work it wednesday

I'm becoming a total wannabe personal style blogger... I feel not quite awesome/dedicated/creative/expert enough to have a fashion blog (plus I want to post about other things), but I read them constantly, and I think it's kind of fun to participate. Especially on days I don't leave the house and Peter gets home late - a girl wants someone to see an outfit if she puts one together!

So I've been doing various 30 for 30, etc. clothing challenges occasionally, but I thought the weekly Work It Wednesday (rework a trend or clothing item 3 different ways) from The Good Life for Less would be a great outlet for my wannabe style blogger side - plus, it encompasses the best thing to me about the whole shebang: getting more (and better) use out of my closet.

First up, I did my new denim jacket (still regretting getting rid of the one I had in high school after a few years of not wearing it - now I want it, and it looked just about exactly like this! Found a great deal on Land's End Canvas though...). Obviously a very versatile piece, it's been especially helpful in the summer-to-fall transition time for making things more season-appropriate (and warm enough).

With a simple dress and comfortable shoes for a walk to the farmer's market and library:

 jacket: Land's End Canvas; dress, neclace: Target; shoes: TOMS;

bag: Marimekko for Avon

With my go-to summer skirt for church on a sunny fall day:

 

 skirt: JCrew; top: Old Navy; shoes: DSW

And bringing the white jeans into fall again with a leopard print sweater (!):

 

  

jeans: JCrew; sweater: Talbots (via consignment shop); 

shoes: Nicole (old - but a happy recent closet rediscovery!)

what I did on summer vacation, part 2

At the beginning of the summer, I made a summer fun list to remember all the fun things I wanted to do over the summer and enjoy it as much as I could while it lasted. Even if I did get rather sick of the heat at times, I'm always sad to see summer go - fall is lovely, but you know what comes next...

jam (more about the labels)

summer deck setup

papel picado fiesta decorations

But now that it's officially fall, here's a little recap of the summer activities I checked off my list:

• visit Findlay Market - I made a new friend this summer, and this was on both of our to do lists, so we made a Saturday morning trip.
• make strawberry jam - I made my own jam for the first time this summer, and it was super easy (and delicious - we've already eaten through several of them).
• read Hunger Games series - made it through the rest of the series quite quickly - so suspenseful that I had to compulsively read to find out what was going to happen!
• eat at a restaurant on our wishlist - we went to Nectar for my birthday, and Nada for Peter's. Lots more restaurants around here we're excited about trying though.
• grow basil - I was more successful with growing basil this year - I think it was the larger pot - though it did try to shrivel and die several times in the heat. I made lots of pesto, pastas with lots of basil garnish, and also some chicken basil stir fry with it.
• get a pedicure - or several pedicures (in my favorite colors)... All the running I've been doing is hard on the feet! The savings from not getting haircuts while I grow my hair out was my other justification - ha.
• host a BBQ - I did a variation of this at least - I helped host a fiesta/wedding shower for 2 of Peter's co-residents who are both getting married this fall. It was a fun party - we did a taco bar and I had fun making invitations and decorations.
• see a play - at the beginning of the summer we used my Enjoy the Arts voucher to the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to see the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Fun.
• play tennis - when it was cool enough, we actually got in a fair bit of tennis at the nearby park. I've been missing the cardio tennis classes at our old gym, but it was fun to hit around with Peter when we could find the time.
• make sangria - actually I didn't quite get around to this because I found a $4 pre-made version at Trader Joe's...
• watch the new season of The Closer - rather easy to achieve.
• go to a museum - I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum twice (love that it's free every day!) and also the Nagoya Art Museum.
• dine al fresco - there was a bunch of time it was too hot or buggy to eat outside, but we did get some nice use out of the deck (and chair cushions I updated), plus porch dining at the cottage and several patio breakfasts at Choo Choo's.
• eat some Graeter's ice cream - also rather easy to achieve. Several times.
• go to an art fair - I checked out the City Flea, where there were booths with lots of great artsy/crafty and vintage stuff (also good food)

City Flea

dining outdoors with visitors (photo from my mom)

 

with the Cincinnati Art Museum logo (photo also from my mom)

There are a few fun things left on the list that I can still look forward to doing in the fall, especially because it can really be pleasant weather around here until late in the fall: take a walking tour of the city, take Ginger on a hike, explore a new neighborhood. Also: sew a skirt - excellent for a rainy/chilly day when Peter's on call (bound to happen...). Here's to making the most out of every season in life!

summer reading recap

Next summer topic to wrap up: my reading list. I read 7 of the 11 books on my summer list, plus a bunch of others. Some recaps here; click on for the rest of the list and the others I did read...

