Go BULLS!

And I really mean that from the bottoms of both my shoe loving and Bulls loving  hearts......The title of this post has very little to do with the content besides the colors I'm wearing though. I just had to say HOO!-RAH! Chicago!
This post is really about Vision vs. Final Decision
-You ever had a vision for an outfit? Pick it out in your head? Follow through and THEN look in the mirror? Then proceed to leave the house in an outfit totally different from the VISION?
Well, I go through this everyday.  Exhibit 1....Dressing for my buddy's B-day party:

In my head this outfit worked! In real life, I got razor blade happy and required undershorts that I didn't have access to at the time.  Fixing the technical difficulties of these pants is a MUST because they are in my top 2 fav fitting jeans. These are jeans that I bought at Old navy a size larger for a $1. Well, I was able to resize them with my sewing machine and make them fit.  I just got razor blade happy in the wrong places. Also, I wasn't totally in agreement with how the shoes looked in this fit. So, scrapped. It worked in my head though......


This is a pic of what I was wearing no. matter. what! The essentials.....the heels, the earrings, the top. 


Bracelet combo - This is a pic of a chainlink bracelet that I bought from Lori's shoes  that I tangled with a necklace that I purchased from H&M.  One of my favorite bracelets now.




 Getting warmer. Actually what I would've worn if the flats hadn't won.






What I actually wore.  These are a couple of pics of the Flats......WINNING(c).....with the jeans swapped out..  No heels....again.That's o.k. cause I did have a ball.
Crinkle blouse -Bought abroad YEARS ago
Heels - RSVP
Scarf - Jones N.Y.
Bleached jeans - Old Navy
Skinny jeans - Old Navy
Black jacket - H&M
Sandals - Michael Antonio

velvet goes with everything,

This week, it does. My velvet was so nice, had to wear it twice in one week.
To work:

Dorothy Perkins dress
 Enzo Boots
Thrifted Velvet Blazer
And a coupla scarves
I got a chance to go to a Teedra Moses Concert! I have been anticipating her return to Chicago for a long time, so it was heaven to hear homegirl sing. Love her.
Now, leggings or jeans? This wind is no punk right now, so I just went with the jeans. I am usually not an advocate for wearing leggings as bottoms, but the one night I just felt like getting my Gaga on and going bottomless the wind wouldn't let me. So jeans it was. And I'm a sucker for having only 1 or 2 pairs of heels that strike my fancy and WEARING them until they have to be resoled. So, the boots are my usual Very Volatile. The skirt I wore as a top? Yeah, I did it. To be honest I'm not really a fan of skirts. Dresses, YES. Skirts, enhhh most times. But this is my favorite skirt. HA.


Chan Luu skirt
H&M leather belt
Old Navy legging jeans
Hat from Carsons
Very Volatile boots with wood heel
And my infamous thrifted blazer
Yay Teedra!

bookcase update

Finally finished painting my bookcase. Friggin finally. This is my first little decorating project using all thrifted and discounted accessories.  The paint I decided to use ended up being the most expensive item. I actually liked how it looked primed but I was on a sea foam green mission. The lamp and bookcase are from Salvation and the lampshade is a paper parasol shade from Pier 1(years ago).  I had two of these lampshades but who knows where the other one is.  If I could find it, I'd shop for another lamp specially for it. Thrifted, of course.
1:


2.....:


3!:


Next Project:

I'm not holding my breath for this one though. sanding by hand is no joke. eventhough I like hand sanding for some of the effects I can get its a filthy dirty job.
And here's the green Oops paint for $FIVE$ that's less seafoam and more garbage pail kid green that I found after the fact. and I bought the yellow cause it was an earthtone.  I'm not crying, I'm just saying.

