Baby Magnet Extraordinaire!

So today I finally busted out the bright red jacket I bought last month. It has 3/4 length sleeves, pocket flaps, princess seams, and tab cuffs. It also has HUGE buttons, the ones at the cuff are 1-1/4" and the ones on the front are 2". It looks sort of like hobbit clothes but waaaaay cooler. I feel so happy and friendly in this jacket, probably because it is a show stopper. Great stuff. I wish I could find a picture, but I can't so this will have to do:

Aaaaanyway, somebody brought their baby to work today (and I have no clue who this person is) and one of my employees decided she was stealing her and brought her up to the 5th floor. CUTEST BABY EVER. She was hanging out with strangers and totally calm and happy about it. I'd say she's about 9 months old. She saw me and really liked the red jacket buttons- I probably looked like a great big toy to her. Anyway, I haven't held a baby in MONTHS (maybe a year?) and she was all sweet and cuddly and adorable, but that biological clock thing hasn't kicked in yet. Children: good in theory, but in practice? Eh, I might get there. One day. With the proper daddy material. Which is good because I don't want to be one of those women so desperate to have babies that they just get on board with whoever comes along. I'd rather visit the sperm bank. (And yes, we got the baby back to her mom, we didn't hold her for ransom or anything.)

In other fashion news, check out my new shoooooes:I got these on super super sale. They are Frye Marta T-Straps. They have a 4" (!!!!!!!) heel (with a platform at the front so they don't feel quite that high to my feet), which brings me in at 6' tall. I have no idea when I'll wear them but they were so cheap (for Frye's) and so cute that I got them anyway. They were about 1/4 size too big, but I put some ball-of-foot cushions and some heel huggers in them and now they are perfect and actually pretty comfy considering. I love these shoes. I'd wear them everywhere if I could. Post office? Gas station? A trip to the recycling center? Running to the ATM? OH WAIT I NEED MY 4" HEELS!

I also discovered these contraptions for high heels called Insolias that I got for another pair of shoes. These magically shift your center of gravity from the ball of your foot (ouch!) (my sister is giggling because I keep saying balls, I just know it), to the heel so that your poor little feet don't want to just DIE an hour after you put on heels. I can't wait to try these out. They aren't a smooshy cushy insole, instead they fix the problem instead of treating the symptom.

As a follow up to my last post, the muffins I made just lifted out of those silicon muffin cups like they weren't even baked in them. AWESOME. And they're a breeze to clean. The only problem now is that my nonstick baking sheet doesn't clean up either so I'm thinking about just getting some aluminum half sheet baking pans with silpat for the bottom of them and ditching nonstick entirely. I already did that with my frying pans, but I think cast iron baking pans might be a BIT MUCH. I'd never be able to lift them out of the oven!

ISAAC!

Sometimes it comes up in the course of regular conversation that I majored in Fashion Design in college. The typical situation is when I'm with a group of people and someone wants random clothing advice and somebody else will pipe up and say, "OH! Ask Heather! She's a fashion designer!" And then I get this slightly puzzled look with a tilt of the head and a "Really?"

I am not surprised. I am in what you might call a serious fashion rut.

My typical look is blue jeans, black shirt, black shoes. Wow. Recently I bought a pair of perfect kick ass brown heels and I haven't worn them because I'm always wearing black and it feels a little weird to wear brown with black and OH MY GOD when did I get all matchy???

I own plenty of clothes in plenty of colors. But I always end up back in black, grey, dark blue, and occasionally purple. It is depressing. It is not a good use of all the other clothes I own. And then tonight I found some inspiration. I was at the bookstore getting the last issue of Domino magazine. (Sob! I can't believe that magazine has bitten the dust. All of my favorite magazines are shutting down- Blue Print was the first and since then it's just been a steady stream of bad news. So farewell Domino. I will miss you. And Ready Made: you had better not shut down or I will be SERIOUSLY upset.)

Anyway, there I was walking down the personal growth (or self help or whatever) aisle making my way to the counter, and I saw it. The book. By one of my favorite people. Here's a taste- watch the first 45 seconds to get a feel for where Isaac Mizrahi gets his fashion inspiration:

I remember watching this in school for Social Psychology of Dress (I think) and just being amazed at his process. It was a year and half before it made sense to me. I opened Vogue and GOT IT.

Anyway, tonight I've been reading how to have style by my man Isaac. This book is GREAT. It is not some sort of What Not To Wear breakdown of style, it shows more his process of dressing women and how to look good and mostly how to be adventurous with your own sense of style. Start an inspiration board (this won't be hard- I have two binders worth of tear sheets), pull out all of your clothes and try them on in any combination you can come up with. Mess with hems. Play with layers. ADD COLOR. (I think he put that in there just for me.) In other words, this book is EXACTLY what I need to be reading to get me out of this rut and I love it.

PS I know, I know, I totally slammed Carrie Underwood and now I'm admitting that I'm no stylist myself. The difference? RED CARPET EVENTS, baby!

Woooooo, Cooler Weather Clothes!

YES! I am so happy I can finally drag out some of my cooler weather clothes. The temperature dipped all the way down into the 40s last night! Break out the scarves! Break out the sweaters! Apply!
Last week at Marshall's I got a really fantastic scarf. It is pure silk but not in a slippery silk scarf way, in a cozy warm loop-it-around-your-neck-let's-go-skiing way. It's purple. I'm tempted to go back and see if they have more in other colors because silk is warm but not too warm and it was only something like $18. I got another scarf that day in bright pink. It is the same deal but made of rayon and not nearly as comforting.

At Target I purchased two cotton sweaters with an argyle pattern on the front. They are CUTE. They're 3/4 sleeve v-neck sweaters that fall at the right spot and make me feel very sexy librarian when I wear them. One is gray with a grey/black/lime green pattern and the other is navy with a purple/yellow pattern. LOVE THEM. I also busted out the other cotton sweaters I have in hot pink, salmon pink, red, and sage green. Then there's a hooded wool sweater I got at Lane Bryant last year that is also really cute. They all look good with jeans or skirts, and the argyle sweaters will be good with my wideleg dress pants. Which I am never giving up. Skinny jeans may be here to stay but not on THIS body.
Next we come to boots. I have a pair of fake uggs I got at Target last year that are surprisingly warm and comfy and I'll be wearing those again this year (but not tucked into jeans or anything silly like that). And I have my faithful Nine West black leather boots that have been re-heeled will be worn constantly. I just need to get some inserts for those because the inside bottom wore out of them years ago. I am also lusting after some David Tate boots but I think I'll get those for next year, my Nine Wests should last another season.
Also on the Lust List (that might have to be a new tag) looking towards winter is a walking coat from Lands End in grey. It looks amazing. I would like to own it. But I don't have $200 for a coat when I have 2 others that work just fine. Maybe that'll be a next year item with those David Tate boots. Maybe I'll get them both on clearance in the spring and save them for Fall 2009.

And in fantasy world I am loving these too :)