Like My Look? Shop My Closet!

It’s no secret that I love clothes. Clothes are my wearable art and I love adding new pieces to my wardrobe and styling them in new and different outfits. Well, after awhile, the closet starts to get a little crammed. Without unlimited closet space, I eventually have to cull the clothes and clear out our walk-in closet. Yes, I am able to clutter up a walk-in closet…and one half of a dresser…and 3/4 of the shelves in our closet…and a large storage bin holding my Summer clothes. Before you start shaking your head at my clothing addiction (and I’ll argue that I’ve seen bloggers who are worse!), check out my wonderful solution: my closet on Threadflip.

Threadflip is an awesome website I stumbled upon when searching “sell your clothes online.” I knew I didn’t want to go the overcrowded eBay route and I don’t have enough vintage duds for an Etsy shop. So Threadflip is the perfect option: it lets you upload clothing, bags, jewelry and accessories to your “closet” for sale in a beautiful, Pinterest-like format and these items can be “flipped” or purchased by other users. The upload process is incredibly easy and situated all on one page and, get this, include shipping in the price of your item and Threadflip sends you the packing materials and shipping label. Score!

I am super excited for my new closet/shop on Threadflip. Please check it out and consider purchasing some of my gently loved duds, some of which have been featured right here on the blog!

This is not a sponsored post for Threadflip, they have no idea who I am beyond being a user, but it is a post asking you to check out my closet!

 

I’m Wearing: Pile on the Pretty

Top: F21, Shirt: F21, Jeans: Levi’s, Moccassins by Minnetonka, Necklace with pink beads and pearls: JCrew, Pearl and gold necklace: vintage, Watch: Baby G

Sometimes you just want to be comfy without looking like a slob. Actually, for me, that’s all the time. I am always on the lookout for ways I can be fashionable and comfy so when I saw this pretty lace topped sweatshirt, I had to have it. It’s my new go-to piece for weekdays and weekends and in fact I am wearing it as I type this! I paired it with a sweet blue-checked collared shirt to make it a little less casual (or at least that was the thought). I’m also renewing my love for layering up my necklaces. I have been known, in my high school days, for layering no less than five necklaces at a time. Right now you’ll usually catch me with a simple gold charm necklace but I like to go back to my fashion roots every now and then. Take that, Coco Chanel, and you’re “take off one piece” rule.

This outfit served me well for last Saturday’s excursion to Nick’s little sister’s middle school play. It was quite a production and, while she had a small role as a sea animal, it was a lot of fun to see her perform. I think we had even more fun afterwards at the diner where I ordered a ginormous cinnamon roll and we laughed a lot.

As for this weekend, it’s my mom’s birthday so we’re planning on a nice dinner out in Philly on Saturday. I’m not sure what I’ll be wearing then as it’s absolutely freezing around here lately. I can’t wait to celebrate though and finally give her my present which I’ve been dying to give her since before Christmas! Other than that, I’m hoping for a nice relaxing weekend, exactly how I like to spend my cold winter months.

 

Welcome to Buttons and Blossoms!

Are you here looking for the Lemonade Stand? Don’t worry, you’re here…kind of. Today I’ve officially changed the name of my blog from “The Lemonade Stand” to “Buttons and Blossoms”. I’ve been waiting to make this switch and I’m pretty excited to show it off. I know it doesn’t look all that different: I changed the name, I changed the banner, I changed the background color, and that’s pretty much it. But I’m excited in the coming days and weeks and months and for however long I decide to keep doing this blogging thing to bring you more exciting and fresh content.

It’s not just a name change; it’s a focus change. I started the Lemonade Stand two years ago to be an advice blog for just graduated girls because that’s what I was and that’s what I thought I wanted to be. I figured I could grow as a person and a blogger and bring my experiences onto the blog. I did that and I love (most of) the content I created the past few years. This summer I re-energized my blog by putting a lot of hours into editing and reading tutorials, trying to make this rented and free space more me.

But, if you’ve been reading this blog over the years (which I’m optimistic that you may have), you’ve noticed that there are big stretches where I’ve fallen off the wagon. I thought that by jazzing it up and reading other blogs and trying my hardest, I could make myself into a diligent blogger. Definitely not the case and my new full-time career choice as an elementary teacher helped derail me further.

I racked my brain for why I wasn’t such a good blogger. Then I realized I changed. I wanted to blog but I didn’t want to give advice and it felt like I’d pigeonholed myself into writing advice at The Lemonade Stand. So for the past month or so, I’ve thought about a name change and a blog attitude change. Here we are: buttons and blossoms.

