Going Local

I won't lie. I wore this outfit yesterday, too.

I was a pretty laid back day at work, and I didn't exactly get dirty, so I figured it wasn't a huge deal to throw it on again, today. It's going to be a laid back Saturday, too. We've got a baby fighting her teeth and an exciting new cold (either inspired by our return to daycare this week or the time we spent last weekend on planes to and from Texas for my brother's wedding). We have lunch plans with friends down at Local Taco, I haven't slept since 3:30 AM...

I have laundry to do...

look, not all bloggers live enviable lives of flitting about aimlessly in large cities buying, I don't know, fresh-cut flowers and caviar or whatever it is they're doing these days.

You know, I don't think I've ever actually eaten caviar.

I'm a terrible Frasier fan.

Easy is as easy does today. Just another variation on The Uniform: cardigan, tee, jeans, shoes.

The cardigan is from Target, of course, as most of my cardigans are. It's the closest to the right kind of mustard-color I'm always looking for in the fall, but which seems impossible to find both lightweight and affordable. Boden had the perfect one last fall, but it was way too heavyweight for South Carolina.

Ah, the travails of being a sweater-lover in the South.

 The jeans are Lands End.

I want to love them.

I want them to be perfect.

They are not perfect.

This saddens me.

 The jeans go from basically being a size too tight just after a wash-and-dry to being almost a size too big after about an hour of wear. They were kind of pricey jeans, so I'm thinking about sending them back, but the color and weight of them is just perfect. They need hemmed, too; hence the cuffs. I don't know. I love Lands End, but I have not been impressed with their jeans just yet. Sigh.

Life is hard.

The bracelet is a recycled leather belt piece I bought from the Downtown Farmers Market last year from a girl running a booth there. This T-shirt is really where the 'Going Local' shows up (um, other than the taco place we're eating later.)

This shirt is for PineBox designs. Ellison Brooks runs it; he's a local Greenville woodworker who makes the coolest Batman and Batgirl cutting board ever (and also built the counter system at one of my favorite local places, the Swamp Rabbit cafe & Grocery). I commissioned one for my brother's wedding and Ellison's wife Stephanie was able to drop it off right at my workplace, which was amazing. The cutting board was this gorgeous dark-toned wood and I was absurdly proud of myself for getting it for Bryan.

I'm probably going to get Jason and I one later this year.

In any case, I picked up one of PineBox's T-shirts while I was at it. All of the proceeds off the T-shirts go to Pendleton Place, a local charity that helps neglected and abused children and teens. I highly suggest you pick one up for yourself - they're supersoft and I am wearing this T-shirt basically all the time right now.

You can see what Ellison and PineBox Designs are up to on etsy, facebook, or instagram. He's a fun follow - I enjoy seeing what he's up to and what he's working on! Plus he's part of a network of some of us northern/northwestern Greenville locals kind of supporting each other... and I am all on supporting local business whenever I can!

(This post in no way sponsored, by the way. I just happen to think Ellison Brooks is a pretty cool dude.)

Outfit Details:
Cardigan: target, long since sold out but you can find similar stuff around... or just wait for fall.
T-shirt: PineBox Designs, here
Jeans: Lands End, here
Shoes: Old Navy, old, but they have them this year too
Bracelet: Farmers Market, don't remember name of vendor
Breast Cancer Pin: My mom is about to start her first round of chemo, so I'm wearing this pin on everything right now. She was supposed to start chemo Thursday, but her veins decided they didn't like that chemo drug and bam! allergic reaction. Because that's my mama. I've decided via the power of anxiety that it's because i wasn't wearing the pin, so I am now.
Red Face, Bizarre Hair: Thanks to steroids I'm taking for The Sinus Infection That Will Not Die.

P.S. I think my next post is going to be a Tomboy Rants about what it means to try and buy jeans as a plus-size woman whose legs are NOT ELEPHANT TRUNKS PEOPLE WHY ARE ALL THE LEGS ON JEANS SO GIGANTIC ARGH. Ahem. That it all.

