Oh hey there, you doll, you!

You may have noticed the design change, ’round these parts.  I’m super excited to have cleaned up, cleared out and completely revamped my site.  Here’s une petite update in photos!  Voilà!

Denny Hall

As you  may know, I’ve been in school, so my blog has been pushed to the wayside – but as the 20111-2012 school year comes to a close, I’ve got a little more free time to blog and do the things I love to do!

Berry! Thanks to Scarlet at Radar Hair and Records!

This past 9 months has been an amazing journey, meeting awesome people, gettin’ my know on, and enjoying the student life!  I’ve also been doing a LOT of great work with the Rory Martin Web Design + Social  Media Marketing crew…

I painted the entire interior of our new house and then moved into it!, went on vacation (Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Reno), watched my little sister get married, I bought a Memento Mori ring from Wendy Brandes, I put together a good amount of Ikea furniture, helped Kimberlee of Deco Modiste age some Victorian-style dresses…

In that time I radically changed my hair color (I took the plunge to a full head of shocking raspberry locks).  I’ve changed my personal aesthetic.  I’ve been getting into shape – skiing, riding horses, and riding my bicycle!

Rex and I

I went to Alefest with my pretty friends and dressed up in dirndls!!

Alefest! Kitty, Birdie, Lola and Mitsy!

Here’s a photo of my trusty steed – after she had a new paint job and a full tune up!

Bicycle

I planted a garden, I read several books – including a novel in French!  I made Dean’s list for two quarters straight (and am crossing my fingers for a third).

Wonderland Caterpillar

And the fun’s not over.  This summer will be the best – trips to NYC, and Boston, weddings galore (love! celebrate!), camping and a trip to the hot springs!

What have you been up to?  Tell me, tell me!

My body is changing.  In the last year, I’ve gained an inch or two around – everywhere.  I know this because sometimes I can be a little self conscious, but if you no longer fit into any of your jeans, wouldn’t you be a little annoyed?  Besides being heavier than I’ve ever been, I’m also more out-of-shape than ever.  So in a recent conversation I mentioned a meeting with a trainer, and a friend asked me, “Like … at a gym?  Why do YOU need a trainer?  That’s silly!”  I thought about it – I want to fit into the clothes I own.  I’d also like to be able to run up a flight of stairs without gasping like a fish out of water!  From the outside this might seem like a thin-obsession, but it’s more about knowing what makes me feel good.

I asked body-positive blogger, Jessica from Tangled Up In Lace, about this phenomenon:

The whole flipping point of Body Acceptance is that NO MATTER what you decide your body’s path is, its perfect for you.   Its a matter of thinking critically about WHY you want to do what you want to do with your body.  I’m so behind self care and deciding what healthy means to you

No one ever has the right to put value on how someone handles their own body.

And Ashe from Dramatis Personae pointed out:

There hasn’t been a point in my life where my body wasn’t solely my own concern.  My parents were always worried about me being too fat as a child, when I really wasn’t more than chubby.  Instead of teaching me to eat right, they just tried to ban foods from my diet.  It wasn’t ever about health, it was about appearance.

In the past 2 months, I’ve had one close friend and one acquaintance call me fat.  And the fact is, it made me more angry than anything.  Who the hell are they to make comments on my body?  As far as I’m concerned, my weight is the concern of me, my doctor, and my partner– in that order.

The media doesn’t help– since I was a kid, magazines had covers boasting the weight loss of stars, while tabloid magazines trashed the weight gains and struggles of others.  They’ve taken women’s bodies and made them public property, free for all to make comments on, without regard to the fact that there are people inside those bodies.

Women should do, simply, what makes them feel good without being detrimental to their health.  If eating a cupcake on a bad day makes you feel better, do it!  If going on a 5 mile run makes you feel great after a fight with you best friend, do it.  Every goal I have for my own body and weight is, for the first time in my life, strictly for me.  It’s about feeling a certain way, going back to a place where I was happy, and was living a life in moderation.

My friend Carrie is undertaking a fitness/body challenge – she’s recently competed in figure competitions.  She does it because “It makes me feel strong, confident, sexy, invincible… I’ve realized that I loved the process leading up to it much more than the competition itself.  The way I feel when I take care of myself by eating right and working out is enough motivation for me now. There’s nothing better than feeling great!”

