Here I am!

I've quit one of my jobs. The idea here is that I'll have more time to focus on building my own business. This is the first week of not-triple-job having and I don't know what to do with myself. I spent two days doing a whole lot of Not Much, then I did some laundry, and today, finally, I began to work on the enormous backlog of photos that built up while I was working three jobs.
There's been some good stuff, too. Fun stuff and exciting stuff and dull stuff. I went with some girlfriends to Joshua Tree and we all became friends with a brilliant, famous photographer who was the nicest, most down-to-earth guy. And he bought me drinks, which makes him extra awesome. Tomorrow, or when I remember to, I will add a couple of photos that he's taken so that all of you can be impressed with my new best friend.
The third thing to mention is my engagement, and eventual wedding. It turns out that planning a wedding is CRAZY. I'm the first of my close friends to do this and lemmetellya, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I'll probably turn my currently defunct 30for30 blog into a wedding blog, should I feel the need to bloggify the ordeal.  So far, I've picked out six color schemes, eight venues, and forty-seven dresses.  Narrowing any of those down to just one breaks my brain.
So here's a picture of my dog, walking his dog!

Frocking Friday, 6 & 7

It's Official: I'm giving up on the February 30 for 30 Remix Challenge. I got supah-crazy sick and was out of the game for nearly two weeks. While that's kind of a flimsy excuse, I just hate to be so far behind the other remixers and (once again) so I'm wussing out of the rest of the challenge and will instead be ready to join up at the next one.
I'm still doing the Frocking Friday and Shoeper Shoe Challenges, though.

This dress (#6) was last year's Christmas gift to myself. I love the flared out sleeves and delicate lace.
The shoes were gifts from my mom and I'd shoved them into the back of my closet where they'd lain untouched for years until I found them again a few months ago. They moved into constant heavy rotation right away.
The red brooch was from a shop on Etsy - another Christmas gift from me to me - and the tights are from We Love Colors.

This dress (#7) is a summertime favorite. It reminds me of ice cream and it was twelve dollars at a vintage shop in Eagle Rock. Win!
The coat was another vintage bargain - $20 at American Vintage on Melrose. The white cardigan is also thrifted, the tights are from Target, and the hideous-yet-awesome boots are from Aldo.
That's two pair of shoes out of ?? for the Shoeper challenge. I've still got to get all my shoes together to count and photograph. Turns out I have no idea how many shoes I've actually got and I'm kind of excited to find out.

Rockin' the Moustache

After Sunday's break (had to wear a Work Outfit, changed directly into pajamas afterwards), I was back with my 30 for 30, here in outfit number six.

Shirt - Gogol Bordello concert; Skirt - gifted; Tights, Socks, & Boots - Target

The tights, socks, and boots previously mentioned, as seen by me all day.

My brother went to Thailand last year and instead of bringing me with him, I got this skirt. As far as consolation gifts go, it's a pretty good one. It was quite a bit longer with the colorful fabric starting mid thigh, having a darker plain fabric from the waist down. I hemmed it from the top so I could keep the bright fabric intact.I got the t-shirt at a Gogol Bordello show last summer. It says 'This Moustache Kills Fascists." Eugene Hutz, Gogol's frontman, does have a remarkable mustache. Magical moustachio + insane stage antics + thick accent + fantastic guitar skillz = A thoroughly smitten Banana.



~ Bananawacky can't actually play the piano

Five Frocks

Friday's frock was this green H&M dress, worn while giving my dog modeling lessons, complete with examples of model dogs.

Dress - H&M; Tights - American Apparel; Boots - Target; Sunglasses - stolen from boyfriend; Coat - American Vintage; Melvins album - stolen from boyfriend; Dog - rescued (don't buy from pet stores, always adopt from a shelter or rescue. They need you.)

Flaunting the stolen sunglasses. It's not so bad, really - he's always losing his sunglasses so he ordered a dozen pairs from Amazon. They're all over the place now.

Thursday's outfit:

Cardigan - Charlotte Russe; Tank top - F21; Pencil skirt - H&M; Tights - Target; Shoes - gift from my mom

Still rocking the 30 for 30 and this is the third outfit I've worn. I've got photos of yesterday's outfit, my fourth, and I'll upload those later. Today was a running around/work day and I'll get back to 30ing tomorrow.

The dog is rocking a new style and as this is my style blog, I shall post a photo of his ridiculous new haircut.
This is what happens when you tell the groomer, "Get the hair out of his eyes". He ends up looking like a bleached wookie.

~Bananawacky makes the nerdy references

The List

Here they are. The only articles of clothing I'll be in for 28 days.

