sarahmichelef

I packed myself a lovely lunch last night.  Matzoh w/ laughing cow and a wide variety of fresh fruits - pineapple, clementines.  Maybe even a banana.  I left it at home.  I succeeded in finding mostly-kosher-for-passover-if-you-squint-right lunch at the snack bar - chicken salad (let's imagine that the mayo was ok), grapes and cheese, and a banana.  Opened up the chicken salad container, took one bite, and NEARLY LOST MY LUNCH.  It was FOUL.  I don't think it was spoiled, it was just disgusting.  Lunch fail.  I managed to push down the gag reflex long enough to eat the cheese and grapes; I am saving the banana for later.

In other news, I am wearing all but two colors of the (new, improved, six-color) rainbow.  Unless you count the gold in my scarf as yellow - then I'm only missing orange.  From the ground up:  red shoes, navy blue jeans, green top, purple "grass seed" (my child is weird) necklace.

Apparently what I need to do to have an AWESOME spinning class is a) not be able to go for several weeks (hard to attend an 8:45 fitness class when I have to teach at 8:34 every TTh) and b) turning my ankle on the way to the car in the morning. It's stiff & a little sore and I think when I take my shoe off it's going to swell up like a balloon. Fun!

There is coffee brewing, I should go get some.

But the real reason, the really REAL reason for this post is to tell you about fashion. :^D I haven't blogged about my clothes in a while, but I had a supercute outfit last week that I wanted to document (in writing at least).

• light grey pencil skirt
• graphic print wrap shirt
• charcoal grey one-button blazer
• black tights
• patent leather wingtip flats

I just hadn't worn anything worth blogging about in ages, don't know why.  This weekend we went to the outlets and I got some cute shirts and a pair of supersoft grey cords that I have to lop like 6" off of before I can wear them.

That is all.

Today is International Wear a Dress Day, according to A Dress A Day (curse you, siriel, for reminding me of the existence of that blog!)  Not being one to flaunt such a mandate, I have on a lovely blue-print faux-wrap dress (the one in this picture) and my tall boots have made their seasonal debut.  I love how it's not possible to NOT strut in these boots - so much fun.  They are sorely in need of a polishing, though.  I'll have to get on that.

The remains of Ike blew through here between about 8 last night and 10 this morning.  We lost power for about 5 hours and there are some small branches down around, but it wasn't anything major.  TRex woke up around midnight and was scared because her night light wasn't on, so we put the lantern (which has a night light on it) in her room.  When we woke again (5:40ish... ugh... though we weren't out of bed for real until 6:20), the power was back on.

The weather did make for our most interesting two-block trek from the train station to preschool yet, though.  My kid, like most preschoolers, has exactly two speeds: pokey (as her teacher last year called her) and running.  I don't know, maybe she's worse than most four-year-olds (or almost four year olds) in that regard - M has the exact same two speeds, and he isn't four years old.  Add in wind and rain and you have a recipe for not getting ANYWHERE very fast.  Our commute was further delayed (or, more accurately, had already been delayed) by the fact that there is some construction going on on the train tracks way down at the downtown end of the line.  (For those playing along at home, the subway in Buffalo has only one line, which runs from HSBC arena to UB South campus.)  So the trains are running only about half as often as they usually do during rush hour (every 12 minutes instead of every 7).  by the time the train arrived at University Station, there were as many people on the platform as would fit on a normal train.  Only, in a fit of reasonable-ness, the NFTA has made the wise decision to run double-length trains!  (Normally they run two cars; both trains that I've taken today have had four cars.)  So rather than scrambling for seats for any of us, we had three seats together!

Dude, it's 4 pm.  Where did my day go?  Eesh.

First off, today's fashion (I took a picture but it did not look good and I'm not putting a hell of a lot of effort into taking another):  med. grey pencil skirt (the one I bought a couple of weeks ago), red/maroon shirt, dark grey pinstriped zoot suit jacket (from my first suit - and it seriously is very zooty... long, 4 buttons, double pockets... very 1999), tall boots.  The jacket is a SMIDGE too big but not so much that I can't wear it.

I am SO READY for warmer weather.  I have a bunch of summery skirts that I want to be able to wear!

