All in the family [outfit]

Vintage sweater - given to me in the 1990s by my mom / Joie shorts from Nordstrom - 2011 - $26 (using gift card) / Old Navy belt - cheap? / LOFT sandals - 2009 - $10 on sale / American Eagle chain necklace - 2011 - $4 on clearance

I was digging through the boxes under my bed the other day when I rediscovered this sweater. It was my mom's before me, and was given to her by my dad's mom. It is unclear whether my grandma owned it and wore it before she gave it to my mom or whether it was purchased by my grandmother as a gift for my mom. Either way, it's older than I am.

Bonus—it looks like a sleeved version of the sweater Debbie Reynolds wore in the "Good Morning" segment of Singing in the Rain (my favorite movie of all time).

[Image source: Rotten Tomatoes]

Newness [outfit]

A'gaci blazer - 2011 - $30 / Gap favorite T - 2011 - $7 on sale / Joie shorts from Nordstrom - 2011 - gift card / Franco Sarto heels from Piperlime - 2011 - $45 on sale / Kate Spade doodle necklace - 2011 - gift

It never fails that I get new ideas in one of two situations: in bed before I fall asleep (the only justifiable reason for me to keep my iPad on my nightstand) and on a lazy day reading through a stack of magazines. Saturday was my lazy day this weekend and I'm finally up to date on my magazines, which resulted in this super-new Sunday outfit.

What's so new about these pieces you've seen a million times already? Well, they were all purchased in 2011. That's pretty new. Heels with shorts a la Kileen? New to me. And a center part? Totally new.

One of the fun parts of fashion is that when you try new things, there is usually little to no commitment needed. All of these items are already staples in my closet, so throwing them together was easy. And switching up your part is a great no-scissors-needed update.

The hair-spiration? The never-aging Ms. Moore, of course. I saw this ad in a magazine and all my back and forth about my hair disappeared.

[source]

Doesn't hurt that my usual hair icon, LC, also rocks the center part from time to time. More about my LC obsession here.

I don't think the heels plus shorts look is for me, although I would never have known if I hadn't tried. The center part, though, is here to stay. At least for this week.

Who are your hair inspirations?

Salute your shorts

Striped sweater via Marshall's - 2011 - $13 (similar) / Old Navy tank as undershirt - 2010 - gift (similar) / Joit cuffed shorts via Nordstrom - 2011 - gift card (available) / Gap sandals - 2010 - $20 (similar) / American Eagle outlet chain necklace - 2011 - $4 on clearance (similar)

Now here's something rare—shorts. Short-ish shorts. I don't think there's any debate over how inappropriate these casual shorts would be for the office, so let's just move on, shall we?

Shorts are a rarity not only on this blog, but also in my life. For nearly a decade, I swore them off completely. A terrible flare-up of eczema on my legs in high school (and the subsequent grossing out of classmates + teenage awkwardness) led to ugly scars, and I've rarely been without at least one flare-up since. For some reason, short skirts never got the ax, but I felt supremely uncomfortable in shorts. It wasn't until my first summer in Davis that I realized the relief they could bring in heat. And by that time (my mid-20s) I was over the fact that people might not be so comfortable with my eczema. It took me a while, but the answer to peoples' questions about my legs is now a simple, "Oh, that's just my eczema acting up."

Have you ever been self-conscious about something physical that was beyond your control? How did you deal with it?

Twenty-one!

J. Crew shirt (1) + J & Company jeans (15) + Merona flats (28) + H&M bag + Target sunnies + random earrings

OId Navy tank (10)+ Target shorts (21)+ Gap sandals (30)

JC Penney top (6) + Rockabilly jeans (17) + Gap sandals (30)

The end of this 30 for 30 is so close I can almost taste it.  Twenty-one already! These outfits were worn Friday, Saturday, and Sunday respectively.  I did nothing but work and work at home in these outfits, with small breaks for food, church, and Target.  Oh, and I bought some books at Borders on Friday (buy one, get one free!).

My fave of these weekend looks was Friday...I love button-ups, but I had absolutely no will to iron this one this week, but this casual look does not require any ironing.  Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. Saturday and Sunday I really didn't put much thought into, but I really had no reason to look anything but halfway decent. At least I showered...that's gotta count for something.  I have some crazy deadlines this week at work so don't get your hopes up (I work better when I'm comfortable so that will be the name of the game).

Do you prefer laying low on weekends or would you rather be out and about?

Fishes and fashion

 1 + 21 + 30

5 + 15 + 28

The husband went off on a fishing trip with his dad and uncle this weekend, leaving me all alone.  Freedom!  j/k.  Truth be told, I had a lot of work and stuff I wanted to get done, so I took this opportunity to do the things that I know would have taken time away from our couple time together anyway.  I'm usually the one that takes off for girls weekends or business trips, leaving him alone for the weekend, so it was nice that this time he got to go out.  I'm always encouraging K to take more trips with his friends...it's good and refreshing (speaking of which...gotta get on planning my next girls' weekend).

Saturday is a good example of one of my style goals for myself: dressing more intentionally and working nicer pieces (not just tees, tanks, and jeans) into my weekend wear.  I've done this before with a blue and white striped shirt, but since that wasn't in my 30, I went for this one instead. I liked the end result.  The french braid (coming out to the side) is my new favorite hair-do for summer...I wonder if it will fly for the office?

Sunday is a more traditional outfit for me. It was supposed to be 100 degrees, but I spent the morning covering an event for work (photographing and taking notes for a story), so I couldn't go with the shorts.  I actually ended up tossing my cardigan on top of this, since it was actually a little too cool this morning for just a tee.  And after the event I rolled the jeans up to capri length.

How was your weekend?

1 of 30: Reasons why

Like many folks, I got today off in honor of the 4th of July holiday.  I spent the day catching up on blogs and reading, making pizza dough for pizza and calzones this week, and general cleaning and putt-putting around the house.

For the past four months, this blog has revealed my weekday wear, from skirts to dresses to suits.  This is intentional because workwear and office life is the focus of this blog, and I don't want to dilute that with too many off-topic posts.

And because I don't want to scare you away with outfits and photos like this:

5 + 21 + 30

Here I am in all my weekend/day off glory.  Unshowered, un-made-up.  Flour residue on my shirt (see how I'm hiding it?).  I even had to put shoes on just for this photo (took them right off afterward).  Not an easy confession considering it's nearly 6 p.m.  Oh well.

But, alas, today was the first day of the 30 for 30 challenge so I wanted to start off right with an actual outfit post.  A little anticlimactic, don't you think?

Funny thing is...this outfit was not on my list of 30 planned outfits.  Already deviating from the plans...

Are you doing the 30 for 30 challenge?  What techniques are you using to stay on track?