Outfit: Rosey Posey

Top, Necklace, & Purse: Forever21 --- Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt: Handmade --- Tights: Kohls --- Shoes: Payless

Coat: ModCloth

 I'm back in my white tights today... gone is the sunny weather of the past two days, replaced by darkness my old friend (oh man, I totally should not even have made that reference at all).

I woke up this morning with my first sickness of 2011. It's just a cold thankfully and not the flu or anything ultra-nasty like that, but it does make it quite a lot worse that I have to work whilst having my cold. Is this what being an adult is like? Working when sick? I don't want to grow up! I want to be a Toys 'R Us kid!

Wow, another dumb reference. This cold is really messing with my head today.

Yesterday was my day off and I made a trip out to the fabric store to pick up some stuff to make myself some new skirts. I only got around to making one yesterday (the one I'm wearing right now), but I've got two more on the way. The original plan was to just get mustard yellow fabric, but I ended up spying two other prints I knew would make adorable skirts. Can't wait to see how the orange one turns out!

Outfits: My Favorite Skirts

March 9-

Favorite Skirt #1 also qualifies as my favorite thrift store find ever. Seriously, I love it. A lot. You can't really see it that well in the pictures, but it is pleated all the way around and has a great motion when I walk. So glad I found this guy.

This top was another Vera Wang item I picked up at Kohl's. It was on the clearance rack for a gazillion dollars off so I couldn't resist. I love how it ties at the neck.

March 10-

Favorite Skirt #2 is one that I bought a long time ago and didn't wear it for months because I thought is was really unflattering. I eventually figured out that if I got it to sit at my waist instead of my hips, though, it looks much better. I just use the waist sash to tie keep it in place. And now it's my best friend and I wish I could wear it every day. 

Side note: this is one of my new ModCloth coats! I love the color, and the buttons are super killer. And don't even get me started on the pink lining... pure gorgeousness...

The other coat I got is pretty cool, too. Not quite as fabulous as this one, but still good. The skirt, on the other hand, was awful. On the ModCloth site is said that it ran large so I should order a size down. So I did. And it's too small. Thanks for nothing, ModCloth. At least it was only $15... I can't imagine who would have paid the original $50 for it. The darn thing wasn't even lined.

Outfits: The Lost Look, the White Dress, and the Petri Dish

March 5-
I may have accidentally deleted the picture of this day's outfit, as I can't find it anywhere on my computer. Perhaps I'll come across it in a few days on some deep, dark corner of my pictures folder. I was able to find the picture I took of my new necklace that I made for myself, though, so not all is lost. I used some sweet Amethyst nuggets that I've had kicking around my bead box forever and a day. It's simple, but I really like it.

March 6-

Love love love love love love love love love love love love love love this dress I traded for with ModernMode. Meg (the shop owner) is so sweet and I love doing trades with her. She gets awesome jewelry and I get awesome dresses. Happiness all around!

I'm really looking forward to wearing this one without the cardigan and tights. It'll still probably be another few weeks before the weather allows for that, though.

Just noticed I forgot to list the belt! It was $6.29 at Urban Outfitters.

March 7-

So I finally got around to going to Kohl's yesterday to get myself some new gray tights, since both my dark and light gray pairs had huge holes in them and were no longer wearable. Naturally I found two other pairs I liked, but they were a good price and I had a 15% off coupon so I let myself splurge and get 4 pairs total (2 gray, 1 ivory, and the lavender ones I'm wearing right now).

I also scoped out some sweet Vera Wang tank tops that were only $15 each, and after the additional discount I thought they were a pretty good price so I got two (the other one has a different print). I like this one a lot even though I think it looks like a petri dish.

And I never thought this would happen to me or that I would ever be willing to admit it on the internet, but I fell in love with a pair of Lauren Conrad shoes. I'm not really sure who Lauren Conrad is except that she was on some dumb TV show a while back (maybe she still is? I don't know...) so I automatically want to hate everything she designs. But there was no way I could make myself hate these shoes. So stinking cute. They were also $45, though, and no matter how much I wanted to get them I couldn't make myself spend that much on them. I found them on the Kohl's website and now have them bookmarked, so if they go on sale I will be ready. Check them out HERE and tell me if I'm crazy for loving them or not.

Outfits: Pink and Frilly

March 3-

In yesterday's "Save Money" post, I said you should never skip the sale section just because you think it's gross stuff that a store is trying to get rid of. I think Target was really trying to get rid of this shirt because it was on $3.74 and it was the last one, but I'm not going to complain. I didn't have any light pink shirts like this so I thought it would be good to have at least one in my collection. So yay for cheap, new clothes!

