Reminisce

Scarf: Bosnia --- Top and Skirt: Thrifted --- Seychelles Heels: Amazon --- Earrings: Handmade

Well hello there, wind. Thank you for coming an making my hair look epic.

I really love this outfit because it combines several of my current favorite wardrobe pieces (mustard Seychelles, black lace tank, scarf from Mostar). I made it a point on my trip to Bosnia not to buy any 'keepsake souvenirs' like little figurines and things that sit on your shelf and collect dust (or more often end up in a box under the bed), but instead to get things that I can wear and be reminded of my trip that way instead. I got myself this scarf and some jewelry, and I'm not sad at all that I passed on the miniature Stari Most statues.
The street where I got my scarf:

Gosh oh golly do I miss that town...

And real quick before I go, I have an opinion question. If you happened to have a $25 Forever21 gift card in your possession and were trying to decide what to buy with it, would you get this dress or this bag?

This isn't related, but aren't those shoes the model is wearing awful with the dress? Completely wrong style.

I Be Floral-y

Cardigan: Target --- Brooch: Etsy/Brydferth --- Top, Belt, And Skirt: Thrifted --- Pumps: Nordstroms/Seychelles --- Purse: Forever21 --- Rings: Handmade

Yesterday was such a nice day I decided to get off my lazy butt and do some shopping (which, you know, is such a burden). I did have to walk there since no one was around to give me a ride and I'm a turkey and don't drive, but it was positively lovely outside so I didn't mind at all. The only sad part about walking is that I can't wear as cute of shoes as I would like to, since generally speaking none of my cutesy heels are the type of shoes I'd feel comfortable walking a few miles in.

I only got a few things at the thrift shop, but they are pretty nice things so I was happy with the trip. My favorite find was probably this red tank top that I'm wearing today. It's Anne Taylor and has some cute pleating/tucking around the top. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the foolish, foolish woman in my town that bought it, left the tags on, never wore it, and then donated it to a thrift shop so little 'ol lucky me could score it for only $7. Brand new, people, brand new.

Anyways, I also went to the fabric store yesterday to get some fabric to make a mini wallet tutorial! I'm not sure how my time will go, but I'm hoping to do it tonight when I get home and put together the tutorial to post tomorrow or on Saturday. So dust off those old (or new) sewing machines of yours and get ready to make the cutest little wallet you'll ever own. Oh, and I'm going to give away the wallet I make for the tutorial, so be sure not to miss it! :)

New York Fashion Academy Annual Runway Show

The main purpose of my trip to Seattle this weekend was to go to the New York Fashion Academy's annual fashion show in which all the designer's who have completed the program show their collections. Don't ask me why it's called the New York Fashion Academy when it's in Seattle... some things are more interesting if you don't understand them.

I had the hardest time deciding what to wear to the show, but eventually decided to go with a fairly fail-proof option, my gray Calvin Klein dress. And of course I had to wear cute shoes, so out came the mustard Seychelles. I. Love. Mustard.

This pose was 100% directed by Joni, so if you think I look silly blame her, not me. :)

After taking this picture, Joni said, "My kitchen looks so cute! Oh... I guess you look cute, too!" Thanks, Joni.

Anyhow, the fashion show was super fun. 11 students showed collections and I was thoroughly impressed with most of them. The biggest disappointment for me was how short it was... each designer only showed 4-8 looks, so the whole thing was done within an hour. It was so good that I wanted it to keep on going!

After the show I popped over to say hi to Gina Marie, one of the designers that showed. Gina has been nice enough to answer a few questions for me about the school via email (as it turns out, my old piano teacher's daughter knows Gina and gave me her email). It was neat to be able to put a face to a name. Check out Gina's blog HERE.

We ended up getting to the show only a few minutes before it started so our seats weren't the the greatest for taking pictures, but I did  manage to snag a few.

These looks are from Gina's collection. She had her models wearing the cutest wigs.

