eShakti discount and how I occupy myself during seminars

Hey all- remember that dress I wore that I got to review from eShakti?  That dress continues to get wears even though I bought it in the summer and it's now the Houston version of blindingly cold (so 30s to 50s, and I'm fully aware that anyone from the North would laugh at me for saying that.  I would laugh at me for saying that), so I feel pretty comfortable endorsing how much I like and use that dress.  Well, the folks there were kind enough to send me a promo code- CUPCAKE0811- that was created for ya'll to get $20 off when they shop at eShakti, and it's valid till 31st December, 2011.  In the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to let you know that if you use this code, I would get store credits.


On an unrelated note, being a grad student means that I am encouraged to attend many seminars.  Some of these I'm totally jazzed about (like today where the speaker gave a really comprehensive view of drug development in my field of study- and it was a really well done talk).  Sometimes though, the talks that I attend are less relevant to what I'm working on or totally over my head, and I am plagued by the problem of zoning out during seminars (this happens even during talks that I'm excited about and interested in-it's something that I struggle with).  And so my careful notes start drifting towards to-do lists and clothing design ideas and lately, sketches of what I'm wearing.  

I actually managed to get a real-life comparison for the one of the right. You might notice that in real life, I have hands.  And facial features :)

I've actually tried doing some outfit doodles at home now and the bf saw them, asked me about them, and then asked me if I was going to upload them to the blog (which cracked me up, and I thought was really adorable).  Considering how well I'm doing on making time to take pictures and how often I'm in seminar, it might be time to change the format of my outfit posts :)


Outfit: Dress: La Posh Style/ Cardigan, belt, leggings, socks: Target/ Boots: Steve Madden Girl Via Delias

Happy outfit

Remember this skirt?  Well, dress worn as skirt, since the whole thing was a bit short for my liking, and the top part was triangles and thin straps, which doesn't work well for my shape.  But for some reason, I couldn't bear to give it up, and over time the idea of what I wanted it to look like as dress started to develop in my head (and I started compulsively doodling the idea on the margins of my seminar notes).

 

And now (finally) I have something that is much closer to the dress that's been living in my head for so long.  It still needs some improvements in terms of the fit on top, but I am positively giddy that it's at a point where I can wear it out (without a skirt underneath it, which is what I've been doing for the past couple weeks until I finally added on the bottom part this morning, because I have a hard time not wearing things simply because they're not finished if they're wearable).

Outfit: Reconstructed dress from Target/ Chelsea Crew shoes from Lulu's/ Necklace from Anthropologie/ Thrifted belt from Goodwill -- Photos taken by the boy

In addition to the epic poem I'd be willing to write to my dress, I think the belt is worthy of at least a haiku or something- after all, it is Everybody, Everywear thrift day (special edition!), and this belt is one of my few thrift finds.  I want to be a nifty thrifter- all the cool kids are doing it- but it's something that requires time (during normal people hours), patience, and a better knowledge of Houston.  Because most of the time when I stop by Goodwill, the only things available in my size are a bright red dress with fruit and ABCs that looks like it belonged to an elementary teacher.  And costs $8 (and are not crazy awesome dresses with the original tag on them that are made even more awesome when the neckline is altered by your friend- Sarah, I still totally covet that dress).  So I need to work on broadening my scope and put a little more effort into this whole thrifting thing, because I've been seduced by this totally awesome belt ($1!)- that and Everybody's doing it :)

Party time

Outfit: Tiered Fronds dress from Anthropologie, Shoes and Cardigan from Target, Necklace from Modcloth

I know I wear a lot of dresses that I'd be fine wearing to a party, but man does this feel like a party dress to me.  Unfortunately, it wasn't really a party day, unless you count presenting at lab meeting and running around the lab all afternoon as a party (woooo! pipetting!).  But sometimes you need a pretty dress to make the day feel a little less long (until your shoes start hurting your feet, which to be fair were totally awesome up until the last hour of the day and I'd totally rec them, my feet just slide around a bit since they're a little too big aaand it's hard to find 9 1/2s).  In addition to the awesome-ness of wearing a dress that already mixes brown with black (although you can't see it as well in these pictures as I'd like, wearing this also made me feel like I was celebrating my general shape.  Just because Dress your best week(s) are over, I haven't stopped thinking about which parts of my body I'd like to celebrate, and I've gotta say that once I started thinking of body parts I take pride and pleasure in, it was easy to come up with more than 5.  I know that so often when I start itemizing my body,* it's easy to do so in a negative way- who know that the opposite could be true?  While there are things that I'd be okay changing about my body (teeth with no cavities, a body that's still physically capable of going up on pointe), there are so many things that I genuinely feel positive about, even though I have often (and I'm sure will often in the future) get frustrated about (hair, skin).  To see how other people felt about this subject, check out this wrap-up post on the Academichics.  One of my favorite posts from this challenge can be found here from Kate of the Interrobangs Anonymous (people, it involves a lab coat, which is awesome).


*The idea of itemizing my body reminds me of some poem we read in school in addition to that one scene in Twelfth Night- does this ring a bell with anyone else or am I just making this up?