Although she does it for the best reasons, she’s still subject to body-shaming.  She adds:

It’s much easier to cut a person down or discourage them because of your own issues than be unconditionally supportive. I see this in all aspects of my life, but never moreso than going through this fitness/body transformation journey… and I STILL get it even after all this time. The comments change but story is the same, the people belittling my effort, & my goals seem threatened by it. They are happier if I’m not doing than if I am.

Honestly, the more I think about it, that whole “you’re fine just the way you are” thing really gets to me. Because if [someone] mentions a desire to change… why not improve? There shouldn’t be anything wrong with that (outside of like you said, extreme situations where there’s something else going on).  I really think it goes back to making the rest of us uncomfortable… it’s been much easier for the masses to say, “love yourself the way you are” than for ALL of us to have to take an honest look at ourselves and either accept what we know we don’t like, or … work fucking hard to make changes.  Change isn’t easy, especially when it comes to matters of eating/exercise and the discipline that involves.

I felt a little shame as I headed to my gym appointment, because obviously I love me, right?  Why should I get the side-eye, because I want to be healthier and stronger?  There’s this derisiveness towards my hitting the gym as if these people think I’m deluding myself about why I go.  I feel like we (Everybody. Women.  Ourselves.  Each other.) are so programmed to snark on women’s bodies, regardless of the situation – whether they’re curvaceous or thin or fit or waiflike or brown or purple or like cheese or whatever.  We’re totally missing the point of just caring for ourselves.

As this post titled,  The Body Count from “At War With Our Bodies” adds,

Body image should never be a battle. Although it is true that the ideal weight, as defined by the mass media, has been shrinking in recent years I am more disheartened by this attitude of “winning” and “losing” than I am by the media’s glorification of a nearly unattainable body. People are losing sight of the real problem maker, the media, and aiming their frustrations at each-other by splitting off into teams of sorts ; us against them, skinny against fat, muscular against frail… it just doesn’t make sense.

While I am 100% behind the Fat Acceptance Movement and all of the more generalized Body Acceptance Movements, I cannot get behind their unintentional exclusion of certain body types. For instance, the phrase used by many FA Activists, real women have curves**, really bothers me. Real women have curves? How about; real women have vaginas? Or even better; all women are real women, whether they were born female or became female by choice. By excluding women of a certain body type from being “real” women these groups are participating in the same exclusion they protest… that hardly seems like winning to me.

[These two sentiments] are both equally damaging as they deny people their right to feel comfortable with their body, regardless of what shape it is. One sentiment may be more mainstream than the other, however, this doesn’t make either statement right or justifiable.

I appreciate what the self-love movement does and is trying to do to liberate people from certain ideals.  I also appreciate when a girl mows down a salad instead of picking pasta because she’s looking after herself (who am I to judge?  Maybe she needs the fiber, right?).  In my opinion, she should be able to also eat pasta if it pleases her, but jumping off on a rant about how she “needs a cheeseburger” assumes things about her that may not be true.  Self acceptance comes from within – not from the peanut gallery.  Self-love can mean challenging your self to become a better you.  Just because you’re undertaking that challenge doesn’t mean you love you any less.

I think we could stand to stop treating women’s bodies like public property to comment on. I know that sometimes it’s hard to take a message off the ‘net and apply it in real life, and that it might be awkward to point out to your group of in-person friends when they’re body-snarking.  But maybe you can turn it around.

When someone says something negative about a girl’s body, point out a positive.  Or when you hear yourself saying you want to lose a few, acknowledge the reasons why and remember all the other reasons that your body is great.  And then work out if you want to - if your goal is safe, and reasonable, there’s absolutely no reason why you should be ashamed of wanting to “make better”. Your choice is just that – yours.

And if you’re one of those people who constantly say “you’re fine the way you are” to your friends who express wanting to better their bodies, know your reasons for doing so.  Stop to think about your reasons before you speak, because that sentiment could be inadvertently shaming.  Instead of saying, “you’re fine the way you are”, try pointing out something positive, your favorite part of that person who wants to make better.  Encourage them to do what they feel is right for their bodies, because ultimately that choice is theirs.

So what do you think?  Angry?  In agreement?  Ever been subject to body shaming on either side?

