Fashion - Pocketful of Joules

Welcome to the Bang Club

Yup, that’s how my favorite barista greeted me at the Starbucks drive-thru this morning. Even though I started laughing hysterically, I’m not really sure she realized that she inadvertently said something naughty.

For those of you who don’t follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may be a little confused right now…

I got bangs on Friday.

After years and years (and years) with the same hairstyle, I decided it was time to change things up a little. One way to tell that you’re in a hair rut is when your long-time hair stylist gets excited to finally do something new. Yup, Kristin was ecstatic.

For years, I’d consider chopping some bangs but would always wimp out. But then, I got a nice big kick in the head from a fellow blogger. I’m a HUGE fan of Shana over at Ain’t No Mom Jeans (if you haven’t checked out the blog, it’s not just for mommies. It’s an awesome fashion blog for REAL people). She’s currently going through chemo and has decided to try out a bunch of haircuts on the way to bald. Did I mention that she’s awesome? Because she is totally kicking breast cancer’s boobies with her positivity and humor. Anyways, watching Shana go through this makes me realize how stupid I’ve been. It’s ONLY hair and I’m lucky to have all of mine. So if I feel the itch to change it up, I should just go for it because nobody knows what the future brings.

When I went to the salon I took a picture of Shana’s beautiful hairstyle with me, as well as this picture I snapped of a Loft display right before I walked in:

And then less than an hour later I walked out a whole new person.

instagram pic — I snapped the first picture right before I walked into the mall and the second about an hour later from a dressing room. I didn’t change my hair color, it’s just the change in lighting that makes it look so different.

At first I felt super weird and self-conscious. Like everyone was staring at my forehead full of hair. One of my Facebook commenters described it as feeling like you have a mustache on your forehead and that’s totally right. I was aware of every single follicle of hair sitting on my eyebrows.

And suddenly I started to HATE it. I ran into a dressing room (ok, walked slowly while gathering clothes to try on) and STARED at myself for probably 10 minutes. It was like SuperVainWoman took over as I kept sweeping my hair to one side and the other, adjusting each piece of fringe carefully.

I sent a picture to my bestie and my husband, hoping for some ‘it’s not that bad’ comments. After some consideration (because I was in a very fragile state…) I also posted a picture on my Facebook page asking if I had made a huge mistake.

Within a couple minutes my world was rocked. There was positive reinforcement out the yingyang! I walked into that dressing room feeling like Hermione in her early years and walked out feeling like a BOSS. If by “boss” I mean a sexy boss of AWESOME!

My new haircut required new lipstick. Obviously.

My husband thought I looked like Cici from NewGirl. Kari from A Grace Full Life said Anne Hathaway in the Devil Wears Prada. And then a friend from high school decided that I looked like Carly Rae Jepsen, the singer of “Call me, Maybe”. To each of these comparisons I say, “HECK YEAH!” and “THANK you!!”

Too bad once I washed my hair I couldn’t figure out how to style it.

I even went out to buy a new flat iron and STILL couldn’t figure out how the heck to make it work. On Saturday it was just weirdly curled at the tips, which then stuck to my forehead with sweat the second I walked out the door. Then on Sunday, I got so mad I gave up and corralled the bangs with a barrette. Thank goodness for barrettes!

This morning I tried yet again and I think I finally figured it out!

So yay for bangs. I’m kind of digging them again. My husband is not a huge fan, but I think it’s more to do with his dislike of change then the actual look. We’ll see if it grows on him.

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve written over 600 words about hair. I’m hoping that I get used to this new look soon because right now with the time and effort it takes to make my head look good, I’m feeling incredibly vain.

And hot. For the first time in forever, I feel kind of sassy again.

For those of you thinking of doing the Big Bang chop, here are 5 things I didn’t know about bangs before I had them:

Your forehead gets hot. Like REALLY hot and sweaty when you’re trying to get ready in the morning. Which makes it difficult to style your bangs and makes you want to just give up and put them in a barrette off your face.
Nobody can see your eyebrows, so if you’re going for an inquisitive eyebrow or the “Peoples Eyebrow” you’re out of luck. On the plus side, you can skip penciling in your brows.
You don’t look like Jess from New Girl when you wake up, you look ridiculous.
A swift breeze is your enemy.
You will take like 100 selfies an hour. You won’t post them because you realize how incredibly douchy you are acting. However, when your husband borrows your phone to check out the pictures you took at the pumpkin patch you will get INCREDIBLY embarrassed when he swoops his finger too far and sees you. And you. And you with kissy face. And you again.

