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Friday, June 26, 2015

Week 2 of the 250 Workday Outfits

It's picture time again, and thanks to lovely folks on Ravelry I believe I've got the orientation issue licked. 
Monday I wore the outfit that I wore on the plane home from Texas.

Investments poly/rayon/spandex slacks, Charter Club Woman aqua blouse with white floral pattern, my very useful aqua fake croc bag, and some new Texas acquired bling from TJ Maxx.  The strappy aqua wedge sandals were found in Savers, another fun place to shop in Austin.
Tuesday's ensemble includes Samantha Grey poly mauve-y pink slacks (I have a matching sweater, but didn't wear it), a BLAIR long sleeve top in multi-paisley print on black ground, a white satchel bag with black & brown trim, my trusty George penny-loafer style pumps, and a necklace from Savers of multiple black chains with pink diamond stations.

 Wednesday, day 8, still wanted lots of color -- how else you gonna get thru "Hump Day"?
My rather puny attempt at a selfie....love this top, lots of teal, purple, & shiny too.

As you see, I chose to pair it with a pair of purple poly Allison Daley slacks (ancient!! covered in tiny pulls, courtesy the kitties), my brand new black Alfani wedge sandals (from Macy's), the favorite fake croc bag, and some wonderfully OTT (over the top) bling from my Texas swag -- a heavy goldtone chain with rhinestone covered baubles.  I had the goldtone & rhinestone earrings,
Thursday was soft grey, with Larry Levine grey tab waist poly slacks, a Calvin Klein poly grey snake print blouse with roll tab sleeves, a lovely London Fog in grey with darker grey croc print trim (I adore this bag!), some Connie peep toe heels in taupe with black patent trim, and a silvertone mult-chain necklace with rhinestone rondels.
Dontcha love that bag?
Super!  But I really need to practice smiling....
And at long last, it's Friday!  Casual day at work, so jeans, or in this case some White Stag jeggings, are definitely in order.
I found the shirt-jacket (Tapestry brand in the collar) at the Goodwill a few years ago, same time as I found the multi-paisley print worn on Tuesday.  The purse is actually light green leather, and you'd be surprised how many different tops with which it coordinates.  The sandals are SAS, bought at the SAS outlet in San Antonio maybe 5 years ago.  
TGIF!!
I like to shop, maybe not as much as certain folks I know, but I do tend to hang on to what I've bought.  Shopping at places like Goodwill and Savers and Clothes Mentor really does allow more wardrobe choices for the puny dollar.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Kicking off the 250 Workday Outfits Challenge!

As promised, this post kicks off my self-challenge to put together 250 different outfits for work, from the huge wardrobe my sweet Sis has given me, plus my own puny closet.  I've decided that weekly posts with pics of the past week's fashions will be the way to go.  Now, this first week I was using trousers from my own collection, as most of Sis' are too long and I haven't had time to do any hemming.  So, in the following pics, the blouses are all from Sis' closet, with some of the new "bling" from the Clothes Mentor (seriously, can we get one of those in Nashville, please?) and from Savers, both in Austin.  This week, all the pictures are taken after work (because no one will get up early enough to take them before I leave in the morning), in front of our house.
Monday:  My grey East 5th poly-rayon trousers paired with a Notations Woman 3/4 sleeve striped blouse, with a Savers necklace of red, green, blue & brown beads and charms on doubled nylon cord. I wore my trusty plummy-brown pointy-toed fabric heels (ancient!) and carried a dark royal blue bag.

I have just a couple of pictures of each outfit, and I have been trying everything I have available on our home system to get these $^&#$ things to load in here upright.  They were all rotated & saved, edited for brightness, cropped (why my photogs can't get closer, I have no clue...), resized and saved, then compressed and saved -- all to (almost) no avail.  This first one is the only one I've been able to move into this format looking the same way as it's stored.  So...just tilt your head to the right, for the close up of the blouse below.
ETA: just remembered (was reminded) that these can be edited in Picasa.  Ta-Da!!

Tuesday, Day 2, sees me in a lovely "leopard" print with tiny silvery brads on the neckline trim -- no need for a necklace! -- by XCLUSIVE.  The tan stretch trousers by Westbound Woman still look good, after being in the rotation for about 3 years.  My black "shooties" by B0RN have boot-style top stitching,  The purse is a Rosetti belted bag in caramel.  Wow, I look remarkably fresh for having worked a full day...













Wednesday, Day 3, was for floral-like colors -- I actually think of Monet's flowers when I look at this blouse.  It's a Liz Claiborne Woman sheer, with its own deep purple camisole.  The slacks are my navy East 5th, the necklace is a very long silvery chain with blue & aqua stations and tiny rhinestone charms, worn doubled.  The purse is light blue leather, bought at Goody's in Springfield, and doesn't seem to have a brand name on it.  A.a.a.and we're back to sideways pictures.  Good grief.



It's late, and my brain is getting tied into knots with these stupid sideways pictures.  If they're stored & saved 18 times upright, how the heck are they uploading sideways?  Well, I'm just going to put the pics here and try to revise them tomorrow.
Thursday, 4th day, Lee Relaxed Fit twill trousers with a Jaclyn Smith semi-sheer rayon blouse, in an unusual "camo" print that almost looks floral.  The colors are tan and brown, leaf & olive green, and cream.  I paired these with my light brown strapped "shooties", and a tan purse.  The necklace is from the Clothes Mentor, looks Anthropologie-inspired, fake ivory and bronzey chains. 


Day 5 Friday at last!  We have Casual Day at work, and we can wear jeans.  So these are my skinny jeans, with a soft green Verve top, with a nice deep scoop neck,  Love this necklace, one Sis spotted and brought to my attention, at...I think it was Clothes Mentor again.  The sandals are antiques, and used to be my mother's.  Proof that taking care of leather shoes is worth the time spent.


