So sick of me yet? Sorry.
This is just a reminder to come back later tonight and all day tomorrow for this week’s Saturday Steals. Please, let’s try to have a bigger turnout than last week. That was kinda embarrassing (though not for lack of trying, my six friends—love you guys!).
Kaythanksbye.
Below is a screen shot of a text message conversation between myself and my husband (you know…the man I met in 2005 and married in 2007) yesterday:
That’s pretty bad, even for PK.
Over the past month, I have set and worked toward my goal of trying to dress with a little more moxie. More put-together. Like…you know…a grown up.
In case you didn’t know, trendiness and fashion are not my strong suits.
Still, even though the process is slow-going, I must admit I am having fun putting together new outfits that the old me would’ve never considered one month ago. Some of them get kind of funky, but really, in the end, who cares if I screw up sometimes? Does it really matter if I look like a wanna-be/has-been on occasion? Sometimes my outfit choices are successful; sometimes they are epic failures. Either way, though, it’s just fun to be excited to get dressed in the morning (as opposed to my former routine of staring bleary-eyed into my closet, totally uninspired and dreading walking around another day as the world’s biggest frumpgirl).
The one thing my outfits were lacking, however, were any sort of finishing accessories—the froof. I would get my outfit put together, but then go to do my hair and just throw it in a boring ponytail. It was very anticlimactic. Having noticed lots of hair-accessory cuteness on the internet lately, I inspired myself to start getting serious about purchasing a few staple items that would be both pretty yet versatile (because I don’t believe in spending fifty bucks on a million headbands for every day of the week—I just wanted one or two that I could wear to dress up my casual hairstyles and add a finishing touch to my hard-won outfits).
I scoured Etsy for the cutest stuff I could find, and I did find a lot, but I wasn’t ready to take the plunge. If I was going to spend more than one dollar on a hair accessory (up till now I’ve only ever bought hair froof from the dollar store—true story), I wanted to make sure I was purchasing the right one.
Hi, I’m Camille, and I consider hair accessories a major purchase—major enough to wimp out of buying every other day. How fun am I to buy a car with? Poor Kyle hates me.
Which is why it was so lucky for me to find a giveaway at Simply Memzelle’s blog last month. I entered it, and shortly thereafter, the gals at Simply Memzelle contacted me, asking if I would like to give their product a shout out on my blog.
Well, contrary to popular [very popular] belief, I’m no dummy. So I agreed…on the condition that I could test out the product beforehand and get to keep part of the stash.
We had a deal.
Simply Memzelle express-mailed me three of the headbands I liked best from their store, and I got to try them all out.
Here are my findings:
1. Coco Felt Button Headband:
This is the headband I originally liked the best and wanted to win through the giveaway. Although all of the products on Simply Memzelle’s website are darling, this one was so totally unique, so unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, I knew it was the one for me. Plus, I have recently acquired a lot of grey pieces in my wardrobe, so it seems the most versatile and functional for me.
The Coco’s foundation is a wide black satin-covered band, with buttons adhered to a grey felt base. From a distance, it is curiously reminiscent of a vintage side-clip hat:
Don’t you think?
Here I am wearing it, and (apparently) pondering the mysteries of the universe:
I’ll be completely honest with you: I have developed a very serious relationship with this headband.
On the first day, I chose to pair this headband with a grey thrift store sweater dress and jeans. I was pleased with the overall effect. Since then, I have worn my pal Coco out in public a total of three times, and on each occasion, I have gotten more compliments on it than I could keep track of. It’s truly a statement piece, and the statement that it makes is I AM AWESOME FOR OWNING THIS IMMACULATE WORK OF ART. (Guess which one I’ll be keeping?)
2. Mattie Yellow Felt Headband:
This headband, created from a hand-crafted felt flower and a fat (but also phat) black button, was another huge compliment-earner for me. I appreciated its simplicity and straightforwardness: it could easily work with ten different outfits hanging in my closet right now.
Case in point: One of the oldest fashion faux pas in the book is to avoid wearing black and brown together, right? Well, this headband let me break that rule, and I wasn’t even self-conscious about it. I was just happy that I looked so put-together in my brown shirt and magical black headband. Observe:
I like this headband almost as much as my BFF Coco; in fact, the only reason I’m not keeping it is because it’s against the rules I initially agreed to, and I am a woman of high moral character, beeyotches.
3. Nora Yo-yo Headband:
Okay, I will be honest. Because this is my blog, and because my mantra is to tell the whole truth to my readers (see above statement regarding my impeccable moral character), I have to confess that when I saw this headband in person, I was not as smitten as I was with the other two.
