Bag a Bargain!

Prelude:
It has been almost a year that I’ve started this weblog and been posting for past six months. I feel like the weblog has past its trail period and is ready for some rock and roll!
So in next few weeks some exciting changes are going to happen here!
The first new addition is having fashion illustrations. I used to be a pretty good illustrator but hadn’t had the opportunity to do any drawing in recent years. It is one of those skills that are called “Use it or Lose it!” therefore I am going to use it!

Now the important stuff:
I don’t know how you did on your bargaining this weekend but I got lucky and bagged (haahaa!) a Lucky Brand dark cognac color handbag for half the retail price! Yooohooo!
Here is my new baby in all its illustrated glory:



It is a little larger than what I had in mind but the leather is gorgeous. I don’t like the lining fabric which has a very flowery pattern. As the bags’ lining is usually important to me (I’m the one looking at it every time I open the bag) I’m not so sure about keeping this bag. But should I return such a great bargain because I don’t like the lining? Very hard decision!

Spring Fashion report or what to buy now!

Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying your yummy Christmas treats and having fun.
If you are going to hit the after Christmas Sales and taking advantage of low prices, look for items that are going to be in style this coming spring.
The top fashion trends for spring 2010 are:
- White: blouses, dresses, suites, everything!
- Pastels, nudes, blush colors on dresses and accessories
- Ruffles and lace, specially black and white lace, on skirts and dresses
- Prints: florals, Ikats, Tribal
- Military chic: either Khaki or army-green, neutrals, Trench coats, shirt dresses, Pants
- Natural accessories in sisal, leather and rope, burlap and linen, woven textures
- Handbags: minibags, long strap medium size bags, bags with fringe and pouches or draw string bags
- Lucite and clear glass and metallic jewelry
- Shoes: strappy shoes with narrow high heels, high wedges and (I’m sorry to say!) clogs
- Denim everything, even head to toe denim!
- Make up: red lips, cat eyes, neutral with smoky eyes and pink blush (as always)
- Collarless boxy jackets like classic Chanel jacket
- Mini skirts, with prints
- Soft slouchy pants

Ok my dears,
Keep these in mind and go score some bargain!
Good luck and happy shopping to you all!

Happy Winter Solstice!

Every year Iranians celebrate winter solstice or yultide on the longest night of the year. I know the history and mystical significant of the occaision. But our modern day celebrations are more about a lot of eating and drinking and dancing and maybe a little divination using our favorite poet’s lyrics.
Last night, for this year Yultide party; I took advantage of the recent warm weather and enjoyed my favorite chiffon top:

Ahh, you all Northies that are struggling with snow storms and blizards, be enviouse! We were having 65-75 days and nights over the weekend.
Ooh, and then in turn, I envy you your white christmas!

Cat Walks!

Leopard print was a major trend this summer and fall. My silk sheath dress was a lucky find at a half-price sale in Ann Taylor in April. Strange how I hadn’t wore it the whole summer. I have thought it too dressy for school and not dressy enough for night parties, I guess!
Anyway, today for a late lunch in honor of a friend’s birthday, my darling leopard dress finally got her moment of glory!
I matched it with my dark purple ruffled jacket and gray ombre pumps and was warm and cozy the whole evening!

Ode to my black dress

Hello, I’m back!
I passed that scary exam yesterday and today relaxed between two meetings in the afternoon and then a little chitchat with my friend.
Have been sticking to my uniform approach these days because I couldn’t be bothered to think and plan outfits. My creativity had taken a nose dive! So it was dresses with tops layered under for the days and a long knit tunic and skinny jeans for the nights, and of course coats and scarves and boots.
My black sleeveless minidress has been in constant use. It is perfect with a button down shirt or with a long sleeve tee or a tissue thin knit cowlneck sweater. It works well with prints and with solids of any color with just minimum accessorizing.

