I've been on backyard safari this week and I think that has had a definite influence on my wardrobe choices. They've all been on the "rugged" side. This sweatshirt is from a Pomona thrift store. I bought it in high school and used to wear it with ankle length black skirts.

I can always find an excuse to buy a new piece of clothing. This particular top I bought because I got to work and was stiflingly hot in the sweater I had come in (a somewhat regular occurrence in my life, but usually I'm buying a jacket because I've gone out without enough clothing on). I bought this on my lunch break at a boutique across the street from where I work. It's a Quicksilver top - the first and only I have ever bought though I did get a free T-shirt from that company at a community college fashion symposium several years ago. The shirt is pretty interesting construction wise. It has what I can only call reverse french seams. It also has a pocket on the right breast sewn on the inside of the garment, which perplexes me - is it intentional, some sort of "edgy" design choice or was it just sewn wrong.

This shirt was just an ordinary white V neck T-shirt from my great aunt til I decided to embroider insects all over it. A. very generously drew the bugs for me and I preserved them forever with my needle and thread.

Here's a close up of my bugs.

I think this is such a cute outfit. It reminds me of a Vargas girl or some equally glamourous 40's starlet. Birds of Passage was doing a photo shoot this morning so that is why I am in full glamour makeup. The top I have found myself wearing several times this week. The shorts are from Target. I bought them ages ago, before Target was the design giant it is today. Check out my new bow necklace. I was watching The Lady Eve this week and noticed that Barbara Stanwyck also sports a bow necklace in one scene only hers is made of diamonds while mine is copper chain.

two rather uninspired outfits

This top is Rogan for Target. I'm wearing it backwards because I think scoop neck shirts really look better on me when they are worn in this manner.

Okay, I'll just admit it, I got lazy with this outfit. I've worn both pieces before - it's getting hard to find new things to wear because my bedroom has become a huge jumble of clothing. Oh I have loads of garments that have not seen the light of day in awhile, but they are all neatly packed in suitcases and boxes, whilst the things I have already worn are running amok of my personal space. These necklaces are new though and were purchased from the UO website.

This was a cute little outfit and yet I look so schlumpy in this picture (I suppose it's my less than perfect posture). The top and skirt are both from Pomona thrift stores. The skirt has adorable built in hardware and the top looks vintage, but I think it's actually modern from China.

This has been a bit of a debauched memorial day weekend for me (in as much as 2 glasses of sangria, a hot tub and staying up past midnight with my friend T. equals debauchery for me these days). This is my excuse for yet again forgetting to take a picture of my Saturday outfit (twice in one month - yikes!). The blouse is from Dumpster Values. It has a really nice shape to it. This picture was taken right before T. and I headed out to Disney's California Adventure, which is why I switched to a purse that actually closes at the top (didn't want all my stuff falling all over the place in the event of roller coasters). This purse is from UO.

I spent several minutes in the bathroom at work today trying to determine if this top was indecent for wear in the workplace. In the end I decided that you can't really see anything. Most people ask me if I made the skirt myself. Sadly, no. It is Hamish Morrow for Topshop.

I can't really remember who I got this top from. I know it came to me from a older lady, so I'm thinking it was probably from my great aunt.

The biggest news this week in the world of cheap designer collaborations (a world, as you know, I am quite fond of) is Matthew Williamson's H&M line. I went and checked it out the day it dropped, and though some of the stuff was cute, it was not cute enough for me to actually buy anything. I used to love H&M, but I haven't shopped there that much since it came to the U.S. In fact, the two times this year that I set foot in that store, it sort of made me feel like I was in a sweet shop, by which I mean that everything looked good but I had the feeling that it might give me a bad stomach ache if I "ate" anything. I do sort of like Matthew Williamson (even though most of his stuff is way too hippy for me), so in honor of his new line, I dug out this T-shirt he did for Debenhams several years ago. The pants are Temperly for Target. This the first time I have actually worn them outside of a dressing room.

I finally got my very own computer this week and for some reason, instead of making me more efficient about keeping up to date with my postings, it has actually made me less so. Crazy! This top is a hand me down from my maternal great aunt. There is not much else to say about the outfit except that I found myself having to wear a very ill fitting bra today (nothing else clean - you know how it goes). I don't think it is all that noticeable in this picture, or maybe as I have always secretly suspected, I just don't really care or notice if things actually look good on me or not. The best part of this story is that today the head of the fashion department took all the assistants out for lunch and at one point the talk at table was about how so many women just don't know how to wear a bra that fits properly. I thought this was just going to be a passing comment, but no, the rest of them sat there and for 10 minutes talked about how horrible these women looked and didn't they care that none of their clothing fit properly. I finally had to just bust out laughing and fess up to my own shameful undergarments, though I suppose they already knew this.

A. gave me this skirt when I visited her yesterday. I think some people may feel that the colors clash slightly with the green of the blouse, but I like the combination. I also like the drop waisted effect the two have together, it made me feel like a flapper all day.

The shirt is from one of my favorite thrift stores in Pomona. I don't really have much to say about it, except that I think it is very cute little top. The pants are from Uth. I'm not sure if that label is even around anymore. They are/were a British line with some sort of connection to Jigsaw (former designers or something like that). At any rate there used to be a Uth store in Glasgow when I lived there, and aside from The Gap, they made the only pants whose fit I really liked on a consistent basis. These cords are one of many pairs of Uth pants that I bought when I lived in Scotland.

The top is from Target. Its from their in house Go collection and although I do like it quite a bit, I would not have bought it if it wasn't on sale for $3.99. The bottoms (I'll call them bottoms, because I'm not too sure what the exact term for them is - are they short pants or long shorts?) are from that evil store aka Anthropologie. I also have on a plastic bow bracelet that I bought in downtown L.A.

I've had this dress for so long that even though I got all sorts of compliments on it today, it still feels frumpy and boring to me (I think the photo accurately captures this). Such is the nature of fashion I guess. In my memories this is the first dress I ever got from a vintage store, but this might not actually be the case. At any rate it is from Wasteland and my mother bought it for me on a trip to San Francisco back in my Girl Scout days (a very long time ago).

I'm taking suggestions on how to salvage this top. R. and I both agreed that it doesn't really do me any favours, but it was given to me by an ex-boyfriend and I feel weirdly sentimental about it. Clearly though, it can't continue life in it's present incarnation, it fits poorly and the V-neck is a really unflattering length. So please, if you have any ideas on how this shirt could be improved upon, let me know.

A. let me borrow this jacket once a long time ago and I seem to be holding on to it still. In fact, talking to her, it seems that she doesn't even fully remember the jacket. The weird thing is it actually looks okay in this picture. Odd since I spent the whole day thinking how boxy and unflattering it was. Nevertheless, I am going to send it on it's way unless A. wants it back.

Another "wallpaper" outfit. Head to toe Gap. Well no, the shoes are Campers so let's say head to ankle Gap.

I bought this shirt the first and only time I ever went to the Melrose Trading Post. From the tag I'm going to guess that it was originally from Forever 21 - a store I have never personally bought anything from. The shirt ended up being miserably hot and I ended up in my undershirt with it tied around my neck for most of the day. Now, I suppose these days young ladies (and hey, let's face it, older ladies who should really know better) tend to dress in little wisps of tanks and no one really bats an eye. But for myself, I don't really like being in public with my bra straps showing, so I was a bit uncomfortable for most of the day.

For the first time this year I actually forgot to take a photo of my outfit! Yesterday I went directly from work to a family party (not my family - R.'s family). I came home slightly drunk and only after changing into my night clothes did I realize I had not documented the day's costume. Here is today's look: The shirt is part of a set made by my great aunt. I wore the matching skirt earlier this year.

The beauty of this outfit is how cheap and not particularly well made the individual pieces actually are (with the exception of my awesome vintage copper necklace - I have quite a few of them and they're all from the PCC swapmeet). The top and skirt are both from H&M in Glasgow. As I say, they're not particularly nice pieces, I don't think they are even from the higher end H&M lines, yet I managed to look well turned out to today and even garnered a few complements on my "sophisticated" look. Heh!

I hadn't worn this skirt in so many years, that I sort of figured it just didn't fit well, so it was a very happy discovery to learn that it did. I'm not sure where I got the skirt, but I know it came to me second hand (whether I bought it or not I can't remember, I'm inclined to think I did). The top is from UO. I'm wearing it backwards because I think it looks better this way. The scarf is not actually a scarf at all, but my H&M summer sweater rolled up and tied around the neck.

This Espirit dress was my favorite back when I was 15. I don't actually remember thinking "Hey this is my favorite dress", but I always got lots of complements on it and, more importantly, I thought I looked good in it. Over the years it has slipped to the back of my closet, so that every now and then I'll see a bit of the blue flowered fabric and think "Oh yeah, there's that dress", but I sort of always figured it would look a bit dated. Well, looking at the pictures I guess it does look a bit dated, but it also makes me feel just as swishy and awesome as it always did. (I also include this little sketch my oldest friend A. drew of me wearing the dress back in the day).

I call this outfit "Backstage Supermodel". Once I saw myself in the rollers, I started thinking of all those "behind the scenes" pictures you see in the fashion magazines with the models in their sweats and half done hair dos. Generally they will be wearing skinny jeans or leggings and a punk-y top (this one is yet another McQ Target top). R. and I were taking photos for our birds of passage line today, hence the rollers (which didn't do much for my very fine hair) and my supermodel theme. Check out the pictures from our photo shoot at our etsy store and while you're there buy a shirt for yourself or your lady friends.

This tank top is from Urban Outfitters. I bought it (because it was sale mainly) thinking that I could wear it on its own. This idea was quickly revised when I tried it on, thus teaching me the beauty of layering.

My coworker T. said that all I needed was some "tinsel" in my sweater and I could be playing keyboards for Roxy Music in this outfit. That, to my mind, is the best complement I could have received. I don't even know exactly when or where I got this sweater. It just sort of showed up as though it had always been there. Everything else here has been spoken of before.

I've had this sweatshirt for almost a year and was never really happy with it til today. Why today? Well, I think it's because it was the first time I tried wearing it with a skirt. At work, an older foreign woman (wearing an excellent outfit) complemented me profusely on it and asked where I bought it. Of course I was not at all surprised when she told me she had never shopped at Urban Outfitters and I ended up saying something awkward like "Yeah I really like their clothes, but the store itself is sort of unpleasant - they play their music too loud" (like I was really going to tell her the truth - "It's generally full of hipster morons - you'd probably hate it"). The skirt is vintage from the PCC swapmeet.

My mother bought me this top when I was 10 years old. Naturally I thought it was an incredibly lame top at the time (it was half of a cowgirl outfit that I don't think I ever wore), but now I think it's super cute. I'm always slightly amazed that I still fit into it. This either means that I was a well developed 10 year old or incredibly scrawny at my current age (or, I suspect, both).

I think this top came from my great Aunt. It looks like quite a few other tops I own. The stripy top is from Zara.