Men

I'm just going to dive right into it... STOP telling men what they can/can't wear!

Have you ever watched Mad Men? Aren't all the men dressed so classy? Have you ever wished your man dressed like that? Well let me tell you something, ladies... we are slowly on the path back to snazzy looking dudes.

Let us not restrict them to jeans and a t-shirt. Let them wear bowties and suspenders and hats and shoes with swagger! Pinstriped suits and patterned shirts! Hell! How about some patterned pants?! Why should women get to have all the fun with clothes?

Leave their manbuns and facial hair alone!

I'm tired of my fiancé not wanting to wear snazzy clothes just because "people will think it's weird." And who cares if it is a little weird? Everyone's opinions are different, and you're never going to please everyone at once anyways. So, men, wear what you want! Please!

I want to see some real style again. Have at it. Go crazy. And send me pictures when you do. Make the world classy again, I dare you.

Through The Looking Glass

I challenged myself to do an "alice" photoshoot. My only real struggle was, what should the color scheme be? Everyone always imagines Alice in blue but the book never describes her as wearing a blue dress. Then I realized I didn't want to wear an Alice costume. I wanted to wear things that remind me of the story. I always think RED when I imagine Wonderland. Because of the Queen of Hearts. And in Through the Looking Glass the only colors they really mention (so far, I haven't finished it yet) are the red and white chess pieces. So I'm going to post the pictures from the book that helped me pick out my outfit then I'll show you what I came up with.

Through the looking glass

Alice with the Red Queen

Painting the roses red

Talking the the flowers

New Clothes

I love new clothes. Part of the fun is the actual shopping. But since I'm saving up for a wedding right now (or trying to) I can't go shopping whenever I feel like it.

Lucky for me one of my many hobbies is sewing! I have a couple boxes of fun fabric taking up precious space in my room so I can create FREE clothes when I want to.

Today I just happened to have too much coffee (psh! Like you can have "too much coffee" *SIP*). So I threw open the boxes and only had to dig around for a minute before I saw something that motivated me.

Threw this skirt together in about 20 minutes (yes I'm bragging a little).

 As you know I love mixing patterns (I made a whole post about it)

I especially love wearing this shirt with other patterns.

Cutest clothing shadow ever? I think yes.

I wanted to show you a little closer up. Notice I used white thread on black fabric? Some of you are probably like "WHAT THE HECK WAS SHE THINKING?!" This is something I started doing a long time ago out of laziness because I hate rethreading the sewing machine. So I would just use white or black (whichever was currently in the machine) thread on ALL my projects. But I continued to do it because I think its adorable and gives the piece I'm making character.

Used the scrap of spotted fabric from the underneath part of the skirt in my hair. Pearl earrings. Lace choker. And bright red lip (DUH).

Viola'. New favorite outfit and I no longer feel the need to go shopping.

Thanks for reading!

Rainy Days

There are many different ways I handle a rainy day.

Sometimes they make me feel gray. But you can wear gray and still stand out. I'm wearing my black tutu and favorite sparkly leg warmers (although you can't really see the sparkles in pictures). Someone bought me the skull tights for Christmas. I found the Ariel shirt at Ross. And the gloves... I really can't remember where those came from. Gloves are a really fun way to add to your outfit. Plus, I feel like they are mysterious.

Side note: rainy days = messy hair. Wearing a hat helps avoid poofy hair.

Other days when it is all soggy and muggy, I feel like I need to be a BURST of color!

I don't usually use umbrellas but when I do... I use a ducky one. Because honestly... how adorable is that? I love pairing this yellow dress with some bright blues. Today I realized that these tights, heels, and this scarf are all the same shade.I can promise you I will be wearing these tights with these heels much more often in the coming summer.

The opposite way to go is what many call "frumpy". But I call it "comfy".

I have an oversized sweater WITH POCKETS! but the sleeves don't reach my wrists so I wear a long sleeved black t-shirt underneath so I don't feel like a total dweeb. Love wearing this scarf with these leggings. Threw on some leg warmers over some "kneehigh" gray socks (they never actually reach my knees). The earmuffs are something I have gotten into just this past winter. I think they are cute and they really do keep me so warm. Boots are the best. These boots slip right on so I wear them on lazy days. They're like flipflops for winter.

I had a lot of fun putting together these outfits for this post. I hope you had fun reading it!

Kissable

So I'm sure most if not all of you recognize the photo above. "Kissing the war goodbye" was taken August 14, 1945

It has been one of my favorite pictures since I can remember. So this year was the 70th anniversary and I asked my boyfriend if we could go August 14, 2015 to reenact the picture. He hates kissing in public and taking pictures of us kissing so I really thought he would say no.

But he said yes *BIG SMILEY FACE HERE*

I didn't want to wear costumes but I did want to feel the right sort of vibe and even jazz it up a little.

