Trippy heels.

• Top: Maurices (previously)
• Cardigan: Maurices
• Trouser Jeans: Maurices
• Pumps: Nine West
• Bag: Target (previously)
• Necklace: Maurices (previously)
• Bracelets: Torrid (previously)
• Umbrella: Crabtree & Evelyn (previously)

Some friends of ours had some guests over this past weekend, and I took the opportunity to dress up. I was really excited about my new trouser jeans, and I really wanted to wear heels with them, so I paired them these heels which I have never really worn other than the initial try on, despite owning them for a while. The weather was pretty rainy and dreary, and I briefly thought about switching things out for my rainboots, but I knew we weren't going to get any good outside shots, and I figured we would mostly be making a few brief trips to and from the car.

After a fun evening with friends though, in the dark and rainy night, I mis-stepped on their stairs walking to the car and tripped. The biggest casualty besides my pride, was my pair of heels, as you can see above. The jeans are mostly okay, but I will probably be demoting them to much more casual purposes due to the blemish on the knee. (I realize that logic may be flawed since I have a matching blemish on my leg...)

I admit I'm a little bummed out about the shoes, but I got to spend a couple of days dressed how I wanted last week, and it helped my mood out a lot actually. And I will have more on that (and the outfits) in a future post. Plus, it turns out there may be some hope for the shoes after all! I talked to some friends and did some searching and I found a cobbler, and when I dropped the shoes off yesterday, they didn't seem to think it was too big of a deal to fix them. And honestly, while replacing shoes in my collection can be a little difficult due to sizing, I feel a lot more bold about going out these days and this blog has definitely played a role in that. And frankly, I'm happy I wore the shoes outside to an event with friends, even if they did get damaged in the process. There was a time when I would not have believed that I would ever own a pair of shoes like this, much less severely damage them from wearing them out and about.

So I look forward to seeing how the shoes come back from the cobbler (this is a new experience for me), and hopefully I will be figuring out a better balance of blogging with the rest of my life. I really miss everyone! And of course, my beautiful wife helped with my hair and makeup and took the pictures for today's post! (She's also still letting me borrow her computer!)

What I would have worn: Valentine's Day.

• Dress: Asos (buy)
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Cardigan: Torrid (previously, borrowed by my wife)
• Pumps: Nine West via Amazon (buy, the color is Dark Red)
• Bracelet: Torrid (previously)
• Necklace: Maurices (previously)
• Pantyhose: Just My Size via Walmart

Okay, this is going to have to be a quick post since I'm trying to get ready for Valentine's day. And while I would love to wear this outfit tonight, this is not what I will be wearing. But if I weren't wearing actual menswear for Valentine's Day, I thought this fun little black dress I recently got from Asos would be perfect. I realize it's a bit short, but hey, it is Valentine's Day, and I definitely felt really cute wearing it. The cardigan and hose are still necessary because it's still way too chilly here for bare legs and arms. Also, the cardigan masks my stellar "farmer's tan" nicely as well.

Since today is also Monday I need to post 3 positives as part of Melissa's and Hope's Fabulous in February.

1. I love planning elaborate surprises. This one is related to today. My wife knows nothing about what we're doing. And since she won't read this post before tomorrow, I'm going to let you in on the plan. We're going to a new Brazilian steakhouse in a nearby city that she's wanted to try for a while but our schedule has not permitted. After that, we're going to hit a Starbucks for coffee, and since it will be kinda late, the big surprise is the hotel room I got us in the city for tonight, which I already checked into. I drove out and back today, to check in and take our overnight bags I secretly packed, and decorated the bed with a stuffed animal. So tonight we can go straight to the room, and she won't see our overnight bags until it the last minute. Or something like that.
2. I have a very good memory. Sometimes this frustrates me because it means I remember all the things I'm behind on and get some slight panic attacks, and regrets and past mistakes live on in my mind far past everyone has forgotten. (I still feel guilty over things I've done wrong to my wife year's later, and I'll bring it up, and she's completely forgotten about it). Despite all this though, I'm very glad to be able to remember all the positive things that have happened to me over the years, and all the people who made it happen.
3. For my last one today, I'll pick something physical. I like my hair, and I feel really lucky that it's healthy, and I can grow it long and that it looks nice.

And I'm still trying to get caught back up on everyone's wonderful blogs! And of course, today's pictures were taken by adorable wife.

New Year's Eve.

• Dress: Maurices
• Necklace: Torrid (previously)
• Bracelet: Torrid (previously)
• Shoes: Payless
• Purse: Maurices (previously)
• Coat: Kohls (previously)

Due to a confluence of unused vacation that wouldn't roll over, and Christmas and New Year's being on a Saturday, my wife had a rather long vacation, and so I took the time off to be with her. And between family holiday events, some (still ongoing) end of the year clean-up and clean-out, and spending some quality time together, it turned into a bigger blogging break than even I meant it to be. And now that 2011 is in full swing, I'm even more behind than ever (not just on blogging). But I've missed everyone and I look forward to seeing what everyone has been up to!

