Polka-Dotted Bee

Top: Cotton On

Skirt: thrifted

Bag: thrifted

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

I found a yellow pencil skirt at Quality Thrift in the same week that I found the red one in my last post and couldn’t resist wearing it with black and white. I love how yellow looks with black and white! And I liked the idea of wearing these three black and white items together. It’s sort of double matchy-matchy, and I think it’s cool how each black and white piece has a different pattern.

At Last

Blouse: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Bag: thrifted

Shoes: thrifted

Sunglasses: Urban Outfitters

It’s taken me forever to thrift a red pencil skirt that fits, but I finally have one! I’ve been wanting to wear this pale green, floral-print blouse with a red skirt, too, so of course that’s the first top I paired the skirt with. I love when I’m able to put shades of red and green together without looking like I’m dressed for a Christmas party. It’s such a great color combination. 

Jane Austen Skirt

T-shirt: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Shoes: Miss Albright

Bag: thrifted

When I saw this skirt at Goodwill, I just had to have it, even though it almost came down to my ankles and the pleats were crumpled and misshapen. I have never had clothing altered before — if I find something that’s not a good fit and in nice shape while thrifting, I’ll usually leave it behind — but I decided to invest a little in this skirt, getting it shortened, hemmed, dry cleaned and pressed.

I definitely think the aweseomeness of the print justified the special treatment. The Grecian/Regency silhouettes remind me of the scene in the 1995 film version of Sense and Sensibility where Marianne, played by Kate Winslet, is drawing a silhouette portrait of Willoughby. (Yes, of course, the silhouettes on this skirt are female, but you get what I’m saying.) Side note: I loved Emma Thompson’s hairstyle so much in that movie that I wore a variation of it to my senior prom.

I dressed this skirt down today because it’s hot out and I knew I’d be on my feet a lot, hence the T-shirt and flats. I really want to wear it with a ruffled blouse, pearls and red heels sometime, though. Jane Austen skirt, I love you.

Thrifted Thursday No. 7

Blouse, shorts, belt, wedges and bag: thrifted

Wearing a belt with high-waisted shorts reminds me of being in junior high in 1993. I remember having some floral shorts from Mervyn’s that came with a white belt, and I would wear them with a fuchsia sleeveless, mock turtleneck top. I didn’t even realize until I saw my photos for today that I had basically recreated that look, although back then I had long hair that I would part down the middle and wear in a low ponytail with a scrunchie.

I also have to share that I got this cool black and white bag for 98 cents at Quality Thrift. It had some black markings across the white areas, but rubbing alcohol took them right off.

This Coach Bag

Top: Forever 21

Skirt: thrifted

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Bag: Coach

I was just thinking today that I should explain where this Coach crossbody bag came from since I usually wear fairly inexpensive outfits. I mentioned it earlier at some point, but that was way back when I first started my blog. So, anyway, it was a gift from my aunt, uncle and cousin when I finished my M.A. in English Composition two years ago. (Let’s hear it for out-of-work English majors!) I tend to feel a little self-conscious carrying a Coach bag, yet I really love the style and size of this one. It’s perfect to wear if I’m out walking around all day.  

I just got this skirt back from the dry cleaners yesterday and had to wear it right away. It’s one of my favorite Glendale Goodwill finds, and I can’t get over how awesome the color is. And the little speckled buttons at the waist. And the length, fit and comfortable elastic in the waistband.

I also got some new-to-me thrifted skirts back from the dry cleaners, so I’m looking forward to wearing those over the next week! I feel like my skirt collection might be a little too extensive now, though, and I’ve been thinking about using the name of my blog as an excuse to weed out a few skirts that I don’t love as much to reduce the number back to 29. Our closet is too packed — my clothes are on one side, Jasen’s are on the other — and I have to admit that some of my skirts just don’t fit very well and/or haven’t been working with the rest of my wardrobe.

Double Blue

Blouse: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Bag: Tignanello

I keep wanting to pair this blue rose-print blouse with more blue. The last time I wore it, I paired it with denim shorts for the beach. I kind of felt like I had on some sort of work uniform today — but a retro, feminine uniform, so I was okay with that. I also discovered today that I need to make one of the buttonholes smaller on this blouse. When I came home after walking around Glendale and running errands, I saw that one of the buttons had popped open and had probably been like that all afternoon.

Sailor Heart

Dress worn as top: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Tights: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: thrifted vintage

Bag: Coach

The weather has been so blah and dreary the last couple of days. The only good thing about it is that I’ve had a reason to wear tights. I was feeling uninspired when I tried to put an outfit together today, but then I got excited at the prospect of trying out these bright red, heart-patterned tights that I bought about a month ago from the sale section at Urban Outfitters. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good close-up shot of them. I kept trying, but every photo came out distorted. As soon as I get a full-time job, I’m buying a much better camera!

Sentimental Value

Dress: Forever 21

Cardigan: J.J. Basics

Socks: Forever 21

Shoes: Target

Bag: thrifted vintage

I bought this dress about five years ago when Jasen and I were on a road trip. We drove up the California coast, stopping in San Francisco for a weekend, then continued through a redwood forest, through Oregon and up to Washington to visit my relatives, who live near Olympia. So whenever I wear this dress I remember that trip, and it makes me very happy! It was the best vacation I’ve ever taken in my life. 

