Purple and Gold

Just a quick post here, as I've got a bit to do before my rehearsals this afternoon...but wanted to put up what I wore to the lab yesterday. It started out as me feeling slightly uninspired and wanting to just wear a combination that I know I like...so on went the purple blouse, the warm stretchy gray skirt, and the necklace I made from some vintage components.


But then before I walked out the door I reminded myself that it was still winter. And thus, I ought to wear something over this outfit. Which was when I saw the lavender cardigan I'd thrifted a few weeks ago, and suddenly the outfit became purple-themed. With some gold lacy earrings I'd made a couple of years ago, and my finally trying the belted cardigan look, I actually was pretty pleased with this outfit. I even got some comments on it at work.


The earrings and necklace don't really match, up close, but they both had a gold lacy look.


Also, I really need to keep taking these pictures in natural sunlight! So much nicer!

Time for some color!

Looking at the last few days of outfit posts, I’m realizing that my daily wardrobe hasn’t been including a lot of color. This red skirt, recently thrifted, was my attempt at breaking that up a bit! Well...it's still sticking with the general plan of "mostly neutrals, perhaps with an accent color", but at least there's more of the color! I’m looking forward to spring coming, when my majority of colorful clothes are a bit more seasonably appropriate. It’s supposed to be highs in the 40’s for the next few days…that means it’s almost spring, right? At least till the next snowstorm on Tuesday?


I wore the cardigan over it most of the day, as it isn't actually spring yet and it's still kind of chilly in the lab. Well, everyone else thinks my office is rather warm...but I still get cold in there.


I wore this to the lab and rehearsal today. I'm liking this thing of getting more dressed up even just to go to work...even when most people aren't in my lab this week (due to my advisor being on vacation and several people being on a trip related to this opera my group is working on). I'm just here having rehearsals and doing coding and pulling things together, though. I’ve got a bit more than a week until this performance…and I’m really looking forward to having a bit of time when all of that is done. You know, time in which I can write a thesis. And maybe do some other stuff.

The faux pearl necklace is a vintage piece from my brief obsession with vintage jewelry lots on Ebay.


I really like the colors in this scarf! This was a fun thrifting find...Yves Saint Laurent, apparently. But at the dollar-a-pound-plus, so probably...50 cents, max?

Wearable necklace circuitry!

So this whole outfit started out with the necklace. See, I’m taking a class on technology and textiles this semester (which is going to be so much fun!). Well, technically I'm not actually taking the class for credit, I'm a listener since I'm so busy with the thesis. But I'm trying to do the projects anyway. Our first project involved creating a soft circuit of some kind…so I chose to build a simple necklace with a light on the (neoprene) pendant that lit up when you squeezed a felted bead elsewhere on the necklace. We presented those projects in class today, and I knew I wanted to wear the necklace as part of my daily outfit rather than just bring it in for class.


Since the necklace design had ended up feeling fairly ’60’s to me (partly due to the materials and colors available), I tried to echo that in the outfit...the shift dress with the contrast banding, which I wore over a striped shirt due to that little thing called "winter" that makes it impractical to wear sleeveless dresses right now. It was a fun exercise!

So here's the necklace when it isn't lit up (most of the time):


And when the felt bead is squeezed, connecting a circuit and lighting the LED in the pendant:



I'm not sure what's up with this facial expression. I still haven't gotten my "model" poses down.


Also, the wedge boots finished off the sixties-ish look for me...I felt like a go-go dancer! They're surprisingly comfy, though. Another dollar-a-pound-plus find...

Is it spring yet?

Despite the fact that we were going to be hit by a number of inches of snow yesterday, I was drawn to this little dress I’d gotten recently at my favorite pay-by-the-pound store. (Any Bostonians/Cantabrigians out there who know about the Garment District's Dollar-A-Pound-Plus? You should come shopping with me…) I think this is intended to be a little dress for going out in the evening in the summer…it’s a thin drapy fabric, and has a semi-open back. But I put a black shirt under it, along with a ruffly skirt (for a bit of extra shape), and two pairs of tights. Thus, winter-appropriate and warm-- at least when paired with my latest thrifted coat!


Though we did get hit by a lot of snow...heavy, thick, wet snow. It's supposed to be warmer today, so perhaps it won't stick around for too long.