Buttons and blossoms will be a more personal blog with a focus on my personal style, the buttons, and things that make me happy, the blossoms. There is so much I can share now and it’s going to be so much more of me. I love creating outfits and now they won’t be restricted to fashion fridays. I’m also looking forward to sharing some of the hilarious and poignant lessons I’m learning as a teacher (there are a lot of moments to share, let me tell you). I’m so excited to start on this new blogging journey and I hope that you’ll join me.

Confession: I Don’t Talk About My Blog

Blogging is supposed to be all about sharing: your life, your thoughts, your outfits. As much as you feel comfortable sharing, you share it. I’ve gotten better in my second year of blogging about sharing more of myself and opening up to the great wide online world what interests and inspires me from the mundane to the ridiculous to the heartfelt. I think I’m getting better at letting these anonymous readers (you) know who I am. So in the spirit of being the real me here on my little blog, I have a confession to make: I don’t talk about my blog.

I’ll tweet about it, I’ll link up to it in the comments I leave on the blogs of others but rarely, if ever, do I talk about my blog in my “real” life. Unless they stumbled upon it and never mentioned it, my friends have no idea I write four to five posts a week in this space about anything I choose. They have no idea I make my boyfriend take pictures of me in inconspicuous places for outfit posts or that photos I post on Facebook are just samples of the hundred or so photos I take every week to compose photo-filled posts. I’ve never talked about how much I enjoy having a blog or that it’s really become part of my life like teaching or reading or knitting. I’ve mentioned it a few times to my mom but never showed her how to get here. My boyfriend is the only person close to me who reads it and comments about it but we never talk about it in front of others.

Though blogging has become such a part of my life, I’m very cautious about sharing it outside of the internet. I think it’s part of my need to appear perfect, my constant need to keep everything in my life looking spic and span to everyone I meet, even those who know me. Not saying anything about my blog is also about my need for privacy. Writing a blog can be intensely personal and though I’m not sharing anything life changing or scandalous, I still worry how I will be judged. I’m much more vulnerable when I write than when I talk and knowing people are reading what I have to say makes me nervous.

I want to share my blog but I’m afraid. There, I said it. I’m afraid of being judged for the things I like, the way I dress, what I do. This is something I already went through in college when I started an organization, a sorority. My goals for the sorority were simple: make friends with other young women who had different backgrounds, interests, looks, girls who were just different than me and wanted to make a connection. As amazing my sorority sisters are and how intensely they love the organization I created, I remember what it was like to be judged for doing something different. People would ask me why, not politely but judgmentally, as if I had no idea what I was doing. It was really hard for my ideas to be out in the public and for me to be open to criticism.

I never worry about my friends judging me but I do worry about the other people who will read my blog, read my thoughts, and hate it. It’s one thing to say you can brush off the criticism and quite another to allow the criticism and try to move past it. I also wonder if my friends will look at me differently for doing something that, though it’s become quite common, is part of another world entirely. They may not say it’s weird but are they thinking it?

I don’t want to live my whole life separate from this wonderful thing I’ve created. I don’t want to have two lives: my blog life and my real world life. The blog life represents all the things I am but, by not talking about my blog, does my real life represent who I am?

I can’t say I am going to post a link to my blog on Facebook tomorrow or I’m going to start handing out business cards with my url across the bottom. But I think it’s time to start slowly coming out my blogging “closet” and have an open house for my little corner of the web. Though I’m afraid for people to see me in a new way and to hear (and imagine) what things they have to say about it, I know it’ll feel good to give another part of me the recognition it deserves.

A case of the crickets

There are definitely crickets chirping at The Lemonade Stand. It’s not because I don’t love my little corner of the internet and giving you all bits and pieces of advice that I’ve picked up and my favorite fashions. It just happens that this January was the start of my student teaching experience. 

What an experience it has been so far! I am teaching second grade and it is wonderful to go in to school every day and see twenty-three smiling, eager faces. But all those eager faces are brains that need to be grown into amazing and insightful grown-ups. The process starts here and now in elementary school and even though this is not my forever classroom, I still have my duty to do right by these kids. So right now my heart and soul has been consumed by teaching. I can’t say I am regretting a moment of this experience. I am learning in a wonderful, welcoming school with one of the most intelligent classes I have ever met. I always wanted to be a teacher, even if I got sidetracked, but now that dream is becoming reality and it’s fantastic.

The thing is, the whole teaching thing is kind of consuming. I find myself thinking about what I need to do in the classroom first thing in the morning until I go to bed at night. I get sidetracked by ideas for the classroom. If you follow my Pinterest, you’ll find that my pins have been a mix of my usual pretty images and teaching ideas. I wouldn’t give it up for anything but the devouring of my life by student teaching has unfortunately affected this blog. 

