Daily Dose: Lacy days

I have a thing for lace skirts. I have about seven, and most of them are black. I gravitate towards them in the store and even when I remember the ungodly amount of lace skirts I have, I still want more.

Daily Dose: Mon Cherie

So I dropped my laptop recently on my foot, and I had thought my foot received the worst of it until I realized this weird jumpy mouse problem is not, in fact, transient. Its wreaked havoc on my sanity; I now live in a world where I open up three instances of a youtube video trying to click on a Skype link and the audio echoes with just a slight delay three times. And this happens all the time.

But enough about me. Wait no. Nevermind.

I found some very old (years old) outfit photos on my hard drive and since these days I mostly dress by picking stuff up off the floor that is 1) warm-looking and 2) not see-through, I thought I'd post them since they're much less depressing than a rotation of scrubs and black things that are also fuzzy.

Daily Dose: Short Stories

I don't know how all these fashion bloggers take such fantastic outside photos. Take today, for example-- I didn't even wear a photo-worthy outfit, because I knew it was going to rain, and I knew I was going to get very wet. So I give you this very underexposed indoor photo from sometime in the past:

Daily Dose: Sweetheart

It's been a long time, blog. I've missed you.

For a while there, I-- gasp-- stopped caring about dressing up nicely. I was having some trouble career-wise, and it was seeping into what originally was an escape from work. I was sad. My clothes were sad. (There were lots of fancy sweatpants involved.)

About a month and a half ago though, I managed to make a switch in my career specialty and have since incredulously watched as my desire to take photos of myself returned! I still wear the fancy sweatpants a lot though. (No regrets.)

Style Supplement: The vitamin J guide to pastels

Even though there's still snow EVERYWHERE, stores refuse to care and are stocked with loads of pastels.

I probably have something of every colour in my wardrobe but pastel tones, by far, are the most infrequently found.  I find pastels difficult to wear and difficult to style.  They often look too old, too young, too frumpy, too saccharine and sometimes just too uncool.  Pastels in spring are ubiquitous, and I've been experimenting with my most feared colour group lately.  I present to you, dear reader, my findings/ramblings, grouped by colour, in something I call 'The Vitamin J Guide to Pastels'.

OVERALL TIPS

Balance in all things

from LC Lauren Conrad for Kohl's 2011 collection

Pastels have a tendency to get too cute too fast.  Since the colour reads feminine and/or juvenile, make sure to balance this out by not wearing too much pastel in one outfit and to wear sleeker and edgier shapes.  Minimize ruffles, bows, flowers and other feminine details.  Pair with leather, denim and other more rugged and masculine-type materials.  Try simple shapes like basic collared shirts, skinny jeans and pencil skirts with few details.

Tone it down

 from RW&Co Spring/Summer 2014 collection

The easiest pastels to wear are desaturated ones.  For example, instead of baby blue, try one that reads more as ice blue or blue-grey.  Desaturated pinks and browns can often read as neutrals and are easier to style.  You can also go the complete opposite way and choose more saturated and brighter tones, which I find are also easier to wear.  There's less risk of washing yourself out and brighter colours generally look less juvenile.

Cross those seasonal barriers

from Le Chateau Spring/Summer 2014 collection

Pastels epitomize spring, so it can be hard to wear these colours in other seasons.  An easy way to do it is to pair with black.  This automatically gives off a sense of more grounded, serious femininity and is a favourite combination of mine for job interviews.  Pairing with any darker colour will do the trick-- brown, navy and burgundy are great colours to try.

SELECT COLOURS

MINT

Mint has been everywhere recently!  Its definitely a great choice as its on-trend and often does not read as a true pastel. You can wear a lot of mint without it getting overpowering, so feel free to experiment with dresses, skirts, pant, etc.  However, I recall mint first being exciting about three years ago, so I feel its on a downwards trajectory as a trend.  My advice is to pick up a few things if you like the colour, but don't go overboard as I don't think it'll be super hot in the coming seasons.

Easy pairings: black, grey, white, bronze, gold

BLUSH

Blush is a great, easy pastel to wear as it can be treated as a neutral and never really goes out of style.  Be careful of how different shades work with your skin colour-- some can make you look washed out.  

Easy pairings: black, grey, brown, cobalt, navy, magenta, gold, bronze, silver

LILAC

I haven't seen too much lilac in-stores, but I have a feeling that in upcoming seasons, it will be like mint was last year.  With lilac, definitely stick to less frilly and feminine items; menswear-inspired pieces like collared shirts and blazers would look great.  You can also try a more desaturated colour with grey undertones for an easier to style piece.

