Curly Sue

Yesterday after our dental appointments(root canals for me and cleaning for the hubby), we had to head into town to buy hubby a special toothbrush/water flosser(I ended up getting one as well).  While we were  picking out said toothbrush, I noticed they had a tapered curling wand for pretty cheap(and with hubby’s discount it was bound to be even cheaper).

I’ve always wandered about these clipless curling wands(particularly the tapered one) and for $18, I figured I couldn’t resist.  I’ve been trying to find a way to get those natural looking, beachy loose waves and I was hoping this curling wand would be my ticked to perfect beach curls.

When I first started curling my hair, I really didn’t think I was going to like this curling iron at all.  But I persevered because I wanted to give it a full chance(and I’m really glad I did).  My original intent was to comb through the curls and loosen them up, but I ended up liking how it looked when I was finished curling it, so I just left it as is.  The curls seem to look much better in person than they are photographing, I promise!!

I can’t take full credit for my outfit today.  My sister pinned a picture on pinterest of a girl wearing a white/red floral dress with a grey cardigan and I remembered I had a white/red floral dress and a grey cardigan that had not yet been worn as part of my No-Repeat challenge.

I bought this dress to wear for my sister-in-law’s baby shower for my niece who is now almost two, so you can do the math on the age of this dress!

{Dress/Necklace: WHBM, Cardigan: J Crew Outlet, Shoes: Bakers}

It’s rather strange to take a day off from work in the middle of the week.  It’s kind of awesome that it’s sort of almost the weekend again!

-Tamara

Shorts Story

I’m not actually working today.  I took the day off to have a root canal re-treatment as well as go to a few other doctor’s visit since I was already off.  I wanted to share with you two of my casual outfits I sort of promised I’d try to start featuring occasionally.

These first photos were actually taken on Friday morning in anticipation of me changing into this outfit to attend the movie with my family(as you can tell by the darker legs).  I ended up deciding not to bother with changing but figured I would go ahead and show you these photos since I’ll most likely be wearing this outfit in the near future.

I had to pose rather awkwardly to obtain proper viewage of the adorableness that is these shoes. Seriously, they are amazing.  I wore them on Friday with my crazy striped outfit(instead of the pink pumps I wore on the blog) and I received tons of compliments(including several from guys and really, when do men compliment flats??)

My initial thought with these shoes was to pair them with navy, white and red.  I’m sure that’s what you would have expected me to do as well.  I tried to go a little outside of that, but still stick with the nautical theme.

I definitely like how it turned out(even if I still feel rather self-concious in shorts)

{Shirt: Ann Taylor Factory, Shorts/Necklace: Target, Shoes: Dillards(Giani Bini)}

Unfortunately these shoes(like all flats, which is why I almost exclusively wear heels) gave me blisters but I’m hoping with some more breaking in, I’ll be able to wear them blister-free.

So when I was getting ready this morning for my day of doctor’s appointments, I decided I didn’t want to wear the navy stripe shirt so I pulled this together.

Really awkward pose in this picture.  Gah, I really have no idea how to pose in shorts and not like a complete idiot.

{Blouse: Banana Outlet, Sweater/Shorts: Target, Necklace: Etsy, Shoes: Giani Bini}

-Tamara

Ps-Root canals went well.  Now, all I need is to have a new crown made/placed.  My other doctor visit went well also.

Stripes on Stripes

Did you miss me on Friday? Probably not…but in case you wondered where I was, well, I forgot my computer at home when I went to work.  I took my pictures and everything but no computer=no blogging.  Not like it’s really a big deal.  I’m sure on one is sitting at home with bated breath waiting for me to post my blog.

Anyways, I’m still continuing on my quest to use up as much of my closet without repeating any pieces as I can, so that’s where this conglomeration of pattern mixing came from.

I ended up really liking how it turned out even if it was a little on the crazy side.

Let me explain the sudden appearance of darker than normal legs…..My skin doesn’t really tan.  And even if it did, I’m not really into the baked leather moccasin skin look.  I’ve embraced my porcelain skin for the most part.  I like how the skin on my face looks.  I don’t want it to change color.

However, my legs I’m not nearly as satisfied with.  I have a long history of leg hate. Besides being to pale they are on the large side(particularly my thighs), have lots of cellulite and now recently, spider veins keep popping up everywhere.  I have tried so many self tanners and none of them really worked and I hate the smell/feel of them on my skin(plus the upkeep is exhausting).

However, when I have an occasion where my legs are going to be more visible(ie, wearing shorts like I did this weekend), I start panicking and wishing I could magically make my legs darker.