The premise of Room sounds really creepy: it's about a woman who was kidnapped as a 19-year-old and has a son while in captivity. But it's actually a very interesting read - and narrated by the 5-year-old son, Jack, it's quite engaging and entertaining. Room (actually a shed) is his whole world, so everything in it has official names like Table and Wardrobe, though of course for Jack's mom, Room was a prison. So what was really interesting was the after portion - how Jack navigates the real world, how his mom handles being back in it, and how their relationship with each other changes.

Started Early, Took My Dog is the latest installment in the Jackson Brodie mystery series by Kate Atkinson. I've read and enjoyed all of them, and this was no exception, even if not as great as the first one - I read the entire thing on the flight to Japan in June.

Let the Great World Spin was written in response to 9/11, but it takes place in the 1970s, when the World Trade Center was newly built. The stories of all the characters are woven around a couple main events, one of which is Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. The multifaceted views of the same moments come together to make such a lovely book.

The main character in The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake learns at age 9 that she can taste peoples' feelings in their food. It's a coming-of-age story as she learns to deal with this and the (unwanted) things she learns about her family members. I saw the book described as "pessimistic magical realism," and I thought that pretty well fit it; overall, it was interesting, but the "pessimistic" part is the emotional disconnect between characters, which just gets to me after a while!

I also finished the Hunger Games series (Catching Fire and Mockingjay), the young adult series about a dystopian world in which two teenagers from each of 12 districts are chosen yearly to compete in a televised reality show - to the death. The second and third books are about the rebellion and revolution coming out of the results of the games described in the first book. It's a little hard to believe this is a young adult series, because it's SO nail-bitingly intense, but they really made me think (and maybe gave me a couple nightmares) in a way that a book like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale does. I thought the first book in the series was the best; by the third installment the story got a bit weak (and rather slow at times), but I had to know what happened in the end, so of course I was going to read them all. Or speed read to bypass the suspense....

And then Georgia Bottoms was rather a disappointment, sad to say. I had hoped it would be some fun Southern small-town fiction (having learned about it from fun Southern writer Joshilyn Jackson's blog), but I just did not believe the main character's motivation - and I'm a reader who is completely willing to suspend disbelief. The premise of the story was that she had affairs with a bunch of prominent men in town in order to support her illegitimate child, and that's the only reason. But then she seemed really into it. And why didn't she just get a job?! Not very good.

what I did on summer vacation

It's been a shocking (to me) number of years since I've done the fall back-to-school routine... But somehow I still always have a sense of this time of year, more than any other seasonal transition, as a time one thing's ending and a new thing's beginning - even though I still get up at the same time every day and do the same job and don't even have an excuse to buy new notebooks and pencils (sad). Fall has a nice sense of change, and it's fun to switch out the wardrobe and make the house feel cozy again. But much as I was ready to be done with 90 degree days, I really love summer and don't want it to end. Maybe it's just having more daylight, but I get all excited about doing new activities and walking places and making new recipes with produce from the farmer's market and then eating them outside. I'll miss summer.


So as I go track down my fleece blankets to keep warm (house is down to 68 - normal in winter, feels freezing now!), let's do a little summer reminiscing. To start off a recap of lovely summertime, here's a classic back-to-school assignment: the "what I did on my summer vacation" report.

Spent plenty of time at the beach:

 reading

 

 catching up on sleep

 

 

sunning

walking

And then plenty more on the porch.

appetizers

reading/sunning/imbibing, upper-deck style

 

sunset dining

 snuggling

 
Also a little time at the book store:

editing, aka bringing home the bacon 

The Angeline

I come from quite a matriarchal family, and last week we lost the head and center of it all - and my namesake - my great grandma. She was 97 years old.

As an example of the matriarchy: we don't have sons' names passed on with "junior", etc. tacked on the end, but we have names passed on to daughters. My great grandma was named Angeline, my grandma is Evangeline, my mom is Angelea, and my full name is Angeline. There are several other great grandchildren with Angeline and Evangeline as middle names as well. Even though I don't go by my full name (except for a brief stint at the beginning of freshman year of college when trying to reinvent myself - ha), I have always loved this generational passing on that defines me and where I come from. I never met anyone else named Angeline until I was about 25, and I realized then that it hadn't really occurred to me there would be other ones out there, because my name came from the Angeline. And I feel very blessed to have been able to know her for 27 years.

A four generations photo from my wedding: Angelea, Angeline, 
Angeline, Evangeline, and cousin Emily Angeline.

transitional

Time for the final 21 Day Challenge prompt: work it (create a fabulous outfit based on what you learned).

Labor Day is considered the end of summer, even though the weather doesn't always adjust accordingly. This year around here we actually went really abruptly from very hot weather to a few cool, overcast days. And I often find at season transition times like this, I have NO IDEA what to wear. Store displays make me want to buy an entirely new fall wardrobe, but it's not exactly time to wear that stuff yet, since it will still warm up to t-shirt weather plenty of times in the next month. (Also, I don't really need all new clothes; I just want something different and right for the season.)

