Casual Weekend Outfit

Top: One Clothing, Macys

Jeans: Express, DIY studded

Purse: Coach

Sandals: from UO

This is a really simple weekend outfit that I wore to a casual dinner with my family two weekends ago. Now that my photographers are back in town, along with their cameras, I will resume regular posting to the blog. :)

The Shoe Fairy Visited Me

Vivienne Westwood "Anglomania" + Melissa "Lady Dragon IV"

They smell like those scented markers that were quite popular when I was little. 

Dreaming of fall

Summer has just started this week in LA but I already started practicing dressing for fall. It would be nice if LA had actually seasons like most of the rest of the country and I could actually wear this type of outfit outside of the office. The skirt is a bit frumpy for me but I still like it especially since it is wool but not itchy like most everything else that is wool.

I might not have any pictures for the rest of the week because all the cameras in my family have gone on vacation along with my parents and little sister. If everything goes according to plan this will change on Friday! 

Shirt: Rampage, gift from friend

Skirt: Harvé Bernard, from garage sale

Blazer: Donna Karen, garage sale

Necklace: one of my sisters?

Shoes: Aldo

Shoe Update

I found the black boot of my dreams. The price is a bit out of my range but I do have a giftcard and it could go on sale, right? I have a feeling that it might never reach that point because there are only three pairs left in my size and 2 in the next closest size. YIKES! Everyone else must feel the same way I do about this pair of shoes because they were only posted in the last day! Someone please tell me that is too much money to spend on a pair of shoes even with my giftcard...

Chloé $408

(this is getting a bit out of control though because everyday they post a pair of shoes that I like more than the previous day's)

Work Outfit

Shirt: Banana Republic, gift from my mom

Skirt: Sonia Rykiel, from yard sale

Belt: Fossil, 8 yrs old

Shoes: Wet Seal

Necklace: handblown glass, 

from my parents vacation in Cambria, CA

Bag: Coach, Camarillo Outlets

This outfit was planned around this beautiful Sonia Rykiel skirt that I got from that same yard sale! On a side note: seriously, that was such an amazing sale, and I really can't believe it was all so cheap! This skirt is probably not the best idea for summer but seeing that it is 65 degrees in my office, it still works. At the bottom if you look closely you can see the stitching detail that keeps this skirt from being too plain-Jane. 

Yikes! Looking at this picture makes me realize that I am in desperate need of doing something with the color of my hair. Don't you hate that when you see yourself in a picture and you notice something wrong that you never noticed before? 

Help me pick what shoes to buy...

A while back (almost two months ago now) I won a $100 Shopbop gift card from one of my favorite fellow LA bloggers Dafashionista! Since then I've been stalking the site trying to figure out what to buy splurge on. I knew that I wanted to spend it on a pair of shoes, especially some short black booties. Despite having quite the collection of black shoes they really are my favorite and I wear them with everything so I might as well get more, right? The only problem with all of this is that every time a fabulous shoe that I want goes on sale, someone else buys it! It's very unfortunate that 7 is such a popular size.

Anyway, here are some of my top choices of shoes that I want to spend my gift card on. Leave a comment with which pair you think that I should get (hopefully they won't be sold out by then in my size)! (All of the pictures are the stock pictures from the Shopbop website.)

  L.A.M.B. $295                      Sigerson Morrison $350                Tory Burch $350

          Tory Burch $350                             Joie $375                                  Ash $275

          Dolce Vita $210                       MMM $530 (yikes!)               Rag & Bone $450

If you want to see the rest of my wish list here and if you just want to shop at shopbop here.

Miss Tree

Last summer I didn't have a job right after I graduated college so I went on a crafting kick and started reading fashion blogs (still my obsession). The craft kick was fueled by a really neat kit that I got as a graduation present from one of my best friends who I've known forever. It is called "The Softies Kit" by Therese Laskey. The kit comes with patterns to make 15 different softies and supplies to make one mini cake. So far I have made the tree, the ice cream sandwich and the dress on a hanger but I have plans to make all of them.

I would recommend this kit if you are interested in making super cute softies and like hand sewing. Since most of the stitch work is decorative and tiny the majority of it is impossible to do on a sewing machine; unless, perhaps you are some sort of sewing machine genius. Unfortunately, I am not very handy with a sewing machine, especially since I use a vintage Kenmore that belonged to my grandmother. The thought of hand sewing some of the patterns that really call for machine sewing has deterred me from making those till I'm desperate enough to try and fight with my sewing machine. 

Ms. Tree

I named the tree that I made "Miss. Tree" (how original, right?) because I love to give all the softies that I make little names. I spent far too many hours hand sewing all of the tiny stitches on the leaves! One mistake that I made was semi glueing down the leaves in exactly the place that I was going to sew because the glue made it really hard to get the needle through the felt. My poor fingers were raw after that! I love how she turned out though and refuse to part with her!

