The 4th Annual Wardrobe Challenge! Day 3 - Wednesday WW Group

So as I mentioned yesterday, today is probably the last day for my Wed group. I had connected with a few of them over the past several weeks, and I was happy to see them all there today - I gave out stickers and I even got a book from one of the women who is a writer (shout out to Kathryn!). I'll miss them.

Added in two new pieces to the mix: the scarf and the dress: My gorgeous red dress has the leopard blouse layered under it - I flipped the cuffs of the dress to accentuate the blouse's cuffs. It's chilly today, so I also have a slip on (it's peeking out from the hem).

I wore brown patterned tights with this to bring out the brown in the leopard, and see what's going on at the waist there?

It's my necklace and scarf! Am I not the cleverest thing? I twisted the necklace so that there was a loop at each end, then threaded the long scarf on each end and tied it in a bow around my waist.

Check it out:

This is called a "snake necklace" for those of you who are interested - Google it, there are lots out there.

I love pieces that can do double (or triple or quadruple!) duty, whether as accessories or clothing items. That's why I enjoy doing this challenge - it really makes me take a hard look at my wardrobe to make sure the pieces are right for me.

It's been a while since Inigo made an appearance.

He likes to sit on my suitcase (it's what I carry my scale and files in for WW meetings) while I work on the computer.

Here are the pieces in this outfit (info on them here):

The 4th Annual Wardrobe Challenge! Day 2 - Tuesday WW Group

And it's all new stuff today! The only repeat is the pair of earrings. See why I had to have this jacket? Good golly, I do love embellishment and embroidery.

The wide elastic belt was awesome for holding the jacket in place - it even gave the hem of the jacket a bit of a peplum, which looked cute.I like how the bendy necklace looks - it's fun to mold into different looks (I'll be wearing it differently tomorrow). This is my second wearing of the skirt - it was very comfy and easy to walk to town and back in. No rain today!

Technically, the purple cami I'm wearing under this isn't underwear, but at this time of year I do wear them with pretty much everything. Is that cheating? Hee!

Check out the jacket:
There are so many awesome colours in this - I know this is going to be a staple for me (I'm thinking my orange tweed skirt).

And there's Day 2! Tomorrow, I have the last day of my other WW At Work series (they don't have enough people to keep it going, sadly).

Here are the pieces in this outfit(info on them here):

The 4th Annual Wardrobe Challenge! Day 1 - Super Casual

For my first day, a pretty casual outfit:
I didn't have much to do today, just some prep work for my meeting tomorrow, and then walked down to a consignment store I don't go to that often. From there, I went to get my hair cut.

Oh, and duh, Happy Valentine's Day! L and I had a nice dinner (salad, steak, mashed potatoes with goat cheese, roasted veggies, then mini cheesecakes with strawberries for dessert), and watched a romantic comedy. Quiet, but nice.

Anyway, a simple outfit - these are the pieces again (info on them here), plus the necklace and earrings:

I got soaked walking home from the hairdresser, so these are all drying out. I guess I will have to wear all new things tomorrow!

The 4th Annual Wardrobe Challenge! Introducing the Pieces

I'm participating in Jane's Fourth Annual Wardrobe Challenge (you can check out the previous challenge wardrobes that I did in the links on the sidebar). What I love about her challenges is the simplicity: it's only for a short duration (5 days), and there's only a small amount of clothing and accessories to play with, so it really stretches my creative muscle.

The rules: 10 items of clothing (including shoes) and 5 accessories. Underwear, hosiery and socks don't count. I also don't count my outerwear (coat, gloves, scarf) or my purse.

Here we go! The clothing and shoes: 1. Dress (Eric Alexandre). My burgundy sweater dress (last seen here). I like having at least one dress in the challenge, for either wearing plain or layering tops under or over. You can also layer skirts over a dress. That's at least four looks right there!

Tops: 2. Mustard button-down (Jacob, consignment). I picked this up recently for $22, and have never worn it. Great for layering (under or over) or wearing on its own.

I like having at least 2 stand-alone tops (otherwise you get bored pretty quickly of the same top, not to mention it could get stinky).

3. Leopard sheer blouse (Planet, consignment). Last seen here. A patterned shirt adds a bit of oomph - besides, leopard is neutral, right? I'm counting camisoles as underwear for the purposes of this challenge, so that I'm not showing off my underwear and boobage when I wear this.

Cover-ups/jackets:

4. Drapey cardigan (KensieGirl). Last seen here (scroll down past the travel pics). Because I'm not working, aside from my few WW meetings, I wanted something more casual to throw on over top of outfits, both to give them a finished look and for warmth.

