A morning phase

ugh stupid extra long liner



Coat: Eddie Bauer | Cardigan: Target | Skirt: Ann Taylor Factory | Flats: Target

We need to talk about Beck's win for the Album of the Year Grammy.

I made a semi-serious commitment to listen to all five Album of the Year nominees so I could review them for work, where we post staff picks every few weeks on our website. I purchase all the music for our library system, so I try to review a lot of music. Pro bono publico, you know. I listened to all five albums, and the only one I wanted to listen to again was Morning Phase. I've found that a lot of albums now are more a compact set of singles crammed together onto one disc, but Beck's album was a comprehensive piece. You can't take a song out of it an make it a single. It is truly an album, and that is what I loved so much about it. Morning Phase suck with me. At work, I called Beyoncé the album that would win, X by Ed Sheeran the album that should win (he's an excellent songwriter), and Morning Phase was the album that I quite selfishly wanted to win, because I liked it.

So fast forward to Grammys night, and Beck wins. And I die. And then Kanye West ruins it. And then Beck saves it. And then Kanye ruins it again.

I made the mistake of looking at Twitter at one point, and I was overwhelmed by the typical "who is this hippie" tweets. But I also saw a few tweets that claimed this was discrimination--that instead of "giving" the award to a black woman or a gay man, Grammy voters "gave" the award to a white man. Just so we're clear, Sam Smith--the gay man in question--walked home with four Grammys, so that complaint is null. Beyond that, though, Sam Smith is also a white man! In addition, Beyonce also won three Grammy Sunday night. So that complaint is also null. What disappoints me most, though, is that a number of people have decided to shake away the great equalizing that music can do. You don't see who makes the music when you listen on the radio, turn up your iPhone, open Pandora. You hear the sound first, and everything else comes second. Music has this way of subverting and rising well above the basic differences we have to bring us together, to give us shared experiences. The albums are what are nominated, not just the people who performed the work. But instead, some viewers/listeners were ripping away the experience and looking just at a scrawny white Scientologist on the stage and making judgments based on that.

Fortunately for us all, Morning Phase is about much more than that. It's a smart album, and for my review at work, I compared it to the way moss grows on a tree: the album's beauty grows on you slowly at first, and then all at once. Beyonce's album may have been a new way to market, but it wasn't the most exceptional album of the year. Sam Smith sang about the same thing for 40 minutes straight. Ed Sheeran tried, but failed, to vary his music quite enough to make it count. And Pharrell put out some jams, but there was no cohesion to the album. Beck managed to strip away all the negatives of the other nominees' albums while containing their positives, all while putting his own touch on the work. And that's why Morning Phase deserved to win. I'm quite glad it did.

Twu wuv

Umbrella: lost and found at work | Coat: Gap Outlet | Top: J.Crew Factory | Skirt: J.Crew Factory | Tights: Target | Boots: Off Broadway

I am so in love...

With my new 50mm lens. Like whoa.

I rented a 50mm f/1.4 lens from Lensrentals.com to use for a little while after the death of my beloved 50mm f/1.8, and I loved it so much that I bought the darn thing. I needed a new lens anyway, and the natural progression of my life--which involves outfit photos and a growing number of requests for portrait photos from friends--said that it was time to take the upgrade. Don't mind me, just nerding out over here in my tiny corner of the internet.

Clothing across America

Fleece: Eddie Bauer Outlet | Jeans: Eddie Bauer Outlet | Flats: Toms

Here are the things I wore on my trip, from east to west! The outfit above was basically my day in, day out outfit. Jeans, flats/boots, shirt, fleece. That fleece is the best $25 I have ever spent.



Coat: JCPenney

What I wore at Graceland. Graceland, you guys.



Scarf: gift from parents | Sweater: J.Crew

Here I am at the Mississippi River. Shortly after this photo was taken, we crossed the bridge behind me and ended up in Arkansas.



Top: Anthropologie

Me at the Petrified Forest. I skipped a few days because I got horrible food poisoning in Little Rock and wasn't back to my old self until we left Flagstaff.



Again, living in that fleece. Also taken at the Petrified Forest.



This is what I wore on my hot date with THE GRAND CANYON.



Top: J.Crew | Jeans: Eddie Bauer Outlet

By the time we reached Lake Mead and Nevada, it was in the 60s! Love it.



Sweater: Ann Taylor

Las Vegas was fabulous and warm and awesome.



Cardigan: Target | Dress: JCPenney

I actually got to wear a DRESS to the Hoover Dam! Seriously, warm and awesome.



We hung out in a lot of bathrooms in Las Vegas. Fascinating places. This was at Caesars Palace.



Top: J.Crew Factory

California was a little chillier--50s--but in the sun on the top of a hill at the Hearst Castle, it felt too nice to wear my fleece.



But by the time we were halfway down the Pacific Coast Highway, fleece was BACK ON. It was cold, you guys. Real cold.



Yay me!


Cardigan: Target | Top: Macy's

Our final day of sightseeing in San Francisco involved Lombard Street, which I got to drive down. It was epic.

And then I came home, and I have spent the last week catching up with school (which started on Monday) and work (which I returned to on Tuesday). I returned to 64 emails at work and 20 at school and chipping away at all that has been SO FUN but I think I've got things together now. I'll do a recap post or two of my trip involving things I saw instead of things I wore, but for a more comprehensive and visual overview, I still recommend reading the blog we kept, Librarians in Transit. I've heard it's well worth the visit. The photos are supposed to be great. ;)

D minor

Coat: Old Navy (and $25!)
Sweater: Gap
Skirt: JCPenney
Tights: We Love Colors
Heels: Urban Outfitters



On my way home from work today, I stopped at a pedestrian crossing and watched two women walk across the street, almost exactly on pace with each other. But something was ever so slightly off, and suddenly with each step they were more and more out of pace with each other. Obviously one just had a slightly shorter stride, but it reminded me of how much I seem to enjoy dissonance.



