Kaley's Weekly Wear- A Birthday Party

Hello readers!

Today I am writing to you all from my couch. I'm sitting here in my pajamas at 11:15AM- surrounded by piles of tissues, a bottle of water, and a box of Dayquil because I am fighting something akin to a magnificent cold right now. 

That information may seem irrelevant, but it actually serves two purposes. 1. It is supposed to evoke at least a little bit of sympathy from you. 2. It should also serve as an upfront explanation; if I write anything that seems odd or doesn't make sense, please remember I'm on cold medicine.

Back on track.

This week I celebrated my roommates birthday! She turned 26, and she is as classy and lovely as ever, as you'll see in the photographs to follow. The Saturday night before her big day we threw a little party at our house. There was food, fun, and- most importantly- Dance Central. If you are not familiar with the wondrous game that is Dance Central, I would suggest you find someone who owns an X-Box 360 and Kinect (and the game, obviously) and go play. Right now. You can come back and finish this blog post later- just go.

Now, whenever my roomies and I host parties, we like to make sure we bring our A-game in the wardrobe department. Obviously, everyone who enters our front door will immediately judge us on our outfit choices, right? My sister and Mo went with classy black dresses that evening, but I decided to go with a more Southern look. I'm still not sure it would have made Joan Rivers' list of great fashion looks, but I decided to combine a dress with cowboy boots. I admire anyone who can pull that off, so I went for it. Check it out:

 Twin, Birthday Girl, Me.

Obviously you can't see the boots, but you can see the color choice. I debated for a while between a brown sweater and this blue one, and in the end I decided that more color=more fun. 

 Here they are, in all their glory. My dad got me these boots in high school, and I specifically remember analyzing whether or not I'd be able to wear them with skirts and dresses before we bought them.

This isn't part of my wardrobe. It's the cake I made for Mo. It's an ice cream cake. With margarita candles. I'm proud of it, so I wanted to go ahead and show it off. 

This is Dance Central in action. If you weren't sold already, surely you are now.

So my outfit:

Dress: Spice Village here in Waco

Sweater and Belt: Target

Giraffe Necklace: J-Crew

Boots: Cavenders

Okay, this Dayquil is really slowing me down right now. I'm looking at my computer screen with one eye shut, so I think I need to wrap this up pretty quickly.

But before I do- What items in your wardrobe have you owned for years but still wear??

What Not to Wear: Apple Picking

This last weekend, I went to a rejuvenating spa in Charlottesville, Virginia. The thing about this spa is that it wasn't so much as a spa as it was my sister-in-law's apartment. Nevertheless, it was one of those rare weekends where the air smelled sweeter as I kept making random proclamations about how relaxed I was.

Charlottesville is beautiful. It looks like this.

No, friends, you are not looking at the Shire. This is in the United States. You can go here. And you should.

Anyway, while in Charlottesville, we did something that I am now learning is very common in this quadrant of the country - we went APPLE-PICKING, an activity otherwise known as "Mormon Mardi Gras" (see the below video).

I went into apple-picking with absolute Instamind. Instamind, by the way, is when a person, intentionally or unintentionally, begins to see everything as their next Instagram photo opportunity. When deciding on what I would wear to pick apples, I did not think about dressing for an outdoor experience. All I was thinking about was how I would look under that X Pro II filter (my most used filter). 

And how did I look, you might ask?

Amazing. I purchased this coat during my days working at Anthropologie ($50 with my discount). It's kind of my favorite thing in the world. It's lightweight, yet still warm, plus it's got this fancy effect in the back. 

I've basically been waiting all year to pull it back out, and I secretly like to think that it's been waiting for me too. 

Anyway, beautiful coat, beautiful scenery. What could go wrong?

The truth about apple picking is that it is a hardcore sport. It involves climbing, fielding fallen fruit, and hoisting large posts into trees to shake apples down. Apple picking isn't for sissies (Or maybe it is. I'm new to this). 

He's a natural.

Anyway, climbing in my beloved coat and my boots was out of the question, but I did a couple of half-hearted-hops for some of the low-hanging fruit.

Plus, I got this super washed out instagram.

Success! 

You will see me in that red coat all season long, all the way into winter (props to my good friend, Emily, for referring to it as my Carmen Sandiego jacket). 

Do you have a particular item that you can't wait to put on this season? Tell me! 

Kaley's Weekly Wear at the H-O-T Fair

Hi everyone!

Okay, I know I'm a little late this week, but I have an exciting accessory to show you all!

