OOTDs: The Starlet Knit Dress, the Star of My Wardrobe.

After spending half of my California OOTD post declaring my undying love for the Garnet Hill jersey dress, I thought it best to follow up with three ootds from this summer that feature the remaining photos that give further proof of my obsession with this company's fine women's wear.

After purchasing and wearing the Starlet Knit Dress last summer (first shown here at this blog post), I decided that if Garnet Hill were to issue the dress in patterns/colors I liked this season, and I could grab them with a discount of some sort, I would buy them since I lived in the one I had last summer (it was my "go to" easy outfit when I didn't have the energy or desire to put a lot of thought into my look).  Lucky for me, they issued it in multiple colors, and I went ahead and grabbed two shades, the cherry print (which I brought to CA with me) and a bright aqua floral print.  Every cent spent was worth it since I have worn all three versions multiple times this year.  (I don't photograph every outfit, but if I were that kind of style blogger, you all would be B-O-R-E-D with these three by now.)

Day: Sunday,  July 28, 2013.

Where: Mass.

Ease of Wear: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.)  Not only is the dress pretty and flattering, WITH POCKETS, the darn thing wears like pajamas.  Good thing, too, since half of mass was spent outside with Tiny (Angus) chasing him to and fro, since he just won't sit still for more than a brief nanosecond.  My church has met its match.  Sigh.

Cool Factor: (3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) This is the closest to cool regarding styling as any of the three looks come to it, but it still doesn't look that cool.  The Madewell sunglasses help a tiny bit.

Anecdote from the Day:  Read the "ease of wear" for more on that. 

Day: Wednesday,  August 7, 2013.

Where: Chilling at home, in all seriousness.  The bag was for show.  ;-)

Ease of Wear: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.)  Easy enough for me to choose to wear a dress instead of anything else for "chilling" at home.

Cool Factor: (2.5 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) Meh, the print will probably look dated in a few years.  I love the color, though, and will wear this dress for a long time since I feel so good in it, even if it ends up in the "at home only" pile in a few years.  (I have worn it out in public, just not that day.)

Anecdote from the Day:  I wrote a BWRR that day, the last one I did for a whole month.  I have since rectified that situation and published a new one on Monday.  

Day: Sunday, August 18, 2013.

Where: Richmond to visit Rex's kindergarten teacher (she got married and then moved--sadness).  We ate at the Can Can, one of my all time favorite restaurants and then visited the Children's Museum on Broad Street.  (The egg photos are from the museum.)

Ease of Wear: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.)  It was comfortable enough for me to feel good even though we spent THREE WHOLE HOURS in traffic to get from Alexandria to Richmond (it normally takes between one and a half and two hours to get there--and two is what I expect when there is traffic).  We were late, but I barely look tousled.  Good on you, Garnet Hill.

Cool Factor: (2 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) Very momma on the go here, so not especially cool, but as you all know, cool isn't always the most important thing to me.

Anecdote from the Day:  THREE HOURS in bumper to bumper traffic.  It was only three hours, btw, because I know that you can ditch 95 and take Route 1 through Spotsylvania county, Caroline county, and Hanover county to get to upper Richmond.  The people on the highway don't want to deal with traffic lights, but I would rather deal with 10 traffic lights and move at 55 MPH than sit with half the population of the east coast staring at license tags in 20 MPH traffic.

I did discover the funniest band name known to man that day, Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes.  Ha.  I did not get to "Get Dancing"* sadly.  Dang and it.

*If bored, you have to watch this.  Trust me.

Okay, that's all for now.

Reminder--Boden's 20% portion of the "Diminishing Discount" promo is ending tonight.  Tomorrow the amount off reduces to 15% off (that is my "usual" coupon % off, btw).  I wrote about that sale here at this post.

What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear When Faced with the Infamous Beltway?

"Oh, dear, Will...I believe our meeting will have to be delayed as I am stuck in just the most terrible traffic ever...the Beltway has beaten us."

It is incredibly fortunate that Emma and Will and their singing teen acolytes are in a suburban high school in Ohio and not in Northern Virginia. See if they were, they would never make it to regionals or nationals because they and their school bus would be forever trapped in the never-ending cycle of traffic that makes the DC region so (in)famous.

