Aida ~

Laura (rhubarbgirl) is in town for a writing conference this weekend, and I was able to meet up with her for some yummy food and great conversation. We hit up a favorite little north sound sushi place and chatted about everything from fashion to weather to travel to hockey. I should've taken a photo of our food, it was just as pretty as it was yummy! We made sure to have at least one roll with some salmon and cream cheese, which is apparently a PNW thing.

Shortly before leaving I remembered to ask our server to snap a photo and of course had to request that he get us head-to-toe ;) Laura was wearing a cream blazer over a teal top (a really flattering shade on her), lovely fluid wide leg trousers, brown leather accents, and a pretty print scarf that picked up on all the shades in the outfit. I wore a gray patterned sweater, flared jeans, zebra belt and cream booties. Will post a proper WIW later, but for now I wanted to share our cute restaurant snap.

It was wonderful to get to meet Laura and chat over sushi and tea! I'm really filling out my YLF forum member checklist, I've been lucky in meeting so many wonderful women over the last few months.

Hi everyone! I am back from a much needed end-of-year/crazy-holidays break. I've missed you gals! *waves* I have been doing fine, quite a bit busier than usual these days. I'm taking on a heavier workload this year, and while that's good for the bank (and the evolution of my wardrobe!) it does mean that I won't be able to respond to as many threads on the forum as I have in the past. And while I dearly wish I could go through the last two months of the forum to read up on everything I've missed, unfortunately that's not possible. So! On that note, I would love to request from everyone:

1) Tell me how you've been and what you've been up to!
2) If you have 'em, some links to threads you'd like me to read, whether it's outfits you're especially fond of (hey I can always use inspiration) both of yours and of others, and interesting discussions. What better way to catch up than with a curated selection of everyone's favorite threads from the past two months? :)

I'd also like to post my outfits from the past two months to have them in my YLF blog, but realize that this would be some serious photo heavy post spam (probably divided into 4-6 posts or so). Would also like thoughts on that idea, and if that'd be OK with you gals. It'll be a whole lotta me -_-

*HUGS TO ALL*

(And of course a couple of bonus photos! 1) What I wore to the Seattle meetup back in Dec., and 2) a cute sign I saw in Leavenworth over xmas which, of course, immediately made me think of Angie ^^)

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!

For the past 1.75 years I've taken photos of my outfits and posted them online to the site "Weardrobe" (which just takes a photo, catalogs items, and a very brief bit of text). It was a fabulous way for me to track my growth, see how I've worn things, etc. but certainly not a true "style blog". A few of you may have noticed I'd removed the link from my profile; they were apparently bought by Google and the entire site taken down. There wasn't much notification, just one email that I hadn't caught, so I noticed my site was gone while in LA (not the best time, I was very sad). Upon return Heather suggested I take the plunge and start a Real, Actual Blog. So I did! It can be found here:

http://aidascloset.tumblr.com

I'm still working out layout kinks, post kinks, all that. But it's basically in final form, if a week behind; hoping to get everything up this weekend and from there start posting outfits daily. I wanted to share my exciting venture with you all :D

(Thank you thank you Heather and Ornella for all your wonderful feedback on the site!!)

After a grumpy day at work, my evening was immediately brightened when I came home to find I had received a package COVERED in pretty Danish stamps. Lynne had offered a few items up for global swap, and I was expecting to find a belt and a flower pin inside. Lynne had very sweetly included not only those items, but an additional tweedy flower pin (love!), skull multi-finger ring (double love!), and two Danish fashion magazines! Just wanted to share that with you all, I'm so excited to play with these items! Thank you so much Lynne (and you clearly have my tastes nicely figured out!) :D

EDIT: Had to add that I'm wearing the white flower today!

Soooooo my canvas flats got slug on them. Yes, a slug slimed all over the side of my shoe. It's SO VERY STICKY! I can't get it off. Any ideas? :(

My husband just sent this to me, thought you ladies would enjoy it :)

Extreme Ironing: "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."
https://secure.wikimedia.org/w.....me_ironing

A Google image search yields highly amusing photos:
http://www.google.com/search?q.....38;bih=733

For those wondering where I ran off to, I've spent the last several weeks preparing to interview for a job over at Microsoft along with trying to do all of my normal work. So it's been a bit hectic and I haven't been able to drop by the forums much. But! It's clearing up now and I should be back more. Just wanted to let you guys know, and say I missed you all! I've got a bunch of outfits and some shopping to share, too :)

EDIT to add more info (taken from below): I had my first interview loop yesterday, and it went well but they told me they want me to interview for a different group that will better fit my skills. So it seems like it will be a bit of a mini saga while we track down the right job and do more interviews (and hopefully I end up hired for something great!).

Interview outfit: black skinny jeans, white button-up, gray cropped blazer, red pumps (!), knotted champagne pearls. I'm definitely going to need help with more interview outfits, I had a hard enough time with this one! Will post it soon I hope :)

I was delighted to come home after a long day at work and find a package from the one and only MaryK! Inside was an awesome bright red-orange button-up shirt and 2 pairs of fancy nude microfishnets. I was so excited I took photos right away without styling or collaging :D One step closer to acquiring Mary's fab wardrobe, mwahahahah! *erhm*

Thank you so much, Mary!!

I'm trying to get onto Team Handbag, and recently bought my first cream handbag which is a synthetic leather-like material. I really love it but I manage to rub it on everything! Most recently against a pair of cheap black zipper denim leggings (to try the trend!) which, apparently, I hadn't washed enough times before wearing so the dye rubbed off. How do you gals who sport white/cream/light handbags keep them clean (besides rub on less stuff ;) )? Any particular products you could recommend for both leather and synthetics? Thanks!