March 4-

I realized I hadn't worn any of the loot I got from my trip to the first ever Oregon H&M yet, so I broke out my frilly cardigan today. I was originally going to wear some heels, but when I put them on and looked in the mirror I just looked so... girly. So out came the flats and, of course, my favorite gray jacket, which both helped to tone down the fancy-pants-ness of it.

Outfits: Cheapy Cheapy

I'm switching to every other day outfit posts, just FYI. I felt bad for junking up everyone's blog rolls. :)

March 1st-

Uhm, super cheap outfit, am I right? When was the last time you saw an 8 piece ensemble for only $20.25? Granted, the dress didn't cost me anything because my mom made it for me, and the jewelry didn't cost me either (well, other than supply costs) because I made it myself, but STILL.

March 2nd-  

I love this skirt I found at St. Vincent's on my last trip there (which was oh so long ago... the first thing I'm going to do when I stop working 6 days a week is dedicate an entire day to thrift shopping). It's kind of like a faux-leather. It is perhaps a little longer than I'd like, but I can deal with it since it's not the type of material that your just hem up in 5 minutes.

Outfits: From the farm straight to your monitor

True story about this outfit:
I wore this same top and skirt combo (styled differently, of course) to church a few weeks ago. I teach 4th and 5th grade Sunday School for girls, and usually they go gaga over what I wear. OK, so not really gaga, but I'm pretty much the fashion icon of 5th graders at my church.
Well, when I walked into class wearing this shirt, one of the girls looked me up and down a few times and said, "Wow, Leanna, it looks like you just came from the farm." Uhm, okay. "Is that a good thing?" I asked her. "Yeah, I like it," she said. The moral of my tale: If you are ever going to talk to a group of 5th grade girls, try going for a farmer-chic look and they will love you.

That said, I don't think I look like I came from the farm. Unless the farm was one that it would be acceptable to wear heels to.

Outfit & A Rant About Facebook

Last night I did myself the biggest favor ever and picked out my outfits for the rest of the week. There was nothing interesting on TV so I just decided to go play dress up for a while so I could save myself some time the rest of the evenings this week. So now I have 4 more outfits all picked out and hanging, in order, in my closet. If only other aspects of my life were so organized...

But anyways.
I was going to take a moment to rant about the number of people on facebook doing the stupid 60 Day Photo Challenge (if you don't know what I'm talking about, be glad), but then I remembered that I did a 30 Day Blogging challenge and a lot of people probably thought that was stupid too so maybe I won't complain.

Nah, I'll complain anyways.

Seriously, almost half of my news feed is pictures for this challenge. I have to sift through all these random pictures that I don't care about (i.e. A picture that makes you smile. A picture of your dream car. A picture of your favorite sport... and the list goes on and on) to find actual status updates that I might care about. Because if I can't keep up with who's dating who and who just broke up then I will die! Die, people! This is serious!

OK, so maybe it's not such a big deal, but the end of this stupid challenge cannot come quickly enough. If you want to post pictures of all of your favorite things, get a blog. Facebook is for dumb status updates, blogs are for pointless pictures. The end.

Outfit: A Dress as a Skirt

Confession: I am covering up the top half of my favorite Calvin Klein dress with a thrifted sweater that cost me less than 2 bucks. Is that like a sin or something? I don't know, but I like the way it looks! I would love the way this looks even more with a necklace instead of a cowl and with no tights, but alas, the weather disagrees. Brr.

Outfit: Multi-Purpose

Today I'm doing lots of things.
1) Going to get coffee
2) Going to work
3) Going to dinner
4) Going to a play
5) Going home

Most people would wear like 3 different outfits for a day like mine. But me? I just wear the same thing for all events. I have the most kick-awesome (yeah, I just said kick-awesome. No potty-mouthing here!) job ever that the dress code for is "dress pretty", so it's no big deal to wear something that will carry me throughout the day. I'll just add a coat for tonight so I don't freeze to death and I'm set!

Outfit: Thrifty

Pretty cheap outfit today, no? Buying stuff at thrift stores and making your own jewelry tends to have that effect. It would have been especially cheap if I had left my cowl at home, but it's super cold today so there was no way I was going commando on my neck. And seriously, this cowl is freakishly soft and cozy, so I don't regret one single dollar I spent on it. Thanks, Trisha!

Outfit: Return of the Jeans - Day 10: Love/Kiss

Today I'm giving my cowl the day off. The poor little guy is curled up at home with a cup of tea and watching a movie, trying desperately to recover after being so over-used lately.

