Shirt dresses: three ways!

I've long had a thing for shirt dresses. They can be dressed up or casual. They are forgiving on many body types. And I'm really glad to see them make a resurgence. I decided to do a little series on them with two I've had forever and a brand new one!

This is my new one! I love it so very much. It's a chambray style but I still call in denim.

It came with the little belt--it's navy with white dots. I wanted a relaxed sexy feel so I paired it with brown tights and my tall brown boots.

Outfit details: Chambray shirt dress (Tommy Hilfiger); sheer brown tights (can't remember!); tall brown boots (ask later, too lazy to go look....sorry?)

This dress made me feel so cheeky if you can't tell. This dress doesn't really have a good fit so I used a big belt to give me back my waist.

Back view. The dress is white with black polka dots inside squares. I thought it would show up better so I didn't take any closeups.

Outfit details: graphic shirt dress (rue21); wide black belt(swiped form a kensie dress); opaque black tights (hue); black heeled maryjanes (payless).

I went belt-less with this one and probably felt the most self conscious. This dress is an olive green with kind of a black and brown brocade print to it.

too much boobs and ass in this one. I think this is going back in the donate pile! I wore pigtails for a change because my hair was being super uncooperative but then my husband loved it.

Outfit details: brocade shirt dress (rue21); olive opaque tights (hue); brown heeled maryjanes (mudd).

Outfit Delight

Yeah, part whatever in a never ending(I can't stop shopping) series. Buying stuff just encourages buying more stuff because I have these things and nothing to wear them with!


What it is: super cute mod style dress with contrast piping and buttons. This dress pretty much sums up what I'd like to wear forever if I was a cartoon character.

What I'd wear it with: black and white ballet flats to coordinate and then for a splash of color, a bright enamel cuff bracelet.


What it is: a lovely vintage diaphanous pink dress

What I'd wear with it: a short sleeved velvet jacket and velvet and gold T-strap heels. Supremely glamorous in a 40's starlet kind of way.



What it is: a green and white vintage suit comprised of skirt and vest.

What I'd wear with it: a short sleeved ivory blouse and green suede moccasins.


What it is: A vintage nautical dress

What I'd wear with it: a pair of navy sling back wedge sandals and keeping with the theme, a cotton and rope satchel purse.

Stick with me folks. I've got many posts planned but some require research or just additional time in general.

I'm even going to try to pay attention to spring trends. Whether I follow them or not is a different story.

'09 Year in Review

I'm sure everybody is going to be doing some version of these so I'm making my quick and visual. That way you can just scroll down and then be on your way.

In no particular order, my top ten favorite outfits posted on this blog.


1) My orange floral dress.


2) My green dress with white polka dots.


3) My tan jumper dress.



4)My pink sundress with the large floral print.


5) My red white and blue plaid dress



6) My cobalt and orange outfit.


7) My brown and aqua mixed prints outfit.


8) My grungy sweater dress outfit.


9) My orange and blue outfit


10) My pop floral look.



Well, it seems I have a taste for bright colors and patterns. No surprises there.

Can't Stop Won't Stop......Shopping

I really didn't think I bought very much clothing but I am several posts behind in showing off new purchases. Perhaps I'm buying more than usual in order to h ave something to say on days when I'm too brain dead or in too much pain (car accident residue)to post anything even a little interesting. Coupled with finding great bargains in the vintage store where I work and various other shops and yard sales... Maybe when all the flea markets around here go into hibernation for the weekend, I'll be able to rein it all in. A small part of it is also that since I've moved into his house that I'm renovating, I don't exactly have a closet and I haven't exactly unpacked, so my outfits are composed from scraps here and there. The solution being that on the weekends I buy what I'll wear the next weekend. Only I guess I'm buying too much. But i assure you it's all very cheap.



I still get so excited when I find a vintage dress that's not in a vintage store. I thought it would be too big but it actually fits quite well.




A close up on the neat black buttons and cutesy pattern.




I found this tea length dress at a yard sale. Even though I'm normally drawn to things with more color or pattern, this dress is the perfect backdrop to experiment with accessories.



A close up of the eyelet detail.



This empire waist dress is another vintage find. It's very tangerine but I'm hoping to rein it in with grey.



A close up to show the color detail on the trim. Lovely bell sleeves!




I bought this off the junior rack in a department store. Grey being my favorite color and any color being paired with grey.




...and a close up of the darling flower shaped buttons that really make it special.


This is just the tip of the iceberg. I need to get around to wearing more of these clothes so I can dress them up. I've been trying to slip in more daily wear posts, even the more boring ones. I never know what someone might want to look at, it's just me, ya know?

