Year in Review: October, November, December

On the last day of the year, I’m looking back at the past three months and how my style has changed.

October

Hello, Fall

October was not an easy month.  I lost my kitty, who I’d had for seventeen years.  I struggled to accept my financial situation.  But there were plenty of bright spots.  The weather finally started to turn cooler.  I had my trip to California, which was fun and refreshing.  I ventured into a local boutique for the first time and bought an awesome dress.  And I decided to get bangs, and loved it.

November

Urban Bohemian

November was fun.  I began to play around with urban bohemian styles, and realized  having bohemian aspects in my look wasn’t so bad.  I realized that I adore pencil skirts when I dressed like a secretary from Mad Men and when I played around with current trends.  I bought beautiful, sweet pieces at garage sales and mixed them in with more expensive items.  And I started planning a new name for the blog.

December

Where the Wild Wind Whirled (post coming soon!)

December has been a fantastic month of layering, warm woolen knits, and boots.  I re-invented the blog with a new name.   I began experimenting with new photoshoot locations.  I played with color, and loved my yellow scarf.  I broke my ban to buy my beautiful Fluevog Heather boots.  Because I’m about a week behind on my outfit posts, my favorite December outfits won’t post until next week.  But I’ll give you a few quick Flickr previews here – click on the photos for more info about the outfits.

Lined up to buy his creations (post coming soon!)

Year in Review: July, August, September

Ah, the hot, sticky summer months in Florida.  Staying stylish while not sweating buckets is not easy, but I think I managed to get the hang of it this year.

July

Summer Lovin’

During July, I really began to fall in love with new colors.  Aqua, turquoise, teal and coral all became new staples.  I started playing around with mod looks by buying a white vinyl belt and pairing it with a cute dress and my Fiorenzas.  I mixed aqua and red and bought ridiculous amounts of Dansko wedge sandals.  I began to realize that having a bit of twee-ness in my posts was perfectly acceptable.

August

Dress v 4.0

This month had a lot of ups and downs.  I finished my master’s degree, I began to feel the pain of job insecurity.  I got my first pair of boots, and received an amazing Morelle purse for graduation.  I learned how to put together lazy, casual outfits.  I learned how to put together chic, casual outfits.  I tried accenting with summer white.

September

Let the sunshine in

September was a busy month for me.  I went on vacation.  I started a new job, which limited outfit shots.  I bought some rockin’ dresses, including my first Ella Moss piece.  It was pretty whirlwind.

Tomorrow I’ll wrap up the year with October, November and December.

Year in Review: April, May, June

Yesterday’s post reviewed my favorite outfits from January, February and March of last year.  Today will look at April, May and June.

April

Comfort Chic

This outfit was one of the first times that I began to incorporate a Euro-chic/ Francophile element into my outfits.  It was also the first time I allowed a bit more playfulness and whimsy into my posts, which I feel has now become a very important element of the blog.

Return of the Malibrans

I love, love, love this outfit so much.  It was the first time I realize that I didn’t need to be wearing tights in order to wear my Malibrans.   And it just feels so me.

May

School girl grows up

This outfit isn’t necessarily all that pivotal, but it’s certainly one of my favorites.  It was one of the first times I tried out one of my now favorite color combos, black, white and gray with red accents.  It also shows how I was continuing to experiment with layering.

June

Putting it Together

June was a pretty important month for me.  I really started to develop my style in this month.  Following Fab Finds Under $50 inspiration calendar helped to challenge me to use pieces in ways I wouldn’t have thought of before.  I experimented with menswear and pops of turquoise.  I tried wearing my goldenrod Malibrans with purple.  I learned how to dress chicly while riding a bicycle (and got an awesome hair cut).

And of course, I bought these shoes:

Debut of the Fiorenzas

I’m noticing that a lot of my favorite outfits from the past year involve Fluevogs.  Stay tuned for July, August and September tomorrow!

Year In Review: January, February, March

I thought it would be fun to spend the last four days of the year looking back at what I wore and how my style has evolved.  I feel like I’ve really grown a lot this year, both in my sense of style and as a person.  I’m going to be looking back three months at a time.  This post will look at the first three months of the year.

January

A Touch of Green

Wow, a lot has changed.  This is my favorite outfit from January, because it’s one of my first experiments with color combinations and textures.  The hair looks awful here, but it was right before I got this hair cut.  At this point, I remember feeling a lot of frustration at the fact that I really didn’t like much of my winter wardrobe.  I think I’ve improved this a bit, but I still need to knit some pullovers.

February

Is Fluevog a Religion?

It was so easy to choose a favorite outfit for February, because it was so pivotal.  That was when I purchased my first pair of Fluevogs, my goldenrod Malibrans.  That was the most I had ever spent on one item of clothing/ accessory at the time ($150, on sale).  It was a real stretch in my color spectrum for me too.  I can’t begin to measure how much of an impact these shoes have had on my personal style.

March

Bolero: Take 2

March was the first month where I really began to experiment with layering.  I began reading Academichic around this time, and was inspired by those lovely ladies to try belting cardigans over dresses.  Layering has been a key element of my style ever since.

Stay tuned for the rest of the year in review!

Places to shop in Tampa

(photo by me)

This post is a list of places (mainly thrift, consignment, and vintage) that I either enjoy shopping at in Tampa, or would like to check out.  If you’re headed down to Tampa, FL, this can be a good resource for you when trying to figure out where to spend your non-Busch Gardens and sporting events time.

