Well, hello! :-)
Giving you all a warning, lots of outfits in today's post. I really should be better about publishing the outfits more than once (maybe twice) a week, but
since I have started putting the outfit photos (at least one from each day) on facebook, I have definitely been a bit slower about publishing the outfits here. Oh, well, guess it keeps it from cluttering up your blogger feed, I suppose.
Anyhow, I called today's post "Figuring it Out" because all of September and October (so far) has been a guessing game of what layers I should wear to be comfortable throughout the day. Some mornings it will start off in the low 60s only to rise to mid 80s by midday. Other days it will be fairly warm in the morning but because of an approaching cold front, the latter half of the day will be chilly and windy. And because many of my days have me far away from home all day, I need to make sure that outfit I wear will cover all weather possibilities.
Here are my attempts (for better or for worse):
Worn last Sunday (09/30/12), I consider this a mildly successful attempt at keeping myself cool/warm. The day started out chilly enough, which is why I wore my longer sleeved tee under the floral dress, but I knew if need be, I could either roll the sleeves or take the tee off completely and be fine if the temperature rose to summer levels.
I loved having the pops of red, not intending to be patriotic, mind you, but since we were headed into DC, I am sure many folks thought that was my intention. ;)
We went to the Botanical Garden to see the Venus Flytrap exhibit. By the time we made it through the gardens, I had unbuttoned my placket on the dress. I like it this way, but definitely looks less crisp than in the first photo.
CW and I really wanted to have a photo together, but random people kept photo-bombing us. One guy in particular kept coming back for more. Mr. Dina and I kind of wondered if he was enjoying himself he did it that much (five times, I believe).
After the Botanical Gardens, we went to the National Gallery of Art to check out a
limited exhibition on George Bellow's artwork. I didn't much care for the his boxing art, but LOVED his
portraits of ladies. My favorite thing about his artwork was the use of light...
even his most wintery scenes seemed nearly spring-like with his ability to paint in luminescence.
The cloche I am wearing is based on one worn by a lady in one of his paintings. I tried it on, fell in love (cloches are my winter hat--obviously the fedora is my summer one), and nearly considered coming back for it. I asked the lady how many were left and she replied, "this is the last one." Mr. Dina (not usually a fan of hats) decided this beauty was worth purchasing as an early anniversary gift (our #11 is this Saturday). ;)
Speaking of Mr. Dina, here is our attempt at a family self-photo at the Capitol. Yeah, almost there. ;) In our world, this is almost a work of art. LOL.
Even though the lipstick wore off by the time we made it to the Botanical Garden, I quite liked it with the outfit. (Another pop of red!)
On Tuesday last week, it was decidedly cooler, and very rainy. Those are rainboots you see on me there.
The top is part wool so it helped keep the chill off, but since it wasn't that cold, I only needed this, no jacket or coat necessary.
I was *supposed* to go with CW, Rex, Angus, and Mr. Dina to the Nats game that night. But the momma in me made the executive decision not to drag a six-month old to a dreary night game, no matter how cute everyone looked in their matching blue and red (even Mr. Dina and Rex had on navy and red).
The scarf is the Boden Westminster Silk Scarf,
which I did a review of here.
Yeah, I was fooling around with the self-timer before picking up CW from school that day.
By Friday, though, the weather had turned warm again (with a brief chill in the AM), so I pulled out the
LemLem maxi skirt (I bought it on sale, and am still investigating local Ethiopian merchants for any future purchases of these beautiful Ethiopian textiles--I have a few I was told about that I still need to visit).
The skirt plus the longer sleeved top were perfect for the school mass I went to (Rex's school has mass once a week), but still allowed me not to overheat on the walk we took to get lunch after school.
The necklace was a huge hit, btw. Some lady came up to me at the mall and asked where I had bought it. I told her she could get it from J. Crew, but if she searched "bubble necklace" on ebay, she could get it for really really cheap. ;)
I love this skirt. I am also glad I was able to get it on sale. As a reminder, I bought this in a size medium, which *just* fits my 28.5 inch waist. Definitely size up if you run larger through your waistline.
Why not have an arty-farty shot thrown in?
This was from Saturday (10/6/12) and that was officially the weirdest day of all. The day started off fairly warm, but while I was grabbing these photos, the cold front came in (
I could feel it...like some kind of weirdo, I feel significant drops in barometric pressure, I get a migraine and my whole body tingles).
I knew it would be cooler, but I forgot about the windy, so by the time I took this ancient Ideology (from Hecht's 2003?) dress, I was struggling to keep the skirt portion down. Since I was in Maryland, my hubby quipped that I was having a "Marilyn in Maryland" day. GROAN.
I also own this dress in a pink with apples. I don't wear them enough, but like any good dress in my closet, I always make sure to pull it out eventually.
The dots on the polka dot invitation clutch were a nice complement to the print on the fabric.
I kind of have a big huge crush on the Pioneer Necklace, by Premier Designs Jewelry. This was another one of my purchases from my friend's Premier Designs party that she had a while back. If you like this necklace, contact
my gal Rachel here at her FB page. She also has some pretty cool giveaways and fun styling ideas over at her page, so like it as well, so her fun can stay in your facebook feed.
I wore this to get Rex from school one day. I wanted to wear this dress one last time before summer ended, but again, it was a bit too cool to wear it bare...so I added the Madewell top so it would look like I had on separates.
I dug how closely the print on the scarf nearly matched the dress. (However, it is not an exact match--the palms on the dress are far larger and less uniform than the palms on the scarf.)
Again, another fairly casual look for getting Rex from school. Though this Target dress is very summery, the chambray helps keep it from looking too "stuck" in one season.
This is the
boucle peplum jacket by J. Crew, and if you can find it, the jacket is a great buy. It is a bit like a cardigan, but still structured enough to be considered a jacket. I am wearing it in a size extra-small, which is my usual J. Crew cardigan size.
The jacket was way too warm, though, so I took it off and just wore the outfit as you see it here. This may be the simplest outfit I have ever worn here on this blog. :)
Okay, that's it! Are you all still in the weird summer/fall period where you live, or are you all autumnal?
