Wear*It Wednesday: Graphic Tee Edition

It's time for Wear*It Wednesday! I am so, so excited, you guys. Everyone in this post looks so stinking stylish. Here we go!

Mandy of Juggling Chic is up first, and doesn't she look awesome? I can totally see her walking down the streets of Nashville in this outfit. (That's a compliment, I swear!)



Next is Salazar from 14 Shades of Grey. Between the outfit and the backdrop--I'm just amazed. Her photography is so pretty, and she is too. And her shirt is adorable!



Hilary of Young and Naive is a newcomer to WIW and she knocked it out of the park, don't you think? I mean, I'm a fan of the Black Keys anyway so I'm partial, but the hat and cardigan? Adorable.



Rebekah of From the Mixed-Up Files says that this outfit would fit in at her church since there are quite a few Packers jerseys spotted in the pews on Sundays. Well, boo Packers but yay for this outfit! Pink/white/blue is a great upgrade on the classic red/white/blue I've been fighting with.



Rachel basically invented WIW so of course she's going to do it too. And of course she's going to look awesome. She recently revamped her blog, For the Birds, but no matter what she calls it, it's still thrifting gloriousness.



Look. At. This. Blazer. BiblioMOMia has found essentially the best blazer in the world and I am so glad she shared it! & her shirt is from Out of Print Clothing, which specializes in putting book covers on shirts. Awesome!



Flyingpurplehippos.com is joining the WIW fun for the first time too, and I'm thrilled to have her! If this purple tee & these boots are any indication, we're in for some very cool outfits.



Jackie of Made with Love by Jackie B. is pulling off the most perfect Parisian vibe with this outfit. I love the high waisted skirt with the sandals. She looks so pretty!



Last but not least, here's my outfit. It was freezing when I woke up today and it has stayed that way but I refuse to let The Man get me down! I love this top--I ordered it from a menswear clompany because I liked the design so much.


Cardigan: Target | Tee: CXXVI Clothing | Bracelet: Target | Skirt: Walmart | Tights: Target | Socks: Target | Boots: Target

I want to thank you all for your participation. You've made this such a huge success and you've made me crazy happy in the process! How I feel is photographed below. Thanks K. for photographing me and I hope you all enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed making it!

Generally lacking in moral dignity

Coat: Target
Dress: eShakti
Tights: Target
Boots: Target



The clock is ticking, you guys! Graphic tee Wear*It Wednesday lands tomorrow! Get a camera and send me those pics!



Otherwise, here's me going about honestly buying and wearing a dress from eShakti. No blogger incentives, no bonuses for my review, just me thinking this dress was cute and buying it (albeit with a code from Fab Finds under $50 so I saved $20). I usually am pretty wary of anything that involves giving my measurements, and doubly so with eShakti since I've heard very mixed things about their tailoring and customer service. But now that it's on and around me, I can say I'm extremely pleased--the dress fits like a charm, and it's very beautifully made (and pockets!). Of course, the pitfall of this is that the company is based in India--I have nothing personal against India (Indians need to work too!), but I live in a part of the country that was heavily negatively impacted by the loss of textile companies to outsourced employment, and buying this dress was a somewhat hard pill for me to swallow morally once I knew it was coming from India. I'm generally not a heavily morally upright person--I'm loose of lip to say the least--but this involved some internal conflict. Obviously I ended up buying the dress and I'm happy with the end result, but if you're not thrilled with outsourcing (or wholly against imported clothing) you may want to look elsewhere.

But for me, it's hard to beat anywhere that sells dresses for plus and straight sizes, especially when they include custom sizing for $7.50. That's kind of a big deal for my huge arms and proportionally-challenged chest. So overall, the pros outweigh the cons this time around! I'd like to get this dress next--perfect summer living on a houseboat kind of dress. This may or may not be my plan for summer vacation. Don't steal my idea ok? Or if you do, at least book your time on the houseboat after me.

Paging overt Americans

Shirt: Old Navy
Dress: Loft
Wedges: Shoe Carnival



Part of my goal with this year's shopping diet is to pull out some of the lesser worn pieces in my closet, and this dress is definitely one of them. I bought it last April for a pair of weddings, and it hasn't been worn since. Until today! Hiyo! I've been wanting to wear this dress to work; I was worried I was going to look like some crazy patriot in this outfit but it doesn't look overtly American. I mean, I love America, don't get me wrong. But it's like wearing green and red any other time than Christmas. It can get weird. Fortunately I think the kind of cornflowery shade of this dress offsets the USAUSAUSA chants I'm hearing in the background.



