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

Committed to sparkle motion

Oufit: Sequins: Express/ Skirt: Target/ Jacket: Banana Republic/ Shoes: Target/ Belt: Target/ Earring: Handmade/

I used to be a minimal sequins kind of gal, but fell deeply in like with this shirt over the summer.  The theme for my sister in law's bachelorette party was sequins, so I made the rare decision to buy something specifically for a purpose (which I haven't done since being invited to my first wedding as an adult where I found myself scrambling frantically around the Galleria (mall) to find something that was appropriate and fit well- I'm pretty sure that experience was traumatizing enough to explain why I now have too many dresses for all occasions hanging in my closet).  This shirt is not the sequins that I wore to that party- it was the back-up sequins that I bought along with an insanely fabulous dress that I wasn't sure I had the courage to wear (turns out I did), but I couldn't manage to return the back-up as planned.  Now I'm bound my the rules of my closet to manufacture occasions to wear sequins.  Like Wednesday.  Wednesday can be a holiday now, right?

Product review: eShakti dress

Outfit: Dress: c/o eShakti/ Belt: Target/ Shoes: Target/ Necklace: Jess LC/ Bracelet: Self-made/

The first time I wore this dress I got a compliment saying that it looked like it was made for me, and the truth is- it kinda was.  I was contacted by eShakti to do a product review of one of their items and gleefully chose this dress that I had been eyeing.  To be honest, I haven't bought anything from their website before, but I had definitely window-shopped there, and I was intrigued by their policy of customization (both in size and style for $7.50 extra).  I was a bit hesitant to take on a product review, since I was wary of putting myself in a position where I might compromise my opinions, so I'm going to be up front with you here- this dress was provided for the purpose of a doing a product review, and all opinions here are my own.

Now to the details- Since the dress was being purchased online, I wanted to choose something in a fabric that I knew I would like (100% cotton, and no complaints here) and went with a color and style that I knew would be used in my everyday closet.  Since I've worn this dress about once a week, which is pretty much the highest endorsement I can give a clothing item, I feel pretty confident saying that this is something I quite like and has pretty much the best strap staying power of any of the dresses I own (and even went through the was well).  I often use stretchy fabrics and elastic waistbands to my advantage when choosing clothing, since I find it provides a better look than too loose/tight clothing (and I'm not yet skilled enough with a sewing machine to tailor all my clothes), so it was definitely a change to wear something that A) has a zipper and B) was made to spec based off of my measurements.  I'm really pleased with the workmanship (invisible zipper! totally lined! interesting pleat detailing on the top!) and felt like it translated really well from the website (exact dress can be found here and what I think is the same dress in other colors here).  The only difference I think my dress has is that the waist hits a little higher than I would have expected considering my height and measurements were provided.  While I'm currently trying to minimize my spending on clothing (since my budget has shifted dramatically over the past few months to compensate for dance classes), once I'm able to set aside enough for it I will probably buy something else from their site (aaand it might be this dress).

Disclosure: Dress was provided by eShakti in exchange for honest product review

Lately: life flailing edition

 Outfit:  Shirt, belt: Anthropologie/ Skirt, shoes: Target/ Necklace: Gift/ Earrings: Self-made/

I know, I know- I didn't write, I didn't call.  My dad even commented that it had been a long time since I've updated here.  The truth is that while I'm still interested in this little piece of the internet, but I've struggled with making time for it, and also with what I wanted to do with it.  In a lot of ways this outfit shows how I've been feeling lately- a little disheveled, a little blown around and pulled in different directions, and surrounded by things that I really love.  In the time since my last post I've:

-turned another year older
-had to buy a new bike
-gave a big talk about my research to people outside of my lab and thesis committee
-posted my first jewelry listing on Etsy (and completely failed at following through with it)
-sang a solo as part of my a cappella group's performance at the med school talent show
-sewed an awesome costume for a friend that looked a lot like the flight attendant outfit (we sang a Britney medley): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU

I've also been doing a lot of science (and thinking more seriously about what will go into my first first author paper) and dancing my heart out with the occasional side of watching a zombie tv show with the bf.

