Do These Shoes Make Me Look Skinny?

Daily Outfit, 4/4/11

Spring still hasn’t quite sprung in Oregon, so I’m still combining my brights with black.  Today it was citron and teal with black:

And it was a combination I actually rather liked.  I wore my black-skirted Mossimo “2-fer” dress (Target) under a citron and white abstract-patterned cardigan (Target) with a multi-colored scarf (Ann Taylor Outlet), black shoes (Kenneth Cole Reaction – thrifted), and a black bracelet (Macys).  I'm also wearing my Kenneth Cole trench (via Ideeli).  The tights were a last minute addition, but think they were a good choice in that they are some of my favorites and they pick the teal in the scarf up quite nicely.

But, the question of the day is not whether or not these tights were a good choice (I believe they were).  No, the question of the day is: Do these shoes make me look skinny?

These shoes are chunkier than I usually wear and took a little getting used to.  I thought I would try them though because I think they work with this outfit, but also I read somewhere (The Sartorialist, I think) that it is a good idea for larger women to wear a heavier shoe to help balance their heavier bodies.  And that a delicate shoe on a larger woman just makes her look larger. 

I have to be honest; this is not something I had ever consciously considered before.  But, I do think maybe I am subconsciously aware of what my shoes do to and for my body.  For example, I do prefer my skinny jeans with boots because in that instance I do think they help to balance my thighs, but I wore skinnies and flats on Saturday and really liked that look.  Was that a no-no?  Were Saturday’s shoes a miss?

What do you all think?  Do you select your shoes based on your body type?  Do you think a delicate shoe makes a woman look bigger?  Does a heavier shoe help balance a heavier torso and/or thigh?  Is this something I should be putting more thought into?  I’m very interested to hear what you all think about this.

Happy Monday, All!

Gracey

Weecap: April 2nd and 3rd

Out of the gate, I have to tell you this Weecap only contains one outfit, but I think it's a good one.  I went out Saturday for an oil change and to get a new phone, but otherwise was in most of the weekend battling a cold (darned airplanes).


Saturday, April 2nd

It was sunny most of the day Saturday and I took advantage with rolled cuffs and a short-sleeve trench:

I thrifted this coat a few weeks ago, but it hasn't been warm enough to wear it, but finally Saturday it was and I was thrilled.  It's such a pretty persimmon color and you know how much I love orange.  I love the coat so much, I actually built the rest of the outfit around it.  I paired it with a navy and white tunic (Old Navy), olive skinny jeans (Gap) and black and silver flats (Target).

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and thank you all for you kind comments on my Santa Fe photos.  I know I'm not the best photographer, but I wanted to at least share some of my experiences there.

Talk to you all tomorrow,

Gracey

Gracey Goes to Santa Fe

Hello Everyone!

As I'm sure you all remember (I'll stop talking about it eventually) I was in Santa Fe for the first time last weekend.  I wanted to share some photos of my visit with my fabulous friend Annie and her equally fabulous husband, Matt.  The photos are a strange combination of outfit photos, churches, sculptures and prairie dogs.

Saturday, March 26th

Today was a traveling day, so I wanted to be comfortable:

I don't usually wear hats, but Stef from Diversions always looks so cute in hers so I wanted to give it a shot.  Also, I thought the flower on the side might come in handy as a teeny little pillow on the plane (it totally did, btw).  In addition to the hat (Nordstrom), I wore leggings for comfort (INC/Macy's), a sweater (Jones New York via Ross) layered over a striped tunic (Old Navy), my orange cashmere scarf (Nordstrom) and my riding boots (Born Crown via Nordstrom).  I wore the boots because they're super comfortable, but also so I wouldn't have to pack them, leaving more room for things I felt I needed, but ultimately didn't wear.

Sunday, March 27th

On Sunday, Annie and I did a little thrifting, ate at El Parasol (declared by GQ to be the BEST place for tacos (and they were delicious)) and toured downtown Santa Fe.

In front of the old Santa Fe Public Library

For Sunday's activities, I wore my Long and Lean jeans (Gap), grey sweater (Nordstrom), orange cashmere scarf (Nordstrom) and brown boots (Mossimo/Target).  But, enough about the clothes, isn't this doorway amazing?

Santa Fe had many so many beautiful architectural elements like the doors above.  Their churches are especially gorgeous:

In addition to the architecture, the thing that impressed me so much about Santa Fe was the art.  There were galleries everywhere, but there were also a lot of outdoor installations and parks full of sculptures.

Santa Fe was very windy and this gallery took full advantage.

My favorite sculptures were these at the Ghost Ranch Art Center by Peter Woytuk:

I love that this crow is holding a persimmon instead of the typical apple.

Gorgeous Annie and the Elephant

Gracey and the same fabulous Elephant

Fat Birds!

Monday, March 27th

On Monday Annie and I drove to Taos to look around.  Taos is higher in elevation than Santa Fe so there were slightly more "trees" (in Oregon we call them bushes) but it was still a pretty dry drive.  The one good thing about not having trees to block your view is that you can see forever:

Once in Taos, we found more beautiful Southwestern architecture (well, of course):

See!  I told you I was a giant!!

For Taos, I wore my blue open cardigan (Calvin Klein via Ideeli) over my tan/cream tunic (Old Navy), with Flirt Skinny Jeans (Old Navy), my blue scarf (H&M) and Born Crown riding boots (Nordstrom).  There were a lot of blue elements in the architecture in New Mexico, like the gate above, which I loved.  So I thought I'd wear some blue as well.


Also very blue?  The amazing sky over this amazing church:

Gorgeous, right?

