Stuff I Wore: Stripes and Neon

Sorted Stripes Dress // Anthropologie (worn here, similar here); 
Tory Burch Reva Ballet Flats // Bloomingdale's (worn here); Necklace // Colorblock Shop

Today we're back to my random ramblings and no discussion about my clothes.  The other day I was in Bloomingdale's with the Scot, we were just passing through staring longingly at the expensive goodies.  I spied a teenage girl with an armful of expensive looking dresses, pants, skirts and well any thing she could carry, heading off to the dressing room.  A woman, that I assumed is her mother, was trailing behind with even more designer duds in tow.  The mother stops, looks at a mannequin wearing a gorgeous white peplum dress and exclaims, "Honey, you should try this one on!!!"  The teenager, exasperated, whines, "MOOoooommmmm!!!!  I already have that dress stupid!!!  Hurry up!!"  She stomped off to the dressing room leaving her mother embarrassed about her horrid child's behavior.  Seriously?  You own a dress still featured on the mannequin?  You didn't even wait a little while to see if it went on sale?  AND you bought a teenage girl a white dress?!?  That will be covered in Cheeto dust or ripped in no time.  That mother is wasting so much money.  

After this unfolded before me and I had a million thoughts about what was wrong with this situation running through my head, I looked at the Scot and said, "When I have enough money to shop here, I will shop here and my kids will shop at Old Navy."  Actually, I will probably still shop at Old Navy.  Who am I kidding?   

Stuff I Wore: Stripes n' Sneaks

Dress // French Connection (worn here, similar here); Shoes // Target (worn here, similar here); Bangles // Target and Forever 21 (worn here); Necklace // J. Crew Factory (worn here, similar here)

Hat // Target
If you're wondering, yes I did switch out the hat.

Love Rings // JewelMint (similar here)

I was shopping in a small boutique in the mall a few weeks ago and I saw a pre-teen girl shopping with her two dads...her two ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS dads.  The daughter was moping around the store in her Umbro soccer shorts and Adidas Sambas while her dads threw countless pink sparkly items at her.  She says to one of her dads, "Dad, I don't want any of these things."  Her dad replies, "Honey, you have to start dressing sassier!!"  She replies, "Daaaad, I don't want to look sassy.  I just want to look like everyone else."  

This girl is the voice of a generation.  She just put her finger on how every single girl between the ages of 12 and 18 feels.  

I think I can speak for most women out there.  We spent the better part of our teenage lives just trying to fit in.  I remember that there were days when I would purposefully wear the same exact outfit as several of my friends. I think around 18 or 19 I stopped being a Stepford teen.  Now, I'm like a male peacock doing a mating dance wearing the brightest colors and patterns I can find.  I've come so far, yet I know exactly how that little girl in the mall feels.  I just wanted to tap one of the dads on the shoulder and say, "Just take her to Sports Authority and let her buy a t-shirt.  She'll discover fashion in a few years."

Stuff I Wore: Friday Florals

Remember when I told you that you'd be seeing a lot of these pink pants?  Well, here they are again and this time paired with some florals.

Floral Shirt // Style Mint
Cardigan // The Limited
Pink Matchstick Cords // J. Crew, worn here
Tory Burch Reva Ballet Flats
Earrings // Kate Spade

I love this little floral t-shirt.  It's trendy and the softest thing in my closet right now.  (And I know it's trendy because I saw on Kendi from Kendi Everyday via her Instagram feed).  This shirt is so comfortable and awesome, that I may have accidentally worn it to bed.  And when I accidentally, I mean too lazy to change my shirt before bed.  Don't tell me you've never done that.

I love these earrings!!  I got them for $20 when Kate Spade was running the Sample Sale!

And now on to this week's Friday Fancies!!!  The theme this week is Flower Power!  Instead of making an outfit, I decided to pick out floral things I want.

Friday's Fancies: Flower Power by veggielawyer

- I've been eyeing this Floral dress from Mod Cloth for months.  I love the colors, the shape and the embroidery at the bust.  It just looks like something you'd wear to a tea party.


- I am dying to try the Floral pants trend, but I don't want to spend more than $50 on a trend I'm not sure I can pull off.

- I'm still lusting after these Forever 21 floral oxfords.  I really just need to pull the trigger on this one.  The problem is that I can't find them in stores, and I'm cranky about paying shipping.