However, today's post is not my first outfit of 2011 (coming soon though). While we didn't have plans to go out on New Year's Eve, I decided I wanted to glam it up just a bit for a while, and put together this outfit. My wife did my hair and makeup, and we went out for a drive, bought some drive through dinner, and went home to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV, although by then we were both in PJ's.

Oh, and in addition to all that, we took some time to take some outdoor shots near our apartment. It was surprisingly warm out, but the streets were mostly deserted. And I have to add, I bought this dress on a clearance rack for $5 several years ago. It was actually one of the first dresses I ever owned, and I still love it, although I need to take it to tailor, the zipper gets hung in one spot, and I think it needs to be fixed before something really goes wrong with it.

Oh, and I have really appreciated the comments everyone left about our Christmas tree and my Christmas party outfit last year, and in particular, Melissa from A Working Mom's Closet featured the outfit in her Favorite Holiday Outfits! post. I can't wait to get started posting some 2011 outfits and see what I've missed! As always my wonderful wife took the pictures (and held my purse and coat)! :)

A Christmas party.

My outfit

• Dress: Maurices
• Belt: Maurices
• Cardigan: Torrid
• Red tights: JC Penney
• Pink floral fishnets: Torrid
• Pumps: Nine West via Zappos (buy)
• Necklace: Maurices
• Bracelets: Torrid (previously)
• Purse: Nine West (previously)
• Coat: Kohl's (previously)
• Scarf: Kohl's (previously)
• Gloves: Isotoner via JC Penney (previously)

My Wife's outfit

• Top: Maurices
• Skirt: Maurices
• Belt: Maurices
• Cardigan: Torrid
• Tights: JC Penney
• Pumps: Maurices

In the middle of last week, some friends invited us to an impromptu Christmas party last Saturday night. While the party itself was rather informal, and involved good food and board games, we all decided to take the opportunity to dress up for the party. I don't always get a lot of opportunities like this and so I had to get to work planning my outfit. After talking with my wife and my blog buddy Pamela, I narrowed down my options, and came up with this outfit. In addition to my own outfit, my wife asked me to come up with an outfit for her. I pulled together a couple of ideas and laid them out for her to pick from while I got dressed. Now, it wasn't entirely on purpose that we color coordinated, but purple was the only pair of colored tights my wife owns. I ended up loaning her a purse and the cardigan (which was too big, but worked well when it was belted).

We spent the morning getting ready, and since this was a big deal, my wife did a fabulous job on my hair and makeup. After that it was off to the park to take pictures. Please excuse the wrinkles since we had a bit of a drive to get to the park and this dress wrinkles easily. Unfortunately, our photo shoot was cut short because the day was pretty enough that people were out walking in the park. My wife got a little nervous at the onlookers, but my paranoia ended up being more about the dogs. At least one friendly dog seriously considered jumping on my dress with muddy paws. Thankfully the dog did not, and most of the pictures turned out great.

After the park, the plan was to go out to a restaurant, but after my wife's nervousness in the park, we decided it would be best to skip another public appearance. Instead we hit up the McDonald's drive thru. After that we showed up unfashionably early. Thankfully our friends hosting the party were very understanding about the situation.

After everyone got there it was picture time. Someone suggested doing pictures by gender of outfit, and after a brief discussion, someone came up with the brilliant idea of dividing up by whether we were wearing pants or skirts. Since one of the female guests was wearing pants, this kept things roughly even, and I thought it was an especially pleasant way of splitting up. While I would love to post some of those pictures, I didn't get permission from the other guests (although most of them read the blog), and this is already a picture heavy post. But everyone was dressed quite well for the occasion.

The party itself was a lot of fun. We got to hang out with friends that we don't get to see as frequently as we would like. It also meant a great deal to me that we got the opportunity to dress up well and go out for the evening. And while fashion was not the preeminent topic of the evening, the layered tights were a hit, and we discussed scheduling a shopping date with one of our friends sometime early next year.

And with that, I want to thank my amazing and adorable wife for doing my hair and makeup and taking the pictures and being patient with me in general, and I want to thank our wonderful friends for having us over for a wonderful evening and providing an opportunity to dress up.

Long skirt and no jacket.

• Top: JC Penney (previously)
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Skirt: Cato
• Boots: Torrid
• Bracelets: Torrid (previously)

This is my only long skirt, and I bought it a while back because I wanted to try a longer skirt, but I'm never sure how to style it. The fabric is pretty heavy and its really warm, which is great when its below freezing outside, but that also makes it a fall/winter piece only. Unfortunately, this will be the one and only appearance of these boots on this blog. I've given them several chances to get broken in, but every time I wear them they squeeze too tight in the middle of my foot, which I think is a pretty weird way to not fit. They left my feet hurting after wearing them a relatively short time. I have 5" heels that hurt less than these boots. But enough with the negatives. I like how this outfit turned out, and I think the skirt worked really well, and I have plenty of other shoes that will work just as well with this.

I'm still behind on all kinds of things, but maybe I can get caught up on my blogs this weekend! This weekend we also have our first (and so far only) holiday party to go to. I won't be wearing anything I would post here, but that's okay, it should still be a lot of fun! And I really hope everyone has a great weekend!

Just as a reminder, I always enjoy answering question, so definitely feel free to ask away. And of course, as usual my magnificent wife took the pictures today.