Instead of trying and hating another self-tanner, I purchased some sally hansen leg makeup and tried it out as you can see in these photos.  I did NOT apply it evenly enough(as you can see on my feet) and there was definitely some streaking on the back of my legs.  I think with practice it could become something I reach for when I’m feeling extra self-conscious but I didn’t even end up using it at all during the weekend.

And a very twee picture for you viewing pleasure.  Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

{Dress, worn as skirt: Gap, Shirt: Limited, Cardigan: Talbots, Shoes:Rackroom}

How was your weekend?

Friday afternoon my sister came down and got an eye exam by yours truly.  After picking out her new glasses, we headed downtown to grab a quick bite before heading to meet her husband and my parents at the Lucas theatre.  The Lucas is a beautiful theatre in downtown Savannah that was originally built to be a movie theatre back in the early 20th century.  It’s got gorgeous carvings and amazing architecture.  Now they have plays, concerts,  and symphony performances there as well as movies.  Every Friday night this summer they are playing different classic movies, and this past Friday they were showing our favorite family movie of all time: Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

It was pretty epic.  The theatre staff handed out plastic coconuts to several patrons so they could accompany the movie.  We had a fantastic time and then walked around and enjoyed the cooler weather for awhile.

Hubby’s uncle and soon-to-be aunt visited us this weekend as well.  They were supposed to arrive on Saturday at 10am, but their flight ended up being delayed and they didn’t arrive till almost 2pm.  Hubby and I spent the unexpected time off having breakfast together then buying some patio furniture and a pressure washer.

We toured the historic district in the afternoon, stopping by Leopold’s for ice cream.  We had a late dinner at our favorite local mexican joint down the street from our house then watched a hockey game(well, they watched the game, I crashed out on the floor).  Sunday morning was big breakfast then we went to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum(very cool and educational) for a few hours.  We just hung out the rest of the afternoon and then my parents came over and we had a nice steak dinner in honor of Father’s Day.

Our company left early this morning to drive down to Florida to spend a week with hubby’s parents and sister.  They’re flying out of Savannah so we’ll be seeing them again next week.

It was a great weekend, but I’m honestly looking very forward to the upcoming weekend where we have zero travel plans and no company coming.  It will be nice to get back into my sewing room(since I haven’t sewed a thing in at least 2 weeks).

-Tamara

Dots and Checks

I’m cheating a bit on my no-repeat challenge.  I’ve worn this skirt before during the challenge. Twice actually, if you count weekends.  But, I have a dinner to attend tonight and I wanted to look extra special.  The shirt is actually not a repeat, though I did wear near the end of April(my challenge started in May), so you might think I’m repeating the whole dang outfit, but I promise I’m not!

I kind of felt like something was missing so I threw on my new glasses and viola the look was complete.

I don’t know why I appear to be shrugging in this picture.  Though it does remind me of a story my grandma loves to tell about when I was 2 or 3 years old.  We were visiting them in CT and I was standing on a stool in the kitchen looking out a window saying all kinds of things about chameleons.  My grandma apparently asked me what a chameleon was and I thought and thought about it, before doing a huge shrug, throwing my hands in the air saying, “I don’t KNOW what a chameleon is!” and bounding away.

So, when you look at this picture just imagine me saying, “I know know what  a chameleon is!”*

{Shirt: Goodwill(originally Wal-Mart, Skirt: Made by Me, Shoes: Kate Spade, Necklace: Tuesday Morning, Bracelet: NY&Co}

My makeup today is basically my very favorite makeup look.  It’s a light smokey grey/plum eye with pink cheeks and light pink lips.  I think it’s very flattering without being over the top.  It’s basically a very light version of the makeup I did for my sister’s wedding.

Now, I won’t be posting my makeup looks every day necessarily…only if it’s different or new compared to something I’ve posted before.  So if you hate that I post them, don’t worry, it won’t always be a daily thing!!

*I promise I do know what a chameleon is NOW.  Speaking of chameleon’s, I have another funny story!  My sister’s best friend ever is like one of the smartest people I know.  She was either the valedictorian or salutatorian for her and my sister’s HS class.  Well one day in science, she was reading aloud and came to the word chameleon.  She pronounced it “sham-a-lon”!!  I still tease her about it every time I see her.  I wasn’t there for the actual reading of course, but my sister shared the hilarity with me later on.

-Tamara

Comfortable

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you who left such kind comments on my Unimpressive post.  I promise that I was NOT fishing for compliments when I posted that I didn’t really like my outfit.  It really just goes to show you that it’s all about perspective.

We really are our own worst critics aren’t we?