Easy pairings: grey, beige, camel, cobalt, navy

ICE BLUE

Like lilac, I feel like ice blue will be a bigger colour given some time.  Blue reads more masculine, so this is the one colour you can go with more feminine details without it being overpowering.  Chambray's also a great choice that is technically light blue, but reads more rugged than pastel.

Baby blue personally terrifies me as I grew up in the 90's.  I would avoid baby blue (and baby pink) as it currently reads dated and instead go for something either more or less saturated.

Easy pairings: charcoal, navy, white

GREY

Not technically a pastel, but I included it as it’s a great colour to incorporate along with pastels for spring.  It’s a good neutral that’s less heavy than black but is more graphic than brown shades, and thus plays well into the graphic, black and white look that’s currently trending for this spring.  Grey looks great with texture, so try it in velvet or silk.

THE REST

Yellow and spring green aren't quite as hot this season.  I feel that except for the coral that usually pops up around this time, cooler tones predominate.  White isn't a pastel, but is always, always in for spring and summer and works with most pastels very well.

The great thing about pastels is that you can find one that will work for you.  What's your favourite pastel tone for Spring/Summer 2014?

Stay tuned: Spring (maybe) coming soon

In addition to a terrible winter that will never end (G. R. R., it got here before Winds of Winter!), I'm separated from the majority of my wardrobe and my computer has died. I managed to completely kill the processor, ostensibly with too much awesome, but my photo-editing capabilities have died with it along with a bunch of posts. Now, I've been planning loads of posts, but just having trouble with the pictures to go along with them, due to the aforementioned issues. I'm fed up with not posting though because I have loads to talk about! I'm hoping in the meantime, with the dearth of accompanying illustration, you all will be charmed my my wit and way with words. :) (Hey, an emote can't hurt either, right?)

Let's talk about the weather. All of Canada and the US has been inundated with a really, really terrible winter this year. Although the stores are full of spring and summer collections on schedule, the weather, at least in my neck of the woods, hasn't been cooperating. Like, at all. So what's a girl to do? Let me tell you.

The Vitamin J Guide to Telling Winter to Shove it (Through Fashion)

1. Buy some cute winter accessories at a serious discount

Ah, the joys of off-season shopping. Except this time, you can wear your purchases right away! I recently picked up a bunch of scarves originally priced around $20 for less than $3 a piece. i found that pair of heart print gloves marked down 75%. And I wore these things the same week. I generally pick up lots of winter things anyways, since my winter season is so long, so it was nice to have a cute little pick-me-up that would come in handy later in the year as well.

2. Wear warm weather dresses with tights

I swear by fleece-lined tights and leggings. These babies make it so that even if your dress is made out of the thinnest cotton ever, your legs will still feel toasty. Cardigans perform the same function for your arms. If you can't find fleece-lined tights in your colour of choice, wear black ones and layer a coloured opaque pair over top.

3. Pin on a flower

In your hair, on a lapel, on a belt, anywhere! I'm currently really digging the sock bun and metallic flower combo at the moment.

People still stuck under sheets of snow-- what are your ways to incorporate spring into your clothes while it's still miserable outside?

HANG IN THERE GUYS!

The title should actually be directed towards me, as I am allllllmost there -- just hang in there vitaminJ, you'll be done soon!  (The seriousness of this situation dictates that I use my blogger/rapper name.)

What will I be done with?  MEDICAL SCHOOL.  There's been so much stuff to take care of as I near the end of this slog that I haven't been able to post much.  I have a write-up on how to wear pastels in-progress that I keep opening up, staring at and then closing again.  I have been taking outfit photos though, and I have actually been drawing my outfits as well (OMG).  I've been having trouble figuring out a good time-efficient way to draw things for the blog, but I think I've got it!

Essentially, I just wanted to let everyone know that I plan to be back with some great new posts (+ drawings!) very soon, and to also give some insight into whats been up with me lately.

See you all very soon,
vitaminJ

Daily Dose: The girl in the green scarf

I have been reading a lot lately.  My brother kindly found me an iPad mini and so far I've read through A Song of Ice and Fire and the Shopaholic books.  Obviously both clothing and dragons excite me immensely. I don't quite know why the Shopaholic movie changed the colour of a Very Important Scarf to green (it was blue in the books), but that's OK.  Green scarves are better anyways.

Daily Dose: Kimonos

I don't know about you guys, but I tend to fluctuate in my use of accessories.  Lately, I've been crazy for necklaces and nothing else!  My belts and bracelets and scarves are languishing in their drawers, crying out, 'wear me, wear me!'  I pulled out a belt for the first time in a long while, and it reminded me of my belt phase.   I have resolved to try to not get stuck in accessory phases (we'll see how long that lasts).

This is an outfit from the aforementioned belt phase.  It really reminds me of a kimono because of the flowy jacket-thing and the obi belt, although I am aware it is nothing like a kimono if I'm honest with myself.

