Aida ~

As I said in my previous WIW post, prior to getting my hair cut I decided to wear it up the two weekends before, and down the week before. So here they are ladies, the last work outfits with my hair down before the Big Chop! :D

1. Tuesday, worn to work and then the monthly local typography get together. I wanted to do a white-out outfit while I had lots of dark hair to add drama to the look. I almost went full on with a white bag and nude lips, but decided I was more in the mood for bright pink lips and emerald bag.
2. Wednesday, worn to work. Also wanted to get one more Really Boho Look in with the long hair! Based on an outfit I wore last summer which I never posted, so it's new to you gals ^^ You can't see them too well, but I've also got bright fuchsia toe nails because I just love how fuchsia looks with red! Since most of YLF is on a BF jean kick, these are my BF flares from last spring; they are SUPER DUPER baggy :)
3. Thursday, worn to work and out for dinner. This was an outfit I had jotted down to try a month or so ago. Imagine my surprise when I got to work and found Angie's post of the lovely Karen wearing almost the exact same thing that day! It ended up being too hot for the blazer (!) so it was only worn indoors.
4. Friday, worn to work then out for date night. This was the day I was _supposed_ to get my hair cut, but my girlfriend who I was going with to try her stylist had to cancel at the last minute (which worked out just fine!); hubby and I then planned to go to a baseball game, but shortly before the game it started pouring (and I mean POURING) and the game was rained out. So this outfit was designed to work for both of those events, even though I didn't do either: I'd wanted something casual enough for the game, but that would still give the stylist a sense of my style. The jacket was for nighttime at the game, so it didn't get worn. I did end up wearing this same sweater the following Monday when I finally DID get my hair cut :)

Comments, critiques, thoughts and questions welcome!

Hi ladies! During my time here on YLF I've had a lot of questions about how I do my hair, take care of the curls, etc. which, to my surprise, have increased quite a bit since cutting my hair short. I never really considered that my hair was worthy of talking about until coming here, to be honest :)

I've replied to various posts with various info, which I think come up when one searches for them. But now I am thinking of writing a proper detailed blog post about what works for ME (process, products, methods, etc), and then I got thinking that a video might be a better way to explain some of it... Which of course means I'd be getting into a lot more work to produce all the information, even though I actually don't spend much time on my hair.

My hair is both fine and thin, so I don't think all of the information would necessarily be relevant for normal thicker curly hair, but I definitely know that info on my particular curly hair type is slim. So I'm curious how many of you would find this useful before I take time to write/film it all (obviously I couldn't do a vid on the long hair at the moment, but I could write about it).

YAY - I would find this information useful
NAY - I can find this information via the forum/Google search

If only a particular thing is useful to you, please vote YAY and explain in the comments what that is. Thank you!

Since I knew I would be cutting my hair, I decided to wear my hair up the two weekends prior and down all the week before (those outfits coming soon!). So here are some casual weekend outfits, all with hair up! Looking back I probably should've gotten in one more fanned bun, going to be a while before that happens again.

#1-3 Saturday morning (07.07). Took the boat out on the Sound for the first time this season, water was a bit choppy but still manageable. We'd planned to boat over to a nearby island city and dock then go to breakfast, but TONS of other people had the same idea so it was too full! On our way back to the marina, we saw a stalled boat flagging for help and towed them in. It was a Big Adventure :) The day was HOT and there were no clouds whatsoever, so I used a hat and scarf to get extra cover from the sun (have you ladies met my straw cowboy hat? I usually wear it when lounging outside in the summer).

#4 Saturday evening (07.07). After the boat outing we had a bunch of friends over to eat some BBQ, hang out by the fire pit, and brew some beer. I changed out of the boating outfit into something a little nicer (but still super casual), and when it cooled down at night swapped the shorts for straight leg jeans. I am loving how these boots look with shorts!

#5 Sunday (07.08). Worn out for breakfast, otherwise spent the day gardening and doing housework. This soft coral jacket has clearly become my go-to weekend jacket.

#6 Saturday (07.14). Hubby and I went up to Arlington for their annual air show/fly-in which his grandparents, who are visiting from Arizona, help staff each year (I wore the black dress for dinner with them the week before). I'd originally planned on wearing the outfit from #5, but at the last minute changed; I underestimated how hot it would be ("Pfff there's no way it'll get up over 80F, Mr. Weatherman"), and was very very warm!

#7 Sunday (07.15). The day before the Big Cut! Hadn't planned on getting dressed, but needed to run to the grocery store and I lost at rock-paper-scissors ;) So I popped this jacket on over my lounge tee and swapped my flannel pants for jeans+heels. Easy peasy, and still looks decent!