I liked the look of it online (which is why I requested it as one of my three to review), but when it came right down to it, the Nora headband looked funny on my head. Or maybe it didn’t look funny so much as it just made me feel funny inside (that’s a lot of power for a hair accessory, by the way).
It was overwhelming to me.
In the headband’s defense, I am ultra-paranoid about flashy bling, and even though I am trying to be trendier and cuter, I have not fully arrived. Baby steps… For my own personal preferences, having seen and worn the headband as it is, I would feel much more confident with it if there was only one yo-yo flower on it instead of three.
Again, it’s not the headband’s fault that I am insecure and haven’t made peace with bling. A lot of you out there most certainly have made peace with bling (I have seen the headbands you trendy mothers are strapping to your baby girls’ noggins these days…the ones with flowers and feathers and jewels and after-school snacks and spare diapers that end up being three times the size of the kid’s head in the first place), and to those of you who have?
This headband is absolutely for you.
I mean, look at it: it’s cute. It’s just too much headband for my not-enough-head.
Because this headband did not agree with my head, I really struggled to find an outfit appropriate to wear with it. Finally I copped out and put on my favourite lightweight jacket with a braided scarf and called it good.
(But not that good.)
I’m sorry, little yo-yo headband, that I couldn’t do you justice. I know you’re right for someone out there…it’s just not me.
Like I said…cop-out.
**********************************
Okay, so here’s the deets (ha—I just said “deets;” as if I could pull that off):
I have two headbands to give away to two different lucky duck readers. The headbands you have a chance to win are the Mattie and the Nora (I’m keeping Coco for myself because I can, but if you want to cut the giveaway crap and just buy one for yourself, more power to ya; just click this link {and trust me, it will be worth EVERY penny}). You can even type in the code “archiveslives” at checkout for a 10% discount. Sweet.
In order to enter this giveaway, you need only do one simple thing: Fill out the survey form at the end of this post. THAT’S EASIER THAN COMMENTING!
Now, if you’re super passionate and hard-core about this contest and you want to up your chances, you can do a few things before filling out the survey form at the end of this post. Each of these steps will earn you one extra entry in the giveaway (for a total of up to SIX possible entries in the giveaway including the one you get just for filling out the form).
Namely, you can:
1. Follow Simply Memzelle on Facebook here.
2. Tweet about the giveaway, linking to this post: http://www.archiveslives.com/?p=3930
3. Write a blog post linking to this post: http://www.archiveslives.com/?p=3930
4. Add Simply Memzelle’s blog address to your RSS feed, Google Reader, or subscription mode of choice.
5. Add my (Archives of Our Lives) blog address to your RSS feed, Google Reader, or subscription mode of choice.
This contest is open to entrants the world over (shipping courtesy of me), and it will close at 11:59 p.m. on March 31st.
Again, for anyone who hates the suspense of giveaways (I know I do) and just wants to buy a dadgum headband already, you can do so RIGHT THIS MINUTE at the Simply Memzelle Store, and enter “archiveslives” at checkout for a 10% discount.
Does this all make sense? Hope so, because it’s time to START THIS BABY UP.
Ready?
Go!
Sorry, everyone.
The giveaway I promised has been temporarily put on hold due to technical difficulties and the fact that technical difficulties make me want to gauge out my eyeballs with broken shards of my old Backstreet Boys Millennium CD. (***Edited to add: It has come to my attention that I am an idiot {thanks, DeAnna}. Yes, I just wrote “gauge out my eyeballs.” Yes, I actually meant to write “GOUGE out my eyeballs.” This is yet another testament to how fully technology has destroyed my brain today.***)
When I can finally get my act together, you will be glad you waited. It will be (WILL BE) worth the wait.
Here’s a sneak preview…
See? Awesome.
(Don’t be mad. It’s really not my fault; it’s technology’s.)
Here’s a Project: Proxy update for you:
(p.s. If you want to know more about the Project: Proxy feature of my blog, click here, and your wildest dreams will come true. {Or at least your somewhat-reasonable dream of wanting to know the history behind Project: Proxy. That dream will come true.})
Remember how I gave up sugar for Lent at Jordan’s proxy request?
Well, I quit.
I’m sorry, Jordan. I have failed you. I’m a terrible proxy.
It went down like this: I kept seeing sugary treats everywhere, and I kept really wanting to eat them, but I held off for a month, until one day…I just got really sick of not eating sugar. I’ve succeeded in the task before, for much longer than one measly month (which is how long I lasted, to the date, this time). But I went to a church party (famous last word: church parties are always the death of me {something about all that home-cooked food prepared by someone other than me}) and I saw this cake there…
…and I just got really sick of pretending to be Catholic (ironic that my downfall was at a church party, eh?).
