From a stranger's driveway

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 7]
Top: Charlotte Russe
Skirt: Karen Kane
Shoes: Target
Necklace: Kenneth Cole

I obviously do not know how to hold a bag without looking like I'm about to punch myself. Just call me awkward hands mcgee.

Husband and I drove up to the top of a hill the other day in search for a good photo location, which is rare given that he usually hates taking my pictures for me (and I kind of hate it too but it saves me so much time fumbling with the tripod). We found this grassy section between two houses that had sidewalks down both sides, and we were confused if they were somebody's property or not.

I'm pretty sure we were standing on the road, but husband insisted that it was somebody's driveway. I'm not sure though. Either way, how awesome would it be to have a view like this from your driveway? The buildings you see far in the distance? That's downtown Seattle, but we're looking at it from the south instead of the east.

Vacation time!

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 6]
Shirt: Old Navy
Skirt: Forever 21
Shoes: Target
Bag: gift from sister
Necklace: Forever 21

I wore this out over the weekend when husband and I went out to the movies. We watched Super 8, which was pretty good, other than the fact that it made me miss Lost so much more. The music, the sound effects, and everything was just so J. J. Abrams. And I have a root beer Dum dum, which is pretty much the best flavor ever.

Anyway, I'm leaving for my vacation today (finally, right? I've talked about it enough already) and I have a bunch of exciting posts scheduled, which is funny because I'm posting more during my absence than I do on a normal week. I'll still try to respond to comments and stuff, and I should be around on twitter, but I may not have time to visit all your blogs. I apologize in advance!

Oh, and husband and I decided that shopping on vacation won't count in our budgets, as long as it's within reason. DANGEROUS. I'll try to be good though. I'm hoping to get a new white blazer and look for my mustard yellow skirt. :) Excitings!

Substitutions

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 5]

Button-down: Target

Skirt: Old Navy

Belt: Target

Flats: Target

Necklace: Loft

It's getting a bit annoying to have to keep pulling my tights out IN JUNE. I already wore all 3 pairs of my pants in my first few outfits and I wasn't quite ready to re-wear them just yet. It is the 30 for 30 challenge after all, not the "wear the same jeans for 30 days straight" challenge.

After doing a little bit of shopping last week (in defense, I only went to see if I could find the mustard yellow skirt so I could fill my wildcard item), I decided that I wanted to swap some of my 30 items out. Here's what I'm doing:

I have a lot of dark colored bottoms, so I don't really need a black top as well. I did need another pair of closed toe shoes for when it rains, so I swapped in my black Target flats.

I've been wanting a red and white striped t-shirt for awhile now, and I tried to find one before the challenge started but couldn't.. so I just threw in my existing red and white striped tank. When I spotted the new striped tank at Forever 21 the other day for only $5.50, I knew it'd be more versatile than the existing one. Plus, I like the bolder stripes.

I had reserved my wildcard item for a mustard yellow skirt or pink skinny jeans... because I felt that I needed some colors in my bottoms. Instead, I fell in love with this little coral skirt, and it's just the perfect pop of color I need!

I'll update my 30 for 30 page with the new items. :)

Taking Pitchers

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 4]

Top: Banana Republic (hand-me-down)

Jeggings: Target

Blazer: Elevenses (thrifted)

Flats: Target
Necklace: Loft

When I picked my items for the 30 for 30 challenge, it was a sunny day with no rain in sight. I decided to only go with 5 pairs of shoes, with four of them being open-toed sandals. I had not anticipated rain over the course of the next 30 days, which is kind of stupid given that I live in Seattle.

Well, it kind of sucked when it rained and I only had one pair of closed toe shoes to choose from. I had already put on my outfit of black and blue that morning, and the soft gold flats just did not work. I needed black flats, so I'm going to be doing a little swapping, I just haven't decided with what though.

I met with Emily for lunch and we were both wearing the exact same outfit, but she wore her super cute nude pumps and I had boring black flats. But other than that, we were pretty much twins.

P.S. My little guy loves to "take pitcher" with mommy, except when he doesn't get to press the button or set up the tripod, as evidenced by the second photo.

Denim on denim

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 3]
Denim shirt: Gap (thrifted)

Belt: Target

Jeans: Old Navy

Wedges: Target

I'm pretty hesitant to jump on new trends (or, in this case, a resurrected trend) but I've been wanting to try out the denim on denim after seeing it on a bunch of other bloggers. I wasn't ready to wear it to work, so I wore in on my day off for running errands at McDonald's, Costco and the mall. I know, my life is so glamorous. I usually like to "test out" outfits before I wear them for real (aka, to somewhere where there are people I know, not just random strangers) and decide if I like it or not.

