February 13, 2013

Sewing and Savings




I had an hour to spare last night, and decided to go through my stash of leftover fabric and come up with something. I had a turquoise twill leftover that I used already on two other garments, and some lace from my Halloween dress. I hunted for the easiest skirt pattern I had, and in a hour, I had this skirt (sorry for the crappy cell phone photo, I'll make a decent post with this look when I get home).

Then I posted the picture on Instagram, and someone told me they saw a similar skirt on clearance on a high end site for $100. Then I went to search for it, and found another one, somewhat similar, for $278 on the outnet. I guess lace over mint colored skirts are in. But my way was cheaper!


UPDATE: I took some decent photos of the skirt and the outfit. Enjoy!



The "is this camera working" fake pose. 

Sweater: Loft (last seen here)
Necklaces: both were gifts from a long time ago
Skirt: Self Made
Shoes: Mel by Melissa (NEW! more Melissa shoes here)

I wore this: to work, February 13, 2013.

February 10, 2013

Valentine's Day Sweetheart Dress




Yes, you are looking at another one of my creations! This time I used a pattern from Colette Patterns, the Macaron dress. The pattern in those colors are just true perfection! I rushed to finish it before Valentine's Day, so I could wear it on this date! Last year I also DIY-ed something for Valentine's Day, not quite this complex, but I think I'll keep up this tradition now. 

If you want to see the making of this dress, head out to my personal blog and check out the post I did with the behind the scenes.






 Dress: Self Made (Colette Patterns Macaron dress)
Necklace: Forever 21 (last seen here)
Heels: Melissa (last seen here)

I wore this to: Dinner at Kyoto, (for an early)Valentine's Day 2013

What about you? Do you know what you'll  be wearing this year for Valentine's Day?


February 9, 2013

Revisiting: Polka Dots




Another one of my favorite themes last year was our Polka Dot week.The unfortunate thing last year, though, was that I only had one Polka Dot item in my wardrobe. But I've corrected this since. On a short trip to the mall, I stopped at Forever 21 and found this pants. It was the last one they had in stock, and it was my size. Meant to be? I think so.

Pants: Forever 21 (New! Buy a similar one here)
Peplum T-Shirt: Forever 21 (New! Buy same top here)
Necklace: A-Thread (Last seen here! Still available for purchase here)
Boots: Wanted (Last seen here! Still available here)

I wore this to: Work, sometime in February, 2013


January 31, 2013

Color Blocking... Sort of.




Life has been CRAZY busy lately. I've been taking some great webinar classes after work, and freelancing some small projects, and working on a duvet-cover/quilt for my bed (you can see my progress here). So that's why I'm only sharing the look I wore on Monday today! I decided to revisit some of my favorite themes from last year's challenges, but this time making sure I'm wearing something new! This week, I revisited our color block week, well, sort of. Last minute, I threw in a striped shirt instead, so I won't claim this is a total color block, but let's concentrate on the bright green blazer and vivid purple pants, shall we? Color block gold.


Blazer: Kohls (NEW! similar styles from Kohls here) | Striped Shirt: Forever 21 (last seen here)
Necklace: A-Thread (last seen here) | Skinny Jeans: Old Navy (last seen here)
Flats: Bought on Ideel (NEW!)

I wore this to: Work, on January 28, 2013

On another note, I have to share the "Sockington effect," as I'm calling it. This tiny cute kitty, who has a tremendous following on twitter (well deserved) tweeted my cat-shirt outfit (I was wearing his face on my shirt, after all), and I got such a spike of views on that post, that my pageviews graphic looks prety funny right now:

Cool, huh? Thanks Sockington! Much love and kibble for you.

January 28, 2013

Have We Talked About my Cat-Shirt Addiction?




Have I told you about my cat t-shirt collection? It started casually, when I got that Sockington (the most famous cat on twitter) t-shirt you see pictured on the left, and it just grew from there. It wasn't my intention to have a cat t-shirt collection, but it happened, and now I LOVE it! This weekend I wore the first and last cat shirts I bought. Hope you enjoy the outfits! 







Outfit 1: 
Cat Shirt: Sockington | Necklace: Express (last seen here)
Cardigan: J.Crew (NEW, and still on sale here) | Skirt: Loft (NEW!)
Tights: gift (NEW!) | Boots: Wanted (NEW! and still available here)

I wore this to: run errands, on January 26, 2013

Outfit 2:
Cat Shirt: Hey Chickadee (NEW! and still available here)
Bolero: Loft | Jeans: Zara (last seen here) | Necklace: Disney (last seen here)
Boots: Wanted (NEW! and still available here)

I wore this to: grocery shopping, on January 27, 2013

And now I finish by asking: what's your favorite famous cat (of the internet or beyond?)


January 25, 2013

Finding Out Your Own Style



I think I'm a little overdue on this post, but I have been thinking a lot about the future of Occupy the Wardrobe this week. I feel like this is more than a style blog, and I shouldn't turn it into one now that I'm done with my year of no shopping. But nonetheless, the learning and thinking I did for the year I didn't shop it's worth sharing and working it through from now on. For example, one of the best things about not shopping for a year was figuring out my own style, and what I love to wear. So today, I wanted to share some tips for anyone that still struggles with it.


I'm not the most organized person in town, but I'm a firm believer that if you're one of those people that have SO MANY clothes in your wardrobe you don't even know what you own, then you're doing it wrong. If you can't see what you own, you won't wear it. Clean up that wardrobe, toss anything you haven't worn in a year, or doesn't fit, or doesn't flatter you. Toss it all out without pity, it is for the best.

I actually did the heaviest cleanings ever in my wardrobe in this year of not shopping. The clarity it gives you is amazing. If you feel it's too hard to part from something, maybe offer it to a friend who'll wear it more than you do. If not, TOSS IT.

Me, in one of my classical outfits I wore 100 times before I started this blog.


This sounds kind of drastic, but I promise it's a good idea. Mixing and matching your pieces more often will help you get a sense of what works for you, and find out about combinations that are even better than the ones you make all the time. It's basically, shopping your own closet, and looking even better than when you shop out!

Simply put: do not wear the same pieces the same way twice. You can repeat separate pieces, but not outfits. I used to do that a lot, I had my 10 favorite dresses, and basically just cycled through them every week. There was one day that I looked back and realized that I had worn the same exact outfits on the same days of the week as the week before.

So next time you reach for that cardigan you ALWAYS wear with the same pair of pants, don't. Try something new. Then try to not repeat outfits for an entire month, rotate everything you own and wear them differently every time. Now, after a year of doing that, it's almost second nature to me, and most mornings I put stuff together that I never did before. Think of the possibilities!

I encourage you to try both things and seeing how they will help you find out your own style. And please share in the comments your own ideas about style! I'd love to hear them.

January 23, 2013

Opera Night




You might remember that fancy dress I got as a Christmas gift, and was planning to wear on an occasion like this one. So finally I had the chance! I love a shiny fabric, but there's not a lot of times when I can wear something like this with my lifestyle. But thankfully, every once in a while the friends call with an opportunity like this, and I get to take my fancy numbers out for a spin.



Blazer: Forever 21 (NEW!) | Necklace: Express (last seen here)
Dress: Jennifer Lopez for Kohls (last seen here - more JLo dresses here) | Tights: Forever 21
Heels: MIA (last seen here) | Rings: Forever 21

I wore this to: the Opera, on January 19, 2013.