How I wore it: zebra and camel

So for those of you following at home and breathlessly wondering how my outdoor runs are going, today I learned that I can go running comfortably in 25-degree weather. Thanks, hard core running gear!

After a tough day of "working" on my dissertation intro (which is weirdly coming to a close...), I left the house under the flimsiest of excuses. I had a $15-off coupon at Lord and Taylors and I wanted to use it. Plus, I needed a new lipstick. What better reason could there be to put on a skirt, go into the city, run my errands, and meet my husband to go grab dinner? Sure, I was wildly overdressed for a casual dinner at Wagamama's, but it felt nice to get out of pajama pants. I wanted to wear black with a flash of white and tobacco leather. I planned to belt the whole shebang with a tobacco belt, too, but it didn't end up working:

Isn't my kitty SMALL?! Awww...

It's okay. I liked the way it looked, even without the belt. My husband and I have both been very homesick for Greece (is it still homesickness when it refers to your spiritual home and not your hometown?), so I definitely wanted to wear the boots I got for Christmas in Athens exactly two years ago. [NINE DAYS TILL FRYE!] Also, wanna hear about the long black skirt I'm wearing? Okay, here you go:

I've had that skirt for fifteen years. FIFTEEN. When I was fourteen and a freshman in high school, my choir director ordered us to get a long black skirt for concerts (yes, I was in a serious choir in high school, and no, we weren't like 'Glee': we performed world premiers and went on tour.). Unfortunately, my mom was out of town, dealing with her own mother's death in Buenos Aires, so it was up to my dad and me to go shopping for a long black skirt. We tried a bunch of stores one weekend, including Express, but we couldn't find anything plain. We ended up finding this skirt (the brand is Westport Ltd.?) in a Dress Barn and I've had it ever since. It was a major staple in my wardrobe during my formative years. I didn't only wear it to choir concerts; in the summers, I'd pair it with Birkenstocks, my mom's 70s polyester shirts, and lots of silver jewelry (why, yes, I was a major hippie wannabe at 15 - why do you ask?). I took it to college and wore it a bunch, but I haven't really used it in ten years or so. Well, this summer I decided to bring it home from NYC and I'm glad I did. It was kind of awesome to wear it again. 

WHY didn't I have it last year?!

Back to the present, the reason why I wanted to use my Lord and Taylor coupon was because I wanted to stock up on more HUE leggings. I definitely wanted more corduroy ones because they're super warm and toasty. And ... I decided to bite the bullet and buy jeggings (a word I HATE, even more than "booties"). This is what I bought:

While I kind of hate myself for buying a product that's called "Jeanz," I'm pretty excited for these new leggings. While part of me also hates myself for buying two pairs of leggings that are practically the same color, the *ugh* jeggings will be super-versatile and a good replacement for my ripped up blue skinny jeans (that were regretfully left behind in a dumpster in Athens). Also, my favorite grey jeans are slowly dying as we speak, so ... well, we'll see how these guys do as jeans replacements. As for the teal corduroy leggings? I just love this color, as you can probably guess. I used to have an awesome pair of teal bellbottoms and I would love to own pants in that color again. How cute would they look with all my boots? ALL OF THEM?!

I also bought a new lipstick today. For a little over a year, I've been pretty loyally consistent with my Urban Decay nude lipstick, but it was down to a mangled stump and I wanted a super-nude matte color this time. I asked a nice lady in Sephora for advice, and - bamboozled by her gushing enthusiasm over my eyeliner application - bought a nude lipstick by Make Up Forever. The color is called Matte Flesh, I think; I rather like the results:

Oh, what? You can't see any color on my lips? GOOD. That's the point. The lipstick is my lip color, just a little more. 

So there you have it: old skirt, new leggings, new lipstick. Wow. What a productive day. 

Good night!

Mm, who's that girl?

Black top: H&M, remixed

White t-shirt (underneath): H&M, remixed

Black skirt: Westport Ltd., by way of Dress Barn in, um, 1996? 

Boots: Gift from my husband from a shoe store on Ermou Street in Athens, remixed