I have never thought I would get so much wear out of a simple dress year after year.
Next, I am going to pair this dress with more elaborate tops, a little more chiffon and lace and ruffle to make it more festive for the tholiday season!

These days...

You know those days, when all you can think of; all you ever want is a big slice of triple layer chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate mousse fillings or a half-pond of tiramisu or a plate full of cream puffs or éclairs?

But instead of all that, you make do with half a gingerbread cookie and a little square of chocolate and a glass of juice because that is the healthier choice. Because it is good for you!

Yeah, you know; I am having some of those days!

Ah, regrets!

I wasn’t in the mood to be creative today so got a previous outfit and tried to revamp it which ended up with me ruining a good thing! Remember my Amazing Purple outfit? Ok, the picture for the sweater-dress inspired (huh!!) me to wear a long-sleeved button down under the sweater-dress instead of my soft nice purple tunic. The shirt I wore was in this purple with shimmering blue undertone. So I repeated the blue with a navy belt. The whole time in the class, in seminar and while helping our group dean move his office and then celebrating his birthday with pizzas, I was self-conscious of my bad outfit. Although others were saying my outfit is too cool for school (again!). I guess this time it wasn't a compliment!

Where I went wrong:
- The stiff fabric under the medium thickness of sweater-dress was uncomfortable and the shirt was riding up constantly and needed adjustments!
- The colors of shirt and dress were very similar and instead of having this cool layered look, I achieved the look of an untidy badly cut one piece dress!
- In general it wasn’t a good day!

Multiple plaids

When you hear the word plaid you get these visions of lumberjack style long shirts. My mixed plaids on the other hand looked quite sophisticated today.

The pant’s pattern has these thin lines of orange and raspberry in its design and I matched it with a raspberry sweater (actually two thin sweaters, one long-sleeved and one a wrapped vest). My fluffy scarf was the perfect accessory today as it was a little chilly.

Happy Thanksgiving

These past few days I have locked myself at home presumably to study and just left the house in the evening for dinner or taking a walk. My outfits were the same uniform of skinny jeans and knit tunics I have been wearing every night this autumn.
For daywear, my comfy outfit for playing with cats, munching as much chocolate as I can and lounging around with a magazine and occasionally turning a page from my text book is this soft and cozy combo:

It is the only legging I ever owned and I just wear it in winter at home!
For Thanksgiving’s dinner I’m going to repeat Sunday’s (November 22) outfit. It is simple and elegant and very suitable for the small dinner party we are attending.

This year I am thankful for being healthy, having a great family and wonderful friends, for my vacation and the opportunity to visit my parents and for finally finishing my MS.

Amazing purple

Getting complements from both girls and guys is a rare and wonderful experience. You either dress for girls (unique patterns, pretty florals, different textures, amazing colors, careful details) or for guys (formfitting, monochrome, and sexy!). Also there is a third alternative: dressing for yourself! But it usually is very “hit or miss” with others because unlike you, other people for example might not be in the mood for mint and chocolate icecream and would not understand the logic behind your color combo!
Anyway, I dressed for myself today and wonder of wonders, it was approved by girls and guys alike! I am speechless!

Saturday rush

Whoever said weekends are supposed to be low key was sourly mistaken. Take my day, having a guest from out of town, lunch and then me going to library to read a couple of chapters and hubby and the guest having fun sight-seeing, meeting them for coffee, back home and dinner, sending the guest on his way and then getting invited to an spontaneous after dinned gathering and staying up till 2:40 am. Very fun indeed!
It is a very good thing everything works with everything else in my closet! I ended up putting this outfit together in five minutes and even I was impressed!

I can say it was a great occasion to unveil two favorite pieces of my winter wardrobe, the top and the jacket. I am becoming very found of purple this winter!

Friday Fun

Lots of going ons. Such a busy day it turned out to be.
Ooh, I can testify! This outfit is perfect for walking on the beach on a chilly November afternoon.

The scarf picks the orange of jacket although it could not be seen in the picture.

