White Picket Fence

{Shop: Cardigan, Dress, Necklace, Heels}
This little house is perfect. With it's white picket fence and hundred year old tress that the sun shines perfectly through, it's a perfect little place for us.
Except we don't live here. This is what my childhood dream imagined my life to be like at the age of 25. But this is actually Lyndon B. Johnson's boyhood home that I posed in front of with people watching because we're lame. My house actually looks like the opposite of this -- our sink is full of dishes and we don't have a white picket fence. In fact, we don't even have a sidewalk. 
It should be noted that I don't have a boyhood home, which ironically enough is on my bucket list. Not sure how I'm going to get that one to happen. My childhood dream just called -- she's disappointed about the white picket fence. 
PS -- is it okay to wear stripes on stripes? Because I just did. 

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(Not so) Plain and Simple

{Shop: Dress, Similar Bracelets, Similar Heels}

It's been a long day. My eyes are going fuzzy as I write this, so if I happen to misspell a few words, fourgiv me.

Today I realized something: I have no idea what to do with a pretty dress. Give me an old, tossed aside skirt from the 80's and 15 minutes, I'll give you an outfit. Give me a pretty dress that doesn't even need a belt and I'm dumbfounded.  As a blogger I lean more on over-styling outfits than under-styling. Most of the time this works, but today it just didn't. I had cardigans, jackets, scarves, jewelry all over the place -- trying to find the perfect way to wear this dress. (Cookies were also involved, but not as a part of the outfit.) Then it hit me -- stop fighting the pretty dress, Kendi. Wear some heels, pearls and get on with your day.

Once I stopped talking to myself in third person, I realized I was right. I always give myself the best advice.

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False Alarm

{Shop: Dress/Top, Similar skirt, Round Necklace, Wedges}
I could have named this post so many things. 
"What to wear to a job interview at a 1980's night club""Did people in the 80's not have a waist?""This is not a top, it's a dress."
Okay that last one is a little boring, but sometimes the truth is boring. What about -- This top is...actually a dress!!! See that's better. I can just feel your excitement. I bet you are clapping at your computer screen right now, I know I am. 
Sometimes when I buy things from a thrift store, I wonder where else the item was worn and who would give up such a gem. I also wonder why people in the past had such tiny waists. I wore this outfit yesterday and by dinner I had to unzip my skirt because I thought I was having an appendicitis. Turns out, I wasn't. My skirt was just too tight. Will that stop me from buying tiny blue skirts and wearing them pushed up to my rib cage so? Yeah right. You're going to have to do a lot more than fake an emergency, internal organs. 

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Red, White & New

{Shop: Jacket, Blouse, Heels}
First off, I may or may not have had a lot of time on my hands last weekend at a certain Target. Second of all, I ended up with this new top and this pair of wedges. They were practically asking me to take them home at $20 each. Have you ever said no to a cute pair of shoes? I didn't think so. 
I have so much love for this odd little skirt. (If you own this skirt, you know why it's odd. The fit is kind of funky.) I had no idea what to pair it with when I bought and now I just know it will be a staple for summer and spring. Mainly because if I slip my jacket off, I've got a killer Fourth of July outfit -- the one day it's legal and not weird for me to have a stash of fireworks in my trunk.
Skirt, Remixed:

  

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Mayberry

{Shop: Cardigan, Blouse, Pants, Similar Shoes}

Cute little street in town, I'd like you to meet my blog. I don't talk much about where I live unless it's to complain about it's lack of young people or not-so-fashion forward culture. But after living here for 3 years, I have to say that it's not so bad. The only traffic is at 5 pm when everyone gets off work which clears out by 5:15 pm.  If one place is busy on a Friday night, you can just go to the other place. If we had kids, I'd never worry about them playing outside or going to the park alone. And if I wanted to whip out my roller blades every once in a while, no one would look at me like I was crazy. For most people we're still in the 90s, so roller blades are still cool. That or they'd think that I invented them.

