I love the whole prep aesthetic, and especially anything nautical, but I always feel a bit of a fraud when I try to borrow it. My ancestors were not exactly the sailing type. I get nauseous on small watercraft. Still, I can’t help but love me a good anchor motif. This skirt was a foregone conclusion as soon as I clapped eyes on it at Value Village. Even though it’s a straight/A-line style, which I normally avoid.

It happens to be my first LL Bean piece, and colour me impressed. You can see that a lot of thought went into the details (the striped piping is a particularly nice touch), which makes the skirt seem more expensive than it (likely) was. Definitely more expensive than the $10 I spent on it.

I really didn’t want to go overboard with the nautical theme (the post title is more than enough), so I nixed pairing the skirt with anything stripey. Chambray goes with everything, and I tend to think of it as a “style neutral” – it complements any number of styles, without drawing extra attention to itself – so it seemed like a good bet. Red shoes because I never don’t love a good red shoe … plus, I don’t have a pair of white ones. (Note to self: why is that?) And there you have it.

I am a massive baby when I’m sick. The massive-est. I easily put my 3-year old* to shame. Happily for my family, I had an uncharacteristic sickness-free streak of nearly 6 months this year; unhappily (for us all), the cold that ended my lucky streak was a real mean SOB. Ugh. That’s all I can say about it. This is me, 4 days into it and completely over everything. A sleepless night watching over the (also sick) baby really helped my complexion … not at all. So, bring out the red pants. That will distract everyone. Genius!

You know what I just realized? Not wearing black – the safe default – when I’m feeling under the weather really helps me look less like death warmed over and more … everyday pasty. The more you know, etc.

* Yesterday was my son’s birthday. I’m still working on processing the fact I have a THREE year old. Three years that felt like an eternity, yet were gone in the blink of an eye. Like, whoa. We love you to bits, monkey.

Sorry about the missing squiggly line cedilla. I know how to spell basic French words, I swear. #macproblems

Anyway. Yes, as the title suggests, I was aiming for a bit of an androgynous look here. (Maybe I should have aimed for a better ironing job. Zing! But, seriously, I think my iron hates me for ignoring it 99% of the time.) I’m, um, not sure if my vision translated, but surely I can at least get points for effort, yes? Listen, if it works for our educational system, surely … never mind.

But wait! I also tried something new with my hair! I should know better than to do that by now (hint: it always ends disastrously), but I am ever hopeful. I became intrigued by this hack that is supposed to give you a longer- and fuller-looking ponytail. You divide your hair in two sections – top and bottom. You pull the top part back into a high-ish ponytail, then do the same with the lower/bottom part just below the top ponytail. Gah, I’m the worst at explaining anything hair-related. Anyway, the top ponytail hides the bottom one, which in turn makes the top, visible one look fuller and longer. You can kinda, sorta tell from this shot:

I think it only works on wavy/curly/curled hair. You need to fluff up the top ponytail a bit, the better to hide the other one. ‘S alright. It works, I guess, but I was worried the entire time about moving my head the wrong way, and exposing my grade schooler, two-ponytails situation. You can probably pin the top part a bit to keep it from moving too much, but … bah, I ain’t got time for that. I’ll just stick to my one, anemic little ponytail.

But I still get points for trying, yes?