The jacket-thing (I still don't really know what it is) was a cheap buy because I was intrigued.  I have become very fond of my jacket-thing, because it's super comfortable and I love the way it drapes.  It has a pattern but it's very subtle, so it's not too hard to pair with other things.  And of course, I'm wearing my much-beloved liquid leggings.  Have I told you how much I love my liquid leggings?  I thought not.  Finally, the outfit's finished off with a pair of nude pumps.  I do really like nude pumps for their versatility and leg-lengthening effects, but I've found it's quite difficult to find the right nude for you.  Nude doesn't mean a sort -of beige coloured shoe, but rather one that matches your skin tone.  Being browner than much of Canada, I went on quite the hunt for these, but I think they're exactly the right shade for me!  If you want to invest in a pair of nude shoes, please take the time and effort to find something as close to your skin tone as possible!  It looks super chic when you find the right ones!

I added up the total cost of this outfit for interest, and thought it might be cool to post the total costs of my outfits from now on, since I post the prices of the items anyways.  Is this of interest to anyone?

Grey lace-paneled tank - Smart Set - size S - $4.99

Floral kimono jacket - Smart Set - size XS - 4.99

Cognac obi belt - Aldo - size S - $5.99

Copper bracelets - from India

Liquid leggings - Suzy Shier - size S - $7

Nude pumps - Aldo - size 7 - ~$40

TOTAL COST OF OUTFIT = $62.97

Daily Dose: Tweed zebra

I used to be very against wedges.  I didn't like the chunkiness, but since then I have come to embrace wedge heels.  I do think you need to be careful and pair more delicate things with them to counteract the chunk though!  I think these zebra print wedge booties are the most outrageous pair of shoes I've got; my cousin came over one day and asked me why I owned a pair of hooker shoes.  BECAUSE.

Daily Dose: Rust and Feathers

I've got a giant backlog of outfits, which I'm thankful for, because for the past few days, I've been meaning to snap some photos of what I've been wearing, but always end up thinking, 'Eh, I'll do it tomorrow'.  TOMORROW NEVER COMES.

Style Supplement: How to shave pants (or deal with stubborn lint)

Greetings from Toronto!  I just had my first interview in this area, and had some free time this evening.  The clothes I brought for this trip are based around a palette of mint, rose, black and grey.  I brought a pair of grey fleece leggings with me, but they looked terrible after being worn constantly under... everything while I was in India.  (Also my brother wore them for a while.  India was cold man.)  They were covered in lint and pills and were generally gross.  I tried a lint brush to no avail, so it was off to Google.  I learned of something called a 'sweater shaver', but thought that was too complicated.  Now, dear friends, what else shaves things?  That's right.  A razor.

HOW TO DEAL WITH STUBBORN LINT AND PILLS

1) First try washing your item and see if that helps.
2) If it doesn't, use a lint roller or some tape if you wanna be MacGyver-ish about it.
3) If you still can't get those fuzzy balls of frustration off, grab a disposable razor.  Now run the razor along the surface of the item in short strokes, as though you're 'shaving' it.  The pressure you should apply depends on the material of your item and what you're trying to remove.  With my fleece leggings, I found I had to press fairly hard to get the lint off, and it didn't ruin the material.  Try it out on a less visible area first.

Success!  I was very, very skeptical about this and couldn't believe it when it worked.  But it does!  Who needs a sweater shaver now?  (As a disclaimer, I've never used a sweater shaver and I have no idea exactly how well it works.)

Try it and let me know it it works for you!

Style Supplement: What to wear for an interview

It's that time again!  I've got three interviews coming up in the next two weeks which will decide my fate forever.  So I'm gonna try to look awesome.

I always find interview dressing difficult as the whole interview process can be so stressful.   To put it in perspective, having one to approximately fifteen interviews over the last few years, I can say that most of the time, no one really cares what you wear as long as you meet the baseline criteria of looking clean, presentable and professional.  But-- I hear you say, we are fashionable!  We need to look good!  And I totally agree.

Image from J.Crew.

Wearing a polka dot sweater with slim leg pants and pointed cap toe shoes in a monochromatic colour scheme is chic perfection!

I find that there are two major interview outfit missteps: 1) being inappropriate and unprofessional and 2) being boring.  I think most people know how to avoid the former, and the most common problem is the latter.  Being professional is easy, but being professional and stylish is something else altogether.

Retail Therapy: A guide to the January end-of-season sale

I deeply apologize for the long stretch without posts!  I was doing my MTU rotation (the horror!) and then buggered off to India for three weeks.  I had to go to an internet cafe to get on the web while I was away, which was rather quaint, but made it difficult to blog.  Also, India was cold.  It was confusing.

