Self-Improvement

Well, many of you who chat with me on a regular basis know that I've been on a self-improvement kick lately, and it's going quite well. I've been adding to the self-improvement piece by piece since the beginning of January: First, I started reading at least one chapter of the Bible every night. No mandatory order in which to read, so whatever I want/need that night is fine. I haven't missed a night since I started.

The next step was to brush and floss my teeth every single night. I've missed only one night since I started that one.

Then I started a new food plan. I bought 28 days' worth of lunches and dinners in one bulk shipment from Personal Trainer Food; each lunch/dinner is one kind of protein and one kind of vegetable, and I can supplement with some healthy carbs (in moderation) as I want. I have to say, the food is honestly REALLY tasty, so it is totally not a hardship to be eating it. It's also SO easy, because I just grab a protein (like teriyaki chicken, angus burger patty, or meatballs), a veggie (like broccoli florets, green beans, asparagus, of any number of veggie blends), and maybe some type of carb (brown rice, whole wheat pasta, or these awesome low-carb whole wheat tortillas I found) and toss it in my lunchbox to take to school. It microwaves in less than five minutes and I am good to go. Same thing for dinner. And since it's frozen, it stays good if I decide to eat something different, like if I want to go out with friends or something. This plan has me eating SO MUCH HEALTHIER than I was before (when I pretty much lived on fast food), and that has me doing a lot of healthier things. I went for a walk to the grocery store instead of driving last weekend, I snack less, I drink more water, etc. It's awesome.

[EDITED TO ADD: If you are interested in maybe trying out this plan (and I really do highly recommend it), please let me know! I can give you a link to use that will give YOU a discount and ME a referral bonus!]

Then I started using actual dishes instead of disposable ones at my house, and I made a promise not to let them pile up but to actually wash them on a regular basis. And my sink currently has not a dish in it; there are clean ones drying in the drainer.

And from the beginning of the semester I've been working on forcing myself to work diligently so as not to fall behind on planning and grading. As of today, I am ahead of the grading schedule I set for myself.

So now, I'm gonna see if I can start improving myself as a blogger. Because let's be honest, this blogger needs improving. One of the big improvements I'd like to do is not to do huge catch-up posts anymore. Especially now, looking back to previous posts, I don't like having to look at 8 different outfits in one post if I'm looking for one piece or look that I remember. I don't like that the tags don't really help with anything since one post might have tags for 8 different outfits in one. I also don't like having to see the failed outfit choices mixed in with the good ones; I'd rather look at the bad ones when I want to critique or learn from my mistakes, and look at the good ones when I want to feel good about my fashion sense. So one at a time.

Of course, doing just one at a time means I have to keep up well enough that I won't need to catch up all at once. But I can do it if I set my mind to it: Look at everything I've already done.

So for today, let's choose arbitrarily from the myriad outfits I've worn since the last post and see what we have:

I bought this skirt at a second-hand store in Los Gatos and I love it. I decided since it was winter (and therefore more appropriate for darker colors) and since I wanted to highlight the pretty sage color that I would wear simple black pieces with it. A classic black cardigan (with a white camisole), black patterned tights, and black boots gave a nice backdrop for the skirt, and a multi-strand necklace and small cuff bracelet finished off the look.

So what do you think? Self-improvement blogging: Yay or Nay?

I Went on a Date with 17 Men at Once

Also known as "speed dating." But we'll get to that later. For now, let's look at the week that was...

Monday:

I was lazy here, and the outfit suffered. It needed a belt, for one thing, and possibly better accessorizing. I liked the fun floral addition on the shoes, though.

Tuesday:

A maxi skirt on a TUESDAY?! Yeah, now that every Friday is a jeans day, there will be no more "Maxi Dress Fridays." I considered making a different day a regular "Maxi" day, but decided it was time to simply allow the maxi dresses and skirts back into normal rotation. On this day, I paired my black maxi skirt with a new cream blouse with black trim from Target. (Find it here.) A little pop of color with the red flats helps vary the look.

Wednesday:

Bringing back the same floral flats from Monday, this time with white skinnies and a maternity blouse from Target. Simple, classy, cool.

Thursday:

... I forgot to take pics on Thursday. I wore my burgundy skinnies, a cream-colored 3/4-sleeve sweater, my tan boots, and gold necklaces. It worked fine.

Friday:

Epic fail on my part. Remember when I talked about the right way to wear a t-shirt and jeans? Yeah, I didn't do it right here. I should have rolled my sleeves, I should have tucked in the shirt, and I should have worn different shoes, because the jeans are too long with the flips. Awkward.

