Dressing my best, part one

Dress: Ann Taylor Loft;

Shoes: Aerosoles;

Leaf pin and jade bracelet: Finder's Keepers.

How I've worn the dress before: here.

I am so humbled by your responses yesterday. It was very hard to hit "publish" on that post, so to read through all of your wonderful, thoughtful and kind comments was like receiving a giant group hug. I've kept these feelings so bottled up, so it was rejuvenating and amazing to read new perspectives on the situation. I can't tell you how much this blog community has meant to me in the last few months, and I am so grateful to have you not only as my lovely readers, but as my friends. You all really are so wonderful. Thank you so much.

I've already started work and I'm slowly getting used to the differences between 9-to-5 office environments and retail. Like getting my "weekend" days off during the week instead of Saturday and Sunday, and not being in front of a computer all the time makes me much more time efficient with it when I'm at home. So far, it's been pretty easy to listen and talk to customers -- as Closet 365 commented, perhaps my journalism background has made it easier to be outgoing (or at least fake it). So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I thought I'd show you my work outfit from last night. I thought I would dress up a bit because I only had to work a few hours, so wearing Aerosoles heels and a dress wasn't uncomfortable, and it made me feel great to actually incorporate my own style into the dress code.

I also dressed up because it's Academichic's "Dress Your Best" week, in which the ladies of that blog have encouraged everyone to dress for their best attributes, instead of  dressing to hide perceived flaws. I'm dressing for my legs today. For most of my life, I've had an antagonistic relationship with my legs. I spent most of my childhood and teens trying to hide or cover them because of the many scars I had from eczema, from mosquito bites during summer camp and from being naturally ungraceful. It took me a long time to get over the fear of being judged by my legs' appearance, when really, I should have appreciated them for what they were (and are): strong and capable. The marks became battle scars in my mind, and became reminders of how much I've gone through. My legs have done so much for me: they've survived preschool ballet, and middle school cheerleading. They've survived four years of being a summer camp counselor, and countless hiking trips. They've survived a summer of walking all over Manhattan, taking me to different wonderful nooks of the city. They've survived Diamond Head. They can handle eight hours of standing at work, and they can handle a pair of heels really well. And because of all those things, and many more, I'm going to celebrate them.

How long til my soul gets it right?

Listening to: "Galileo," Indigo Girls.

Photo from this shoot.

I have some serious life updates that I wanted to tell you all, because at this point we're friends and it feels weird to omit this info from my blog, because it's going to affect it a bit.  I just found out recently that I'm not going to graduate school, at least not this fall. The news was devastating, and I am still sad because it was my huge life goal for this year. But I'm going to reapply to more schools until I get accepted into an international affairs/policy track program. In the meantime, I've decided to take a full-time position as a sales associate at a national department store retailer to make money/learn more about the business/keep myself busy during the year. 

I really have to say, I was pretty freakin' scared -- and still am a little --- to be making all these changes. I've mostly worked internships/jobs related to journalism (news writing, editing) and politics (mostly public relations), and my last job was an internship at the state Capitol (it ended a couple months ago). To be honest, I've worked in mostly media-related positions since I was in high school, so to do anything different feels like going off track or losing part of how I define myself. It's been hard to admit that the media industry has been tough for me to navigate and break into this past year.

Suffice it to say, I've never worked retail before. I know that many of you work or have worked in retail before, and I admire that. It's just that when you've never done something before, it's kind of scary to jump into the fray. After a lot of crying and soul-searching, I think this will be a good change and possibly a great learning experience for me. It also helps that the managers who hired me are really nice and seem to be very friendly and open to helping me with my goals. They mentioned a possibility to turn this experience into a career in retail management or fashion marketing, if I decide to go that way. I'm not sure how I feel about doing that yet, but it's nice to feel like I have options, which didn't seem possible a couple weeks ago.

As for blog changes, you'll see some variance in how I do my outfits.  Per my work's dress code, I have to wear all black, so you'll be seeing some of that on the blog. For a girl who loves to wear lots of color, this will be a huge sartorial challenge, but I'm going to make the most of it. I promise I'll still do outdoor shots and dresses and fun outfits, too, and I think, if anything, my posts will become more prolific as I navigate this new job and try to stretch the limits of this dress code.

It feels better just writing this out and telling you all. I spent a lot of time writing and deleting various drafts of this post, because it felt like I was pouring too much of my soul out, but sometimes things just need to be said. It's been hard not to mention it on here for the longest time, but I had to know for sure what was going on before I said anything. This blog has been one of my only creative writing outlets in the past year, and it's been incredible to have so much support from many of you. I hope you'll continue reading as I start this strange, new adventure. :)

Love,

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

Me and Mom, circa 1988

Me and Mom, May 2009

Thanks for everything. Love you.

Quicky quick

Dress:: Donna Ricco;

Sandals: Miss Trish of Capri, Target;

Bag: Thrifted;

Black cougar bracelet: thrifted, vintage,

Finder's Keepers;

Bracelet: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI.

How I've worn the dress before: here.

Just a quick post before I head to bed. Here's the dress that started off The Dress Project. I decided to play up the romantic vibe to it by pairing my vintage bag with it. I felt so ladylike and retro today. No need for a sweater -- it was 87 degrees for most of the day!

These photos were a journey in and of themselves. We trekked 45 minutes in the park to find a new location which turned out not to work for photos, so we went back to the barn instead. I'm a little sweaty, err, glowy, in the photos, but a good blogger does her duty anyways, right?

Today was a fabulous afternoon/night with Jeremiah -- park adventuring, movies, Barnes & Noble visit and then some grocery shopping. As for the movies, Iron Man 2 was pretty entertaining, considering I had no expectations going into it because I hadn't seen the first one. I'm a big Marvel Comics fan so I like some superhero movies, and while I was unfamiliar with Iron Man's origins, this movie didn't make it difficult to get caught up on his back story. Bonus: there's a cameo with John Slattery (aka Roger Sterling from "Mad Men") as a character who is actually a little Roger Sterling-ish. So uh, go see it!

All in all, a beautiful afternoon.

Happy weekend,

Monochromatic (sort of)

Orange printed top: Old Navy;

Orange camisole: Urban Outfitters;

Orange wool printed skirt: Ann Taylor, thrifted;

Heels: Tayla platforms, Target;

Jade bracelet: Finder's Keepers.

How I've worn the skirt before: here.

How I've worn the top before: here.

If there's anything The Dress Project has taught me, it's how to appreciate my separates. Often the quickest way to change the tone of an ensemble would be through adding a skirt here, a sweater there. I decided to shift some of my dress-centric focus yesterday by wearing my separates collection.

I was pretty inspired by Sal's monochrome outfit post last week about how to wear all one color. I've always been drawn to the color orange and seem to have lots of it in my closet, so I decided to add a few pieces together. I ended up loving this a lot and it felt fun to wear. To avoid looking like a piece of fruit or too much like a prison jumpsuit, I played with pattern (tribal printed top, orange-lined skirt) and texture (cotton, wool). It also helped that splashes of white (in the top) and pink (in the skirt) helped break up the oranges. I've had all these pieces for awhile, but this is one of those outfits that I think I wouldn't have worn two years ago, or even one year ago, because I would have been a scaredy-cat for wearing too much of one color. Now, I feel liberated. How many separates do I have that are matchy-matchy or similar in color? A lot! I think one day I will wear head-to-toe orange (accessories and shoes too!).