6 July 2009 – Conversions

Posted on | July 6, 2009 | 15 Comments

6 July 2009 – Conversions, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed but bracelet:

Purple cardi - H&M
Turquoise maxi skirt worn as dress – AE
White belt – Banana Republic
Yellow vintage bag – Garage Sale
Red wedges – Etienne Aigner, thrifted
Earrings – gift from mom
Bracelet – old, don’t remember source

Endnotes:

I’ve been noticing this trend on the internets lately and decided to try it out for myself today; wearing a longer skirt as a dress. You might remember this turquoise number as my maxi skirt, which I don’t wear very often. But having discovered this trick, I think this item will get a lot more use from now on.

I first saw the lovely Clodo from wardrobe_remix doing this with a bright floral skirt and then I was going through the archives of the Uniform Project and noticed that Sheena did a similar thing with a plaid maxi skirt underneath her black “uniform” dress. So what do you think about this skirt to dress conversion? Have I tempted you to run to your closet and try it yourself? If so, feel free to snap a picture of your creative self in your skirt-to-dress look and send it our way, I’d love to see how you make this trend work for you! S.

18 June 2009

Posted on | June 18, 2009 | 18 Comments

18 June 2009, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed but hat:

Purple tank – Old Navy
Teal shift dress - Banana Repubilc
Sandals – Target
Yellow vintage bag - Garage Sale find
Purple necklace and bracelet - Yves Rocher
Hat – Target
Dog – Indie

Endnotes:

This Sunday, T. and I leave for a week long road trip to Colorado with his family and the MGs. I posted a picture with T’s MG before, but I didn’t mention that his reason for owning one is that he grew up as the child of major MG enthusiasts and that he’s always been around people restoring, appreciating, and promoting old historic vehicles. Since being in a relationship with T., I’ve become an MG enthusiast by proxy. It’s really not so bad. Besides being forced to learn the difference between an MGB, an MGA, TDs and TFs, I get to partake in the yearly MG trip to some delightful destination in a caravan of wonderful historic cars, driven by T’s mom (yellow), T’s dad (orange), T’s brother (maroon), and T and me (black). This is us two years ago on our way to San Francisco, at a stop-over in Kansas.

This year, we’re driving with several more MG participants on our way to Colorado, so if you see a caravan of seven or so historic vehicles heading West, wave! Chances are, I’ll be waving back to you from the little black one…

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16 June 2009 – Rainy day bike ride

Posted on | June 16, 2009 | 17 Comments

16 June 2009 – Rainy day bike ride, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

All remixed except necklace and umbrella:

Purple top - Old Navy
Black linen skirt – H&M
Pink pumps – Antonio Melani
Bangle – Big Lots
Wood and glass necklace – made by me
Umbrella – Totes, bought in San Fran last week b/c it called for rain (and then of course it didn’t rain at all)
Yellow vintage bag – Sears brand, Garage sale find

Endnotes:

As E. already mentioned, it’s been a rainy dreary day here in the Midwest. But I too had errands to run that had to happen today and all of which were in rideable distance from me. And since I’ve just been reunited with Nerp, I really did not want to use the car to get around town just because the weather had developed an anti-Nerp agenda this week. So I thought I’d be clever and time my departure between bursts of rain and off I went.

But of course the moment I got out the door, a slow and steady drizzle started that continued for my entire four mile ride. Oh well, I still enjoyed the fresh flowers, the scent of summer, the adrenaline from riding in the rain like a kid in total abandonment – and my helmet proved extremely helpful in providing frizz-control by shielding much of my hair from the rain.

While in Salzburg, I would see cyclists all the time who could ride one-handed in the rain while holding an umbrella in the other. Tell me, fellow cyclists, what do you do in the rain? I only pulled out the umbrella while walking between stops, but definitely could not pull the one-handed-bike-with-umbrella stint around traffic.

Now I’m snugly tucked away in a booth at a coffee shop and hoping for a second chance at timing my ride home. And while I’m sipping my delicious hot mocha, I get to enjoy this view of the storefront across the street. (Nerp is really smitten with that lovely be-flowered bike on display):

Bikey store front window, originally uploaded by academichic.

15 June 2009

Posted on | June 15, 2009 | 24 Comments

15 June 2009 , originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

Gray tank – Hanes
Plaid button down – J.Crew
Charcoal walking shorts – Gap, remixed
Black sandals – Target, remixed a lot
Yellow bag – Garage sale find

Endnotes:

I’m reunited with Nerp! How I’ve missed my little bike! Nerp resides at my fiance’s house and since I don’t have a bike rack on my car, I have no way of transporting him* back and forth with me. But we’re together again at last! To celebrate, T. and I rode our bikes to our movie date last night. We rode to a friend’s house, where he and his girlfriend joined us on their bikes, and we all rode and chatted and savored the evening air on our way to the dollar theatre. Dottie was my inspiration for this, since she and her husband go on regular bike dates and it was as fun as she promised it would be!

Today, I’m riding Nerp around town and I’m also carrying my new/old yellow bag. This is my find from our garage sale adventure on Saturday. It’s the only thing I got and I spent a whopping One Dollar on it. I loved the yellow color, the vintage cut and spacious size of it, but it was in the most deplorable condition. The “before” shots don’t fully reveal how dirty and dingy it looked and I was about to pass it up when T. convinced me that we could clean it and give it a second chance at life.

T. suggested I mix Mr. Clean with water to dilute it and use a brush to scrub the plastic (faux-leather) exterior clean. The Mr. Clean solution worked magic, just see the difference for yourself:

Before and After:

What really got me was this clasp that looks just like the enclosures on my first school bag in the first grade. The only label on this bag is the embossed “Sears” right below the clasp. So here my question to you: Is this what one might call vintage? How do you know when something is vintage and not just old? What makes an item deserving of the “vintage” label and by what standards do you call it that? Please enlighten me!

Vintage or not, I love this cheery yellow bag and it’s large enough to hold my laptop and just the right size to fit in my bike basket. S.

*Yes, Nerp is a “he” although he may look like a ‘girl’ bike – Nerp doesn’t believe in gender-normative appearances and refuses to be bullied into looking masculine just because he identifies as such.