Summer Blues

Dress: Target; Cardigan: Loft; Cami and necklace: NY & Co; Flats: Born

The other day, Kristen at Low Fat Dressing mentioned that she's seeing more blues this summer.  I'd agree with that, although this dress is actually from last summer.  So clearly I'm a little bit ahead of the trend here.

Jude's getting back into the swing of blogging

I do want to thank you all for your comments on Friday's post. I know I'm not the only one struggling with these issues, but it's still nice to have the support. Some days, like today, I'm totally fine with my weight and the way that I look, and others I'm just really frustrated by it. But I suppose that's normal, right? But while we're on the subject of things that are annoying me right now, let's talk hair. See how cute and neatly styled my hair looks in these pictures? That lasted for all of half an hour, just long enough for me to take pictures, pack up my work bag and walk to the train. After spending 15 minutes hustling to the train in some humidity, this is what it looks like.

Shh, I'm totally not taking my picture on the bus!

I don't hate it, but I wish it would just stay put after I dry it in the morning rather than flipping out once it gets outside. I already coat it with anti-humidity spray - before and after styling - but it feels like there's not enough anti-humidity hair products in the world. I know some of the problem is that I'm just overdue for a haircut (I'm waiting until after my cousin's wedding next month, since I'm MOH and getting my hair all done up for it), but still, it's a bit annoying. Does anyone have any tried and true strategies for getting your hair to cooperate in heat and humidity?

After Work

This is what I had planned to wear to work today until Fella reminded me that we had plans right after work, so it'd be silly to commute in to the office only to leave at 2:30 or so.  This afternoon we're going to President Obama's birthday party/fundraiser. I debated sharing this since some in the media have given him slack for daring to celebrate his 50th birthday, and because I grew up with a lot of folks that have become very conservative, close-minded and judgmental.  But this is my co-blog, and I can be open about stuff like this. I don't talk about politics very much, but I'm a liberal.  My parents are democrats who raised me to be open-minded and to help others, and I have a degree in a social justice-oriented field, so it just makes sense.  Fella and I supported him in the 2008 election, and we attended his Election Night Rally in Grant Park to celebrate his victory.  I'm not 100% happy with what his administration has done so far, but I certainly don't overlook how much has been accomplished, especially given the state of affairs when he took office.  And I think, regardless of your political beliefs, he's still a person who has a birthday.  Just like the rest of us.



Anyway, I'll get off my soap box and talk about the real matter at hand here - clothes.  I think if I could wear a dress like this everyday, I would.  It's light, comfortable, isn't a neckline offender and even skims my knees (I've been having a hard time finding dresses that go down to knee-length this summer - is it just me?).  And it's so easy to put together and outfit with a great dress, I think I'm getting out of my rut.  A little.  I was a little bummed about not going to work since I had such a cute outfit lined up, but I'll be wearing this tonight.  Like Fella said, if it's good enough for work, isn't it good enough for the President?



Dress: Old Navy (new to the blog)
Necklace: Loft (remixed)
Flats: Born (new to the blog)

No More Office Casual?

Happy Friday all! I'm sure I've mentioned before that my office has had a "casual" dress code for the past 4 or 5 years. This has irked me at times, since people really push the limits on what is considered casual. In an office. But rumor has it that, as a result of our buy-out last year, our new company is going to restore the old business casual dress code. I know, business casual? Everyday? How can people possibly live like that? Really, all it means is that I can't wear jeans to work everyday (which I rarely did anyway), and that I won't have to see people walking around in track suits and tube tops anymore (none of this is actually permitted by the current dress code either - like I said, pushing the limits). But now that we may lose the casual dress code, I feel like I should get all of my office casual outfits out of my system. I kept the accessorizing at a minimum today, since the shirt has some embellishment.


How great is this photo crash? Jude and I had just returned from our morning walk, and he was confused as to why I wasn't rushing upstairs to feed him his breakfast immediately upon our return. And then decided to check out the delicious grass.


Speaking of walks with Jude, the other morning we took a long walk along the lake before work. There were all of 3 dogs at the usually crowded dog beach, so Jude had the lake mostly to himself.

