Earrings: secondhand, vintage hand-me-downs from my mom
Scarf: secondhand, free from clothing swap
T-shirt: Hanes brand via Big Lots, $4 for 3-pack
Bracelets: lotsa places - Disneyland, American Eagle, Wal-Mart, gifts, family heirloom, antique shop
Jeans: Old Navy, $25
Shoes: Rampage brand via Famous Footwear, $10

I mentioned yesterday that my wireless camera remote broke. Clarification: the 2-second delay button doesn't work anymore, inexplicably, while the instant button still does about 50% of the time. So unless and until I get it fixed/replaced, the remote will be visible in all of my pictures. Heads up on that. Oh, and I got a new tripod.

Today's outfit was super-simple, as you can see, but I was diggin' it. I mainly just wanted to try stacked-up bracelets, a la Atlantic-Pacific:

See how good she makes it look? Color me inspired. I'm literally wearing all but one of the bracelets I own as I type this -- and believe you me, I tried that one remaining bracelet on as well; it just got overwhelming. Bracelets are a tricky piece of jewelry for me, as they always seem to get in the way of writing, typing, hand-washing, cooking, sweater-putting-on-ing, etc. It's sort of counter-intuitive that wearing fourteen bracelets would be easier than wearing one, but voila, it is.

Today is Rock the Red Pump day for The Red Pump Project, and in recognition, lots of style bloggers are wearing red shoes and saying a quick word to raise awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. My red shoes only have the teensiest of heels, but I say they count. I loved this simple overview of the facts on HIV/AIDS and how we can all work towards personal prevention.

I tend to be somewhat ambivalent when it comes to wearing __________ for a cause. Does donning a pink shirt or red hat really do anything for breast cancer survivors? Does wearing purple really fight bullying? Part of me feels like these campaigns trivialize the issues they claim to care about, because they give off the false impression that you can fight cancer/AIDS/violence/etc. by wearing _________ instead of calling upon people to do work that will actually count (volunteering, petitioning, donating money, etc.). I don't mean for this evaluation to sound as harsh as it probably does; mostly, I just find myself wondering if I'm being hypocritical, feeling charitable and oh-so-good for wearing red shoes when I haven't done anything of real worth in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

But you know what? Hypocritical or not, there's substantial precedent for using the color of one's clothing to represent something. Black at funerals, a white dress on your wedding day -- the colors and meanings vary across cultures. I figure if wearing red shoes or a purple sweater draws my attention to a cause I care about, then where's the harm in that? It doesn't make me an advocate or an activist, but it carries meaning and serves as a reminder for me. And so, red shoes it is.

How do you feel about wearing a color/clothing item for a cause?

Wanna Little Cheese? With That WHINE?

Cardigan: Banana Republic, $25
Necklace: Wal-Mart, $8
T-shirt: Alternative Apparel, $11
Skirt: Old Navy, $10
Belt: secondhand, $2 from thrift store
Tights: Forever 21, $1.50
Flats: Ralph Lauren brand secondhand, $12 from consignment store

Thing I hate most about tights:
they hurt my toes.

Thing I hate most about about shaving my legs:
I always get conditioner/shave cream/soap/leftover mascara in my eyes. And it stings.

Thing I hate most about my tripod:
the fact that it fell out of my bag and broke yesterday.

Thing I hate most about my camera remote:
the fact that it stopped working immediately after I took today's pictures.

Sigh sigh sigh. Little teeny-tiny bumps in the road. I promise: I'm still a lover, not a hater or a fighter.

Polka Power

Sweater: Gap brand secondhand, free from clothing swap 
Camisole: Downeast Outfitters, $10
Skirt (as shirt): gift
Belt: secondhand, $2 at thrift store
Jeans: Old Navy, $25
Boots: Amanda Smith brand secondhand, $6 from thrift store
Earrings: gift

The tunic-length top I'm wearing is actually a skirt. Proof, from an outfit I wore in January:

I busted out my polka dots today for Everybody, Everywear, but as is typical for me, I really gravitated towards pants, so I chose to wear it as a shirt instead. I get that all that volume over my bum is not the most flattering, but I still really like it somehow. For good measure, I added a brown belt to (a) give a little shape and (b) show that wearing black and brown is A-OK.

This gray sweater was another score at the campus clothing swap, and I simply LOVE it. There's all this pretty detailing at the top to make it extra-special, and the fabric blend (lambswool/nylon/angora rabbit hair) is surprisingly soft.

