Better in person

    This outfit definitely worked better in person.  Although it could be by the time I took these pictures the shirt had been stretched out as I had tried on a couple of bras while at the mall.  Either way, I'm disappointed the pics didn't capture the true cuteness of this outfit.  

The Details:
T-shirt: ON
Skirt: refashioned Mango dress
Necklace: gift

My Friend Neubia

    While studying for the bar, there aren't a whole lot of things to entertain.  Lately we've been playing the World Cup on our computers while watching our bar video lectures on the projector.  Another thing that's entertaining?  The Blog.  Last week both Jenn and Neubia showed up looking cute.  Since I've already shown you Jenn's cute outfit, this is Neubia's outfit post.
    My favorite part of Neubia's outfit is her shoes.  These sandals are so cute and a great alternative to the plastic ON flip flops that I've been wearing for the past 2 weeks.  To me, sandals tend to either be plastic flip flops or heels.  Neubia's super awesome sandals have shown me that a great (and cheap!) alternative exists.  These set Neubia back only $15 at Burlington Coat Factory.  I also really liked how Neubia embraced plaid and took the green from the plaid and incorporated it in her top. 

    When I was talking to her about her outfit, she told me that the whole thing cost less than $25.  She also told me that the reason she was looking cute was because her boyfriend was coming in to town for the night.  She wanted to make sure he knew she could look cute and didn't just live in sweats (which, by the way, is the standard girl bar study outfit).
    This started my thinking muscles.  Why do we dress cute and for who do we do it?  As Neubia told me, she was dressing for her boyfriend.  Without judging Neubia, I think a lot of women, certainly myself included, often dress for others, and especially for those we are attracted to (ie. men for straight women, women for gay women, etc).  This brings to mind preening.  I find myself in front of the mirror for much longer when I'm dressing to impress The Fiance.  And even though he is the intended audience, I also do it for myself.  I dress up and apply makeup and preen to feel good about myself.  If it didn't feel good to look my best, I wouldn't do it.  I do it for me.  
    But what about when we dress up and preen for others?  Does that make it any less good or even bad?  Is it "bad" to dress for others?  I would say that using words like "good" and "bad" don't really apply in this context.  They are overbroad and don't really apply as they are value judging words and this isn't a context in which value should be assessed.  Rather, I would say that "healthy" and conversely "unhealthy" are more appropriate.  While it is unhealthy to look outside of ourselves for approval and to judge our attractiveness and self-worth by the way others perceive us all the time, I don't think its unhealthy to look to others for cues some of the time.  What I mean is that its natural to look to others for social cues and opinions on what we're wearing and how we look.  It becomes unhealthy when we base our entire opinion of ourselves on others' opinions and allow the outside to decide how we feel inside.  So while I like to look cute and preen for special occasions for The Fiance, what matters is that I do it because I feel good, not because he requires or expects it. 

 

The Details:
Tank: ON
Pants: Megathrift 
Shoes: Burlington Coat Factory

trending AND layering

    LOVING this maxi dress.  Its just plain amazing.  I wore it yesterday and layered a tank under it to keep from exposing too much boobage.  (don't you just love that word? :) ) 
    I got several compliments on this dress yesterday which made me super happy.  Isn't it awesome when something comfortable also looks cute? 







 



The Details:
Dress: Target
Tank: ON
Necklace: Etsy

P.S. check out my shop on the accessories showcase: http://www.etsy.com/showcase.php?ref=fp_banner_showcase_main_043010

 

Pretty Things

Can all be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ACsCrafts

Summer Layering

    We all know how awesome layering can be when its cold.  Layering provides warmth and can include different colors, textures and patterns to make outfits more interesting.  What often happens is that when it gets warmer, layering goes out the window.  While its often cooler to wear one skimpy layer during the summer, sometimes outfits require layers.  
    Yesterday's outfit most definitely required an extra layer.  There is too much boobage for me to wear this polo without a layer under it.  In an ideal world I would have an unlimited closet which would include crop tops in all colors of the rainbow so that layering in the summer would only require 2 layers of clothing  where necessary and not all over.  However, we don't live in my ideal world (damnit!) so I had to wear a full tank top under this light pink polo.  It wasn't too bad for most of the day.  In fact, while at school the extra layer was quite welcome since its so cold inside.  However, once some friends and I were out studying on the quad, I had no choice but to take the polo off and just sit in my tank and skirt.
    So in review, layering in the summer can create warmth in the frigid cold inside and can keep your decolletage from getting out of control.    