Skirt: Old Navy
Tee: Gap
Sandals: Privo

Easy Summer Style

After a week away, I'm finally back in the office. I don't want to jinx the weather, but it appears that summer is finally here to stay. Warm, humid weather makes me fall back on the easy summer combo of dress/skirt and sandals, so pardon the plain and simple nature of upcoming outfits.  To distract you, check out how huge my plants have gotten!  But back to the outfit - this dress at least has some cool detailing on the back:








Dress: Target
Necklace: New York & Company (remixed)
Sandals: Born (remixed)
Nail polish: Do You Lilac It? by OPI
Sunnies: Loft

How was everyone's weekend?  If you're here in the US, did you have a fun time celebrating the 4th?  We took a super long bike ride on Sunday along the Chicago River on the North Shore Channel Trail.  I was so excited to have a bike again, I logged 30 miles over the weekend!  I had to take a couple days off because my legs were basically dead, but we're due for another ride tonight after work.

Fella admiring a sculpture along the bike trail

Fella and I threw a BBQ - our first party at our new home - for some of our friends on Monday.

Jude getting ready for the BBQ

We walked up to a nearby park on Monday night to watch some official unofficial fireworks (or something like that).  The show lasted well over an hour, but Jude was ready to go after about 45 minutes.  Honestly, I'm impressed he made it that long.

Fireworks!

Wheels of Fire

Remember this skirt?  Yeah, it was so awesome, I couldn't help but get another one.  And look!  I can finally wear yellow!  But that's not the coolest thing I've gotten lately.  This is:


I got a bike!  It's a Schwinn Cream 3 speed.  I didn't totally splurge here.  A couple weeks ago, our old landlord called and reminded me about the security deposit from our old apartment.  I had totally forgotten about that.  So once we got it back, I decided to finally buy myself a bike.  I've wanted one for riding around town pretty much as long as I've lived in Chicago, but just never got around to it.  Fella is currently getting ready for a race with biking, running and an obstacle course, so he just brought his bike out from his parents' house.  So now I can ride with him.


I just got back from my first ride with Cream.  I was a little shaky at first, since it's been years since I've actually been on a bike (the last bike I owned was a pink 10 speed with spokey dokes). Here she is in the neighborhood square (Rad may recognize this fountain as being near the gelato place and pastry cafe we were at last week).


And here she is at the park.  One thing I didn't consider while getting dressed today was the logistics of biking in a skirt.  I don't know how gals like Gracey do it.  I think the entire neighborhood saw my off-brand Spanx this afternoon.  But it's cool, I had fun anyway.

Tank: Target (remixed)
Skirt: Old Navy
Necklace: Gift
Sandals: Chaco
Sunnies: Loft
Bike: Schwinn

Staycationing

I took the morning off today to head downtown with Fella's mom, aunt and a family friend to watch a live taping of Chicago's new local morning show, Windy City Live. Watching a live TV show was pretty cool!  Fella's mom, a regular TCC reader, offered to snap some outfit photos of me on the set, which I couldn't pass up.


After the show, we went out for a quick lunch and did some browsing at the big Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's) downtown on State Street. Thanks to a surprise express train home, which passed my stop by a few, I enjoyed a long walk home, complete with a stroll through the neighborhood Farmer's Market and a stop for ice cream, on a beautiful summer day.

I love taking actual vacations, but I have to say, when summer rolls around here, I love me a staycation.  Chicago's such a cool city anyway, but we have so many things going on in the summer.  And taking some time to enjoy my city was just what I needed after a pretty busy couple of months.  Moving, packing, unpacking, entertaining (welcome and totally wanted) out-of-town guests, friend's weddings and various parties have kept me busy since the beginning of May.  But finally getting some time to window shop and walk around on a sunny day was awesome.  Do you Staycation?

Cardigan: Target
Dress: Loft Outlet
Sandals: Unisa, via PiperLime
Earrings: Gift
Bag: Coach, gift

Rainy Days and Mondays

A couple weeks ago, on a similarly rainy Monday, I wondered about the appropriateness of maxis in the office.  I got more compliments on that maxi dress at work than I have on, well, pretty much anything I've ever worn, so apparently it was okay.  Or at least cute.  But what about a maxi skirt?  I think the addition of a statement necklace, heels and a belt (which was riding up a bit too high in this shot) make the maxi skirt, which I'd previously only worn to bum around on the weekends, okay for work.


Skirt, top, belt & necklace: New York & Company (they send me tons of coupons in the mail, what can I say?)
Sandals: Aerosoles

In the Garden

It's Friday!  Yay!  We had a pretty big rain storm here on Tuesday night, and ever since, it's been a bit chilly again.  I don't know about having to wear a sweater in June, but more layers do seem to add a bit more interest to my outfits.  Otherwise, I'm just relying on cute shoes and/or jewelry.  But speaking of basic outfits, I disguised one of those on Wednesday with cute pictures of Jude.  I mentioned that he spent most of our photo shoot eating grass.  A-Dubs asked to see Jude's cow impression, and who am I to deny Stylenation that?