- I am in love with Kate Spade's new floral pattern.  It seems like some of the items in this pattern are leather-free.  So, I might be partaking if a good sale comes along.


- I already have a couple of floral earrings, but I don't have PINK floral earrings.

- I've been seeing floral pins around and I think I need one.  They really remind me of the long ago days of Sex and the City.

Stuff I Wore: Discovering My Self (Timer)

After a weekend in Atlantic City, I'm back and I have a million things to do, so I am reaching into my vault of month-old outfit photos that I save for such an occasion.  

I can't rely on the Scot to take my picture every morning.  So I had to learn a new little trick: setting the self-timer on my camera.  I know it's not all that hard, but let me have this small victory.  Another victory?  Using the "soften" feature on Google+ to give my photo this ethereal look.  

Sorted Stripes Dress // Anthropologie, similar here
Tights // Joe Fresh, similar here
Shoes // ??, similar here

Stuff I Wore: Have We Met?

Yes, that shirt has cats on it.  The Scot asked if those were cats on my shirt and I simply replied, "Have we met?"  I am a self proclaimed crazy cat lady.  I just thought maybe I should start wearing more badges of my self-bestowed honor.
This shirt also comes in red with a dog print.  I had to exercise a lot of restraint to not purchase the dog printed shirt as well.

Bow Back Animal Print Top // Old Navy
Pencil Skirt // Target, worn here, similar here
Shoes // Steve Madden

And I think this was day 25 of my Use it Or Lose it Challenge.  The shoes were item 8 of 10.  And after I almost slid to death on my kitchen floor, these shoes have now been donated to Soles for Souls, which is collecting shoes for families affected by Hurricane Irene.  

So far I've gotten rid of a horribly uncomfortable pair of shoes, an impractical shirt, and some ill fitting items.  I've also rediscovered a sweater dress and a color blocked shirt.  This challenge is really helping me clean out my closet.  I am definitely doing this every season.

Daydream Believer (OOTD 2.2.12)

 So originally this post was going to be about breaking fashion rules and mixing black and brown...blah, blah blah.  But in light of Davy Jones' death, I decided to change the theme.

Similar Skirt
Blouse worn here, similar here
Similar Wedges

Davy Jones was my first official celebrity crush.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I'm a Daybreak Believer and I took that last train to Clarksville.  When I was in kindergarten reruns of The Monkees were on Nickelodeon after school.  I, not realizing there had been a significant passing of time since the filming of The Monkees told my mom that Davy Jones was the cutest boy ever and I wanted to be his girlfriend.  My mom tried to explain to me that Davy Jones was 15 years older than her and that the show was filmed 15 years ago.  I didn't believe it and said, "But Mom, look at the TV, he's A LOT younger than you."  Not only was I an idiot, but I was also kind of a jerk.

On another unrelated topic, As you can probably tell, I messed with my blog layout the other night.  The Scot picked out the header and background combo.  The rose images are courtesy of Pugly Pixel, an awesome design blog with tons of freebies.  I just need to find a spot on the blog to give them credit. I know, the Scot is now an integral part of the blog: photographer and now consultant.  

Stuff I Wore: I'm Sexy and I Know It (OOTD 1.17.12)

I've starting fixing blog-opocalypse.  ALL of my images were deleted from my blog.  So I spent last night re-uploading about 1/3 of my images.  I'll have to continue day by day.  I think it was a glitch with switching over to Google+.  So, if you love perusing my archives, you can't go too far back.  Yeah, in my self absorbed world I assume everyone sits at home going through my archived posts.

Anyway, here is my outfit.  So, this is what I like to refer to as my'sexy dress.'  It's a dress in which I can't help but feel sexy and confident.  Everyone has an outfit like this.  The Scot has a 'sexy shirt' that he wears to any major semi-casual event.  Seriously, he loves this shirt so much I can really just photoshop him into  photos and no one would know.

I was so confident in this outfit that I tried out the red lips trend.  It lasted about 15 minutes until I had my first cup of coffee.  Yes, I said FIRST, which implies there was a second.  Don't judge.

Lipstick in Barcelona
Shoes, worn here; similar here
Similar dress here and pricey here.

