Trinkets and Travel

As I may have mentioned a few times in the past, I turned 30 last weekend. When my husband and I returned back to Sparta after our vacation in Foinikounta, my mother-in-law had a lovely and thoughtful birthday gift waiting for me:

A stack of silver bangles held together at one part! I don't talk about this much, but I looooooooove me some bangles. When I spent my summer in India in 2004, I totally came home with lotsa bangles, although I stopped wearing them because they made so much noise. I had a bunch of colleagues at my first job who had gone on a trip to Morocco and they'd all bought awesome silver bangles and I was so jealous... So I'm pretty psyched about this. I've already worn the stack once and they were nowhere near as jangly as I feared, so I will be good to go with this. I don't love that they have the big "Just Cavalli" logo, but no one can really see it when it's on, anyway (as it dangles on the bottom). 

As anyone who has ever read this blog knows, I really love jewelry. In fact, I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake in highlighting my love for boots over jewelry. Because I have loved jewelry since I was sentient. It's all my dad's fault, bringing me back lapis lazuli stuff from Chile every time he went home... Anyway, I do love jewelry. And I love wearing a variety of it. And I also love travel. How do I combine these two loves without hideously combining them? 

In the past, I used to shuck everything into a little leather case no doubt intended for some other use and would inevitably spend at least one morning laboriously undoing the knots in two necklaces that had snarled together. But that hasn't happened in well over a year cuz of this guy! 

Style Nation, meet my travel jewelry case. I saw it in a J. Crew catalogue last school year (does anyone else feel really wistful when they read a J. Crew catalogue? Everyone looks so fresh-faced and preppy!) and as soon as I had some time to kill while visiting home, I moseyed on over to my local store and bought my own. People, it has been a lifesaver. Okay, I'm exaggerating: a trip/jewelry saver, at LEAST. It is full of nooks and crannies and three different zippered compartments and it really fits everything I would want, even for a long trip like this one. I organize it differently each time and depending on what jewelry I'm packing (which, of course, depends on what clothes I'm packing, duh). 

On this trip, the top compartment (i.e., the one all the way to the left in the above picture) has my necklaces/pendants. These either have big, chunky pendants that discourage their tangling together or chains with links that make untangling easy. I've had a few tangling incidents this summer, and they were all resolved in a few seconds without the use of anything other than my own hands (I'm weirdly good at untangling delicate jewelry - if all else fails, I'll even use a safety pin/unbent paper clip; again, I've been doing this for a long time). Below, you see my chunky turquoise and chunky red seashell necklaces:

Next up, we have my two favorite bits: the strips for (stud) earrings and rings, respectively:

I love these features. Even long, dangly earrings have space to fit. And my rings are doing just fine, hanging out on their own little strip, just sliding around merrily all day long.

The next compartment houses my non-stud earrings (and the gold chain I've had since childhood which is currently holding my mom's baptism medallion, because I would be more nervous if that tangled with anything else: it's quite delicate, hence it hanging out with non-threatening earrings):

Lastly, in the final compartment, I have my carnelian jewelry set. Since it's only housing one necklace and two earrings, it's well-nigh impossible to have tangling issues, even though the many chains and stones and danglies on this set are prone to wrap around each other; but putting the whole set together in isolation has worked a charm so far:

Isn't that fun? The saleslady at J. Crew, a woman from Sweden, said that she used the same case to travel to and from home. And I love my own. I love that it has so much space and is so delicate that you feel your jewelry is super-safe in there (priorities, right, people?). I also love that - since it does have so much space for trinkets - I can always shop for more and fit them in without worrying about loading up my suitcase! In the end, the whole thing folds up to this:

It's about seven inches long and 2.5/3 inches wide. And lightweight enough to toss into your carry-on without worrying about anyone stealing it from your checked luggage - or maybe that's just me. 

Anyway, I've been wanting to feature this lovely little travel case for over a year now and I'm glad I finally was motivated enough to do so. Do y'all travel with a bunch of jewelry? Do you have a fun way to pack it? 

