Tag Archives: keen

Anglophile

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There’s lots of different elements that influence my style.  Lately one of my favorite inspirations has been 60′s English and French styles.  I feel like the above outfit has a little bit of both, but it felt more British to me.  The dress actually is British, so that should count for something.

 

I’ve never actually been to England, but it’s one of those places that I’d really love to visit one day.  My grandfather was stationed there during WWII (in Bassingbourn, near London) so I’d especially love to visit the base he was at and the museum that’s there.

 

 

This beret always makes me happy when I wear it.  I finished knitting it while waiting for a cab at LaGuardia during my trip to NYC several years ago.  It always reminds me of how great that trip was.  Not to mention the fact that it’s cute and warm.

 

Dress: Boden (via eBay)
Cardigan: J. Crew (via eBay)
Tights: HUE
Boots: Keen Bern Baby Bern
Watch: Fossil
Necklace: Wendy Brandes Little Woolf

 

Florida’s Two-Day Winter

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Every year in Florida, we never really have a “true” winter.  Instead, we get sporadic days of weather below 50 degrees, after which the temperature will go back up to the 70s.  Seriously.  It’s 40 degrees outside as I’m writing this.  Saturday is set to have a high of 74.  So, when we actually get truly cold weather here, I milk it for all it’s worth.  I break out one of my two coats, I resurrect my hand-knits, I wear cashmere and boots like crazy.  Because I know that before we know it, winter will be gone from Florida again.

This is my, “I’m trying to smile even though I’m really cold” face

The key to days like today is lots and lots of layers.  I layered wool knee socks over tights.  I layered a slip, long sleeve tee, sleeveless dress and cashmere sweater for the rest.  And then coat and scarf after that.  Most Floridians, I’ve noticed, don’t get cold weather dressing.  I see people trying to get by with hoodies or cotton turtlenecks.  Everyone complains so much too.  But it’s really fantastic if you’re prepared for it, and it doesn’t have to be expensive if you search for good winter pieces year round.

At first I thought about belting the sweater, but the dress has such a strong pattern that I really wanted to let it shine.  By using the tie from the dress as a belt,  I brought the attention back to the beautiful pattern.

How do you layer for winter?  What’s your winter climate like?

Dress: Mlle Gabrielle (thrifted)
Sweater: J. Crew (via eBay)
Long sleeve tee: J. Crew Factory
Tights: HUE
Boots: Keen Bern Baby Bern
Watch: Fossil
Coat: Target (2008)
Scarf: Handknit by me

 

 

Last outfit of 2011

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Last week, it finally started getting cold again.  Bear in mind that “cold” in Florida means below 60 degrees.  Thus I was finally able to wear my boots again!  I wore this for a day of running errands and enjoying my time off before going back to work on the 2nd.  Looking at it now, I’m not so crazy about the proportions.  I’m thinking maybe it’s just that longer hems don’t work as well with tall boots.  Or maybe I needed a shoulder bag instead of a cross-body.  Either way, I still enjoyed wearing the outfit.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Years.  My boyfriend and I decided to stay home for this one,  so he had some beer while I had some Jam Jar, and we watched old episodes of 30 Rock and classic 60′s Batman.  It was the perfect, low key end to the year and a great way to welcome 2012.

Happy New Year!

Dress: Soprano (via Li da la)
Cardigan: J. Crew (via eBay)
Tights: HUE
Knee Socks: HUE
Boots: Keen Bern Baby Bern
Scarf: Boden
Bag: Angry, Young and Poor Bread Bag
Watch: Fossil Outlet
Earrings: JuneDesigns

Monochromatic (sort of)

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I’ve never been a big fan of full-on monochromatic looks, so this is about as close as I get.  This beautiful blue dress is one of my newest Boden pieces, snagged on eBay for a mere $50! (Boden dresses usually retail for over $100).  I had get several alterations done to get it perfect, but now it’s set to become one of my favorite pieces.  For this outfit, I buttoned up a cashmere cardigan over the dress, then took the sash and tied it obi-style over the cardi.  Boots and tights stayed neutral, and I added my bright orange watch for a pop of contrast.