I have managed to get dressed on most days, and I'd like to get back to taking pictures of what I wear sometimes cuz getting dressed is fun, but it's not something that I'm prepared to do at the expense of these other things.  So, consider this more of a hello again than a goodbye, but for now I'm considering it a pretty cautious hello.

Pajama day

Outfit:  Skirt: Handmade/ Shirt: Anthropologie/ Shoes: Target

Hey all- I know I haven't been very present on these here internets, since somehow the past month that I thought would be give me more free time (ie: a month off from dance class), turned into the opposite.  It turns out that coming home late at night is not conducive for taking outfit pictures in the evening (nor is being hangry) and the days are turning shorter (my phone's weather widget keeps telling me that the high for the day is in the mid-nineties, but it has in fact been cool enough to open up the apartment at night, which has been a blessed relief and it does feel like the weather is starting to change.  Now if only we could get some rain here in Texas!)  To ease my way back into taking pictures again, I thought I'd declare it Pajama Day and wear my jammies outside.  I'm only sort of kidding- this shirt was meant for apartment wear, and was initially categorized as such until I realized that I could find a happy medium between how much I care about undergarments being visible (kinda lots) and how visible my bra straps are underneath the lace detailing (fairly little).  And I may have made sleep shorts out of extra fabric from the skirt after I realized that I didn't have the heart to turn it into a dress (which was the original plan), since it seems like it goes with everything, and well...feels like I could fall asleep in it.

Can't hold me back

Details: Dress: Target reconstructed by me
Shirt: Bitten
Shoes: Chelsea Crew via Urban Outfitters
Bracelet: Self-made

If there's anything that's going to get me off my seat and out on the roof for pictures, it's an Everybody, Everywear day.  Especially one that involves patterns (although the striped shirt is a little on the subtle side).  Even though I'm now realizing that the last time I posted was for EBEW, aaand it may have included this dress.  But the truth is that this reflects what I've been wearing for the past week pretty accurately- it's been a lot of lightweight pretty dresses, often with sandals and something thrown on top once I get inside my lab- and plenty of times it has been this dress.  As in, I now realize that this dress is the one that I never knew I always wanted (even the bf has noticed and commented on my frequent wearing of it), and I'm probably not going to be able to stop myself from wearing it multiple times a week for a couple weeks.  Good thing I'm in love with remixing!

For more examples of pattern mixing, check out the latest EBEW:

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?

Bits of yellow

Outfit: On the breeze chemise and Daisy fay headband from Anthropologie/ Yellows and leggings from Target

I was positively giddy when I saw that this month's EBEW theme was yellow, since I'm a little infatuated with the color (I blame my college roomie and long distance bestie for this as well as my for my everlasting love for David Bowie).  I swung open the closet door with glee to figure out what to pick now that I've gotten over my "oh I can't wear that color phase." A couple years ago, my only yellow item was these shoes, since I couldn't resist the color and figured that this was the safest way to incorporate it.  Since then I've bought an embarrassing number of yellow skirts and wore a yellow bridesmaid dress (and no longer really feel like there are colors I shouldn't be wearing), but here I've used neutrals to set the backdrop for first and latest (and new favorite) yellow purchases.  Do you have colors you thought you'd never wear that you now love?  Tragically, my camera battery died, so I got to choose from about 5 pictures (and couldn't find any that showed off ma shoes without having and awkwardly angry face) (and forgot to change the light settings).  How did you celebrate yellow day?

