Quirky Things: A Girl and Her Bicycle

Anthropologie Ten-Speed Necklace
Anna and Frank silk green shirt (thrifted)
Dockers Pants (thrifted)
The Heritage Cardigan Lands End Canvas Harvest Pine
Cole Haan suede penny loafers

It's funny. When I first saw this necklace at Anthropologie, I thought I'd look like a crazy/eccentric old lady wearing it. But, because it was on sale, and made of some neat materials (leather + wood), I brought it home anyway. I figured I could return it if I never wore it or changed my mind.

Ok, so call me a crazy/eccentric old lady! Turns out, I kinda LOVE wearing it. It can give just a fun amount of quirk to my outfit. I also like it's really long length. And, it always seems to garner compliments.

Is there anything you've ever bought that you were first iffy about and then later you liked so much it surprised you?

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Don't call me 'baby' ....bok choy

Like Cindi, I get a box of farm fresh organic produce box delivered to my door. Sometimes I'm amazed at the size of the produce. This week was especially surprising. We got two bunches of baby bok choy. Um, I don't think these are 'baby,' or at least, the baby bok choy we've gotten from them in the past hasn't been quite so colossal.
Please pretend you don't see the amazon boxes in the back or the open linen closet... I store my tripod in there, and didn't think about closing the door while taking these pics, lol.

Um, that's two times my head size, let's just say fitting two of these in our fridge along with several bunches of chard and heads of lettuce wasn't the easiest of tasks

Still, I see this 'baby' and I see tasty - tasty braises and stirfries in my future!

Today I'm wearing another outfit whose colors seem to blind my camera! These jeans are ridiculously bright red, which makes them pretty awesome.

If this outfit looks familiar, it's because I wore a very similar version here. But this is a totally different striped top (the other one had blue stripes, :) ), and different outer layer and shoes! That makes it totes a different outfit (sorta).

I picked up this cropped tuxedo jacket at Goodwill this past weekend. I'd been eying this $300 beauty at J.Crew. The one I'm wearing is $2.50. In fact, if you want a cropped tuxedo jacket, the Seattle downtown GW had 129389312749127 brand new ones of these. This was one of the items Target apparently offloaded to GW. Happy times for me!

Photo bomb!

I can't decide if I love or hate this necklace I picked up from F21. The little balls at the bottom of the large pendant are actually tiny bells... um, so I 'jingle' as I walk around. It's not a bad jingle per se, but I'm not really used to jingling.

I do know that I'm pretty much adoring these flower pins I picked up at F21 for $1.50. I've been clipping them to everything: jackets, sweaters, headbands. They're just fun!

OOTD specs
Bright red Judy Blue Couture Jeans sz 3 (thrifted $8)
Striped ruched H&M long sleeve tee by Divided sz 6 ($13)
Mossimo cropped tuxedo jacket sz S (thrifted $2.50)
Katherine Leather Engineer Boots ($50)
Forever 21 Gothic Large Shield Necklace (buy in other colors here) ($8.80)
Forever 21 polka dot rosette clip (buy here) ($1.50)

black on black, rust on rust

This morning when I was waking up, I decided I wanted to wear the Echoing Canyon Necklace I picked up from Anthropologie. The simplicity of the wood beads is charming, but the large scale style really adds pizazz to an outfit.

And I'm all about pizazz.

Except I'm not.

In fact, today I realized I'm pretty boring. This morning I thought, what color shirt would go well with a rust-colored necklace... so many choices! ...and I came up with... a rust colored shirt.

Then I decided to pair my black skirt and black boots with black tights.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that vanilla is my favorite flavor of ice cream? Boo-yah! Living on the edge over he-yah!

Ok. I'll throw myself some adventure cred. I threw on a cocoon sweater. Boring people don't wear cocoon sweaters, right? I got this sweater at Loft's 50% off sale (+15% off for being a student/teacher). A couple days later, they went to 60% off sale prices, and I was sad. But I still love it. I love that it adds interesting volume, but doesn't make me look like a block o' fiber or a big square of sweater.