All right, in keeping with my No-Repeat challenge and really trying to use up as many pieces of my closet as possible, I’m wearing another piece that may have never seen the blog.  I’ve worn it to work before, but never posted it as a work outfit before(and when I’ve worn it before, I wore a different cardigan with it).  This dress is the dress I wore for my optometry school graduation back in 2010.  It’s still one of my favorite dresses of all time.

I had been looking for a dress for quite awhile and had even bought a potential maybe.  Knowing that my graduation was memorial day weekend in Ft. Lauderdale in full doctoral cap and gown, I knew I needed something that would keep me somewhat cool and comfortable, but stylish(obviously).

I had actually seen this dress online and went to the store(Marciano) looking for it specifically.  They didn’t seem to have it, so I was literally walking out the door disappointed when one of the sales staff asked me if I had been looking for something in particular.  I described the dress for them and after looking it up online, they were able to locate it tucked away in a corner of the shop.  I tried it on and knew it was THE ONE.

It was not on sale, and Marciano isn’t exactly a cheap brand, so I paid, for me, quite a bit for this dress(I believe it was $169).  But really, your doctoral graduation is definitely a once in a lifetime event so I was willing to splurge!

I’ve gotten quite a bit of wear out of this dress.  Besides being a gorgeous color/pattern with ruffles and a halter neck, it’s a soft drapey knit jersey that basically feels like I’m wearing PJs.  It doesn’t wrinkle so it’s fantastic to toss into a suitcase for a trip.  It’s dressy enough for a night out on the town and yet, with a cardigan or blazer, I can wear it to work.

 

{Dress: Marciano, Cardigan/Necklace: Target, Shoes: Payless}

I went with a REALLY natural makeup look today.  I used the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette, which is my FAVORITE palette ever.  If you want to buy just ONE department store shadow collection, I recommend this one 100% .   Bonus is, it’s only $27(as compared to most of the other UD palettes being much higher).  You can do everything from subtle/natural to super smokey.

It’s what I used on my sister when I took her pictures back at Christmas.

-Tamara

ps-I bought the cutest shoes ever yesterday.  And guess what?? They are FLATS!  Can you believe it?

For Simplicities Sake

I’m about 98% positive that I’ve never worn this skirt on the blog. And since I have been more or less posting my daily work outfits for almost 2 years now, that means this skirt has sat in my closet for two years un-worn.  In terms of how old it is, I can’t really remember.  If I had to hazard a guess I would say that I got it before I started optometry school(2006), so it’s likely more than 7 years old.  I’m also pretty positive my mom has the same skirt, but I could be wrong.

I do know that it’s from Loft back when they actually had cute and appropriate length clothes(is it just me or does it seem like their clothes are looking more and more like they came from the same designer/factory as F21).

Anyways, I’m not entirely sure why I’ve put off wearing this skirt for so long.  For awhile I kind of worried that  it might look a bit frumpy with the embroidery(and it’s actually embroidery not a fake iron) and the midi-length.  But, with my No Repeat Challenge still in full effect, I decided to give it a shot before giving it away(which is what I’m doing to pieces that I haven’t worn in ages and no longer really like).  Well, I’ve re-discovered my love for this skirt so it will NOT be going into the goodwill pile.

In order to hi-light the embroidery, I decided to keep the rest of the outfit very simple(and comfortable haha).  I’m quite pleased with how it all turned out.

{Sweater: Banana Republic, Skirt: Loft, Shoes: Kate Spade, Necklace: Target}

Are you a clothes hoarder like me?  I still have some pieces from High School(and I graduated 13 years ago).  Mostly just t-shirts and accessories, but I do definitely still have office-type clothes from undergrad and my early 20s.  I used to be much worse at hoarding clothes actually. I never want to give anything away because WHAT IF I NEEDED IT some day??

I’ve definitely gotten much better at giving away things I don’t wear or don’t even like anymore.  In fact, I would say in the past 8 months I’ve donated WAY more clothing and shoes than I’ve bought.  And I still have tons of clothes.

One thing I am working on this summer is building my casual wardrobe.  My closet really only has work clothes, dressy/formal clothes, workout clothes and really super casual(think painting the walls or working in the yard) clothes. I  don’t have a lot of need for casual or dressy-casual clothes.  However, every few months I do have an occasion for needing an outfit that’s not a ratty bleach stained mess or something I would wear for work.

I sort of go into panic/freeze mode when I have a casual(such as a day in Forsyth Park or a BBQ) event to attend.  Until last week, I literally owned zero pairs of shorts(other than workout shorts).  So I picked up a few pairs of shorts from Target, along with a few “nicer” type t-shirts.  And yesterday I ordered a super-cute pair of boat shoes and today I’m going to look at another pair during lunch(who am I becoming??).