Note: I was no way asked/compensated by J. Crew to write this post. I friggin' love this product and if they want to repay me in gloriously preppy pastel chinos and cute skirts, I would...really like it. But, seriously. I just really like this travel case and it happens to be from that store: that's all there is to it. 

Working Girl

source

As some of you may remember, when I first started blogging (in January of 2010), I was working in an environment where the dress code was rather, uh, extreme in its conservatism, especially for women. We had to wear (every day): a dress/skirt; stockings/tights/hose; and close-toed shoes (no boots). While I did build up a pretty awesome collection of separates and cute skirts/dresses (and an abiding hatred for panty-hose and a greater love for their more opaque cousins, tights), I sometimes really wanted to wear pants and boots. Because I live in New England. And I had to go to work in the winter. 

The day that I interviewed for the job that I will be starting this year, I was informed that the school had no dress code. In fact, one of the male teachers boasted that on sunny, warm days, he often wore shorts, sandals, and a Red Sox tee to work. So you could say that it's kind of the, um, opposite extreme of my last working environment, don't you think? 

When I got the job, I started thinking about what I personally would wear to work day in and day out. I do tend to wear skirts and dresses a lot when feeling "professional" (especially that the bad taste of the other place is finally out of my mouth), so I was pretty sure I'd mostly be going in that direction, but with the added pizzazz of my awesome (if I do say so myself) boot collection. Not to mention the relief of wearing pants/jeans whenever I wanted. I figured out these personal rules for myself:

• Each element of the outfit must be suitable for going to work: i.e., nothing torn/dirty/booby/obviously inappropriate, etc. Pants/shirts/dresses/skirts/jeans/etc. that fit into these categories are A-OK, although I'm probably not gonna wear my Lady Gaga racerback tank tunic to work. Although I'd probably be allowed.
• No leggings as bottoms (within this I count jeggings and their corduroy counterparts): I don't want to dress like my students. As you know, I always wear leggings with butt-covering tops/tunics and usually with boots, so it's not like I'm exposing that much to the world, but I think that for my own standards, it's too casual for a teacher at a school. Especially since some people sometimes assume that I'm a student IN high school. 
• [I will, however, consider maybe wearing my corduroy leggings with tall boots (and a long sweater) on days that it's ridiculously cold and humankind should really not be out on the streets, let alone on a school campus. Oh, and wearing normal leggings under a dress/skirt for warmth is okay: then they're like tights]
• Shorts are right out. I don't wear 'em in the summer (when I do, they're my husband's) and I don't think I'm ready to teach the subjunctive while rocking my winter shorts over boots over thigh-highs over tights. Save it for the weekend, Chalkdust. 

Aaaaaaaaaand that's pretty much it. As you can see, it's not an exhaustive list (and let me again emphasize that these are my own rules for my own wardrobe and I would never judge someone else who feels comfortable wearing this to work). I was pretty satisfied with these fluid guidelines, though, and felt comfortable enough to make it through a whole year of teaching in all sorts of cracked-out Massachusetts weather.

Then I found out I was pregnant. And, judging by how my belly grew this week alone (seriously, between Wednesday and Thursday, I turned into another person), I'm gonna be pretty big by the time school starts in September and a behemoth by the time winter break rolls around (baby's due in early-mid January). And suddenly some of my rules seem tougher to maintain because I'm not sure how much leeway my current wardrobe has. Granted, I'm sure many of these problems will be solved once I buy some more maternity clothes because I literally own: two tank tops (one of which I hate and is staying in Greece), a dress, and a pair of jeans (win!), not to mention a bag of my sister-in-law's (and her sister-in-law's) maternity hand-me-downs. So I know I need a few more versatile pieces and I'll feel a little less nervous about going out and about in the (professional) world. Also, I love me some loose jersey dresses, so I'm sure many of those will serve me well throughout the first half of the school year. 

But what about some of my other rules, specifically with leggings? Won't those, at some point, be the most comfortable pants I own that I can still pull on? If I wear a long-ass sweater/tunic/shortened dress and some cute boots, won't they just look like really thick, opaque tights? Will I have to rethink my rules?

