Sunday Boring and Cozy

I have a quick question for everyone: do my photos look overexposed/too light? I’ve been testing the blog on different computers and I know individual display brightness is a factor but in general I’m finding the photos to be significantly lighter than on my screen— a MacBook Pro with brightness kept standard (exactly in the center) whenever I edit photos.  Is Apple standard brightness just darker than other computer manufacturers or do most people keep their screen’s brighter than factory settings?  

Well anyway, before the holidays I did some experimentation with old and new things:  

I wore my grey moccasins for the first time!  I’ve had them for a while but never wore them as anything other than slippers.  I got them from Rue La La for $25 in August I think.  My friends all love theirs and I definitely like them but I think they could use a little more support.  I put some Dr. Scholls insoles inside for my high arches.  

I did some work with bokeh and my J.Crew zipper bracelets.  I wish it were a little smoother, but I definitely don’t expect an entry level lens to have near-perfectly rounded bokeh… no matter how good it is!  

And I did a little bit of self portraiture too.  Oh dear, I do look tired.  I’m always underslept during the holidays, too much to do!  

I don’t know what I’m wearing yet on New Year’s Eve, do you?  I think I’ll be having a rather quiet one for a change… consisting of me going to my friend’s and eating any and all available food (her mom’s been cooking)!  Whatever your plans, best wishes for the new year!  

With Christmas in the Background

Worn on 25 Dec 2010 – Christmas

It was almost a white Christmas!  This is the most casual thing I’ve worn for Christmas in years… well actually last year I might have worn black denim.  But usually I’m fond of dresses.  Although my ideal Christmas (and winter in general) outfit would be a long plaid skirt with maybe a white or red blouse.  I want to wear that sometime in my life, even if it might be a long time coming!  

Sorry for slow posting, and I’m also 200+ blog posts behind in reading.  If you haven’t heard a peep from me that’s why!  A less than ideal social schedule for blogging lately… :(

Anthropologie sweater, J.Crew blouse (underneather), J.Crew skirt, Assets tights, Sofft shoes.  

Oh, also, guess where— same location 25Dec and 26Dec…

Christmas Eve Dramatic in Alexander Wang

Worn on Friday 24 Dec 2010

Christmas Eve is always a casual, jeans kind of affair… for everyone but me, of course!  I usually wear a dress and some sky high heels or something.  I tried to keep it a little more casual this year by wearing boots.  I really wanted to wear my new dress and I thought really, why not?  You can do it!

I got this dress at the Alexander Wang sample sale last week, which wasn’t nearly as chaotic as expected.  Maybe the news about no shoes and bags made it less of a must-go affair.  There were some fabulously good deals though, especially on T!  I wanted more dresses but sadly all the others would have been impossible to take in in the chest due to the ruching/draping.  And let me tell you that they definitely would have had to be taken in at least two inches on me.  They were all so lovely too.  Sigh.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday full of your favorite things!  I’m hoping I’ll be able to get back, so many airports are closed/closing, but I do love a good blizzard!!

Alexander Wang dress, LOFT belt, Assets tights, Jeffrey Campbell boots.

Baby Owl Goes to the Gift Exchange

Worn on Tuesday 21 Dec 2010

I haven’t worn this dress since October, but I’ve been wanting to try it out during the winter.  It definitely looks more like a skirt with the cardigan buttoned up over it.  I just tucked in the shoulder bow ribbons and tied the waist ribbon over the cardigan.  

I wore this to work and then to the holiday party I was most looking forward to this year with my friends from high school, middle school, grade school, kindergarten, and pre-school.  Okay, I only went to pre-school with one of them but we’ve all been friends for a long time!  Our 2010 family photo, silly edition:

And yes, my friends are still making whoo whooooo noises at me, despite the fact that those really are quail feathers!  

Merry Christmas, everyone, happy holidays, I wish you good company and a good night!  