Dress before alterations

As you can see in the picture above, the dress originally had a much longer hem (this seems to happen a lot with Boden dresses).  I got about 4″ hemmed off.  Also, the sleeves had a blousy elastic thing on the hems, which I can’t stand, so I had that taken out and replace with a regular hem, and I had them take-in the sleeves a bit too to make them slimmer.  Finally, the neckline was super low (another common occurrence with Boden).  My tailor took up the shoulders a bit, which naturally raises the neckline.

This dress is another example of why I truly believe that you need to customize everything.  It does require a slight investment to get things altered, but once you have an item that fits exactly the way that you want it to, you will love it more and thus wear it more and get more use out of it than if you left it without alterations.

Dress: Boden (via eBay)
Cardigan: Boden
Tights: HUE
Boots: Keen Bern Baby Bern (via Piperlime)
Watch: J. Crew & Timex

 

 

Smiles go with… black accents

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Originally, this outfit got started as a way to mix black and cream.  It soon turned into a colorful outfit with black accents instead.    To me, black accents always make outfits look classier.  This dress has seen better days; the color has faded and its started to pill a bit since I wear it constantly.  But with a bright blue cashmere cardigan and lots of opaque black, it looks fantastic again.

This little blue cashmere cardigan was a Boden summer sale purchase.  I can never afford full price cashmere, so I always wait until I can find it on sale or secondhand and then snatch it up.  I have a feeling I’ll be wearing this little one a lot.

These gorgeous boots were my one Black Friday purchase this year. I’d saved up some money from selling some old shoes on eBay, and I’d had my eye on Keen’s Bern Baby Bern boots for months.  When Piperlime had them on sale Black Friday, I decided to go for them and I’m so glad I did.  I normally wear an 8 in Keens, but I size up to 8.5, and these fit perfectly.  They’re super comfy, flattering, and my toes don’t feel cramped.  They’re also dressier than most of my other boots, so they’re okay for work.  My only complaint is that the soles don’t have much traction, but I never have to deal with ice, so it hasn’t been an issue for me.

Dress: Boden (via eBay)
Cardigan: Boden
Tights: HUE
Boots: Keen Bern Baby Bern
Purse: Morelle
Belt: Anthropologie
Watch: Fossil Outlet
Pearls: Vintage

 

 

 

 

Oceanside, CA (Part 1)

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A few weeks ago, I traveled with my boyfriend and his family to Oceanside, CA for a week.  I’d been to Southern California once before, for my boyfriend’s brother’s wedding.  This time we were traveling to meet his brother and sister-in-law’s brand new baby girl.  It was a really fun relaxing trip.  I could totally see myself living in Oceanside, if I didn’t have such deep ties to Tampa.  If I ever save up enough money, I’d love to buy a timeshare there that I could live at every summer.

Walking on the beach in California is amazing.  The sand is a lot darker than Florida’s, which seems more natural to me, since we import a lot of our white sand here.  There’s all these beautiful, smooth beach stones all over the place.  I brought a couple home with me.  And the waves!  I loved getting up early in the morning to sit out on the beach and watch surfers catch the waves.

Oh and the weather!  70s and 60s everyday.  I could wear jeans and a cardigan outside – in June! – and not get sweaty – even after walking for an hour.  That never happens in Florida summers.

I wore my Keen Sarasotas pretty much everywhere.  They continue to be the best beach shoes ever.  Even if they did give me minor blisters after walking for 3 + miles in them.

Me and Carlo on the Pier in Oceanside.  This is one of the best places to people watch.  Surfers, fishermen, locals, tourists – everyone ends up here.

More photos and stories to come in Part 2!

Last day of school

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Okay, so this outfit is only three weeks old.  But I’ve been out of town, crazy busy, and didn’t upload these photos until this week.  And it’s still a cute outfit.  I love how all the blues and neutrals worked together.

The t-shirt has a really great story too.  My school has an annual field trip to Kennedy Space Center, and this year it fell on the same day as the Battle of the Books competition, where students compete in a book trivia contest.  Several of my students on the Battle of the Books team were also in the group that was supposed to go to Kennedy, so I volunteered to drive them over and chaperone once the competition was done.  While we were browsing at the gift shop, I noticed this awesome shirt made from organic cotton and recycled polyester (yes, I broke my polyester rule).  I lamented out loud about how I couldn’t afford it, because I was going through a rough financial spot at the time.  My students overheard me, and without my knowing it, they pooled their money together and gave me the shirt at the end of the trip!  It makes the shirt so much more special to me, and now every time I wear of it I think of them.

