SHADY GREYS

So, as we have come to know, there are like...50 Shades of Grey.  While my go to winter color of despair is all black everything, I felt like posting today about it's close partner in crime--G R E YYY!

Grey can make you feel pretty ugly if you do it wrong, and let me be the first to say I "do it wrong" all the time by living in my collection of grey hoodies.  You must, instead, make the grey in your outfit speak for itself and become a statement...let the people know you are aware you are wearing grey.  This could be based on the structure of a piece-- maybe a bold, textural menswear inspired winter coat--

like oh, i don't know, this beautiful little number from H&M:

Melange Coat

Or maybe to make grey your statement is not to depend upon a singular statement piece but to use the combination of many items to make the statement? Like how about grayscaling your life?  I like the sound of it...a monochromatic look...IN GREY

YES PLZ, EVERYDAY.

So going through your closet you may want to consider a couple things before just slapping on all your grey pieces:

1. Maybe most importantly, know which tone of grey you are going to wear. Are you going to stick to a warmer or cooler tone of greys?  (Also consider your skin tone in this decision, I look better in a more blue-ish grey).

2.  If you are going to go for a monochromatic look, you have to go all in. Think about your shoes, your accessories, EVERYTHING.  (You can allow room for ONE piece of color, maybe in your footwear or hat game...but you don't want to break up things in the middle of your all grey body palette).

3. As I mentioned earlier with the texture of the coat, consider the textures of your items, too.  They need to be able to separate themselves from one another enough to still accentuate your shape-- you're gonna look like a lump-a-coal if you are all one kind of fabric.  (For the winter, consider a knit or wool top!)

So what did I find in my closet?  A lot of things I wear that normally look boring AF by themselves, but I feel pretty confident with them all together:

(unfortunately with the way blogspot handles the compression of files (ackkk), you can hardly tell my jeans are grey, but i promise they are a light-medium colored grey, not near black)

Overall, I am happy to create such a combination. This may become a go-to outfit for the rest of the winter!

xx

Good for Health, Bad for Education

Greetings Readers of My Blog,

I hope you've had a lovely holiday season...I sure did!  I just arrived back in Chicago yesterday evening after a 2 week stint back home in Kansas.  I got to see lots of extended family, some friends from high school and college, and best of all my silly pets.

Today's post really has no overall theme or idea but just a few items I have recently aquired and really enjoy!

The most reoccuring item in this post is this grey wool and black leather cap.  I ALWAYS buy hats and never wear them, but I can tell you that I've already worn this religiously and with the wet snow that's in abundance here in Chicago it's a handy lil number.

Along with the hat, I purchased a Men's red polyester baseball jacket.  These items (of course, rather unnecessary) I snagged at the Urban Outfitters outlet here in Chicago.  In conjunction with the stuff being dirt cheap there anyway, UO had a 1/2 off sale happening for about a week so I couldn't resist buying them!

I also like that I now have a colored jacket I can wear when I want to.  I own a massive collection of "beautiful" grey and black and white clothes so throwing on a bright jacket gives me a little liveliness I probably lack with such a wardrobe.

My new favorite thing EVER is this Akira sweatshirt my bestest friend Tyler had printed up and gave me as a Christmas gift.  I can already tell after only having it in my possession for 6 days and having worn it at least half of those days that I'm going to need another 3 or 4 of them :)

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Also, being home at my parents for a good amount of time, I got into all their stuff and made lots of messes.  Whenever I go home, I always dig through my mom's beauty products and lotions and nude colors of nail polish and use all of her expensive shampoo (shhh).  I came across a few things she wouldn't let me take (obviously I didn't beg hard enough) but items that I enjoyed so much I may find myself getting for myself anyway.

Like this nail polish:

the color is called "My Very First Knockwurst" by OPI.  Before I explain what Knockwurst is let me tell you how lovely I think this is.

Now let me tell you that knockwurst is, as you could guess, a kind of sausage like a bratwurst.  Why would you name a nail polish color this?  Now all I think of when I look at my fingers is little sausages!

Another item I can advocate for in these nastily cold winter months is a good ol body lotion.  

I am terrible when it comes to applying lotion to my whole body, but upon the New Year I suppose I'll make it some kind of resolution to treat my skin to some loving.  I have a minor skin condition called Keratosis Pilaris (where extra keratin protein is produced in skin) that appears on my upper arms and sometimes upper legs.  It's really common and it's more prominent in the winter months for people 

because there is less moisture in the air. 

 With this lotion by Aveeno my skin felt sooo soft for once, which is a beautiful thing!  It's nice too that it's a brand you can pick up at most any drugstore!

Keep warm out there if you're deep in piles of snow (If you are in LA or somewhere tropical please go away </3) xx