In my defense, that pudding/Cool Whip™ mixture on the top was quite succulent. (Though the chocolate shavings were nothing more than unnecessary calories—couldn’t even taste ’em.)
I’m really sorry, Jordan. The whole time I was devouring my piece of sheet cake, I couldn’t even really enjoy it (very much), because I knew I was letting you down.
That makes my score 0 for 2 as far as Project: Proxy projects have gone (first I chickened out of the Gallon Challenge, now this). This is shaping up to be not unlike my Freshman (grade 9) basketball season. (We were 0 for 21, but we were Carson Cougars, and if we were failures, at least we were consistent failures. Go Cougars.) I’m a flop. A failure. A complete and utter fiend. (Apparently failing is the one life skill I took away from Junior High {well, that, and the fact that french fries dipped in ketchup or ranch are DELICIOUS with pickles.})
Someone give me an easier project to act as a proxy for—doesn’t anyone need to know what Dairy Queen’s blizzard flavour of the month tastes like? Or how acupuncture feels? Or hot stone massages?
Seriously, ’cause I’m your girl for that.
Come back tomorrow for a giveaway that might dampen the blow of my lousiness.
Since the onset of the skinny jean phenomenon over the past few years, nobody has been a bigger opposing force than me. I hated skinny jeans. I thought they were the fugliest articles of clothing since scrunchies and T-shirt cinchers. I swore I’d never wear them and I’d never be friends with anyone who did. Heaven knows I’ve knocked them enough times on my blog. They reminded me of leggings, and I didn’t understand the appeal of wearing leggings around like real jeans. Give me bootcut jeans any day (36 inch inseam, please and thank you), and I’m a happy camper. No, no, no…skinny jeans were not for me.
But lately, I’ve been wearing a lot of tunic-like shirts…
…you know the kind: long, flowing, loose-fitting cotton prints. Maternity shirts, essentially. (A loose-fitting tunic by any other name is still a maternity shirt.) I’ve been buying more and more of them from my local second-hand store, and it has come to my attention that they might look better with a pair of skinny jeans. Otherwise, they just look like pregnancy shirts.
So I’ve been contemplating choking down an enormous slice of humble pie, and then last week Shalynna (private blog, or else I’d link to it—sorry, everyone) said this about my legs:
“I meant to comment on the post where you included a picture in thermals. I was going to say that 1) You have the cutest body and 2) You should wear skinny jeans/pants because the thermals looked cute!”
It was a nice thing to say, but I balked at it initially—me? Cute body? Not the last time I checked. But even though I feel awkward and uncomfortable discussing it, I will admit that if there is ever a time in my life that I should try out the skinny jean fad, now is it: I’m 23, I’m young, and I’m only going downhill from here. Plus, my real problem area is my midsection, and since I wear pregnancy shirts anyway, my muffin top would more or less be concealed.
So I decided to take the plunge.
I’m going to buy a pair of skinny jeans.
The first step in this process was actually trying on a pair of skinny jeans, since I have, until now, avoided them like the bubonic plague. I had to make sure they were something I could feel comfortable in, something I could get used to.
In an uncanny turn of events, the selfsame day I decided to try out a pair of skinny jeans I also somehow found myself at the mall with time to kill (an unfortunate situation indeed, but there I was). I meandered into Gap and accosted a sales associate—I figured I was totally clueless, so why waste time trying to muddle my way through the process when some poor sap folding shirts was probably dying for a diversion? (I’ve worked in retail before. Many times.) So I hailed down a sales associate—my new BFF—and put it to her straight: I’m fashion-challenged, I need help, and you’re it.
She hooked me up with two pairs of skinny jeans in two different sizes and locked me in a fitting room, making me promise not to come out until I’d made peace with at least one of them.
Nervously, I slipped into the smaller of the two sizes (an eight, since I know you’re dying to know), zipped them up (gleefully, because I can’t remember the last time I zipped up a size eight on myself), and peered into the mirror…
I turned around, examined my body from all angles, faced the mirror head-on again, and took a deep breath…
…and I kind of liked them. No—I really liked them.
Sadly, though, when I stepped out of the fitting room and asked the sales associate if they looked right, she told me they were a bit too short (story of my life) so I could either wear them tucked into boots, or rolled up to look like cropped 50’s-ish jeans. Apparently, skinny jeans are meant to hit at or slightly below the ankle, like this:
Image from here.
I was disappointed, but I can see that she was right.