Comments, critiques, thoughts and questions welcome!

Sorry I know we're all excited for the short hair, but I've got 2 weeks of long hair outfits to share first :} After the previous week's failure to not wear jeans every day, I wanted to keep the denim to a minimum this week. The weather was beautiful and warm, which of course helps tremendously!

1. Monday; worn to work, then out for tacos. Coolest day of the week, but still dry. Last summer I wore mostly fitted tops with these baggy jeans, this year I'm liking the slouchier tops. Played up the boho vibe with hair down, feather earrings, and tie-dye scarf.
2. Tuesday; worn to work. Remember these poor motor-oiled booties? I worked on them off and on for a month to rehabilitate the leather and am quite happy with how they turned out. (You can read about it on my blog, part one here, and part two here.) I was actually going to wear black shoes, but was inspired by Rae's outfit that same morning to don brown instead. So they finally get their debut! Oh and also a crazy print mix ^^
3. Wednesday; worn to a 4th of July BBQ at a friend's, and lastly a short walk to the waterfront to watch the Everett fireworks show. Very subtle red/white/blue outfit (red nails/lip, flag-striped dress, blue denim). This knit dress was perfectly comfy for a BBQ and still looks very put together.
4. Thursday; worn to work and grocery store. I've been wearing the yellow version of this skirt quite a bit, so I wanted to give the teal a go this day. Styled VERY softly for me, along with super color matchy. Bun, big white hoops, and strappy sandals to unsoften it a bit (not much, though).
5. Friday; worn to work, then dinner with my hubby's parents and grandparents. I don't wear this dress as often as I probably should; the fabric is actually rather thick and more of a fall/winter weight, but the tabs on the sleeves make jackets/cardigans hard to layer over. It has a self-belt but I wasn't in the mood to wear it so I snipped it off! And because it's so much black, I of course had to add in some jolts of bright color. I know most of you have adjusted to midis but as a shortie I still like shorter lengths :)

Comments, critiques, thoughts and questions welcome!

Well I didn't think I'd be able to hit up the presale, but finally decided I could budget it in and popped over today. I was able to try nearly everything I had wanted at my small little Nordies, and came away with 5 pieces. And then when I got to my car, the engine light came on and it wouldn't start... so I may have to return some or all of them -_- Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts on these!

#1 Vince Camuto Contrast Trim Houndstooth Blouse - Love this blouse, but I kind of feel like it should be longer? This is a petite and the sleeves are borderline long already. I very much need a few more long sleeve blouses for fall/winter.

#2 Halogen Belted Ponte Skirt - A bit long, even in the petite which this is. I was disappointed that nearly all the other skirts I tried were very thin and showed my tissue weight layering tank when tucked. This one has a nice weight, and will be great when the weather truly cools down.

#3 Halogen Colorblock Crewneck Sweater - I know everyone is on a loose top kick, but in cold weather I really like fitted tops best. I've been looking for a colorblocked sweater since last year that wasn't dark, and while I was hoping for something colorful I like these light neutrals a lot.

#4/5 Blush moto - Not online anywhere from what I could see. One of my TOP MUST HAVE items for this season was a light colored leather jacket, ideally cream or light gray. This blush shade is so pretty and unexpected, it's lovely! (Angie is this the same one you ended up getting?) If I had to keep only one item, this would be the one. I just loooove it! Probably won't wear it done up, but photo included anyway.

#3-5 Fergie 'Linda' boot - I'm a bit torn on this boot. The shaft seems a weeeee bit tall, and it's also a teensy bit wide on my calf so once the leather softens up it's going to slouch. Which I think will ruin the cool structured vibe it has (you can see it already starting to loosen in the photos). Plus I'm not sure I can handle the width through the ankle due to the spat style. Plus plus hubby hates them quite a lot >< So I'm still thinking this one over. I don't _need_ more tall boots, but hey you can never have enough in the wet wet Seattle weather. It would probably be more useful to get a bootie or two, but I didn't see any that I wanted.

#6 Nordstrom 'Graphic Dot' Tights - Also wanted to bolster my hosiery collection, and have been wanting to add some fun textured nude tights since Angie's Japan series of posts.

... I bought cropped pants. Well, they should be cropped on a taller gal, but on short little me they hit the top third of my ankle. Part of me really loves the nerdy-and-too-short vibe as they are without modification, and the other part of me says to be sensible and make them, at the very least, a non-leg-shortening length. Problem is, there are zippers on the inside hem openings which I expect would make shortening tricky and expensive?