My second day back, true to form, I got off work early and walked across the street to the mall and SHOPPED.  There were some things I saw repeatedly on sale, so I present my quick and dirty guide to the January end-of-season sale.

Daily Dose: Modern day geisha

Once upon a time, I bought my mum three scarves.  She has worn them exactly zero times, and I stole one and wore it once.  Here's what happened.

Daily Dose: Anthropologist

First off, I apologize so very much for the long break with no posts!  Work/school is currently crazy busy with very long days and no laptop access.  I'm also currently applying for residency programs, which is taking up a lot of my time and thinking power.  Unfortunately, things will be busy for a bit longer but I think I'm over the worst of it at this point.

This outfit reminds me of something that comes straight out of Anthropologie; I think it's the vintage-y vibe.  Nothing in it actually comes from Anthropologie, of course.

Daily Dose: Green thumb

I have recently discovered maxis.  I don't know what it is, but they drive my usually logical brain into an irrational frenzy where I feel like I must have many, many maxis AT ALL TIMES.  After reflecting, I've decided it's the length and swooshiness of the maxi that makes it so desirable.  It's my grown-up way of dressing like a princess.  (Also swooshiness.)

Daily Dose: Blue suede shoes

So I think suede shoes are supposed to be fall and winter appropriate.  However, I'm not sure in which fall and winter that would be true.  Canadian winters are (in my neck of the woods) rather wet, cold and full of snow.  Suede + snow = not a good idea.  This does not stop Canadian shoe stores from being full of suede boots however.  I try to keep my suede/microfibre shoes to a minimum as I'm scared to wear the things outside, but sometimes there are just those pairs that I think are too good to pass up.

I've worn this skirt a million times since I bought it.  I guess it would be categorized as a 'tulip skirt', where there are pleats or gathers on the front.  This probably exaggerates my hips as a pear-ish shaped person, but I don't care.  I love this skirt.  I also love this blazer and have maybe worn it a million and one times.  It seems like it would have too much going on, with the poofy shoulder, the pleats at the torso and the leopard-print lining, but all together it just works.  It's a great neutral blazer with a great pop at the sleeves with the leopard.

I thought these tights were going to be a lovely opaque sky blue so I was a bit disappointed initially that they were a bit sheer.  But after wearing them for a bit, I really like the look!  Not as useful for the aforementioned Canadian winters, but cute, so who cares?

And so we come to the the blue suede shoes of the title.  They don't look like much above, but I assure you they are quite fabulous.  They're one of those pieces that gets compliments, and I like how they add a pop of colour to any outfit.

Tank - Smart Set - size S - ~$2.50

Skirt - Urban Behaviour - size XS - ~$15

Blazer - H&M - size 2 - ~$15

Tights - Joe Fresh via Superstore - size B - ~$1.50

Booties - FeetFirst - size 6 - ~$20

Daily Dose: Garden party

Everyone loves this dress.  I don't know what it is about it; the colour, the silhouette or the flowers, but it sucks everyone in and makes them beg for mercy and someone to save them from the overall twee-ness of it all.  The day I wore this outfit I got two compliments from random ladies at the library.  Score!

I love this dress too.  It manages to be a full-skirted shift-sort of thing, which is, in my eyes, kind of amazing.  I haven't seen a silhouette like it since.  These shoes are slightly red now, after I wore them with a pair of horrendously bleedy red jeans.  They fulfilled my itch for white shoes though, and have the slightest wedge heel, which is nice for my poor, flat feet.  

The cardigan is something I was initially unsure about.  I'd seen a few lace cardigans on bloggers before, but they were from Target and I currently don't have Target.  (Next year!)  And wouldn't you know it, I saw some walking through a Forever 21.  I wasn't sure about this colour, but I'm glad I got it, as it goes with more than I thought it would, and summer's been warm this year, so I've been glad to have an item of clothing that covers the shoulders but doesn't actually provide any real coverage whatsoever.  There's some sort of statement on clothing and function or lack thereof in there if you look hard enough.

Dress - H&M (Garden Collection) - size 4 - ~$15

Cardigan - Forever 21 - size S - $4

Ballet flats - Call it Spring - size 6 - ~$12

Headband - Likely the dollar store - no size - <$1

Daily Dose: Daytime sparkle

I have a confession to make: I don't really like jeans.  You know whenever there's an interview with a celebrity or something and the interviewer asks them what their favorite outfit is?  And they invariably say a white t-shirt and jeans?  I find that the most BORING outfit possible.  I am obviously a maximalist.

Mostly I am currently finding plain old jeans played out, especially bootcuts.  And now I present to you an outfit featuring bootcut jeans.