Here they are normally (with me looking nothing like the above model):
And here they are cuffed:
On top of not being quite the right length, they were eighty bucks normally, on sale for fifty, and if I’m going to pay that much for a pair of staple jeans, I want them to be the right length. I was semi-tempted just to buy them and only wear them hidden under boots, but I’ve decided to be patient and wait for the right pair to come around.
I know it’s out there.
If I’m lucky, maybe it will appear as next week’s Saturday Steal.
I know a lot of people still hate the skinny jean look. I know a lot of people might be happy that I’ve finally come around. Really, it doesn’t matter who thinks what about my clothing decisions. I’m not asking for your permission, or even your blessing. Just your support.
Come to think of it, why on earth do I even bother to blog? What a waste.
Side Note:
What’s not a waste, though, is the fact that La Coccinelle won a $6.00 gift card to Amazon.com for being selected as a random winner from the first ever Saturday Steals event here at Archives of Our Lives.
What? What’s that, you say? You didn’t know there was going to be a randomly-selected prize for those who submitted posts to Saturday Steals? You didn’t know there would be something in it for you? You wish you had known, and you might have thought twice about standing me up for my own blog party?
That sucks.
The good news is that, finances permitting, I’ll be hosting giveaways every week for Saturday Steals entrants. The value of the gift card I give away will be equal to the value of Saturday Steals submissions. I’m only sorry La Coccinelle’s gift card isn’t more than six bucks. That’s kind of lame. Hopefully you can get some kind of steal with it, La Coccinelle.
Keep your eyes peeled for more steals, and hopefully we’ll have a bigger turnout next weekend!
Welcome to the first ever Saturday Steals extravaganza here at Archives of Our Lives! If you’re participating in this week’s Steal Fest, please feel free to copy and paste this badge of honour on your good deal post:
Also, remember to check back often to see what other deals people have gotten this week!
Last summer I bought an awesome red sweater on super-sale at Dillard’s. It was a great deal. A steal, even—but not the steal I’m talking about today.
See, my red sweater, it was awesome. It was really long, and had a zipper and pockets and was a beautiful colour and looked for all the world like something Mr. Rogers would wear.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Image from here.
Which was fine, except for the fact that I didn’t really fancy looking like Old Man Rogers too much. I’m too young for that. I needed to bling it up. So I thought, “Well, I’ll look for a pin or a broach to add to it…those are a dime a dozen. It’ll be easy, and by this time next week, my red sweater will be the talk of the town.”
It wasn’t that easy. Every thrift store I entered, I scoured the shelves and cases for a pin that could unite my sweater and stop making me feel insecure about looking like Mr. Rogers…but to no avail. I wasn’t even looking for the perfect pin—I’m too impatient for perfection—I just wanted something that would do. The good enough pin.
Month after month passed, and the red sweater sat lonely in my closet. It never got picked to go on dates with Poor Kyle’s leather jackets. It just…sat there. All alone. Every so often, I’d feel bad for the pimply-faced reject sweater, because I knew it was a total babe inside, so I would dig it out of the abyss of my closet and try to make it work…but it never lasted. It needed a pin.
It was lost without one.
Well, my friends, it is with much joy that I announce to you today…
…the pin has been found.
I was thrifting last week, and I remembered to go look for my phantom pin, and sitting there on the shelf, in all its glory, was this little beauty. I looked at the price tag—$3.99.
SOLD.
Not only was it an awesome aged brassy colour, but the center of the flower was RED. Just like Mr. Rogers’s sweater hanging in my closet. It was fate.
It’s a tiny little thing, too, which is perfect. Anything too big would make me feel uncomfortable. (I’m trying to get a new look, but I have to take baby steps. Anything too flashy makes me feel like a whore. [I’m repressed.])
Greedily, I swiped the pin off the shelf before anyone could take my treasure from me. I plunked down the four bucks to pay for the pin and raced home to try it out with the sweater.
The results?
You decide…
I wasn’t looking for perfection, but that’s what I ended up finding. And that’s the most perfect kind of steal.
So what about you? I want to hear about your amazing steals from the week. Don’t be shy! Just write your post on your blog, and come back here to follow the prompts below to add your permalink to my post. (A permalink is the link to the ACTUAL POST you wrote…not to your blog address. To find the permalink, click on the title of your post, and the permalink should automatically pop up in your web browser’s URL bar.)
It should go like this:
You’ll see this image…click the link that says “Click here to enter your link.”
That will take you to this page. Simply fill out the information, click “enter your link,” and it will take you back to my blog.
After that, you’re done! Check back regularly to see other steals.
Ready?
And…begin!
