Blog Vacation

Hey y'all. Just stopping in to say that I'm giving myself a blog vacation this week. Between work, infertility treatment, and the busyness of the holidays, it's all I can do to pick out clothes in the morning right now, much less photograph and say anything witty about them. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and need to cut back on commitments for a few days. I'll be back next week and hopefully my life will have de-stressed a little. Until then, thank you so much for reading, and for your patience. Love you all.

Pre-Tryptophan

Brian's Etsy Shop 

Academia: Much as I love my job, and busy as I am right now, the holidays make it really hard to sustain any kind of momentum at work. I run around all day until around 4:00, 30 minutes before I leave every day, and then find it impossible to get motivated to do anything at all. I can see Thanksgiving right over the horizon and my brain is already shutting down in preparation. It's like it can sense all the tryptophan coming its way.

Sartorial: Pre-tryptophan brain means pre-tryptophan clothes. This is definitely not my most exciting outfit ever, but standing in front of my closet yesterday morning, I just couldn't get excited about any of my clothes and ended up going with comfy pieces I knew would work together. This outfit didn't set anyone's world on fire, but I wasn't naked and two days before a big holiday, that's about all one can hope for.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

The Poppy Chain Boutique

Academia: I could yammer on about students, the end of the semester, how the writers of my favorite TV shows seem to be conspiring to get every single character on every show pregnant (on behalf of infertile couples who turn to TV for an escape across America, you all suck), but none of that is as interesting as the fact that I'm wearing a necklace that I WON today!

Sartorial: I have been reading fashion blogs forever, and I finally won a giveaway! I'm so excited - I never win stuff! This one was hosted by Whitney and Monica of Ask the Duplex (a truly fabulous blog you should all check out), and the prize was $25 to the Poppy Chain Boutique. I love long pendant necklaces and I never have enough, so I chose this one and Ashley of the Poppy Chain sent it to me right away.

I adore this necklace and wanted to wear something that would show it off, so I went with my blank canvas black dress, added a blouse in the same color as the chrysanthemum on the necklace, and finished it off with my new favorite shoes. I felt so pretty and whimsical in this outfit that you could have cast me in New Girl with Zooey Deschanel, the queen of pretty and whimsical. And hey, no one is pregnant on New Girl yet either, which makes it the perfect TV escape; no pregnancies and pretty clothes are my top two requirements for TV viewing right now. Which is why I love you, Modern Family, and not you, The Office.

Early Thanksgiving

Brian's Etsy Shop 

Academia: One of the very best parts of my job is the opportunity to introduce our students to American holidays. I love wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, putting on a pirate hat for Halloween, and handing out candy on Valentine's Day, but my very favorite holiday tradition at work is our annual Thanksgiving potluck, which was held on Friday evening.

Here are the reasons I love the Thanksgiving potluck:

1. Sooooo much good food. One of our teachers takes the afternoon off to cook the turkeys for us, which are always delicious, and our students all bring food from their countries. And since our students all have different cultural norms when it comes to punctuality, we get new dishes continually for the first two hours of the dinner.
2. It's like eating with a really, really big extended family. Our students are all far from home, and they turn to each other to provide the sense of family they miss from the very beginning of the semester. By the time we get to the Thanksgiving dinner, students from different countries are taking pictures with their arms around each other, trying food from each other's countries, and learning words in each other's languages. Being around that kind of camaraderie would make anyone feel good. The food is really just a bonus.

Sartorial: We had a short-lived cool spell on Friday and Saturday (by which I mean it wasn't 80 degrees), which was perfect for an early Thanksgiving. This shirt over a bulky skirt probably wasn't the best choice for disguising the food baby I left the potluck with, but I was warm and I had a belly full of turkey, so honestly I don't think there was much to complain about.

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf

Have y'all seen this YouTube video, 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes? This is one of the best fashion tutorials I've ever seen. If you live in a colder climate than me and are already running out of ways to wear your scarves, you need to check this out. Here it is:

Pre-Bad Hair Day

Academia: This is Wednesday's outfit, and the most important thing I can remember about Wednesday at this point is that I got my hair cut on Tuesday and this was my first time trying it out in public. I just got a couple of layers, which looked good on Wednesday, but were a disaster yesterday. I've had short hair for so long that I'm out of practice doing any kind of styling, but my sister says I need a flat iron and some heat protection products to keep it from frizzing out. Long-haired readers, do you agree? How do you keep your hair looking straight and not frizzy?

Sartorial: This was the fifth or sixth outfit I tried on on Wednesday. Just one of those days. Cary got home before me Wednesday afternoon and said he could tell exactly what kind of morning I had because of the explosion of clothes I left all over the bed. I ended up sticking with jeans and an easy blouse at the last minute. Kind of how I pulled my hair into a ponytail at the last minute yesterday, because omgfrizzymess. Seriously, y'all. Help me.

Technical Difficulties

Sooooo, my internet broke last night. As a result, I have no outfit pictures for you today. So sad. It works out okay though, because I was running so late this morning that I didn't have time to take pictures, my hair is a frizzy, humid mess, and I won't get home until after dark. So I'll just post yesterday's outfit tomorrow, and we'll pretend today never happened, okay?