These yellows previously:

Beauty is painful

Outfit: Dress, belt from Target/ Shoes from Urban Outfitters/ Bracelet from Hawaii airport/ Bag from Ruche

This is definitely one of those dresses where I feel infinitely more awesome in it than I feel like it photographs, I think in part because it's a different silhouette for me and makes me feel slightly more like a grown-up (even though in real life it is also still terribly wrinkled).  But let's talk about something that hopefully distracted people from my wrinkles instead!  A couple times a year I get hit by the impulse to make my hair look intentionally pretty (what I now mentally think of as Monk's style) and pull out the curling iron.  And then I burnt myself on the chin (fortunately the bottom) typical Heather style (I'm known for injuring myself in creative and unusual ways and my boss jokes about Heather-proofing parts of the lab).  I was complaining relating the story to a friend who replied "Did your hair turn out? If so, worth it!"  I still feel like a bit of an idiot, but at least it's not a super obvious mark, and I have photographic evidence :)

I'm not going to lie, I am really glad that today's Friday, more so than usual- I know everyone's busy, but I find it really hard to reset sometimes when I have to been in lab every day for a couple weeks straight (which happens all too often to grad students), and after completing a time/labor-intensive first stage of an experiment, I'm (at least in theory) planning to spend most of tomorrow not at work, so that A) my Dad doesn't tell me I shouldn't be staying in lab until 10:30 multiple weekend nights and B) I get to spend some time with the boy before he takes off for a week and a half of traveling.  Instead of being good grad student Heather, I'm hoping to be the Heather that manages to do laundry and clean the bathroom and maybe fits in some time at the sewing machine- I'm half done with a dress reconstruction that I've been thinking about for at least a year, and I'm super excited to finally be doing something about it!

Heatherina

 Outfit: Shirt: Modcloth, Skirt: Anthropologie, Necklace: Gift, Cardigan: Target, Flats: Gap

These aren't quite the photos that I had hoped to match up with this body part- the sun here burns quite brightly, even around 8 (which, embarassingly enough, is early for me to be ready to get out the door, and I anticipate being in lab for another hour or so, which is long enough for the sun to be gone by the time I leave).  Also, most of my action shots involve some pretty awesomely silly arm positioning or terrible facial expressions, which sort of ruins the image I had in my head while I was attempting said action shots.  In my head today's Dress your best was going to look a little something like this:

Image from: ballerina project tumblr

But it's been awhile since I've spotted my pointe shoes, and my body has changed quite a lot since I danced seriously.  What hasn't changed much are my feet- they can still point with the best of them, and they identify me in ballet class as someone with serious classical training.  I remember someone telling me my feet were pretty after a class (I was young), and I looked them over and said, no they're not in an offended manner (I was also embarrassingly bad at accepting compliments).  They're very picky about the shoes they wear, have a tendency to get cut into easily, and are now a terribly awkward size to find in stores (why don't more people sell 9 1/2s?), but I think I appreciate them more now- when I was younger I took them and all they did for me for granted.  These feet?  They can dance.  The rest of me is still catching up, but they haven't let me down.

I'd also like to give an honorable mention to my hair for looking awesome in a low three bun cluster today- I can easily see this becoming a regular summer hairstyle, since I have a little patience for doing something with my hair only to have it ruined by putting a bike helmet onto it.

Such great heights

Outfit: Skirt: Self-made, Shirt: Delias, Cardigan, belt: Target, Shoes: Modcloth, Necklace: Jess LC

Second on my list of things to celebrate about my body is on the opposite side of the scale from my first- rather than a small detail it's more of a whole body approach, and instead of being something I've always loved, it's something that I needed time to embrace.  I haven't always felt comfortable being among the tallest of my peers (kinda hated it growing up, especially being around all the little bits in dance and ice skating), but I've gradually learned to love my height.  Without you I wouldn't be able to reach those tall shelves, get places with my long stride, be able to see/ breathe in concerts, or have been the tallest person in my lab for a couple years (although I no longer hold this honor).  So let's celebrate with our tallest heels and a skirt that I know for sure isn't too short (because making things yourself means you get control over the length).  Those hearts? They're for you height- you're pretty awesome and we are totally besties.  Full disclosure- I did not wear these heels to school- my limit is around 3 1/2 inch heels for a school day.