Donna Draper

Glasses: Prada (ooh la la) | Necklace: gift from my parents | Dress: Anthropologie | Boots: Belk | Lips: NARS Funny Face

Okay, so a few notes on the things I'm wearing.

First of all, I have new glasses! I smudged them within five minutes of wearing them, which is par for the course for me. I feel very modern Mad Men in them. Trying on glasses is probably the only opportunity I'll ever have to wear things by the likes of Tom Ford and Prada.

Second, this dress was a Christmas gift from me to me, wrapped by my mom because I'm weird and like to buy things for myself for Christmas and then unwrap them. I stalked the green version of this dress online for a while but it was ridiculously expensive and I resigned myself to the fact that I would never have it. I ended up in Charlotte to get a new Mac power cable, and I swung by Anthro while I was at the mall and they had this colour version of the dress--and it was $40! WORTH IT.

Three--that pink thing on my arm is not some cool new thing. (If it is will someone please tell me so I know?) Over the weekend I went for a walk with my mom and on the way back I caught a glimpse of our neighbour's horse with her leg through the fence. We went down into her field to try and help her, and of course she bit me. Like the took a big old chunk of my arm. Nerves, definitely, but I wasn't too pleased. (We ultimately got her separated from the fence, thanks to a sharp pair of wire cutters.) I iced it but it actually turned slightly green--and I don't bruise, so greenish is bad for me--and it's extremely tender, sore, and slightly hard. I read online that KT tape sometimes helps with swelling and soreness, so I swung by the Cardiganland sports place and picked up a roll. So far, it's at the least stabilized the area and it doesn't hurt as much, so that's nice! And now I have a roll of KT tape in case (for when?) I get hurt running. Because let's be honest, when you run, it's bound to happen.

My kingdom for a brooch

Brooches: my mom's | Sweater: Kohl's | Skirt: Talbots | Tights: Target, no doubt | Flats: Target

Salazar always has amazing brooches, which makes me want to put a lot more effort into developing a bigger collection of my own. As it stands, almost all of my brooches--including the six (six!) in today's outfit--are direct hand-me-downs from my mom, which she wore quite often at her office job. One, a white fish, came all the way from my grandmother. The only "brooches" I've contributed to my own collection are Cape May beach tags, which is pathetic. (Not that I don't love my beach tags, because I do!) I made a huge mistake by going on Etsy, because now there are star shaped brooches in my eyes and I want to dump a pile of cash on everything from octopi and birds to bows (Salazar this seems very you!) and a station wagon with a canoe on top because why the hell not. Someone get me away from Etsy before I fritter away my entire massive public servant salary.

Hello from the other side

Jacket: Target | Dress: Old Navy | Belt: Target | Tights: probably Target | Boots: Target

The other side of the holidays, that is. My boyfriend put up his tree, which is 100% decorated with ornament discards from my parents. I kind of love it though--it's like my tree, but somewhere else! And it's nice to look at all the ornaments and think of all the people that have helped make these ornaments, especially my grandmother. She died when I was only 5, but I have some fond and comical memories of her. In addition, we found a black Santa ornament, painted by her. She took me to an AME church when I was little and she drove an old Red Cross station wagon stuff to the gills with crap. So when I look at the tree, with all its unique and weird and cute and kitsch ornaments, I'm reminded of her and how funny she was. And then I look at the bottom of the tree and see a cat rolling around under it and knocking a poor wool cardinal off its branch. Perfect.

Sweet teeth

I hope you all had a happy Halloween! I had to work yesterday, so I went with something fairly easy to move in, and Sweet Tooth is now my favourite costume as an adult of all time. (Cousin It still takes the cake for childhood.) I tweeted Jeff Lemire, the author of this great comic, and he favourited and retweeted this photo. So I feel like Halloween was a success. Did any of you guys dress up? What were you?

Sitting duck

Top: handmade; shirt itself from Walmart | Skirt: Talbots | Flats: Target

I only wear this top once every four years or so. I'd say I don't know why, but I know exactly why: it's too short. You guys, it's practically a crop top on me. I was a moron and found the perfect shirt for making my own version of the 2008 ModCloth shirt above, and then chucked it into the wash and it shrunk. Of course, I didn't notice until I had spent dozens of hours stitching on strips of sequins, and was like I DON'T CARE I'LL WEAR IT ANYWAY. And then I didn't. But I should just sew a strap of fabric on the bottom to make it longer, right? Red, white, something different? I don't know. But I do know that this shirt has survived at least 6 serious closet weedings, so maybe I need to take it a little more seriously.