Style Nation, here's where I'd love it if you weighed in. What say you to my sudden quandary? Can I wear leggings as pants (with all my usual stipulations of butt-coverage) to work at an artsy high school? Do you have any other suggestions for a lady whose body will be changing constantly as she heads on to work? Have you been pregnant and worked while doing so and have some tips? Do you have strong opinions about professional wardrobes and will set fire to your retinas if I dare break those rules? I'd LOVE to hear from you! Lemme have it! 

*blink, blink*

People, so much has happened in the nine? Eight? Many. Days since I last posted. Sal cut her hair (dammit, Sal! I was so ready to grow it out again and now you've filled me with doubt), Kelly is back (yay!), and S had her baby (awww!). And I haven't even caught up on all of the Style Nation happenings. Whew. Thank goodness I'm bored at leisure here in Sparta and have all day to dick around on the internet if I want. Between marathoning 'Mad Men' because my husband and I finally discovered it, starting from season 1 episode 1 and WHY didn't we do this EARLIER?!

Whew. Okay. Sorry. Heat wave. In the meantime, while people were cutting their hair, and emerging again, and having babies, I spent almost a week here:

Try to control your pity for me, people. I know it's easy to feel sorry for me (I can feel the number of my readers dropping, one by one...).

Anyway, yes, my husband I spent six days in the beach town of Foinikounta, on the coast of the Ionian Sea, in the province (?) of Messinia. It was hamazing. And relaxing. A lovely place to spend my 30th birthday (see what I did there?!) alone with my husband before reemerging into the world of family and responsibility...

Why, yes, that is a sandy beach overlooked by a Venetian castle. And someone's car. Taken in Methoni.

Anyway, we're back in the land of plentiful internet, so I'll try to be a little more quick on the updating from now on. Although, with 'Mad Men,' I can promise nothing. NOTHING.

Style Nation, I've missed you. But, almost just as importantly, I've started missing my home in the US, my other clothes, and my cat. It's hard to believe that next week, in nine days, in fact, I'll be seeing all of those things. Crazy times.

When it gets too crazy, though, I'll try to remember how I felt then, when my husband took that picture on our first full day of the trip. Notice how he artfully cut off my growing belly. Way to document, guy.

How I wore it: trial run

Yesterday (Saturday), my husband and I drove way the eff away in order to hang out with another Greek musician and his Greek musician father (just like my musician husband AND musician father-in-law!) AND his American wife. The similarities, they are striking. Also, this awesome Greco-American couple has a nine-month-old daughter, so we spent much of the lunch date playing with her. And secretly taking "cool parents" notes. Dudes, chubby nine-month-old babies are cute. Did you know that? I had suspected it.

Anyway, I wanted to wear something comfortable, as I anticipated playing with the little girl, so I went with my so-far-favorite maternity purchase (again, I've purchased four items as of yet, so... yeah. Not hard to be a favorite right now). Which you've actually already SEEN, because I? Am sneaky:

While the dress is still a tad bit too voluminous for me as I am right now, it's super-comfortable and makes me way less self-conscious that my usual jersey maxi, which is both weirdly drapey and oddly belly-clinging. Anyway, grey maternity maxi for the win. Although I jumped at the chance of buying an all-grey dress, I do think that it needs a little color/ornamentation. Perhaps when I'm back in the States, I can do something creative with the two belts I own (or cute scarves), presumably at the empire level and not my actual waist. For now, all I can really work with is loud jewelry and matching shoes. If it were cooler, I'd throw on a bright scarf, but damn, is it hot. 

So, I'm curious: what would YOU, Style Nation, wear this dress with? Think of it as a canvas. And make sure that your answers don't squash my belly too much!

And, in housekeeping news, folks, I won't be around for the next week. My husband and I drove to Sparta today, but we're off to this place for six days tomorrow. I won't be packing my computer, but I will try to keep up with blogs through my husband's iPad - but I can't guarantee it. I plan to take many many pictures and maybe do a feature on food, which Anne requested. So I hope that I can show you some awesome stuff in a week! 

(And our  vacation to Finikounda will involve my, gulp, 30th birthday. Oh, MY.)