#1 - Pants as is. They are straight from the knee down, but I have very slim ankles so they appear to flare out. The shortie in me finds this almost-too-short vibe amusing, I'm sure if I was taller I wouldn't ;)

#2 - Detail of the print (LOVE) and fabric (a nice weight twill, probably a spring/summer/fall weight for me).

#3 - Because of the zippers, the easiest alteration option would be to have the outer seam taken in so they are skinnier at the hem opening. Shown here are super skinny (ankle hugging) and slim skinny, and with a longer shirt for more normal, non-nerdy proportions :) This is my top choice.

#4 - The other option would be to shorten them as proper crops, which would add a horizontal seam in the print because I would need to leave the bottom several inches with the zipper alone. Not sure if that would be problematic visually. Longer length on the left (my preference), shorter length on the right. I wouldn't want to go bermuda length with these.

Difficult, I know! But the pattern sings to me in a way that almost no other this season has, so I would be so happy if I could make them work. Thoughts and opinions?

So after the general consensus in my previous post about the JCrew orange linen shirt was that I size up, I did as suggested and ordered the next size up. It feels SUPER DUPER big and boxy, so I am really looking forward to it draping better once the linen softens up (this was straight out of the package). The second button there isn't gaping, it's actually unbuttoned but the linen is still too stiff for the collar to lay open. And the back isn't tight at all, unlike how it was with the smaller size.

This size was final sale (the smaller is returnable), so hopefully this fit meets approval. I have a hunch that it will :) So ladies, what do we think of this size?

:D

Some recent outfits! I've started taking Mondays off because in the summer with all the weekend activities, I am rarely able to finish housework/get enough personal time, so my week's worth of outfits will be a bit shorter for a couple months. I just realized after looking at the thumbs for this week that I wore skinnies every day except one! And that I seriously failed at not wearing jeans every day.

Recently I jotted down a whole bunch of both work and casual weekend outfits for those days when I'm struggling in the morning, and especially for weekends when hubby is rushing me (which gives me outfit panic); now if I need a quick outfit I can just pick one off the list, easy peasy. Three of this week's outfits (#2, 4, 5) were taken off the list, so I'd say it's proving super handy so far!

1. Tuesday, worn to work. LOVE this!! On a whim I decided to button this blouse all the way up (I usually leave it open) and am totally totally smitten with how it looks. One of my very most favorite outfits of the season!
2. Thursday, worn to work, shopping with my sis, and out for dinner with hubby. Was sick the previous day and still feeling a bit ill, but what better way to combat that than to wear a fab outfit :D I usually wear this vintage blazer in fall/winter, but it's an all-season piece; I think I was able to lighten the rest of the look up enough to feel seasonally appropriate (though it's a wee bit top heavy).
3. Friday, worn to work, to ferret-sit for a friend, and then out for date night dinner. Lingering ill effects from the cold, and just wanted to be comfy-comzy. I am enjoying wearing my cardigans buttoned up like blouses this season, but most are v-necks and those are a bit trickier. I liked the effect of layering over this bowed blouse, and will definitely try something similar again. Oh and I was wrong: apparently the Report booties DO work with some of my skinnies ;)
4. Saturday, worn for lunch. Mostly spent the day gardening, in gardening clothes this time ;) Another outfit off my list, which made for very stress free dressing. I am digging this soft coral utility jacket for weekend looks!
5. Sunday, worn out to brunch with my in-laws for MIL's birthday. Debut of white skinnies (finally!!), but I seem to have shrunken since purchasing so they're a bit looser than I like. I think this outfit worked better on paper than in practice; this new blouse is a lot shorter and boxier than I had anticipated! I was initially going to wear a gray tank underneath, but one of Angie's pinterest pins caught my interest and I decided to try pink instead. I don't wear this type of soft pink much, but I do like how it looks with a black and white graphic outfit.

Comments, critiques, thoughts and questions welcome!

I bought the JCrew linen shirt and the fabric is fabulous! It is quite boxy on me, which I am still on the fence about. But the real issue I have is the back of the shirt. You can see it in the side view of #2: there are seams up the back which is wonderful for my swayback, but then they stop and the shirt completely puffs out on top of the seams. It's like a muffin back, except it's all the fabric and none of me :p I was hoping that it would resolve itself as the fabric softened, but so far that's not really happening. Is this solveable via alteration, and if so what is needed?

I was also debating having the side seam taken in just a wee bit so it's not so straight (like on the right in #2), but still loose. After Angie said that the shirt will soften, I'm okay with waiting to see how the shirt drapes after that happens before deciding on that one. But the puffy back thing just isn't working for me. Thoughts?