Runner's high

Shades: Party City | Necklace: J.Crew Factory | Top: J.Crew Factory | Skirt: this one from Modcloth | Wedges: Target | Lips: NARS Funny Face

I ran (like legit ran, except for a few walks) my second 5k on Saturday, and managed to not die! My only goal was to make it in less than an hour, and my time ended up being 45:48! I'm really pleased, because I'm generally a pretty slow runner. If I had known I was so close to under 45, I would have pushed it a little harder--but regardless, I'm happy. I loved the race I ran (it's a small one in Cardiganland), and now I have a legit 3.1 mile course fairly close to where I live that I can train on! I'm already aiming for a 5k in January and I'm hoping to shave my time down to sub-40 by then. Ultimately, my official year long goal is to run the Great Smoky Mountains Half Marathon on September 10th, 2016. I might be insane, and I might have to walk parts of it, but I'm doing it. And I'm really excited. Doing the math, it makes sense--I can spend the rest of this year focusing on my 5k work, then start nailing down a 10k training program. The half marathon training program I've found is a 16 week program, and that leaves me with the first five months of 2016 to really get ready for that. I have no delusions of grandeur here; I know I'm in for pain and misery and torture and long nights at the gym and a lot of hours on my sneakers, but I'm kind of looking forward to it.

I mean, I'm going to hate myself immensely while I'm running. But I'm still going to do it.

The water is wide

Scarf: JCPenney | Jacket: Target | Dress: Gap Outlet | Belt: Target | Tights: Target | Cowboy boots: Belk

Cardiganland spent most of this past weekend bracing for impact, and expecting the worst, but I'm very lucky to say that most of Joaquin missed my part of the state. We got plenty of rain--about 7 inches overall--and one person did die in the area last week, but the situation could have been much, much worse. I have friends who live in Columbia but were in Charlotte over the weekend and now they can't get home, because every interstate between the two cities is flooded in some areas. I hate that there are parts of South Carolina that are in such dire straits right now. It's devastating. But one thing I know about this state is that for better or worse, people band together. And in this situation, I believe it will be for the better.

Check out Jen's blog tomorrow for more outfits inspired by this week's SIA selection!

Storage war

Hat: Ikea | Top: Target | Skirt: Target | Wedges: Target | Nails: butter London Shag

This past week has been really unenjoyable, to say the least. While I was on vacation, a virus attacked my workplace's files, and everyone lost basically everything. I lost completely everything, so I've spent most of my time since returning trying to replicate what disappeared. It was pretty dumb of me not to back everything up, that's for sure. But now I have three flash drives AND an external all plugged into my desktop. Now I'm overly prepared! Can't stop me now world!

To see how everyone else interprets this week's Style Imitating Art, check out Jen's blog tomorrow!

Cash

Top: Target | Pants: Old Navy via Dani at DIYFATSHION | Wedges: Target | Shades: Party City | Lips: NARS Annabella

I have been enjoying wearing all black--or a lot of black--lately. I've never been an all black kind of gal, and even when I only liked gray and navy and olive, I never really wore black. It felt really harsh to me. But after Dani gifted me these black ponte pants, which filled a need I didn't know I had, things changed. I wear these pants at least once a week. And it's so easy to just wear a bunch of black, especially on a Sunday when I have to work. The only problem is the cat hair and lint. I wonder if Johnny Cash ever had that issue.

Rhinestone shades

Top: J.Crew Factory | Skirt: Old Navy | Wedges: Target | Shades: Party City (of all places)

My coworker and I went to Party City last week to pick up prizes for a library party, and I ended up with cheap sunglasses. I don't wear sunglasses almost ever, because I can't see very well without my glasses, but these shades are basically perfect for loafing in the sun and/or looking really cool in blog posts. You know. Whatever it takes.

Suffering is real

Necklace: heirloom | Top: J.Crew | Pants: Old Navy | Flats: Toms

I suffered a serious workplace injury today.

I stapled my finger.

There's nothing quite like seeing a piece of metal protruding from your finger. It's almost like it's always been there. At least until the pain sets in and you pluck it out of your finger and blood gushes everywhere because nothing bleeds quite like a pinprick. Or stapleprick, as it were. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a couple weeks off from work to recover.

So not okay

Necklace: antiques shop | Jacket: Target | Dress: Boden | Boots: Target | Nails: butter London Fiver

Last weekend, I took my bff S. to the store where I got my running shoes so she could get her own pair. (They do a foot assessment and everything! It's awesome.) She walked away with a pair of shoes, but we both walked away having watched a grown man tell a 70+ year old woman, out of the blue, that she was retaining water and that's why her ankles were so swollen.

There are no words to adequately describe a person like that.