with enough leftovers for 6 people for lunch the next day...


Also, I'm trying something new with formatting to get larger images...what do you think?

Hope everyone's week is going well so far!