Part 1 – I always feel strange writing about body issues – especially considering my size.  I worry that, since I’m on the small side, I’ll be subject to a lot of negative commentary pointing out that I’ve got nothing to complain about.  And that’s exactly the problem…

During a recent conversation with friends, a gal I know mentioned going on vacation and wanting to shed a few pounds for the beach.  She was asking about our workout routines (for those of us who are so inclined).  There were a few different camps – those who said that diet could change it, those who said that exercise could change it, those who (like me) said “get a trainer because they are magical creatures who tailor your workouts…” And then there was the camp that shamed us all, saying “That’s silly. You don’t need to go to the gym.  You’re fine the way you are”.

It felt a little like saying *if you have to go to the gym you obviously don’t love you and that’s wrong* – like wanting to better your body is not a legitimate goal. I started to feel like that’s just as damaging as the whole “thin is in” campaign we see in fashion mags, etc.   It’s very damned if you do, damned if you don’t – when did we start subconsciously shaming  girls for wanting to care for their bodies?  For striving towards becoming a better person (in whatever regard that may be)?  Or for just loving and accepting themselves as they are now?

As Kate from Eat The Damn Cake says in this post:  “Really, there’s probably a compromise here. If someone is trying to lose weight, I’m not standing next to them at the gym with a bag of Doritos, going, “You’re wasting your time! Want some pizza? I could really go for a pizza…” I think losing weight is a completely legitimate goal in plenty of cases. I don’t think it has to be a symptom of superficiality or self-hatred. It can be really, really healthy.”

When I shared my thoughts with Kate, she added:

“I think sometimes on my blog I lean too far in the direction of the women you were describing, who act derisive about weight loss. I don’t feel like that, but I feel pressure to act like that publicly. Reading [your note] helped me put that tendency in perspective and understand better how unfair and, like you said, shaming it can be, to emphasize either approach without giving people room to make their own decisions. Life is too complicated for extremism in either direction.”

It feels like the “real women”, body-love mantras we hear so much about are walking a fine line; we should start loving us regardless of what our body looks or seems like, but we should be ashamed of wanting to change ourselves (and, we know that certain body love movements can be very exclusionary).

While it’s great that the motto of many bod-acceptance movements is “love thyself”, I feel it’s can be healthy to both accept yourself and be a little conscious of your body, knowing its limits, knowing what it can do and what’s good for it.  And if you’re comfortable with you, rock on!  Work it!

But if you want to shed a couple pounds before your tropical vacation, that’s a legitimate goal.  You can eat what you want, and/or be religious about exercise if that’s your thing.  Being conscious of you, of how you look, of how you want to look doesn’t mean that you hate your body, or that you’re necessarily trying to conform to a thin ideal.  Don’t get me wrong – there’s a lot of “thin idolatry” out there, and current beauty standards do shame girls for not having the perfect body (whether it’s Christina Hendricks or Twiggy.  And, of course, this is not touching on cases where there’s something else going on etc.).  But we all realize that the perfect body doesn’t exist, but in a few very lucky cases.  The majority of us are gloriously imperfect.  And you have the power to demonstrate enormous self love by caring about your body – whether it’s feeding it cookies or taking it for a walk.

More tomorrow…

A play on the chicken and the egg (and inspired by Ashe Mischief’s Finance and the Fashion Blogger posts)…

I got to talking with Ashe this morning about fashion bloggers and the money we’ll spend on the things we find worth spending on.  She mused, “… Do people get expensive tastes from being bloggers or have [expensive tastes] and then become bloggers?”

Ashe mentioned that her mom always bought the best she could for the best value – growing up with quality over quantity, she notes, is one of the reasons she has such a good eye.  Out of a lineup of 20 white oxfords, her “eye will like the most expensive pair best, without knowing the designers or cost”.

Thinking about it – part of being a fashion blogger, for me, came from an obsession with what I couldn’t have, while inspirational style images peered out at me through the pages of catalogues and magazines, not to mention MTV.  My parents didn’t buy name-brand clothing (with 3 kids, who can!?).  We thrifted – and with the idea that things would be worn by at least 2 girls, even our thrifted pieces needed to be quality.  I was also involved in theater and costuming (you know, Thespian Troupe President,  and my senior portraits were voted most theatrical since I had old-timey photos taken instead of the very-posed norm).  I learned to sew.  I read books on costume history, researched vintage clothes and was always, constantly inspired.