And yesterday was productive in terms of the thesis performance/rehearsal progress. Code and sensors and gesture recognition started doing what I wanted. Always a good thing…I might be able to pull this off yet? I actually felt really productive, which was great. And I had a good rehearsal in which the technology was (mostly) on my side. I also figured out that a change I made (trying to recognize gestures only after triggers, rather than all the time) took my program down to needing around 20% of my CPU, rather than around 80%...so.





The belt is also from the dollar-a-pound. I've gotten pretty decent at pulling out interesting things there, I think...

However, this is what happens when I'm doing self-photography around midnight:

I suspect I should leave the jumping style pictures to those slightly younger than I am! Or at least save it for when I take pictures outdoors...

Time for a cozy sweater!

I got most of yesterday off because of President’s Day (translation: I worked at home in the morning, then went into the lab later in the afternoon because I had a meeting and a rehearsal). After the lazy, lovely weekend, it was a bit hard getting myself back in gear! (Also, code did not work as well as it was supposed to. Grr.) So… a cozy sweater-dress seemed in order. I found this one thrifting with the boyfriend over the weekend. It's lovely and warm, which seemed really appropriate...even though it was almost 40 degrees out eventually. (Spring coming soon? Maybe?)



The coat is another weekend thrifting find. I’ve been having really good luck with coats at my favorite clothing-by-the-pound store! Now I just have to start wearing them...which may mean it has to be a bit warmer for some of them, but I think I can wear this coat now and still be fine. I really like the faux fur cuffs and collar, too.


Also trying a photo without the glasses…what do you think? I used to wear contacts, but have given up on them in the last few years as I haven’t found any pairs I can wear really comfortably (my astigmatism = huge contacts that go blurry when your eyes get dry and they shift a little bit).



I only have a week and a half until this thesis performance. There is SO much that needs to be done. And I'm spending time blogging. Oops.

Pre-Valentine's Day outfit

This was last Friday’s outfit… for work at the lab, a couple of meetings, and seeing the boyfriend who came to visit for the weekend. (He's in school in NYC right now...hopefully will be joining me in the Boston area soon.) So, an early Valentine’s Day look seemed appropriate. I’m not huge on the symbolism of the holiday, as I think people (not only those in romantic relationships, mind you) should show their appreciation and care for one another on a regular basis…but it’s still nice to have a good excuse to do so.

Also, I got some yummy food and a red cake baked for me because of it. :) The boy rather enjoys baking, and is quite good at it, which is a great thing for me. Look at this pretty cake!


I’m getting really interested in layering slips under dresses and skirts…here I tried a black slip with lace trim under a plain black dress, to give the appearance of a more detailed dress.


The brooch is one of a number of vintage costume jewelry pieces I’ve gotten off Ebay. I’m overly tempted by pretty shiny things…sometimes I think I must have been a magpie in a previous life. (Sometime I should post pictures of my dresser top covered with shiny jewelry things...)


The boy took these photos, and I find it interesting to see that I do smile differently when it's for someone rather than for a self-timer.



Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day weekend!

Two for the price of one!

Haven't yet posted my photos of what I wore yesterday, so here we get both yesterday and today!

Today:


I had gotten this skirt a while ago, but hadn’t gotten around to wearing it yet. But today I was in a mood for bright floral embroidery, so on it went. Also, the skirt has beaded fringe! Which was fun to wear and definitely drew a few comments from coworkers. I paired it with my character shoes that I’ve had for forever (from my regularly-performing-in-musical-theater days), and a lovely necklace my boyfriend gave me a couple of years ago.



The day overall wasn’t that great, though. A few technology failures…technology failures occurring during demos of my work for lab sponsors…my advisor not being thrilled about said tech failures… technology that I needed in rehearsal tonight not working by rehearsal time → not the best day I’ve had. On the other hand, I then got some stuff working and had a good rehearsal. So. I'll be interested to see how I pull this performance off in the next...two weeks, yay!



And here's the fringe!






And yesterday! We were supposed to get a lot of snow, so I made sure to bundle up and prepare for bad weather. Instead, we had probably less than an inch of snow, and most of that after I got home in the evening. Instead, a lot of cold rain/drizzle. Pretty disappointing!