What I ask of all of you who are still reading my blog is that you bear with me. I am not going to turn this space into a teaching blog; it’ll be the same as always. But you’ll have to wait until May for more regular posting. I do promise though that whatever I put up is going to be the best of what you expect here at The Lemonade Stand. 

A Brand New Way

You might have noticed that this week I finally, in the whole history of my blog, was able to put up a post on every weekday. Yay! Of course this is all due to the fact that school hasn’t started yet and I’m only working part time. But I must also give credit to sticking by my resolution to focus more, especially in the blog arena. Part of that includes giving myself some guidelines to follow as I write interesting posts for you, my readers, to get your hands on. The goal of The Lemonade Stand is to be a space that inspires others, gives advice from my unique perspective and is just a lot of fun for me and my readers. In sticking with these ideas, I decided to put together a weekday schedule.

On Mondays, you’ll find my favorite links from all over the internet

Tuesdays are pieces of advice or musings about ways to live a better life

Wednesday is when I get to share all my fun experiences and lots of pictures

Thursday is when I’ll be putting up posts that go with the series of the month

and finally, Friday is Fashion Friday so get ready for some fashion posts and tips about dressing for success.

All of this to bring you the very best I can on The Lemonade Stand.

**Oh happy new blogging days!**

A Quick Hiatus

photo by scui3asteveo

 

My palms are sweaty and my hearts a-flutter. Unfortunately it’s not for something good; my big Praxis exam is looming. It’s scheduled for this Saturday and I am getting quite a bit nervous (read: drinking tons of caffeine and studying as much elementary school math and science as I can). Therefore, to maintain my sanity, I am putting everything that doesn’t have to do with helping me rock the exam on hold. I will be posting my Monday Links tomorrow since it was my guilty pleasure break. The hiatus will only be through Saturday and then I will be back in business! See you then!

Love it or Leave it: A Non-Traditional Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving is right around the corner (only a week away!) and I’m getting excited for the day full of family, food and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. While I am obsessed with the annual parade and love being surrounded by my family, I absolutely love a holiday focused on food. What could be better than a holiday revolving around a huge feast? The whole day the house is full of delicious smells and I get to sit down for one of the biggest meals I’ve eaten all year. So really, tell me, what could be better?

I pride myself on being an amateur chef and, though I have spent fewer days in the kitchen since moving home, I still love the thrill of the recipe. For me, cooking is all about finding the next big challenge. I want to conquer the ingredients and manipulate them into deliciousness. I love the unique recipes that make a food you see every day into something extraordinarily scrumptious. All that being said, my one exception to finding an exciting recipe is Thanksgiving.

With the availability of recipe “flair” more and more prevalent thanks to this thing called the internet, its easier to get away from the old roasted turkey and mashed potatoes with an ending of pumpkin pie to more exotic, gourmet feasts. A turkey is no longer just roasted; it becomes brined and cajun injected. Even a yam souffle becomes easy and doable for your carefully laid table. There are rubs and chocolate pecan pies (the old pecan given a delicious sounding face list). Mashed potatoes are replaced by potatoes au gratin with every spice you can imagine. Suddenly Thanksgiving at home has a menu as fancy as any Zagat’s rated restaurant.

That’s where my traditionalism kicks in. I believe in preserving the holiday feast that my family has had for years and years even though it means the same herb roasted turkey with pan roasted potatoes (ok, so we’re a little fancy) and my grandma’s delicious pecan pie. We have the Hungarian soup that has been in my grandfather’s family and passed down from generation to generation and only served at holiday times when the family’s together. I can’t imagine a Thanksgiving with anything more fancy than my mom’s haricot verts (aka skinnier and tastier green beans). All that being said, I believe I can see the excitement of trying a new recipe on the biggest feast day of the year. Just don’t mess with my feast.

How do you feel about the big Thanksgiving meal? Do you have the traditional turkey and potatoes or is your turkey thai-twisted with a towering yam souffle?

Love it or Leave it: Themed Halloween Parties

I never admit this to anyone but I’ll admit it here: I love Halloween. I like scary movies (as long as I am not watching them alone that is), all the creative decorations, and of course the candy. I can’t hate a holiday where you get huge sacks of candy. What I love most of all are the costumes. I love to dress up and this is the biggest dress-up holiday of the year. You dress nicely for Thanksgiving,
Christmas and Easter but you don’t get to don a 1950s prom dress and pretend you’re a Southern Belle. I am a terrible actress but Halloween gives me a chance to play a part without being exposed on a stage before a huge, judgmental audience. Though I am not as terribly afraid of that as you would think but I won’t get into that now. I have a million ideas because I can’t wait for the opportunity to wear and buy clothes I normally would never even consider at any other time of year. Like the year my best friend and I grabbed the shortest plaid skirts we could find the highest heels in our closet, plastered on make-up and went to the party as College Freshmen.