All in all, it was a very fun trip! I'm so happy I got to go and see the show (I'm hoping to be able to go to NYFA this fall), and also to meet Joni and her family. As I am now safely on the train on my way home, I can officially say Joni is not a 60-year-old creeper man/ax murderer living in his mom's basement. Yay!

Outfit + Turquoise Etsy Finds

 Though it's actually quite nice today, I still am not quite brave enough to ditch foot covering just yet. I'm wearing flesh-colored socks. Cheating? Yes. But it's the first time in several months that I've worn a skirt or dress without tights, so I'm making progress!

I got this necklace at the coolest store ever in Corvallis: Many Hands Trading Company. They have all sort of neat stuff, from locally made to overseas. If you ever find yourself in downtown Corvallis with nothing better to do, you should check it out! They even have some Papaya Art stuff, and I got one of my Papaya art panels there. Good stuff.

Anywho, onto some Etsy finds! Today I took some search inspiration from my necklace and used the search term "turquoise bohemian" to find these goodies:

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Hope you are all enjoying your Saturday! Think fond thoughts of me as I sit inside at work, looking out the window at the sunshine all afternoon.

Outfits: Matchy Matchy

March 19-

Red pants + red shoes = fun. 

This is the second of the two jackets I got from the ModCloth Cabin Fever sale. When I got home from work on Saturday, my grandparents were over for dinner, and my grandma went gaga over this jacket, which I actually quite enjoyed. Most people my age would burn something if their grandma liked it, but not me. I take it as a compliment. :)

And just look at the lining! Glorious, glorious lining!

 I don't think I've ever had a picture of this sweet necklace I got in Vietnam when I was there in '08. I actually didn't wear it for probably at least a year after I got home because I didn't like how big it is. I'm glad I hung on to it for so long, though, since I love it now.

March 21-

I was feeling like doing something different today for my outfit picture, so this is what I came up with... I don't know if I'll stick with this or do my usual white background. Preferences?

I went on a jewelry making spree last night. You won't be seeing any of it in my Etsy shop, though, because it was all for ME. Mwahahaha. One of my new goodies:

Outfit: And then came the shoes...

Well I was on my way to another spectacularly inexpensive outfit, but that I couldn't resist myself and went with my favorite Seychelles pumps. Sue me.

This cowl is a late Christmas present from my sister that I got in the mail yesterday. She was going to try and make wristlets, but then I fell in love with cowls so I told her she could make me one of those instead. And I wanted a mustard one, and mustard is exactly what I got. Isn't the color fabulous?

And I realized this morning that I love turquoise and mustard together. I think I'm going to try and make excuses to wear those colors together all the time now. The ring is one that I saw my mom wearing yesterday and I immediately stole it from her (if my mom asks any of you if you know what happened to it, it wasn't me. Don't blow my cover.)

Outfit: Mismatched

On the way to work this morning my mom told me she doesn't think my outfit matches today. Well tut tut on her, because I think there's not a thing wrong with wearing a navy dress with dark brown tights with red shoes. In LeannaLand that's the only thing people wear, duh.

The necklace I'm wearing today was a present to myself a few weeks ago. I don't let myself wear the necklaces I make to sell on Etsy, so mostly the necklaces I have to wear myself are just the ones I've bought at Forever21 or received as gifts (and as you can imagine, I don't receive jewelry as a gift very often). Every now and then I make a conscious effort to make something for myself, though, and this necklace is one such item.

I love Chinese Porcelain!

I'm wearing something else new today... new shoes! I blogged about them on my shoe blog!

Seychelles for only $35? Yes please!

If I Were Rich: Shoe Edition

You may or may not have noticed, but I most often feature dresses for my Here Not There blogs, and there's actually a reason behind that beyond that dresses are prettiest to look at. When it comes to online shopping (and real-life shopping, for that matter), I am least tempted to buy dresses. I'm not sure why... I suppose that - even though I really like a lot of the dresses I look at - I just really don't hold that dear of a place in my heart for mass produced dresses. I'm more into unique dresses, such as the vintage ones that I buy on Etsy.

