Ch-Ch-Ch Changes...

So, after multiple different managers and departments, the edict has been finally handed down: I will no longer be a full-time telecommutercome October. While my new arrangement will be helpful career-wise, it will also mean a huge change in my day-to-day life.

Let me break it down for you: when I started full-time telecommuting, I had just purchased a house, I was newly engaged, I wasn't even 30 yet.

Things have changed a bit since then. I take Wee 'Burb to her daycare in workout clothes. I only apply concealer when absolutely necessary...foundation even less often. My hair is in a ponytail so often than the times I do take it down, Wee 'Burb is fascinated that I actually have hair.

Also? I haven't put on work clothes in years. Among the fears I had about commuting, waking up before 6:30, and having to be presentable before coffee, my biggest fear is what I will wear. 

And then it hit me, this vague memory that before I was working at home full-time, I had clothes I wore to work. In fact, I recalled having quite a few pants I had paid good money to have tailored about 6 months before I was told I could work at home. 

But where were they? I looked for a full week and gave up. Then late one night while watching the Red Sox kick some butt, it occurred to me that there was one place I hadn't looked. I had mostly cleaned out the closet my roommate now uses, but I recalled I had stuck a bin or two there that hadn't fit anywhere else. 

After completely dismantling the closet, I found it! The bin labeled "Steph's Closet" that held a treasure trove of tailored delight. 

Remember me saying I had basically none of the top 10 Gunn recommendations? Well, I still kind of am missing some things but I did find 8 pair of tailored dress pants, 3 black skirts, 1 white button-down shirt, and 2 nice wrap dress shirts.

So I'm feeling good and then I see this! 50 CLASSICS????  I couldn't even make the top 10.

Allow me to share my feelings about the 50 classics.

What are your thoughts on the 50 classics? When is "classics" outdated? Does anyone know what an Oxford Shirt is????

Top 5 Horrific Fashion Choices that I have Personally Donned

Everybody, meet Mads at La Petite Pancakes. Her Today in Tweets always make me laugh and wish I commented more on her awesome Tweets when they cross my path. Speaking of commenting, Mads is an awesome blog commenter, and always has something fun or insightful to say. Also, if her pug doesn't make you just want to squish its little face even more, then I can't help you. Please read her immediately.

I would like to say that my fashion “dont's” have been largely attributed to passing trends. If only! I so wish my worst nightmares were pictures of me in acid washed jeans or big 80s hair.

But no.

The majority of my faux pas have all been self-discovered “gems”. Things I thought were totally cool, but nobody else would touch with a ten foot pole.

Some examples:

1) Monotone colors. As in, yellow tights, yellow sweatshirt, and a giant yellow bow in my hair. I did this every day for the entirety of 1st grade. And yes, my big yellow bows were pretty similar to Princess Beatrice’s. Hot mess.

2) The single thick braid. I’m not talking about braiding my whole head of hair. No, no, that would be too cute. I’m talking about wearing my hair down with one large braided chunk hanging off to the side. I wasn’t following a junior high fad, I simply thought it was awesome. Add this to the fact that I frequently wore pajamas to school. Who allowed that?!

3) Hemp necklaces. This would have been cool in high school if I was a pothead, but alas, I was not. Instead, I made them in “art club” and sported the stinky thing around my neck every day. I was also in “earth club”. No really, I wasn’t a stoner. Really.

4) Bracelets from my wrist up to my elbow…on Both. Arms. Horrific.

5) Leather mini skirt. I bought this for a Halloween costume and continued to wear it out and about town. I watch women on “What Not to Wear” reuse costumes as “normal” clothes all the time, and I am sad to say I was one of those women.

I’m oh so sorry that I don’t have any pictures. We could all share in the hilarity and mortification.

What’s your worst self-discovered fashion “gem”?

How Selling Used Clothes is Like Internet Dating or How I Got Married and Bought a Skirt

Recently, to aid my ailing closet, I have been trolling eBay. What I noticed was some of the items up for sale were items I was preparing to donate.

So I did a double check and pulled out some of the nicer brand items to see if I could make a little eBay money.

I sat on it for about a week and then finally decided to dive in. After all, what could it hurt? eBay has some nice no-nonsense deals for small sellers like moi. I only pay if my item sells, and even then it's a relatively small portion of what I make. And anything I made in the end was more than I would have made if I donated, right?

As I put my items up, I began to realize something. This is EXACTLY like Internet dating.

