Women of a certain age

Every now and then I'll hear someone make a comment like, "Women over thirty shouldn't wear mini skirts." I hate it when people say that, because I'm almost thirty, and I love my legs and plan on wearing mini skirts until the day I think my legs look bad. (Which may be never - I might still be rocking mini skirts at 80.) It bothers me when people try to create fashion rules based on age. Obviously certain situations call for clothing restraint (I never have and never will wear a mini skirt to a job interview or church), but other than that, I say wear whatever the heck makes you happy, no matter what age you are.

Striped blouse: Forever 21

Hot pink skirt: Zara

White wedges: Sam Edelman (Kendall wedges) from Piperlime

Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx

Earrings: free from my aunt (probably from the 90's!)

Necklace: Urban Outfitters

White bracelet: H&M

Black and white on a summer evening

Here's an outfit from yet another one of our evening strolls - we can't seem to stay indoors on these beautiful summer evenings, and we also can't stay away from Salt & Straw. (On this trip we shared scoops of double-fold vanilla and mixed berries - some of the more normal flavors there.)

Striped shirt: Target

Black and white shorts: Loft

Gold sandals: Asos

White purse: free from my aunt

White necklace: H&M

The other day I went to Pix Patisserie in SE Portland with my mom and brother. If you're in the area you really should stop by - the desserts may be expensive, but they're delicious little works of art. My mom got the Shazam, which is the wavy chocolate tower in the middle below, and I got the macarons pictured at the bottom (pistachio, blackcurrant, and salted caramel).

Striped shirt and red legs

Yes, I actually wore this outfit recently. I couldn't believe I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt and tights at the end of spring. This was only the third time I've worn these red tights. (The other two are here and here.) I have no trouble wearing bright shirts, pants and skirts, but I still can't figure out what to do with bright tights. Also, it doesn't help that they feel very Christmas-y, which makes it difficult to find anything appropriate to wear them with outside of winter.

Striped shirt: H&M

Faux leather skirt: H&M

Red tights: American Apparel

Black flats: Kathy flats from ShoeMint

Black necklace: Urban Outfitters

White bracelet: H&M

Gold watch: free from a family member

Juneuary

It was chilly in Portland last week, so one day I pulled out one of my winter sweaters to wear (and probably should have worn tights, too). This is why I don't have much of a distinct summer wardrobe and winter wardrobe - it gets cold enough in June that I need sweaters, and sometimes we have random hot days in February or March where I end up wearing shorts. So I usually can't tuck away my sweaters into my hope chest until the middle of July, and even then I sometimes pull them out again.

White sweater: thrifted from Goodwill

Blue striped skirt: Forever 21

Black boots: Lulu's

Purse: Ralph Lauren, thrifted

Black belt: thrifted from Goodwill

Ring: In Pink

Wedding sandals

These are the sandals I wore to my wedding four years ago. It was not my finest fashion moment. (I wore them with a ninety-three-year-old dress.) But I was feeling rebellious because people were making me have a "real" wedding instead of allowing me to elope, so I went to Target and bought hot pink sandals to wear with my great-grandmother's lace wedding dress. I also dyed my hair black with blonde streaks. Really, it's a good thing we didn't hire a photographer for the occasion.

Most of you probably never noticed this, but I don't wear a wedding ring, and if you're now wondering why, it's because I'm a fidgeter. I wore the ring in the photo below for one hour before I had to take it off because I was so tired of twisting it around and around, and pulling it off and putting it back on, and putting it on my left pinky finger and then switching it back to my right. Eventually I might get a ring tattoo - five minutes of pain; a lifetime without fidgeting.

Pink and orange striped shirt: Venice tee from StyleMint

Pink shorts: Ann Taylor Loft

Pink sandals: Target

Purse: Michael Kors, thrifted from Salvation Army

Earrings: gift from my aunt

Ring: free from my aunt

An evening stroll

After spending nearly all of Memorial Day lounging around the house, Josh and I took Onyx out in the evening for a walk up to a nearby park. Now, I love my dog, and like any dog owner think he's the smartest, funniest, cutest dog in the whole world, but man, he was such a brat on that walk. First, he kept trying to eat sticks and garbage. Then he woofed at two people who walked past us. (Okay, so that was actually kind of funny, but I didn't want them to think he was going to attack them. At the most, he would have attacked them with kisses.) And then when we tried to take photos of him and us, he kept trying to climb on top of the hedges in these photos. So we just tied him up to a nearby post and took the photos anyway.

The pattern mixing in this outfit felt very intuitive - I think it worked so well because the top and skirt both contained red. Plus, in my opinion it's hard to go wrong combining stripes and floral print.

Lately I've been trying to use the manual focus on my camera more, but I have such crappy vision that I can't necessarily tell whether the object I'm photographing is in focus. This flower pictured above was one of the few nature photos that turned out well on our walk.

Red striped shirt: Old Navy

Floral skirt: thrifted, hemmed by me

Jean jacket: thrifted from Rerun

Espadrilles: Ann Taylor Loft (about six years ago)

Necklace: possibly American Eagle Outfitters

Red belt: free from my aunt

Blue bracelet: Dress Barn

Pointy shoulders and pointy heels

I love these crazy boots, but they're so hard to match to most of my clothes. Technically they don't match this shirt, but I liked the combination anyway, especially with the coordinated spikes on the shoulders and heels. I've tried to wear these boots several times since their inaugural wearing, but I just wasn't satisfied with any of those outfit photos until now.

