Changes!

I've been blogging a few months now, and now that I've got the hang of taking pictures and writing every day, I figured it was time to start moving beyond the basics. I did some investigating around other blogs (many thanks to Modly Chic's FBFF questions about mechanics from a few months ago) and found some great tools for making Academia Sartorial look more the way I really want it to.

I added Disqus for commenting, which I'm really excited about because it will allow me to respond directly to comments, rather than just post another comment that the original poster might not come back to see. I also discovered Picnik for photo editing, which lets me add text to photos (something I've always loved on other blogs and wondered how to do), as well as edit color and contrast more than I can on iPhoto.

So, gentle readers, bear with me as I play around with these new tools and start to get a feel for what makes my blog feel like "me." My hope is that these changes will make Academia Sartorial more interactive and aesthetically pleasing, while staying true to the blog's (and my) personality and voice.

Frankly, My Dear...

Blouse: Old Navy
Jeans and jacket: LOFT
Shoes: TOMS
Earrings: Brian Moody
Bracelet: Gift from aunt

So y'all remember the little Southern belle in my head that I talked about yesterday, right? The one who tells me that I'm being tacky when I mix patterns or wear colors that aren't matchy-matchy? That one. Let's call her Scarlett (because really, what other name is there for a Southern belle?). I ignored her yesterday when I wore stripes with florals, and felt totally empowered by the experience. So today, I went kind of nuts and wore lots of things that Scarlett has been calling tacky all these years.

I wore denim pants with a denim jacket. I wore a patterned shirt and patterned shoes, but in different patterns. I wore giant earrings. I wore all of this to work, which is where Scarlett usually insists I dress up a little more. And I loved it. And you know, the real Scarlett wore a dress made out of curtains and had a 17-inch waist (what's antebellum for redonkulous?), so I hardly think a little pattern mixing is worth noticing. Like Rhett Butler, I'm leaving the Scarlett in my head to mourn her bad decision-making skills alone. Frankly, my dear, and so on.

And of course, by "the real Scarlett," I mean the heroine of a classic piece of American literature. I know that's fiction, y'all. No one has a 17-inch waist.

Clash Day

Mixing patterns makes me a little silly.

T-shirt and cardigan: Target
Skirt: Anthropologie from consignment shop
Belt: Vintage from consignment shop
Sandals: Tiny shoe store in Melk, Austria
Necklace: Brian Moody

If you're wondering if I plan to wear this belt every day this week, the answer is yes. Yes, I do. I realize I have worn this belt every day since Saturday, but it's just so versatile. I also realize that I wore a belted cardigan yesterday, but I don't care because this outfit is fun and it needed a belt. It needed this belt. This is officially my new favorite accessory.

Now let's talk about my other clothes, because although a belt-only outfit would be a real fashion statement, it would definitely not be work-appropriate. I got inspired to mix some patterns today by BiblioMOMia, who mixed stripes and florals yesterday. I'm normally a little skittish about mixing patterns (the little Southern belle in my head keeps saying, "Tacky! Tacky!"), but with someone to copy, I feel much more comfortable. So I pulled out my stripes and checks and flowers, and I think this works. The patterns are in the same color palette and the effect of the stripes is diminished a little because of the cardigan, so I feel like it looks quirky and cute, rather than Clash Day during Homecoming Week.

Not that I ever participated in Clash Day. I dressed up for Homecoming Week once in eighth grade, for Oldies Day. I wore a poodle skirt and everyone else wore their normal clothes. I made myself hold my head up and bebop through the whole day in my poodle skirt, but threw it in the back of my closet as soon as I got home and never dressed up for Homecoming Week again. Which is a shame, because poodle skirts are about the most fun skirts can have.

You Look Like Teacher

T-shirt: LOFT
Pants: LOFT outlet
Cardigan and shoes: Target
Glasses: Coach
Belt: Vintage from consignment shop
Pin: Inherited from great-grandmother

Good news: I did not get a speeding ticket today. I did pay a fun visit to the Clerk of Court to pay my ticket from yesterday, but it was just too much fun to put into words so I won't even try. Sorry, y'all. My visit did help inspire today's outfit, in that I tried to look like a respectable, responsible adult, rather than a speed demon criminal. I even wore my glasses, which are my most respectable and responsible accessory. And I think it all worked, because when I went to class, my students had a lot to say about my clothes.

My class is a low-level, beginning English class, and almost entirely male. This conversation happened between a 50ish dad from South America and two young guys from the Middle East. Here it is (with names changed, of course):

Gustavo: Emily, you choose clothes well.
Me: Thank you!
Mohammad: Why you wear glasses?!
Me: Ummm...
Ahmed: You look like teacher. Your glasses.
Me: I am teacher, so that's good.
Gustavo: No really, you look very nice. You always look nice.
Me: Thanks again. So... let's start class now, okay?