The long and short of it is, I’m hoping to start occasionally featuring some “causal” weekend looks.  I can’t promise that they’ll be any sort of consistency to these outfits, but I’m going to try.

-Tamara

Unimpressive

How was your weekend?  Mine was crazy and fun.

I met up with my mom on Friday after work and we headed up to my sister’s house, our car crammed full of all my makeup, hair and manicure supplies as well as a few benches and tables.  We got up early on Saturday morning and started prepping for the spa party my sister was throwing.  We basically worked from about 6:30 until the party started at 2pm.

We had a great time.  We had set up a pedicure station, a manicure station and a hair/makeup station as well as a DIY hand scrub station.  My sister was in charge of pedicures/manicures and I was doing hair/makeup/manicures.  We only had four ladies attend, but we filled the entire time(and even went over time) with just those four women’s treatments.  I did one makeup look, three hair styles and one gel manicure. My sister did two pedicures and one gel manicure.  Those few things took us almost 4 hours to complete!!

Everyone assumed I was an actual hairstylist/makeup artist.  When they found out I wasn’t they told me I should quit my day-job and become one.  I don’t think they realized I am a doctor though!

My mom helped out by being the “errand” girl. She cleaned out the pedicure tub and re-filled it for each lady.  She also helped with the hand scrubs and getting people food/drinks while they were getting pampered.

I don’t want to take too much away from my sister’s blog since I know she’ll be posting details and lots of pictures, but I thought I’d share a few pictures from the party.

Traci and I wanted to have very dramatic makeup already done for the party. She picked out a very bright pink look, which I went for a extreme smokey green.

Close-up of my makeup:

The dessert table(I made the sign for the cupcakes!):

Our signature drink(which we called Aphrodite’s Elixir):

And finally a few of the lovely ladies who attended:

It was a great time and I hope that someday we can do another party just like it!!

After the party we headed into Florence for a quick shopping trip and to pick up some dinner.  We all crashed into bed shortly after arriving home!

On Sunday mom and I packed up and left before 8am(we wanted to get home in time to do some chores).  It’s about a 3 hour drive home and we stopped for groceries on the way.  Dad and hubby were out golfing when we got back, so we just hung out until they came home with lunch from Sonic.

After lunch, they headed home and hubby and I headed out to the pool. We swam laps and played around(and I got a little sun!) then came home so hubby could take a nap before work.  While hubby was napping I got to work on some cleaning.  I was able to clean/polish all the kitchen cabinets, clean around the oven, clean the baseboards, detail the inside of my car, organize my closet and organize/straighten all our different book shelves in just a few hours of work.

The reason for the cleaning spree is hubby’s uncle and soon-to-be aunt are visiting from Canada this coming weekend.  Nothing like impending company to make you want to do all those little chores you’ve been putting off for months!

The title of today’s post refers to today’s outfit.  I really had high hopes for it while it was hanging in my closet.  In theory, it should be awesome.  Somehow though, it just feels meh. I think the fit of the skirt is partially to blame.  It’s somewhere between a pencil and an A-line skirt and it’s a little big on me in the waist/booty area so it hangs awkwardly.  Maybe it needs some rehab in my sewing room?

I honestly considered not even posting this look because I don’t really like it at all(plus my makeup and hair are less than fantastic), but I do want this blog to showcase my real life, which more often than not includes fashion failures.

{Blouse: Goodwill(originally NY&Co, Cardigan: Ann Taylor Factory, Skirt/Belt: Limited, Necklace: WHBM, Shoes: Bakers}

If you’re a fashion/outfit blogger, do you post your “failures”?  Do you like seeing failures?  I definitely appreciate when the bloggers I read post “failures”. More often than not, I don’t see the failure  and if I do, I like knowing that I’m not the only imperfect one!!

-Tamara

Spots

I’m more than a little anxious for the work day to be over.  I’m heading to meet up with my mom after work and then the two of us are heading up to my sister’s house for the weekend.  She’s having a spa-themed party and I’m going to help with the manicures/hair/makeup.  Obviously you’ve probably picked up that I LOVE doing hair/makeup so I can’t wait to flex my makeup artist(I’m not a real makeup artist, obviously) muscles and try out some fun looks on my sister’s friends.

My car is completely packed with all my makeup(I have a TON), hair styling tools and manicure supplies.  I have both gel and non-gel polishes and two curing lamps.  I wish all you guys could come and hang out with us!!

For today’s look, I’m wearing a top I picked up at Target last week for a few bucks.  Literally, I believe it was on clearance for less than $3.  To make it even better, it’s a top I’d been wanting to get/watching for several months so I was pretty happy to score it for such a ridiculously low price.