I also realized today that it has been almost two weeks since the last time I worn any jeans. Considering I used to wear nothing but jeans, I can tell I've come a long way in the past few months. Go me! I had been thinking about doing the style challenge of going a month without wearing jeans, but I've kind of already been doing that lately so I don't think it would be much different than usual.

And now for another very short short paragraph for the 30 Day blogging challenge, which you can view in it's entirety by clicking HERE.

Day 10: Discuss your first love and your first kiss.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Hahaha.
OK, so kidding aside, I've not been in love nor been kissed. I'm not one of those people that is planning on saving my first kiss for my wedding or whatever, but I am also not one of those people that would just go around kissing any guy that liked me. There is no doubt in my mind that God has a guy for me out there somewhere, and I just have to wait on God's timing and He'll work everything out.

1/3 of the way through the challenge!

Outfit: Vintage --- Day 4: Religion

I didn't realize it until right now, but I have the exact same look on my face in both of these pics, have my hands in my pockets in both of these pics, and have my feet crossed in both of these pics. Wow. Sorry about that.

Both my shirt and my shorts are vintage. I got the shirt from VintageOutlet and the shorts from miskabelle, both on Etsy.

I was quite concerned about wearing socks over my tights. In my head I thought they looked fine, but then the doubt monster came stumbling in and started laughing at me. So to show the doubt monster who is boss, I went on Chictopia to find some examples. And sure enough, I found some. Take that, Mr. Doubt! [Image Source: Chictopia.com]

So now I am happily at work, gray tights with white socks and all. I am also enjoying my breakfast, which comes in the form of donuts and coffee from the coffee shop two stores down from where I work. And not just one or two donuts, but twelve donuts.

Yay for mini donuts!

Okey dokey, artichokes. I'm pressing onwards in the 30 Day Blog Challenge (see the full list HERE).

Day 4: My Views on Religion

I love religion! Well, I love my religion anyways. I'm a non-denominational Christian, which means that on Facebook (and back in the day when I did MySpace), I get to enter the generic "Christian" label under the religion area on my profile, which I HATE because that's what most people who don't really practice a religion put. Believing that God exists does not make you a Christian, buddy. If you had ever cracked your Bible open or gone to church you would know that.

Anyways...
I've gone to church my whole life. The only time I don't go to church is when I am (a) sick, (b) on a trip, or (c) when there is a tennis final on TV - which is only four times a year so don't laugh at me. I also know, however, that going to church every Sunday doesn't make you any more of a Christian than those who believe that God exists and say they're a Christian on Facebook. A Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and believes that He came to earth and died and rose again so that sinful, undeserving men and women could have the opportunity to be saved.

Wow, I went from tennis finals to the resurrection of Jesus in one paragraph. If that's not talent I don't know what is.

Outfit: Dressy

New background! This is a wall at work... thrilling, I know. But get used to it for the next several weeks.

I spent a month in Vietnam in the summer of '06 and bought this necklace there, and haven't worn it once since then. It's managed to survive several closet-clean-outs, and finally today it gets its chance to shine. Welcome to the limelight, you little $3 necklace you. :)
I cannot get enough of this dress, which I first introduced you to back HERE. The best part about it? It was a present! My mom let me pick out a dress to wear to graduation because she never had to buy me a prom dress. Added bonuses:
-Most prom dresses cost at least $100, if not much, much more. So still less than a prom dress!
-I've worn this 4 times now. How many people do you know that have re-worn their prom dress more than once?

When my mom saw me wearing it again this morning, she smiled and said, "That was such a good buy." It's nice to know she doesn't regret getting it either! :)

Outfit: Orange

I can honestly not remember ever having worn the color orange before. Maybe I used to wear it a lot and just have bad memory, or perhaps I've just actually never worn it. Regardless, I wore it yesterday and was quite pleased with the color. I think it's a good shade for my skin tone.

This outfit was another hit at church yesterday, much to my surprise. It usually seems like the outfits that I'm on the fence about are the ones that end up being liked the most, while the outfits that I am in love with are never mentioned by anyone (which I know doesn't mean people don't like it, but still, it makes one wonder...).

Anyways, I just wanted to show off the earrings I made. Unfortunately I cannot lay claim to the beautiful wire loops (I purchased them that way), so they were actually much easier to make than they probably look like. Nonetheless, I like them very much and have been wearing them frequently the past few weeks.
Music Monday post coming soon!

Outfit: Handmade

The pattern that I bought to make this skirt (I wouldn't normally buy a skirt pattern since they are like three pieces, but it was cheap and I thought it would be good to practice reading patterns) said it was super easy and for very-beginning sewers. Silly me thought that meant it would take like 20 minutes to make. Try more like 5 hours. Embarrassing, I know.