Here is how my conversation went with my dear bloggie friend Suzy:

"Suzy, I know that I was planning on meeting you in Montgomery Mall in Bethesda later this morning so you and I could meet up, I could give you your Arbonne catalog and samples and that gorgeous Madewell necklace that I sold you on the exchange, but I am afraid the traffic is too insane to even bear. By the time I got to the mall, I would have to say hi, throw the bag full of goodies at your hands from my open car window, and yell good-bye as I race off to catch the light so I can get back on the highway for my insane return back home. I believe, Suzy, that if I were to try and meet you in Richmond I could get to you faster. (Suzy laughs, and agrees.) Next time, I will take the hour and half trip to Richmond (100 miles door to door) to see you and not the two hour trip to Bethesda (20 miles door to door)!  I will resign myself to mailing your package to you instead."

I had been so excited to see her...I wanted to show off my babies, hang out in the mall, check out the new arrivals at J. Crew, and show off my Emma Pillsbury inspired outfit. Sadly this was not to be. (SHAKES delicate, glass-beaded bracelet wrist at the back-up on 495.)

WWEPW My Take... by dinagideon featuring a cluster necklace

Anyhow, this is the polyvore of an Emma inspired outfit that only my kids and a WHOLE bunch of random strangers were able to see at Tysons (le sigh, it seems I always end up at Tysons for shopping).

Emma Pillsbury wore a similar outfit a few weeks back and WWEPW blogged about it soon thereafter. And then the cardigan went on sale...whee!

And on me...before I realized what my day was to hold. I would have been better off in an orange reflective vest and a green utility jumper. At least that way I would have been better dressed to help the construction workers out...

Sizes:
Cardigan: Pick A Bunch Cardi, Anthropologie, Size Small. Very fitted and short. Definitely size up if you are long-torsoed.
Skirt: Double Serge Pencil Skirt, J. Crew, Bronzed Ochre, Size 6. The 4 fit, but way too closely...I felt like an extra in the secretarial pool over at the Mad Men set in the smaller size. LOL.

I did buy a blazecoat at the Tysons J. Crew. They were running a 25% off special, so I bit. I bought a 2. That coat runs really large. A lot of you all will probably be sized out.

For Sale Items 11/15/10... by dinagideon featuring j crew tops

I hope you all have a great day...just so you know, I have some stuff on sale...go ahead on over to my polyvore and check out the pieces, sizes, and prices.  :)

My Walk Home...or Two Miles of Sheer Pleasure...

I think this post may be a bit boring for all of the ladies (and men) who usually visit for J. Crew or fashion related stuff, but I love my walk home. It is like a beautiful study in contrasts. On one hand you have the real gritty feel of a walk in a city, and then halfway through, you enter into a world of suburbia and trees. This is why I walk home (besides the fact that it is about a MILLION times better than driving--I grew up in NOVA and driving here STRESSES me out). I love being able to see an area that coexists side by side that is so different, like night and day (I know I just used a very tired simile). This is my two-mile walk home (which I sometimes reverse to walk to school). I do this walk upwards of three times a week.


This is the beginning of my walk. I exit the school building and there are the school buses (by the way, why is it spelled buses and not busses?). This view I love because it means I am going home and I get to see my kids!


This is the medical building across from where I teach. You can see this building from 395. It is an interesting mid-century building and has a very austere sort of presence. I like that this building exists and hasn't been torn down. It seems a lot of folks don't like this particular architectural style, but it is important (especially if the building is sound) to leave a few examples of this type of building up in the world. If you tear down every building from this period, there will be no more physical proof of them in the world, and frankly, that would be sad.

On a personal note, this is where Rex and CW have their doctor, the awesome Dr. Brendan Sullivan. Their office is moving to a location even closer to our house, but for now they are still here. I will mention, for full disclosure, that even though I think this building is really cool-looking, it has horrible parking and the elevators are atrocious. So it really is no wonder that our doctors are leaving.


There is a personal reason I took this photo. There used to be a restaurant called Steak and Ale here, and my dad, brother, grandpa, and I used to go here all the time. It closed in 1990 or something like that, but here it still stands, unoccupied in 2009. Wow. I wonder what the inside looks like. The only use this building has is its parking lot, used by the doctors of the building in the picture before this one.


Okay, this I put this picture up because I sometimes think I am the only one who follows this rule. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people (children from my school, too) ignore this sign and cross over the road that leads to the highway. IDIOTS. IDIOTS! People in their cars drive like maniacs and here are our precious darlings crossing in front of them to save what, two minutes at most? Give me a break. It's not like the pedestrian overpass is much safer(you'll see in the photo after the next one), but more safe than what most people do. Seriously, people, if the sign is there, it is there for a reason. Ugh.