OOTD Specs
Eze Sur Mer Top sz S ($30)
Ann Taylor Loft Cocoon Sweater sz XS ($25)
Theory black pencil skirt sz 0 ($2.50 thrifted)
Black Sweater tights
Katherine Leather Engineer Boots ($50)
Anthopologie Echoing Canyon necklace ($10)

Work it like a scientist

Last weekend I headed out to San Antonio for my discipline's national conference. I knew the trip was off to a great start when I sat behind this fellow on the plane. Seriously, this is the best tattoo ever. And, it made me smile every time I looked up. Yes, I'm easily amused and I don't habituate easily. Lawn mower head man, if you ever read this, thank you for bringing more smiles and levity into the world. You seriously rock, dude.

As usual, I loved going out to the conference. It's some serious nerd candy, but learning about new research, and walking down the conference halls talking and hearing about new paradigms and theories is pretty dang hot. Plus, the conference provides a great chance to catch up with friends from other schools. I even got to meet my friends', Hilary and Steven's, little (big) guy. He was quite the charmer, and I seriously love his dinosaur jammies. I also got to live it up with my bestie and brother-in-law (who coincidentally decided to go into the same discipline as me). We all partied as only social scientists know how to do (no seriously, the conference parties are pretty fun, complete with DJ-ing and dancing faculty).

There were Texas-shaped waffles and fun times to be had. If you're ever in the San Antonio area, check out a restaurant/gas station/music bar called The Cove that serves inexpensive local and organic food. It was awesome (and way better eats than what we ate on the Riverwalk)! As you can see, Anthro made an appearance. I finally scored a nwt Caballo Falls dress in my size, and in the turquoise color, off eBay for $55. :D

This blurry journalist-celebrity even made it to our conference:

You probably can't tell who it is from my super far away and grainy photo. It's Malcolm Gladwell!

Of course no conference is complete without me getting sick at the end, and I've been hacking up a lung for the past week or so. So here is my sickly OOTD!

I've been hunting for this shirt ever since I saw it on Jean of Extra Petite so when someone offered a NWT on the JA boards, I jumped at the chance. I'm totes amused that my hubby knows my sizes. Evan emailed me when he got the Paypal invoice to say that he thought that a size 4 would be way too big on me, lol. Don't worry love, I easily took in the sides!

And I'm throwing in this last picture, because I find my befuddled why-isn't-my-remote-working expression so completely humorous.

Much love and hugs to all my readers! Thank you all for your support and kind words about Buddie's medical situation

OOTD Specs
Gap olive blazer sz 0 (thrifted $8)
J.Crew pleated silk tuxedo shell sz 4 (taken in at the sides to fit, $21)
Lisa Skinny Jeans by Fire Jeans sz 5 (thrifted $7)
Nicole Winchester Leather Riding Boots ($100 at DSW)
Hand-tatted lace necklace (gifted)

We're back! Budz is doing better!

We're baaaaaaaaacccccck!!!

Budz went in for a check-up on Monday and the surgeon said, his surgical sites are healing nicely! He was finally able to take off his cone!! Even better news? We did a follow-up ultrasound of his lymph nodes and it appears their swelling has reduced - suggesting the cancer really didn't spread there! I was soooo happy!!!! And although there's some residual healing issues going on with Buddie, it's almost like we have our old pup back!

He will be undergoing follow-up radiation treatment. This will ensure that any cancerous cells left behind in the region (the cancer cells were fairly close to the margins of the excised tumors so they likely spread beyond the removed material). The unfortunate thing is that there are only two animal radiation treatment centers in Washington state!

What does this mean? Well, in about three weeks, we will be bringing him out to Washington State University (a six hour trek). We will have to leave him there for a MONTH while he gets around 20 small radiation treatment doses! It seems absolutely crazy to leave him out there, and we'll miss him terribly, but they have the best equipment to treat him, and tons of veterinary students to dote on him (or so my oncologist assures me).

So in the meantime, I'm enjoying having my doggy back. And he's enjoying life without a cone (he seems to sleep sooooo much better without it!).

Here he is trying on his new shirt my dad got him for Christmas (he couldn't try it on before with the cone). Qliance is the primary care medical group my dad and uncle founded


Rolling with Buddie OOTD
TBJ Jeans cream hoodie (thrifted $6)
Ann Taylor Loft Sketch striped boatneck top ($4 thrifted)
Target Xhilaration Salema Zipper Trim Flat Shoes - navy (nwt thrifted $5)
Forever21 Soar The Air Necklace ($5.80)
Forever21 Polka Dot Rosette Hairclip worn as a pin ($1.50)
Bright red Judy Blue Couture Jeans sz 3 (thrifted $8)

By the way, this is the first time I tried putting animated gif in a post. I used http://gickr.com but I'm not liking how low quality the images come out with it. Those of you who use animated gifs in your posts, what do you use?