Allow me to illustrate.

1. People over-value themselves. When doing some eBay comparisons, I was shocked to find some people trying to sell items for only a few dollars less than I could find new in a department store. Similar to some of the men I came across on Internet dating who demanded women be financially stable, white collar, working women while they advertised themselves as white collar salesmen and turned out to be a lawnmower salesman at Sears. Or women I knew who refused to date divorced men despite having a few divorces under their belt. Be reasonable, people! Play in the right league.

2. People want the details...all of them. I made a rookie mistake on eBay and did not post the measurements of the items I was selling. Huuuuge mistake! I got three or four e-mails a day asking for specifics. Similar to when I was Internet dating and men asked outright for multiple pictures in obvious distrust that the ones you posted were current and accurate. I learned more is more in this scenario.

3. The details don't always sell it. I gave measurements of a shirt to a woman who asked on eBay. She told me that "no woman is THAT big." Granted, it was a shirt I had grown out of, but I thought that comment in bad taste. Much like an e-mail I got that said "oh, okay, I see you do keep yourself in decent shape. Many women don't and just put up pictures that don't show them as whales." Or when I found out the white collar lawnmower salesman's dream job was to sell electronics at Best Buy and I kindly told him things would not be between us.

4. Sometimes people don't read the details. I got a comment from a woman telling me the measurements I had put on a shirt on eBay were incorrect. She told me those were clearly for a large size shirt. The item I was selling was a size large shirt, clearly marked in my post. Just as in my Internet profile it was clear what my age range was and yet 40-year-old men contacted me daily to let me know they loved my smile.

5. Rejection is part of the game, you have to put yourself back out there. So the first round of eBay? Not so hot, people. I sold one shirt out of 5 items. Because it was free, I went ahead and re-listed my items and so far have sold two more. It hurts to see how many people are watching you and not bidding, just like it hurt to see over 30 people had viewed my profile and I had nary an Internet dating e-mail.

But hey, the money I earned on eBay bought me two new skirts so far. And that Internet dating thing? Yeah, it kind of worked out. Thanks to Yahoo personals, I've been married almost three years now.

Are you an eBayer? Any advice for the buyers OR the sellers? Did you try Internet dating?

Dress Me For Date Night

So last week we covered that I had zero wardrobe staples and was a hot mess in the clothing department.

I've since done some shopping. I was going to present an array of options for you, but as it is 117 degrees here today and the rest of the week, we'll be wearing the only cute skirt I own, which was purchased for $11 on eBay.

I'll show you the other stuff I bought on my next date night.

So some of may recall for Christmas, I bought Scott The 12 Dates of Christmas. Basically once a month we go to a different spot we've always wanted to go. This month we are going to The Nicollet Island Inn.

Without further ado, here are my wardrobe options. As I do not have any technological know-how, I can't do an actual poll so please comment here on what you think I should wear.

Oooh, one last thing! I totally need to do dry cleaning, so forgive the wrinkles on all my clothing. I'll get my act together before date night, I'm not that big of a slob.

Option 1: Cardigan from Banana Republic, Tank from The Gap, and my eBay Ann Taylor Skirt.

Option 2: Tank by Ann Taylor

Option 3: Cardigan: Herbergers, Tank: Ann Taylor

Option 4

 Option 5: Blazer and Top by Kohls

Guide to the Styleless

I recently got a friendly little note from our local charity requesting that I donate some clothing, as I have in years past. I thought this was a good time to do some of that spring cleaning people are always talking about...in July.

So I took everything out of my closet and drawers and began a purging the likes of which I haven't experienced since I moved from junior high to high school and declared all my clothing "utterly juvenile."

As a side note, my mother hates watching us toss clothes. She still wears some of those junior high toss-outs. If you see a woman sporting a Snoopy Chicago Bulls sweatshirt, say hey to Mommy Suburbia.

I was ruthless. Anything I hadn't worn in two years (I gave myself some leeway considering last year I was still trying to shed the baby weight) went in to the garbage bag.

Two garbage bags later I was met with a sobering fact: I have no good clothes.

I'm in that awful weight loss place where I've lost enough weight to look odd in my regular clothes, but not quite enough to be a size smaller.

I kept the pieces I could tailor, but I was still left with a closet FULL of empty hangers.

Not having an unlimited budget and being slightly wary of maintaining this size, I began whining seeking help from those closest to me to figure out what it is I needed.