Grey dress: Old Navy Maternity, remixed

Turquoise sandals: Nine West (Athens), remixed

It wouldn't be vacation without a small trinket, would it? Oh, and customer service...

My dear, sweet husband has wanted to buy me a present for some weeks now to commemorate my Ph.D. I love that idea, but I'm not in the market for new clothes at the moment, nor for new shoes (I'm so scared that my feet will alter permanently! What do I do with all my BOOTS?!). So we've kept our eyes open... On Thursday, we went to the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, one of his favorite museums of all time and one that I'd never visited in all my trips to Greece. I was excited to go, as I'd been on their website often enough, and heard wonderful things about them - plus, I know nothing about art from the Cycladic Islands. Also, I had ulterior motives...

After visiting all the exhibits (dudes, if you go to Athens, go to this museum: it's lovely, charming, and non-overwhelming. DO IT), I dragged my husband to the gift shop, both because I'd heard it was awesome, and (mostly) because I'm on an everlasting quest to be just like joanaddicted... and one of my favorite pieces of her jewelry was obtained at this very gift shop. Here it is! My version is smaller, though:

They make a nice little package, don't they...

Can you tell what it is?

I have no idea how I got this effect and don't know if it will ever happen again.

Eeee! It's a cool ring! I've been jealous of other bloggers for so long for having cool rings that look like sticks, or crosses, or other cool stuff across their fingers. Now it's MY TURN. They had three sizes: super-long, not-so-long-but-surprisingly-huge-on-the-hand, and this one. I went for the least overwhelming of the options. And I luuuuuuuuuuurve it. I can't wait to wear it out for the first time. Yay!

In the museum gift shop, I also saw a cute pair of round, turquoise earrings. Because, as we know, I have a love affair with turquoise, I asked to try them on. Now, I find Greek customer service to be split between two camps: overly helpful and kind of up in one's grill ("No, lady, I can put in my own earring...oh. Okay.") and downright insulting (a hairdresser told my sister-in-law, during a trial run of a hairstyle for my wedding, that the way I wanted my hair - which wasn't what she had done - would look, and I quote, "disgusting."). So I was pretty relieved when the young lady at the museum shop let me try on the earrings on my own (without help!). She seemed to fall into a third category: not giving a damn. Okay, I like that the best. I tried on the earrings and looked at myself in the little mirror she brought over. I made an approving, but non-committal noise. "They're nice," she told my husband in Greek, "But without all this," she added, waving her hand all over my front. That's because I was wearing the Spartan amulet on its black leather cord and a very beautiful, very gold cross with very real diamonds and emeralds. And she didn't think it went with the earrings.

Now. 

I happen to agree with her. God knows that I love the matching jewelry. I would not wear round turquoise earrings on silver with my gold cross. But I absolutely thought it was none of her business to tell me what to wear my own jewelry (and potential jewelry) with. If I want to go out in (to her eyes) horribly mismatching jewelry, clothes, or even shoes, I believe that she really doesn't get a say in this. And I got a little pissy. Fortunately, both my husband and I agreed that the silver ring was more special and the sweetheart bought it for me.

But this is something I really hate in salespeople: their absolute belief in their own correctness and that need to judge others' (less knowledgeable, they think) choices. My husband was laughed at in a hospital for asking for the clinic that was going to administer a certain ultrasound/test in a certain way. The lady at the information desk literally pointed and laughed at him. My best friend, who happens to be of Italian origin, calls it the Mediterranean "customer is always wrong" attitude. I even saw this in Argentina as a young girl, shopping with my family, that the sales lady refused to believe that I found a certain dress uncomfortable. I was eight years old. 

So, what do you think? What do you like in people who are "trying" to sell you something? Do you prefer overly friendly people who - in the end - are kind of pushy? Or do you not mind being judged because, after all, they're the experts? Or, like me, do you fall in a more neutral camp, where they don't get all up in your space and you know where to find them if you need them? I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

PS - For the Greek people that potentially read this blog: I love shopping in Greece. I love being in Greece. I love Greece. And generally, I've been treated like a queen. But sometimes the opposite has occurred. No offense intended, of course. 