Striped shirt: Urban Outfitters

Black faux leather skirt: H&M

Black cardigan: gift from my aunt, from Macy's

Pointy boots: Solestruck

Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx

Silver earrings: gift from a friend

Spider necklace: Bauble Bar

Silver bracelet: won in a giveaway

Stripes and circles

I love stripes and I love this skirt, so it's no surprise that I've worn a couple iterations of this outfit in the past (here and here), and will probably wear it again in the future.

I'm keeping it brief today because I'm still having headaches every time I sit at the computer. Ugh. I guess it's time for another visit to the eye doctor...

Striped top: thrifted

Color blocked skirt: Forever 21, thrifted from Crossroads Trading Co.

Black flats: Kathy flats from ShoeMint
Black purse: thrifted from Salvation Army

Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx

Gold necklace: Forever 21

Gold bracelet: In Pink

Floral striped dress

Normally I'm not a fan of polyester (although if something cute is made of polyester, I'll wear it anyway), but this dress is made of polyester and it feels fabulous. It's lightweight, and the best part is that even though it looks like a dry-clean-only dress, I can wash it by hand.

I think this was one of my favorite outfits ever - and I do mean ever, not just in blog history. It was weather-appropriate, pretty, comfortable, and coordinated without being too matchy-matchy. Plus, a girl at church yesterday came up to me and introduced herself because she loved these shoes. Fact: you will instantly become my friend if you compliment my shoes.

Dress: Anthropologie
Mint green cardigan: Old Navy

Blue and green wedges: Nine West from Nordstrom Rack

Green hat: free from my aunt

Pink necklace: gift from my grandma

Green bracelet: thrifted from Village Merchants

Today I'm linking up this post at Monday Mingle and Visible Monday.

Summer dresses

Every year when summer rolls around, I realize that my closet is lacking in two things: lightweight dresses and tank tops. Sure, I could subsist on the handful of dresses and tank tops I own that are comfortable in 80-degree weather and hotter, but I like to have variety in my clothing. So this year I decided to be proactive and search for those items before the hot weather actually hits. This past weekend I found this fun striped sleeveless dress from Marshall's and another sleeveless dress (with stripes and flowers!) from Anthropologie. Hopefully next weekend I can find some tank tops (and not just your basic variety - I'd like nice tank tops that can be dressed up or down), and then I'll be set for summer!

Striped dress: Marshall's

Blue sweater: Anthropologie

Black flats: Kathy flats from ShoeMint

Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx

White flower necklace: gift shop on Oahu

Black belt: thrifted

Butterfly bracelet: In Pink

White bracelet: H&M

And, because I really appreciate it when people display official messages in cheeky ways, here's a funny sign from the park where we took these photos:

Shorts and a blazer

This was my first time wearing a shorts-and-blazer combo, and I loved it. I felt dressy and casual at the same time. I'm still amazed at the quality of this blazer. I got it at Forever 21, which as most of you know is notorious for producing garments that fall apart after a few wears. But I could tell when I picked it up in the store last fall that it was really well made, and that's why I was willing to spend $30 on it, which is a low price for a blazer but a high price for anything from Forever 21.

The top photo is a rare thing - a photo of me smiling with my teeth showing where I don't look like a huge dweeb. (Yes, I just used the word "dweeb." In my head, it's still the '90s.) I smile and laugh all the time (and have the wrinkles to prove it), but I'm never self-conscious about it unless I see a photo of myself flashing a toothy grin. Then I get all insecure and all I can think about are how gigantic my teeth look. It doesn't help that boys in elementary school made fun of my huge teeth, and that after Josh first met me he told his sister that I had really big teeth. (And then apparently he found it necessary to tell me that after we were married. I'd be offended, but he did, after all, marry me.) All that to say...it's actually kind of a big deal that I like the photo above. Now if only it didn't look like my eyebrows were missing...

Wrinkly boots! That's what I get for only paying $10 for them...

Striped sweater: H&M

High-waisted jean shorts: H&M, thrifted from Crossroads Trading Co.

Blazer: Forever 21

Tights: Forever 21

Brown shoes: TJ Maxx

Necklace: free from a family member

Bracelet: H&M

Pink and orange

Most of the outfits I wear on the blog are not ones that I wear all day long, simply because I have to wear grungy, non-outfit-photo-worthy clothes when I clean houses in the mornings, and then I change into something cuter in the afternoons. So if any of you were wondering how I could possibly wear such high heels so often, it's because I only wear them for a couple hours at a time. I did wear the jeans and t-shirt pictured here all day on Tuesday - my day off - but wore flats to run errands, and changed into heels when I got home just to feel cute. I'm a big fan of jeans and t-shirts, and appreciate when I can do little things to spice up that combo, like wearing a brightly striped shirt (also worn here and here) instead of a plain one, and throwing on fuchsia heels instead of black flats. (Side note: though I generally consider myself to be a good speller, the word "fuchsia" had me stumped. I went through "fuschia," "fushia" and "fucsia" before I finally had to admit defeat and google it.)

PS - Don't forget to enter my Go Chic or Go Home giveaway for a $50 gift card!

Pink and orange striped shirt: Venice tee from StyleMint

Jeans: Gap

Pink heels: Steve Madden from Marshall's

Gold necklace: Evidence Jewelry, won in a giveaway

Gold leaf cuff: In Pink