My roommate is a Tim Gunn aficionado and pointed me out to this list of his 10 Essential Items Every Woman Needs:

1. Basic black dress
2. Trench coat
3. Classic dress pants
4. Classic white shirt
5. Skirt
6. Blazer
7. Day dress
8. Cashmere sweater
9. Jeans
10.  A comfortable alternative to a sweatsuit

 Um, you guys? I have #2, #4 and a lot of #9 in varying stages of saggy butt.

So I consulted Twitter to see what real people considered their top wardrobe must-haves:



Nope: don't have either of these!



I totally have both, but the yoga pants are super stretched out. Not appropriate for outdoor wear.



I kind of hate my black pants.



I do have some jeans I love. They are Kut from the Kloth and they're great! I wear them everywhere.



Cous Cous ate my favorite black heels. My cardigan is too big now.



Sigh, jeans are seriously the only thing I have of this list!!!


Clearly, some shopping was in order. So 4th of July I went out to the malls with my roommate, and promptly came back sobbing hysterically.

Nothing looked right. Here I was with an actual shopping budget, and a desire to buy quality pieces versus my usual cheap pants that will last me 6 months and end up in the next donation bag.

I found nothing.

Fueled by terror at my empty closet, I took to the Internet. I've always done better with online shopping, anyway. I don't have to look at the size 0, I can immediately find my size with a click of a button, and most importantly I can try it on with a glass of wine in the comfort of my own bedroom, where only the dog has to witness my sobbing.

Next week I'll show you my purchases in a feature I am calling Dress Me For Date Night.

Meanwhile, what are your wardrobe staples? Have you ever been faced with the dreaded empty closet?

Things I Love Thursday: PURPLE!

Yes, yes, I know it's Wednesday. I've just got a busy few days coming up, so I thought I'd get this up now while I can.

So, I keep hearing that the new fall color is red. Now I love me some red, so that would be cool with me. But then why is it that there is nothing but purple out there? If you had asked me last month what I thought about purple, I'd be all "meh, it's cool and all, but nothing flashy."

Color me excited when I went searching at Nordstrom's for a dress to wear to a wedding and came up with this purple-y goodness:

And this awesome bag, which I didn't buy with any intention of matching the dress and I'm still not sure I'd carry the two together, but how awesome is it?? It's the perfect size and weight. And it was a Nine West outlet purchase for $40, so the perfect price, too! My conscience won't allow me to buy purses more than $50 because I become fickle after a season and they're relegated to my closet.



What's your favorite fall purchase? And don't forget to check out last week's post for my Shutterfly give-away!

Things I Love Thursday: Cute Tees & A Great Deal for You!

A few years ago a family friend had a baby shower and indicated a preference for organic baby items. I did my typical Amazon search and found some rather boring oatmeal numbers, and ended up buying a very simple blanket. I had heard from other people that they had given up, too, and purchased books or toys.

The times, they are a-changin’! More and more websites are geared toward those who are particular about what fabrics they want their child to wear, and so now you can find blankets, toys, all that good stuff in eco-friendly fabrics.

Mostly, though, I love to get unique baby items, and now that the aforementioned showered baby is a toddler with her own little personality, I like to respect the parents’ wishes of a green gift, but also reflect the child’s “style,” such as it is when they’re still in training pants.

Enter Puddlefoot, which has an ADORABLE collection of eco-friendly tees with hilariously cute veggie designs. Here is what Suzi MacDougall, the awesome creator of this site has to say about her products:

Every tee is made from 100% cotton and printed with Phthalate free inks. All these details ensure a tee that is soft and stretchy with a wonderful vintage feel! Our long sleeve tees are hand dyed with eco-friendly, non-toxic dyes and come in sizes NB - 4/5T (coming very soon).

And here is what I bought!

Suzi had wrapped it up so cute, but I had to open it and see. The shirt feels amazingly soft and stretchy (I don’t know what your experience has been, but some of the lesser organic shirts feel kind of stiff to me). And the colors are just so vibrant and sweet.

So I want to say here, I was not asked to do this review, nor paid. I contacted Suzi and asked her if I could feature her here and help her sell these adorable items, and reach her goal of 800 fans. In return, Suzi has given me a special code so you all can get 5% off your order through the end of September. So just enter code STEPH5 to get the discount.
Also if you take a picture of your wee one in one of her creations, you get 20% off your next order! I think I’ll be buying some for Wee ‘Burb and taking advantage of that deal!