In addition to a Rad visit, dizzy spells and crazy weather, I also had a chance to meet the lovely Kristen of Low Fat Dressing this week!  We met up at the Chicago Botanic Garden Wednesday night after work.  If you're in the Chicago area and want to fit in as much of the gardens as you can in 2 hours, Kristen is your gal. She was an awesome tour guide!  And though it was dark and gloomy and kind of chilly, this was a cool time to visit the garden because no one was there.  Of course we didn't get a picture (blogger fail), but I did get a lot of cool garden pictures.











Cardigan: Target
Tank: Loft
Skirt: Old Navy
Sandals: Clarks
Unseen Earrings: Bohm

Well, We Tried...

Last night after seeing Lydia's pictures with her dog Chloe over on Chic on the Cheap (and subsequently, Miles to Style), I thought to myself that obviously Jude and I could do that.  We can't.  We so can't.


We tried some pictures in the backyard after Jude's morning walk, which is so out of the normal routine that he was too confused to pose with me.  I have like 12 pictures of only one of us looking at the camera, and a few of Jude eating grass in the background.  We'll work on it.


Then I noticed that the sun coming up in the background was adding a misty halo, so I moved to another spot in the yard.  Exciting.


The last shot, although not terribly flattering, is amusing.  This is me not realizing there was still another shot left on my camera's timer, walking to pick up said camera, and looking upstairs to make sure my neighbors weren't watching and thinking I'm weird for taking pictures of myself.  Duh, I'm taking pictures of myself and my dog.

Dress: Target
Tank & Necklace: New York & Company
Sandals: Born, via Zappo's

Shoe Malfunctions and Father Figures

Yesterday after I had been in the office for about 2 hours, I noticed that the strap on my sandals had come loose and started fraying.  I don't really care, since they were only $10, but I didn't want to walk around with a broken shoe all day.  Being silver sandals, duct tape seemed like the obvious solution.  I went to ask the head of my department if he had any, since he always has stuff like that on hand.  He didn't, but he grabbed my shoe and stapled it back together for me.  This goes way above and beyond his normal responsibilities.  I remember having a similar shoe issue when I first started at my job, and he happened to have electrical tape in his desk to repair them with.  These are small gestures, and obviously I could have stapled my shoe back together myself, but it reminds me how fortunate I am to work on such a small, close-knit team (there's only 5 of us). When not acting as my cobbler, my co-worker has given me tons of advice about gardening, car repair, and home maintenance.  He reminds me of my dad in this way.  And living a 4 hour drive from my dad, it's nice to have a stand-in sometimes.



All of this to say, this Father's Day, remember to tell the fathers in your life thanks for all the cool things they do.  My dad was seriously my favorite person while I was growing up.  We spent summers going on bike rides and listening to Ernie Harwell call Tigers games on the radio (while, of course, watching it on TV with the sound muted). I was my dad's helper when he was fixing things around the house, and it was my dad who taught me everything I know about rock & roll.  Seriously, how many 8 year old kids know lyrics to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Springsteen?

My first ballet recital, 1986

No one appreciates a good (bad) pun quite like my dad, and he's always in a good mood and laughing about something.  He loves hearing about my job, and is one of the only people who even kind of understands what I do for a living. I can thank my dad for my sense of humor, slightly awkward social skills, sweet tooth, nerdiness, freckles, love of music and baseball and general fixing skills.

"C'mon Dad!" Crossing Lakeshore Drive during my first ever trip to Chicago, 1986

Millennium Park, Chicago, 2005 or so

Tank: Old Navy

Pants: Loft Outlet

Sandals: Aerosoles

Watch: Fossil

Earrings: Macy's

Sunglasses: Loft

Is it Friday Yet?

This week seems to be dragging on, so I don't have a lot to say today.  I'm trying to not shop very much right now, but I couldn't pass up this skirt.  I mean, look at it!  It's a comfy knit, yet heavy enough that it provides good coverage, it's not pencil-shaped, and it goes past my knees.  It's seriously everything I've ever looked for in a skirt.  Add in a cute, neutral chevron pattern, and it's perfect for summer.  This outfit is a little bit outside of my normal range of work outfits.  The skirt feels like it's got good casual outfit potential, but adding a sweater, metallic sandals and jewelry seems to make it office appropriate.