For now she just sits on my desk next to my writing utensils and a stuffed Donald Duck but I can tell that she wants some other softie friends to join her.

Another knitted hat!

Currently, my favorite things to knit because they are easy and fairly quick. This is the newest hat that I knit for a family friend. The hat is a simple 2x2 rib and only took me a few days to do at work. The yarn is self striping in a greenish color way. The pattern is something that I found off of Ravelry called "Painted Forrest Hat".

I can't wait till I finish my next knitting project because it is pretty exciting! 

J.Crew Catalogue + Deconstructed

The inspiration for this outfit is a variation of the classic (or at least to me) J.Crew look: pleated trouser shorts in Khaki, grey shirt, fitted blazer, heels, headband and loads of necklaces. I never dress like this, ever, so it was fun to try it out for a day. I liked it so much that I was going to wear it out Friday night after work (where I originally wore it) but changed out of fear of spilling on the shorts! I feel like I have to be extra delicate with my nice clothing that I got from the garage sale. 

My own little twist on the outfit, of course, is the deconstructed back of this tank top. I love how preppy and sweet the outfit looks from the front but a bit edgy from the back and side. I have worn this tank out so many times and it is still holding it's shape, despite looking very delicate. I was pretty worried that it would just deteriorate completely after a couple of wears because the thread is so thin and the tank is fairly sheer. 

(all the photos were taken with my mom's iPhone4 by my lovely little sister)

Shirt: shredded by me, H&M

Shorts: Celine, garage sale

Shoes: Aldo

Blazer: Rampage, gift

Necklaces: short pearl necklace, gift

long pearl necklace, Ralph Lauren from Nordstrom's Rack

triple strand necklace, Betsy Johnson, gift

charm necklace, Guess, gift

Headband: Goody?

p.s. I tried to write this post last night but I got distracted because they happened to be filming one of my favorite tv shows EVER down the street from my house. If you follow me on twitter you would already know that this is The Office! I got to see Jim and Pam up close and my sister shouted out "right in the spot where our dog always poops on walks". One of the crew members thought that this was really funny. hehe We didn't end up getting any pictures with them or autographs but it was still pretty cool!

Make up look: Gilded Gold

Lips: "Unity" by Chanel (Christmas gift)

Blush: Maybelline Mineral Powder in Gentle Pink

Mascara: Maybelline XXL Curl Power

Under eye concealer: Clinique in Light Neutral #1

On the eyes: Hip Eyeshadow Duo: L'Oreal in Gilded, both colors; 

Sonia Kashuk eye shadow duo in Take Cover - 

both colors and a highlighter from Maybelline quad

This is my go to makeup look if I want to focus on my eye makeup (read: have time to do proper makeup and not just put on some red lipstick) and I know I'll be wearing gold tones. It actually looked better in person but you can still get the basic idea of how it is looks. 

How I did the eyes:

I started with the light color of the Sonia Kashuk on the lid (after a bit of concealer to prime the eye lid) and the darker color in the crease. I added a few more layers of the darker color till I got the desired shape and color. Then I used the dark color from the Hip duo in the outer corner and blended it towards the center. On the inner corner I used the gold from the Hip duo and blended it towards the center. I finished it off with a whitish highlighter and blended everything a little bit more. 

I hope that my makeup artist friends approve!

Birthday Party Outfit

When I find an outfit combination I like I tend to wear it more than once in a short period of time. As long as different groups of people will be at the events (but sometimes I forget and end up wearing the same outfit with the same people twice in a row!) So this is one of those outfits that I liked so much the first time I wore it that I just had to wear it again. The first time I wore it was to a friend's birthday but I look way to goofy in head to toe picture to post and I wore it again for my mom's birthday on Tuesday.

Shirt: Alberta Ferretti (I think),
from the garage sale

Tank top: Zara
Sweater: Rodarte for Target

Skirt: Kimchi Blue, gift from friend

Shoes: Manolo Blahnik, from DecadesTwo

Bracelet: handmade by me

Purse: Coach

Sunglasses: Juicy Couture

Earrings: Laundry by Shelly Segal, 

Nordstrom's Rack in Spokane

I promised a picture of the other shoes that I got at DecadesTwo and here it is! Unfortunately, I didn't take any close up pictures yet because we only had my dad's iphone but the shoes are the prettiest navy blue shimmery leather. They are so delicate though! I feel like I can't wear them out very often so I don't ruin them. When I got home I realized that they are a perfect match to the only formal dress that I own. Someone I know really needs to have a black tie wedding or bring me along to some awards show so I can wear these shoes with that dress!

The top is from the magical garage sale and is completely sheer with the most gorgeous pleats that are hard to see in the photos. I wasn't that sure about the shirt just seeing it on the hanger but I am completely in love with it and I wish that I had it in more colors! Also, being that it is silk, it is fairly delicate and I don't want to damage it at all because I can unintentionally be quite hard on my clothing, shoes and accessories.

