Friday, March 28, 2008

maxed

Bottom line of a great Harper's Bazaar article on dressing well without going hungry: Find your "uniform" and go high end on everything that falls under its umbrella. For me, for teaching, 90 percent of the time it's a t-shirt, jeans and sandals. It's not as unprofessional as it sounds ... think solid-colored v-neck and jeans with a respectable rise. Sometimes I dress it up with a blazer and/or a belt, but that's pretty much the bottom line. A t-shirt. A pair of jeans. You never know, in my job, when you'll have to climb something, crawl on the floor, chase someone, or be at work till 6:30 p.m.

Here and there I will totally freak out my kids by wearing a dress or my glasses, but for the most part, the "uniform" is basic and utilitarian. However, I can't bring myself to wear sneakers - footwear is the one thing I don't habitually go uber-casual on. Although I do go uber-weird at times ... my Sugar wedges (odd floral things that do look somewhat edible), Aeropostale flats (maroon), and patent-leather mary janes (4-inch heels) are among my weirder footwear choices. S was inspecting my feet the other day, exclaiming over little scars and yesterday's blisters, till I had to chase him away with the explanation that for me, interesting (if not beautiful) footwear will always be worth the high price(s) - measured in discomfort and debt.

Monday, March 24, 2008

viva

There's nothing like a good pair of sweats to get you through a flight.


Travel footwear. Sexy, huh?


I haven't lined the other eye yet.


Am off to the airport shortly ... last-min TDL:
Go to Longs and pick up Vogue, a wedding mag, and anything else that might amuse me for the better part of six hours.

Friday, March 21, 2008

hoot

In My Closet: I never really noticed that boutique but since V gave me a gift card a few months back, I've been itching to go and finally got to last weekend. It's a very cute place ... and the people are really nice. I love that it's full of drawers and glass cabinets that you can pull out and snoop through. Anyway, I got something fun ... it caught my eye as soon as I walked in. I browsed through everything but ended up with my original find. You'll laugh, or possibly scratch your head. But it's an appropos purchase considering my line of work:

white!



OK, with one of my last remaining gift cards I went to (V's favorite store) Macy's and bought ... a pearl-white Style & Co. bag. I don't know what came over me. They had black, brown and champagne as well, but I went with white because 1) I'm going to Vegas next week and it seemed a Vegas-y color 2) I have too many black bags and 3) the brown was ugly. The champagne was really nice - I did consider that one - but thought I'd take the white plunge. Yeah, it'll probably be gray by the time I come back. Oh well. That's the beauty of a gift card - you don't feel SO bad when your purchase is impractical.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

so smart!!

Thanks to V for this link. It is truly ingenious. I do wonder about karma but I wouldn't be buying, just selling ...

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

it's not gonna be vera wang

this would seem to belong in the wedding blog, but i'm putting it here instead: i now have $255 saved up in my wedding gown fund. if that isn't a reason to keep putting those shoes back*, i dunno what is.

*blah de blah backstory: in my foggy-headed state of once-a-year sickness, i have a whole lot of time on my hands which leads to copious hours spent tooling around VerycheapShoes.com, otherwise known as VictoriasSecret.com. I haven't bought those three pairs yet. Yet.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

i heart-with-a-slash-through-it tiffany

No one else I know has ever complained about customer service at Tiffany. Maybe every time before I walk in, unbeknownst to me, someone slaps a sign saying "Ghetto Biyatch, Do Not Approach" on my forehead. I really can't think why else I would get consistently bad CS there. I don't dress like crap, I'm very polite, and although it shouldn't matter, I usually don't go in unless I'm wearing jewelry that is tasteful and noticeable - usually something from the very store I'm entering. I haven't dropped megabucks at the Ala Moana store but the amount of money I've spent (and that have been spent there on my behalf) since I developed a taste for the "Return To" and Elsa Peretti collections is about two grand. I realize that this is a paltry drop in the bucket they keep in the janitor's closet, but it's not peanuts to me, as I don't and likely never will be a six-figure gal.

The few pieces I own are much loved - so loved that pieces that would, by traditional consideration, be considered inappropriate to keep, I haven't parted with. My collection is modest in size and item cost, but I love everything: Toggle heart tag necklace and matching heart tag bracelet (gifts), Elsa eternity circle pendant (graduation gift), 1837 silver ring (V-Day Gift - Love, Me!), 1837 silver lock ring (2006 V-Day /"I'll-never-be-anyone's" gift to me, Love, Me!), heart tag screwball keychain (bridesmaid gift from Bonnie), apple bookmark ("You survived the pageant!" gift from family friends). Most recent purchase: a "Return To" heart tag pendant hanging from a loopable, rather bohemian silver chain. (Love, Me.) Liked it, couldn't justify it, returned it. Life goes on.

Anyway, this entry is about how much I love Tiffany jewelry and deplore Tiffany employees. Side note: The 30 total minutes I've spent visiting Harry Winston's diamonds shortly after it opened in Ala Moana were more enjoyable than the hours I've spent contemplating actual purchases at Tiffany. Especially the time I waited three decades for the diamond lady to decide to talk to me - she took such a long time peeking out of the back room and going back in, never saying a word, that I figured I probably didn't look like I was worth helping, commission-wise, and when she finally comes out (because I refuse to go away), what's the first thing she shows me? A $41,000 engagement ring featuring a rock the size of Jupiter, which she plunks down on the glass with a smirk and a "Do you like this one?" ... So I put it on. I mean, I didn't want to be a waste of her time or anything.

Another time, I was looking at some stuff in the front of the store, where two male employees were discussing football. They never stopped discussing football. I left. The only other place I've experienced such blatantly bad customer service was CompUSA, where I needed to buy a digital camera and get back into town within the next 45 minutes and was so desperate that I would have spent up to $500 on absolute crap - but fortunately because NONE of the photo employees would stop chatting with each other to help me, I saved myself from spending $500 on crap and ended up spending about $200 on a decent CyberShot. Pulled a guy from a totally different area of the store and asked him for help. Just like I wish I could bring a guy from Harry Winston into Tiffany so I could get courteous and speedy service when browsing jewelry.

Why do I feel more at home in a store where the employees know just by looking at me that I'm walking out empty-handed, than in a store where I've made actual purchases?

I know that no one in Tiffany gives a fig whether I spend my usual $300 a year in their store, ever again. I guess that's good for both of us. God knows how much money I'd spend if I actually felt welcome there.