... and this is why I'm broke

So, as you can tell, I didn't end up posting any pictures from my conference. I didn't end up taking any pictures either, so...you're welcome? Honestly, I was having too good of a time schmoozing with my former homies to even think about pausing for a minute, so instead you'll just have to live vicariously through me with your deep envy of missing this year's American Oriental Society (yes, that's the name. And yes, it was founded in 1842) meeting. There's always next year!

After that fun four-day trip to Oregon with the whole family, my husband and I had an actual two-person adult outing on Wednesday! We sent Baby Boots to daycare and hit the town. I had promised him a while ago that I would buy him his first pair of Fluevogs for our seven-year anniversary (a couple of weeks ago: he was in Japan, so we couldn't celebrate together). So I bought him these, with which he is in luuuuuurve:

source

They are quite different from his usual aesthetic but I think that what was he was going for - he wanted, as he told me, to move away from his conservative norm and go for something, as he put it, special. The fun thing about these is that they look like a normal dress shoe (with a cool toe) when he's wearing them, but we all know that there's that cool buckle and lace-up fun!

And I couldn't resist. I had fallen in love with these on the site and since they're unisex, they pulled them out for my husband, and then I asked for them in my lady size. And took them home:

source

I love these booties with a passion, people. They're so cool and rock n'roll. You can wear them with the zipper at any height you want and it just creates this amazing line with the leg. I think I'll be rocking these a lot with the pants that were giving me trouble. I think I might have solved this problem. I haven't worn them out yet, but I'm so, so in love. I also now have 13 pairs of boots. I have a problem.

And that's our Fluevog saga! Stay tuned soon for a dress review and more awesomeness!

How I wore it: and now for something completely different

After yesterday's fun and whimsical outfit, where I feel I got everything right, from the hair all the way down, today's (Thursday's) look was a let-down. But the weather got cold and I suddenly had to break out a much heavier look than I wanted to. The good news is that it features one of the many new items that y'all haven't seen.

Rumpled!

In early September, I made a huge purchase from Old Navy (and followed it up with several small purchases from other places), so I have an arsenal of clothes that have become workhorses that I just haven't had time to feature here. These purplish corduroy bellbottoms are from that order. Now they're obviously not as flattering as I thought, based on this picture, but I did get a bunch of compliments on them from several colleagues, so I think that the photo may have caught me at a particularly unfortunate angle/position/twist. Still, not jiving with the mental image I had of them... oh, well.

I kind of had a panicked moment of not knowing what to pair these pants with this morning (usually wear a black top with them, not gonna lie, but I wanted something different). Since I'd had good luck with fitting into my red dress the day before, I decided to go to my old nemeses, the button-downs. I layered it over a rather unusual choice of light-blue/sea-foam nursing tank and called it a day. As I said, maybe not one of my particular success stories, but I'm also gonna keep it real for y'all....

So, in fun news, my family and I will be flying to the West Coast in a little over twelve hours! Yup, my husband and I decided to blow off our respective last days of work before spring break in order to go to Portland, Oregon for an academic conference (for me). I haven't been to a conference in many years, and I haven't gone to this particular one (the biggest national conference in my field) since I presented there in 2005, but I'm pretty excited to schmooze with my former colleagues/professors/potential future bosses. I won't be updating while I'm gone, but I do hope to take pictures! 

Stay tuned next week, when I come back!

Button-down shirt: gift from my mom, by way of Brooks Brothers, remixed

Tank (underneath): Glamourmom, ordered via LactationCare.com, remixed

Purple corduroys pants: Old Navy (online)

Grey booties: Aldo, remixed

How I wore it: rinse and repeat

The outfit I wore today is pretty much the exact iteration as this. I mean, the exact, same outfit. Purple cardigan, yellow tights, boots, the works. I was actually debating not taking a photo or posting it as, hey, what's the point? No originality. But I have to admit, I was tickled with how this all worked out. I mean, I don't think I've worn this particular dress in almost two years. So right off the bat, I was thrilled to fit back into this dress, I'll be honest.