The purse is a fun fake croc, in aqua, with lots of room inside.  I actually used it as my "carry-on" bag when I flew to Texas, stuffed with knitting and other important stuff.  I will go into more detail about the fun times there, in the next post.  Right now, I need to become horizontal for about nine hours.  
That wraps the first installment of the great 250 Workday Outfits Challenge!  Goodnight, Gracie.
6/22/15  I've been playing with these pics in Picasa, so some are now almost "ok".



Thursday, June 18, 2015

I love my home

I do, I love it like crazy.  This is good, because otherwise I might not have ever left Texas!  Yes, poppets, your dear old Auntie CeltChick went far away last week.  Once again, I braved the wilds of Texas, where everything IS bigger (saw a 1" long silverfish, hand to God!), and saw my entire surviving nuclear family.  I'm hoping to get a photo that Sis-in-law took, of Pup with his three kids; it's supposed to be in an email.  I was deeply touched by Brother & Wife coming down to visit, sure wish they'd have stayed longer! 
While I had an amazingly lovely visit, being spoiled by my sweet Sis and her extended family (Hi, Memaw!), it was also at times exhausting.  Sis is a professional, with a degree in speech pathology and reams of experience with cognitive dysfunctions in her patients.  She has to look the part at all times.  In the past year, she's lost 60 lbs (!!! Way to go, girl!!!).  During the process, she continued to wear her "fat clothes" until they started to look ridiculously huge on her -- not a professional look.  She was also trying to be frugal, and not buy clothing for every stage of her weight loss journey, but finally got just plain tired of looking frumpy.  She went on a clothes buying binge -- not as expensive as you might think, even though she wears mostly designer clothes: Sis is the world's savviest shopper!  She'd reached a plateau, staying the same weight for a while.  This just happened to be about the weight I am now.  Then she lost another 20 lbs so quickly that some of the new clothes never got worn!  So she's got a huge collection of clothes that are now, once again, too big to look good on her.  The day after I arrived, she & I retired to her closet and I tried on clothes, one item after another, for four hours.  Halfway thru we had to bring in a chair, 'coz I just can't stand up for that long.  We were both exhausted after that, but boy was it worth the work.  I brought home, in one large suitcase, three large + one medium + two small Space Bags of clothing.  Those are the bags with valves, the large & med can be filled and have the vacuum hose applied to empty them of air, while the small ones are filled and rolled up to be emptied of air.  I think I got three pairs of shoes in the suitcase too.  But that wasn't even half of what Sis' given to me: there are something like six or seven more large Space Bags packed into freight boxes, being shipped from Texas!  Talk about a score!  We figured there are at least 200 tops, and two dozen trousers in the mix.  With what I already have in my closet, I could probably dress for work for 250 days without repeating an outfit.  And I'm going to try that!  On Fridays I will be posting the week's work outfits, with pictures -- I know y'all love pictures.  Over the weekends I'll be hemming the trousers and ironing the tops and trying to figure out how to hang up all this stuff -- there goes the yarn storage in the third bedroom!  Oh yeah, it all needs to hang -- something Sis pointed out, that if you have your wardrobe stored where you can actually see it, it's easier to put pieces together.  Makes perfect sense to me.  So check back Friday night or Saturday, for the first installment of The 250 Workday Outfits Challenge!  TTFN

Monday, June 1, 2015

I had to quit

No more Fuzzhogs for a while, please!  What with the neuropathy in one index finger, and the grand total of 18 of the silly things...I can barely make a fist.  I will certainly return to this pattern later. And I have so many other issues to contemplate this week:
    We're getting ready to start intensive ICD-10-CM training at work, and I'll be on vacation next week.
    I'll be flying out to visit Sis & her family (and a mysterious "friend" who's staying with them).  I will miss Nashville's fairly lame WWKIP Day.  I'm hoping that Austin's will be a bit weird, in keeping with that town's reputation.  We may never know...as I'm not sure I can talk Sis into attending.  See, she's (oh the shame!) an ex-knitter!  And I think she still harbors a bit of the "knitting is for grandmas" attitude, which means it definitely can't be for her.  I think she's been trying to turn back the clock since she was 26.
In preparation for the trip, I went to the Goodwill on Saturday, and tried on 18 pairs of shorts so I could take home six.  All went in the wash when I got home.  Then I dug thru the "craft" room boxes and found my purses.  I set up a cleaning & conditioning station at the sink, with a camp chair, a 50/50 solution of white vinegar & water, several soft cloths, and some coconut oil.  I cleaned 15 purses.  Two were of man-made material, so they were just wiped down & dried off.  The leather goods were wiped & dried, then had a thin coat of oil applied & buffed in.  There were two more purses in the closet, both of fabric, and one that's in current use -- I didn't want to empty it.  All told, a couple of hours of work, and now I have lots of clean purses.  I think I need to select 5 and mail them to Sis' so I can have a good selection there....Or maybe Sis will give me a purse or two; she's been feeding my addiction that way.  Love you, Sis!

On a more somber note, I've been seriously considering frogging the Honey Color Affection.  It is just so small...not that I've blocked it yet, maybe I'll try that first.  I was really hoping for something bigger than a scarf.  And I don't like the bulky edge where colors were carried up the side.  I love the colors, and love them together, but this pattern is supposed to use what, 1200 yards of fingering yarn?  I didn't use more than 700 yards.  And followed the pattern.  I am scratching my head on this one, but I can tell you that the other one (my Jadeite Color Affection) will be knit on bigger needles, and I may not carry yarn up the side.