I also picked a more structured jacket:

5. Jacket (Le Chateau, consignment). This is new-to-me. I stalked this when it was in Le Chateau a few years go, but it was $99 and that's just too much for a jacket, no matter how much I love the black velvet and amazing embroidery.

When I saw this in a consignment store a few weeks ago, I had to have it! I got it for $40 (I asked for a discount because I'm a regular customer - it was marked at $50).

Borderline item:

6. Cape/skirt (Smoking Lily, consignment). First seen here. I always try to pick an item that I can wear in an unusual way - I've worn this once as a skirt, and I plan to wear it as a cape during the challenge as well!

Bottoms:

7. Suede-finish mid-length skirt (Precis Petite, thrifted). First seen here. This skirt is a smidge big on me, which means it will layer well over the dress (if I decide to do that), but will also work well on its own with one or both of the tops.

I have only done pants once before in the Wardrobe Challenge, but due to my non-office situation, I am doing a pair this time:

8. Jeans (Esprit). I wear jeans pretty frequently around the house and for casual wear. I picked this pair because a) they are clean (ha!) and b) they're a slim fit, and can be worn tucked into boots. These will be worn on days when I'm not at a WW meeting.

Shoes:

9. Turquoise kitten heels (Le Chateau, consignment). These are from the same shopping expedition as the mustard shirt above - they were $18 (not leather, but feel awesome on). I am going with practical heels this time around, as I do a lot of walking in my shoes these days, as well as standing for meetings.

The weather is mercurial right now so I went practical for my last pair:

10. Boots (Aldo, consignment). My good ol' riding boots. These are wearable for long walks, if need be, and they're warm!

Accessories:

1. Bendy necklace (gift from Elaine). This can be worn tons of ways, both as a necklace and as a bracelet. I like my accessories to do multiple duty.
2. Chain necklace (gift from Tina). A good statement piece to add some zing to plain(er) outfits.
3. Stud earrings (Aldo Accessories). Simple studs that will go with everything.
4. Brown elastic belt (Plum). This is new - it was $4.
5. Black satin scarf (from an old skirt I no longer have). I used this in the 2nd Wardrobe Challenge as well - it can be worn in the hair, as a belt and as a scarf.

Today's outfit - coming up later on!

Oy, What a Weekend!

I am exhausted. I need another weekend!

I got up at 6am and worked for 4 hours at the WW centre. I really wanted to wear this dress I picked up at Plum the other day:
Sorry, it's a little blurry, I am not used to being up that early! But isn't that dress killer?

But if only I could go back to bed:

I love the pockets! It was $25, too - total score. That's just a plain black blouse I'm wearing under it (last seen here).

After I worked 4 hours, I bussed home, napped for an hour, then bussed back to the centre for day 1 of the Open House (it was dead), which lasted 3 hours.

The stuff:

Low heels for being on my feet the whole day. I wore the zipper rose near one of the big black buttons.

Dress (Plum), belt (Plum), zipper rose (Victoria & Albert Museum, London), shoes (Reaction Kenneth Cole, gift from Cat).

L picked me up from work and we hurriedly dressed in our finery and walked (in the rain) to the Thai restaurant for dinner. I spotted this dress hiding in my closet and wanted to wear it:

I've only worn it once before (here), and tried it with the red underslip (picture of it here) as that seemed appropriate for a Valentine's "Cheesecake Burlesque."

I think it's time to put the dress up for grabs - although I like it, I have other dresses I like more and wear more.

Thank you to my ex-sister-in-law for the tickets! Awesome Christmas gift! I love seeing women of all shapes and sizes loving their bodies and putting on a good show. I was briefly tempted by the sequined pasties, but...no.

I wore this little velvet jacket over it for a bit of extra texture and warmth:

Another sample from Plum, and a bargain at $12. And yes, those are my fabulous Fluevogs (last seen here, with details here). Threw on my pearl studs and wrapped a string of pearls around my wrist.

Dress (Raindrops), slip (Suzette, consignment), jacket (Plum), shoes ("Sencha Teapot" Fluevog), pearl necklace (The Bay, 80s), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

Today, I was back at the centre for day 2 of the Open House (also dead):

I went with a V-Day theme, all girly. Only my second wearing of this pretty skirt (last seen here), but I know it'll get more wear in cooler weather.

This cardi is also going into the give-away pile, as it's got angora in it, and that stuff practically manufactures fuzz-worms in my armpits and along my boobs. I hate that! I spent the day picking them off me. Besides, it's been over a year since I wore it.