The Details:
polo: American Eagle (OLD!)
tank: ON
Skirt: me!
Necklace: Tio Gordo on Etsy

Trending

    Have you ever seen a trend, thought it was absolutely terrible and sworn you would never try it only to try it and love it sometime later?  I have in the past and am doing it again.  I got this maxi dress from Target's Daily Deals about a week ago and LOVED it the second I put it on.  It may not be the most flattering silhouette in the world on me, but what the heck.  I love it! It is incredibly comfortable and makes me happy, and really? that's all that matters.


The Details:
Dress: Target
Necklace: gift from Parents from Greece
Flip flops: ON




    Also a quick Etsy announcement.  I have bought an ad on etsy for Wednesday.  Hopefully I'll get a bunch of sales, so, if there's a necklace or other item you've been thinking about, I recommend you get it now before my ad goes live. 

Weekend Wear

    We went house hunting this past weekend in hopes of finding a great house to live in when we move in August.  Knowing that it would be a hot and busy day, I figured I would go with light and bright colors.  In addition, knowing that while we would be judging the house someone else would be judging us, I figured dressing up wouldn't be a bad deal.  
    I got these pants in May so I could wear them to my sister's graduation.  They are linen (surprise surprise!) and incredibly comfortable.  They are long enough that they require me to wear heels, but I'm ok with that.  For Saturday I wore my favorite brown Aerosoles sandals so I could gain the height necessary but still wear comfy shoes.  In addition to my awesome shoes, I grabbed my blue + turquoise beaded necklace that I got at the consignment store.  I layered it 3 times to keep it all up by my neck.  
    I really like the simplicity of the outfit and that all I needed was a shiny blue necklace to finish it all off.   There was no need to add bells and whistles and that made this a great house hunting and travel outfit. 


The Details:
Top: Carol Little (gift from mom)
Necklace: Consignment
Pants: Talbots 
Sandals: Aerosoles (not shown)

Brooch solution

    Last week, on Wednesday morning I was getting dressed and chose to put a flower brooch on rather than a necklace.  I was thinking of wearing one of my flower brooches, my pink brooch in particular.  The problem is that when I went to get it, it was all squished because I had been keeping it in a little box on my dresser.  Bad idea.  Before I left the house I was thinking of better options to keep my brooches.  My first thought was figuring out how to hang a ribbon in my closet.  THEN I remembered the adorable little face to the left.  You see, my aunt sent me several different things to put on etsy, one of which is the Smiling Face Barrette & Brooch Ribbon Organizer. 

Currently on Etsy

    Knowing that I personally love when other bloggers show how they store their scarves, pins, belts and hats, I figured I would share how I am now storing my brooches.  Even though it was originally meant to hold barrettes as you can see from the closeup picture, I realized that it is absolutely perfect to hold brooches and pins.  Lucky for all of you, my darling readers, these are now available on etsy!  I got a shipment of several different shades of hair color from blond to brunette a couple of days ago.  Just remember, if you mention Law School Fashionista you'll get 25% off of your order! 

Loving Simplicity

    Boys and girls, I love simplicity.  Simple outfits made up from simple pieces that look great.  This is probably why I loved Jenn's outfit from yesterday.  Simple t-shirt, simple skirt, simple flip-flops = great outfit.  I went for the same thing today.  Instead of a patterned shirt I went for a patterned skirt, a skirt I made in fact.  I am a great big fan of this skirt.  It was really easy to make and turned out really cute.  
    To balance out the patterned skirt I went with this black pseudo-wrap top.  The story behind this top is interesting.  Several years ago I got this top in burgundy and my sister got it in black (this very one in fact.)  At that time, for whatever reason, the wrap just didn't work on me.  It made me look all funny so I gave my sister the burgundy one.  About a month ago my sister was cleaning out her closet and handed me this top (and the matching one in burgundy) so I tried it on.  This time around, it worked.  It turns out that the wrap works much better when I'm wearing a good bra and makes it look like I have a real waist!  Yay life!

    As you may also notice, I'm wearing one of my uncle's necklaces (again).  The first time I saw it, I just knew I would love it.  It is completely within my color palette.  The green and blues just called to me.  It doesn't match the skirt exactly as it doesn't have any turquoise, but it works because the blues and green meld together to work with the turquoise skirt.   So if blues and greens are your color palette or the necklace calls to you or you simply want to help my uncle and aunt out, the necklace is available here.