It's a simple message and I'm leaving out the whistles and bells

Yesterday I wore this outfit for an errand in downtown Athens and then for hanging out in the evening in Agia Paraskevi:

Striped tank: Old Navy Maternity

Black skirt: Dress Barn, remixed

Turquoise sandals: Nine West (Athens), remixed

Wait, what?

It's true, people. I have a bun in the oven. I don't know if you've noticed that the quality and quantity of my posting became kinda bad, oh, about two months ago? Yeah. That's why. Between dissertation and the dawning of this new stage in my life...I've been busy.

[And there were a few days when I didn't feature outfit posts because no one needed to see my streaked eye-liner post-barfing. Oh. Was that TMI?]

I'm not particularly interested in turning this blog into Chalkdust and Booties, mostly because I'm loath to feature my family on here, but I am excited to explore what will be going on with my figure/fashion as my pregnancy progresses and beyond. I hope you'll stick around.

I'm only just starting to show a bit of a belly and starting to prefer some maternity clothes, especially as some of my non-maternity clothes (I only packed stretchy, comfy dresses and tops, anyways) are starting to look decidedly odd. Plus, I only own four maternity items, three of which I ordered from Old Navy just for the summer, just in case. 

I'm delighted. It's true. I cannot wait to have this baby and play with it and teach it the ways of the world. And my husband is over the moon. Our families are so happy that it's almost obscene; we are lucky that our first child is going to be born in an environment of so much love.

But I'm also scared. I've never done this before, you see. And I'm dealing with stuff that I honestly didn't think would be a problem. You see, people, I lost about 30 pounds - by making more informed nutritional choices and becoming a smarter runner/gym-goer. But the perks of the weight-loss, especially in anticipation of skin-baring summer clothes, were also welcome. Then I found out I was pregnant. Now I'm gaining again, which I know I should do (and I'm certainly not limiting myself... ooh, cheese!). But because I don't always look obviously pregnant, I can get really self-conscious at times. Plus, my energy was zapped for the entirety of the first trimester and I'm only now starting to be up for taking just a walk again. Oh, have I mentioned it's constantly hot, hot, hot in Greece and pregnant ladies get hotter quicker? Yup, it's glorious. So I don't always feel at my healthiest. Anyway, I know this makes me sound like a self-centered, shallow biyatch, but, hell, this is a blog that focuses on my interest in style and clothes. I have a bit of a body image problem and I've had it for many years. I honestly thought pregnancy would put me more at peace with all my issues - and I truly believe it will when I'm bigger - but for now I have to settle for "looking a bit schlubby in profile." And it would be dishonest of me not to write that it sometimes frustrates me. 

And don't think I don't know that my fear probably comes from a deeper place, which is hopefully perfectly natural to a first-time mom: I've seen 'Rosemary's Baby.' 

[Oh, you should've seen the look on the nurse's face when I told her that everything I knew about pregnancy and prenatal care came from that novel/movie. My husband almost lost it.]

Now on to lighter topics, yes? My mother-in-law recently gave me a sort of amulet that's been in the family for generations, "forever," as my husband simply states. We think it's an antique of some sort and it's given to the pregnant women of the family for luck. I've been carrying it in its box in my purse, but we bought a leather cord for it the other day and now I've been wearing it:

I don't think it's the most aesthetically-pleasing ornament I've ever seen, but I'm all for tradition and luck. When, if not now, is the time to be superstitious?!

Anyway, um, that's what I've been keeping from y'all! Again, I don't foresee this turning into a baby-centered blog, but you'll obviously be seeing a lot of my changing body and sartorial choices stemming from that. Let's have fun, shall we? 

How I wore it: witty title and post missing

Ugh. Tired. Spent afternoon out in broiling Athenian sun. Bought some stuff. Will show later.

Saw the latest 'Harry Potter' movie in 3-D. Headache. Love Alan Rickman. Love his voice. Poor Snape. Must reread books now... 

In other news, am still seriously considering growing out my hair. Fickleness galore. 

Good night! 

Grey dress: Old Navy

Brown sandals: Madden Girl, by way of DSW, remixed