Craving Houndstooth Pattern

I've been craving houndstooth pattern for a while now, and I think it I now like it best in brown colors. Tommy Hilfiger's Fall 2012 ad campaign set me off, and I went hunting for those perfect patterns and textures in my wardrobe.

Well, I dug out my tartan shorts in black and orange and wanted to wear them with houndstooth tights but Z started arguing that I shouldn't mix patterns. I shouldn't have listened but his opinion matters...

I liked the result but it turned out somewhat boring because of the lack of patterns. I must admit, though, I'm terrible with any sort of pattern, and I prefer sticking to solid colors. I'm just afraid of loud patterns.

I must warn you - I tend to abuse brown colors in Fall. I have way too much brown in my closet but it does make it easier to mix and match.

Anyway...

The sun was just setting and extremely bright, so the colors turned out too bright in the first few pictures. Some day, I'll figure out this photography science.

Trying to settle on a rock - not an easy task in heels...

Alright, have I convinced you to get these houndstooth tights yet? They have a self-explanatory name (United Kingdom tights) and are also available in black & white.

Picnic in the Park

I had this outfit in my mind for a very long time and thought it would be an easy one and would look sort of village-girl style. Once I started dressing up, it felt like I was getting ready for a wedding. As a bride. Everything was off-white or ivory and these lacy socks only added up to the feeling. Then I curled my hair, and yep, the feeling got even worse. I think the hat and the picnic basket helped a little to get rid of that feeling.
Z took lots of pictures. LOTS. First, I thought there weren't that many I liked but then I got carried away...
The focus of the shoot: Sethunya lacy over-the-knee socks by Trasparenze. Obviously. You will see a lot of them. The rest was just to mix up a little. But aren't these socks lovely? Love the pattern and the ribbons.

Quill is munching on the grass while I'm trying hard to prevent my heels from sinking in the dirt...

It's much nicer to be standing on a solid surface...

Sit tight, there are a lot more pictures of these socks coming...

Whew, I'll have to stop here.
The socks can be purchased here.

Friday Dinner at Zingerman's

If you ever visit Ann Arbor, you must go to Zingerman's for their famous sandwiches. They are soooo good.
We don't go there often as they are quite expensive, but it is a wonderful rare treat. Quill-pup also enjoys going there as he gets a piece or two of the delicious crusty bread.

Post-dinner walks are a tradition, and even better when they are in a nice park...
Happy weekend!

Rug-Inspired Eye Makeup

I mentioned earlier my jewel-color obsession, in particular, teal/green shades. I saw this rug in a catalog and had to dump everything and try the color combo on my eyes immediately. Luckily, I had almost exact shades in my The She Space collection. Oh, it looks like that company is reopening soon; yay!

The colors of this rug are so vibrant, the pictures don't do any justice. It's extremely dark and cloudy today, so no good lighting.

These eyeshadow minerals matched almost perfectly...

And... if you own a camera with manual lens, you know how difficult it is to focus on something without looking... How do you take pictures of your eye makeup? I'm always amazed my some sharp pictures some makeup bloggers take of their own faces. It might be the time to purchase an auto-zoom lens... I also tried really hard to not wrinkle the closed eye to show the colors. Failure. What I see in the mirror is so much brighter than what the camera sees!

Cropped to see better...

Cropped even more for close-up. Excuse my hair post-washing flyaways...

Bottom color was the dark blue, then teal in the middle, and then green on top. But it shows as two colors only. The teal must be hiding in that eyelid fold that I tried really hard to avoid. Sigh...

Challenges, Challenges...

I have a tendency of picking a-difficult-to-style clothing and then trying to create a wearable outfit. This time it was metallic/silver leggings that were quite challenging because nothing in my wardrobe would work with them. They are sort of futuristic and a bit too edgy. They would look fabulous with faded pink or peach colors based on these pictures I saved from the web a long time ago. I forgot to write down the designer because I wasn't planning to post them on the web. Sorry about that!

So, I went hunting on yoox.com and saw this high-low shirt with a gray owl on it, and thought "it was it!". It is not pink but it seems to work still. Anyway, here is the final outfit...

I rolled up the leggings to make them look like pants! They are pretty long because you are supposed to bunch them up (plus, my legs are on the shorter side).
They are available here, and they are on sale right now for only $16!

Shirt by American Retro: www.yoox.com (think it's sold out)
Pumps by Michael Antonio: www.endless.com
Bag: thrifted

Setting Sun

This is going to be a picture overload, sorry guys. I had troubles choosing my favorites. This is the first time I have my pictures taken with my puppy dog, Quill, who is 10.5 years old now. We just enjoyed our walk while the sun was setting.

This outfit consisted mostly from my favorite clothes. A-line shift dress from Asos in chartreuse (I believe that's the name of the color, it's greenish yellow). B. Makowsky platform pumps that are very, very comfortable for their height. Very sad I didn't buy them in black, too, before they sold out. The Emmy sheer polka dot pantyhose from Marilyn is absolutely cute! They they are subtle and yet eye-catching in certain lights. I am currently in 60's mood, and hope this outfit conveyed it pretty well.

Asos A-line shift dress (www.asos.com), B. Makowsky pumps (www.dsw.com), Marilyn polka dot tights (www.thestylishfox.com)

Color Junky - Teal, Yellow, Green

I am so obsessed with bright colors. I enjoy just staring at them. I'd expect myself to be wearing them as well but it is a more rare thing. I went crazy buying mineral eye shadows a couple of years ago from a company that was shutting down. The She Space. I grabbed a lot of colors but later realized that they mostly were in the same color families - teal, green, yellow, orange, purple... Peacock colors. Unfortunately, I barely wore them after I bought them. Every now and then, I take them out of the bags where I have them sorted by these color families and just stare at that magic glitter that sparkles in many different colors.
I recently tried to find out if that company was still online, but it seems to have completely disappeared. Pity, the eye shadows are quite amazing and very finely milled. If you know if the owner has another website now, please let me know.

I love how there is even bokeh from sparkles in the picture below!

The brown below is amazing. It has teal, pink, and yellow sparkles in it.

I was taking pictures of the pantyhose color by the window for our store today (peacock color; hoping that someone else is as obsessed as I am). I looked at the pictures later and realized that the plates and napkins under the pantyhose are... well, you see yourself. This was not arranged; it is a coincidence that they all happened to be together. Plates are custom-made for me by my mother-in-law. See how obsessed I am? :)

But then, when you look at this least colorful love of my life, maybe things aren't that bad...

(Quill licking frozen baby food. Yummy snack for a hot day.)

And yet another look with suspender tights

There is no doubt, there are tons of outfits/looks with mock suspender tights on the internet. And surprisingly, these tights are not getting any less popular. They seem to make a huge statement and you don't really need to wear anything special with them. Most fashionistas wear them with a mini skirt or shorts to show those mock suspender straps. These tights are a bit too much for my age, so I tried to make the outfit classy but cheeky at the same time.
I wore one size smaller (which I strongly discourage you from doing as they turned into over-the-knee sock look tights later and were overstretched) and I was expecting them to rip at any time, but it did not happen. Whew. Why I wore one size smaller? Because that's the only spare pair I had laying around that wasn't sent to a customer due to a minor snag in the sheer part. The trick with these tights is to not pull, especially in the sheer part. Pulling your tights/pantyhose is a SURE way to making a run. Believe me. The right way is to gently stretch them starting from the very toe and up.
Anyway, here is what I wore on a chilly April Saturday (with Carisma mock suspender tights).