Shoes, however, I am very tempted to buy, and as a result I severely limit the amount of time I let myself look at them. Whenever I end up looking at shoes, I always buy some. Always. Last week I went to GoJane.com, and no less that 15 minutes after I started looking I had already bought myself another pair of brown boots (hey, they were cheap!). Yesterday I made the mistake of looking on Charlotte Russe and I fell madly in love with a pair of tan ankle booties. I haven't bought them yet, but I do have them bookmarked and the only reason I haven't bought them yet is because they're a bit more expensive than I feel comfortable with. We shall see...

Today, though, I let myself look without fear of spending; I only let myself look at the expensive shoes, because even I have my limits when it comes to shoe shopping. I once spent $60 on a pair of shoes and regretted it for days, even though I do really love the shoes. So for my pretend shopping trip today I only let myself look at shoes above $60.

My top picks from ModCloth (abbr. MC), Ruche, Lulu's, Urban Outfitters (abbr. UO), and Seychelles Footwear:

$60-$75:

$76-$100:

$101-$125:

$126-$150:

$151-$175:

$175+:

My very favorite pair of shoes out of the whole group, naturally, is the most expensive at $222. Curse my expensive tastes! They have been bookmarked on my laptop for quite some time now, and I make occasional visits to it just to make sure they are still there. I would never buy them at that price so I'm not really sure why I care, but the thought of them being gone, or them not having my size anymore, makes me want to boo-hoo. May it never be!

Outfit: Something Blue

Love these pumps. Love love love. Unfortunately they're a tad big (I'm in between a 10 and 11, so I ordered 11), but I bought some of the ankle grip things to help keep them on my feet. And the tights helped, too.

This dress is another that I traded for with ModernMode. It's a bit bigger than I'm used to, but a belt quickly solved that problem. This is my go-to belt now for dresses... it matches everything so well. And for only $4.50!

Here Not There: Seychelles Shopping

So it's no secret that I think Seychelles shoes are the most gorgeous things to ever exist on this earth, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I do not have the money to fund my obsession. If I ever happen to be rich, though, you can be sure that I will be stocking up my closet from top to bottom with a whole lot of Seychelles goodness.

Even if I am rich someday, however, I will still want to get the best deal on my shoes as I can. So I sat down today and did some price comparison amongst the Seychelles Footwear online shop, Urban Outfitters, and ModCloth (both UO and MC stock some styles of Seychelles shoes).

Note: From hereafter, UrbanOutfitters will be referred to as UO, and ModCloth will be referred to as MC.

In most cases, the Seychelles Footwear shop had the best deals. There were a few exceptions, but I'll get to those at the end.


There were two cases in which UO and MC's regularly priced Seychelles shows were cheaper than at the Seychelles Footwear shop, but the difference was minimal...


So by now you may be thinking, "Well gee, why would anyone ever buy Seychelles shoes from Urban Outfitters or ModCloth?" In most cases, that's good thinking. Don't pay more for the shoes than you have to. But if you are ever considering getting a pair of Seychelles shoes, always check at UO or ModCloth to see of they have that style there.

The reason for this is that shoes in the Seychelles Footwear shop don't go on sale. Urban Outfitters and ModCloth, however, do mark down shoes. There weren't any currently on sale at ModCloth, but UO had two pairs marked down to dramatically lower prices.

Nordstroms also carries some styles of Seychelles. Regularly priced Nordstrom's Seychelles are all $0.05 than at the Seychelles Footwear shop, so it's not much of a difference, but they do have a few styles on sale for up to 50% off. Check out their selection HERE. I did not include their pics and prices in this blog, however, because their site is really boring to browse. Make your site cooler, Nordstroms!

Anyways, be a smart shopper, always check around before you buy!