J.Crew cardigan, Leifsdottir dress, Assets tights, Frye boots.  

Serious Shopping

Worn on Saturday 18 Dec 2010

Last Saturday I went on a grand adventure!  I was doing some really serious shopping, so I dressed for comfort and ease.  In the winter if I know I’ll be really shopping my favorite thing to wear is a silk shirt (breathable and good at any temperature) and a light sweater for warmth.  And I always wear separates and a skirt if I’m going to a sample sale (Alexander Wang!!!) because I’ll be trying on clothes and a dress/pants aren’t that practical. 

I even put the cross-body strap on my bag so I could carry it hands- (arms-?)free if I needed to.  It always flips over in the front when it’s too heavy, I guess I had too much stuff in it! 

This shirt is actually an early Christmas present from my cousins, thank you, I love it!!! 

This is the little scarf I always have on my bag.  It’s an ancient (and by ancient I mean circa 2006/2007) Coach scarf that I used to wear in my hair all the time.  It’s been living on one bag or another for about the past year though. 

I also visited Le Labo in Nolita and got a freshly blended perfume!  I got a sample from Lucky Scent and adored it so I went to get a 1.7 oz from the New York store.  I would have loved to get photos of the inside of the store, very cool and old school apothecary style!  I leave you with a few photos of Vetiver 46:

More Uninspiration

Worn on Thursday 16 Dec 2010

Sorry for the blogging delays this week, you know, the holidays… Hopefully I’ll have another one tomorrow!  And I’ll use the queue and hopefully hopefully have a little bit more time over the weekend! 

So last week I was having a really uninspired week.  Because this jersey sweater thing is actually loungewear.  And I’ve almost but not quite worn this before.  I went through all of my sweaters due to the sudden actual winter weather… and ran out of everything that wasn’t a sleeveless blouse.  I had a pile of laundry the size of Mont Blanc, seriously.  Holiday stress probably zapping my creativity… that and the abscessed tooth that’s about to need a root canal (please I hope not, I have no dental insurance).  Going to the dentist today, I hope they can try to hold me over until January when I think I will have at least some dental insurance! 

I hope everyone is enjoying time out of the office, but if you’re in the office like me I wish you a slow enough day that you can write a blog post if you want (like me)!

LOFT lounge cotton jersey open cardigan thing, Anthropologie shirt, J. Crew skirt, Target belt, HUE tights, Frye boots. 

A Little Bit of Snow

Worn on Tuesday 14 Dec 2010

Oops, you cannot see much of the detail of I’m wearing at all, I forgot to account for the different lighting because of the snow!  I was a little distracted because my beloved tripod finally completely died, it’s been half-broken for around five years.  A lot of my photos from the past week have been serious fails.  But I ordered a replacement and it just arrived yesterday, I haven’t even had a chance to use it yet.  

I’m actually pleased with these photos, though!  They were taken with my newest lens, an early Christmas gift from my cousin.  It’s the entry level Canon 35mm but it is fantastic.  More useful than my 50mm and so much better than the kit telephoto!  Serious love.  

Francesca’s Collections tee shirt open cardigan thing, J.Crew shirt (you can see the sequins a little bit at least), BDG/Urban Outfitters skirt, Assets by Sara Blakely tights, Arturo Chiang boots.  

I’ll Be There With Bells On (Literally)

Fashion Beauty Friend Friday by ModlyChic this week is about holiday party attire!  I bought two sweaters and a dress this month.  The dress is a present to myself, and I’ll probably wear it Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  I might even wrap it for myself to open too, I’m silly like that!  
 
1. Which holiday party are you looking forward to attending this year?  The best party every year for me is also the smallest and probably the most casual.  I know, a bit shocking.  I am really looking forward to the Secret Santa party my friends from high school have every year.  I think we’ve been having it since sometime during middle school!  It’s always girls only but this year we’re doing something different and having an actual dinner (pot-luck style, and I’m looking for a wheat-free, vegetarian, lactose-free recipe— if you have any of those let me know).  I guess now that we’re into our twenties some crazy people go to sleep and get up for work the next day.  Personally I’d just skip the sleep, but I’m a half-crazed insomniac all the time.  

