fitforafemme.com

I wish you guys could make out the meringue yellow stripes on this cozy t-shirt. They pop wonderfully, just not in this particular set of photos.

I was very proud of the fact that I managed a perfect French twist in the morning, out of the blue, but then failed at maintaining it intermittently throughout the day. Until it was dinnertime, at which point I furiously mashed about half a teaspoon of Jonathan Dirt Texturizing Paste into my palms, hand-teased my hair, and pinned it up haphazardly.

Here’s the AM version, as well as a photo of my super gross tape measure work accident:

As you can see, my office walls are painted all kinds of cerulean blue. This is awesome, except for the fact that they are naked. I ended up ordering an assortment of bright, bold wall decals designed to look like ornate, sort of vintage photo frames of all sizes.

Aren’t they neat?

After I determine how they’ll be grouped on the main wall, I am thinking of having our design department print out some choice words (like my title Maven, for instance) to put inside of the frames, in the mood of the whole Keep Calm & Carry On thing. They’ll be removable of course, which is great as I am fickle and like to change things around often. Where the hell was I going with this? Ah, yes. The hand.

Well, I was measuring the width and height of the wall with a new tape measure and at some point during which it was stretched out by 12′, it slipped and sliced my knuckle open. Bullocks. It bled copiously. My very sweet colleague had to go and fetch a First Aid kit, as we had zilch with which to treat my wound. I consulted a doctor friend and said, “It’s deep, like I can see meaty white stuff, but it’s mostly stopped bleeding,” and she said, “Oh, the white stuff is your fat, when was your last tetanus shot?” Super.

Do I look like a girl with lockjaw? Nah. It was my left hand, too, y’all! (Did we know that I’m a lefty? Well, now we do.) A LESBIAN WITH ONE HAND OUT OF COMMISSION MAKES TWO REAL SAD LESBIANS. Other than it, I’m fine now.

This post was named after this excellent little Trina Turk ruffled ponte jacket, which I’m wearing again today over a flowy silk dress and riding boots. I wanted to find a jacket that was very special and could spice up pretty much anything in my closet. I tried on a shimmery Valentino Red jacket I was in love with, but the 4 cut off the circulation in my arms and I was swimming in the 8 – of course there were no 6s to be found and I almost cried in the store.

Shoes: Vintage YSL
Wide-legged velvet trousers: Erin Fetherston for Target
Striped t-shirt: Michael Stars
Jacket: Trina Turk
Bag: Co-Lab by Christoper Kon
Sunglasses: Ray-Ban
Bangle: Pier One
Spiked freshwater pearl earrings: Banana Republic

GOOD GRIEF. All weekend long it seemed like the entire San Francisco Bay Area was basking in the gorgeous winter sunshine. People went to the beach, sunned in the park, had BBQs. Typical wintertime on the West Coast, as evidenced here and here. I spent Sunday in a paper thin cotton sundress and vintage YSL heels. It was eighty degrees in our house. I eyeballed our swimming pool hungrily, but had a houseful of guests coming for our belated housewarming / SB XLV party, and silently vowed to take a dip this week if the temps rose again.

The warmth is long gone and we’re back to crisp blue skies and a constant wind with bite. I went to the Ferry Building today and out there on the water the wind is so bad it almost blew my dress right off!

But the cherry blossom trees are ablaze. Ours seemed to bloom fully overnight, as you can see. I’ve trimmed off the lighter branches and put them into vases to brighten things up in our home. Even though the petals shed like crazy, they’re so beautiful. All told, I’ve got the pink branches, bright yellow, freshly cut daffodils and soft, live lavender in the house. Spring fever has crept in early.

I wanted to thank you for your suggestions in my last post! I will definitely be checking out your recommendations and reporting back.

I’m also planning to improve on the indexing here so that folks can find what they’re looking for a little more easily – we contributed to Autostraddle’s recent post in their new series “Queer Beauty Bar” on smelling good and I realized that there’s no way to hunt down all of my scent / fragrance reviews! Terrible!

Look, you definitely want to go to there:

I am LOVING what Alex has done with the site and hope to contribute more to this Queer Beauty Bar series in the future!

So, this ensemble!

I thrifted this dress, it’s very comfortable. The wind does funny things with it, but it also just falls nicely and is perfect for these not-quite-warm, not-quite-cold days. I paired it with some ribbed tights and the boots I picked up in Portland at Rock ‘n Rose. You’ve seen this Freebird by The Sak + Dollywood fox tail combination a million times, I feel.

I keep getting asked about it and complimented on it everywhere I go, more lately than ever before, and I just don’t know what it is! Often, they’ll ask me where I got such a beaut, and you should see the utterly crushed look on their faces when I confess that it’s from Dollywood, yes, DollywoodallthewayoutinTennessee. So sad. It breaks my heart.

