Saturday, February 23, 2008

Hurry Spring, Hurry Fast, some thing, something, We Can't Last, Hurry Spring, Hurry Fast

Yes, Alvin and the Chipmunks sang that little ode to Christmas but I'm dying for some spring. I think I have a mild case of cabin fever. Plus my husband is out of town until tomorrow so I've lost my ready-companion and everyone else is snowed in, poo. I have the sudden urge to take pictures of flowers but we currently have none. Unless you count the dying Aloe plant in our living room, I should go water that, just a minute...

That's done. I think it actually perked up as I was watering it so it might not be too far gone. I'm such a plant killer :( Maybe I'll take my camera to church tonight and just take pictures of people... hm, my camera needs new batteries...

Maybe I was just meant to have cabin fever tonight.

Outfit #3

Today I am wearing my favorite green skirt :) and a purple baby-doll tee-shirt (which just means it's a fitted tee-shirt instead of a box) over a long sleeved shirt. The skirt is a wrap around skirt and I love it, not only because it's an awesome corduroy and patchwork skirt, but because I can fit it to anyplace on my waist. One day it's a floor length skirt, the next it's only ankle length. Very handy for varying shoe heights.

I don't feel I have a whole lot to say about this outfit. I like it:)

As always, underneath I'm wearing a tank-top, long-underwear bottoms, one of my long peasant skirts from summer (as a petticoat) and good thick socks. This is very important if you're hometown looks like mine.

The second picture is what I saw outside our front window this morning. Now, if you're from the real North (MN, ND, etc.) this may not seem like much, but in a tiny town with one salt truck and a couple of really old snow plows, not to mention our vast collection of giant hills, it can be pretty scary. I've heard a rumor that our city is now completely out of road salt. So sad. Maybe the university will get closed for a day or two :P

The skirt if from the Import House.
The purple shirt is from JC Penney.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Outfit #2

We had a ton of snow today. Local schools canceled, Universities praying for that level 3 so the could be canceled, all that jazz. Unfortunately, no level 3 and school for me. But that's okay, I only had two classes today anyway.

Today's outfit was a dress over jeans.

The dress itself is one of those empire waist dresses that you can buy anywhere these days. Short sleeved, knee-length, tie in back.

Today, as you may have guessed from the snow, was cold. So this dress is layered over long-sleeved shirt (which is why there's a giant patch of black where the neckline usually is, I'm not sure what I think about that yet, perhaps a blue undershirt would look better).

The jeans are gray and have a black design on the bottom left leg and the right thigh (it's a shame you can't see it because of the skirt but what can you do).

I'm wearing a small pearl necklace and dangle earrings.


I wore these shoes with the outfit. Flats work best for me in the snow and I love the strap across the top. I bought these after one too many over confident strides on campus caused me to lose my slip-ons. Most embarrassing.

Under the outfit: yet another long-sleeve shirt, long-underwear bottoms, and two pairs of socks.

The dress and pants are from Kohls.
The shoes are from Wal-mart (please, don't shoot me)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Today's Outfit

Today (for the second half of the day because I looked like a bum for my morning classes) I wore a tan skirt with a forest green sweater.


The skirt is slightly flared at the bottom and has that school teacher look so I have to be careful what I pair it with (no offense to the school teachers, you look good but you're a teacher and I'm not). The sweater is supposed to be off-the-shoulder but what's the point of a sweater to keep you warm when you wear it off-the-shoulder. Maybe come spring. I'm also wearing chandelier earrings.

If you're really bored, try taking a picture of chandelier earrings in your ears without making them move. I'll see you in half an hour :P Ideally, this outfit would go with awesome brown boots, but I don't have any, sorry.

Also, UNDER this outfit (because it's cold and I know from experience that some of us don't know how to dress in skirts in the cold) I am wearing a long sleeved t-shirt (you can see the pink at the neckline), a pair of opaque tights and knee high socks. It was below freezing today and snowing hard as I walked to and from class and the only part of me that was cold was my nose. Of course, at the time I was wear a scarf, gloves and coat, but I can't say as much for other people. Ladies, invest in some long underwear, no really, you'll thank me.

The sweater is from Goodys.
The skirt is from JC Penneys.

Bandwagon Time

I've spent countless hours searching the web for a way to modestly, femininely dress. Without looking like I've jumped out of a children's story book. I don't think it exists and, however much I would love to dress up like Snow White or Laura Ingles, I do wish to look like I live in this century (or at least the last one). I don't want to look like a guy (no flannel shirts and jeans; modest, yes, feminine, no.) I don't want to look like Britney Spears (no explanation needed). I want to look, well, I've already said it: modest and feminine.

Now, there are tons of websites lecturing us ladies on why we ought to be modest and feminine, mostly religious ones. We tempt men (well, duh.), we should set an example for younger women (yup), it's good for our self-respect (looking good does that), etc., etc. Great, we agree, where do I shop? What? No answers? Thought so.

That isn't exactly true. There are tons (well, okay, I've found a couple dozen) of web-sites created by women who sew (praise God! They still exist!) and are willing to sew for other women who want to dress modestly. Most of them are Amish or Mennonite and do a fabulous job at looking both modest and feminine; however, they don't generally meet my 'this century' requirement. But if that's your thing: http://www.modestclothes.com/. There are other sites that sell ready-made clothing, mostly Mormon. The nice thing in monopolizing a single state with a religion is that the stores tend to cater to that religion's standards. My favorite so far is www.mollysclothing.com (her tag-line is: "Put Something On." Now who hasn't wanted to say that to some young thing or, even worse, some older thing. There are other great sites for Jewish and Muslim women but I don't particularly want to dress quite like that.

I've also started to frequent A Dress a Day by a woman named Erin. She posts about, you guessed it, dresses. She leans more toward the vintage style and recommends dozens of patterns to try (for those women who sew whom I was talking about earlier). If nothing else it at least offers a little hope that there are ways to be modest and feminine at all.

After my hours and days and (quite honestly if you added up all the hours) weeks of searching for clothes I realized that I should probably stop complaining about there being very little material on the web to use and start posting some for the other women I'm sure are in the same predicament I'm in. I've decide, after finding other women doing this, that I'll post some of what I wear everyday to give others an idea on my take of modest and feminine. I won't post everyday because not everything I wear is worth copying :P I'm working on that. I'll warn you now that I prefer skirts and dresses but by no means believe that if you don't own either that you can't be modest and feminine. It just takes a bit more work because nothing says feminine like a skirt.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Sibs' Weekend

My university hosts a weekend for Sibs. It's basically a time for everyone to show their little sister or brother around, give mom and dad a weekend off, and induce the student to come up with creative ways of getting their homework done before/after the weekend (or at least come up with a good excuse why it didn't get done).

My little sister came in and we had a good time. We took a five hour shopping trip (which was wonderful), played video games with my husband (well, okay, she did, I just watched), and watched what felt like a ton of movies. All in all, it was a good weekend. Too bad we have to go back to school tomorrow.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Midterm Week

It's midterm week again and I have had/have/will have several exams (total of five in two weeks). It's funny. I should be stressing out. But right now I'm not, I'm just skimming notes and having many 'oh, yeah....' moments about homework and other important school duties I forgot.

I'm mostly just annoyed that exams take up extra time in addition to the regular school work so I'm cramming my housework and cooking into less time. I don't worry about whether I'll do well on the exam ('cause I know I'll at least pass them all and probably get no lower than a B on any of them), I'm just annoyed at the inconvenience of them. This is a strange switch from the last three years of school where exams have been mass panic. It's kind of nice.