In our small town, there was no GAP or Express.  I remember receiving Delia’s catalogues, and I bought all the teen-appropriate fashion mags I could find, circling looks and outfit pieces in each one.  This might be why I still flip through the Vicki’s catalogues, circling things and drawing moustaches on the models.  These catalogues showed me the clothes that weren’t available to me and the styles that I coveted.  I became kind of.. enamored with branded stuff.  As I grew into my tastes, I was able to weed out the styles that didn’t suit me, but have always had a soft spot for the inspiration in a well curated editorial – whether or not it was “my style”.

I worked retail when I first moved to the big city.  Through that experience, I learned about thread count, different fabrics, and differences in quality.  I saw how once-coveted items fell apart at the seams – literally.  With new shops to explore on every corner, my tastes evolved along with my paychecks.  I was still buying a lot of stuff on the cheap (often, quantity over quality), but I got tired of having to repair everything I bought that wasn’t well-made.

I find that now, I have priorities that I’d gladly spend money on.  It’s been a lot of trial-and-error, but I also a labor of love.  As I see the glint of my Tiffany heart pendant in my monitor, I realize I’ve always liked having “nice things”, not just because of the quality, but also because of the status involved.  Did blogging give me more expensive tastes?  Maybe, but I also worked in retail for years and spent a lot of time repairing cheaply-bought items and coveting things that had a certain aesthetic.  I was also exposed to so much more because I was in a more metropolitan area.

It wasn’t till I started truly blogging that I started to fill out what I thought my style should be.  Again, exposure was a key part of my growth as a blogger.  I realized that style is something you can tailor and create.  I went back to fashion magazines for inspiration, and dug out all my vintage pieces and acquired tastes.  I looked to other bloggers around me, found pieces that appealed to me and wanted things I thought I’d never afford.  Over time, I began to make more money, and my tastes evolved towards the wider market available to me.  Blogging does influence what I think is fashionable – seeing girls carrying it-bags, looking ever so stylish is an inspiration to look for my own it-bag.  Of course, I’ll always do it in my own style, whether the bag is vintage, or merely it-bag inspired.

So what gives?  Does being a fashion or style blogger instantly mean you have expensive tastes?  Or do expensive tastes turn you into a fashion blogger?  Or do your tastes and your paychecks and your style all grow together.  Does the fashion blogging world push us to spend more?  Or do we spend more to keep up?

My answer – all of the above.  A little of everything.   I’d be interested in hearing your point of view, readers.  Did fashion blogging inspire you to have expensive tastes?  Or did having expensive tastes lend to becoming a fashion blogger.

For Bonus Points, read The Chicken or The Egg Debate Between Fashion and Art

It’s been a whirlwind year already.  I look back at goals I had set for myself and miraculously watch as they’re each ticked off the list.  This year has been like a lesson in personal manifestation – the more tuned-in you are to your goals, the more you work consciously and subconsciously to achieve them.

This year I got the boot from my “safe” job that was slowly wearing away at my nerves.  This was probably the best gift-in-disguise I’d ever received.  I felt safe, and totally relied on the paychecks that came in on the regular.  I had motivation to leave, but I didn’t have the cojones.  You know when you are stuck in a rut and there’s reason to leave but you’re afraid to take that plunge?  That was me.  When it did happen, I packed up my things, walked out to my car and did a Saved-By-The-Bell-style, jump and “Woohooo!”  I never thought I’d be so relieved to be laid off (for “restructuring” apparently…)

This year I found a new job doing work that I love, and inevitably find myself doing.  I work with a Web Design, SEO and Social Media company: RoryMartin.com.  I’m their Campaign Genius (that’s what my cards say) and we specialize in thinking outside the box.  Being able to creatively think about the work I have is a huge bonus, and everyone I work with is incredibly cool. Oh and did I mention I get to work from the comfort of my own office, write creatively every day and set my own hours?  Productivity is bliss!