Such are the fragmented conversations my class has. This is pretty typical: people shouting out random comments, usually in English, that are not always totally connected to what anyone else has already said. When you only know this much English, you just have to say whatever you're able to. I was pretty impressed that this group of guys had noticed that I was wearing clothes at all, much less were able to discuss it.

Do y'all get random comments on your clothes? What's the most random thing anyone has said about them?

Slow Down, Turbo

Shirt: Old Navy
Jeans and blazer: Gap
Shoes: Target
Belt: Vintage from consignment shop
Earrings: Brian Moody

To begin today, I quote the great Smokey Robinson:

Take a good look at my face

You'll see my smile looks out of place

And that's because I got a speeding ticket on the way home, which I'm sure is what Smokey was singing about all along. Okay, maybe he was singing about getting dumped, but my picture smile definitely does look a little fake today. That's because I'm inwardly sulking, and in an interesting twist of fate, sulk is a word I just taught my class today.

Seriously, I've been driving for almost 11 years, and have gotten exactly two speeding tickets, both within the last year. Am I in more of a hurry now than I was in my younger days? No, if anything, I drive slower. My 19-year-old self deserved a million speeding tickets, but somehow never got one. Maybe all those tickets I should have gotten are coming back to haunt me. Or maybe my city needs to post speed limits more clearly, because both times I've gotten a ticket have been when I thought the speed limit was one thing and it was actually another. Surprisingly, the fine police officers of my city don't think that's a good enough reason not to give me a ticket.

On the positive side, I really had nothing to say about today other than it rained and I wore clothes, so at least this ticket has given me some blog material. Y'all can stay tuned for upcoming posts on my visit to the Clerk of Court and online points-erasing traffic school, both of which I'm sure will yield a veritable cornucopia of interesting subjects to write about.

In Which I Discover Consignment Shopping and My Inner Blanche

Shirt: LOFT
Skirt and belt: Vintage from consignment shop
Shoes: Target
Necklace: Brian Moody (wish I could have gotten a close-up picture, but it just wasn't happening)

I was never a big thrift shopper growing up. Living in a coastal town full of Northern retirees (affectionately nicknamed snowbirds), the thrift store selection wasn't so much stylishly quirky as it was reminiscent of Bea Arthur's wardrobe on The Golden Girls. And while I love me some Dorothy, if I was going to look like any Golden Girl, it was going to be Blanche, or hell, even Rose. So I didn't spend a lot of time in thrift and consignment shops in my formative years.

Now, at age nearly 27, I have discovered the joys of thrift and consignment shopping. I pass this consignment shop on my way home from work every day, and on Friday, I finally stopped to browse. Oh my gosh, y'all. This place was a wonderland of beautiful clothes, all at amazingly cheap prices. They had modern stuff. They had vintage stuff. They had designer stuff. They had stuff for your house. They had everything.

I managed not to go completely bananas in there, and only bought the pieces that really spoke to me, namely, this skirt ($5) and belt ($6). Both are vintage, maybe early 80s-ish? So in a way, I am sort of channeling The Golden Girls, right? I don't have giant shoulder pads, but the skirt is 100% polyester, so that's got to count for something. Besides that, this skirt makes me feel so cheery, I can't even tell you. And it's pleated, which I'm told is in this spring. At $5, I can afford to be in.

I don't want to be this fabulous....

...I want to be THIS fabulous!

In a Garden

Dress and necklace: LOFT outlet
Jacket: LOFT
Tights and shoes: Target
Earrings: Brian Moody

Cary has had spring break this week, and has been very busy and creative in our front yard. Where before, we had scraggly azaleas (the only ones on our street that wouldn't bloom), now we have a lovely arrangement of hydrangeas (my favorite flower), leafy things, and a birdbath. It looks like this:

Spring must be in the air, because I kind of went berserk with flowers and bright colors in my outfit today. I feel like I'm wearing the sartorial equivalent of our yard. It makes sense; my outfit made me happy, and the yard makes me happy. And having a husband who wants to garden makes me happy, because I don't like gardening. I do like looking at gardens though, so I'm very happy that we have one. And that I can dress like one too.

P.S. If you haven't checked out my friend Brian's Etsy store, you should. These pretty blue pearl earrings I'm wearing are his, and he has tons of pretty, funky jewelry to sell. I promise Brian isn't paying me to say this, other than to lend me the jewelry. If anything, I should be paying him, because he helped Cary with the garden, fixed a broken necklace of mine, helped us paint our kitchen cabinets a few months ago, and is currently in my kitchen cooking dinner. I'm thinking of becoming a polygamist so I can marry Brian and have him move in and make jewelry and dinner forever.