The Details:
Top: Gap
Skirt: Me!
Necklace: Tio Gordo on Etsy
flip-flops: ON 

Shamless self-promotion

    So my uncle sent me more necklaces and they are gorgeous!  Every single one is different which makes them really special and super pretty.  I decided that rather than finding one of my own necklaces or a brooch to wear today, I would "borrow" one of the necklaces.  Today I chose the Gold Spiral Polymer Clay Bead Necklace.  Even though it is off-center, which would normally drive me nuts, this time I am very much intrigued by the necklace.  I love that rather than ending in a bigger plain bead, the last one is a swirl.  It is unexpected, which I think makes it unique.  What do you guys think?

    As for the rest of my outfit, I went simple.  I love this brown dress.  And I mean LOVE!  It is comfortable and flattering and easily changed to work with the weather or my mood.  Examples can be seen here, here and here.  Like I said, I went simple today.  I figured that a dark pink tank under the brown and the gold necklace would add enough detail to the outfit.  (If you look closely, you can see that there are little bows on the edges of the sleeves of the dress.)  

The Details:
Dress: BR
Tank: ON
Necklace: Tio Gordo on Etsy
flip-flops: ON (not shown)  

My Friend Jenn

    This is my friend Jenn.  She and I graduated from law school together and we are now studying for the bar together as well.  When I asked her if she wanted to be on the blog today, she got really excited.  She didn't think she looked cute, whereas I did.  Her excuse for wearing a skirt to class---lack of clean clothes.  Either way, I think it looks great on her and shows how something as simple as a printed t-shirt and skirt can make a great combination.

Jenn "posing"

The Details:
T-shirt: Miley Cyrus/Max Azria 
Skirt: ON
Flip-flops: ON

Target (again)

    Today is another good day to check out Target's Daily Deals. Why?  THIS is why: 
It's only $15.99 (down from $24.99) AND free shipping!  If I had the funds and knew it would fit, I would SO buy it and wear it all summer long.  I mean, how often do you find a cute warm weather but covered up coral dress?  Not often from what I've seen. 

Blues + Turquoise

    Wore this to class today and loved it.  Granted, I had to wear a sweatshirt during class, but such is life.  I got this great cropped wrap at Old Navy about 2 years ago.  I bought it so I could wear tank tops to class and not show a whole bunch of my bra in the process.  Still works AND It shows off my waist.  That the shoulders are slightly bunched just adds to the cuteness.  


The Details: 
Tank: ON
Wrap: ON
Skirt: American Eagle (old)
Necklace: consignment 
Flip Flops: ON

Let's just pretend like I didn't cut my feet off in this pic, k?

Yoga day!

    Yesterday was yoga day and as such I had two different outfits.  The first was my cute class day outfit and the second was my yoga class outfit.  You may remember seeing this dress before.  I absolutely LOVE it.  It is so comfortable!  The jersey is heavy enough so that I don't have to wear a slip with it and the neckline is such that I can change the look of the dress by changing the color tank top I wear with it.  Have I mentioned that the length of the dress is pretty damn awesome too?  LOVE this dress.  


The Details:
Dress: Gap (consignment)
Tank: ON
Brooch: Sew Lovely
Flip Flops: ON


    As for yoga wear, I am much more practical than I am cute.  I've been wearing yoga pants and men's undershirts to class and it has worked out great.  The best part, honestly, is the part you can't see.  If you guessed sports bra, then you guessed right.  Ever since I got this Bravissimo sports bra I've been a whole lot more excited about working out than I have in the past.  With the girls not bouncing around or popping out from under a too loose sports bra or spilling out over a too tight one, working out is much more comfortable.  It makes a huge difference.  

    I'm sure that for ladies with much smaller breasts a sports bra is just as important.  The difference, though is that sports bras, and bras in general for that matter, for the smaller boobed are more readily available and cheaper than those I've been able to find in my size.  At the very least, I'm able to afford these expensive bras, but I wonder about other women who aren't so fortunate.  How do they handle F,G,H, or I cups when they can't afford $55 bras?  It's not like they're readily available at Walmart or Target.  In fact, I've never found anything more than a DD at either store, and even then it was in limited band sizes.  
    I guess I'm just frustrated with the lack of availability of larger bras.  Coupled with the great expense of bras when they are found and I'm just pissed.  I mean, why do stores insist on charging more for bigger bras and bigger clothing?  It's not like its THAT much more expensive to make a larger bra or a larger shirt or a larger pair of pants, right?  So why are they SOOOO much more expensive? 
    Sorry to rant at you, it's just frustrating and nonsensical.