When I was young and we went grocery shopping, my dad and I would carry the groceries up a floor of steps and into the kitchen. He would be in front of me, and I would make sure that when I followed him up the steps I would walk almost in pace with his steps, but just slightly off so there was an eighth note-eighth note-eighth rest-eighth note beat. Weird, I know, but I loved it, and when I took a class on Mozart in college, I noted that some of my favourite pieces were written in dissonant keys (K. 626, anyone?) and that's strange indeed.



So I guess it comes as no surprise that I really like the dissonance of this outfit. Cream sweater versus white details on the skirt, slouchy knit reined in by form fitting...polyester, plaid against floral, black battling gray, and let's top it all off with some crazy nearly neon shoes. I also took a big step out of my comfort zone and wore some dark lipstick, which looks pretty dissonant on my face. But for some weird reason, I think it all works. I could be totally wrong, though.

A smattering of random topics

Coat: JCPenney (gift)
Scarf: Eddie Bauer
Sweater: JCPenney (gift)
Pants: JCPenney (gift)
Socks: gift
Wedges: Shoe Carnival
Dog: Ellie



I am ever so carefully inching my way toward grad school. For someone who has never, ever handled an undertaking like matriculating at a major university, I have to say I'm doing pretty well. I have finally attained the American dream of being in major student loan debt and freaking out about the idea of my grandkids paying off my loans for me because I'll be a ball of dust by the time I make enough money to pay everything back.



Unrelated, I am now the proud owner of a fantasy football championship final team! Last week my team pulled out a monster week which blew me past the competition, and now I'm playing the other division winner in my league. (He's also a guy I curl with!) We're both excited, and we're both winning some money for this. And that is awesome. I'm just hoping that Aaron Rodgers doesn't play this weekend so my opponent has to put in his kind of crummy quarterback.



By the way...check out this dreadlock that randomly sprouted in my hair. It took a little while to undo, but really? Where did that even come from? How did that happen? I just washed my hair! I didn't try anything different, but bam. There it is. My hair channeled its inner Marley.

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.

Let me tell you about my coat

(Click for a larger version)

Cream coat: Target
Purple coat: JCPenney
Red coat: Gap
Shirt: Old Navy
Jeans: Walmart
Boots: Tractor Supply

It's Monday, and normally I'd be rolling around on the floor at work. But instead, a giant system dumped six inches of snow overnight and the entire county has essentially shut down. The perfect time for sleeping in and an outerwear blog post!

Today's guest star is Spud, my neighbour's dog. His owners have an electrical fence for him but he breaks through it regularly and comes to visit us. He's really sweet and a lot of fun, though, so we don't mind. He spent most of this photo shoot rolling and shoving his face in the snow. Since I can't really use my car as a tripod today, my mom was kind enough to take the pictures for this post. Thanks mom!



I've had this cream coat for a long time. It's boiled wool and unlined, so it's not very thick, but it's fairly warm. I wore it a lot in college, when I wasn't outside very long and I was young and foolish. It's a good fall coat though.



This red coat is fantastic. It's warm, it's lined, and even has a small chest pocket in the lining which is perfect for my iPod! I wore this coat a lot in college as well, especially in case of snow or really low temps. By really low I mean 20s, since I went to college in Virginia and the lowest I remember it ever getting there was 9. And I went horseback riding that day.



This purple coat is my most recent acquisition, but I love it. It's very, very warm and is longer than my other coats, which is great when I'm wearing a skirt. I bought it a couple weeks ago and it's already my daily work coat, in which I drive and battle my way across the freezing cold parking lot.

Things I look for when I pick out a coat:

Fit. This is absolutely the most important thing. I check the arms first, because my arms are the largest part of my body. If it fits with the arms down, then I do all sorts of things--I put my arms out like I'm driving, up in the air, I reach back. I do all this with the coat buttoned and unbuttoned. I consider how well the coat will fit with a thick sweater, cardigan, long sleeve shirt or short sleeve shirt on underneath. Put the collar up, then put it down. If there's a scarf nearby, put it on under the coat and over it to see how it feels. Check how you look in the mirror too--the coat may feel good on but you may see that the hem is two inches shorter on the left than the right. I once found a gorgeous red coat with a gradient to black at the bottom but the sleeves weren't long enough and the collar was too loose pulled up around my neck. Back to the rack.
Design. Do I need a knee length coat? Is the fabric thick enough to last four or five seasons of wear? Is it lined? Some coats I'll veto because the sleeves are meant to be bracelet length (rarely too long!) or the collar is cut oddly. Check for imperfections, loose threads and buttons, or torn lining. Also check the cleaning requirements--most nice winter coats are dry clean only, so consider that if you tend to be messy like me. (I honestly don't know how that cream coat has stayed clean for so long!)
Colour & style. Least important, certainly, but still important. Would you rather wear a red hip length coat or a black knee length one? Would you wear a coat in ANY colour or only black? How do you feel about patterns and gradients? Do you want your outfit to match your coat? I wore only black coats for a very long time, but I found that a coloured coat is usually more my style, especially since they're less likely to show cat hair!
FUN FACTOR!



There are a lot of things to consider when looking for a winter coat, mainly because they have to last longer than the average piece of clothing and they're abused regularly by the elements. Is there anything specific you look for in a winter coat?