Tonight I went to the Heart of Texas Fair. I went for the first time last year, and it was nothing short of magical. I did all sorts of amazing things- like ride a ferris wheel for the first time in my life, eat too much fried food, and hold a monkey. (Seriously!)

So when a Living Social deal came around for tickets to this year's fair, I jumped on board that ship faster than it takes me to eat a fried Oreo.

My roomie's birthday is coming up, so we decided to make a little trip of it- her, my sister, our friend, and myself. As you can see, there's nothing really remarkable about the majority of my outfit.

 Twin and me. 

You can't see the bottom of the outfit, but it's just jeggings and some cute floral flats. Both the shirt and cami are from Old Navy, by the way, and the giraffe necklace is J-Crew.

I didn't get too fancy since I knew I'd be walking around a lot. But, for that same reason, I knew I didn't want to haul around a purse all night. I wanted a hands-off accessory to carry all the things I'd need for the evening.

That's right. I decided to use a fanny pack.
Here you can see a glimpse of it, but mostly I just wanted to include this picture so I could tell you all that I won this game by shooting a star off of a piece of paper. Awesome, I know.

I won a big teddy bear!

Here you can see a better image of what it looked like with the outfit:

Me, Roomie, Twin

 Here's the close of of my fanny-pack:

In all its sequined glory...

I have no clue where this beautiful thing came from, since it was a gift from my older sister. I don't think I've really had a chance to wear it out yet, so I was PUMPED to rock it tonight. And I got a couple of compliments.

I also got some envious looks.

That's how I'll interpret them, anyway.


So that's what I wanted to share with you tonight. It was the most exciting piece of my wardrobe this week.
But I'll leave you with a photo from my second ever ferris wheel ride:

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! 

Kaley's Weekly Wear- An Apology

While Christy has been enjoying the Fall weather in New York-- similarly, I imagine, to Kathleen Kelly in the 1998 smash hit You've Got Mail (yes, that was the year it was released)-- I have not had quite had the same luck.

1. The weather took a turn for the warmer here. I haven't worn a scarf once this week.
2. Instead of dreaming about bouquets of newly sharpened pencils, I've been knocking back two cups of coffee a day (which is far above my typical caffeine intake) in order to stay awake and get through the million things I need to get done.

Instead of looking as adorable as a pre-plastic surgery Meg Ryan this week,

 I've looked a little bit more like this:

Except I just wish I had this girl's hair. 

Side note, when I originally looked up images for "busy grad student," this is one of the first pictures that came up:

I'm still confused about that. Although it looks lovely.

Anyway, I'm not saying that to evoke sympathy. I'm saying it to apologize, once again, for neglecting to take pictures for this week's post.

Please accept this photography from the worst years of my life (middle school) as a sincere apology. It was scanned, so it's small, but I think it will bring some joy to your day nonetheless.

In answer to the questions you doubtless have: Yes, that is a horseshoe hanging from my left index finger, and no, I have no clue what is happening here.

Also- although this particularl wardrobe choice was not typical for me at the time, that hair style.... every day.

Except when butterfly clips were a thing.


I'm committed to real outfits next week, guys. It's going to happen.


I hope you get to wear some real outfits, too, and that they're all as fabulous as those on your Pinterest boards!

Christy's Weekly Wear

IT'S FAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!!

It's time to start Pinteresting all of your favorite pumpkin recipes and wearing scarves that probably aren't even weather-appropriate yet. It doesn't even matter. It's FAAAAAALLL! 

In honor of every girl's favorite season, I wore a lot of booted, scarved, and layered outfits. Here was my first fall outfit of the season. 

Dress: Marshall's
Boots: Modcloth
Blazer: Anthropologie
Scarf: American Eagle? I don't remember. I've had it since high school. 

Fun story about that blazer: I bought it for $5 from Anthropologie. What? Yes. When you work at Anthropologie, there is this stockroom that is loaded with every pretty thing you've ever dreamed of. Sometimes these pretty things get forgotten and are reduced by like 90% by the time they are found again.

The only thing missing from this outfit? My trademark glasses. As you may have read in my solo blog, Avoiding Atrophy, I stepped on my glasses and they will never be healed. To rectify this disastrous circumstance, I made a visit to Warby Parker, a miraculous online glasses store where you can buy frames and lenses for $95. 

 

These are my new best friends. Warby Parker calls these frames "Marshall". If you're ever in need of having four eyes instead of two, Warby Parker it. 

Blessings on your fashion choices! Be dumpy, be delicious. Whatever feels right! 

