This face adequately describes how I feel right now about abandoning my blog for a bit.
Top: Anthropologie | Belt: off a skirt from Kohl's | Dress as skirt: Loft
Outlet | Wedges: Target
Fourteen of thirty
I promise. I've actually been sticking to 30x30 for the most part, too, but I've been too crazy busy with school to photograph outfits :( I'm really on like 18 or 19 of 30, but I've only taken photos of 14. I'm sticking it out though! I have a big paper due on Thursday (currently written: two of at least six pages, ick) and once that's donewith I'll be able to devote more time to taking outfit photos again. I really miss it, too! I have so much to share--school, my new tattoo (did you notice?) more of 30x30, pictures, life, whatever. But paper first, then life! I hope my professor is reading this and gives me an A for effort alone
Top: Kohl's | Shorts: Gap Outlet | Flats: Toms
Twelve of thirty
I know I've been kind of off the grid lately. My class is careening toward a rapid end, and I have homework to do!
Top: Loft Outlet | Skirt: Banana Republic Outlet | Wedges: Payless | Toes: China Glaze Starboard | Cat: Zoe
Thirteen of thirty
But since I mentioned elbows in my past post, I couldn't not share this story. When I lived in NJ, I went to Wawa all the time. It's the best. Anyway, one day I was at Wawa waiting for a sandwich. I was maybe 15 or 16 at the time? And this guy kept hovering around me while I ordered and paid. Finally, while I was waiting for my order, he said hello and asked me how I was. I, being ever the loquacious sort, said I was fine and went back to staring at my half-made sandwich. After awkwardly standing next to me for a moment, he finally came out with it: "I just have to say, you have really sexy elbows."
Thank god my sandwich was done.
Brooch: mom | Dress: Loft Outlet | Belt: off a skirt from Kohl's | Wedges: Target
Eleven of thirty
This dress in, pink cardigan out. A smart move, I think. I hope. Though now that I think about it, this is the third blue dress in my 30x30. OH WELL!
Can we talk for a second about my smile? I've been meaning to address this topic for a while now, at least ever since I received a comment on this here post that I looked "terminally unhappy". My responding comment sums up how I feel about what the commenter said, but this comment is a drop in the bucket compared to the plethora of comments I've received in life that I look miserable, I should smile more, that I need to cheer up, etc. So I'd like to respond to everyone telling me what to do with my own body by saying please, leave my smile alone. I get it. I have a style blog, I'm supposed to frolic blissfully in fields with my attractive photographer husband and two small dogs until I decide to work on my style book/boutique/flower business or some bullshit like that, but that's not who I am or how I live my life. If I run off a potential reader because I'm not smiling, well, I can think of worse reasons for them to be run off. Like my sense of style. Since that's what Animated Cardigan is actually about.
My smile and I have been at odds for a very long time--ever since I was kindly notified that I have what my bff A. and I now refer to as my "freakishly small teeth". And they really are, and I'm cool with that. But I don't have the personality to make a wide, toothy grin seem authentic. But apparently, even when I do smile (I normally smile with my lips closed, but I'm training myself into a top-teeth-only smile like the one above) I get comments that I don't look happy. I'm letting everyone in on a big secret: this is just my face. The picture above, on the right? Just my face when the muscles are at rest. My mouth is simply physically incapable of my looking like a freakish clown or the happiest doll child ever when I smile, and I resent the fact that anyone should tell me to do so. It actually makes me far less likely to smile, and then everyone's unhappy because no one wins when I give the Stone Cold Face of Mean.
My coworker D. once got in trouble at another job because a customer claimed she was offended by D. since D. "didn't smile". I've been reverse cat called on boardwalks and in streets that I'm so beautiful, but why don't I smile? Perhaps it is because I am "terminally unhappy" (I have, in fact, been there and done that so forgive me my mild sensitivity to that off-handed remark). Perhaps I just had to put my cat down. Perhaps I was just laid off. Perhaps I want to set my ex's car on fire. The insinuation, out of the blue--or even while we're in the middle of discussing it--that I look unhappy, without knowing any of the internal makeup of today's scowl, is not only unfair, but it is also rude and degrading. Just as with any other public comment on appearance, other people usually hear, and other people usually look. If you were desperate enough to spend time looking through the AC archives, you'd notice that since the comment I mentioned above, I've smiled--or what I think is smiling--in nearly every post. Because now I know that other people are looking, and apparently I have to look happy, even when I'm fucking miserable, because god forbid anyone should let their facial muscles relax around these parts. If that's what's stopping me from having 3000 followers, well, I'll frown all damn day to keep the attitudes at bay.
Coming tomorrow: an equally witty diatribe on feet and WHY ARE THEY SO UGLY????*
*Just kidding, it's going to be about elbows.
It's time for Style Imitating Art! This week's inspiration was The Actor by Pablo Picasso, a classic piece from the artist's Rose Period. It is also, as with many of Picasso's works, pretty massive.
Here is the very chic Rebekah of From the Mixed-Up Files:
Vivienne of Thrifted Shift, who looks quite lovely (and comfy, bonus!):
Pao of Project Minima, who is so stinking creative:
My always lovely co-creator, Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, who did the whole thing with her 30x30 items:
And me, of course!
Top: Anthropologie | Skirt: thrifted | Wedges: Payless
Everyone did awesome this week! And now, back to reading about pest management. FUN
Dress as top: Kohl's | Skirt: Target | Sandals: Ross
Eight of thirty
As I mentioned, I celebrated a birthday over the weekend! For me personally it was a big birthday--I am now 26. And 26 is really a no frills birthday for most people, but it was pretty introspective for me. When I was in high school, I made a pact with myself that I wouldn't get married until I was 26. I probably assumed at the time that I was actually going to have a boyfriend and that I was just waiting for 26 to come for me to marry. But here I am, at 26, as single as they come, and none too upset about it. Some people try to label others as picking family over career or vice versa, and I guess I decided to go with career. I'm a firm believer, though, in being able to have what you want if you work hard for it, so maybe that husband is on the horizon. For now, though, I'm happy to let 26 be what it will. And I promise funny posts will return tomorrow!