Stuff I Wore: Use It or Lose It Day #4 (OOTD 1.19.12)

NOTE: TONS of my pictures have disappeared from the blog.  I am going to work to get them back up.  I wonder what happened?

Gasp, I wore pants one day.  For any one that's new, I don't go bottomless everyday to work.  I wear skirts and dresses.  I just wanted to clear that up before any new comers decided to stop reading the blog of some pants-less wonder.  Yes, there are days when I get out of the shower and contemplate just wearing my towel to work, but I have yet to follow through on it.  I also find that I can't shoe case my shoes as well in pants.  The pants cast dark shadow over the shoes that I just can't seem to edit out of mirror pictures.

Enough about my problems with pants.  I hadn't worn this gorgeous top from Banana Republic in a really long time.  It fits great and I love the necklace print on the front.  It's like a built in accessory.

Pants worn here, similar here.
Ring worn here, similar here; pricey here.

However, the shirt has another built in accessory that makes it difficult to wear: this weird back of the neck bow.  I looked like a hunchback when I put my cardigan on.  And I can't go sleeveless in the office for several reasons.  The main one being that my office appears to be sitting on top of some sort of Arctic stream of air.  The entire office is a pleasant 70 degrees, while my tundra of an office is 60 degrees.  Perhaps it's a vortex of paranormal activity?

Well, this shirt is sadly going to the consignment shop because it's just not practical.  And every time I tried to tie the bow I tied a little hair into it.  I had to have the Scot tie it for me.  I really don't like clothing that takes a group effort.  I'm an adult.  I like to get dressed on my own nowadays.

As a recap, this is the third item of the ten.  First, I got rid of the tortuous brown shoes.  Second, I kept the comfy sweater dress.

Stuff I Wore: Thrift FAIL (OOTD 1.14.12)

I got the pictured mint scarf for $4 at the consignment shop on Main Street during my day with Elena and then promptly wore it to a birthday party that night.

I assume I was slouching over so far because the dog's butt was on my back.
Dress // Target (worn here, similar here)
Belt // Marshall's

However, I've realized that I need to thicken my thrift store skin.  I ventured out to a Goodwill on Saturday after I attended a class on NY civil procedure.  (Yeah, I went to school for a million years to become a lawyer, and when I do, I find out they make you KEEP TAKING CLASSES in order to be a lawyer)  I thought the shopping would raise my spirits after a thrilling 4 hours of civil procedure.  There was only one word to describe the Goodwill experience: HORRIBLE.  I drove around the parking lot for 10 minutes just looking for a space and when I got inside, it was absolute chaos.  Literally people throwing clothes and shoes around the store.  I think I took a clog to the back of the shin.  I could barely squeeze in between people to look at the racks.  And, if your mom has any Dress Barn clothes, do NOT send them to Goodwill.  They have reached maximum Dress Barn item capacity.  I left empty handed, but I might try again next weekend...at a different location.

Stuff I Wore: How to Ruin Your Day in 7 Minutes or Less (OOTD 1.16.12)

Similar shoes

Yesterday morning, my world collapsed in 7 minutes.  Yes, 7 minutes.  I started the day off by waking up late, which is not too much of a tragedy, but then everything fell apart.  I went to grab a shirt out of the closet, and it was gone.  So, of course I yelled.  The Scot's solution to the missing clothing catastrophe: leave the apartment and go to work early.  He is such a smart man.  Well, as I was picking out a new outfit, the cats began to fight resulting in dishes of cat food getting knocked on the floor.  As I was tending to a bloody cat ear while standing in a pile of cat food, the dog began to eat some of the fallen cat food.  And then of course, just to further ruin my day, the dog throws up....on the pile of cat food on the floor.  I can deal with being late to work and cleaning up animal fluids....but $10 worth of cat food was ruined!!!  Do you think any one would have blamed me if I made my coffee "irish" that morning at work?  I didn't, but I did have a hot chocolate and a bag of chocolate chip cookies for breakfast instead of my usual black coffee and bowl of boring unsugared cereal.

And, oh yeah, I winterized one of my Lilly Bloomingdale sale finds.  I forgot, this blog is supposed to be about fashion, not dog throw up.

