A reason to return...

Pantone-Inspired Fall Color Challenge with The Modern Austen and Literate & Stylish. Sign me up! I had so much fun with this during the spring challenge that I can't wait to do this one next week!

Also, I finished my busy instruction season, so I feel like I can have hobbies again! Yay!! 

What's everyone been up to for the last month? I've been trying to keep up with and comment on blogs over the last few weeks! 

What I Wore: May 3, 2013

I can't believe it's the end of the Pantone challenge! This is the first challenge I've successfully completed, and it gives me a boost to take on 30x30 again, possibly this summer in the 30 days leading up to my 30th birthday! I also am thinking about doing a Goodwill themed challenge. It's amazing what doing one challenge will do for you...and your wardrobe!

Before this week, I had never paired things together like yellow, blue, and gray. I had gotten into a rut with my wardrobe, and I had all but disappeared from blogging. This has been fun, and it's definitely re-inspired me, so I'm grateful to Heidi and Marissa for sponsoring this.

Now for today's outfit:

Bigger picture! What do you think?

Today's shirt is from Goodwill also! It came from my shopping trip on Monday. I got a few other things that day too, so I'm thinking I definitely need to do a Goodwill week on here!

Here's the best close-up shot that I got of the fabric:

Poppy red and flowers?!? Yay Spring!

I'm definitely a fan of tunics because they hide all of the evidence from your lunchtime personal pizza...and the snacks I'm going to have at Iron Man 3 tonight! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Can't wait to see the last day of looks from everyone who participated in this challenge!

What I Wore: May 2, 2013

It's been a rough day. Between allergies and some work drama, I've felt like my butt has been dragging the ground all day. Let's just say I've already consumed an adult beverage slushy and dinner may include another one.

Also, I'm still trying to get a good handle on my picture taking location and camera settings, so today's pictures weren't super great. Maybe sometime in the next 45 years, I'll figure it out!

Didn't get a full body shot

Weird shoe shot

My pants were the first item that I chose for this challenge, followed by the dress from Monday. Also, both my top and wrinkled pants came from Goodwill today. It's hard to see in today's pictures, but the pants have subtle pink pinstripes, so I was pretty matchy-matchy. This post from October shows the stripes a little more clearly. 

Only one more day left in the Pantone challenge from Literate & Stylish and The Modern Austen. Tomorrow's color is poppy red, which sounds like a great color for FRIDAY!!

What I Wore: May 1, 2013

So, I'm not loving my outfit today. I started out planning to wear this:

Blah

But, it was so wrinkled and blah that I wasn't feeling it. The shirt is not quite as fitted as I thought it should've been either, so it may go to the giveaway bag.

My next move was to try on my new yellow pants. After a lot of combinations, this is what I came up with:

Still not feeling it

I liked the blue tank top and yellow pants, but I didn't love the cardigan and shoes. Although now that I look at it, it's not as bad as I thought. However, this was what I finally settled on:

The verdict is still out on this one...

"Artsy" shot

I think I didn't love the gray/blue/yellow together, but maybe I've just been too self-conscious about yellow pants all day. That's silly too because I have maroon pants, and I wouldn't have thought twice about a colored skirt. Maybe it's just a grumpy Wednesday. Even my beloved rastanana from yesterday isn't making me laugh as much. I predict an early bedtime in my near future! 

Also, does my phone camera take better pictures than my digital camera? Is it time to save some pennies for a new camera, or should I be using my phone every day??

Mirror camera shot

Two more days of the Pantone challenge! Join Literate & Stylish and The Modern Austen's link up with your best linen tomorrow!

Also linking up with Shanna at Because Shanna Said So for Random Wednesday (although today isn't quite as random as yesterday...)

What I Wore: Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Alright, day 2 of the Pantone Challenge with Literate & Stylish and The Modern Austen! Today's color is African Violet. I didn't have anything in that particular shade, but I had to make a Goodwill run yesterday for something that's coming to our house this weekend (ooh, cryptic...), so I searched for something while I was there. I found something, but unfortunately, thanks to our Monday that got away from us, I didn't have time to wash it last night and had to improvise with these:

I'm going to call these African violets! ;-)

(Side note: does anyone else wash their Goodwill stuff before they wear it, or do they go all out and wear it fresh from the store?)

Here's the entire outfit:

Not sure why I'm so blurry and my colors look "off"

Full body blurry shot!

