mom fashion

Let's talk about fashion. Wow, I never thought that the word "fashion" would enter my little blog unless preceded by the words "I know nothing about."

But (as dumb as it may sound) lately I have been thinking a lot about fashion. I realized I don't really like my wardrobe, and I just keep adding boring things to it. It's like if you have a set of boring and not very pretty dishes, but you break one dish at a time, so instead of buying a whole new set, which takes time to pick out and a lot more money, you just keep replacing the broken ones with the exact same dishes.

Every once in a while I will buy something trendy. Last year (okay, once in a great while) I bought a super-cute pair of black leather boots. But in order to wear the black boots, you have to have the leggings, and then you have to have the strategically long shirts, or cute skirts and tops. Or you have to have skinny jeans, in which case you have to have skinny thighs...

My point is, I hate shopping for clothing. I wish I could hand someone a wad of money, give them my sizes, and let them buy it all for me. I realize that there are people who make this their profession, but I think they charge a ridiculous fee. And they shop at the real Nordstrom instead of the Rack.

The other problem -aside from no money, time, or desire to go shopping- is that I want to look cute, but my clothing has to also be functional. I can't exactly show up for library story time and sit criss-cross applesauce  in high heeled boots, leggings, and a miniskirt. I also shudder to think of myself crawling into the bear cave at the OMSI kid's room in "skinny" jeans.

I know that there are much bigger problems in the world, and I am so lucky to have clothes at all, especially so many clothes that keep me warm and dry and comfortable. But, c'mon, I am a girl in my mid-twenties, and you just wouldn't think it to look in my closet. So, I have been trying to get creative and to re-purpose some old clothes. Here are some examples of my attempts (things are about to get weird; let's just say I'm no budding clothing photographer, and these pics look more like a person melted and left only what they were wearing) :

Above: Layers are always good, right? My mom gave me this jacket a few years ago; it's from Levi and apparently was the same one that the blonde actress wore in "Kill Bill", and my mom just had to have it. The black hoodie is probably the softest thing I own. It's cashmere that I got on a huge after Christmas sale at Gap my senior year of high school. As in, eight years ago. Underneath the sweater is a redish T that I found on the Target sales rack for about six bucks. The scarf that I wear around my head has a red that matches the shirt, and I wear it when I haven't had time to wash my hair the night before. It was a Christmas gift from an old boss.

Above: The pumpkin-colored sweater was actually given to Lane, but he is not sure how he feels about the V-neck, so I swiped it from his side of the closet. I belted it with an old leather belt my mom gave me to make it less manly, and wear it with a blue scarf that has big pink, white, and orange flowers. Luckily, the sweater is long enough to wear with leggings and then I can wear my hippest clothing item- the boots!

Above: I feel like this outfit could either be super old lady, boyish, or maybe it is just really hip. I bought the flannel shirt last mothers day, which, by the way, was the last time I actually went shopping. I wear it with this awful sweater which I think could be extremely mom, but I like to think that I make it edgy by wearing it with the flannel shirt, cool earrings, and my 7's. I'm not sure if I'm correct in this assumption.

So, here is the question: What's a girl to do? How do I make my style less suburban-mom and more up-to-date without spending a fortune? What are your favorite style tricks and ways you use old clothing in trendy ways?

PS I love that yesterday I checked my blog to see if anyone had posted rainy day ideas (thank you Jane, we will be flying paper airplanes very soon, and hopefully I will be brave enough to make some flubber) and I noticed that the blog fairy had visited. I now have a boarder on the sides of my blog! So fun.