But enough about me...  Fella and I are headed to our friend C's wedding this weekend (with Rad - yay!), and Fella needs help deciding between two shirts.  I'm between an all black cocktail dress and a black and gray dress myself (it's downtown, so black feels appropriate), but I'll get that all sorted out.  Keeping in mind that there won't be any tags hanging off, and Fella won't be wearing jeans, what do you guys think?  And doesn't Fella need a man style blog?






Cardigan & sandals: Loft
Tank & Skirt: Old Navy
Necklace: Randolph Street Market
Watch: Fossil

When it Rains and Shines, It's Just a State of Mind

We're having yet another string of rainy days here in Chicago, but it's not quite as cold as it was last week, so I can deal. Despite the rainy, 5:30am walk, I finally got myself back to the gym this morning. It felt so good to get back to exercising, and much to my surprise, I'm not nearly as out of shape as I worried I'd be. I'm guessing all of the trips up and down 3 flights of stairs while moving things the past couple of weeks helped.


I kept my accessorizing pretty simple today - just going with a leather flower belt and a small pair of red earrings (which I didn't get a picture of - woops). Sometimes less is more.

Dress & Cardigan: Target
Belt: New York & Company
Earrings: Macy's
Shoes: Kohl's

Office Maxi?

So you know earlier this spring it was a big deal for me to try out a maxi dress for the first time in several years. Seriously, it's the biggest thing that's happened in my world lately. Anyway, today I took that daring sense of sartorial adventure one step further by *gasp* wearing a maxi dress to work! No one at the office actually cares what I wear, but the style still feels a little casual for an office setting. But I didn't have much of a choice. It's still a little chilly here today, so my knee-length skirts and dresses seemed not quite weather-appropriate. And I have yet to locate a pair of dress pants that fits. I'm sure there's a pair somewhere among all the boxes, but all of the pants that I packed in my "summer clothes" box are a bit snug. I'll blame that on a steady diet of eating out, snacking and beer coupled with not exercising over the past couple of months. I plan to finally get back to the gym tomorrow now that things have settled down a bit at home, so hopefully that pants thing will work itself out soon. Surprisingly, I feel just fine about the way I look now, but I'm always a bit annoyed at myself for working hard on diet and exercise, and then just totally throwing it all away, like I don't know how that will end up.

print & beading detail:

But I digress. How was your weekend? My parents visited from Ohio over the weekend. Although my mom and I did plant some flowers and I did a little bit more unpacking, it was nice to slow down and just relax after the past few weeks.

Dress: New York & Company (remixed)
Sweater: Ann Taylor
Flats: Born (or flat - where did my left foot go?)
Necklace: Target

More of the Same

Well, when you find a formula that works, why not stick to it?  We finally got our internet up and running last night (YAY!) so I'm working from home today.  Yesterday I rocked navy and white stripes with a green necklace accent, jeans and sandals.  And look, I'm doing the same today!  But it's comfy, and it works.

Cardigan: Target (remixed)
Tank: Loft Outlet (remixed)
Capris: Loft Outlet (remixed)
Necklace: Hazel (remixed)
Sandals: Privo (remixed)

To make up for the boringness of this, I'm including a few pictures of the new condo.  I'll get the rest of it up once we get all unpacked (or once I can get enough boxes out of pictures!).


This is the dining room.  It's fancy chandelier pretty much sold me on the place.  It's probably Jude's favorite room. He loves lying under the dining room table, and it's especially nice on hot days since there's a huge and powerful air conditioner in the window in here. Fella's not a fan of the curtains (they came with the place, and I don't mind them), and we plan on painting this room eventually, but you get the idea.


Obviously, this is the bathroom. Oddly enough, it was the room I was most excited about decorating. I guess because it's small and easy to fill up, but also because I've had a blue bathroom for the last 7 years, so I was excited for a change. The bathroom is the first room I painted last week, and the color is called Scotland Isle, though I'd describe more as pea soup. In a good way.


And here's the kitchen, which I'm pretty excited about. The color is called Lemon Pound Cake, and it's a bit brighter than it looks in photos. Fella and I picked this color in the course of 2 minutes before heading to Home Depot to buy paint. I think I was just in the mood for lemon cake. But it works.


This nifty pan rack came with the place, and it's a huge help since there's not a ton of cabinet space. But our worn old pans look kind of silly here, so shoot, we'll have to get a new set sometime soon.