Happy Holidays, from our family to yours!

More posts coming, I promise.  For now, everyone enjoy the holidays with those you love!

Heads up on Columbus Day Sale

So if you've been thinking about trying simplybe.com and haven't yet ... here's your chance.

Just go here and use promo code 9430!  It will get you 30% off everything (and if it doesn't work, let me know and I'll ask questions of them).  The offer is valid through 10/11 at midnight.

Here's one of my favorite simplybe.com outfits (which looks better both in person and with a better photographer). You can still find the mix-and-match blazer, but the skirt is now sold out. Lots of great stuff, though! Just be patient with the shipping, the items are imported from England. But they're so worth it!

Shameless (albeit unpaid) Product Plug

So, have y'all noticed I've been growning my hair out?




To me, this is long. I've basically had one form or another of a pixie cut for like, 8 of the last 10 years, so I'm still re-adjusting to the concept of hair. And I forgot about something that comes with long(ish) hair that always annoyed the crap out of me.

Post-shower tangles. This surely isn't just my problem? Am I washing my hair completely wrong? Is it because my hair is so fine in texture yet thick in abundance that washing it is like putting 45,000 nanofibres through a dishwasher with a hamster on speed? I dunno. Hopefully I don't just sound like a naive dumbass now ... although it wouldn't be the first time.

Seriously, this post-shower-head photo is devastatingly typical...




I tried to double-mirror the back of my head in there for full impact. You're welcome for the coming Cthulhu nightmares.

Anyhoo, I decided to try a detangling brush, and people, PEOPLE I AM IN LOVE! Sorry, John, you give me unconditional love and support, but this brush has given me something no one ever has before - consistently pain-free, quick post-shower hair brushing!

This little baby - this little baby is my forever friend now!

Because look at this!




In a matter of pain-free moments, my hair was tamed!!!!

So yeah, if you don't have this problem and it turns out I'm just a hair-washing simpleton, ignore this post.

Sometime I might veer even further off-track and extoll the virtues of Death Wish Coffee's Valhalla Java. Dammit, it's 11:30 pm? I gotta wait six hours before I can brew a cup.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bargain Hunting

As I've probably made clear in earlier posts, I love a good bargain. Sometimes I happen upon them easily. Sometimes, though, I have to work for it.

For example, this this dress...





I saw this dress a couple of months back and fell in love with it. It's cute, it's dressed up, it's comfy, and it's semi-casual. A perfect Friday dress for a office with a "no jeans" policy. The only problem? The price. I've done my best to edit out the website info, but the place I first saw it was here:




I did not want to pay $130. I love the dress. Were I not trying hard to budget, I would have paid it. But I just couldn't in good conscious.

Before you pay full price for something like that, check google. I'm serious. I googled the designer and the name of the dress, and look what came up!




Factor in that Macys.com also typically has coupon codes on the front page, I got another 25% off on top of this lower $103 price. Not to mention there's usually a free shipping or similar deal. Macy's has got your back, man!

So a dress that cost $130, I got for $77.25. I felt much better about that. And I get compliments on the dress every time I wear it. I had to let the hem down a bit. But even the $5 investment in thread and hem tape didn't come anywhere near the price from the other seller. Which would also have to have been hemmed.*

I did the same thing when I got married ... 11 1/2 years ago? YIKES! My dear friend found the perfect shoes for me (wish I had a pic, but I'm geographically separated from them right now), but they cost over $200. At that time, there was no way I could afford a $200 pair of shoes period, let alone a pair I'd only wear once. But I googled! Took sifting through 8 pages of results before I found a good hit, and snagged them for $98 bucks. With search engine optimization, and people realizing you can virtually bargain hunt so lowering their prices more often, that kind of thing is way easier today, thank goodness. Still... If never hurts to take some time to really hunt for that deal, okay?

Now go forth and find great stuff at more acceptable prices!


*Google is also handy for those websites that don't list the hem length. If you can find the dress on another site, you might just find more about how the dress fits, hem length, etc. So the original website had the hem length, while Macy's didn't. I still knew what I was in for with that short of a hem, though, and that I'd need to add an inch. For that, though, be sure you know how that designer usually works. I know that Michael Kors includes a lot of leeway in its hems, so I knew I could add an inch without a problem so long as I added some hem tape. Had I been unsure of the designer, I wouldn't have chanced receiving a dress with a 1/2 hem that I couldn't extend.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

An Experiment - So Far, Good Chemistry

So you always see those "wardrobe rental" sites online, and there's a plus-size specific one, Gwynnie Bee. I finally decided to try it out, for several reasons:
- I like clothes
- I don't have time to shop anymore
- I like lots of clothes
- I don't like to spend a ton of money
- I like so many clothes
- It seemed like a good way to try various things I wouldn't usually try, with the option to just ship 'em back for free if I don't like 'em.
- I like ALL THE CLOTHES
- It's always in my newsfeed, appealing to my love of clothes

So I signed up for a month-like free trial. Once you sign up, you go through their closet and and pick out things that look interesting. You can prioritize stuff you really like and want to try. The first three things I got - which mind you, you pick yourself during sign-up - I didn't like. They weren't on my priority list, but that was okay, I wanted to try new things. So I tried three new brands and they didn't work. It reminded me of my soul sister once saying in a dressing room, "Wow, that's you, but in a good way!" The three rejects were admittedly me, but the "me" I tried to shove into storage years ago, because it should all be good now, dammit! Anyway, I digress - I sent those pieces right back, and got three new outfits.

