Over the past month or so I’ve felt I’ve been in a bit of a fashion rut.  My weight has always been a challenge, which I’ll write more about later, but this year it’s gone up and down, making my wardrobe difficult.  When I lost weight last year I gave all of my larger sized clothes away and got a whole new wardrobe of smaller clothes.  With things fitting better, I bought some things I’ve always wanted to wear, like short skirts and dresses, more heels, nicer jeans, etc.  Now that I’ve gained a little weight, none of it fits and I’ve had to purchase some new outfits, but none really are speaking to me.  Perhaps it because I don’t want to get too comfortable at this weight, but I think also that I miss my more fashionable smaller clothes.

Today my boss brought a book to our team meeting by Scott Schuman titled, The Sartorialist, Closer.  Because we’re a creative team, she loves to bring inspiration to these meetings on different forms of art.  The book, which came from his blog, also titled The Sartorialist, focuses on street fashion.  Schuman takes daily photos of people that inspired him on the street from all over the world and posts them on his blog; creating a two-way dialogue about the world of fashion and it’s relationship to daily life.  The photos are all really beautiful and very well composed. It not only make me look at it for inspiration, but it made me ask myself, “What makes someone fashionable?”

While most of the people in the posts are slim, I think what makes them fashionable is more their confidence and personality translated into clothing.  Some are attractive, some not, but their clothes somehow make them all attractive and interesting to look at.

It’s inspired me in many ways, but it makes me want to explore my own fashion and put more effort into how what I wear tells my story.

Photo via The Sartorialist

A few months ago, I was searching high and low for the perfect bar cart for our very tiny apartment. I wanted a vintage cart, but what I was finding was either really large, or really expensive.  Generally, I’m not a big believer in spending a ton of money on furniture, especially when living in an apartment.  And taking the time to find the right deal for what I want makes the final purchase much more satisfying.  When I finally found my bar cart, this was the case.

We found this awesome bar cart at the Alameda flea market.  It was great deal, and exactly what we wanted. It was a stripped and varnished stainless steel cart (probably from an office.) It’s the perfect size for our apartment, yet fits everything on it with the three shelves, storing plenty of barware.

I promptly tricked it out with some things from Cost Plus and all of our booze (why we have it? I don’t know, we usually drink wine) and hung our wine rack over it.

Last week I place a painting I did in art class on it while it dried (it’s a copy, I can’t remember the artist), and tonight I realized it just finally seems “done.”

We’re heading back to the flea market this weekend, and I can’t wait!  I’ll be sure to post our finds.

Photo Credit: girl in the fog

I’ll tell you a little secret…if you were to look into my current work bag, you would think it was in an episode of Horders. Currently, I’m embarrassed to say that it contains…

• Shoes
• Laptop
• Two mismatched socks
• Two different vitamin holders
• Work folders
• Three moleskin notebooks
• Phone chargers, computer chargers
• Makeup
• Flash drives
• Protein powder
• Check book
• A few pairs of earrings
• And about 20 pens and pennies.

I got this Longchamp, Le Pilage bag last year because I loved the simple classic style.  I wrongly thought I could combine my purse with my  work stuff  into this.  In reality it doesn’t fit everything i tend to lug with me every day, so I think it’s time to get something that makes a little more sense.

I’ve toyed with the idea of a backpack, which would make the most sense.  But of course if women’s fashion made sense, we would be wearing yoga pants and tennis shoes everyday.  While I want something cute and stylish, I do need it to be durable, easy to see inside and fit everything.

Here are a few of the bags I’m considering.

Decisions, decisions…

1. Tall Tote, Cuyana, 2. Transport Tote, Madewell 3. Berkeley Tote, Madewell 4. Gray Leather Bag, LimorGalili  5. Grace Bag by LadyBirdesigns

Happy Friday!

This weekend we’re going to try to lay low and get caught up on some things around the house. This is the goal every weekend, but somehow we always seem to get side tracked.

Tonight we’re going to have a picnic down at the wave organ, down by our apartment, have a little wine, watch the sunset. Once we’re chilly enough we’ll walk back and watch movies on the couch.

It’s also pride weekend in San Francisco and the city has exploded with colorful rainbow flags everywhere! We might run down and check it out at the civic center, or go down to Market street and catch some of the parade.

We love to head over the bridge to Marin to warm up a little and do a little hiking with our dog on
Mt. Tamalpais. We’re so city bound during the week, it’s good to get over the bridge and feel some sun on our skin and use our car a little.

Have a great weekend!

Photo Credit: 1. Wave Organ, 2. Pride Flag 3. girlinthefog