I didn't realize it until I was leaving, but the outfit has the same color palette as our bedspread:

Promotional picture...our bed never looks that nice!

Also, did anyone read the news story about the guy who lost his entire life savings on a carnival game? There was a line in there about him receiving a "giant stuffed banana with a rasta hat" that had me screaming with laughter...at work...in a library. I laughed so hard that I cried; I couldn't control myself. I guess it was just one of those things that struck me at the right time! The line was funnier than the picture, but I'll include the picture anyway in case someone doesn't feel like reading the entire story:

Lost your life savings? Here's a banana for your trouble, mon. 

So, no matter what kind of day you've had, remember that it could always be worse...unless you're a fan of giant stuffed rastananas (my own new word).


There are still 3 days to go in the challenge. Dig out your yellow for tomorrow (or BYOB- bring your own banana) and join in!

Trying this out today. Let's see how it goes: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

What I Wore: Monday, April 29, 2013

Here we go with the Literate & Stylish and The Modern Austen Pantone challenge! I LOVE the color green, and as someone with dark hair/eyes, I feel like jewel tones work well on me. However, I had a little bit of panic when I was choosing my wardrobe for the week. I tend to take things very literally sometimes (it's the librarian in me, I suppose), so I wasn't sure if my dress was truly emerald or just pretty green. I decided to make an executive decision as a blogger and call it emerald.

I bought this dress for my wedding reception/celebration that we held a week after the wedding. Since it was close to St. Patrick's Day, we did a green theme. Today is the first time I've worn it since then, so I was glad to have an "excuse" to bust it back out. Also, I received several student compliments about it today, which is always nice!

All decked out at my wedding reception!

Who says I'm not a ham?

Unfortunately, after this day turning out to be waaaaay longer than I intended it to, I haven't had a chance to find my SD card connector and load my pictures from my camera. I'll probably come back and edit this in the next day or two and add today's outfit shots so everyone can see the hem of the dress and how I styled it. I'm not off to the best start in this challenge, am I? ;-) Found my camera connector, Fitbit charger, and iPad charger! That's like a week's worth of unpacking in one day!! Here are a couple of shots from yesterday:

Asymmetric hem. Wore the leggings for modesty...and to hide my white legs!

Bit of a close up of the fabric

Want to participate in the challenge? Here's the lineup for the rest of the week. Any clothing or accessories in these colors will work!  

How to Succeed at Blogging...or How to Not Abandon This Again!

I'm married!!

I guess that was a given considering my last post talked about how I was 3 days away from my wedding day! Now that I've been married for about a month and a half and have begun settling into wifey lifey, I wanted to try reviving this blog and making it even better!

Gratuitous wedding shot c/o Paper Owl Photography!

I think there are three main reasons that I've been having trouble maintaining this blog and not feeling inspired by it:

1. I didn't have a plan for it. As the adage goes- fail to plan, plan to fail. I didn't have any ideas of when to post (I was trying to post every single weekday, even when I was off work!), how far behind I would be, when I would upload pictures, etc. I also think I over complicated things sometimes, but that's another issue I'll work on as I get back into this. 
2. I had a bad location and technique for taking pictures. I took them inside of my office during my lunch break or at my former home (I lived with my parents prior to the wedding) and either used the self timer or tried to do mirror shots. I didn't want anyone to know that I did this, so I would try to sneak taking my pictures, which made them look rushed and kind of terrible, which brings me to number 3...
3. I never edited my pictures and had trouble finding a place to host them. I know that the vast majority of blogs aren't done by professionals who blog full time, but many of them I read have pictures that have been spruced up a bit. There are so many great, free photo editors out there, so I'm going to start experimenting with a little editing to see if that improves the quality of my posts. I'm also going to bite the bullet and either make a public Flickr account to integrate with Blogspot or pay a little bit to host my pictures somewhere.

My husband does know about the blog (in fact, I used his living room, now our living room, as a picture location on at least one occasion), so I may enlist his help in the whole picture taking thing. I may also (gasp) venture outside and take advantage of some natural light from time to time. 

Another way I'm going to be more involved is to participate in a link up next week! Literate & Stylish and The Modern Austen. The challenge starts on Monday, April 29, and it involves incorporating a Pantone-inspired color each day next week in an accessory, item of clothing, or shoes. I'm excited to plan my outfits this weekend!

If you're interested in participating, here's the schedule with the colors:



Let me know if you're participating!