Rainy Day

What I Wore: Self-Explanatory Title

Boden floral blueberry dress, navy hunter boots
Dress, Boden (via eBay); cardigan, J. Crew Factory; trench, Gap; boots, Hunter; bag, MbMJ (via consignment)

It was a grey and dreary day, so I decided to make wear my own rainbow. That, by the way, is only 37% sarcasm, because I sometimes dress with the ethos of a grade-schooler. But, listen, this outfit got 5 whole likes on Instagram, at least two of which I’m almost certain were from actual, live humans, and that makes it a total win (by my practically non-existent standards). So, hah!

All kidding aside, can we talk about my cardigan? You may have noticed that I have eleventy million J. Crew Factory Clare cardigans; my very first one is about a year old, so I figured this might be a good time for a little review. Obviously, I like the fit a lot. They do have 3/4 length sleeves, which some people hate but are a must-have for me – I have an irrational dislike for full-length sleeves, especially on crew-neck knits (they end up feeling suffocating). So, quality. Brand-new, the hand-feel is nice. Not, like, cashmere-nice, but nice enough. However, one year out, I’m starting to see wear. That may not seem bad, but keep in mind that I have a lot of these cardigans, and consequently none of them get a ton of wear; we might be talking 2-3 times a month, tops (except for the black, which gets more wear). I also hand-wash them (though not after every wear). I think, when all is said and done, that these look good for about a year, and then start going downhill. With that said, I would still recommend them. They routinely go on sale, and I don’t think I’ve paid more than $15 for the majority of them; at that price, I think they’re a decent deal.

Mustard, Plaid, and Navy

What I Wore: Sunny Day

Adriano Goldschmied Stevie slim cropped cords
Pants, Adriano Goldschmied (via Kijiji); shirt, J. Crew Factory; jacket, LOFT (via consignment); shoes, Tory Burch (via Kijiji); bag, Target

This was one of those thrown-together-in-30-seconds-or-less outfits that turned out … kinda cute. At least, I thought so at the time. It was a bright, sunshiny day, and my winter-addled brain may have suffered a temporary, joy-induced malfunction, leading me to overestimate the cuteness factor of this whole thing. To be fair, every time I type out “mustard” in a blog post, I suddenly feel like I need to start questioning my sartorial choices.

Anyway.

At the first glimpse of sun, plus flats-friendly sidewalk conditions, I immediately pulled out my AG Stevie slim cropped cords. I’ve been waiting to wear these since I bought them last fall, in a Kijiji-deal-of-the-year situation. They are sooo soft and comfy, and totally worth the $20 I paid for them. Did I mention they were new? Did I also mention that I subsequently went to Anthropologie to look for more pairs, and had a bit of an ugly cry when I saw their regular price? That, my friends, is the downside of being really, really, ridiculously good looking* at finding bargains; you come to have impossible-to-meet price expectations. I know, I know. Don’t y’all whip out your tiny violins at once.

* I could not resist a reference to the best movie about fashion of all time.

The One Where I Go Shoe Shopping

Let me start by doing what every parent does, more often than they’d like to admit, and that is blame something (I’d have a hard time justifying) on my kid. See, I just had to go to the mall. I did. My kid made me, because he is my kid and he considers going to the mall a social activity. He visits the mannequins. (I am serious.) And when we go to the mall, we have to go to Zara, because that’s where his favourite mannequins reside. And it all started at Zara.

I swear I was not looking. Well, I technically had my eyes open so I could steer one over-excited toddler and a stroller along, but I wasn’t looking looking, if you catch my drift. But, somehow, these caught my eye.

Zara sparkle ballet flats
Zara ballet flats

In my defence, they were very, very twinkly. I also blame the lighting at Zara, for making things extra twinkly.

I was in love in about a nano-second. Now, I already had a pair of rhinestone flats in my closet, but these … were special. For real. I’m not generally a big Zara fan, but honestly, these didn’t look like Zara flats to me. They looked Chanel-esque, if Chanel took to designing for Tinkerbell. They looked expensive. Scratch that. They were expensive. $80 for rhinestone encrusted mesh? No.

No, right? Right?!

The rational part of my brain eventually kicked in, and I steered the troops out of Zara, Tinkerbell shoes-free. (It helped that the biggest size they had was a touch too small. Comfort above all.) I did the sensible thing, and went to SoftMoc to look for the pair of Chucks that was actually on my to-buy list. And was rewarded by finding them on sale. Of course, this story doesn’t end here, because my name is Adina and I like to make things difficult for myself. Initially, the plan was to look for a grey pair. Eminently sensible and practical, yes? But then I saw the red pair. And it looked awfully cute. I like red shoes. My husband thinks red Chucks are awesome. My youngest has a hand-me-down pair of red Chucks from her older brother, and we could do a mother-daughter thing. Cute. So … What to do?

Converse Chucks red or grey
The red … or the grey???

Like any normal person would, I turned to social media. The consensus among my Facebook peeps was “grey”. Naturally, I bought the red. Went home, and promptly reconsidered. And then I made my poor husband drive back to the mall the next day so I could exchange them for the grey. What can I say – he has the fortitude, not to mention the patience, of a saint. But I love my grey Chucks, and they are ever so practical.

The end.

P.S. You didn’t really think that was the end, did you? Of course not. So, one late night not long thereafter, I somehow zombie-clicked my way on to the Zara website, and before I knew it, bam. A pair of Tinkerbell shoes were on their way to me. Sigh.

The end. Fer realz.