Budz update and returns OOTD

I'm currently sitting with a very zombie-like Buddie on my kitchen floor. Today, I brought Budz in to meet the surgeon and have a surgical consult. I left him at the surgical center for a biopsy (full surgery is scheduled for Thursday), and I just picked him up. Poor guy is still very drugged out. They had to put him under general anesthesia to take the biopsy. He had trouble walking straight on the short walk across the sidewalk from the car to my house!

He also sorta reminds me of students in class that are trying really hard to stay awake. His head keeps dropping down, down, down, and then he'll yank it up, because he wants to be awake and alert. Poor pup! Evan keeps sneaking him little pieces of bacon because he feels so sorry for him.

iphone pic of me 'n Budz recovering on the kitchen floor

I actually have OOTD pics from today, but they're on my camera, which is across the room. And Budz kinda wigs out whenever I get up, so I'll post them another time.

I do have some belated pics from last week. I wore this when I went to go return a gift that didn't fit my mother-in-law at Chico's (a favorite store of my mother and mother-in-law).

Apparently, I don't look like the typical Chico's demographic. The first time I went in there to buy a birthday gift for my mom, none of the SAs came by to assist me. At that point it would have been nice, because I was waaaay confused about their sizing (they use 0, 1, 2, 3 instead of small, med, large, XL. This led to much confusion when I held up a size 2 and thought I would swim in it!)

This time, when I went in to make the return the SA actually told me I didn't look like the Chico's demographic. She said she assumed I was making a return because the clothes at Chico's don't look like my style. I admit I'm somewhat ambivalent about this. I don't see myself as a Chico's shopper, but at the same time, when I go into a store (even if it's not for myself), I don't like people to assume that I don't belong there. Like going into a high-end boutique and not getting service might make one feel a bit stigmatized. Chico's is not a high-end boutique, but I still don't appreciate feeling like such an outsider (I feel this way even about a group I'm not that interested in belonging to... I think I'm just weird).

Chico's Return OOTD
grey plaid puffed-sleeve blazer sz (thrifted $6)
H&M mustard yellow cardigan sz 6 ($20)
Anthropologie Deletta tank (name? 2009 sale, can't remember price)
H&M black 3/4 sleeve shirt sz 8 ($8)
Lisa Skinny Jeans by Fire Jeans sz 5 (thrifted $7)
Nicole Winchester Leather Riding Boots ($100 at DSW)
Orangey-purple scarf (gifted)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year dear readers! I'm hoping all of you had a fabulous end to 2010 and I'm wishing you all happiness, love, good health, and prosperity (and fabulous fashion of course) in 2011.

Me and Ev trying to make "2011" with our hands

Brother-in-law and his gf do it better


This holiday break, I was fortunate to see several fantastic films with family. I just wanted to give a shout out to some of them, in case you're looking for some visual fodder.

In the theaters we saw True Grit by the Coen brothers.

It was hilarious - the writing and acting were done amazingly well. Hailee Steinfeld was phenomenal.

We also streamed the September Issue on Netflix.

I had never heard of it, but Evan flagged it as something that might interest me (although even he and his brother were quite fascinated by the documentary). It followed Anna Wintour and the Vogue staff through the production of Vogue's September Issue. By the way, I think it's so interesting that the Vogue offices look like normal cubicle office space, but just happen to be filled with fabulously dressed people. It was crazy interesting to get a peek at what Anna is like - or really not like. It was amazing how stoic she was. It was really hard to read what she was thinking. Only at the end when she was answering questions about her family did it feel like you were getting to know a bit more about the lady behind the glasses.

I channeled Anna a bit in my outfit yesterday (Okay, it was just me wearing sunglasses in the sunny, but cold, Seattle weather):




NYE OOTD Specs:
Gap Shirred Blouse (color "New Eclipse") sz XS (in-store sale $8)
Three Beacons Belt sz S - Anthropologie ($34)
Target Rhinestone chain necklace (sale $3.50)
Lucky Brand jeans size 4 (thrifted $8)
Forever 21 Rose Bracelet set in mint colorway($5.80)
Forever 21 F9635 Sunglasses ($5.80)

We also streamed this National Geographic documentary on Inside North Korea.