New and New-to-Me

Well if misery loves company, mild dissatisfaction loves shopping! I try not to spend loads of money and I'm really not a self absorbed materialistic person. Pretty clothes just makes me happy. Even when I was little I didn't really play with Barbies except to dress and redress them. I didn't care about the "play pretend" aspect of it. And fashion doesn't have to be shallow. It can also be a form of creative self expression. And I have two jobs and both are fashion related and I have this blog, so I'm kinda obligated to some extent to buy new, or new to me, clothes. At least I don't care about trends or brands. That's when it starts to get a bit shallow.

So...Here's what's new...





This is a cute blue jacket with white polka dots. I'm a sucker for polka dots....and big buttons. And I love how the bright yellow liner is picked up in the yellow thread on the big buttons.





And yet another sundress to add to my collection, even though fall draws ever nearer. I like this because it looks like it was sewn from the scraps of someone's old table cloth. It also incorporates two patterns at once, the floral, and the kinda loopy stripes.

And here is what's new to me...





A fabulous find! It's a vintage tennis dress. It's very short so I need to get some white shorts to wear under it. Kelly green+ white= awesome.






Another vintage dress but this one will work well into the fall/winter because of it's dark colors. I've been wanting to wear blue and purple together because it's so delightfully moody. The close up pic reveals sheer "stripes" down the front of the dress. I can't wait to break out my black tights for this one.

I've been inspired a lot lately so I have about three dress-ups planned for the coming weeks. Those are my favorite posts to do!

Weekend Wear: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

I had to work all weekend so i thought I might as well have some fun with it and turn it into a post. Now this isn't my Job job that we're talking about here, the one that pays my way and corrodes my soul. I work that all week long ( so yes this means I'm on a 12 day work bender yikes!) But sometimes on the weekends and a few evenings I get to work at what my yoga instructor refers to as a Joy job. The one you do for personal fulfillment more than any financial gain.

My Joy job is at a little vintage store in my neighborhood. I became friendly with the owner from buying a ton of stuff there and in a round about way, she's the reason I found my house. A lot of my clothing and decor come from her shop. And I make sure I stop in to visit every few days even if I'm not working because she's constantly getting new stuff in and it's all so affordable. So while she was on vacation, I was manning the store.

I got to meet lots of people both interesting and annoying. And I got to play with all the stuff and pretend like I lived there. And of course, I took a few pictures. i think I'll save the shots of the store for another post and just focus on my playing dress up for this one. Here I am on Saturday, the way busier of the two days...



I'm wearing the purple and black paint splatter dress that was a recent purchase of mine. Still bravely baring my legs and wearing little silver flats.



It was a chilly day so luckily I had my little denim jacket with me. Every year I say I'm going to bring back the denim jacket and I never quite manage to do it.

Sunday...



Here I am hamming it up for the camera in that pink sailor-esque dress, actually bought from that shop. The sunglasses are vintage French, borrowed from the store. They're a pinky-mauve color with a blue marbling effect.



Here I am pretending to read an old gossip magazine about Elvis, sitting in a chair made by a local artist. I'm also wearing my cream heels (my wedding shoes, darling) and little blue and white striped ankle socks.

Playing dress-up helped the weekend fly by but now I must be off to my real work week. Blah. I've also killed some time buying some lovely things which i will share with you soon. You can help me figure out what on earth I'll do with it.

Three dresses and a locket

This is just a quick post before I dash off to work to show off some recent purchases for summer. This time I have three dresses, two new, one vintage, and a vintage necklace. Obviously pretty, girly dresses are an obsession of mine. I even bought one today but that won't show up until a later post.

This is a really fun dress with a crazy neon pattern on the skirt. I thought I was over playing with neon until I saw this dress.



It's hard to see the belt because it hangs down when not wrapped around a body so I've included a close up shot....ignore my chipped nail polish please!




I also got this lovely sundress with sort of a paint splatter effect. i just couldn't resist the combination of light purple and black. It's a little blurry because the wind refused to stop blowing. It was just a little breeze but this dress in particular was very light weight.



Here's a close up so you can get a better look at the sweet ruffle detail...




Now on to the vintage! This little yellow and white dress is from the late 60s. I already have big plans for it so keep a lookout for it to appear in a future post!




This dress has no zippers, just these adorable buttons...




No matter how many pictures I tried to take of this locket, with and without flash, i couldn't get anything that wasn't blurry or glaring or something. This was the best that it got...




You can't really tell, but it's bigger than a half dollar and has a design etched into it, making it very medallion like. It opens and I plan to put a picture of my sweetheart in it! Despite the breeze i think these outdoor shots turned out a lot better than the indoor pictures I took last month. I don't know where I'll take pictures come winter.

Sorry this is all sorta blah, I have to run but I'm working on some more interesting posts for the upcoming week, like my take on west side story.......