Okay, here is one of my favorite views during my walk. Seen from the pedestrian walkway, the Southern Towers of western Alexandria rise from the flat earth like some sort of brick amazons. I also like the way these buildings line up just so...it is fairly obvious that the architect had that in mind when placing the buildings in this arrangement. These are more buildings done in the mid-century style (most of this area was built up in the 50s, 60s, and 70s). Now I don't know when it was built exactly, but from the brief research I just did, sometime between '60 and '65 seems right.

I wouldn't necessarily say to people, "oh, go live there," but I do love the way it looks and how you can see it from many places in Alexandria. I bet the views from the top floors are spectacular, too!

Okay, here is the most unsafe part of my walk (thank God it is brief). Crossing over 395, pedestrians are forced to walk on this thin bit of concrete next to traffic that is OBLIVIOUS to the walkers. I swear I have seen cars whizzing by at upwards of 50 mph. I am not even kidding. I always give mean, dirty looks, but they probably don't give a cr**. This bus was even going pretty fast (at around 40 mph). Good thing I have good balance. I would hate to accidentally fall and have a car run me over at a fast clip. Really what the city of Alexandria needs to do is install a guardrail on the other side of the sidewalk (not just the part that protects you from falling onto 395). That could help this walk a bit.

In the distance you can see the Mark Center Hilton. Yet another high-rise on my walk home.

Here is the view of late-afternoon (Wednesday in early February 2009) traffic on 395 Southbound. You will notice that the middle HOV lanes are empty. I guess very few people have the requisite 3 people or Clean-fuel car to use the lanes. We always get to use the lanes...love the 2 kids plus 2 adults equals four, one more than is needed. That said, the traffic in the regular lanes wasn't too bad the day of this walk. I have seen it WAY WORSE. I always like to think that every once in a while, someone will look up from their car and feel a slight jab of jealousy that I get to walk home. I know I used to feel that way when I worked in the District and had a heinous commute!

So now on this photographic journey we are officially in my neighborhood. This is when the skyline loses the large buildings (well, barring this set of homes which gets to see the Mark Center Hilton). Now the homes are low to the ground and modest. There are trees everywhere and if you sit in one place, cars don't whiz by constantly (even though some people use the 'hood as a cut-through). It is so funny...one second you feel like you are in a mini-city, and then the next second, you feel like you are in the most suburban neighborhood on the planet.

Our neighborhood was pretty much built at the same time as all the buildings featured in the pics above, mid-50s to mid-60s. There are some later homes, but they are at the fringes of the neighborhood. We are a mid-century neighborhood. This is a perfect example of a mid-century home. It has the split-level entrance and lots of windows, brick and siding, and a mix of different types of windows (some sliding, some small, some large).

Here is another set of perfectly placed mid-century modern homes.

For more on these types of homes and neighborhoods, visit mid-century Mike over at his blog: http://www.moderncapital.blogspot.com/

So here I am, mid-walk, no make-up, listening to my IPOD (ancient...from 2004), with my Vera Bradley Medallion backpack. I am not vain enough not to show you how much I love this walk, even if it means you people get to see me with no makeup. By the way, this was that day that was SO PRETTY...something like 70 degrees. IN FEBRUARY! Gotta love the DC Area weather...

So this is into the neighborhood a bit, and I took a pic of this intersection because it bothers me so much! The car that you see has a stop sign, while the cars that would pass his path do not. It irks me to no end that these cars with the stop sign will not even bother pausing after they stop because they just ASSUME that the other cars have a stop sign. We have nearly gotten into multiple accidents because of this. I say either install stop signs for all of us, or make it blatantly clear to the people with the stop sign that the other traffic has no stop sign. I think this intersection is a problem because this is a jurisdictional no-mans land...this is RIGHT at the border between Alexandria City and the Alexandria part of Fairfax County (aka the "forgotten part of Fairfax County). Sigh.

This car is right at the end of our street. I always know I am really close to my house when I see this incomprehensible bumper sticker. I figure the person who drives it is an uber-feminist, but the sticker is real tough to understand. My husband and I love discovering really obscure bumper stickers and lucky for us, one is on our block! Hurrah! Any thoughts on what this sticker means exactly?

Almost home...yippee! I hope you have enjoyed the walk. If you read this whole post, you are either: 1) Roxie; 2) someone related to me; 3) REALLY bored at work; 4) fascinated by mid-century stuff like me; or 5) into mundane things and how people can talk about their lives without end. :)

By the way, part of my 30-plus pound weight loss has been from my walks to and from school. I think I will keep it up!