Oh and I got into school!  The pursuit of that magic piece of paper from an esteemed university somewhere has been my goal for… well… ages.  I’m a brain.  I like learning stuff and I finally felt it was a good time to get with it.  I hadn’t previously, because former job frowned on my educational goals.  For real.  Like they told me I could not work and go to school (nevermind that I’ve been taking evening classes for like 3 years).  I was pretty appalled that they’d tell me I couldn’t go to school – most employers are thrilled because they can mold your education to their needs. So I put in an application at UW (hard school to get into) and they laid me off, and then last Friday I got the acceptance letter.  I’ll be studying French (something I love) at an amazing school.  And my new employer is totally stoked for me.

Other goals have been connecting and maintaining relationships with amazing people and making sure Deco Modiste is off to a good start.  It’s amazing to watch all this stuff just fall into place.  I generally don’t give a whole lot of credit to magical manifestation, but I really feel like when you want something badly enough, your whole being goes into overdrive to get there (whether you realize it or not).

Little things are: Being more creative about my ensembles.  Attending fun events like Haute Summer Night and the Body Shop Honey Bronze event (more on that soon).  Learning from those with experience.  Gym-related endorphins.  Being able to walk the pup around the neighborhood in the sun.  Buying my ever-coveted white Chanel sunglasses (COVETCOVET).  Summer travels.  Gettin’ shit done!

How are your goals for the year going (so far)?  Is there anything you want to achieve in the next 6 months?  I’d love to hear about it

While flipping through June’s Elle last night, (I go through it a couple times, once for the pretty pictures, once for the articles and once to tear all my favorite images out of) I stumbled across a quote that seemed incredibly relevant:

“It just reminds us how different “real” women and celebrities are when it comes to their relationship with fashion.  Stars [and internet stars - my emphasis] use it to build an image; the rest of us look for clothes that connect with some inner part of ourselves – we need self expression, not a fan base.”

As the much-talked-about Blogger Beautiful post from Gala Darling points out,

“We all retouch our faces to be blemish-free, & if you only knew how many bloggers manipulate their waistlines or thighs in Photoshop! My point is, some fashion blog images are as unrealistic & idealistic as what is presented to us in magazines.”

Our relationship to the clothes, the platform, the photos are all different – but for many of us, it’s a form of self expression, not a means to a fan base.  And the beauty of that is that our self expression is what keeps us beautiful, relevant, shining, bright.  I sometimes wonder if, as fashion blogging becomes a bigger industry, it is becoming less creative – following the footsteps of the fashion world.  I wonder that and then I remember all the unique, down-to-earth, well read and amazing people whose lives I’ve been given a peek into.  And if they stopped blogging (and if you stopped blogging) and being them (your) selves, yes, fashion blogging would be less creative, less fun, and less intriguing.

When we give ourselves permission to be and feel everything we are – monstrous, large, loud, brazen, occasionally ugly – we age backward.

Translate that: when you love yourself regardless of your bad hair days, your outfit faux-pas, your gaffes in public (I’m a total goober in public, but I laugh, because it’s often hilarious!), you are nothing but inspiring – even on your non-fashionable days.  When you allow you to be you, when you’re not afraid to post images of yourself, and challenge others around you to do the same, you are courageous. That’s what style blogging is all about.

Apparently the other day, Scott Schuman – the Sartorialist – announced that he hated style blogs.  No big surprise there – The Cut said: “The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman is unimpressed with girls who dress up and take pictures of themselves and post them online, mainly because they don’t seem to have extensive wardrobes.”

It sparked a pretty great Twitter conversation through members of Independent Fashion Bloggers – but it all boiled down to one thing:  Your style is much more influential than the Sartorialist.

You see, most of us suffer from smaller closets.  Not many of us have money to throw at an “extensive wardrobe” – and in an age of minimalism (not to mention expensive apartments!) girls don’t necessarily want to keep all that extra junk around.  Women are constantly looking for a few simple and effective pieces that always work. They want pieces that they can mix and match, not a bulging closet where you can’t tell what you’ve got.  Parisian style is in – small closets, staple pieces in quality cuts and colors; not this American idea of “have it all, and have it all shipped to you!”  And the women and bloggers I know who have more simple wardrobes are actually much more inspiring than Mr. Stuck-up.

While I do own a copy of The Sartorialist book, I don’t see it as a style bible.  I see it as a great work of portraiture (not even photography in general – how hard can it be to shoot someone outside in natural light after you’ve meticulously posed them?) and the expressions he captures are just fine.  But as far as style goes, the “style” of this “street style photographer” is all his own.  It’s not a style I necessarily identify with, and after about 10 pages, all the subjects start to blend together.  How stylish is that?

What I love from the blogging community is that there are so many gals who take the leap – they set up a timer, they snap their own photo, they become vulnerable as they put their own image up on the net for anybody to gawk at, to see, to comment, to tear apart.  The ways in which they mix and match from a limited number of items inspires me to mix up my wardrobe.  Your style is much more creative, much more fun, MUCH MORE INFLUENTIAL than the Sartorialist.

It’s that simple.

I found this in my written archives and after reading through it, I thought the message was poignant.  At the same time, I’ve seen recent fashion shows – like Betsey Johnson – where REAL models walked the runway.  I’ve seen beauty ads – like Bobbi Brown – where real women are used.  And I sort of wonder – have fashion’s fictitious standards changed that much in the last few years?  Read on, and let me know!

–

There was an article in Newsweek asking what the media standard of super-thin models is doing to our society.  With the close of NYFW that February, Newsweek reported that an epidemic of slimness was on the rise again! They mentioned the symposium at Bryant Park on weight guidelines in the fashion industry – noting harrowing stories of models who were only allowed to eat “lethally small amounts of lettuce and Diet Coke“.  The article reports that, although the industry claims to be monitoring girls for unhealthy habits, designers are hesitant to impose minimum weight guidelines for catwalk models – Diane Von Furstenburg, most notably, saying weighing runway models would happen “over my dead body.”

(Img courtesy of NY Magazine)

The article pointed out the discrepancy between fashion models and the average woman.  On average, an American woman stands 5?4? at 155lbs, where the average model now boasts a height of 5?10? and weighs 23% less than that.  No wonder women today cling to fad diets and unhealthy eating habits that could eventually lead to more weight gain in the end.

(Img courtesy of LongStation.com and Amber Mac)

The models themselves can’t even keep up with their own images – the article notes that even after hours of hair and makeup styling, their photos go through hours of rigorous photo-manipulation to look perfect on the cover of popular fashion mags.  No wonder women feel a little outdone by runway and magazine models – their images are unreal.  They’ve had their freckles erased, every stray hair photoshopped into perfection, their legs and necks lengthened, their faces slimmed and realigned for symmetry, their nose shaped, their breasts lifted – and all of it is done through the click of some editor’s mouse.

(Img courtesy of Jezebel.com and David Airey)

In the end, these images we’re bombarded with on a daily basis may contribute to how we perceive ourselves.  In Dove’s “Real Truth About Beauty” study, Dr. Nancy Etcoff of Harvard University says:

“Only the minority of women see themselves as above average in appearance, and only 2% claim to be beautiful… Indeed, the study shows that women are less satisfied with their beauty than with almost every other dimension of life except their financial success.“

And Dr. Susie Orbach from the London School of Economics states,

“The overwhelming majority of women … [do not] wish to be excluded because they fail to find their beauty reflected in the images which bombard them, on average, in 2000 advertisements per week.… Beauty itself must be revitalized to reflect women in their beauty as they really are rather than as portrayed in the current fictions that dominate our visual culture.“

Indeed, the study did show that women feel that the ideal standard of physical attractiveness is almost impossible to obtain, and that weight and proportions are inextricably linked to that standard of beauty.

The best part of the Dove study was that women do consider beauty a combination of factors (including physical attractiveness).  Women do know that beauty is about who you are, not just how you look according to some fictitious standard set by the advertising industry – but with the continuing bombardment by mainstream media, we sometimes find it hard to believe.

Perhaps we are judging ourselves a little too harshly against some false standard set by people who want to sell us product.  The truth is, beauty IS on the inside as well as the outside.  If you feel good about yourself, and feel confident in your lifestyle and choices, that inner radiance will shine through.

It’s time we recognize the unrealistic standards our media and fashion industries set, and begin to love our selves, despite what anyone else thinks is beautiful.  Appreciate people (including yourself), not solely for their physical attractiveness, but for that beauty they possess that isn’t based on weight or proportion.