Tuesday, March 28th

I traveled home on Tuesday, but before I left, we went for hot cocoa at what is the one place I'd say you have to visit if you're even in Santa Fe.  It was the Kakawa Chocolate House and it was heaven:

3 ounces of heaven and a truffle

For the chocolate house (and the rest of the day), I wore black leggings (Target) and a black tunic (Old Navy) with a sweater coat (Nine West), plaid scarf (Steve Madden via Macy's) and the riding boots.  But, who cares, right?  Let's talk about the hot cocoa.

Kakawa creates their hot chocolates based off of historic Aztec, Mayan and European recipes.  We're talking recipes from the 17th and 18th century and before.  Think of hot chocolate flavored with such diverse ingredients as agave nectar, ancho chili, orange blossom water, ambergris, black pepper and lavender.  I'm telling you guys, it is amazing.  I had the White Chocolate Pepper and Annie had the Modern Mexican, but they let you sample all the flavors they have there before you order, so we tasted five or six.

And finally, what you've all been waiting for.  Prairie dogs!!

I didn't see a single squirrel in New Mexico, but there were prairie dogs all over the place.  And they are fat and adorable!

If you're ever in Santa Fe or Taos, places I'd suggest visiting are Kakawa Chocolate House in Sante Fe (you can actually order their coffee elixirs here), Seconds Eco Store in Taos and G. Robinson Old Print and Maps.

Thank you all so much for reading!

Gracey

And Then There Was Friday

Daily Outfit 4/1/11

So, today was a day without much inspiration and I dressed accordingly:

Yeah, it’s not awesome.  And certainly not as exciting as yesterday’s bright and stripe-y dress but few things I own are.  I guess this outfit could even be construed as boring.  It is, however, very comfortable which I feel should count for something.  I mean, really, it’s an outfit made of comfort.  Leggings?  Comfort!  Striped tee?  Comfort!  Sweater dress?  Comfort!  Flat boots?  Comfort!  Summer-weight cashmere scarf?  Comfort!  (And in case you were curious: Target, Target, Target, Chinese Laundry via Piperlime and Nordstrom).

Still bored?  Perhaps I can distract you with this bit of awesomeness: I found a new blog today, called Insulted By Authors, and it’s lovely and hilarious and well-done and hilarious.  I have a link over there in my Thinky Blogroll, but you can also get there from here.

If that’s not enough, I don’t know what else I can do for you, except to promise to get my Santa Fe pictures up this weekend.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend full of rainbows and puppies (or whatever distracts you from boring Friday outfits)!

Gracey

Friend Friday: Rules of Engagement

It’s Friday and time for this week’s Fashion and Beauty Friend Friday questions.  This week Katy asked us about interacting with other bloggers.  This is actually a good topic for me because I am a fairly new blogger and have absolutely no idea what the rules are for interacting with other bloggers.  As it turns out, there are no rules which can make it a bit tricky. 

Below are my answers to this week’s questions, and if you’d like to see how others answered them, there is a list of participants on the Modly Chic site.

1. Guest posts are a good way to gain new exposure. What do you think is the appropriate way to go about securing a guest spot?

I know absolutely nothing about guest posting, but if I were to guess, I would think you would want to cultivate a blogger-relationship with that person prior to asking them to guest post, so that you know what they're about and they know what you're about.  You don't want to jeopardize the integrity of your blog with a rogue guest post.  After you've determined who you want, then I think an email to the blogger you'd like to guest post on your site is probably the best way to go about it. 

2. Leaving comments is essential to growing your blog. But how can you leave a comment without coming across as ‘Follow Me. Follow Me!’?

I feel like this is a trick question – just don’t say “Follow Me” in your comments!

Seriously though, I comment on blogs that incite a comment from me, for whatever reason, not because I’m trying to get them to follow me.  And if someone includes the “Follow Me” request in their comment on my blog, I won’t necessarily follow them, but I don’t rule it out.  Maybe I’ll like their blog and want to follow it.

For my part, if I find a new blog and decide to follow it, I don’t mention that in my comments because I don’t want the blogger to think I’m only following them so that they’ll follow me back.  I don’t want to feel obligated to follow someone’s blog and I don’t want them to feel obligated either.

3. We’ve all gotten a mass email at one time or another asking for blog exposure, a link exchange, etc… But the mass emails don’t work.  How do you make your email stand out from the crowd?

I don’t send mass emails.  At most I email bloggers for permission to use their picture and recreate their outfits in my Blogs for Giants series, but those are to the individual bloggers.  And I think the fact that my emails to these bloggers are to the individuals and not mass emails seems to be working just fine – everyone has been very receptive to my requests.

4. In interacting with other bloggers where do you draw the line between seeking support and begging for exposure?

My interactions with other bloggers are usually comments and the occasional Blogs for Giants email.  I try to keep my comments supportive of them and their blog and not come across as seeking support for my blog.  If they comment on my blog in response, that’s great.  If they follow me, even better.  If they add me to their blog roll, that’s fabulous.  But, they don’t have to do any or all of these things in order for me to follow them.  I follow blogs I like to support, for a variety of reasons – not because I expect to be followed in return.

5. What’s one rule of engagement error you made and how have you remedied that?

Early on in my blogging career, a fellow blogger awarded me the Stylish Blogger Award.  I didn’t realize that I was supposed to do anything more than say thank you until a week later.  I did finally end up doing a post about the award and linking back to her, but I did feel bad about taking so long.

Outside of that, I don’t think I’ve made any other errors, but I’m not sure I’d know if I did.  Because there isn’t a handbook on how to interact with other bloggers, I could be insulting people left and right.  That being said, I really do try to be respectful of other people’s blogs, linking back and always giving credit for ideas and inspiration.  And I would hope that if I had offended anyone, they’d let me know.