Vintage

Sherry’s Yesterdaze:  Not only does the amazing Sherry’s Yesterdaze have affordably priced accessories, clothes, furniture and household items, but they’re also within biking distance of where I live, and located just across the street from the delicious Bungalow Bistro and the Forever Beautiful salon and day spa.  Buy some cool vintage duds, get a pedicure and then have some lunch.

La France:  Located in historic Ybor City (and within walking distance of Revolve Clothing Exchange and Urban Outfitters) this is the place to go in Tampa when you want high end vintage clothing.  The store is beautiful, and they have a great selection of vintage jewelry.

Squaresville:  I haven’t actually been to this vintage store yet, but everyone I have talked to says that it’s fantastic.  Their focus is more on retro vintage, such as 50s, 60s and 70s duds.  Located within driving distance of Anthropologie in Hyde Park and Second Image.  And not too far from Tribeca, my favorite hair salon.

Consignment, etc

Revolve Clothing Exchange:  Revolve is not technically a consignment shop, but that’s the closest category I could think of.  The way it works is that you bring in your old clothes that you no longer wear to Revolve.  They decide which items they would like to take, and then you get store credit for them.  Plus, they will donate the clothes they don’t want to charity, if you ask them too.  Otherwise you can have them back.  They have a great selection of stylish used clothes, as well as new items by indie designers.  And since they’re in Ybor, La France and Urban Outfitters are close by.

Triage:  I haven’t been to Triage since they moved to their new location, but I found lots of great stuff there before.

Thrift:

Second Image:  My favorite Tampa thrift store.  Excellent, large selection.  A separate boutique area for better brands.  The prices are closer to consignment level than thrift level, but the quality (and cleanliness) is great, and they often have fantastic sales.  Only downside is the very small parking lot, which is often full.

Sunshine Thrift:  Another store that I haven’t hit yet, but have heard lots of great things about.

Malls:

International Plaza:  This is where you go in Tampa when you want quality name brands.  The Clarks store is here, as well as J. Crew, Zara and Express.

Westshore Plaza:  Not the high end names, but still a pleasent place to shop.  Stores include Ann Taylor, LOFT, White House Black Market, etc.

Outlet Malls:

Prime Outlets: Unfortunately, there are no outlet malls in Tampa.  But if you’re willing to drive a few hours (or are headed to Sarasota), the Prime Outlets at Ellenton is one of my favorite shopping destinations.

New York City

I had an amazing time last weekend in New York City.  I could completely see myself living there (if I found an amazingly high-paid library job, but one can dream).  I love how convinient  and close everything is.  I love being able to walk or take the subway to any destination in Manhattan.  And what really surprised me was how safe I felt everywhere I went.  I live in a reasonably middle-class neighborhood in Tampa, yet I feel nervous walking around after dark.  In New York, I felt relatively safe almost all of the time.

I’ll try not to overload you with too many pictures, but it was so amazing.

The first night we went out to eat for my boyfriend’s birthday.  We went to this amazing Korean BBQ restaurant, Kum Gang San.  It was some of the best Korean food I’ve ever had, and they had live jazz music on this crazy rock outcropping (look at their website to see what I mean).

Day 2 was lots of exploring.  I love how the weather in New York allowed me to experiment with layers, as well as use my handknits.

Hat – handknit by me
Scarf – handknit by me
Long Sleeve -Issac Mizrahi
Shirt – Ann Taylor Loft
Jeans – Lucky Brand
Coat – Target
Purse – Morelle
Shoes – Born Codders

We went out for brunch at this delicious Ukranian restaurant, Veselka.  I had mushroom & barley soup and ham & swiss pierogies. Yum!

We walked around the East Village after that.  This was the area we were staying in, so it was nice to get our bearings.

The main focus of this journey was visitng the Joe Strummer mural at Thompkins Square Park.

Then we ventured into the Bowery to look for the site of CBGB’s (we found it a few days later.  It’s now a high-end punk rock inspired vintage store.)  There I got to see a Keith Haring mural.

After that we took our first venture into Chinatown and Little Italy (we returned there again on our last day).  I bought a pretty yellow scarf, a mah-jong bracelet, and a boba tea.

On day 3, we ate brunch at the Cafe Colonial, which was delicious, although pricey.  Then we went to Pearl River which was an interesting store, although some items seemed over-priced there.  They had beautiful Asian silk fabric for sale in their home department (alas, I didn’t buy any).

After that, we ventured into Chelsea to visit another punk rock monument, the Chelsea Hotel.  We also happend upon a street flea market there, where I bought a vintage Italian grey leather bag (pics coming soon),

Day 4 was fully consumed with the New York Marathon, which my boyfriend’s brother was running in.  This was also the coldest day, so I learned the value of wrapping a scarf multiple times around your neck.

Day 5 was our last full day, so we went all over the place.  We started out the day by visitng the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) which was amazing, albeit crowded.  After that, we grabbed some lunch and took a brief walk in Central Park.  It was amazing to see all the fall colors that never happen down here in Florida.

The we took a subway to Union Square and walked through the Bowery, Little Italy and Chinatown, all the way to the projects by the East River.  My boyfriend remembered visiting a bar there the last time he went, and we finally found it as the sun was setting:  The Paris Cafe (near where the fish market used to be).  It was such an amazing day of exploring.

The next day we flew back and came home to watch the election returns come in (not to be too political, but I am ecstatic about our new president).

This was such an amazing trip.  It definitely showed my that I cannot have a rural lifestyle – I love cities.  Tampa is okay for now, but one day, I would love to live in a big city that actually has public transportation that works.