I picked up this awesome short brown trench at Plum:

Not a great picture of it, but I could only get one shot before I had to run for the bus! It was $45.

Trench (Plum), cardigan (The Limited, thrifted), top (Planet), skirt (Kenzie, consignment), shoes (Predictions, consignment), necklace (consignment), earrings (Aldo Accessories).

Tomorrow is the start of the Fourth Annual Wardrobe Challenge! I am so excited, as I have another busy week ahead - this is going to be fun!

Red Friday With Stripes

Another Red Friday brings...orange!
The orange cardi is new - Plum got in a whole bunch of samples, marked them all down and this rich orange caught my eye (it was $20). This will look great with tons of my patterned skirts.

This skirt was last worn here (scroll down) - I quite like it with the orange.

I wore my plain ol' flat black boots because I had to do a lot of walking today. My mom is getting her cataracts operated on (first eye next week!), so we walked to the doctor's office today, then walked to the mall for lunch (yummy Thai, thanks, Mom!) and the walk-in clinic, then back to her place. A lovely afternoon!

The stuff:

Kept it simple with just a necklace and some of my charms.

Cardigan (Press), skirt (MNG, consignment), belt (Bianca Nygard), boots (Aldo, consignment).

I stopped at Dots on the way home - they had an extra 30% off on all the final markdowns! I have been on the lookout for some red pants for ages and found these tomato red ones...for $7!

My hang-out-at-home outfit for this evening. I have a really busy weekend, so I'm looking forward to hanging with L.

Sweater (Esprit), cami (Mexx), jeans (mystery, no labels), belt (Denver Hays, consignment).

When in Leopard

Today, I worked downtown at another WW meeting - I was feeling a bit down on my other meetings and things in general this week (hormonal), and the ladies who work there gave me hugs, so I felt better. I also find that interacting with people and chatting with them perks me up, although, oddly, by nature I'm much more solitary. It's like I have to recharge my "social batteries."

Leopard also puts a little spring in my step:
This is all remixed, nothing new. I last wore the skirt here, and I marvelled again this time at how nice and plushy.

Tossed on my bright green cardi (last seen here, scroll down) and a belt and voila, easy outfit.

Of couse, when in leopard one must emulate Wendy:
Ooh, Wendy's pose makes my ankles look nice.

The stuff:

Shoes I've had for so long that I can't remember what brand they are (the label is completely worn off).

I find I'm wearing a lot less accessories since I've been out of work. I wear less bracelets for the WW meetings (they're distracting). My shoes are a lot more practical as well. Ah, well, all the more reason to go over the top a bit when I go out!

Speaking of...I'm going out for dinner and to a burlesque with my sweetie this weekend. Are you doing anything special for V-Day?

Cardigan (Kersh), cami (Esprit), belt (Plum), skirt (S & D, thrifted), shoes (unknown), earrings (gift from L).

Wednesday WW Group - A Bit of Hepburn

Finally got around to wearing these awesome high-waisted pants that I bought at the Plum clearance:
I was inspired by Sal's wonderful black pants yesterday. Mine are a very dark brown crepe and were only $35 (regular $89). I love the vintage-y Katherine Hepburn vibe of wide trousers, don't you?

I played that up with the (actual) vintage blouse that I've worn several times - the last time was here, when I actually wore the exact same top, jacket, belt and knee-highs. Gee, ya think I like this combo?

My toenails are in their winter state of nakedity so I had to wear the knee-highs. They smell funny (the knee-highs, not my toes), like perfume-y. It's weird, the smell hasn't washed out - it's like they were made to smell that way. Since I wear no fragrance at all, it's disconcerting to have scent wafting up to me from my feet.

Since it's still pretty mild out, I just wore my silk tweed jacket as my outerwear:

With my faur fur-trimmed gloves, of course.

The stuff:

Awesome shoes - had those for about 4 years now. Check out the great vintage pattern on the blouse. It reminds me of curtains my grandmother had in her craft room when I was a kid.

A close-up of the shiny bits:

I really like that necklace - very swoopy and swirly. I wore yellow earrings to go with the stones in it (see them? they blend in).

Oh, and if you love bright colours like I do, please go see how Kristen has styled her bright yellow sweater "a la Sheila". Love it!

Blouse (vintage, thrifted), pants (Tobias), shoes (Unlisted), belt and earrings (Plum), necklace (Melanie Lynne), jacket (Precis Petites), gloves (Parkhurst).