Of course I wouldn’t just pair it with any old cardigan….If I can pattern mix, I pattern mix! I really like the combination of leopard+polka dots, but I definitely didn’t want to wear a long sleeve cardigan in the middle of summer(at least summer-like weather).  I’ve tried rolling up the sleeves of this cardigan before, but I really didn’t like how it looked.  So today I tried something a little different….I rolled the sleeves up on the inside of the sleeve and voila instantly created a 3/4 sleeve cardigan.

PS-the bruise from my root canal is very obvious and a nasty yellow/green today. Sorry!

I tried a new hair curling technique today.  After you curl each piece, you twist it into a dreadlock like thing and let it cool. Then once your whole head is done, you run your fingers through it to release the curl. I like how it made my curls look very natural.

I did a silver/gold eye today based off of this picture from pinterest:

*I had just saved the picture to my phone without the original source, so I don’t know who to credit it to, and a google search of the name watermarked on the picture didn’t bring anything up.

Here’s my version:

Happy Friday!

-Tamara

The Speech

I don’t know if I mentioned this already, so bear with me if I have, but today I’m doing a speech/presentation on eye health and disease to the local Rotary Club.  Obviously I wanted to look extra professional, yet still stylish not only because I am representing my practice/myself but also because when I feel good about what I’m wearing, I’m more confident and outgoing.

My original intention was to make a suit to wear.  You saw the muslin for the jacket a few weeks ago.  The root canal and all the pain associated with it before and the recovery afterwards really just sapped up all the time I had planned on using to make the suit.  I knew I would not be able to complete it in time for today so I stopped working on it(I am still going to make it eventually of course).

That left me in a quandary as to what to wear.  Luckily, I had purchased a new coral blazer from Gap a few weeks ago(after seeing it on practically all my favorite bloggers) that I hadn’t yet worn that would work well in the professional yet stylish look I was going for.  I had to break my No-Repeat challenge to put this outfit together, but obviously an important event allows for rule breaking right?

I put two nearly identical, yet different outfits together(both contained navy+polka dots and lace) but ended up going with the one you’re about to see because I liked the silhouette the best.  I’ll get around to showing you the other version one day when I’ve finished my no-repeat challenge.

And obviously I had to wear my new glasses!

And with the blazer un-buttoned(which is how I’m wearing it):

{Blouse/Blazer: Gap, Skirt: Thrifted(originally Banana Republic), Shoes: Limited, Necklace: Target}

Okay, so I’m back from the luncheon and my speech.   I think it went pretty well.  I did have to cut it short in the end(I could easily speak for hours about ocular disease), but it seemed well-recieved and I had lots of people come up to me afterwards to tell me they enjoyed the speech and would be making appointments for examinations.

-Tamara

Non-Matching yet Matching

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my June Dress!!  I definitely think it will go down as one of the nicest(or maybe the nicest) dresses I’ve ever made.

I try, as much as possible to make as many outfit combinations out of each piece of clothing I own as possible.  I mean, that’s real life isn’t it? Real women don’t have a seemingly unlimited budget to constantly be buying new things.  Nor are we constantly gifted new products from big companies.  We have to make due with what we have. That being said, I do recognize that I have a rather huge wardrobe(seeing as how I’ve gone over a month now without repeating any of my clothing).

Some pieces are easy to keep re-wearing in different combinations.  A black pencil skirt for example is nearly limitless in it’s possibilities.  Other pieces, particularly those that are statement pieces in their own right are much more limiting in what you can wear them with.

My teal, brown and chartreuse striped Banana Republic skirt is one of those limited pieces.  I love the skirt to pieces but I had previously worn it in just about every way I could think of with the pieces I have in my closet.

With my closet finally getting pared down as I work through my No-Repeat Challenge, I saw the skirt hanging there begging to be worn again.  The only top I had left that looked like it would even remotely go was this mossy green floral top I bought a few years ago in Florida.  Even though the color of the blouse is not found in the skirt, it somehow works because it looks like it’s a combination of the brown+chartreuse from the skirt.

The dark teal cardigan and necklace really serve to bring it all together.

Most of the time, I try to at least partially coordinate my makeup with my outfits. It’s not always visible in my photos, but here’s one where you can see the addition of teal liner to my upper lid(since I got several comments that you guys didn’t mind my posting more than one picture and doing other poses, I’m taking full advantage of that fact).

{Blouse: Ross, Skirt: Banana Republic, Cardigan: Maurices, Shoes: Payless, Necklace: Target}

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

-Tamara