The Details:
Tank: Hanes tank
Yoga Pants: ON
Sports Bra: Bravissimo

Skirts take 2

    So I tried my hand at long skirts for cold classrooms last week and I wanted to see if I could make do with a shorter knee length skirt without freezing to death.  The result was that yes, I can do it BUT I need to make sure to bring a sweater to class.  I forgot to do that when I wore this outfit.  My legs weren't all that cold, but my arms were.   Luckily I was smart enough to bring a blanket to class and that kept me relatively warm.   
    The best part about this outfit is the skirt.  I found it while perusing my consignment shop and fell for the print immediately.  I have very few patterned skirts and the large orange flowers on brown background called to me.  Because the pattern is subtle, I figured I could use it as a focal point with a simple top or as a background with a more attention grabbing top.  When I picked it up, I looked at the tag, and of course its linen, and we all know about my love for linen.  I lucked out that it isn't 100% linen so it didn't get super wrinkly when I wore it last week.  And its machine washable!
    I was a bit hesitant about the length of the skirt at first.  I was afraid it might be too long and therefore make me look stumpy.  But I gladly got over that and bought the skirt anyway.  I think that if I were to wear it with a pair of great heels my legs would look great, but its not so long that I can't wear a pair of flats and still look ok but laid back.  


 








The Details:
T-shirt: H&M
skirt: Cato (consignment)
flip-flops: ON
necklace: gift

TARGET!!!

Do this RIGHT now!  Go to Target.com and in the search type in "daily deals" and hit enter.  

Shipping is free and you can return items to a target store near you in case things don't fit.

You may now thank me (and The Fiance who showed it to me). 

In which I eat my words. . .

    So, it turns out that items other than sweat pants can keep you warm and comfortable while sitting in a classroom all day.  The answer is of course long skirts!  Outfit 1 wasn't nearly as warm as outfit 2 because I forgot a long sleeve sweater or jacket to layer over my short sleeve knit sweater.  Sorry for the terribly picture, by the way.  The Fiance took a couple while sitting on the couch and didn't warn me that my smile looked tres awkward so I took a couple in the kitchen that ended up blurry.  Unfortunately, this the best pic of the lot.  I'm going to have to go search the house for my tripod attachment so I can take better pictures. 




Outfit 1:
Top: Loft
Skirt: ON
Flip Flops: ON (not pictured)

Outfit 2:
Skirt: Carol Little (consignment)
Top: Loft

Cardigan: August Silk

 Flip Flops: ON

Don't forget to check out my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ACsCrafts.  I've added new items and continue to do so regularly. 

The yes and yes great birthday giveaway!

You should definitely head on over to yes and yes and check out Sarah's spectacular giveaway where yours truly is one of several loyal readers giving something away to celebrate this awesome blog. 

Dressing up Yoga Pants

    Tuesday I went to my first yoga class in 10 years.  I was really excited about the class and even more so when I discovered that my yoga pants were clean.  yay!  Anyway, I wanted to limit the amount of clothes I had to change into and out of that day, so I decided I would just wear my yoga pants to my bar prep class and figure everything else based on them.  I originally wanted to try to wear this dress, but I forgot how long it is and didn't want to drown in clothes.  So rather than just throwing on a t-shirt and sweatshirt, I got fancy.  I grabbed my dark pink jersey cardigan and light pink tank top and made an outfit!  An outfit that *isn't* solely sweats and has color and is kinda cute.  
    The yoga class itself was amazing!  It was relaxing and a great workout.  I could easily feel my abs being engaged and my muscles stretching in the different positions.  And the ab workout at the end was great too!  I'm really looking forward to continuing to work out in this setting.  The yoga teacher was able to make adjustments to each position based on each person's individual limitations.  When I told her about my recurring chest pain she completely understood and explained that we'll be working on the whole body and to take it easy whenever its too much for me.  
    The only downside to the class is that now, Wednesday morning, I am really really sore.  Part of it is that I did squats 2 days ago and I'm still sore from that.  But most of my back and neck pain and the little of the core soreness that I'm feeling is because of the yoga, while a small part of it is a lack of sleep and relaxation when I got home.  I got home last night, ate, then got on the phone for 2 hours with my mom and aunt to help them set up my aunt's wireless router from afar.  Oh and my mom is in Puerto Rico and my aunt is in Miami.  And my aunt is not the most tech savvy person in the world, in fact, she's pretty damn awful at it.  When I was done with that I got to read for fun (yay!) for 30 mins, jumped in the shower, then off to bed to read.  But I was way too wound up to turn the lights off at 11:30 so I continued reading (on the iphone) with the light off so as not to bug The Fiance.  I finished off my book then managed to have some fitful restless sleep.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to relax and rest tonight because several days of soreness just plain suck.  


P.S. pictures coming later as I forgot to take them last night.