The documentarian had to lie about who she was and what she was doing to get in. Very interesting view of the country people we know so little about.

Other notable vidz included It's Complicated (was surprisingly LOL funny) and Joan Rivers a Piece of Work. I admit I knew nothing of Joan Rivers beyond her plastic surgery escapades, but this documentary helped me appreciate what she did/does to open doors for women comedians and I wholly admire her work ethic.

Happy 2011 peoples!!

Holiday outfits, family, food mash-up (plus Budz update)

My brother-in-law hugging the Budz

So Budz and I went back to the vet today, and it turns out that the antibiotics didn't help. In fact, the vet said that if anything, his condition seems worse. So we'll be taking him to some specialist pet surgeons. I'm at least grateful that we now have a plan, and it sounds like this type of surgery has a fairly good success rate. I can't wait to have Budz back at full health again.

This break Budz got a lotta love. Heck, we all had good times here with my husband's family in town.

We said goodbye to the old dishwasher that came with the house, and welcomed a new one from Evan's parents (which Evan then spent a day installing by himself, lol)

Dishwasher outfit
Anthropologie Pink (looks wine colored to me) Finessed Turtleneck sz XS (sale $30)
Club Monaco gold & beige striped skirt sz 0 (thrifted $4)
Grey belt
grey ribbed tights ($6)
Dollhouse slippers


There was much food preparation and consumption

followed by much merriment... some might say too much merriment ;)

Gift giving/opening was extra full of merriment

...and led the way to more food consumption... hmm... :) ooh personal pies!


Ah, good times!

Christmas Eve outfit:

Kensie Pretty silk shift dress sz XS (thrifted $4)
Adidas black skinny belt (thrifted 99 cents)
Hue bordeaux sueded tights (Ebay $6.50)
H&M multi-chain necklace ($12?)
Anne Klein Bangles (gifted)
Pink INC strappy heels (thrifted $6)

Christmas Day outfit:

Anthropologie Floreat Faceted skirt sz 0 (sale $22.50)
Banana Republic baby blue long-sleeved tee sz XS (thrifted $6)
black tights
Dollhouse Slippers
pearl and jade necklace (gifted)

Recovery Outfit:


Starling embellished hoodie sz XS (Nordy Rack sale $6.50)
Striped ruched H&M long sleeve tee by Divided sz 6 ($13)
Lisa Skinny Jeans by Fire Jeans sz 5 (thrifted $7)
Multi-strand red beaded necklace (thrifted $7)

Guess what? Evan surprised me for Christmas with a new camera body! He's been upgrading my camera piece by piece. Christmas came with a Rebel T1i (aka Canon 500D). He also surprised me with a Star Wars Garden Jawa (his contribution to our yard art), but I'm waaaaay more excited about the new camera... sorry hun! :)

backlogged OOTDs

Hey everyone. Thank you all so much for your encouraging and sympathetic words about Budz. It definitely caught me off guard when the vet told me Budz probably has tumors, but I'm still holding out hope that it's just an infection. I'll let y'all know next week whether the antibiotics helped or not when I take Buddie back to the vet.

Sorry I fell behind on OOTD picture taking last week. All I felt like doing was hugging all of my animals. So that's what I did. I seriously became Elmira from Animaniacs, and I couldn't stop hugging and kissing both my kitties (much to their dismay) and Budz. So for most of last week I forwent photo taking and blogging.

I do have two older outfits I wanted to share.

2nd time breakin' the rules

I wore this outfit almost two weeks ago! It was a second time trying to break my rule of wearing a skirt that falls past my knees. I don't think this was as successful as my first try at wearing too long of a skirt.

This skirt is a pleated vintage Woolworth's skirt that I haven't gotten around to hemming. I love the pleats, but I still think I'd like to hem it a few inches shorter, because the free swingy shape in combination with awkward length really stubbified me.

I thought it would look really neat to pair it with some brightly colored tights, so I chose these bright yellow-orange ones... but in the pics, I really just look super jaundiced! yikes! Perhaps I won't wear these ones again!

