The Sunshine Award

Mia of Reading in Skirts was kind enough to give me the Sunshine Award this week! If you have a minute, read through her delightfully witty answers to the ten questions posed by Gracey (Fashion for Giants).

The rules for the award are:

1. Include the award logo in a post and/or on your blog sidebar.
2. Link to the blogger who nominated you.
3. Answer 10 questions about yourself.
4. Nominate 10 other fabulous bloggers and ask them 10 questions.
5. Link to your nominees in your post and let them know about the reward.

Here are my responses to the ten questions Mia asked:

1. Are you left- or right-handed? (Or ambidextrous?)
I am definitely right-handed! Though I can spin (or used to be able to) both directions in figure skating.

2. What was the last thing you drew or doodled?
A star!

3. What’s the best present you ever received?
The ease at which I can be myself today, from the women who came before me.

 Image courtesy of Master isolated images,FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

4. What’s the best present you ever gave?
I think it would have to be the vintage hand-painted map of Turkey to someone who had recently been there. That was one of my more clever gifts.

5. What words do you have difficulty spelling no matter how many times you look them up?
I actually… can’t think of any right now. But I definitely have some because I just had to do this the other day.

6. When you’re putting on shoes and socks, do you do sock-shoe-sock-shoe or sock-sock-shoe-shoe?
Sock-sock-shoe-shoe!

7. Did your parents make things up about the world when you were a kid? What’s the best/worst thing they told you?
I’m pretty sure they let me believe unicorns were real for an embarrassingly long time.

 Image courtesy of Victor Habbick, FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

8. What’s your favorite punctuation mark?
Semicolon! I find it to be underused.

9. What’s your favorite single-use kitchen implement (or other single-use household implement, if you don’t spend much time in the kitchen)?
Would have to be the 7″ santoku. It chops through practically everything, including chicken bones.

10. What’s your favorite “unsolved event,” mysterious creature/person, or otherwise creepy weird thing that hasn’t been figured out by modern man? (I find the Dyatlov Pass incident fascinating.)
Hogwarts is real, for serious. I’m telling you, I’m still waiting for my letter (it’s about fourteen years late).

Image courtesy of MichaelVough Photography by Michael Tan, Flickr.

I am giving the Sunshine Award to:

A Flattering Tale
Chic on the Cheap
Dash Dot Dotty
dela chic
I Have a Degree in This!
Re-Mix-Her
TfDiaries
The Blog of Worldly Delights
Silvergirl
star-crossed smile

The Sunshine Award has been very popular lately, so if you already received it (or just don’t like questions) don’t worry about answering! Though I hope you’ll at least answer question #1 so we can start a my-Hogwarts-letter-is-missing support group.

My ten questions are:

1. Gryffindor or Slytherin?

2. Cupcakes or cookies?

3. Gold or silver?

4. Dresses or pants?

5. Lace or studs?

6. J.Crew or Zara?

7. Wedges or heels?

8. Google or Bing?

9. Eggs Benedict or Belgian waffles?

10. Downton Abbey or The Walking Dead?

Under the Yellow Tree

November 4, 2011




This tree has since dropped every single one of these pretty yellow leaves. I was hoping they’d hang on for longer, but I think the snowstorm wasn’t too kind to the leaves this year.

The changing seasons always remind me of wabi-sabi (the fleetingness of all things). Fall is the only season I’ve never seen in Japan and I’d love to go and stay for the entire season. I imagine it’s even more beautiful than winter and spring. All the red maple trees must look amazing.

Anthropologie sweater, MM Couture dress, MIA boots, Coach bag (vintage), Talbots scarf, tree necklace (grandmother’s).

The Other Black Dress





This is my original black jersey Alexander Wang dress from the F/W 2010 collection. I hugely regret not buying more of this collection. I don’t know what I was thinking. I clearly was not because I’m still trying to track down pieces of that collection.

I actually like this dress better than my other one, but I wear it less. This one always seemed a little bit fancier to me. I love the built-in scarf– so many ways to wear it, and it’s also just fun to play with. This is the first time I’ve worn something over this dress. It turned out much better than I thought it would, so I’ll have to style it again with one of my other black sweater things.

Francesca’s Collections open cardigan, Alexander Wang dress, MIA boots (DSW.com).

Other ways I’ve worn this dress:

The Cove



Well look what I found during my recent journeys around New York.



All this time, and I had no idea Stuyvesant Cove Park was such a nice place to go.

There are even some well-cared for gardens. Berries on the bushes are one of the only visible signs that it’s fall in New York.

And there’s even a tiny beach. I would have gone down, but I don’t think I would have been able to get back up. One must leap the fence.

Gap blazer, H&M dress, LOFT belt, MIA (DSW.com) shoes, Longchamp bag.

A New Cardigan

October 17, 2011




If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I pretty much don’t own any seasonally appropriate clothing for winter. I have like two actual knit sweaters.

So when I saw this J.Crew Jackie cardigan at Cure Thrift Shop I bought it right away ($16 vs $62 at J.Crew). For something different, I decided to tie the ends together… like I’ve done with everything else lately. Worked well over a high waisted skirt– better proportions for a petite.

J.Crew cardigan (thrifted, Cure Thrift Shop), ZARA shirt, Theory skirt (consignment, Roundabout, SoHo), MIA ankle boots (DSW.com), ancient falling apart Longchamp bag.

Flowers for Fall

October 7, 2011



Sorry for going dark here since Monday. I feel like every electronic thing I own has broken or needed repairs lately. Just got a new battery for my Mac today, thankfully it’s still under warranty. I updated Aperture 3 (my image editing software) and it doesn’t work very well any more so my photos have been languishing on the hard drive. Also, if you follow me on Twitter you know that something’s up with my iPhone.

Is Mercury in retrograde right now? For serious, I don’t know what is going on.

Wearing my new-to-me Velvet wrap (swapped with Lydia), Free People dress, MIA ankle boots, Foley + Corinna bag, and ken + dana ring.

How To Take Nonchalant Outfit Photos


Last week, Mia told me she likes my facing-away from the camera photos. So this week I give you Three Easy Poses for Not Facing the Camera:

(1) Your basic stand there and ponder the shrubbery. Resist the urge to turn around! Actually ponder the shrubbery if it helps. And remember to relax and drop your shoulders.

(2) The angle. Position yourself at a slight angle with one shoulder closer to the camera. Good for close up photos of backs of dresses, shirts, etc. and of handbags.

(3) The sideways walking shot with a twist– instead of looking at the camera look down or look over the shoulder farthest from the camera. Don’t actually walk anywhere or your image may be out of focus. Just pretend.

If you try a pose from my silly little guide let me know!

I’m wearing my T by Alexander Wang jacket from the sample sale, LOFT belt, I forget who makes the dress, Coach bag (vintage), and MIA ankle boots (DSW.com).