This year I am faced with an interesting dilemma: a themed Halloween party. Here is what I am continually hearing over and over again when I mention this to people: “The theme is the day!” (Actually that’s what I thought of naming this post but I refrained) When you think of Halloween, you’re thinking about the most creative costume you can come up with. Like I mentioned before, this is the only day it’s acceptable to wear the craziest outfit you can find and be outside your personality. The only other time a costume is acceptable is a themed party. Usually those two days do not collide. As a proud graduate of college, I know how to throw a good theme party. Pick a theme that requires the easiest and sluttiest costume assembly and booze it up. That’s it sadly enough. Halloween is the same thing only you just show up in the craziest or sluttiest costume you can imagine. Totally less work for the hostess.

My initial instinct is to say emphatically, “LEAVE IT!” You don’t need a theme for Halloween; people should naturally assume they’re going to dress up. Now a happy half of a couple, we were thinking up cute costume ideas months beforehand (well to be honest, it was
mostly me). I had it all set, couldn’t wait to go shopping, then the themed party was thrown at me. Not wanting to buy multiple costumes, I knew I had to conform. And I didn’t/don’t like it.

Yet I am not so closed minded that I can’t see how some people might sigh with relief at a themed Halloween party. Someone has just chosen your costume for you. No thoughts about, should I be slutty? Should I wear something vintage? Am I trying to hard? Are people going to get what I am or are they just going think I’m stupid? You are going to walk into a party and everyone is going to be wearing a costume similar to yours and you will not be the odd one out. No stress, no mess.

For me, it boils down to the fact that on the craziest dress up day of the year I don’t want anyone telling what to wear. I am a creative person who doesn’t have any trouble deciding what crazy I want to be a part of for Halloween. Instead of the whole themed Halloween shenanigans, I would rather help all the undecided come up with a cool costume. So for Halloween themes, I say leave it and have fun with the day.

How do you feel about a themed Halloween party? Have you ever been invited to one?

Monthly Challenge Update: Not So Happy Abs

I have been sidelined by my flat abs work out. This is depressing. During my cardio workout on the elliptical I pulled a muscle in my thigh. And since my job is not at a desk, actually I tend to run around up and down the stairs like a mad woman, that only made it worse. Last night I could barely put my foot down without having a shooting pain up through my butt muscles. Now I am sitting out of two nights of exercising. The worst part of it is my overwhelming guilt that I am not living up to the dictates of the challenge. And how am I going to get the flat abs I’m hoping for?

This also comes at a time when I am starting to get tired of the workout. I miss my yoga mat and yoga dvd. I miss not having a soreness in every single muscle after a half hour of working out (and now wincing every time I sit down). This is an intense workout; it has to be if you are going to get ab muscles in a mere month. The weirdest part for me is that I don’t actually feel it in my abs, it’s everywhere else.

Though I miss the gentle strains of yoga, this workout plan has definitely made me feel stronger. I feel it in my legs and my arms and just in my body overall. I know that I will use the weight workouts past this month and that I am happy to have the interval cardio to build up my stamina again as I think about next season’s 5ks and (hopefully) 10ks and (even more hopefully) the Broad Street 10 miler in Philly. But I still have a long way to go.

 

In another kind of Monthly Challenge Update, I have decided on my November Monthly Challenge. For one month, I will attempt to wear a well put-together outfit every day. I am not a slob; I cringe at the idea of wearing sweats out in public and have a pretty extensive wardrobe. I love clothes and fashion and accessories. I love the satisfaction of a really good outfit, when you walk out the door and feel perfection from head to toe. But more often than not, I throw on the same pair of jeans, flip-flops (yes, even in October) and some sort of embellished t-shirt. I am most guilty of putting together boring outfits for work. My job entails everything from giving a travel lecture to painting giant banners and I have trouble dressing both professionally and comfortably enough to run around. My second biggest offense is after work when I just can’t be bothered to think about my clothes and feel frumpy. So I have issued myself a challenge to approach my closet every day with a mind to make myself look and feel good. I will also attempt not to buy new things during the month, though I will admit that if I see something that I can’t pass up I won’t resist the urge (aka the perfect stiletto booties). I want to get back to appreciating my clothes and expressing my personal style. There it is, November’s Challenge, and I promise more updates to come.