2. What is your go-to holiday party outfit?  I actually… don’t have one.  What usually happens is that I try to plan something but it doesn’t work and I end up switching a lot of it last minute!  I think I was actually better at holiday dressing when I was under the age of five… 
 
I tend to wear pajamas dresses festive seasonal attire as I check out the latest technological gadgets… 

 

and almost always black…

 
 
and red!  Especially red accessories! 


3. Do you go dressed in something that would be impractical to wear at any other time of the year?  Do I ever dress practically?  :)  I don’t wear Christmas sweaters, although I had and loved bell earrings when I was younger.  I don’t know what happened to them now, I should definitely comb through my jewelry boxes!  

This is what I wore on Christmas Eve last year

Rodarte for Target before I was seriously taking photos of myself.  It’s not impractical, but honestly it’s a bit boring.  Although it could have just been me, I was majorly ill last year :(

4. If you are going to a house-party what gift will you bring to the host/hostess?  Alcohol.  Santa Margherita, Bombay Sapphire, or something else like that.  And gifts for the children (if there are any).  Maybe local gourmet chocolates or candies, but definitely nothing more if it’s catered or a dinner party.  

(a Merry Christmoose mimosa from last year)

5. If you could buy only one trendy piece to update your holiday party wardrobe, what would you get this year?  I am really tempted to buy this J.Crew belt, it’s on extreme sale right now.  I know, it’s totally insane but I feel like it would actually be versatile.  Wear with a dress, a tee, over a jacket…  it could totally transform an outfit!  

I desperately wanted a silver snakeskin Katherine Kwei bag too, it’s much too expensive now though.  I really regret not getting it but I have to give other people presents, not just myself! 

Last Week

Worn on 9 Dec 2010

It didn’t look too much like December last week although it was certainly cold and windy enough!  Sunny, windy days are actually my favorite although standing around outside without outwear is definitely not.  Luckily I just bought two wool sweaters!

This is one of my new J.Crew sweaters from the 30% off sale, I think it was $30 down from $88?  If there’s anything you’ve been eyeing from J.Crew they currently have extra 30% off sale (it’s the last day) and a ton of sweaters are priced in the $30-50 range!  I think I now own five winter weight sweaters, so I’ll actually be weather-appropriately attired this winter!  Now I guess I just need to work on long-sleeved shirts and better tights! 

J.Crew sweater, shirt, belt; LOFT skirt; HUE tights; Deena & Ozzy (Urban Outfitters) shoes. 

P.S. I have no idea what happened to that fake deer’s head… it looks kind of creepy now. 

Decisions Decisions…

Worn on Monday 6 Dec 2010

So I’ve come to a decision about Tumblr.  I’m moving the style blog off it as soon as I can.  If you stalk my twitter, then you know that I’m getting very serious about WordPress and am alternating between elated and despairing— I am not too good at web page design.  

The good news is that I will be keeping alexelizabeth.tumblr.com as a personal blog!  I love Tumblr but it just has too many issues for me to keep hosting the style blog, this blog is on my résumé.  Also, I don’t think I’ll have the WordPress up until at least January because I may try to create my own theme (yeah we’ll see how that turns out, I have a bad enough time with über simple Tumblr).  

On to what I am wearing: this is a very good example of what I put on when I’m not feeling very imaginative.  And when I’ll be going to a casual dinner party at my friend’s new apartment later.  I don’t really know what I was doing with that necklace, but that’s okay, I’ll consider this look an experiment in black + bold color dressing!  

Francesca’s Collections open cardigan, camisole… I think Victoria’s Secret?, Forever 21 necklace, Assets tights (not the chevron ones but still decently opaque!), Sofft shoes.