For one thing, I really like this photograph. I had just come home from daycare with Baby Boots and she was so excited to have me randomly standing in the doorway of our bedroom that she came over to where I was and tried to hand me her toy camera (I don't think she realized that I was actually posing for a picture myself). Although you can't see anything of my daughter except for her crazy hair (she takes after both her parents!), I like that moment of communication you can see between us, with her looking up at me and trying to figure out what I'm doing and me smiling down at her.

The other reason I wanted to put this up is because, dammit, I think I look cute. I'm almost indignant that I didn't realize how cute this outfit was during the whole day. But this photograph highlights all the awesome aspects of the outfit that I had almost forgotten about: the boots, the dress' shape and color, the sweater and its juxtaposition to the fun dress, the fish necklace... Dammit, this is a nice look and it wasn't till I saw a photograph of it almost twelve hours later that I fully realized it. Humph. 

So, I hope you don't mind. Exact same version of an outfit I wore almost two years ago. They can't all be winners, folks!

Purple cardigan: gift from my mom, from Lord and Taylor, remixed

Red dress: Calvin Klein, by way of TJ Maxx, remixed

Yellow tights: Gap, remixed

Boots: Steve Madden, remixed

Meet my new favorite accessories ever

So my husband came home today after five days abroad in Japan. He came home with gifts for everyone and a massive case of jet lag. I welcomed him by wearing make-up. I'm amazing. So I decided to take the opportunity to get a picture of me with my new glasses, which are now firmly in the love column. Here you are:

So here they are in all their glory. What do you think? I love them. I think it's nice to be able to see a little more of my face and I love that I still have the thick frame I love on top (where it matters). I will say, after two years of my old Wayfarers, I missed that classic Ray-Ban structure and shape (especially noticeable in the corners) when I started wearing my Pradas. Well, now I'm back to my happy structural place with these babies. Also, can I just say? I LOVE the flash of color on top and within. My kids seem to be all about it, too. Win-win! 

Hope you enjoyed this glasses interlude. Hope to come back with outfit posts this week, if all goes well. 

Have a great Monday tomorrow! 

New aesthetic

Hi, all!

Can you believe that I've had my new glasses for slightly over a week and I still haven't posted a picture of them yet?! I super love them, but I'm still getting used to them. After almost five years of wearing thick-framed specs, it's weird to be looking oddly daintier. My husband loves them a lot, and so do I; my mom said in the beginning that she liked my old frames more, but after a few days, she remarked upon how these new glasses opened up my face and added an element of lightness to my look. Well, if I were wearing make-up, I'd take a picture right now and show y'all, but as it is, I feel a new zit forming and I just can't. For the first few days of wearing them, I kept asking my husband if he really liked them and he kept on having to reassure me. I think this weekend I've finally gotten to the point where I look at myself in the mirror and don't stop to think. I can't wait to wear them in Greece over the summer, assuming we go.

In other news, I've been doing some interesting stuff: I applied to a real professorship in a university quite far away. I know it won't happen, but it felt good to send my material to them [the department knows me because they lobbied super-hard for me to go there for grad. school]. I also applied for a postdoc in a hard-core university very close to me - I also don't think that'll happen, but with a lot of late-night work and help from my husband - not to mention desperate e-mails to professors at random hours - I sent in an application of which I can be pretty proud. My husband also applied to a job out of state, so ... I don't know. While I won't have a problem with staying in Cambridge, as is most likely the case, it's kind of titillating to think that I have a plan of attack for my future.

So has anyone ever bought anything from Shappy Apple? I haven't, although I have a banner of them on my margin and am a blogger affiliate or whatever it's called. That being said, I have a sale for you!

If you something from the Ferris Wheel collection, you can get 50% off a selected dress. It's pretty awesome. I have to say, I'm kind of obsessed with the Ferris Wheel collection. Which is weird, because a few years ago, I would've totally dismissed these styles as too old school. You see, as a teenager through, um, a few weeks ago, my ideal aesthetic was the 60s - everything about 'em. EVERYTHING. But in the past few weeks/months I've become more and more enamored of the late 50s and lots of the Ferris Wheel items are evocative of the effortless dressiness I covet.