I also love all the textures: velvet of the hat, suede of the bag, scratchy wool/tweed of the jacket, softness of the scarf…

Coming from the court

The inspiration for today's outfit came from Harper’s Bazaar November 09 issue “Crimes of Fashion” story, the court swearing scene.

I didn’t have anything similar to that black trimmed blouse so I added a black lace and ribbon flower pin to the banded collar of cream blouse. I kept wishing I had something similar to those lacey gloves. Ahh, well; I keep looking!
And no, I didn’t put my hair up, just made a ponytail!
Also I totally forgot about the long necklace, but I had my coat and scarf on even in the classroom, so no loss there! It is really cold in our classes. Apparently the building maintenance has not got the memo that it is winter already!

Neglected

Ok, been neglecting almost everything and rescheduling my exam and stressing and lots of nail biting (figuratively!) over it.

My uniform policy has proven useful for getting ready every day.

Yesterday outfit:

Today, lunch with friend, meeting with advisor :

My winter dresses have a few things in common and I have learned to deal with those. First thing, they mostly have plunging necklines which I remedy with a top worn underneath. Then they are all minis but I think that’s why boots and tights have been invented, right? Plus wearing a top coat or long cardigan helps. The only issue I haven’t found a solution for is the short sleeves! What am I supposed to do aside from wearing long sleeved tops underneath?
And, yeah; the only time I can enjoy wearing minidresses is at winter.

What your professor wears

It is a sad state, the way our female professor dress. I don’t expect much, we are all engineers in the end but… OK, one lady wears long skirts and themed sweaters, very large and baggy. Another one dresses like a boyish undergrad student, in unflattering tops and mom-ish jeans or in floral tops and skirts suited for a lady farmer. And you can find the third in very mannish blouses and pants with a jean jacket thrown on top!
My fourth and up to today favorite professor is a whole other story. I can not deny it, she has style! She dresses like an attractive young woman that she is, always with a nod to trends. Here are three of her recent looks. She is cool, is she not?







And No, she is not into logos and brands. That Coach bag is in the photos because I couldn’t find anything similar to the no-name tote she is carrying! It is almost the same color though!

p.s. I am not very happy with her today. I just find out that she is trying to postpone my prelim exam because she has something else to do that day! Although I first confirm the date with her and then talked to the other two committee members. That is so unfair and irresponsible of her!
What am I to do now? Two weeks to my exam and rescheduling?!
Imagine trying to reschedule exam time with three professors that are not in school often and have the bad habit of answering their email a week late! Nightmare!

The uniforms

I have become used to a couple of Fall uniforms for day and night. My day time uniform is a dress with a top layered underneath, tights and boots and a coat (and scarf usually). Although sometimes I go the way of "top, skirt and cardigan",it has become rare these past couple of weeks. I guess matching three pieces takes more effort than picking just one dress and a random top!
For the nights I am ending up with a knitted/sweater tunic, skinny jeans, boots, hat and scarf.
Like tonight:




p.s. sometimes it becomes more than necessary to alter and mend! I spend three hours last night (11:00pm-2:00am) working on some of my clothes. Apparently, my favorite cashmere/rabbit angora tissue sweater had an unfortunate encounter with a moth and ended up with seven holes! So much for all those lavender satchels I put in the drawers!
Yeah, I mended it but it is ruined! And I loved it; it was my feel-good be-happy-and-carefree sweater!
Also worked on three skirts that were a little large for me. A couple of adjustments, an extra seam or two and now they are perfect. Last but not least finally got around to thin down my gray dress, after 7 years! I guess I kept hoping that I grow into it! Anyway it was a little large around the chest and I fixed it.
Afterward I kept wishing I could be this dedicated to my studies!

Too much socializing!