Tee: Kennedy Space Center
Cardigan: Anthropologie
Capris: Erik Stewart (thrifted)
Shoes: Keen Barcelona (eBay)

“For a time in utter laziness”

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I’ve been sick for the last week and a half with a nasty cold/cough.  I spent most of my weekend in pj’s, lying in bed, drinking lots of tea, reading and napping.  However, I did have to get decent to go to my nephew’s sixth birthday party, and by that point I was feeling healthy enough.  I decided for a casual, comfortable outfit that still had a bit of chic to it.  I was really bored with this brown and white tee, but when combined with an eggplant headband and yellow purse, it wasn’t quite so boring.

I’ve been so lazy about outfit pictures lately.  I’ve had some cute outfits, but Florida has hit that ridiculously hot time of the year where you start sweating after being outside for five minutes.  Most days by the time I get home from work, I just want to put on shorts and a tank top and cool down.  Once school finishes up, I’ll have more time, so hopefully I can take pictures in the cooler mornings.

Tee: Gap (thrifted)
Jeans: Levis (thrifted)
Shoes: Keen Barcelona (eBay)
Bag: Timbuk2
Headband: sash from Boden dress

~John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

 

“Figuring out what book you want”

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This outfit was one of the few I got to wear recently where I didn’t need a bazillion layers to stay warm.  This freakishly cold weather is starting to wear me down, so I was ecstatic to have a few days of tanks and cardigans.  This lovely drapey number is my newest one – I got it from Boden’s 50% winter sale (which is still going on!).  I had coveted it since I saw it in the catalog months ago, but I wasn’t ready to plunk down the cash.  It was only $38 on sale, so I quickly snatched it up.  I’m so glad I did.

Since it’s the end of the year, tomorrow will be my usual Etsy post, then Thursday and Friday I’ll take a look back at the past year in Smiles Go With Everything.  I’ll wrap up the Great Shopping Plan on 2010 on Sunday.  Then there will probably be more reflecting and thinking about next year, etc.

I hope everyone had absolutely wonderful holidays!  I know that mine were fantastic, even though they were crazy busy.

Tank: Target
Cardigan: Boden
Jeans: Levis
Shoes: Keen
Necklace: Wendy Brandes

Quote: Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe), by Kimberly Pauley

Shopping Plan: November

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*November edition of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe*

Between money left over from October and the $125 I budgeted for November, I had $188.50 to spend this month.  Here’s what I bought:

Tank Tops, Target, $8 each

Terribly exciting, I know, but I needed some new tank tops for layering.

From L to R:

White Tee: Ann Taylor LOFT
Green Long Sleeve: Aeropostale
Red Beret: ?
Black Cardi: NY & Co
Brown Dress: NY & Co
Grey Tunic: French Connection
Goldenrod Sarong: ?

Total: roughly $30 at various garage sales

Neighborhood garage sales where there’s a lot of well-off, young hipsters are the best.  I got some fantastic items, at a really good quality, and there was a minimal amount of digging through nasty old polyester clothes to find them.

Earrings: $3 from local artist at garage sale

They didn’t have a website that I know of, or I would link.  These are fast becoming my new favorite earrings.

Keen Chamonix Boots: $51 on eBay
Keen Barcelonas: $25 on eBay

Once it started getting cold this year, I realized that I had no comfy, flat boots that I could wear all day.  I love my boot collection, but they don’t cut it for eight hours on my feet.  The chamonix boots turned out to look a little more like snow boots than I had expected, but they’re comfy, and they’ll be great for cold weekends.

The Barcelonas I bought because I adore my black nubuck ones, and I decided it made sense to get them in more colors and fabrics.

Denim Capris: Levis
Tunic: Forever 21
Striped Tee: Old Navy

All bought from Revolve with store credit

Oh how I love shopping with store credit.  Revolve Clothing Exchange is the best.

So I spent exactly $125 this month, leaving me with $63.50 to add on to December.  After next month, I’ll go back through my original wardrobe gaps list from the beginning of the year and see how many I filled.

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