Thrifted Thursday No. 6

Blouse, belt, skirt, bag and shoes: thrifted

Oh boy, I decided to get colorful today! This outfit began with the belt, which I bought a long time ago and hadn’t worn yet. Then I thought, “Oh, I haven’t worn that floral skirt much.” And then I thought, “The belt is bright blue, so why not red shoes and a bag that’s...sort of yellowish if not yellow?” In this photo I was staring at a cigarette butt on the ground and hoping it was far enough away that my eyes didn’t look crossed. 

Peaches and Green

Top: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Tights: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

I’ve been wanting to wear peach and green together ever since I saw this color combination on a Freaks and Geeks character. She wore a peach short-sleeved sweater and had forest green pants, not a moss green skirt, but I figured this was close enough. I only have one peach item in my wardrobe, and this is the darker of my two green skirts.

Popcorn and Pleats

Sweater: thrifted

Blouse: thrifted

Skirt: hand-me-down from my aunt

Socks: Forever 21

Shoes: Naturalizer

It’s raining on and off today, so I thought I’d wear my favorite thrifted sweater ever. I’ve worn it on this blog once before, here. I love it so much! I think it’s an ’80s sweater, but it seems kind of ’50s to me. I should wear it more. This is ridiculous, but I think I don’t reach for it more often because it’s a little difficult to pull on. I have to put both arms into the sleeves at the same time and wriggle it over my boobs because the waistband doesn’t stretch much.

I worked from 9:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. yesterday proofreading and editing copy for an e-commerce site, so today I’m going to be lazy and read. I might be obnoxious and go read in a coffee shop, and by coffee shop I mean Starbucks because I have a Starbucks gift card. I’m excited about the project I just finished, though, because it could possibly lead to a full-time writing and editing job at a very cool company where my friend Ani recently started working.

Merry-Go-Round

Dress: thrifted

Sweater: thrifted

Tights: For Love 21

Shoes: Nordstrom

Warning: This post is photo heavy.

This weekend is the busiest I’ve had in months! I received a large freelance project on Friday evening that I have to finish by Monday night, and Emily and Ani and I also held a baby shower for our friends Mike and Kimiko by the merry-go-round at Griffith Park today. I decided to put up a blog post today since I dressed up a little for the event. I have about 10 hours of work to do tonight and tomorrow, though, so I don’t think I’ll be able to post tomorrow!

We woke up to rain in the Los Angeles area early this morning, which freaked me and my friends out since we had planned an outdoor party. (None of us has an apartment large enough to host a baby shower.) But then the sun came out in the late morning, and the day turned out absolutely gorgeous!

The area near the merry-go-round was such a sweet setting. There were little birds and groundhog holes with the occasional groundhog head peeping out (I think they were groundhogs, though I don’t know for sure), and the whole time we could hear the merry-go-round’s organ playing. I’ve included a short video at the end of this post so you can hear a little of the music if you want to.

Thrifted Thursday No. 5

Top, skirt, belt, bag and shoes: thrifted

This is late going up because of the Blogger maintenance issues that I’m sure most of you also ran into. But here is what I wrote yesterday:

I went thrifting today in my all-thrifted outfit but didn’t buy anything at either of the stores I visited (ACTS and the Pasadena Goodwill). Goodwill was charging $24.99 for a pair of plain white Naturalizer pumps! They were maybe 20 to 25 years old, I guess, but not in the greatest condition. What are you thinking, Goodwill?

Fresh Cut

Cardigan: Halogen

Top: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Shoes: thrifted

Bag: Tignanello

My hair was getting WAY too long in back and annoying to style overall, so I just went and got it cut! It’s even more pixie than before with lots of texture. I really like how it turned out. It feels great to have so little hair on my head.

Once again, I gravitated toward earth tones with my outfit. This brown skirt always seems to work well with a cream top, and I reached for my olive cardigan on second thought after first reaching for my red one. I don’t know why I wanted the red one anyway, since I wore it yesterday, but I’m glad I went with the green.

And now...to do laundry and read the new Cosmo and drink strawberry lemonade.

The Tumblr Trail

Hello! I just wanted to clear something up from yesterday's post. I mentioned in that post that Erin of calivintage had added me to her tumblr. (I had seen a lot of traffic coming from her tumblr and checked it out.) Well, since then I've found out from Raquel of the lovely Black Sheep blog that she originally posted the "Dapper Camper" photo on her own tumblr and that it was reblogged from there.

So then I went in and tried to figure out the tumblr trail and saw that the photo had ended up on several other tumblrs, too, including the tumblr of Annebeth at The Styling Dutchman...another fabulous blog that I've been following for a while now. 

Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who passed that photo around, and I apologize if I made a big blogger faux pas! I guess that's what I get for not understanding tumblr!