And here with a sweater for added warmth.


2nd time rule breakin' OOTD
Martin & Osa silk tie-neck cream button-up blouse sz 12 ($15 sale)
J Crew grey v-neck sweater sz XS (thrifted $6)
Vintage black accordian pleated Woolworth's skirt ($4.80 thrifted)
Adidas black skinny belt (thrifted 99 cents)
Yellow-orange Hue tights ($7)
Kelsi Dagger black beaded flats ($30)

Buddie in blue
This is from the day after I found out about Buddie's potential tumors. So it was a little tougher to smile, but in the hopes of enjoying a little embodied cognition, I put on a smile.

My intention was to dress comfy, but I ended up throwing on these Nicole Miller pumps I'd picked up. They just almost give me enough height to wear these long pant legs uncuffed.

Well, ouch! Apparently, a whole day of wearing these was not fun. My feet hurt by the end. I still really like these pumps, but I'll probably save them for evenings out to dinner rather than a full work day.


Last Wednesday's OOTD
Anthropologie Finessed Turtleneck sz XS ($30 sale)
Anthropologie grey short-sleeved blazer by Elevenses sz 4 (thrifted $6)
Vintage pins (one came as a set with some wedding jewelry I bought for around $100, the other pin came off of a sweater I had)
Guess Jeans sz 27 (thrifted $10)
Nicole Miller New York t-strap pumps (thrifted $8)
Calvin Klein black belt

At least Budz seems pretty happy right now. He's been getting a lot of extra attention with my husband's family visiting us from out of town. Plus, Ev took the week off, and I'm wfh all week, so there's always someone there to rub his belly.

I'm going to try to keep posting a few times throughout the holidays, but besides having a nice time with Ev's parents and brother, and cuddling all my animals, I've also been working like crazy on a grant, papers, and data analysis. But, I've missed you all too! So I'll definitely pop in and say hi to y'all again soon!

breaking the rules for Elaine OOTD

First off, two announcements:

1) OMG RACHEL WORE THE SOUTHWARD STOP SHIRTDRESS ON GLEE LAST NIGHT!!! I got to shout "Look! It's my dress - AGAIN!!!" Yay!

2) Today HauteLook has Eva Franco pieces that were carried at Anthropologie. I saw the Lincolnshire skirt for $50 and the
Higgledy-Piggledy Skirt in a maroon color for $56, A Fine Line Skirt for $56, and the Fluttering Pencil Skirt.

Ok, on to the OOTD. Today I'm breaking the rules for Elaine. She asked people what clothing rules they have and if they've ever broken them. I don't really have explicit clothing rules for the most part. Well, maybe I have one: I try not to wear skirts that fall between my knee and my ankles - despite the current trend to do so. I have short legs, and skirts that length just make them look shorter.

But I figured I might as well try it out anyway. I have a few skirts in my closet that I haven't decided to shorten yet, and one dress that I wouldn't shorten. They've been sitting around, twiddling their thumbs because I can't decide what to do with them.

Take today's MaxMara skirt. I thrifted this from Goodwill back in June for $6. It was too long on me, especially if I let it sit at my hips. This is actually my most winter appropriate skirt as it's made of very thick wool and lined (and it has thick warm pockets!).

Actually, when I first bought this skirt, I didn't like it - or I couldn't tell if I liked it. In part because of the length, in part because of the bulk of the thick wool. I think I was anti-bulky wool because I picked it up in the summer. I quite liked the bulky wool today. I just pinned it slightly smaller to fit at my waist so that it didn't go too far below my knees. Ok. so that's kinda cheating at breaking the rules. I'm cheating on what I'm supposed to be cheating.

But it definitely hits below the knee, forcing me to wear heels to make my legs look longer. I also kept to dark tights and dark heels so not to break up my legs into more visual pieces.

Maybe tomorrow I'll go for broke and really break the rules.

OOTD Specs
Forever 21 red plaid tunic dress worn as a shirt sz L ($12?)
H&M black divided tee sz 8 ($8)
MaxMara wool skirt no size tag but fits like a small ($6 thrifted)
TBJ Jeans cream hoodie (thrifted $6)
Black tights ($8)
black Fioni rosette pumps (thrifted $6)