I wish I was a Fashion Blogger

I love reading other people’s blogs.  I guess that’s what inspired me to start my own blog. Well that and the fact that every time I’d tell a random story with arms flailing around, someone would inevitably say “you should have a blog!” Well, I’m nothing if not accommodating.

Actually, I’m not really that accommodating. I’m just kind of an attention ho and checking the stats on this little blog of mine is good for my ego.

Anyways, I love reading blogs about motherhood craziness, stories about clumsiness, DIY home décor projects, reviews of books that I never have the chance to read, and so on and so forth. I have a bunch of my favorite blogs saved on my gmail reader and visit them whenever I have a chance.

I also have a couple of those other blogs. You know, the fashion blogs. I wrote that in italics because you totally need to say it with whispered reverence in your voice. Kind of like how those hyenas said Mufasa in The Lion King. Try it: fashion blogs. See, that’s totally what I mean.

Fashion bloggers are WAY cooler than me. I’m sure that many of them are as sweet as pie, but I met a couple at last year’s BlogHer conference that caused me to immediately regress to feeling like that dork in middle school with the perm and braces. And yes, I totally had a spiral perm and braces at the same time because it was the late eighties/early nineties and I didn’t know any better.

I have two favorite fashion blogger’s that I visit on a regular basis. I’m not going to post them here because I kind of don’t want them to click back through and point and laugh at me. They are both impossibly cool and obviously have much, much better wardrobes than me. And better cameras. And they’re skinnier. I love reading their blogs though, because they always put together these amazing outfits from everyday pieces that look FANTASTIC on them.

Well, I wish I was cool like them.

I have what I’ll call a “lazy” wardrobe. I pretty much wear the same thing to work each day – black pants, a shirt or tank top and a sweater. Every single day. I mean, I look presentable… just not COOL. Frankly, it’s easy but pretty boring. In the summer I have a few cute work dresses, but when it’s cold outside I dress more for comfort and warmth.

I was going to include a picture of my in my normal "uniform" but couldn't find a recent full body picture. I did find this picture from 2010 though...
I was going to include a picture of my in my normal “uniform” but couldn’t find a recent full body shot. I did find this picture of me sitting on an egg from 2010 though…

When I’m not at work I’m either in my “I might leave the house” outfit of jeans (Gap), a t-shirt (Lucky), a hoodie/fleece (Under Armour or North Face) and boots (No idea, they’re super old and I love them). If I’m not leaving the house I live in the exact same outfit but switch out the jeans with yoga pants. That’s pretty much it. I do have a couple really pretty scarves that I throw on over everything, so maybe I’m like 1/18 cool.

I really WANT to be one of those saucy chicks that wear the adorable fitted skinny jeans, knee boots, three layered flowy tops that somehow make them look both busty and skinny and an artfully draped scarf… but I’m not.

Half the time I don’t give a darn that I’m not one of the fashionably dressed and the other half I’m totally jealous that somehow other working mom’s out there look so much more put together than me.

So, what’s your trick? Are you one of those ladies who always look adorable? If so, give me some tips! If not, what is your ‘go to’ outfit that you keep wearing again and again and again?

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Hair Issues

The side view. Ugh, I didn’t realize it was this BAD!

You know that thing where you’re totally fine with your hair week after week after week… and then all of a sudden you just HATE everything about it and can’t stand it until you finally get an appointment at the salon for a change? I’m so there right now.

For about 10-ish years I did different shades of red, occasionally spicing things up by adding streaks of purple, blond, blue, green or pink. Of course, now that I’m a “grown up” I can’t really do that any more. I DID sneak in some blue feathers over the summer, but took them out in early September.

My roots. And yes, I totally took these pictures while waiting in line at the drive-thru Starbucks.

I loved being a redhead, but my husband is not a fan. I typically ignore him on most things concerning fashion, but he truly hated the red so much that I decided to be a nice little wifey and stay away from that color. So for the past 6 years or so I’ve kept my natural medium  brown color and just added professionally done light brown/blond highlights.

Well, Jack was born 7 1/2 months ago and I’ve only had one haircut since then and NO highlights appointments. So now my hair is kind of half highlighted and half natural. Which sort of worked for the summer time where I can pretend to myself that I was rocking the ombre look. But now that it’s fall I need a change!

This is a proof pic from our family photo shoot done by the fabulous Kathleen Hertel Photography. I will be posting actual GOOD pictures from the shoot (with a link to her work), but for today’s purposes this shows the ombre look I’ve been rocking.

This is where you come in — let’s vote on hair color!


Since I can’t make up my mind on what to do, I want to know what you think. Also, if you have any salon colorist recommendations in the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area please let me know! My old colorist changed salons and I feel like it would be creepy if I showed up for an appointment at her new place when she didn’t bother to tell me where she was going…

 

9/28 Update: The votes said “go darker” and I did! I had about 2ish inches cut off the bottom and went “Deeply Brown”. Here is the in progress picture and here is the finished result.

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How to Repair a Scuffed Heel

I don’t know if you know this about me, but I kind of rock at inventing random stuff.

scuffed heel

I mean, I don’t actually INVENT anything, but I come up with some pretty awesome ideas in my head. Like my brilliant idea of having a gas delivery service where you can text a phone number when the gas is low in your car and the service comes by while you’re sleeping and fills up your tank. Brilliant, right!?*

Anyways, like pretty much every other working lady out there** I end up scuffing the backs of my nice shoes when I drive. I could change out my floor mat in my truck with something softer (which would look entirely weird in my FJ Cruiser), or I could change into casual shoes whenever I drive. But we all know I’m too lazy for that.

I looked online to see if there was some awesome invention out there to fix and protect my heels and didn’t find anything.

Now, before you stop reading and comment that I can just color the back of my heel with a black sharpie – I totally already tried that. First off, the sharpie comes out with a random purple sheen on it, which looks like crap. Secondly, it just wears right off the second you drive again and it’s kind of stupid to have to carry a sharpie around with you at all times to fix your darn shoes!

But I’ve come up with the perfect fix. It not only fixes the problem of your scuffed up heels, it protects them from future scuffing!

Prepare for your mind to be BLOWN.

All you need is a roll of electrical tape and a pair of scissors. Check it out:

Here are my shoes before I started operating on them — super scuffed on my driving heel.
All the supplies you need
Cut a small piece of tape a bit longer than the back of your shoe.
Place the tape on the shoe and squeeze out any air bubbles. Repeat this until the back of the shoe is covered in tape (you may have to trim around the leather area)
Here they are all finished! It took less than 5 minutes and they look as good as new!

Voila! Amazing, right?! I did this to my favorite pair of silver wedges a few weeks ago and you totally can’t even tell. The tape isn’t coming off and the shoes look great.

So, try it yourself and let me know if it works for you! You can comment here, on my facebook page or tweet me at @JoulesDellinger.

*Okay, if someone steals my idea and makes this happen I’d like free memberships for myself and all my family members. Please. Thank you.

**In a non-prostitute way. However, this could probably come in handy for prostitutes too…

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