Kaley's Weekly Wear- Becoming an Olsen

Hey- o!

Sorry I'm a little bit late on posting this, everyone. I haven't slept much this week- it's been a little cray.

I love that that's a word, now...

Anyway, despite the fact that I've been all over the place this week, I actually wore a couple of cute outfits this week.

AND- With the cooler we've been experiencing here in Waco, I decided to be exceptionally bold.

I tried to pull off a scarf.

You know how some people (probably many of you reading this) can wrap a scarf around their necks and, with the right pair of sunglasses, look as if they could be mistaken for an Olsoen twin?  (In the best possible sense, guys.)

I'm not sure which one is which- they might be the same person- but look at how cool and effortless they make those scarves look.

Despite my best efforts, I have never been a scarf person. 

As in- I have never been a person that can pull off scarves easily.

Have I been a person that wants to pull off scarves? 

Yes. 

Desperately. 

Seriously. I have several of these types of scarves in my closet. I have pinned the how-to-wrap-scarves stuff on my pinterest page. I have stood- on several occasions- in front of my mirror trying to get just the right amount of nonchalance to give me a hipster look without revealing the fact that I did in fact try really hard to look cool. And all of it was in vain. I usually just end up looking as if I'm wearing a weird turtleneck thing and abandon the effort.

But this week I went for it.

And even though I didn't really get the look I that I had in mind when I opened up my pinterest page, I wore that scarf proudly anyway. After all- it was 75 degrees outside, and I could.

Here's what it looked like:

I've decided that the reason I don't get the effect I want is not because I can't droop scarves well- it's because none of my scarves are long enough. Anything to take the blame off my skills...

Here's the breakdown:

Scarf: This is the best part, everyone. It's from a an organization called fashionABLE. There are women in Ethiopia who make these scarves and are paid fair wages, which empowers them to get an education, provide for their family, buy medication they need, etc. One neat thing they do is attach tags on them with a note saying what they're ABLE to do because that scarf was purchased. It's awesome. Check them out. They have a really great new fall collection.

Shirt: Old Navy

Skirt: Anthro (Holla back sale rack!)

Shoes: Target

So that's it. I didn't take any pictures the rest of the week. At least not of myself. I was busy being in grad school. Sorry, guys.

But in along with my apology, please accept this: (hopefully you haven't seen it yet)

Christy's Weekly Wear

After years of searching for this illusive, seemingly improbable creation, I think I've found it: the perfect outfit.

While this might be an overstatement, I can safely say that the following ensemble is one of my most complimented to date.

THE BEST

Top: Anthropologie
Skirt: Anthropologie
Belt: Forever 21
Shoes: DSW

I wore this to work the other day, and a surprising number of security guards told me they liked my outfit. People on the street were stopping me to offer their affirmation. It was a miracle.

Like almost everything I own, this get-up comes with a story. Get used to it.

Once upon a time I was employed by Anthropologie, a high-end clothing store that many of us consider to be heaven on earth. I got this job straight out of college as part of my post-college life-crisis. I figured I could work there for a while, maybe do a little shopping, and apply for jobs in the meantime. Somehow I believed that the soft glow of the expensive candles and the high thread count of the bedding would produce in me a kind of peace that I was lacking in my life. 

Now that I've left Anthropologie, I think it is my job to inform all of you dreamers that being an employee there is seriously not that great. You have to space clothes perfectly on hangers (a practice known as "finger-spacing") and sometimes rude customers come in and crap all over your day like it's their job to do so. Also, you are daily surrounded by beautiful things that can never be yours. It is a cold warehouse of rejection. 

The upside to my experience was that I randomly chose to work at one of the most profitable Anthros in our district. In the time I was there, our employees were rewarded with TWO days where everything in the store was 50% off. Needles to say, every dime I made from these guys went right back into their pocket as I walked away with an incredible new wardrobe. 

Hence the skirt and top shown above. Believe it or not, after owning this skirt for over a year, this is the first time I have worn it out in public. I just never knew what to wear with it. Then one day it dawned on me. Like a mad scientist, I joined these two unlikely pieces together and stood back to admire my creation. "It's alive!" I screamed as I belted the waistline. Then I cackled and there was lightning and my disfigured assistant cowered in the corner.

If you need a visual of that disfigured assistant, here you go:

THE WORST

I have been calling this my uniform. Every day when I come home from work, I immediately put on this sweatpants/tank-top combo. It was all well-and-good until I went out for groceries in it the other day. 

Also, I am literally wearing it right now. 

When will I learn?!

I don't know. I really don't know.