Sources:
Newsweek.  Why Skinny Models Could Be Making Us Fat.  Feb 28, 2007.
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty.  The Truth About Real Beauty: A Global Report. September 2004.

Since it’s been so rainy, I’m sitting around in my fluffy robe and my fuzzy slippers sipping coffee and making “Love or Lose” lists.  I’m doing it because I’m putting off getting dressed… because getting dressed means slopping on my galoshes (GALOSHES!) and trekking out into the rainy, gray yonder.  Though I guess it won’t be so bad because my stops include JoAnns for craft supplies, and possibly a cupcake and coffee.  YEAH!  So without much ado… (And I swear half of these are on this Spring Trends I Love post)

I officially love:

1. Sunshine
2. (Granny) Lace – skirts, tops, jackets
3. Lady-like dressing
4. Tailored waists
5. Stovepipe pants
6. Maxi Skirts in micro prints
7. Metallic eyeliner – in aubergine!
8. Feathered hair – FARRAH FAWCETT FOR REAL!
9. Studs and grommets
10. Feathers – hair, earrings, etc
11. Espadrilles with ties that wrap around your legs
12. Wicker box-frame bags (vintage preferably)
13. Bright Colors
14. Oversized vintage jewels
15. Little clutches
16. Camera Bags
17. Moleskines (where you hand-draft posts, or keep dates)
18. French Sailor Stripes
19. Learning new languages
20. Ballet sweaters
21. Phone calls – nothing like a little face to face

Lose:

1. Faux equestrian chic – jeans tucked into riding boots? Only if you’re on a horse! Or wearing jodhpurs…. HMMMM!
2. Soggy Uggs (EEW)
3. Teeny Minis – chocha madness!
4. Skinny jeans (Hey, there are girls still doing this, though, and they’re fab!)
5. Black fingernails (It’s spring youguys!! C’mon! Break out the electric yellows!)
6. Faux fur
7. Blackblackblack!
8. “I don’t read” or “I only read Elle” – expand your miiind.
9. Television
10. Overpriced iPad/iPhone/Droid accessories
11. People who are glued to their phones
12. Magnetic underwear - WHAT!
13. Too much RSS
14. Oversized, overstuffed bags – bad for your posture!
15. Over-criticizing magazine covers (more on this later)
16. Fashion Bashing (it’s about as fun as body bashing)
17. Lipstick Faux-Academia (I can’t see over your ego!)
18. Snark!
19. Only shopping online (where’s the fun in that!?)
20. Overdone foundation (When the sun’s out, your face color often changes)
21. Cynicism – Horoscopes are fun!  Believe in the magic!

Sometimes the best inspiration is a list post!  What are you loving right now?  What do you think this lifetime could stand to lose?  Let me know!

I recently re-enrolled in French classes – it’s been a long time since I’ve studied the language, but it’s a labor of love and I feel the need to refresh my brain a little on the finer points of French conjugation.  To wash away my nerves, I decided to don a plucky little outfit and sip some café au lait while perusing my brand new textbook.

Luckily it was sunny and warm; perfect for cute little skirts, still paired with knee-high boots.  This outfit seems so fall-like, but since spring in the Emerald City is so much like fall (and winter for that matter), I figured I’d be fine just this once.

I definitely felt a little “Francophone” in my knit beret and striped top.  Oh, hello!  Do not mind the mess, or little G’s dog bed in the background.  As for my outfit, I jazzed it up with my red Fluevog boots, and this crazy beaded granny-necklace.  The great part is all the red matched the lining of my blazer.

The color combo felt a little strange when I originally pulled it out, but with a few finishing touches, I think it came together well.

What I wore:

• Striped sweater top: Banana Republic
• Gray tank: J Crew
• Gray skirt: Papaya
• Black knee socks: Sockdreams
• Red embroidered leather boots: Fluevog
• Denim blazer: Thrifted
• Red beaded necklace: Vintage – from Mr.’s Granny
• Blue crochet beret: Bird & Belle (AKA: Made by Me!)

The weather held, and class was great!  I was a little nervous, but my nerves were swept under the rug toute de suite. It turns out I’d actually forgotten less than I originally thought!

Unfortunately, the weather was not as kind, and the very next day was rainy and gray.  I stashed my little skirt away for the moment – until the sun comes back out and the rain goes away.