Dex by Any Other Name

It was Jeans Day for United Way so I wore my grey jeans.  Instead of collecting money like in previous years, we just got stickers to wear.  I think it was more an awareness campaign to donate by payroll deduction.

Although they have more than 1% spandex, these jeans are still not bagged out, so I can wear them in public.

I teamed them with a short-sleeved tunic/sweater.  The sweater has funny pyramid shaped studs across the front.  It's Dex, but I think of it as Dexter for some reason.

The sweater is thick but short sleeved, so I never know what to wear underneath to avoid the cold arms syndrome.  I wore two long-sleeved t-shirts: a black one with a light grey one underneath.

The black t-shirt is actually a hand-me-up from my oldest son.

Then I tied a hair scarf round my neck - not sure if I like the result.  It's a little too shiny and bow-like. 

today i wore:

grey t-shirt ... kenneth cole

black t-shirt ... generations

tunic/sweater ... dex

jeans ... calvin klein

booties ... doc martens

Curvy Purple Sweater

When my brother was little, one of his favourite colours was purple; today, it is one of my favourite colours.  It's been getting colder, and I've been wanting to wear this sweater for a while, so today was a good day.

What caught my eye in addition to the colour was the curviness of the lines.  The shawl collar also has scalloped lettuce trim edges.

It's really soft too and light.  There's just one giant button in the middle to hold it closed.

I like how it opens up to highlight the waist area - although I didn't have any special belt or anything to show.  I teamed it with the grey skirt so as not to look overly dark.

I also really like the sleeves - they are super long and stick out from my coat sleeves, which I think looks more modern than when they don't.

today i wore:

l/s t-shirt ... kenneth cole

curvy sweater ...striking

grey skirt ... kenneth cole

nubby tights ... calvin klein

shoes ... privo?

+ "silk feeling polyester" scarf !

Peplum It !

Today I was unsure how to wear a top.  It was not as loose and floppy as it looked on the hanger - poor visualization? or weight gain?  not sure.

My original idea was to wear it solo like this:

But I had pictured it to be looser and more drapey.  Instead it was tighter and form-fitting.  That would've been fine, but we all know how I hate that long-body look - at least on myself.  So I peplumed it by adding a belt and pulling the top up a bit:

It still felt a little body-conscious, so I added a jacket:

And of course ended up with my usual work uniform ... aaargh!

It turned out okay in the end - but what this outfit did show me is that I do not have a scarf for this colour combination!  So I had to resort to black.

today i wore

green top ... hiatus

black t-shirt ... joe fresh

jacket ... jessica

grey skirt ... kenneth cole

tights ... calvin klein

boots ... spanish army boots

School-Marm

It's down to about 8 degrees (43 Fahrenheit or 281 Kelvin) in the mornings now, which means more layers. 

Today's outfit felt very school-marmish - perhaps because of the button up collar and scarf.

I've been wanting to wear burgundy for a while, but it just hasn't felt like autumn.  But now that our temperatures are low, I decided to go for it - sunny days or not.

This sweater is from at least 5 years ago, when absolutely no-one wore burgundy.  But I've always liked the colour, so actually have lots of stuff that I can use again, now that it's in vogue.  It actually looks like a purply colour in the pictures, but that's just the camera.

I wore it over a shirt which has velcro closures - can anything be sillier?  Great for super-heroes who need a quick costume change, but absolutely useless for women who want their blouses to stay done up throughout the day.

Today I wore:

velcro shirt ... zara woman

sweater ... old navy

scarf ... ??

skirt ... kenneth cole

jacket ... jessica

tights ... cK

shoes ... ??

Dark Grey and Ruffles

When I was in school, the home ec teacher used to always wear light grey - head to toe grey with light grey hose and slightly darker shoes.  Even her hair was that silver grey colour.  She always looked sophisticated and put together.

I didn't really like the colour back then, it looked old and fuddy-duddy.  But now, I like it - all shades of grey. 

So today's outfit is mostly grey, but dark grey.  Before blogging, I would probably have worn the black blouse with black skirt and jacket but now I am (gasp!) venturing out to mix black and grey - I know shocking. But I think it looks okay.

I love the blouse and am on the lookout for more of this style - with ruffly stuff in the front.  I hope it never goes out of style.  I suppose if it does, I can always say that I'm wearing ruffles due to the Spanish influences in my life?

I always wear the same 3 strand bead necklace with this blouse - I like how the print picks up the round bead design.  The only thing which I'm not crazy about is that the blouse is sleeveless.  This limits me to wearing it with the jacket at work.

Although, now that I think about it, this style would look weird in a short sleeve and long sleeves would be too dressy looking.