I found this purse for $15 at a thrift store. Isn't it gorgeous!? Hand beaded, and so sparkly and shimmery. I couldn't stop playing with it all day.

The earrings were $20 at a local antique shop. More than I would normally pay for earrings but they are very old and they were perfect so I couldn't pass them up

Side note: Clip-ons hurt... a lot

Boyfriend bought me the dress at Ross for $7 

Not too shabby, huh?

We were both really nervous about kissing in front of so many people, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had a few drinks before working up enough nerve. Do we look nervous in the picture? I was having fun *wink*

Pictured below is a statue located in Times Square and reenactors who were hanging out in the area. She actually came over and offered to take our picture and help position us to be a little more accurate.

It was a wonderful experience, we had a blast, and Boyfriend deserves so so many points for putting up with it all and doing this for me.

(Spoiler alert: he proposed later that day! Check out my other blog Marylou's Wedding for all the details.)

How To Be Classy

Now of course this is just my opinion of classy. But here are a few things I do when I like to pretend I'm extra fabulous.

Lets take this outfit a piece at a time. Your first step is to put on some Frank Sinatra to get in the right mood.

LACE: I love lace. Dresses, sweaters, leggings, whatever I can find in lace. So I have this lace dress and then I kind of just add onto that as I come across things in my closet.

CLUTCH: Remember how I said to buy all the clutches? This was my first thrift shop clutch. It started my love for dressing this way, actually, although I've always had a desire to be fancy. It made me realize I could in fact dress this way when I so desired.

SUNGLASSES: Big round sunglasses make a huge difference to your appearance. It's where I feel my connection to Audrey. That is important to me. If you could care less if Audrey Hepburn would have wanted to be your best friend, then wear whatever sunglasses suit your mood.

HATS: Don't forget you have nothing to fear from hats! (Unless of course they have a hat pin in which case, yeah, be careful). This cute little thing is actually a comb. So basically it stays wherever I want it. A little bit of netting and feathers with some not too over-the-top gem stones is just what I need to push this style in the right direction.

EARRINGS: Notice the teardrop earrings? $3 at the consignment store. Obviously fake diamonds, but a girl can pretend right?

Side note: I do pretend... a lot.

HEELS: duh, what's classier than a pair of heels?

I didn't wear any jewelry aside from the earrings because I had other accessories, and the neckline of this dress only allows for certain necklaces. If I had a nice long strand of pearls that would have gone really well.

Side note: someone drop a hint to my boyfriend that I need a long strand of pearls

If you don't go for all the feathers and whatnot I totally understand. DITCH IT!

Viola'

We are left with Simple Classy.

I found this hat in my grandparents attic. It was my great grandfathers. The right hats add so much class.

Side note: And they make me pose-y

This outfit is more modern classy. (What? You thought I only knew how to dress like an old person?)

I love taking a simple black dress and only accessorizing with one color. Obviously I picked blue this time. I am obsessed with these blue heels! Although to be honest they aren't very comfortable (sad face) 

I zoomed in on the dress so you could really see the lace accent. I believe this one cost me $12

Side note: have I mentioned Ross is absolutely THE place to buy dresses?

The earrings are HUGE so I couldn't wear the necklace as a necklace because it was all too overwhelming. So I threw it on as a bracelet instead

I used to have a cigarette extender when I smoked. I would highly recommend you quit smoking cause it will murder you. But if you do smoke, get one.

Let me know you think of my style and things YOU like to do to feel classy. Really, I want to know

If The Dress Fits...

 BUY IT IN EVERY COLOR!

I'm serious. If you find a comfortable flattering dress, buy all the colors.

This was my first one of this style. The fabric is soft and stretchy. My hair was lavender at the time and I loved the way the colors looked next to each other. I found all but the last dress in this post at Ross. And they were all $8 a piece even though I bought them months apart. Which to me just makes them even better. I love that these first 2 have that lace section in the middle for showing a little bit of skin without going overboard revealing.

When I found this one my hair was literally the same shade of pink as the dress. My hair color has a lot of influence on my shopping. I don't own that much pink, but when I do wear pink I like it to be in your face. So either HOT pink like this dress, or using all the pink accessories I own.

This dress matches my current hair color. A dark teal. I love how each of these dresses, though the same cut, are all so different. Different, colors, prints, textures... yet all the same dress. They are just different enough that no one has ever commented that "Don't you have that dress in 5 colors?" The perks of simplicity. Though pretty, the style is so simple, you can't even tell it's a cookie cutter dress. (Unless someone were to put pictures of all the dresses next to each other in a blog post and tell you flat out that they are the same dress. But who would want to blow that secret?)

This one was a gift and is slightly different from the others but it is just close enough that I wanted to add it. Just a reminder to stay fun! And there is no rule that says "costumes must only be worn as costumes".

Side note: I don't listen to rules anyways

Do you think I'm crazy yet?