Easy as Primary

Cardigan: J.J. Basics

Top: Susina

Skirt: Forever 21

Tights: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Seychelles, found at Ross

I’ve worn this skirt a few other times on my blog (here, here and here). I keep coming back to it on days when I want to be comfortable since it’s soft and lightweight and looks good with flats. I hadn’t worn a “primary colors” outfit in a while, so I added my mustard knit top and red cardigan today. These shoes must be at least 10 years old and the right one has a small hole in back, but they’re great to walk around in and won’t be thrown out until they fall apart.

I also wanted to mention that I recently ended up on Erin of calivintage’s tumblr! She picked up my “Dapper Camper” post from Saturday. I was so excited to discover this because I’ve been reading her blog for quite a while now. It’s one of the first blogs I started reading once I discovered the fabulous world of style blogs. I’m sure almost everyone looking at my blog knows who Erin is, but if you don’t...check out calivintage because it rocks! 

In the Sheer

Blouse: Urban Outfitters

Skirt: thrifted

Bag: thrifted

Shoes: Jessica Simpson

I bought this lace skirt one day when I went to three thrift stores and couldn’t find anything else that I liked. This was at my third stop, the Goodwill in Arcadia, and I kept asking myself if I was buying it just because I didn’t want my day of hunting to be pointless. I think it was a good choice, though. I like the lace pattern a lot, and the skirt is lined, and it has an elastic waist that fits well. Because of the black waistband, I felt like I had to try this skirt out with my black-accented Urban Outfitters blouse...they seemed to belong together.

Dapper Camper

Blouse: thrifted

Cardigan: thrifted vintage

Shorts: thrifted

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Yes, my pose in this outfit photo is almost identical to my pose in my last one. I can’t help that, though. I liked this photo the best of the ones Jasen took today, and he didn’t take too many because we were at a barbecue at our friends’ house in Pomona. I love this giant old tree in their front yard!

I don’t know if I should be calling my own outfit dapper, but Merriam-Webster’s first listed definition of dapper is “neat and trim in appearance,” which is how I felt in this crisp blouse and pair of high-waisted shorts. I should have taken a close-up of the blouse because it has a small-scale gingham print that doesn’t show up in this photo. I think the overall look is sort of “retro camper” — casual and outdoorsy yet very clean-cut at the same time.

Thrifted Thursday No. 4

Tank: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Belt: thrifted

Bag: thrifted

Shoes: thrifted

I wanted to wear something comfortable yet still pulled together today because Jasen and I would be going out to lunch and then walking around a lot. I know what you’re thinking if you read my older post about how these red wedges destroyed my feet, but I was prepared this time and wore six band-aids to protect all the spots that got blisters the last time I walked a couple miles in them. I will not give up on these $3 shoes!

Jasen and I have been planning to visit one of our favorite restaurants, Phoenicia, in Glendale for months. When we got our tax refund, we decided to save part of the money to go when the weather was nice enough for us to sit on the patio there. So today we finally went.

Phoenicia is a Lebanese restaurant down the street from my old office. We usually just share appetizers and salads when we go there because there are so many to choose from, they’re incredibly good, and they cost about as much as tapas yet come in larger portions. My three must-haves are the shanklish (crumbled cheeses mixed with tomato, onion and spices), imam bayildi (a cold dish of eggplant mixed with onion, garlic, tomatoes and olive oil) and hummus because it’s the best hummus I’ve ever tasted...it’s so creamy and has the best not-too-bland, not-too-tangy flavor.

Maybe Phoenicia was a weird choice for Cinco de Mayo, but at least I made tacos with El Pato last night and we have leftovers for tonight’s dinner.

Southwest

Top: Forever 21

Skirt: thrifted

Belt: from an eBayed vintage dress I no longer have

Bag: thrifted vintage

Shoes: thrifted

It’s 92 degrees out in Pasadena today, so I thought it was time to wear this very lightweight tank top that’s been hanging in my closet since March. I was attracted to the ’80s style Southwest print and colors because, hey, I live in the Southwest (sort of) and my grandma was from New Mexico. The white skirt seemed like a good mate for this top and the hot weather, and I figured my black wedges would look okay since the top has black in it. Now I need to get to work on a freelance project that just came to me. Yay!

Beach!

Blouse: thrifted

Shorts: thrifted

Sunglasses: Urban Outfitters

Southern California may have gorgeous weather for the most part, but it’s actually somewhat rare to have a hot, completely sunny day at the beach. It seems like it’s usually cloudy when Jasen and I go. Today, however, was one of those amazing spring days without a cloud or fog or freezing wind down at Huntington Beach, and Jasen had finished writing several articles (he does freelance writing for a few different publications) and had a whole day off...so we decided to take advantage of this opportunity to visit one of Orange County’s most popular beaches on a Monday.

It was incredible. We found meter parking about as close as it gets to the pier, the beach was almost empty, and we got to spend all afternoon lying peacefully in the sun — wearing high-SPF sunblock, of course.

I found the blouse that I’m wearing at Goodwill, but it’s from Urban Outfitters (Kimchi Blue). The shorts I found at Quality Thrift, and I think they’re pretty old. They have a very faded Woolrich tag. I felt sort of 1940s-ish in this outfit. Since I was going to the beach, I just let my hair do its natural thing. In this photo it kind of looks like I have spikes or horns on my head. Thanks, wind!