Don't Wear Pajamas to the Grocery Store

I like to think that I am one of those "always be fancy" people that are always well-dressed, even if it's just a pair of nice jeans and a t-shirt. But the fact of the matter is, I'm a giant scrub. I let my hair get greasy and don't like to wear make-up and I will find myself wearing ratty old Star Wars shirts and sweat pants more often than I would like to admit. So whenever I dress up, or am looking very polished, I usually get lots of compliments (I still have yet to pull off a messy-cute look). You would think all this praise would motivate me to dress nicer, yet it never does. However; a recent happening made me think about this a little more than usual.

I was feeling very good and decided to wear a skirt to the fabric store. One of my favorite skirts, in fact. It is a vintage red circle skirt with white ric-rac trim and has sweet lace edging the bottom. I wore it with a white button-down shirt and wore a bow in my hair. As I was walking into the store, I heard someone shouting at me, so I turned around. It was the mother of an old friend. She thought my outfit was super cute and asked if I would let her take a picture, so I said sure, and then we chatted a bit before going on our merry way. And it made me think, what if I had been wearing my usual outfit? I wonder if she even would have recognized me in dirty sweats and a grubby pull-over. And if she did, she certainly would not have asked to take a picture. 

So, while subscribing to the school of thought that wearing pajama pants to the grocery stores is abhorrent, I myself partake in it. Hypocritical, I know. Anyway I am hoping to change myself in that respect and model the very behavior that I expect out of other people.

Any situations that motivate you to be better dressed?

Red Hair and Blue Velvet

A little while back my sister went to the end all be all of estate sales. It wasn't just an estate sale, it was a vintage costume/antique shop sale. The building itself had been closed for about 20 years, so nothing has been touched for a long time. I really wanted to go, but didn't find out about it until the last day of the sale, and didn't really have the gas to drive 150 miles round trip (I'm in Columbus and the sale way in Dayton). I found it quite fortunate that my sister lives only a few miles away from where the sale was located. She said there were rooms upon rooms of vintage and antique clothing, furniture, and everything else you could possibly imagine. Had I been there I probably would have all but died. My sister got some pretty awesome things for  reasonable prices. One of the items that she procured was a blue silk velvet dress from the 1930's.

It's a longer length, with no zipper and made of an awesome silk velvet which hasn't been crushed even after all these years. It has a really detailed bodice and a great shape to it. It also a keyhole neckline that fastens with a large hook and eye. The downside of velvet is that it shows all the specs of dust that normally can't be seen on fabric.

 I wore it with awesome shoes about about 8 months ago on Modcloth. I believe they stopped carrying the brand, but they are from Aris Allen. They specialize in swing dance shoes that come in retro styles form the 30's, 40's, and 50's. I they also have sueded bottoms, which I was surprised by, but didn't mind.

 I love the how the velvet looked with the color of my hair (it's dye, I'm naturally a dark blonde). Anyway, I wore it out last Sunday because it was unusually warm for November. I belted it because I recently lost about 10 pounds and it looked a little dowdy without the belt.

 Dress- Estate Sale

Belt- New York and Comany a few years ago

Shoes- Aris Allen