Stuff I Wore: Rain Rain Go Away (OOTD 1.12.12)

Similar wellies; similar shirt

I was forced to wear my leaky rain boots to work two weeks ago.  As long as I don't step in puddles that are too deep, they still keep my feet dry.  But, guess what?  Yep, I stepped in a nice deep puddle.  I've since thrown the leaky shoes out and found a new pink pair, which will be featured soon!

I swapped out the flowered wellies for some brown boots when I got to work.  Squishy flowered wellies are not exactly workplace attire.  Although I guess walking around barefoot for an hour while my socks dried out on the heater wasn't all that professional.  I bring the class to the office.

Stuff I Wore: Tailor Made (OOTD 1.4.12)

Similar Boots
Similar Skirt
Similar Necklace

While getting back into the swing of things after the New Year holiday weekend, I wore an Anthro sale purchase: the Accordion Cutout Skirt.  This skirt was a steal at $30!  

This skirt required a slight alteration on my part.  So, I purchased my normal size 6 after having NEVER tried it on in store.  What I did not realize is that that the skirt's lining fits more like a pencil skirt than does the outer pleated layer.  I normally have to size up in pencil skirts.  When the skirt arrived in the mail, I was horrified to realize that the lining of the skirt was waaaay too tight.  The skirt was already so cheap and my Anthro did not have any size 8's in stock.  what was a girl to do!  And then I panicked.  In a moment of hysterics and instead of wearing Spanx to work), I did a quickie at home alteration.  Since I can't sew, I just ripped the side seams on the lining to make slits on either side.  Seriously, this was a moment of insanity.  However, it worked out.  And you can't even tell!  I'll probably make it a little nicer and have my tailor sew the raw edges.

OOTD 1.4.12 by veggielawyer

Pocket tee
$8 - target.com

Halston Heritage tux jacket
$154 - theoutnet.com

Accordion Cutout Skirt
$30 - anthropologie.com

Nine West black stiletto heels
$70 - dsw.com

Bow jewelry (similar)
$9.99 - modcloth.com

Miss Selfridge leaf jewelry
£5 - missselfridge.com

Stuff I Wore: Striped Casual Friday (OOTD 12.23.11)

Similar Skirt
Similar Boots
Similar Necklace

So, this is my bedroom pre-The Scot move and takeover.  My next few outfit posts will feature a giant mess in the background.

I picked up this skirt a few months ago at Forever 21 because it reminded me of pricier Bailey 44 pieces (and because it's just as comfy as a pair of sweat pants).

striped midis by veggielawyer featuring forever 21 skirts

Bailey 44 knee length black skirt
$107 - revolveclothing.com

Forever 21 skirt
$8.50 - forever21.com

Stuff I Wore: Ringing in the New Year, Dulcie Style

Every year for NYE I go to the same party with a few of my closest friends.  I've never been a huge fan of NYE, but I am a fan of dressing up.  So, while all my friends were in jeans and sweatpants, I donned the Dulcie Dress.  The Scot gave me this one for Christmas and I was overjoyed.  How did he know?  Was he reading my blog?  No, most likely he enlisted the help of my best bud Elena.  She knows me so well, and the Scot knows well enough not to venture out to Anthro alone.  Sadly, I do not have great outfit photos, so you have to settle for some less than stellar photos and the Polyvore set (with some similar items substituted).  I don't know why I thought I could take an outfit photo after the party (and after several beers) and I also don't know why I couldn't take a decent photo all night. In every picture I was either making a weird face, eating or contorting my body into unflattering angles.  This is the best I could do.

The best pic I had came from when I tried the dress on at Anthro

NYE 2012 by veggielawyer

Dulcie Dress
$100 - anthropologie.com

Kew 159 black top
£49 - johnlewis.com

Purple stocking
$7.95 - anthropologie.com

Tory Burch Reva Ballet Flats
£175 - selfridges.com

Cuff jewelry (substitute, my rhinestone cuff came from a clearance rack at Kohl's a few years back)
$35 - macys.com

Cuteberry bow jewelry (substitute, my rhinestone earrings came from Joyce Leslie)
$15 - yesstyle.com

Collection Katy Perry pour OPI de OPI sur Sephora.fr Parfumerie en...
€14 - sephora.fr

Katy Perry and OPI Nail Polish Collection Collaboration | Fashion Fame
fashionfame.com

At least I got decent pictures of my nails.