Freezing in a classroom is not the best way to learn new things, let me tell you! And also starving during a seminar is not the best way to make good first imperesions. Worse still is eating your lunch out of the way at the back of the room and the food wrapper making all these noise and then later on finding out that one of your professors was sitting right behind you! Oops!



p.s. What you are going to wear to a social event in you sport club?
Well, something form fitting, sporty and high heeled; to show that you don’t need the work out and also compete with all the super-athletic cool and coifed ladies in there!
I wore my "this week's favorite" uniform, skinny jeans, gray suede boots, dove velvet coat, a black turtleneck and my gray leopard print scarf.

Comfort comes first

Have been repeating outfits specially the one from Nov 5th a lot for nights and even school today. I use different bags but my gorgeous suede boots are getting a real work out. I guess my creativity is dying as I’m getting closer to my exam and am not very prepared for it! Haa!
Anyway, tonight for our dinner and coffeeshop outing I went the route of warm and cozy with knits.

I am absolutely in love with my caramel color ombre scarf. It is really soft and silky and warm.

By any other name

After spending two days in jeans and comfortable tees and warm cardigans, reading old lecture notes and confusing papers and voluminous text books, I fancied up my outfit for tonight. Although dear hubby was thinking I look more like one of Oliver Twist’s pickpocket friends!

Getting a cold shoulder!

Hooray! It finally got cold enough to wear knits tonight!
After studying for a few hours, reading a couple of chapters sci-fi was more than welcome!

An active day

A very busy day, starting with scheduling my preliminary exam (panic!), ten thousands email, lunch with my friend, attending a protest/support for five minutes and going home and to the library and reading 20 chapters of a very huge text book!

I like to think the piece-de-resistance of this outfit is my chain belt worn as necklace. Love it!

p.s. I am being forced to use the actual pieces of my clothing rather than generic items for these looks. An issue that I have problems with. When I use pictures of generic clothes it is about a look, a color combination or a certain theme, something everyone can get inspired by or imitate. But when I use photos of my own clothes, the look becomes about me, about how this certain piece works with others or how unique something is. That is what I usually try to avoid. (“usually” being the operative word here!) But believe me, as hard as I try to find something similar to what I own on the internet, sometimes it is impossible!

My armor of the day

Ahh, flu season is here and everyone is coughing and sneezing! I so hate it! I am a closet germophobe and my microbiology class doesn’t help the matters. It just gives me more germs to be afraid of!
Trying to avoid pathogenic contamination of any type at school:

Day in, day out!

I’m trying to find a cool way to wear my gorgeous new jacket. So for a while it will turn up nearly every day in my outfits!
School, lunch, getting bored:

Evening shopping and dinner and coffeeshop:

Sunday Blues!

After changing my outfit three times this is what I ended up with for going to dinner and coffeeshop tonight.

Halloween Fortune!

Here I am in my “fortune teller” costume and bad lighting! I do apologize for the low quality of photos! I like to assume the bad lighting adds to the spooky factor! Haah! Please consider it part of special effects!

I wasn’t planning to reveal my identity in a bad photo (or at all!) but this is a special occasion! As for costumes I really liked to dress up as “Alice” from “Alice in Wonderland” new movie or better yet as the “White Queen” but I wasn’t in the mood and didn’t have time (re: my presentation and new research topic!) for going costume shopping, so I shopped my closet. My options were going as a Witch, a mean Fairy Queen, a Lady Pirate, or a Fortune Teller.
I have been a Witch for 7 Halloweens, and last year I dressed up as a Fae Queen due to lending my Witchy hat to a friend! So a Gypsy Fortune Teller it was!

Decide on a color!

I felt totally drained these couple of days, working hard on a new research subject and reading papers. Then I stayed up the whole night preparing a presentation for the Friday meeting. Worse part ever? I didn’t get to do my presentation! All that work for nothing! At least I looked good sitting there feeling bad for myself!


By the way, this is that infamous top I complained about last year! I was dead set on taking it to the Goodwill during my Spring Cleaning but I was weak and it stayed!

Running in high heels

The whole day felt like being on fast forward!