Today I wore:

black sequin tank ... winners

black and white ruffle blouse ... ricki's

dark grey jacket ... jessica

grey knit skirt ... kenneth cole

tights ... calcedonia

shoes ... privo?

bracelet ... gift from mom

Today's post links to: what i wore wednesday

MNG Mish Mash

Today's outfit felt a little strange.  It was another warm day, but slightly chilly in the morning - autumn is coming.

I neglected to lay out the day's duds the night before and dressed in a bit of a rush and I think it shows.  The outfit seems to be a mish-mash of styles.

I feel there are way too many lines, distractions around the torso area by way of the ruffle-neck t-shirt, v-neck tunic with bow, pleated cardigan and self-tie skirt.

Good thing I did not have a scarf - it would've been waaaay too much.

 

But at least it was comfy.

Today I wore:

black ruffle-neck t-shirt ... george

v-neck tunic ... MNG

red cardigan ... jessica

grey self-tie skirt ... chapter one

grey tights ... calcedonia

black shoes ... ?

Foot Doctor Greys

Today was a flat shoe and pants day due to a podiatrist visit for foot pain.   I decided to wear my grey pants and then as usual went overboard piling on other grey clothing.

It wasn't quite as comfy as I thought it would be - the pants were just out of the  wash and had not bagged out sufficiently. 

The doctor told me all sorts of things about me: one leg is longer than the other and I am slightly pigeon-toed on the left foot.   She was able to tell that just by observing my stance. And here I thought I was relatively symmetrical.

Nothing about why my foot hurts though - need more tests.

So, anyway, I wasn't super pleased with yesterday's scarf organizer, so decided to reloop the scarves.  This time I did a loop in the front and left the scarves dangling down the back.  It's much easier to see all the scarves because a little bit of each scarf shows. 

And, I can easily see that there is room for another 15 or 16 scarves!

Lace Curtain Top

This is a spur of the moment outfit - I wanted to wear the skirt - it's from Sears and I got it on sale last year I think but haven't worn it yet.  And I had a lace top found on the same trip as yesterday's disk necklace.  Big J hates it, but I am already thinking it will go with lots of stuff. 

I call it my lace curtain top because the material looks like something you would find on a curtain, only grey. It has an elastic waist and I think it might've been lovingly home-made since there are no tags.

The scarf was a last minute addition - I was on the train and my neck was cold and it just happened to be the scarf that was in my purse.  I think it turned out quite well - adds some colour to an otherwise monochrome outfit.  Had I styled it myself, conservative-dresser me would've done the matchy-matchy same colour thing and it would've looked less interesting.

For a couple of days now, I've been putting milk in my tea (instead of drinking it asian style with nothing) and I think it's causing me to bloat up.  I felt very tummy conscious today and am not sure if it was the skirt I wore or the tea.

Although I actually feel heavier than a few days ago, the good news is, due to the tummy bloat I weighed myself and am now down to 155 and a half pounds!  Yay!

Grey, Green and Loafers

After yesterday's wildly hypnotic skirt, I wanted to project a more professional look.

The grey jacket is a new item in this outfit - it is from the Sears outlet $9 and today is the first time I've worn it.  I love the Sears outlet and am not sure what clothes shopping will be like without it.  Rumours are that Sears will be replaced by either Nordstrom or Macy's, both good stores but I doubt the prices will be as low.

The jacket is a nice light weight, with room to move and hides all manner of figure flaws.  Luckily Big J noticed that I hadn't removed the tags! 

The blouse has quite a V-neck and I had a horrible time trying to find a scarf which would go.  Finally went with a dollar store necklace and a scarf which had some of the same colours.  Terri of Rags against the Machine was writing about a buying mood and this blouse was one of several greenish items I got last summer.

  
The shoes are yet another pair from Spain from several years ago.  Loafers are a lot more popular in Europe than they are here.  You see them on both men and women, especially with jeans - although the younger set are wearing converse-style canvas shoes now.

btw: I've added a "How To" page to the blog - this is just a listing of useful (methinks)  fashion-related info that I've found while reading/surfing the interwebs.  There's not too much right now, but it will surely grow.

Necklace Overload

It is finally getting a touch warmer these days.  I wasn't sure about today's outfit - thinking it might be overly cool temperature wise.

The t-shirt is sleeveless, but has a built-in necklace.  It has a droopy sort of neckline too, which felt a bit bare so I decided to go overboard on the necklaces and added another one.

 
It still felt overly exposed, perhaps because of the long months with turtlenecks and scarves.  Here is a closer look:

The sweater is actually about 4 or 5 years old; it was only $8! from a liquidator (since closed).  I liked it for the knitty, crochet-y-ness and the hoodie:

And of course, the visibleness (for Patti's Visible Monday linkup) are both the stripey tights and the loose hair.  Also linking to Glamamom.