Second off, makeup.  For months I was off-and-on searching for either a very sheer foundation or, better yet, a tinted moisturizer.  And I'm cheap - drugstore level stuff was a must.  There is remarkably little in that niche - I found a couple of things in the $10 for 1 oz range, which is more than I wanted to spend.  And then, one day, I happened upon Jane Nearly Foundation, which is PRECISELY what I had been looking for, and SPF 30 to boot!  It's a very light texture, almost a mousse, and goes on very easily.  Once summer rolls around, I'll probably have to pick up a tube of the medium, because I'm just barely a "fair" right now in the dead of winter.  But I'm superduper happy with it.

Last night around bedtime I was seized by a strong desire to stay home in sweatpants all day today. That, however, was not an option since I have office hours today. So I decided to counter my lazy impulses with FASHION!

This morning I pulled out my favorite red corduroy skirt, intending to wear it with my knee high black boots and ... something on top, hadn't gotten that far yet. Except I put it on and it dropped a good 6" from my waist. As a joke, I pulled it up like a strapless dress and went to look in the mirror... And I went, wait, this actually looks GOOD! I experimented with belting (not a good idea), throwing a fitted blazer over it (a good idea). So now I have a plan to make over my favorite red corduroy skirt into my favorite red corduroy strapless minidress.*

The red skirt idea being a bust, I poked around for something else... and ended up grabbing a gauzy silk skirt out of the summer box under the bed - purple with kind of abstract brown, white, and pink patterns on it. Tried it with a biascut white linen tunic and a tweed blazer; that didn't work (the shirt and the blazer - the skirt and the blazer is a pairing that will make an appearance at some point). Then I heard the weather forecast and decided I wanted a sweater anyway, so I put on a chunky brown cableknit sweater, thickish tights (the thickest I've got), and mid-calf-height brown boots, and off I went. Loving the outfit, too.

*It should be noted that my husband did not refrain from making boobs at waist height jokes during this experiment. It is a sign of my good mood that I didn't throttle him for it.

If you wear a size 10 pant, you must be 5'7" tall.  (I consistently have to take 3" off of my size 10 pants.)
If you wear a size 8 pant, you must be 5'6" tall.  (I took 2" off of a pair of size 8's yesterday.)

The Land's End Overstock catalog came yesterday (in a package that contains my new suit, which I haven't opened yet because it's a birthday present and my birthday's not for another 17 days). The Land's End Overstock catalog is a dangerous, dangerous place.

New swimsuit, in blue/black. New boots (to replace the ones that leak and to salve my hurt at having not won those danskos... although the bid hasn't gone up any more since yesterday, so I'll keep watching it and maybe swoop in at the end if I can). A pair of denim capris (for wearing at Disney, maybe?). And new snow boots for the kiddo (not from overstock, admittedly).

( Also, compliments of rapierlady: )

So I'm going to have to buy new clothes pretty soon.  I'm not planning to do it in one fell swoop (unless somebody wants to write me in for "What Not To Wear" or "Tim Gunn's Guide To Style") but I am going to be strategic about it.  So here goes a running list of things that I would like to acquire, and feel free to add suggestions.

• A new suit.  I tried on the one I wore for interviews my senior year of college and the jacket fits perfectly again, but he pants... are a combo of "OMG late 90s fashion PAIN!" and "man my body has changed shape...".  By all rights they SHOULD fit, but I can't get them closed and even if I could the waistband is LITERALLY sitting on my ribcage.  Also, they're very pleated.  So those went right into the goodwill box.
• A new trenchcoat, not full-length and preferably in a fun color/pattern.  (My current one is olive drab and
  
• New "casual" boots - I've had this pair of lace-up, round-toed ankle boots for 10 years and I loveloveLOVE them - they are my standard non-snow-boot winter footwear - but the soles are this close to shot, they don't keep out water anymore, and one of the insoles has been gone for a couple of years and the replacement one I've been using just isn't working anymore.   I'd actually like to go with a slightly taller boot this time so that I can wear it with skirts and pants, and it should have a rubber sole (see previous comment about winter footwear) and a low heel (the old ones are about 1 1/2", I think, and that's about the max for what I want to wear walking outside on questionable surfaces).
• Other suggestions?

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I was pining after a dress I'd tried on at Target?  I was there yesterday, and they had racks and racks of stuff on clearance, including exactly ONE iteration of that dress in my size.  HOORAY!  I also got a cute pink short-sleeve blouse with some interesting seaming and a black and white linen skirt (which has a matching sash that I'm not in love with, but will save for use with other garments).  And a grey yoga tank.  Total for the entire haul: under fifty bucks.  Whoo!