Dots and stripes.

• Button down: Maurices (previously)
• Cami: Maurices (buy)
• Skirt: Maurices (previously)
• Sandals: Lela Rose for Payless

This post is part of Megan's challenge to show off your stripes. Okay, this is going to have to be super quick: I got slammed a little yesterday and today, and have a lot of non-blog things to do (trust me, I would rather be blogging! :) ). And for all my blogging buddies further to the north... our weather is supposed to get unpleasant later in the week, so please don't hate on the bare legs! And of course, the pictures today were taken by my awesome wife.

Green for Saint Patrick's Day.

• Blue t-shirt: Maurices
• Green t-shirt: Maurices
• Trouser Jeans: Maurices (previously)
• Oxfords: Payless (previously)

This was my casual outfit for Saint Patrick's Day. I know it's nothing particularly exciting, but I had some errands to run around town, and I went with something a little more subtle. While it was actually a beautiful day out, it was still enough on the chilly side that I went for layered t-shirts. Tomorrow I have a pretty full day, and my wife and I are going out with friends in the evening, and I will hopefully have a post about that next week. And of course, my adorable wife took the pictures for today's post.

Funky office casual.

• Blazer: Maurices (previously)
• Tube top: Maurices
• Cropped pants: Torrid
• Pumps: Payless

I've had this tube top in my closet for a while, but I've not been satisfied with my attempts to style it until now. And while a tube top is not something I think most people would count as acceptable office attire, I think it works well under this blazer. Admittedly, since I work from home, any discussions about acceptable office wear are purely theoretical. (And let's face it, in my case, most people are going to get stuck on that whole "crossdressing" thing instead of noticing the tube top...). And while I'm not sure if it shows up in the pictures, but the shading on the pumps are actually polka dots that slowly get bigger and more dense toward the toe.

I have one more outfit from my backlog to post, and we're still having to share computers in our household (not much longer I hope!), and of course in addition to being so gracious with her laptop my amazing wife took the pictures for today's post.

Shopping.

• Cardigan: Old Navy (previously)
• Cami: Maurices (previously)
• Belt: Maurices (from a dress)
• Skirt: Old Navy (previously)
• Pumps: Nine West (previously)
• Pantyhose: Just My Size via Walmart

I previously wrote about finding some shoes for sale in my size on Craigslist. During the visit, the lady selling the shoes mentioned that she was also doing some end of year cleaning out of clothes that no longer fit her, and many of them were in sizes near my own. I told her to let me know if she ended up with some clothes in my size. Luckily for me, she did, and sent me an email this past weekend, so we scheduled a meeting time on Sunday for me to visit and "shop".

This was my shopping outfit for the day. My wonderful wife did my hair and makeup, but she ended up having pre-existing plans for the afternoon and didn't accompany me on the visit. I ended up getting a lot of wonderful pieces for a great price, and I will be incorporating them in future posts. It was a fun day, and this was an interesting first for me: making a solo visit to a stranger, and I enjoyed the opportunity to get out and about. Of course, I was careful. This trip was also a good confidence builder for this weekend, but that will have to wait for another post.

I also want to take a second to thank Melanie, of Dressed to IL for mentioning me in her post on authenticity.

I also need to thank LaToya of A Chameleon's Closet for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award in her post Leopard and Purple. So here are seven more things about me as part of the award.

1. Since I mentioned music in my previous post, I figured I would share some more. I like a lot of music, so this is just another sample of the randomness that is my playlist. Here are some bands that showed up on my playlist in the past few minutes: Cage the Elephant, Gogol Bordello, Beck, Muse, Hybrid, Rage Against the Machine, The White Stripes, The Killers, and Movits!.
2. Last time, I also mentioned that I liked bad movies. Well, I also frequently like cult classic movies, and as an example I have to mention one of my all time favorites. Krull. Which has an epic soundtrack by James Horner, and a young Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane in early minor roles. Its not a movie for everyone, but its one of my favorites.
3. I have no siblings.
4. I am scared of have serious reservations about flying. Every movie I've watched where things go wrong with airplanes makes it worse. My wife finds it seriously unpleasant to fly with me.
5. I don't drink, this makes the previous fact even more difficult to cope with. I once had a fellow passenger (whom I did not know) offer me some of her drink, in fact, I was so visibly nervous.
6. I also don't smoke.
7. I dislike raw tomatoes, but I enjoy Ketchup and nearly every other tomato based product you can imagine.

Things have been incredibly busy lately, and I look forward to being to get caught up soon, I haven't forgotten about everyone, but this month hit the ground running, and hasn't let up at all. Thanks so much for bearing with me. And of course, my amazing wife took the pictures for this post.

A blue kinda day.

• Top: Maurices
• Cardigan: Old Navy
• Skinny Jeans: Z. Cavaricci via Torrid (buy)
• Pumps: ? via Craigslist

The blue, in this case, is for the cold as well as my outfit. Yesterday barely got above freezing, and we had the additional fun of a fresh layer of snow on top or more ice and snow that had not yet melted. But that's okay, on Saturday, my wife and I followed a Craigslist post to a wonderful lady selling a large lot of shoes, and I ended up with several new-to-me pairs of shoes on the cheap. And since it was way too icy, snowy, and cold to be outside much today, I decided to wear one of my new pairs of heels. I just love the blue color of the shoes, and so I decided to keep piling on more blue and neutrals.

Today's post is my first outfit of 2011, and it feels like I'm starting to get back on track. I just want to thank every one for bearing with me while I've been so busy lately. I feel so disconnected, and I just can't wait to go read everyone's blogs and see what been going on. I also wanted to introduce a friend of mine who has just started blogging: Just A Small Town Girl.... Oh, and if you're interested, don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 gift certificate to CSN Stores.

I hope everyone is having a great start to their year, and as usual, my fantastic wife took the pictures for today's post.

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.

Short skirt and a long jacket.

• Button down: Old Navy
• Vest: Maurices (previously)
• Skirt: Old Navy
• Pantyhose: Just My Size
• Pumps: Nine West (buy (Cognac color))
• Jacket: Kohl's

This is another outfit from last week. When I put on this skirt, I realized it was a little shorter than I remembered when I bought it. But I figured it was okay, especially since I was staying indoors. And this is the blog debut for this pair of heels. I mention them because they are one of my favorite pairs of shoes. They're really comfortable for the height, and I love the color. I decided that if I'm going to be crazy enough to wear a short skirt in December I might as well pair it with a great pair of shoes. And I'll be honest... I just put the jacket on so I could use this title.

I know a lot of bloggers talk about how awesome the style blogging community is, but it really is. Its definitely made this holiday season more fun for me in a lot of ways both big and small! And there are amazing style bloggers like Bombshell Beauty who do wonderful things like this. And there are so many other wonderful bloggers out there too(like Megan, Pamela, and Melissa just to name a few. and I really can't link to everyone, the list is too long!) Anyway, thanks everyone! And of course, my fabulous and awesome wife took the pictures!