The bracelet is something that I added last minute when I felt like I needed something navy to tie in the shoes to the rest of the outfit. (My thought was that if the color of the shirt and the skirt were mixed together then it would roughly produce the color of the shoes. haha) I made the bracelet in the summer after 7th grade when I made my first (and only) dress from a pattern out of the same fabric. It still fits my wrist perfectly even though the dress is way to small. I wish that I could still wear the dress because it is a really cute lightweight dress that would be perfect for the rest of summer which I'm guessing is going to be insanely hot to make up for our mild summer thus far.

I uploaded this outfit to Chictopia for the Juicy Couture contest! I make life Juicy by dressing up for work and special events. There is nothing like some sparkly earrings and shoes to make me feel glamorous! My favorite thing about work is that I can dress up every day! I am not a morning person by any means but having the opportunity to come up with a creative outfit every morning is enough to get me out of bed and ready to start the day. If you are on Chictopia I would love if you favorited my outfit! :) 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy birthday to my mom! When I told her that I was making this blog she said, "don't forget that I taught you everything that you know about style." And it's true too; everything that I know about fashion and DIYing I know because of her. Thanks mom for teaching me everything!

LH school colors

LH school colors
Originally uploaded by MissMae187

So even though I was just talking about how much I hate polo shirts in my last post, I couldn't find any other shirt to wear with this skirt. My mom said that I looked ultra preppy especially since green and gold were my elementary school colors!

On our way home from Solvang, my sister and I stopped by the Camarillo outlets for a quick stop and I got these sunglasses! My sister really needed a new pair but she couldn't pick one out and I needed a pair with darker lens' because it can get so bright during the day.

At work I wore this outfit with gold Nine West slingbacks, gold leaf earrings and a sweater.

Shirt: Old Navy, hand-me-down from a friend
Skirt: Anne Klein, magical garage sale
Purse: Coach
Necklace: Guess, gift from friend
Sunglasses: Juicy, Off 5th Avenue
Shoes: Ozzie and Deena, Urban Outfitters

Pretty Penny

Shirt: Rampage, gift from a friend a long time ago

Skirt: unknown Chinese brand, from the amazing yard sale

Tights: Target?

Pashmina: from my friend that gave me the purse

Shoes: Dolce & Gabbana

Necklace: borrowed from my sister

Belt: from my prom dress

I wore this on Tuesday to work. This outfit was great for work because this pashmina is soo soft. It was like wearing a blanket, I almost feel asleep! This outfit is a collection of 3 new pieces that I have bought/ been given in the last month or so. I really like this outfit probably because I seem to have a deep attachment with pleated skirts after wearing them for my grade school experience. This deep attachment doesn't apply to polo shirts though, despite wearing just as much as pleated skirts. 

I'm posting this from Solvang, California! I am here with my family for the weekend to hang out and explore the city (read: shop and eat Danish food). I am thinking about getting another pair of clogs; a more casual pair for walking around in. I can't wait to explore tomorrow!

Flower Child

Photo on 2010-08-05 at 11.39 #2
Originally uploaded by MissMae187

Unfortunately, the last two weeks have been very busy and that hasn't left me with much time to post my newest outfit pictures! Also, I am waiting on some people to send me some pictures of outfits from this week so I can post them. Included in those pictures will be an outfit with my other pair of shoes that I got at the DecadesTwo shoe sale! It was my first time wearing them out and they were perfect for a summer birthday dinner.

I wore this outfit to work yesterday because I wanted something comfortable and warm to wear to work. It might be summer outside, or at least in the 80's, but it is about 65 in my office! I kept getting comments from everyone at work asking me if i was a flower child or a hippy or if it was my Halloween costume! oh well! I liked my outfit even if the headband made it a little bit costume-y for work.

Headband: Forever21
Scarf: from my friend! :)
Shirt: Forever21
Black dress pants: Express
Black sweater: the Gap, borrowed from my sister
Reading glasses: Armani

ps I'm sorry that the picture format is so weird! the new flickr is a bit confusing and since I only had my macbook to take a picture I figured that I didn't need to figure out how to make the picture much bigger anyway.

Batmobile

I know this isn't fashion related at all and I haven't posted an outfit picture in a couple of days, but I still had to post this picture because it is so awesome. Holy smoke, it's the Batmobile!!!

This is a replica of the 1960's Batmobile that was featured in the show starring Adam West. The original car was designed by George Barris and is sitting in a show room in North Hollywood, CA. This replica was built by an enthusiast who shows the car all over Southern California. The car is so neat especially since it does tricks and you can actually sit in it!!! I can remember watching reruns of the show when I was a little kid so it was pretty cool to see it in person!