Well, just goes to remind everyone that I'm not perfect. In case anyone forgot.

So about that whole "dating 17 men" thing. A friend invited me to a speed dating event that his church was putting on as a fundraiser for a mission trip. I was like, "Um, sure," mostly because it just feels like speed dating is the kind of thing that every single adult female should try once. Like a "bucket list" kind of thing.

What did I wear? This:

(Yes, my sweater has a hole. So sue me.)

I knew this event was probably going to be almost entirely (it turned out to be entirely) populated by Asians, who, more often than not, tend to run on the shorter side (which is neither good nor bad, it's just a true). Now, for some ladies, this might lead to the decision to wear flats, so as not to seem too intimidatingly tall. For me, I see no reason to beat around the bush, so I just put it out there with 3.5" wedges: "Here I am. I am tall. If you can't handle that, look elsewhere." Out of the 45ish people present (34 participants, plus 10ish helpers), only one person was taller than I was. There were also only two white people--me, and the friend who came with me. Well, nothing like standing out from the crowd, right?

At least I can now say I've gone speed dating, right?

Priorities

You all may not realize it, but there are some things that are just more important than this blog. Things like preparing for my Woodleaf talk, recovering from an exhausting (but awesome!) Woodleaf weekend, and, of course, grading (you know, that thing I'm actually paid to do as part of my job?). So... yeah. Sorry about the absence.

The good news is that my Woodleaf talk went well, I managed not to catch the dreaded post-Woodleaf cold, and I'm still doing well keeping up with our new mandated grading deadlines. So I hope you all understand that sometimes the blog fades to the background.

For now, some pictures!

Pre-Woodleaf Week:

Wednesday's outfit was definitely the least good of this set, but it worked fine. Tuesday's outfit starred an argyle sweater vest because the English department has started themed dress days on the days of our English department meetings, and the first one was argyle!

I also like the sassy head sash on Thursday. SASS.

Post-Woodleaf Week:

Sadly, I was so rushed Friday morning that I forgot to take photos before I left the house, and I forgot to take photos when I got back at the end of the day too. That's okay, there's plenty here already.

I really liked Tuesday's dress with the ankle boots and leggings. It just... worked really well. The Wednesday outfit was less great, but it still worked just fine. Thursday's outfit is a great example of how simplicity can still work great. Just a white shirt and black ankle pants, but the leopard flats and red scarf add just enough to keep it from being plain.

So there you go - that's what I've been up to lately. How about you?

Missed Another Week

Clearly I'm getting busier as the year goes on, because it's getting tougher and tougher to find the time to blog. But I will persevere! Let's see what this week brought us in fashion...

Tuesday:

I ended up really liking this, mostly because of the pegged pants with the tall wedges. Now, I will take this opportunity to talk about ankle straps. Generally, this look would be a pretty big "stumpifier," shortening the look of the leg line. The end of the pants coming right before another hard "line" (created by the ankle strap) would make the legs look shorter. If I didn't already have REALLY long legs, I wouldn't have done it, so if you're a shorter-legged person, keep that in mind. For someone with shorter legs, a non-strapped pump or espadrille would have worked much better. Just say NO to stumpification!

Wednesday:

Hellooooooo, wrinkled pants! I really need to find time somehow to look at the pictures I take before I leave the house in the morning. These pants really needed to be ironed, but I just had no idea until now, looking at these images. Well, other than that, I liked this. I liked the wide-leg pants paired with a fitted top, and I liked the line splitting the color block in the tee. I probably should have dressed up a bit more in the shoe category, but I really just wanted to wear some flips. I was selfish. Sorry.

Thursday:

I almost wore this exact outfit with mint pants instead of burgundy, and then I realized it looked terrible. The black just didn't go at all with the mint, so this was much better. I love this top - from Target - and I had a great pair of earrings to go with the polka dots. All in all, while it wasn't my best outfit, it was perfectly good.

Friday:

I ended up LOVING this for Maxi-Dress Friday. The collared shirt under the dress worked well, and I added this belt which originally came with a totally different dress. The dangly gray art-deco-ish earrings offset the belt really well, and I put some sparkly black sandals under it all. Definitely a win for Maxi-Dress Friday, in my opinion.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on last week's best/worst poll. I find that deliberately seeking out "worst" opinions makes me sad - I already know which outfits don't work as well - so let's just stick with bests. What's your favorite from this week? I think I'm going with Friday. :)

Talk to you soon! Stay beautiful, friends.