I'm still not sure if I liked it though. I did, however, decide it was too hot to be wearing while chasing after a two year old through the mall. A two year old who saw mommy sitting on the rock and insisted that he sit on the rock too. I'm setting a bad example.

Kimmie the explorer

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 2]
Top: Forever 21 (hand-me-down)

Skirt: Ralph Lauren (thrifted)

Cardigan: Halogen via Nordstrom Rack
Sandals: Steve Madden Sysco

Now that the weather is nice, I'm running out of places to take my photos. All the parks are too crowded during lunchtime and after work for me to stealthily take my own pictures.

There's this little grassy knoll that I always see on drive home, but I've never known how to actually get there. The other day, I saw a random dirt road and being the explorer I am (I'm actually not. I totally freaked out that I would get stuck in there with no way out), I turned down it to see where it would lead to. While it didn't actually make it to the knoll, it landed me this secluded little spot to take a few photos. Too bad it was in perfect view of a house with two dogs, and they came out barking halfway through my photo shoot. A kid came out to calm them down and kept giving me weird looks, probably wondering what the heck I was doing taking pictures of myself on a dirt road.

Oh, and I made a quick lunchtime trip to Forever 21 yesterday to hunt for this yellow skirt that I saw on the website, but the only one left was on the mannequin, and the sales girl told me that they were completely out of them in the store. They've since sold out online so I guess my only hope is that I'll find it (or something similar) in Boston. I did, however, leave with this skirt in coral (see it on Cee here) and a red and white striped tank top. Yeah, so much for not shopping.

Too sunny

[Summer 30 for 30: Outfit 1]

Striped tank: Karen Kane

Cardigan: Hazel (hand-me-down)

Jeans: J Brand Love Story

Shoes: Target

Please excuse my weird grimace in these photos. It was overcast when I found the perfect spot to take pictures (look! you can see Lake Washington! and the Seattle skyline! and an itty bitty little Space Needle!) and right as I took out my camera, the sun came out. I waited around to see if the sun would go back behind the clouds, but no luck. I'm squinting in every single picture, and unfortunately these are the best I could pull from the batch.

Right after I wrapped up and was driving away, the sun went back behind the clouds. OF COURSE.

Summer 30 for 30 picks

Once again, I'm participating in Kendi's 30 for 30 remix challenge, which means I'm picking 30 items of clothing and remixing them into 30 outfits over the course of 30 days. I will attempt to not shop during the 30 days, but hey, I'm going to be on vacation in Boston for half the time and I'm pretty sure shopping will be involved.

It's taken me a long time trying to finalize the 30 items. I had a certain set in mind, but then I tried them on in front of my mirror with the combinations I had in my head... and um.. let's just say, they looked different from what I had in my mind. After a bunch of last minute swaps, I'm finally happy with my picks. I'm keeping one spot open for a wildcard item, which I'm hoping will be either a mustard yellow skirt or pink skinny pants. Whichever one I find first, I guess.

So, without further ado, I present to you, the twenty-nine:

I'm just avoiding my sewing machine

Top: Velvet (hand-me-down)

Skirt: BR outlet

Necklace: c/o Anirtak

Sandals: Madden Girl

This skirt is about two or three sizes larger than I normally wear, but it was the last one in the clearance racks and super cheap, so my sister (who is about the same size as me) bought it during our last trip out to the outlets. After wearing it out, she decided that it wasn't that flattering on her so she gave it to me. I had planned on taking in the sides so that it would sit higher on my waist, but I decided to try wearing it out first (and taking pictures) to see how it fit before altering it. Hmm... it doesn't look too bad, so I may just save myself the sewing time and leave it as it is.

This top, which is actually a tunic, was a hand-me-down, and I had originally planned on hacking off the top and adding an elastic band to make it into a skirt (the bottom half of the tunic flares out perfectly), but because I'm familiar with how expensive the brand is, I couldn't bring myself to cut it up and it was just sitting unworn in my "to sew" pile.

Fortunately, the tunic got its second chance at life last week when I was drooling over Sorren's lace shirt on Everybody Everywear lace day, and realized that I could achieve the same look by just tucking my tunic in! Genius me had not even thought of that. I totally saved all the agony and sewing time, along with the very high risk of me ruining the garment completely.