These Are Not Gray Pants

Ten years ago, you could not have paid me to step foot into Gap or Old Navy to actually shop for anything. I went in occasionally with my family or friends, but I just wasn't interested in what they had to offer - everything seemed to be branded with logos, and I am a staunch believer in not giving a company my money in order to be a walking billboard for them. If I'm going to advertise a company by blaring their logo across my clothing, they had best be paying me for the privilege.

Well, I still feel that way.

Somewhere along the way, though, my passionate hatred of Gap and Old Navy faded and was replaced by me finding the occasional things I really like about them.

It's a pretty recent development - this post here over on the personal blog was the first time I had worn a Gap shirt in a very, very long time. And I've been adding Old Navy jeans to my closet here and there for a while as well. Then, I had a baby, and discovered the BabyGap is one of the few places that sells a decent amount of non-pink clothing for girls.

Gap, and Old Navy both have a serious length problem - I can tell they're mostly selling to teenagers and skinny college girls, because they just crank out the cropped tops like an assembly line on cocaine. Shirts are never long enough, and if they are, they're poor quality material that shrinks after one wash. Old Navy's exception to this rule is in their tank tops and camis, which I find hilarious - why would you make a tank clearly meant to be worn under your other shirts longer than the shirts it's meant to be worn with?

I'm obviously not the business genius that those running Gap and Old Navy are.

In any case, the tops just aren't long enough, on average, which means that when I do shop there I primarily shop online, allowing me to troll the 'tall' section to see if they have anything I like in a length that won't have me flashing belly every time I have to grab something off a shelf.

This stripe-sleeved top did the trick.

I won't lie - I mostly ordered this shirt in order to get to Gap's $50 limit to get free shipping. I had ordered a couple of things for the baby, and I hate paying for shipping if I don't have to. At worse, I throw something I'm not sure about in the cart and then return it later, right?

I figured this would be one of those shirts. The high boatneck and flat color on the body could easily make me look like a mack truck coming and going. I gave it a shot anyway, just to see.

Turns out, I love it.

I love the slightly faded darker blue color and that the shirt ends up emphasizing that my waist is narrow when compared to my hips, instead of flattening me out like I thought it would. I love that ordering it in the tall means the sleeves go past my hands and the hem is below my hips.

My only issue is that the thin cotton, while soft, is not terribly forgiving on a stomach that is still showing the after-effects of baby-havin'.

Ah well.

I love it anyway.

These are not gray pants.

But Katie! I hear you saying. They are clearly charcoal gray!

Nope.

When I bought them? They were flat black. I bought this pair because I wanted (and still want) black jeans, and couldn't find any at the time that weren't skinnies that were nothing less than terribly uncomfortable. Old Navy had these pants on offer - not jeans, but comfortable and a dressy black appropriate for a business casual workplace like the museum I used to work at.

Then I washed them twice, and now they're charcoal gray.

I keep wearing them because I just like them that much, but would still like a pair of inexpensive black jeans, NOT skinny jeans, to wear with shirts like this. Do you guys have any advice on that? They need to go into the lower plus-sizes.

I can't say I didn't get my money's worth, though, since I bought them on sale three years ago and I'm still wearing them pretty consistently.

I just wish they had stayed black longer than two months.

This necklace is a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law, kind of in honor of having had Audra last year. I wear it all the time. It's pretty funny, because I tend to buy large, clunky, insanely colorful necklaces but I love simple things like that that you can wear with anything and everything.

I have this, and a pretty starfish necklace (seen in the earlier link to the Gap T-shirt post from the other blog), and those are my two simplest wear-with-anything pieces of jewelry.

Well.

Um.

Other than my, uh, wedding band.



Outfit Details
Striped boatneck tee - Gap, available here.
Black pants - Old Navy, similar here
Shoes - Skechers at JCPenney, similar here
Necklace - Christmas gift from my mother-in-law





P.S. Please forgive the wonky lighting/focus issues. It's super gray, rainy, and dreary here today and I really did the best I could with what 5:45 pm light could offer me.






P.P.S. Today on the personal blog? I tell you a little story about my drive to work on Monday, and it's at least a little bit funny if I do say so myself. Check it out!