But besides that, I found this Kate Spade purse for $4 at the thrift store the other day. It's probably 10 years old and there's a few scratches on it, but the fact that this purse was marked $4 and a pleather purse from Wal-Mart was marked $5 sitting right next to it reminds me that this town isn't so bad after all. One man's trash, is another girl's Kate Spade. 

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Creamsicle

{Shop: Sweater, Similar Skirt, Heels, Long Necklace, Circle Pendant}

I got a new skirt this weekend. I'll give you one guess what it looks like. If you said it was short and orange, you are right! If you said anything other than that, I'm not sure if I can help you. This pop quiz was pretty much pass or fail.

If you were wondering where I get my outfit inspirations from, mainly the things around me. You know, art, culture, the people I meet in life. Important influences like that. For instance, this outfit was inspired by this:

What? I'm hungry and it's grocery store day. Tomorrow I'm going to dress up as a turkey leg. Just you wait. 

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Is this vintage or just old?

{Shop: Similar Skirt, Similar Top, Necklace, Heels}
I'm not sure if this skirt is vintage or just thrifted. I did in fact get it at a thrift store, but it was probably made in during the 50s or 60s. How do I know this? Because the tag says my size but it doesn't hit my waist; it hits my rib cage. And I'm pretty sure people didn't have ribs back then. If they did, they certainly weren't the size of my rib cage -- which I must brag, is fairly impressive. 
So my wise friends, please educate this fool. What makes something vintage? I know that when I pick up Old Navy at thrift store that's obviously not vintage, but would this skirt be considered a vintage find? I told you I'm a fool, but also a quick study and I can bring snacks. 

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Stolen

{Shop: Dress, Similar Blazer, Heels}
Excuse the surprised/lost look in the first photo. Sometimes I forget where I am, why I'm posing in a parking garage and who that strange man with a camera is. Then the strange man sits down with me for an hour and explains what a "style blog" is to me and I'm okay again. This was before that conversation, so you'll have to forgive me. Also, the strange man in my husband. He's actually really nice.

I straight up stole this outfit idea from Taylor Sterling. Honestly, she didn't even put up a fight. Even more honesty -- she doesn't even know that I stole it. That's how smooth I am at internet piracy.

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Small Town Saturday Night

{Shop: Similar Blouse, Jeans, Similar Wedges}

Last night I got all gussied up to go out on a date, but we couldn't figure out what to do. I'm afraid that we've run out of places to go in our town. I literally was all dressed up and had absolutely nowhere to go. It's funny, when I was younger I imagined my twenty-something self living as a single girl in the city. Going out with my 3 best friends -- Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte-- and living a glamourous city girl life. My life might be the polar opposite of that now. I dress up to go get chinese take-out. 

But if I think about it for long, it doesn't bother me that I dress up to go eat chinese food with my husband. That my life was never made into a TV series, a good movie (and then a really bad one). That my 3 best friends aren't named Samantha, Miranda or Charlotte. Or that somedays, normally the best days, I have nowhere to go. It hasn't stopped me from getting dressed yet. 

Or calling myself Carrie from time to time. 

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Roadie

{Shop: Similar Jacket, Skirt, Shoes, Purse}

We took a road trip yesterday to go to my dad's retirement party. So naturally I would wear soft clothes, adult p.j.'s if you will. But if I figure that if I shower, add a belt and some heels, I shall call this an outfit.

Since we were out of town I've been away from my beloved internet for a few days. After recovering from withdrawal shakes, I've realized one thing: I am addicted to the internet. Two days without it and I feel like I've been gone a year. Life without wi-fi is no life at all.

By the way, it's nice to see all of you again. You haven't changed one bit.

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Speechless

{Shop: Similar Blouse, Skirt, Shoes}
I've stared at this post for far too long with no words for you guys. This is what I wrote after an hour: I only painted the fingernails on one of my hands. 
While this is a true statement, I think I'm going to do what's right, stop now and try again later. At least I got dressed today. Step one is complete.

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