But wearing really summery clothes doesn't feel right either, especially when we do get a cooler day thrown in (not to mention I'm really sick of some of those sundresses by now...). This in-between time unfailingly leaves me entirely dissatisfied with my closet and putting on outfits I'm unhappy with.

So, I figured out a way to work it: first, start with layers, since mornings are cool, but afternoons can still get fairly warm. 

 tee: Gap; sweater; NY&Co (old); pants: JCrew; flats: Old Navy; necklace: gift from mom

Second, try mixing summer and fall pieces. I don't really care about the "no white after labor day" rule, but I'm not likely to continue wearing my white jeans just because I feel like I should be wearing "fall" stuff. Also, I have a weird unwritten rule that white is for sunny, not cloudy, days. So instead of doing them in more summery ways (such as nautical or bright), I made them feel right for an overcast day with a neutral t-shirt and a more fall-colored cardigan.

I'm pretty proud of my ensemble because it feels exactly in-between - fall on top, summer on bottom - for an early September, reasonably cool day. It has been worked! Thanks for all the great prompts, Kayla!

going out

Peter had Saturday call this weekend - those are always a bummer (though a definite fact of life in 2nd year of residency!) because it's a whole day and night, leaving Peter with essentially no weekend and no sleep and leaving me with lots of time to fill on my own... but this weekend I did so with lots girl stuff - meeting a friend at the mall and going out for lunch afterward, and then going to see The Help with my bookclub and dessert afterward - he wouldn't even want to be around for that business anyway, right?

Day 20's challenge, wear Sunday shoes on a weekday, was fitting for a day of going out. I actually do wear these ones on weekdays sometimes, but pretty much only with a skirt or a dress, so for Saturday night I branched out and put them with jeans and a lace tank. It was the hottest day of the year (hit 100), so I'm sweating in these photos but was just right inside the theater!

jeans: AG; tank: Forever 21; wedges: Indigo by Clarks; necklace: gift from mom

We read The Help several months ago for bookclub so it was fun to have a discussion of the movie too. Some of the actresses fit really well with how we imagined them, some didn't; it stuck pretty well to the book, but there also a few scenes left out or adjusted - but these are always quibbles with book-inspired movies. We all enjoyed it overall though, and I admit to needing a tissue by the end.

Sometimes I feel bad about reporting back to Peter all these fun (and productive - I also walked the dog, ran 7 miles, did a load of laundry, and vacuumed the house) things I do while he's away at work, but he says it's nice to know I'm getting to see people and enjoy the day. Plus it didn't turn out so badly for him this weekend; he got to share my leftover Cheesecake Factory dessert on Sunday afternoon, and he actually got a weekend since he was off on Labor Day. We had a nice day sleeping in, playing tennis, watching tennis, and such...

hot weather three-fer

It's September (already!). On all the style blogs I read, people are talking about fall fashion and shopping lists. On all the craft/decor blogs I read, people are talking about fall wreaths and centerpieces and such. Meanwhile, Cincinnati is in the middle of another 90+ degree stretch.

I'm excited for fall too but can't even start to think about it in this humidity - perhaps the relatively cooler few weeks we've had have reduced my conditioning/tolerance for the 90s? All I've been able to manage to put together outfit-wise in the past couple days is shorts/tank tops and plain sundresses, i.e. outfits with no more than about 3 elements, even with the 21 Day Challenge prompts to help me out... Not very creative, but then again my week was entirely filled with work, planning a party I'm co-hosting tonight, and watching US Open tennis while I work out at the gym. All of these things can easily be done in workout clothes, even if only one should, so at least I got dressed!

Day 19: adorn your head
I have a great hat, but it doesn't work with ponytails. And it is ponytail weather (see above), so I just added a scarf headband to my shorts and tank top.

tank: Banana Republic Outlet; shorts: JCrew Outlet; scarf: dept store in Japan

Day 18: statement jewelry
I rediscovered this dress from a couple of years ago - it's in the orangey coral color family I love this summer, so my interest in the dress has been rejuvenated... I thought with my blue beaded necklace it would make a fun, colorful (weather tolerant) outfit for the party tonight, which has a fiesta theme.

dress: Banana Republic Outlet; necklace and sandals: Target

Day 17: fix something on your repair pile
Sometimes Target has belts on clearance for about $2 but they're always in sizes that are too big. I bought a couple anyway, intending to alter them to fit, and the Day 17 prompt finally got me around to it. I trimmed off some excess length and punched a few extra holes so that this one can be worn at belt-loop level and waist level. 

belt alteration supplies

dress: Old Navy; shoes: Christian Siriano for Payless; belt: Target