All in a day's work

I love my job, I think I am so lucky to spend my time doing something I love and help to shape minds in the process. And there is so much beauty that surrounds me on a typical day.

Payne Creek

What I do changes daily, weekly, by class, semester and there is a lot of variety. (there is a point to all this...)

Kingsley Creek

...and earlier this week I took my class out to study stream ecology and I came back with my outfit pictures (thanks to a willing student photographer). This may not be the most fashion forward post but it is a window into a typical day in my week.
Skirt and shirt: LOFT
Boots: Hunter

Confessions of a closet hoarder.

Or maybe that title should read confessions of a clothes hoarder. Either way, I have to confess I get really nervous watching the show Hoarders on A&E,  and I think "is that going to be me"?

  

Scared look of admission?

It usually prompts me to either: turn off the TV (ignorance is bliss?), reorganize my closet or ceremoniously box things up and put them in the trunk of my car. Where by weeks pass before I really, really decide I want to donate them to the local charity. Or end up carrying it all back into the house.

The whole point of this banter is to confess that I've had this crochet sweater since high school. I've seen this type of knit all over recently and I thought "aha, I think I have something like that" and what do you know, I pulled it out of my closet and wore it here for you to witness.

The worst part is that I tried recently to give away some of daughters baby toys and oh, did she find objection to that! 


Dress: Target-converse
Booties: Aerosoles
Sweater: OLD<25?
I'm linked up at MondayMingle check it out!

and at Harper's Happenings

Pretty, patterned pencil skirt:

This was an outfit day low on thrift goods and very basic effort. It’s interesting how blogging has made me redefine the way I get dressed. Rather than just throwing on a top, a bottom and a pair of shoes; I look the outfit over, layer, reassess, remove and repeat. And I do this again and again until I’ve decided an outfit is interesting and blog worthy.

I think the most interest in this outfit is the print of the skirt:

I love that it reads as a subtle animal print.

I did mange a cute necklace.

   

not much of a smile

 

But, the posed pictures are a bit of a sham because I didn't wear those pretty heels (remember it's still cold and wintry here)! I instead wore my trusty Frye durango's. Sans tights of course and was quite warm and comfortable.

Pencil skirt: J.Crew Factory
Blouse: J.Crew
Necklace: not sure, maybe thrifted
Shoes: old   Boots: Frye

Still Winter here

As much as I'd like this post to be an awesome styling of my newly thrifted yellow jeans or my cool printed mini, it's not. 

Sunny Easter Sunday afternoon

The reality is...it may be spring according to the calender but, spring has not really arrived in upstate New York. A few weeks ago we were teased with near 80 degree weather and the sun was shining in full force this weekend. 


However, this morning I woke up to this:

and this...

  

Hopefully it explains why my outfit post looks more December than April:

 But, let's face it as I walked across campus: I was warm, I was not alone (a sea of black leggings, North Face and Brown Frye) and I got to restyle my boots with this buttery soft leather skirt I thrifted:

A nod to spring was accomplished by a turn of the cuff and a pretty pop of coral:

So, if I can't wear pastel, I'll just enjoy all of your pretty posts and know that my day will be here soon.

Wool Blazer:J.Crew (2007)
Shirt:J.Crew-thrifted
Leather skirt-thrifted
Boots: Steve Madden (2009)


I'm linked up at http://transatlanticblonde.blogspot.com/ for what I wore Wednesday, check it out!

Easter Weekend Hunt: Colored eggs and colored jeans!

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the glorious and wonderful holiday. I spent some time on the weekend coloring Easter eggs and hunting for colored jeans! My daughter then hunted for the eggs and found them,all!

Here they are! Dress: crewcuts, Vest-thrifted

The eggs..... and the jeans!

I've been on the hunt for a few weeks now for some colored jeans;
I'm really loving this trend for spring.  These are the yellow jeans I found this weekend, now I'm just playing around with styling them or possibly try to fade down the bright, bright yellow.  What do you think? I think the nautical striped shirt is a real natural as a neutral for this trend. Any suggestions would be great, in the meantime, I will pull something together and post it for you to see! Happy Monday, check out the link to MondayMingle.

Thrifted Vintage Purse(s)

A few months ago I was reading one of my favorite Canadian blogs and in that post, Jentine of my edit blog, suggested she was in a purse thrifting slump. Then she thrifted a beautiful green Gucci clutch. 


This got me thinking about thrifting purses and some of the bags I've acquired over the last few months and I thought since I rarely remember to hold a bag/clutch/purse in my outfit pictures that I should do a separate post on just these:

Vintage Coach Purse 1980s

Vintage Dooney & Bourke

Vintage Beaded Bag 1960's

Vintage Italian Leather Clutch

Leather brass toogle Clutch

I might add that this post was additionally inspired by the Vintage Coach bag I thrifted Wednesday evening for $1.49! I did some research and learned that it is from the 1980s based on the serial number pattern (xxx-xxxx). And, the leather and hardware suggests it is from the lightweight bag collection Coach introduced to appeal to US customers in the south and west in 1986. I think what I like best about it, as well as my own original Coach bags, was that it was made in the United States and not China! 




I'm linked up at meetvirginiadesign.com  check it out

Layering

I thrifted this Land's End shirt dress about a year ago and I've worn it only a few times. 

I really like it, I like the fit and feel but, sometimes when it is worn tied with it's "self belt" I come off looking like a "mature lady who lunches". Not. Cool. No offense to the "ladies who lunch" but  that was not the look I was going for. 

I wanted a more modern preppy vibe and this is what I came up with after I thrifted this nautical brown striped J.Crew shirt.  I added the belt to pull it all together with my knee high brown boots. The coat is my usual spring topper and I liked the way the entire look came together.

 Much. Better.

Dress:Land's End-thrifted
Shirt: J. Crew-thrifted
Belt: NY&Co-Spring 2011
Boots: Frye
Trench Coat: Banana Republic


I'm linked up at transatlanticblonde check it out!


http://transatlanticblonde.blogspot.com/p/what-i-wore-weds.html