Sweater and long-sleeve tops

Top row, l-r: Cardigan - Charlotte Russe; Sweater - purchased at Native Boutique; Sweatshirt - American Apparel
Bottom row, l-r: Military Jacket - vintage; Cardigan - vintage Lacrosse; Cardigan - gifted

Dresses

l-r: Tri-color dress - vintage; Green dress - H&M; Tube dress - vintage


Skirts and PantsTop row, l-r: Skinny jeans - F21; Capri pants - Anthropologie; Pencil skirt - H&M
Bottom row, l-r: Pencil skirt - vintage; Colorblock skirt - gifted; Denim skirt - vintage

Tops
Top row, l-r: Embroidered blouse - vintage; Knit top - F21; T-shirt - American Apparel; Print tee - Gogol Bordello concert tee
Bottom row, l-r: Flounce top - Stop Staring; Knit top - thrifted; Ruched top - gifted; Embroidered top - Zara

Shoes
I got tired of the picture taking at this point and put them all in a pile.

Tall boots - modcloth; Riding boots - vintage; moto boots - Target; Oxfords - gifted; Espadrilles - Tommy Hilfiger; Black flats (in bag) - thrifted

That's it. The items I will probably grow to hate in the next 24 days.
Just kidding. I chose a few of these things because I rarely wear them and I'm hoping I'll figure out ways to work them into my wardrobe more frequently. One of them, the blue and white embroidered blouse, was in the Pile of Things to Get Rid of and when I saw it there, I fell in love all over again, fished it out of the Pile, and made it part of the 30. Hoping it works out this time around. ;)

Keeping up with the Kendis

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Today, I photographed each and every item in my 30 For 30 list - and then I did a whole bunch of other stuff, like apartment-cleaning and errand running and working and stuff. I'm wiped out, folks, but the pictures, I have them and tomorrow I'll edit 'em and put 'em on the ol' blog, along with today's outfit.
I have to admit, I'm inordinately proud of myself for all the things I got done today (the apartment was really messy. The cleaning of it is a big deal, all by itself). I even cooked! Like, an entire meal! And some snacks! This whole "being productive" thing is kind of fun, huh? I should try it again sometime.


I REALLY LOVE HER AND I HOPE YOU DO, TOO

I'm rereading Victoria Beckham's style book, That Extra Half Inch. So much good. Hers and the Bombshell Manual of Style are the only style books I've ever read that I legitimately enjoy - they're funny, smart, and filled with great ideas and tips. What I love about Victoria's book (when we're best friends, I'm going to ask if I can call her Vicky. She'll say no because she's SO NOT a Vicky but I have to ask anyway. I mean, BFF's need cool nicknames, right? Maybe I can call her V. Or Tori. Or Ria. I'll have to work on it.) I've bloggily gushed about my love for her before but really, once you've read her book, you, too, will be convinced that you are destined to be besties with Posh Spice. She's just so great about dispensing the style advice - very straightforward and practical - Really, most of it is common sense and it's presented in a very conversational manner. She does promote her own clothing line frequently but who can blame her? If I had a line, it's the only thing I'd ever talk about. If you don't mind the self-promotion, you'll find that she's pretty spot-on with the tips and advice.
This is one of my favorite bits - nothing to do with fashion - she's talking about tattoos and describes her own:
...The five stars on my back represent me and David and each of the kids. They also mean I can survive three months in a freezer, which is handy.

Love her.

The negative reviews on Amazon are kind of hilarious. The positive ones sound much like me, just lots of Posh Lovin' but the ones who didn't like it? They HATED it. With burning, fiery hatred. Some people just can't appreciate that kind of awesome, I guess.

~ Bananawacky wouldn't last an hour in a freezer.

Frock Friday, the Fourth

Frocking Fridays is presented with its first real challenge - Kendi's 30 For 30 challenge. I'd thought I would avoid choosing more than a couple of dresses for the 30 For 30 because they're more difficult to remix and I don't want to wear an outfit more than once or twice but I also don't want to wear the same dress two or three or four weeks in a row during the Frocking Fridays challenge. Luckily, this outfit was from last Friday, before Kendi's challenge began and this dress isn't part of my 30. It's the last time I'll be seeing it for a month. :(
It's simple little mod dress I found in a thrift store. I shortened the hem and removed the strange little belt/flap/buckle/thing attached to the waist.

I wore it with the white sweater (also thrifted) because when I tried a black sweater, the black-on-black-on-purple-stripes thing made me look like a witch that moonlights as a hooker.

(None of these are hookers. Only one of them is slightly trashy but she's still adorable and I love them all.)

~Bananawacky is offensive to witches everywhere