Even though we got some heavy rain and surprise snow last night, spring is clearly right around the corner, so Craig and I decided to break out the bikes and ride down to the Provo Bakery for some treats this morning. My fingers were fuh-reezing, but it was so good to get the wind in my hair again.

What warm-weather things are you most looking forward to? My list goes something like this:

1. the Provo Farmer's Market
2. blossoms on all the trees
3. bike rides
4. summertime apparel (t-shirts, sandals, denim cutoffs, etc.)

30x30: La La LAAAAA!!!

30x30 ITEMS

Polo: Aeropostale, $10

Cardigan (layered under polo): gift

Pinstripe pants: Kohl's, $30

Wedges: Ross, $7

ACCESSORIES REPORT

Earrings: Icing by Claire's, $5

Scarf: free from clothing swap

Peacoat: Papaya brand, free from clothing swap

Right-hand ring: gift

Hear that? It's the sound of a fat pleasantly-plump lady singing, and that means that the SK{ru}SH 30x30 challenge is officially over. Here's a quick recap of the hits and misses, my outfits from the last thirty days. (Psst: sorry that some of the numbers are cut off. If I were any brand of perfectionist, I'd fix it.)

Here's what I learned from working with my narrow wardrobe for one month:

- I've still got a long way to go before wearing a skirt/dress on a weekday feels normal. Growing up, they were reserved for Sundays only, and I have a long-standing preference for pants because of it. If I've done my math correctly, I wore pants twice as often as skirts/dresses during the 30x30, although I had an even number of pieces in both categories. That said, I really love wearing skirts and have several that I adore, so I'm working to make myself feel more okay with wearing them during the week.

- My shoes and t-shirts were the things I missed wearing the most.

- Scarves are wonderful.

- The state of my hair has a huge impact on my confidence level; no matter how good I felt about my outfit, when my hair was in that botched-dye-job stage (days 5-10), I was self-conscious.

- It is really good to take a purposeful break from shopping. I'll definitely do it again.

- I've got serious love for my chartreuse cardigan, plaid shirt, and striped sweater. I had to stop myself from wearing them too often.

- While the 30x30 parameters did seem silly to me at some points ("Look at all the clothes I'm just ignoring for no reason!"), it wasn't hard to live up to them. I could have made ten or twenty more outfits with ease, even if some of them were awfully similar to earlier outfits, and if it weren't for the fact that I was photographing and blogging every single look, I would have felt fine with exact repeats. Consider this a lesson well-learned for any future time spent living abroad: you can do a lot with a little.

So would I do the challenge again? Maybe, but I think a smarter move might be to do a modified version. I'll just have to wait and see how I feel in a few months, assuming Kendi puts out the call again.

In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to a closet without restrictions. I'll be donning some polka dots tomorrow for Everybody, Everywear, and after that, the world is my oyster ... my rainy, rainy oyster. (It's absolutely pouring right now.) Huzzah!

30x30: I Love My Bike, and I Love Free Things

30x30 ITEMS

Blazer: Class Club brand (secondhand), $10

Shirt: Forever 21 brand (secondhand), $7

Skirt: Urban Wear, $25

Boots: vintage Marc Alpert brand via Etsy, $38

ACCESSORIES REPORT

Camisole: Downeast Outfitters, $10

Circle pin: free from clothing swap

Owl pin: gift from sister-in-law

I swear I steamed my skirt this morning, but you'd never know by looking at these pictures. It wrinkles at the speed of light.

Another thing you can see in these pictures is my bike. Her name is Alexandra, "Lexie" for short, and I'm very excited for springtime rides. For your information, my camera is named Pepe (as in Pepe le Pew, the romantic skunk) and my car is named Lorraine. Do you name inanimate objects? It's fun; you should give it a try.

You'll notice that I got my circular pin from a clothing swap. It took place yesterday on campus, and my two friends and I made off like bandits! The organizers basically set up a points system, so all the items we brought were assigned a certain number of points (accessories = 1 point, shirts = 2 points, jeans = 5 points, etc.) which we could then use to shop. My total donated items came to 90 points, and I'm guessing that the stuff I left with came to around 45 (they didn't really tally things up, so long as it was clear you were within your allowed points). The event was very well-organized and well-attended, and by the by, what a GENIUS idea for a charitable event. All of the clothes left by the end were donated to a local refugee center, and in the meantime, all of the attendees (mostly starving college students, by the way) were able to clean out their closets and get some great new stuff without spending a dime. Awesome. (PS - I ran into a fellow style blogger at the event, Sarah from Wearing It On My Sleeves. Fun fun. She is even prettier in real life. And I didn't even realize that we have the same name! Although I spell it the right way. No "H" needed. =)