May I show you the two things I most love?

source

I mean, right? Can't you just see Brigitte Bardot wearing this and sashaying down the boardwalk? Or whatever the doubtlessly more sophisticated French version of the boardwalk might be? I want this whole look, down to the top. I want my hair to look like that, only dark. 

Le sigh.

The other thing is this shirt:

source

Yes. YES. I love this in its simplicity of color and shape. I could totally wear this with cute pants, cute skirts, cute everything. Also, does anyone else have a sudden craving for capri pants? 

Also, should I wear more red lipstick??? 

So there you have it, folks. Fun sale, evolving aesthetic, pretty clothes, and existential questions. That's why you come to this fine blog, is it not?

Happy weekend!!

Edited to add: The button I originally put up for the sale kept on having bugs, so if you just go here, you should find the sale with no problem. Sorry about that!

Pisces fish

The other day I bought this little guy from the Paperface Studio shop on Etsy. It just caught my eye:

I think if I link, it goes to my own receipt, but I got this image off of Etsy

Anyway, I don't know why I got so into this little fishy, but I did, ordered it (along with more stuff), and it arrived home on Thursday. Today was my first day wearing it out. As you know, I care very much about February 25th because it's George Harrison's birthday (he would've turned 70 today. Sigh.). He was a Pisces. He even sang about it on his last album. So what better day to début my koi fish necklace?

Here's how it looked on:

As you can see, I totes approve. The colors are doing no favors to me or to the necklace, but you can see the length and relative size of the charm. Nice, huh? I got a couple of people (both adult women, no kids) mentioning how much they liked the necklace. I was pleased.

And I couldn't let you go without letting you see my FACE, right?

THERE I am, taking selfies in the office, the way I do. 

Yay! Monday's almost done! 

How I wore it: expectations vs. execution

Hi, folks!

(Look at me, with the posting twice in one week. Do you think... I might be getting my groove back?)

So it's Friday night (technically Saturday morning) and it's been a tough week. The colleague I mentioned on Wednesday passed away that same night and the kids and teachers at school have just been heartbroken to lose a beloved teacher, mentor, and colleague. Seeing my students and advisees melt away into tears is just heartbreaking.

Life will slowly be getting back to normal at work and in my home, it still goes on. I've also been incredibly stressed as I'm applying to my first postdoc and the deadline is fast approaching. My advisor had been AWOL for well over a year, but he wrote to me today and wrote me a doozy of a recommendation letter, so I'm feeling really good. Both the postdoc and the job in the very faraway other state I applied for a huge long shots, but I'm glad to be working actively toward something again.

After two days of dresses (Wednesday and yesterday, which I didn't blog), I decided to wear a new favorite pair of pants today. I experimented with something and, well, I didn't so much love it:

The good: how amazing are those red plaid pants, Style Nation? I ordered them from the Gap in the fall without a second thought because - as a child of the 80s from New York who spent the 90s hanging out in St. Marks Place ALL THE TIME - I've wanted red plaid pants since forever. .

The bad: these amazing jeans are skinny jeans, which means my footwear choices are a little limited. I've worn them with normal shoes, booties, and low boots in the past, quite successfully, but I haven't been able to figure out what tall boots to wear with them. Last time I wore them, I wore saddle-colored riding boots (my new Fryes, which you haven't seen yet) over them and the aesthetic was good, as the Frye boots are chunky enough that the whole thing was flattering - but I didn't like the color combination, especially as I tend to wear these pants with a black top. So today I thought I'd try them out with my black Fluevogs, but these boots are too skinny themselves, so - combined with a patterned pant and my own broad thighs - the whole thing just made me look knock-kneed, as you can see above. Oh, well. I think that I'll just have to forego tall boots with these pants and wear them in warmer temperature with less hard-core footwear.

I did have one colleague tell me that I looked Parisian today, so... that's a plus!

Good weekend, everyone. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

Black sweater: Saks, from the early 90s (my first article of black clothing!!), remixed

Plaid jeans: Gap online

Black boots: Fluevog, remixed