Of course, the fact that I kept on sewing things wrong and spending twice as long ripping seams out as I was putting them in may have had something to do with it.

Also, I was quite grumpy towards the end of it, due to the following conversation:

Mom: "Be careful not to let that fabric bunch up underneath while you sew it."
Leanna: "I KNOW, mom," said in a haughty,irritated tone because any dummy can tell you not to let the fabric bunch up.
[Leanna begins to sew, fabric bunches up underneath, Leanna sews right over it and has to spend the next 15 minutes ripping out stitches and resewing it.]

How come moms are always right?

I'm just happy that the skirt actually turned out wearable, otherwise my 5 hours of agony would have been all for naught.

Sorry I don't know the price of the shoes... I've had them for so long and never worn them before and I can't remember. I'd guess less than $13, though.

Outfit: Red Pants

I was so stinking scared to leave my house wearing red pants. I thought for sure someone was going to throw something at me. Thankfully, no such occurrences took place, so perhaps I will be brave enough to wear them out in public again some time... right after I get done posting a picture of them for the whole internet to see. My logic is not so great sometimes.

Outfit: Keeping It Floral

I don't care if it's fall and floral isn't in anymore... I got a steal of a deal on this skirt and I'm going to wear it anyways. I got this shirt so long ago I don't remember how much it cost, but we're talking about Target here so chances are it was in the $7-$10 range. I've also had these shoes for years (am I old enough to say that yet?) and they've served me well. Classic black sling-backs: every girl needs a pair. Or two.

Today I want to clarify a few things:

1) Every outfit that I show here on my blog is something I actually wore in public. This is not me sitting in my room tying on random clothes (I do that quite often, but don't take pictures).

2) Just because I post an outfit on a certain day doesn't mean that's what I wore on that exact day. I try to space out all of my different blog topics to keep things more interesting and not so one-note. When I wear something I think is worthy of being on my blog, I take a picture and save it for when I think it's time for another outfit blog. This outfit I'm posting right now is actually what I wore 2 Sundays ago. So if you are one of the very few people who read my blog and actually know me in real life, that's why it doesn't always match up.

On a completely different topic, there was a tornado in Oregon today... what is the world coming to?

Outfit: The Casual Thrifter

This sweater is American Eagle, which means the rich soul that bought it the first time around probably shelled out a good $30-$40 for it. It is also cut rather strangely, which leads me to believe that the rich soul that bought it was, in fact, a man. I am not above cross-dressing, however, and I shall wear this sweater proudly. Besides, girl argyle is always pink and purple. Lame.

Outfit: Second Hand Steals

Stepping outside the comfort zone.

-Thrifted Old Navy Salmon Cardigan: $1.99, Teen Challenge
-Ivory Knit Top: $14.80, Forever21
-Black Pencil Skirt: $?, JCPenney
-Basket Weaved Cream Rope Belt: $6.80, Forever21
-Apt. 9 Gray Tights: $5, Kohl's
-Black Predictions Oxfords: $19.99, Payless
-Cut-Out Circles Stretch Bracelet: $4, Charlotte Russe

The other day I went and shopped at a thrift store, a completely new and frightening experience for me. I tried to pretend like I knew what I was doing/looking for, but I really just ended up wandering around grabbing clothes that I thought had any sort of potential. After I'd tried everything on and made my final selections, I had 7 items and my total came to a whopping $13.46. For that price, it doesn't even matter if I don't end up wearing half of what I bought!

Probably my favorite find was this Old Navy cardigan. I've been attempting to add a bit more color to my wardrobe (I just went through a hard-core ivory phase, and now find myself leaning towards gray and black combos), so this is a great piece for me with its awesome shade of pink/salmon, paired with the orange strip running down the front. I've already worn this piece twice and plan on wearing it again. All that for $2!

And on a side note, don't those black oxfords I just bought at Payless look pretty darn similar to these Seychelles ones that I included in my last Seychelles post? Obviously they aren't made from the same materials, but for less than 1/5 of the price that's fine by me.

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This one is super old (well, like 2-3 weeks). I forgot I had the pics and needed to post them.

Pink Button-Up Top: $19.99, Charlotte Russe

BKE Madison Jeans: $74, Buckle

Pink Quilted Should Bag: $20.80, Forever 21

Black American Eagle Gladiator Sandals: $24.99, Payless

Purple Cabochon Headband: $12, DivineBijoux on Etsy

I really love this purse a lot. It's a great color and the antiqued silver studs keep it from looking too boring.

I also love this headband a lot. Just enough color to compliment the shirt, but not enough to overpower it. The seller that I bought it from was so nice, too.


Token shoe-shot, since I'm too tall to get my whole body in one picture :).

VR