Here is one of the new pieces I got, and crimeny, I love it!



* Sorry for the airport bathroom pic.
** Sorry for the shoes, not what I'd usually put with these, but I'm up for a lot of walking today.

So this one is a Sandra Darren, which I've never tried before, but I'm not adding to my "YAAAAASSSSSS!!!!!" list.

Really, I love this! I was a little worried. In the pictures, the skirt looked shorter. And given my height (I am finally beginning to stop claiming 5'10", because let's be real here, I'm older and I've shrunk, so that takes some serious rounding up now), it's still a reasonable length. Right at the knee. I can totally do right at the knee!

I got two other pieces that were brands I've never tried before. You'll get pics of those later on workdays. This baby came on vacation with me because it's comfy and cute and all the things. Not that the others weren't, but I only have so much room in my suitcase, and very specific looks in mind for this trip. I'll try to do more pics as the week goes on, but I am on vacation, folks!

I'm still going to wear this one some Friday, though. And I'm probably not sending this one back to Gwynnie Bee, I think they made a sale.

Oh yes - If you like what they send, you can buy it at a reduced price. So that's nice! Plus you have access to their "retired from circulation" pieces for a reduced price if you're a member. They do all the dry cleaning before you get it. So if the idea of wearing something someone else has worn before squicks you out, this is probably better, actually, that what 50 other people have tried on in a dressing room (I always wash those before wearing, because that does skeeve me out).

So, two successes - a new brand, and a new mode of shopping!

What a good day!

Wait, "good???" Hell, I'm on vacation now, what a GREAT DAY!!!!!!

(Did I mention I'm on vacation? Cause I am. WOO HOO!!!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Summer Special

You might get a couple of posts this morning because I have spare time, and I want to use it telling people about fabulous things! Because I'm that way.

First, I've been talking about dressing for hot weather. Well, here's another great hot weather find.





This cool little yellow shift dress is current on sale for under $17(!!!!!) from simplybe.com! And if you aren't a yellow fan, they also still have it in navy.

I totally think, though, that y'all should try yellow. It's a very underrated color, and works on more people than you'd think. Especially this nice bright yellow. Kind of like green - the pale greens don't work on everyone, but a nice, vibrant green usually does.

I just put it with a long necklace I've had for years (that's a PEAR! Isn't that cute?) and nude wedge Cole Haan's, and yay, I'm ready for the hot blazing day!

That said, I'm wearing this to work, so I'm also taking a white, pin-stripe jacket I bought 2-3 years ago.





This jacket is long-unavailable, but a nice, white and tailored jacket looks great with this dress (since the dress is less tailored, you definitely want the jacket to take up the slack for the more "I'm a business person!" moments). However, Simply Be has this crisp white jacket, which would look great with the dress, methinks.

Added bonus - I also wore this dress and jacket combo earlier this summer, but with a black belt instead of a necklace (not good to over-accessorize), and black pumps. I'll try to recapture that magic day sometime, because it gives the outfit just a slightly different, but more polished look. I just wasn't in a belt mood for outfit-trotting-out number 2.

Long story short? Summer's hot, but you can be cool.

I think I was too tired to really make that last sentence work. Dammit, come on coffee, help me write more goodsly!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Semi-Sick Day

Like a lot of folks, I have migraines.  While I don’t have as many triggers as I used to, I still have several – dehydration, going too long without eating, lack of sleep, overheating, barometric pressure changes.

I have a point.  I promise.

Today it rained like crazy, after days of crappy and humid heat, followed by two sunny, mild days. So guess what happened.

Thankfully it was a weekday – if it’d happened on a weekend, I would have slept through the initial warning signs too far to recover.  As it was, I slept through the auras, but I woke up while it was still just “pain over the right eye.”  So with a migraine pill, a bottle of propel, plenty of caffeine, and some salt (I hate pickles for breakfast, don’t judge), I managed to head off the full-bore deal.

Why should you care?  Because it directly impacted my sartorial choices for today.  You see, like I’ve alluded to in previous posts, I use clothing for lots of reasons – as an armor, to reflect my mood, to gain respect … Today, it was a costume.  If I dressed crisp and bright and happy, I’d be more likely to act like I was crisp and bright and happy.

And hence, we get this:

As an added bonus, since it’s almost Independence Day, I look extra patriotic!  Woo hoo!

I started building around the pants.  Because whose mood isn’t brightened by red pants?  These are the Kady fit ankle pants from Eloquii.  They are comfy and fit quite nicely. Which again, is a helluva mood brightener.

With red pants, though, you want the rest of the colors to be low key.  So I went with a white, sleeveless, overlay blouse, also from Eloquii.

The jacket?  An out-of-circulation denim blazer I’ve had in the closet for years.

I like the blouse more than I hate my arms, so here's a jacket-less photo.

Anyway, put it with a pair of low-heeled blue wedges similar to the denim blazer color, and boom. Mic drop. Done.

Well, I guess not quite.  The collar of this blouse just screams for something fun, doesn’t it?

I can’t find this necklace online anymore either, but here is the gist- It’s a statement necklace without an overpowering statement.  The gold sparkly part with the subtle color of the “gems” still gives some substance without being overwhelming.

So I may not have felt well today, but I good ‘nuff costumed up to have a good, productive work day.

After all, as much as I want to feel crisp and bright and happy, I don't want to feel overwhelmed.