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.

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!)

Bright outfit, cold day, and an unexpected blogging break.

• Sweater: Maurices
• Skinny Jeans: Torrid (previously)
• Boots: Torrid (previously)

First, I must apologize for my absence. While I have never publicly committed to a posting schedule, I like to make sure that I post "regularly", and frankly I feel worse that I have not been reading and leaving comments on other blogs as well. I will chalk it all up to a lack of time coupled with technical difficulties: This year has been... busy for lack of a better way to put it, and then I ended up suffering from a lost (and then found...) wallet (but not found before I canceled all the credit/bank/ATM cards and got a new id!), and a dead computer, (and all this interrupted working on pulling together stuff for our taxes... which are still not done! Ugh). In fact, my computer is still dead. Thankfully I don't think I lost anything, but I'm still waiting on a new one, and borrowing my wife's computer at the moment. And the cake topper was tripping and damaging a pair of heels on their first outing (I'm fine... the heels... not so much). I would love to tell you all that I suffered all this with grace, poise and dignity, and that I was pleasant to be around. But that would be a lie, so I won't say that.

On the other hand, I do have a backlog of outfits to post as soon as I can work out some technical details of getting them off my old computer, and I have some pictures still on the camera for even more posts. Alas, I will still be posting... somewhat randomly for the next few days. And while I would love to go back over all the blogs I have missed, I will be doing a lot of skimming and then hitting "mark all as read" in Google Reader soon, and hopefully figuring out a better way to stay on top of my reading, and I am so sorry for missing out what has been happening with everyone and your wonderful outfits. So please excuse this brief rambling post and forgive me for not staying on top of everyone's blogs, and hopefully enjoy this outfit from a few weeks ago that I uploaded before I had computer problems. And about this outfit. I did have to wear a white tank top under the sweater because it was a little too "see thru", but other than that, I felt really comfortable and cute in it on a cold day. In fact, it was so comfortable I didn't want to take it off that evening, which is always a good sign in my book.

Oh, and of course my fabulous wife took the pictures for this post, and even loaned me her computer so I could post it.

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.

Dinner and a haircut.

My outfit

• Dress: Asos (buy)
• Belt: Torrid (previously)
• Cardigan: Maurices (previously)
• Tights: JC Penney
• Boots: Nine West

My Wife's Outfit

• Top: Kohl's
• Skinny Jeans: Torrid
• Pumps: Nine West

The month of January was a bit of a rollercoaster, it had some major ups, and some frustrating downs, but mostly a lot of things to take up a lot of time. Hopefully my schedule will calm down for a bit. But this post is about a very big personal up for me. And since I said I would do Fabulous in February as organized by Hope and Melissa, I think this post will work into that quite well.

Early in January, I lucked into finding a seller on Craigslist who first had shoes in my size, and then clothes, and posted about that. For my second visit, I actually went dressed up, without my wife accompanying me, to see a person I didn't really know that well. That was a big deal for me, and a positive experience to be accepted by people in a situation like that. I'm sure I will post some outfits with the clothes I bought soon, but it turns out that was actually a good warm-up for the next weekend.

Our last haircuts were at Halloween, and we went in costume to get that haircut, and so I always had that to fall back on if anyone said anything. This time, however, there was nothing to hide behind. I dressed how I wanted, and thankfully, the hair salon we use is pretty cool like that. In hindsight, its hard to see why I was nervous, one of the stylists had a beard that went quite well with his dress. My stylist did a wonderful job on my hair, and that was a great start to the evening. And the outdoor pictures are at the park we've used several times before after the trip to the salon.

Next, we met up with two other female friends for dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant. I'll freely admit I was pretty nervous at this point, but I felt good about how I looked. We waited in the car until one of the friends arrived, and then headed in to get a table. Even though it was early, we ended up having to wait for a table, even after our other friend joined us. Dinner was good, and the waiter didn't say anything if he noticed.

Dinner ended up being a wonderful success. Ironically, the biggest shock of the evening was nothing. I felt pretty normal, and no one seemed to notice at all. We both enjoyed ourselves, got haircuts we were happy with, and had a fun dinner with some of our friends. I'm definitely looking forward to our next outing. I'm not sure when it will be, but the confidence boost I've gotten from my supportive friends and from all the wonderful support I've gotten from commenters and other bloggers.

And on that note, as part of Hope and Melissa's challenge, I'm supposed to list three positives about myself:

1. I'm honest. It's not always easy, and it doesn't always make getting along with other people easier, but I find it very difficult to deceive or maintain deceptions.
2. Crossdressing. I spent a good portion of my life feeling like crossdressing was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I still have plenty of down days. Whether this is a "lifestyle", a "hobby", or whatever, this is something I have never quite been able to "not" do. But this is part of who I am, and its not going away, and now I'm trying to enjoy and make it a positive, constructive part of my life.
3. I like my legs. It's probably my number one physical feature that gets comments here, and I don't think anyone had ever said anything about my legs before I started openly wearing skirts. And I admit I can't always see it myself, but I do like my legs, and I will say that here.

And with that, I hope I'll get back to a regular schedule and finding out what I've missed on everyone's wonderful blogs. And of course, my awesome wife took most of the pictures in today's 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.

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)! :)