There's one more day for everyone to email me (animatedcardigan@gmail) your graphic tee outfits! I'm getting so excited seeing the pictures I'm receiving. Everyone so far has looked amazing! Rachel will be posting a few inspiring looks tomorrow, and if you need even more ideas, there's always my graphic tee pin board. Or I can bat around ideas with you if you want. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled graphic tees yearning to be worn free!

Holiday time is here I guess

Top: Threadless
Skirt: thrifted
Boots: Target



Lens flare all over this piece. I took my pictures today after putting the ham in the oven (we don't do turkey) and before our guests arrived for Thanksgiving. And in keeping with my promise to bring you some looks with graphic tees, here's one!



I noticed in yesterday's post that most of the shirts I wore were blue. So I thought I'd try avoiding that this time around. I'm in the process of developing a board on Pinterest specifically for graphic tees so everyone has some inspiration for Wear*It Wednesday! :D I'm still in the process of finding pictures but here's the board if you're interested.



And for those of you who are American, I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of pie/turkey/whatever and be thankful for friends, family, and life. I know I am.

On graphic tees

Next Wednesday my first time hosting Rachel's amazing weekly feature, called Wear*It Wednesday. I'm featured on Matters of Merrymaking today wearing a tunic! Don't ask me what a tunic is though because I'm still not sure I get it. Anyway, the concept is like a mini-EBEW, where each week is assigned an item of clothing and style bloggers submit their looks to another blogger, who hosts that week. The hostess gets to pick the theme, and I'll admit I kind of jumped in without knowing what my item was going to be. Fortunately a flash in a pan/laundry basket it brought me an idea: how about that graphic tee lumped at the bottom of the pile?



I'll admit it. I own a ton of graphic tees and I wear them a LOT. They're rarely seen on this blog because they're normally not allowed where I work, which is totally understandable. Graphic tees can be a pretty loaded issue, because they can cause strife, insult others who don't agree with your shirt's statement, or seem entirely immature. This is rare, but you wear a shirt with strategically placed shamrocks and you're bound to receive some looks.



I know you've been desperate to see some shots of me in college, and I've been equally desperate to share them with you, so here we go. This was quite honestly my college uniform--one of a rotating cast of 30 graphic tees from Threadless, a pair of jeans from American Eagle, and my trusty black Vans. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes I'd throw on one of two cardigans and that would be a fancy day--if I had a presentation to give, most likely, or a meeting with my adviser. Often, though, my classmates learned something from my shirts: a) that I was a walking billboard for Threadless, and b) that I had Whimsy and Vibrance. Or at the very least I had to have some sort of personality.



The point here is that throughout my life, I've spent a lot of time expressing myself through graphic tees. Even today, when we were allowed to wear our team colours at work to "celebrate" the Palmetto Bowl (I'm sorry but Army-Navy is really the big deal, not Clemson-Carolina), I bucked the trend by dusting off my Invincible/Eagles shirt from Philavania. I wish I could wear it everyday but I won't because that's overkill.



So here's the deal. Since I'm off all weekend, how about some outfits involving graphic tees? And then you can take all of the little you've learned from my styling my graphic tees and you can style your own graphic tees and email picture of them to me at animatedcardigan at gmail.com. I'll be featuring them ALL on the 30th to celebrate the...uh...end of November. So dig out that college shirt proclaiming your love for the local bar or your English department and join me!

Muddy walkers

Scarf: Target
Top: Target
Pants: JCPenney
Flats: Banana Republic



Working on a tip from approximately five years ago (I'm serious), I checked out one of many local churches, hoping there would be a swing set and no people around. Apparently there aren't any church parties that go down Tuesday afternoons because I had the place to myself and check out this amazing swing set! My neighbour was right. For once.



Like many milestones from my college career, my graduation was an anticlimactic event. There was much excitement (and dread) on my part, which quickly warped into annoyance when I watched the weather report and read emails from college administration warning of procedures for commencement "in the event of inclement weather". Usually, graduation at my college was held on the main campus circle, but rain threatened to move it inside, while family & friends would have a thrilling time watching in my half-packed apartment on closed circuit tv.



