First outfit of spring.

• Top: Maurices (previously)
• Skirt: Maurices (previously)
• Sandals: Payless

Megan of Megan Mae Daily is hosting a challenge this week to showcase your stripes. Since the weather around here has suddenly and dramatically become gorgeous and springy, I decided to go for something simple and suitable for just enjoying the weather. And I while I originally planned to get caught up on some blogging this weekend, the weather was too nice to stay inside, and my cabin fever won out, so we went exploring on the back roads in the countryside on Saturday. I may have found some neat places to do some outfit photos in the future, so I'll just save the details for a later post (hopefully one with pictures! :) ). Oh, and of course, my beautiful wife took the pictures for today's post.

Lounge wear?

• Button-down: Covington via Craigslist
• Vest: Maurices (previously)
• Skirt: Sag Harbor via Craigslist
• Pumps: Naturalizer via Craigslist
• Pantyhose: Just My Size via Walmart

This was Wednesday's outfit, and it was almost completely created from recent Craigslist purchases. It's definitely a little different from my normal style, but the long wool skirt was really calling to me. Of course, that's probably because after warming up just enough to a relatively balmy 40's and 50's, it was back below freezing again.

I also wanted to take a minute to mention that I love answering reader questions, and a few posts ago, Cara from the wonderful Cara's Closet asked a question: An odd question, and possibly a question you don't want to answer (in which case, ignore me!!), but does your love of women's fashion stretch over into lounge/sleep wear?

First, within reasonable bounds, I will try to answer any question I can, and I certainly don't mind discussing lounge/sleep wear. I actually have been interested in extending my interest in fashion to lounge and sleep wear, but right now, I don't actually have anything like that. My current sleep wear is a pair of a cotton shorts and a cotton t-shirt, both from the men's section. It's actually fine by me, but they are getting a little worn out, and I have been shopping for some more "feminine" replacements. I haven't met with much success though, as most of what I've found either hasn't really inspired me, or has been too impractical, or just looks to... um... "granny-ish" for my preferences. The story is similar with lounge wear: I've looked off and on, but I haven't really found anything that has inspired me.

I think part of this is also because when I do go shopping, its easier to get excited about things I can put into my daily rotation, or a new pair of shoes. I have a similar problem getting excited about basics and layering pieces, and I have a similar gap in my wardrobe for those pieces. There are also many days where I don't get to dress how I want through the day, and I frequently try to dress up in the evenings, so, somewhat ironically, many of the outfits I post on this blog might be classified as "lounge wear".

Again, I love answering questions, so please feel free to email me, or leave them in a comment, and I will try to do my best to answer them in a future post! I tag all my answers if you would like to read past questions. And of course, the pictures in today's post were taken by my fabulous wife.

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!

Its too cold for this outfit.

• Cami: Cato (previously)
• Cardigan: Old Navy (previously)
• Skirt: Maurices (previously)
• Shoes: Gabriella Rocha via Zappos (buy)
• Pantyhose: Just My Size via Walmart

A while back, I saw Ashley of Ashley Getting Dressed post a really cute outfit. It didn't take me long to realize that one of my favorite skirts was really similar to hers, and that I could recreate a very similar outfit for myself. As an added bonus, I realized it would make a great outfit for the blog debut of these camel colored T-strap pumps. And those white blurs in the last two pictures are not a camera malfunction, they're snow! I hope everyone had a great weekend, and of course today's pictures were taken by my beautiful wife.

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.

Timing is everything.

• Sweater: Maurices
• Cami: Maurices
• Skirt: Maurices (previously)
• Boots: Indigo by Clarks via Amazon
• Pantyhose: Just My Size via Walmart
• Coat: Kohl's
• Scarf: Kohl's (came with the coat)

This is one of my favorite outfits. Its one of the first outfits we bought at Maurices after I got "okay" with my interest in fashion. I saw it on one of the store displays and bought it "as is" off the mannequin. The boots weren't with it, of course, I bought those later. They are actually one of my favorite pairs of boots too. I really like their dark brown color, and while they aren't leather, I found them on Amazon and watched them until they went on clearance for $25 (they were originally around $125). I really love how they look and they are extremely comfortable to boot! I have been waiting for the "right" occasion to wear this outfit since I started the blog. Unfortunately, I have had several opportunities lately to go out dressed and socialize, but various things interrupted those opportunities at the last minute. So this past weekend, we finally got dressed up to go out, even though we had no real plan.

Now, while we had no plan for the day, it still worked out that almost nothing went according to our un-plan. How that works, I'm not sure, but that's what happened. We started off by getting a late start. We had tried contacting a friend or two, but it was a holiday weekend, so everyone was either busy or didn't get the message until too late. And why I thought one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year would be a great time to discreetly sneak out... I'm still not really sure what I was thinking actually. The evolving un-plan for the day ended up being: take some outdoor pictures and go to an uncrowded restaurant with a couple of friends and eat a quiet meal while dressed up. Or something like that.

In addition to all the shopping traffic, on the way to the nearby larger city we discovered a sporting event was letting out. We discovered this because interstate traffic slowed to less than ten miles an hour for... most of the evening actually. In addition, due to our late start, we were rapidly running out of daylight (made worse by the traffic delays). At least the outdoor shots that turned out much better than I feared they would.

The shopping traffic plus the event traffic also meant every restaurant was packed, even the typically quiet restaurants we had picked out had lines. Ultimately I decided to put on the change of clothes I brought and wash off my makeup and so we wouldn't have to worry about the crowds.

On the whole, I'm not that disappointed. I think I would have gone in to a restaurant if pretty much any of the stuff that went awry had gone a little different, and the pictures did turn out nicely.

And of course, somehow, I had this idea I would get caught up over the holiday weekend here, and it turns out, I'm more behind than ever. I have not given up yet, and we'll see what this week brings. I hope this week brings me time take some outfit pictures, do some more posts, and read everyone's awesome blogs I have been missing. And of course I must add that my patient and wonderful wife took today's pictures (and she did my hair and makeup too).