I love this picture the very talented photographer Keep Drowning took of it at a party M & I were at recently:

(Photos courtesy of Keep Drowning, obviously.)

Yes, those are my very excellent Calvin Klein suede and patent leather cut-out pumps.

Anyway, very cool photos. Y’all should hire that person, because I had no idea these were even taken and I’m in love with the smoky, boozy, candid haze they capture!

Last night we went dancing at a party where they played lots and lots and lots of songs by Depeche Mode (and The Cure, which pleased me greatly). I wore a green dress with black polka dots. I don’t know that I’ve ever owned a great deal of green clothing, but suddenly it seems polka dotted numbers in green are a thing I do now. The mysterious Tommy has given me a ton of fantastic tips for my new and still very much a work-in-progress FFAF studio, but for now these and my in blessed natural night posts will have to do.

This outfit was thrown on in a great hurry on Thursday last week. I was going for easy. Here’s a blouse that doesn’t need pressing! I thought. These black velvet trousers will do just fine and I pulled them off the hanger. Try to at least look like you’ve put in effort, I scolded myself, and then threw on the vest. I am very lucky that high topknots are in right now, because like hell I had time for that malarkey. I hopped down the stairs putting in my earrings and shoved a fistful of bobby pins into my pocket to catch the strays.

Off I went to work, but not before M drowsily informed me that I looked like a fancy Puerto Rican girl.

Black velvet trousers: Erin Fetherston for Target
Blouse: Vintage
Vest: Hengst
Earrings: Claire’s
Bracelet: Modcloth (I think, hard to remember)
Shoes: Yves Saint Laurent

When: Saturday, Jan. 31st, 2009.

Femme What: Black velvet frock trimmed with embroidered ribbon, Free People. White tank by Mimi & Coco. Boots from Lamica, black ribbon headband from Target and skull-and-pearls necklace by Betsey Johnson.

Femme Scent: Vera Wang’s Princess, with notes as follows: Water Lily, Lady Apple, Mandarin Meringue, Golden Apricot Skin, Ripe Pink Guava, Tahitian Flower, Wild Tuberose, Dark Chocolate, Pink Frosting Accord, Precious Amber, Forbidden Woods, Royal Musk Captive, Chiffon Vanilla. I like this for a sweet and girly casual day scent that’s not too cloying or heavy. It’s nice and light, with enough going on to keep it from being boring and really good staying power.

Femme Confession: It appears, quite tragically, that I am not a fan of scotch. ‘Tis a pity! M brought a rather nice bottle home last night, along with heart-shaped chocolates from local chocolatiers Joseph Schmidt and wee tiles of solid milk and dark chocolate from Charles Chocolates! Perhaps it’s just the Islay variety – something in the peatiness, maybe – but not only did the taste not sit well with me, just the whiff off the cork made me feel boozy right away! Anyway, here’s an invitation to come visit us and help M drink this very lovely bottle of Lagavulin 16-Year Scotch:

Tomboy What: RVCA jeans, white guayabera bought in Old San Juan, PR. Mahogany Italian boots that are totally falling apart bought I have no idea where, vintage Yves Saint Laurent sangria tie with sea horsies bought at the bombass flea market.

Tomboy Confession: I woke up craving chilaquiles in green sauce even though I mostly only ever eat the kind in red sauce, so we went to Citron for brunch. They came with pulled pork and a very spicy salsa. I feel great about my breakfast, and am looking forward to the samosa parade later, and sliders tomorrow. The skinny one is not wearing underwear. There is scotch in the liquor cabinet. This sports weekend is going spectacularly!

When: Friday, Sept. 19th, 2008.

What: Royal blue silk dress by Kenneth Cole. James Cured by Seun jeans. (Mm, super dark dry aged denim.) Vintage YSL satin pumps in royal blue. My P&B scarf from Down At Lulu’s. Pretty mustard yellow leather bag by Emilie M / Beaded white clutch, vintage. Fancy feathered hat, also vintage. Pretty dangly earrings from boutiques in the East Bay and Old San Juan, respectively.

Confession: These royal blue Yves Saint Laurent treasures were sitting jauntily atop a hat box in the costume section of my favorite thrift shop. In my size. That was a good day. So was the day I found the little silk number you’ll see soon enough! Ach so!

Firstly, I’m sorry I’ve neglected the blog for a whole week! It’s busily exciting but not necessarily excitingly busy, you see. I promise I’ll be better this week. Really.

Secondly, did you ever, when you were young, wonder what on earth someone would need an outfit to go from “day to night” for? You know, in fashion magazines? Long before any real grasp of busy workdays and mundane routines and nightmarish commutes could settle into your wee brain? I did. I understood the concept, of course – change of shoes, bare some skin, add a bauble here or there, let the hair down – but why not just go home and change the whole bloody outfit, I wondered.

Well!

That was then, this is now. My day to night, yours for the taking: