OOTD: Skirting the Issue

I swore to my friend that I'd stop with the cell phone pics, but it's just so easy to snap the pic before I leave for work instead of messing up around with camera cords and slow upload times. Sorry, readers!

Here's another of my Lands' End Canvas goodies: the Gray Lawn Skirt. In real life, the gray is more greige, but I love how high-waisted and flouncy it is. I just paired it with an old ruched scoop-neck tee from Wal-Mart and a wide coganc woven belt from Rue 21.

In other fashion news, a poster on The Nest's Fashion & Beauty board alerted me to some new boots at Target.  I'd love to see these in person, but as of now, I'm kind of in love with their latest Frye knock-off (real leather upper!). I had great success with last year's Mossimo Kady boot in Cognac. I may as well just sign over my paychecks directly to Target.  Pretty much a win every time.

Women's Mossimo Supply Co. Kachiri Leather Americana Boots - Taupe

OOTD: Fit and Flare

I received the first of my new purchases in the mail! I have to give two enthusiastic thumbs up for the Merona Shirtdress. It fits wonderfully and was so comfortable to wear it felt like I didn't have anything on.  I only wish it came in a lot more colors.

My Lands' End Canvas shipment arrived as well. Everything fits and seems like good quality. Today I have on the Fit and Flare dress. It's fabulous, except I wish the scoop wasn't as "scoopy" since my bra wants to peek out on the top sides. Here it is paired with a Merona cardi in Mint.

Lands' End is still running their 50% summer sale with an additional 20% off, but I believe it ends today.

Cubicle Chic

I've been holding in a little secret, readers. As of August 2, I'll be starting a new job. While the past five years in my super casual office have been pretty cushy, I figured it was time to flip the ol' career switch and go back to corporate life and get my career back on track.  With my return back to cubicle life should also come an appropriate wardrobe. Like I needed more excuses to shop. :)

While I have a staggering amount of dresses, most are too casual and bosom-revealing for my new professional life. Therefore I've been picking up a few pieces.

I've been hearing so much about the new J.Crew-esque Lands End Canvas line, and when I saw yesterday's 20% off orders of $100 and free shipping, I pulled the trigger on these items:

Women's Pattern Cotton Lawn Skirt

Heritage Cardigan in Cherry

Fit and Flare Dress

And from Target:

Merona Elbow-Sleeve Shirtdress

Merona Cap Sleeve Dress

Think these are appropriate for a business casual environment in central Pennsylvania?

I've been adding lots of fashion blogs to my Google Reader - especially those who do business casual/office OOTDs, and one of my new favorites is  The New Professional.  If you have any more recs of similar blogs, leave me a link in the comments please.

OOTD: Maximista

This OOTD is actually from a few weeks ago. For those who actually tune in to my blog to see the clothes, I hereby apologize. In all honesty, I've been feeling like my standard dress + flops are so simple and boring that I often forget to snap a pic and are so not blog-worthy.

I've been completely lusting after black maxi dresses this summer. But since most maxis have such itty bitty low-cut tops, I have to pass on most of them. Fortunately I found this one at Fashion Bug.

Granted, I still have a good bit of cleave going on, but at least I can slide by without a cami underneath. 

And I'm reaaaaaally hoping that this dress looks, uh, less maternity, on me in person. No, I'm not pregnant. Just weighted down (ha, pun!) with almost fifteen pounds of newlywed weight. Yesterday I finally took the plunge and stepped back on the scale for the first time since last May. Eeep. And there's the downfall of THE DRESS, my friends. When worn right, they're usually excellent at camoflauging gains because you don't have that pesky muffin top problem like you'd have with pants. 

Lesson learned. :-/

Baby Houseman Style

I can't believe it took me until today to figure out why I really connected to much of 2010's summer trends. But when you think about it and play a mental slideshow of Baby Houseman's outfits in your head ... yeah, you see it, right? Granted, the movie was the 1980s doing the 1960s and fashion always comes back around in cycles, but it worked then and it works now.

Take for example the dress Baby wears while carrying a watermelon. A cute little pastel-striped sleeveless dress, with a boatneck cut and a-line skirt paired with a skinny belt.

Today's version? Maybe something like this:

Dressed-down Baby:

Today's version: Red striped tee and jorts

Bohemian Baby:

Today's version? Maybe this floral skirt and white peasant top

And don't forget that at Kellerman's you can pair all of these outfits with classic white Keds. :) 

Decor Productivity

It was a productive decorating weekend for me, largely in part to having my friend and her husband assist in tackling some of the scary hanging projects. Four double-hung frames being one of them. :-/

I picked up some chalkboard decals (4 9x12) at TJ Maxx. I always liked the idea when seen in other decorating blogs, so I thought hey, why not. I needed something to fill some space on the wall above my coffee nook anyway.

Next up, hanging curtains and the photo gallery. Also at TJ Maxx I bought the cheese-tastic vinyl decal that reads "All Because Two People Fell In Love" - afterall, I'm not anti-cheese. And while the vinyl word decals are overdone on the Internet, it's not really a "thing" here, so I'm a total trendsetter.

Curtains purchased at Big Lots for $15 for two panels! I love the way it softens up the room and makes things a little more calming. 

Floating shelves in the bathroom were also put up! I'm going to add more accessories, but for now I just have my DIY Wordles (our first dance and last dance song lyrics). On the side wall is another DIY word project using the eye chart look. It reads "Bear bottoms are acceptable here." 

Our next projects include re-doing our bathroom floor with floating vinyl and painting it an avocado color. We're also getting a new mattress set at which time we're taking up the skanky Berber remnant, shining up the natural hardwoods and getting a plush area rug. 

OOTD: 4th of July

You're probably thinking, "that dress AGAIN?" There's just something about this old white Merona dress that I keep gravitating toward. Plus I'm lacking decent blue dresses and have NO red dresses, so white it was. I added navy flops and the fabric belt from my Converse plaid shirtdress which has gray and navy tones.

We headed out to our city's downtown fireworks display (holy Jerry Springer convention) and dined on yummy hot sausage sandwiches and fries. The mister and I have a little thing for the Fourth since we met on that date back in 2003. Aww.

Dress: old Merona for Target

Shoes: Old Navy

Belt: repurposed from Target dress