School and lunch with my friend, running errands:

Mustard challenge, outfit 2.5:

Well, this one can’t be counted as a whole challenge outfit because the mustard cardigan was completely covered by the long purple cardigan and was not seen!
Despite the cool evening I was feeling quite sunny!

Spending the evening in the library, reading a bunch of new articles, shopping and dinner:

Mustard challenge, outfit 2:

I borrowed the idea of setting mustard with burgundy from this outfit of Kasmira. But as usual my matchy-matchy self went ahead and added a whole lot of red/burgundy to it!
Well, one step at the time, right?!

Nighty night

A very simple outfit for a couple of hours of hanging in our neighborhood coffeeshop. While dressing I was in the mood of English country style and looking for a perfect mixture of ruggedness and softness in a jacket. Wonder of wonders there is nothing like that in my whole wardrobe! I really need a casual country style jacket! My faithful Generra jacket didn’t look quite right with my crocheted tunic and rugged handbag! Should go shopping!

Ruffled to school!

I layered two ruffle-y tops over each other. I was feeling very froo froo spending the whole afternoon searching for articles on a new subject! Then I owed it to myself to have some fun so I went shopping! I love Anthropologie!
After wearing 3-4 inch heels the whole summer, my 2-inch oxford heels felt like wearing oh-so-comfortable flats today!

My cruise ship chronicles, part2

Saturday October 24:
Ok, the good thing about not publishing this post on time is that I can add to it!
What I didn’t wear:
- one pair of black shorts, it was too cold.
- a silk tunic, green patterned, again too cold!
- cotton top, pink and orange patterned, again too cold!
- gold flats, they were hurting my feet!
My outfits were:
First day, boarding, dinner:

In the cabin, sleeping (don’t laugh! It was cold!):

Breakfast second day:
Lazing on the deck, napping, reading:
Afternoon, dance show, dinner:
Third day, breakfast, sun-napping:

Going to the port, sight seeing, shopping:
Dinner, talkshow, evening entertainment:
Coming home:

My cruise ship chronicles, part1

or "What to pack for a cruise?"
Sunday October 18:
We are leaving for a little cruise vacation in Baja and I have been planning my wardrobe for a couple of days now. Here is what I came up with:
- at least one cocktail dress
- two skinny jeans, dark indigo and white
- white cargo pants
- cargo skirt, brown
- a silk tunic, green patterned
- four cotton tops, blue, purple and patterned, olive green
- gold wedges, gold flats, blue wedges, yellow flip flaps
- two bags, small bronze, large silver hobo
- one cream hoodies
- four thin cardigans, two grays, one white, one brown
- one stripe t-shirt
- one pair wide leg jeans
- one pair of black shorts
- one large tote
- two scarves
- one straw hat

Being sloppy!

I know! You don’t have to tell me! I’m being sloppy, untidy and unattentive! It is all the result of experiencing a little freedom and R&R!
What I ended up wearing yesterday to school:

Yes, it is very suitable for having a shouting match in the meeting and then going interior-design-crazed with my office mates and breathing in a huge amount of dust because we were pushing desks and removing partitions and moving our cubicles around in the office. Also good for a lengthy meeting with my advisor and crying over all the unjust things happening to my research!
Bookstore, Coffeeshop and dinner with dear hubby:

To wear or not to wear!

Just got back from our little trip and am wondering what to wear to school and a couple of meetings tomorrow! Problem is all my usual Go To’s are in laundry basket and it is going to be warm (85°F) tomorrow.
What you wear when you want to be casual (it is Friday!) but not-too-casual? Remember the meetings? I have a reputation -as Always Dressed Up- to uphold! Now I’m touring my favorite style weblogs for inspiration.
What I packed and what I wore these past couple of days will be posted soon! Keep tuned!

Hot days are back!

Temperature hit 96 today which was a shock after nice autumn-y days we had this last week. I felt very confused dressing this morning!
Wasting my time in school: