Merry Christmas, Baby!

Merry Christmas, Babies! I hope everyone had a fantastic day filled with lots of love, joy, laughter, good company, and good food. The holidays are such a fantastic time of year and a wonderful celebration of the coming of the Christian saviour. Even if you don't celebrate the traditional Christmas holiday, or even if you don't celebrate Christmas at all, it's still a wonderful time of year to be with family and friends.



Fitz & the Tantrums - Santa Stole My Lady


This was my Santa Girl outfit! I made the skirt last spring to wear to the opera, and decided to re-hem it this weekend because the hem was crooked and very badly sewn. The number one issue with the crushed velvet fabric is that it's curly! So the hem ended up rolling and, though it's even & discreet, it's much much much too short to be comfortably worn. Bah, humbug! It ends up flashing my garters far too much and in the wind it's an absolute catastrophe & very reminiscent of Marilyn.





So we didn't get a white Christmas, but it was lovely anyways! I'll hopefully do a better round up of it later, but I wanted to get out these photos of what I wore before the Holiday was too far past. This outfit was inspired by an Harley Davidson Santa that my father used to own. I wore this leather vest and black booties to toughen it all up and make is more me-ish. Hmmm, me-ish, Chloe-ish, those are terms I tend to use a lot! But I really don't have a better way of describing it...it's my personality in the outfit! I wore this today, for Christmas with my family, and also last night for the Christmas Eve service at church and for a party at my boyfriend's auntie's house. One of my favourite parts of the Holiday season is all parties and the family, and being welcomed no matter who you are. Another favourite part (besides the birth and blessed miracle of the Baby Jesus) would be Santa Claus!

I was babysitting(!) three kids the other weekend. We hunkered down to watch Christmas movies and make cards, and while the two youngest were changing into their pajamas, the 11-year-old and I had an heart to heart about Old Saint Nick. He confided in me that he stilled pretended to believe in Santa, which is such a wonderful thing. I do, too. I believe in the spirit of Santa and in the wonderful symbol of Christmas that he is. I believe in the hope and cheer he inspires in young children and adults alike. I expressed this to the older boy I was "babysitting," much to his agreeance and we both kept it a little secret as the true believers stumbled back downstairs in their footie pajamas.






I hope that everyone reading this, no matter what faith you are, have a wonderful holiday season and that peace and warmth are with you and your loved ones.

rain rain go away!

Let me start this post out with: Right now, I hate Texans. If you're a Texan, beware!! Yes, all of our beautiful, lovely, Winterland snow is gone! All those Texans pushed their warm air and rain up to Minnesota and because of this, we warmed up above freezing and got loads of rain which washed away all our snow. And though it's back below freezing now, there isn't snow in the forecast before Christmas. I've never muched cared for Texas (mostly because they gave us the Bush administration) but now I care for them even less! For all I care, they can just leave the US. Christmas in Minnesota just isn't Christmas without white fluffy ice crunching under your boots and icicles dripping from rain gutters. How will Santa's sleigh land on my roof now? Huh, Texans? Explain that to me!!


Ok now that I'm over that rage (just kidding, I'll never be over it...) here is a "winter" outfit post for ya'll. It was inspired by '20s flapper drop waist dresses. The dress I'm wearing underneath (which I bought a couple years ago from UO) is actually drop waist, but it's short sleeved and the top is mesh, so I layered my knit turtleneck over it to warm it up. The tights are to give it some colour and to intensify the pinks in my turtleneck by means of "colour seperation." (Ooooh big vocab words from colour theory class)


You see this face? Yupp, that's how pissed I am about the snow going away. Ok ok ok, I know I said I'd leave that behind... Anyways, the lack of snow is making it even harder for me to get into the Christmas spirit! Finals have taken precedence over my first couple weeks of December (I have one more test and one more final project) so I haven't even had time to decorate the tree or get Christmas cards out! Hopefully I can catch up on that before work today and during my day off on Sunday.



In the meantime, I did do one Christmas-y thing! My boyfriend and I went to go watch the Holidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis last weekend! We followed it up with checking out Macy's Santaland display and then writing letters to Santa! Ooooh I do so hope that he'll bring me the puppy, the snow, and the world peace that I asked him for!


I also just realised that I'm wearing my hair up in the photos. Even the one of me posting my letter to Santa. And in fact, I have my hair up right now! I'm not sure what it is, but I've been wearing it up lately. Okay, I know what it is...my boyfriend really likes it! But I sort of like it too, especially when I'm having a bad hairday or haven't been able to wash my hair. I also like wearing headbands, like this one, which I bought from UO a couple years back now. It's super cute and reminded me of the '20s (hence why I'm wearing it with my flapper inspired outfit).


Anyways, I'm off to go work on my Christmas cards! I have a list of about 40 people...let's see if I can get this done! Here's hoping for some snow xx

Better Off Dead

Hello! It's snowed! It snowed over the weekend (hmmm I took these photos a week ago, now you know...). It was so lush and beautiful. I hope we get more soon. Anyways, as I said, I took these photos a week ago, about the time that it was just started to snow, in the evening, and since then it has gotten so cold out! I don't know how many outfit posts I'll be doing this winter...

But here, I am wearing Cheap Monday acid wash skinnies, a sweater I found in the H&M sale section ($4!!), my winter boots from Khombu, and a new jacket that a co-worker gave me as a gift! It had been her's when she was younger, but she wanted to pass it on to someone who would wear it more. It is also the most wrinkly jacket that I own, now...


This outfit was inspired (entirely) by the '80s movie "Better Off Dead" starring my true love, John Cusack. It's such an off the wall movie and I definitely recommend it to all who have not seen it. You won't regret it! And whether you have or have not seen it, I've included some screencaps to aid with my demonstration of outfit inspiration:


Charles De Mar's hat is reminiscent of George Harrison's getup in "Help!" during the scene where they went skiing. I love Beth's matching jacket & hat, and Lane's down vest over the sweater is so lovely! Definitely something that I would wear....


Red ski pants!! I also love the teal jackets with the red-orange ski boots, and Lane's orange boots. If I knew skiing was such a fashionable sport, I would've gotten in on it long ago!








Red cardigan! Maybe I like this movie because it's set in the winter, so there're tons of chunky sweaters. It speaks to my frozen Minnesotan heart.


Monique's curly hair is so cute! I wish my curls were more kinky. I love the headband with her curls sticking out. I've never seen anyone look cute in one of these headbands...

And if you're wondering what to wear for Christmas...! Ricky's outfits in this movie are ridiculous. So many crazy patterned pants and tops! I love it so much! His wack-o mom is the same way... (All screencaps from here because my DVD wasn't working for some reason)


Anyways, back to the outfit! A couple of weeks ago I asked what you guys thought about the evolution of my style. Surprisingly, I got really great responses (I honestly didn't think that people usually read what I wrote...now I'll be more careful about what I ramble on about)! As I got dressed the other day when I wore this outfit, I was thinking to myself about how I used to wear acid wash a lot a lot a lot, which reminded me that I hadn't yet responded to the lovely comments I'd gotten.


So, I'm here to say thanks for all the feedback to my question. It was great to hear that you guys thought that it was totally normal to have such style evolution. When I started this blog in 2008 (as a sophmore in high school, I believe), the purpose was to "find" my style. I've experimented with some much: menswear, neon, colour blocking, skinny jeans, graphic tees, suspenders, ugly sweaters, the list is never-ending and, at times, extremely embarassing, but I documented it all and it's here forever now. It's been in the past year or so that I've really grown comfortable with my style and have had a strong feeling for what is "me" and what isn't. This is a good thing...I've grown a lot since I started the blog. I started college, I got a job, I've gone through numerous boyfriends and have developed friendships with great people, and lost friendships with others. It's all a part of growing up, isn't it? And if I still wore the same things as I did at 15, that would not be good! As one person commented, she'd be concerned if my style had not matured with me.


But, to grow on this, someone also commented on the fact that my style was more varied back in the day, and that they really liked it when I mixed it up more. So, as the new year is about to start and whatnot, my new style resolution is to mix it up more! I know what I like and what I don't like, but there's a lot out there that I like, but just haven't tried. So there's my style resolution, and let's see what I make of it!


In the meantime, as I said, it's really awfully cold outside and I don't know how long I can stand around taking photos in it for. So no more outfit posts are planned, but don't worry, I still have a lot to come for December! Hang in there babies and stay warm!

Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Isn't it funny how you can be prepared to blog and know exactly what to say and have all the photos together, and then just never find the time to? That's been happening to me! I took these photos last Tuesday (since then we've had lots of snow!) and just never found the time to post them. Here they are, though! This outfit was inspired by The Byrd's album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." I grew up listening to it on vinyl and just staring at the cover of the album, which is so interesting! I decided to do my own take of it, maybe a take which is a bit more Chloe-ish.





The Byrds' "You Ain't Going Nowhere"



This medicine pouch necklace was one of my favourites growing up. I've probably had it since I was 4 or thereabouts. I love feeling the beads in my hands. It's just so cool and intricate.



The top I'm wearing is from Everyday People on Snelling & Selby in St. Paul. I found it for $10 and thought it was the coolest thing ever! It's really sheer and has this psychadelic print all over it with tigers and elephants and people and rivers. The brand listed on it was called "Campus Casuals" which really only adds to my list of reasons to love this shirt.



The vest is from Lula, also on Snelling & Selby. The skirt is from Heritaage 1981. I found it a few years ago now in the sale section for $5. I really don't like the skirt, but oh well. It's structured funny and really short.



Anyways, I took some outfit photos the other night, just as the snow began falling! Expect those soon. The snow is so so so beautiful. I'm hopeful that we'll have a white Christmas afterall! xx