Fortunately the rain blew through overnight & graduation took place outside, but not without 50 degree temperatures and everyone's favourite material: mud. Lots of mud. Everyone walked the same path up to the stage to receive their diplomas, and the walkway wasn't reinforced, and by the time I (with about 200 people going ahead of me) took the great walk myself, the walk was glistening with mud. I was, by the way, wearing these shoes. And there was mud on the outside, mud on the inside, and mud on my pants. It was awful, and my feet needed to thaw after the ceremony was over. Fortunately I have a smart mother who was like "let's hose these off!" and they were good as new. And I got a diploma that day, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

The return of the jedi

Thaaaaat's right. What We Wore is BACK! K. and I ran across the street on our break for some fun quality time in front of the camera. So here we go!



I'm wearing:

Cardigan: Anthro
Dress: Anthro, shortened with safety pins for the day
Tights: Walmart?
Heels: thrifted (!!!!)
Red nails: Zoya Carmen
Green nails: butter London British Racing Green
Yellow nails: butter London Cheeky Chops
Blue nails: China Glaze First Mate
Gray nails: Zoya Dove



I thought maybe it would be a good idea to repaint my nails and do the skittle thing again. I'm not making this a permanent habit but I kind of love the effect.



K. is wearing:

Necklace: This and That
Top: Dots
Bracelets: Dots
Pants: Dots
Flats: Shoe Department
Button: Work



K. wears this necklace nearly daily. She's a big New Orleans Saints fan, which is good because otherwise I'd have to kick her out of my friends circle because she also likes the Washington Redskins. Just kidding, we both know our respective teams suck this year.



By the way, I tweeted a couple days ago that I thrifted a pair of shoes. HERE THEY ARE. $5, people. I got crazy lucky--I've been looking for duo toned shoes (exhibit a: this pin) for a few months now and haven't found anything in my price point that would be available after my shopping diet was over, but for $5 I'm willing to break said diet. I think it was worth it. And they've been worn maybe 3 times at most because the original tread is still on the sole!



This is one of the first pictures we took, and it was really morea practice shot than anything. As soon as I saw it I was like "whoa, K.! I look so much taller than you!" And then she looked up at me and said "well, you are." Touche, K. Touche.

See y'all tomorrow!


iwhipmyhairbackandforthiwhipmyhairbackandforth

Polished

Sweater: Old Navy
Top: Old Navy
Jeans: American Eagle
Flats: Toms
Thumb: Zoya Colette
Index: butter London Wallis
Middle: butter London Victoriana
Ring: butter London Knees Up
Pinky: Zoya Dannii



When you were a kid, did you ever have a problem with nail polish? I had a serious problem. I was addicted. I used it not only on my nails but for art projects. Possibly involving toothpicks. And more than once I spilled my polish on the beige rug in my play room, which resulted in my mom taking all my polish away and hiding it until we moved six years later. To be fair, we both forgot about it and didn't find it and my mom was all wtf and I was all omg! And then I threw it all away because it was six years old. Oops.



I'm more responsible with my polish now, but I still have a pretty major stash. And since I lost out on all of those years of irresponsible nail colours, I'm making up for it by wearing ridiculous colours all the time. I'm 12 at heart anyway, and if I can't keep my My Little Pony collection out in the open I should at least be able to air out the ol' polish stash once in a while. Or daily. You know.

Also, guest photographer T. said this picture looks like a Gap ad. Aside from being much larger than the average Gap model, I am inclined to agree.

Lunatics, maybe

Necklace: JCPenney
Top: Gap
Skirt: JCPenney
Boots: Target
Bag: sent from Penguin/stolen from boss



LITTLE FACTS TIME



Chores I actually like some chores. Specifically dusting & doing dishes. But I really, really hate emptying the dishwasher. I have been known to bribe people to get out of doing it.

Ringtones My ringtone used to be AMAZING. It was the Monday Night Football theme song. But when I got my iPhone, it came with about 15 lame ringtones AND an old car horn. So that's my ringtone now.

Uncanny ability I can memorize song lyrics by listening to a song four times. Five if it's a rap song, but then I'm good to go. My best friend pretty much hates me because 8 years later she still doesn't know all the words to EI by Nelly. (Sorry A.! I still love you!)