I don't work for Carson Pirie Scott

...and am not associated with them in any way butterumahhh they always have the best sales. Any store that has 80% off, Imma give a shoutout.  And also I'm starting to find that retail prices for clothes at some stores are starting to be competitive with thrifted clothing.  Unless the dress, shoe, accessory, etc is a complete one of a kind, I would definitely buy it or something comparable new.  This isn't the case all the time, of course.  The thrift store will always have my heart but I'm finding if you catch a store in the right time of the season and on the right day, you could find some good stuff for the lowlow.  And let it be known that I also believe that "just because its on sale, doesn't mean its cute" Lets def. put that out there.
Anyway, I pulled out about 11 dresses to try on and literally snatched three. You ever been shopping in your size and its somebody EXACTLY your size shopping beside you looking at everything you pick out?  Well it was this short lady I had to size up really quick to make sure her paws weren't touching anything I  hadn't selected, inspected, and rejected yet.  I change into a different person while shopping.  That's why I can't stand Christmas time shopping.  Anyway, two dresses were semi formal and one was casual(my usual style).  And let me just say that Jessica Simpson is after my heart.  Me and her still have some issues to work out regarding her jewelry line and some of her clothes too, but I find myself picking out pieces from her more and more now.











go-go boots are Enzo Angiolini from a previous post.

Carson Pirie Scott.

Their shoe section is kind of the bomb. I scoped out the shoes below while browsing just the shoe section for about an hour or so.  I hadn't visited a Carson's in a few years because the ones near me have closed.  I loved them partly for nostalgic purposes just as some folks love a Macy's or a Marshall Field's for their Christmas memories.  Carson's or Bergner's as they were known in Detroit in the 90s remind me of my granny who was a stylish lady who shopped there all the time.  My granny bought my eighth grade graduation shoes from there in fact and I would get to know them over the years for having quality clothing for good prices.......memories. My granny is second from left. And my great Aunt is second from right.

 


Grandparents at my Mom's HS Graduation

Then I went to high school and Carson's always seemed to carry dresses and shoes geared towards church ladies and Grannies that were stuck in a time warp.  At the time I was interested in sharp creases in my jeans that were cuffed under at the bottom and drooling over Coach belts that I couldn't afford. I know, ew.  I didn't see where Carson's fit in my style matrix at the time.  So when I was in there the other day, I did see an abundance of Church Lady dresses, shoes, and hats, but I also saw a lot of dresses that would be considered vintage and hip today.  And the shoe section wasn't bad AT ALL.  All the cute shoes for summer were out at full price of course, but I was happy to be put on to some more shoes!:


Nine West Angelica


Nine West Altan


Miz Mooz Avalon


Lauren by Ralph Lauren Charla


Lucky Band Peggy


Guess Belloma


Nine West Kendrick


Nine West Yarrow (the leather was so soft on these.)


Franco Sarto Alloy


Dolce Vita Sancia

Lucky Brand Maris


Born Tour


Steve Madden Fraid


Only downside was that their shoe sale selection wasn't good at all and comparable to say a DSW sale section or Nordstrom Rack sale  their sale shoes were kinda blah .

Not a morning person

But here's one of the sunrises I was able to witness this week and the outfit  I wore to face the beautiful springy day. And by springy, I mean over 35 degrees and no snow.





The sunrise was definitely an inspiration as I kept with the gray  and dark blue theme of winter from head to toe and added a bright peach cover up in the middle.The boots are some oldie but goodie tie @ the top boots from Wanted that i slouched down. These boots have come really close to being in a give away bag on a couple of occasions because I just didn't like them anymore or because they didn't fit the phase I was going through at the time. Glad they were saved because I have worn them with dress, work, and chill out fits.






 

Até-logo winter!

Imma go out on a limb and say buh-bye to winter preemptively and give winter until March 1st.  I'm completely over this snow, salt, repeat routine. So according to my internal calendar, tomorrow is the last day of spring! Yep, that's right.  And I'm so excited too.
I'm confident we'll be getting more of these clear and warmer days




I've def. been dressing for spring and dug up a summer blouses in preparation. I decided to hold off on the sandals for now though.