Here’s a dare for you – are you thinking about changing up your look but keep wimping out? Well, DO IT! Even if you hate it, you won’t have to wonder about it anymore! So tell me, is there a look you’ve been wanting to try?

My First Stitch Fix Delivery: Help Me Decide!

A few weeks ago I kept seeing advertisements for something called Stitch Fix. I swear, the ads were stalking me… every page I clicked on: Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix.

Stitch Fix EVERYWHERE.

So fine, I finally gave up and clicked through.
And BOOM, they got me.

Stitch Fix is a personal stylist in a box. A PERSONAL STYLIST in a BOX!

You fill out a fancy schmancy style profile with all your stylish likes and dislikes (and your sizes). You answer lots of questions about your style, as well as preferences on what you’d like them to send – for example, I chose not to receive any accessories because I’m already drowning in statement necklaces. I also did a little extra work and built a board on pinterest so that my stylist would have a better idea of what I might like (click here to check it out).

After reviewing all your info, someone WAY more fashionable than me handpicks 5 items to send you. You try it all on in the comfort of your own home with clothes you already own to decide if you like anything. They even include a card that has styling tips for each item on how you can mix it up with other stuff.

You keep what you like and send the rest back in their supplied prepaid envelope. It’s that easy.

As for cost, there is a $20 styling fee for them to put the box together and send it to you. However, if you purchase anything from your order you use that money towards your bill. Also, if they hit it out of the park and you LOVE everything they sent, you get a 25% discount if you buy everything. So that you’re not totally out of your spending comfort zone, you set your pricing threshold when you fill out your profile.

So, now I need your help… I just got my box last night and I have three days to decide what I’m sending back. Oh and please forgive the crappy pictures — I got home from work at 9:00pm (I left the house for work at 6:30am, so it was a looooong day) and my husband was SO not in the mood to play photographer.

Here’s what I got:

black and white dress — Tart Holden Printed Swing Dress – $128.00

I was actually kind of excited when I unpacked this dress because I liked the feel of the fabric (it is heavy-ish but silky) and the print. However, when I put it on the fabric stretched in a really terrible way across the boobies area and the print just stretched out to WHITE/see-through. It was awful and there is no way I’m posting a picture of it on the internet!

green sweater — RD Style Frances Cowl Neck Chunky Knit Sweater – $58.00

I’m pretty sure I owned a very similar version of this sweater (down to the exact color of green) about 10 years ago from Banana Republic. I think the chunkyness of the sweater makes me look…well, chunky too. Thoughts?

Burgandy dress — Sanctuary Lanni A-Line Ponte Dress – $128.00

I kind of like this dress — it’s a dark burgundy color and would look nice with a grey suit jacket or black cardigan. I think I need to add some shapewear under it though because my tummy is not looking awesome right now. What do you think, is it salvageable or should I just send it back?

black shirt and purple pants — Mia Melon Paloma Striped Short Sleeve Cut-Out Top – $58.00 and Just Black Dark Purple Adora Ankle Length Jeans – $68.00

Here is a more casual look — the top is a nice weight black top with a little extra something fun going on in the back (check out the next picture). When I saw the pants (they’re a dark purple in person) I originally thought that there was no way in hell they were getting over my butt. But after some pulling, tugging and all-around cursing. They fit. Well, there’s a little bit of muffin top… but frankly everything seems to be a little muffin toppy lately. Here’s where I really need you to weigh in — is this too “young” for me? Should I give up on the skinny pants look? Here, check out another view:

black shirt and purple pants - back view — The back view of the black top.

Oh and this view is a little embarrassing, but is my butt just totally out of control? Like in a you-need-to-never-wear-them-again kind of way? And this picture totally wasn’t taken on purpose, I was in the middle of trying to show off the back of the shirt so I have lots of awkward turning-around shots. Nice, right. It’s almost like I’m a professional. Not.

Help me. Help me!! PLEASE help me! I’m thinking of getting the black shirt. Possibly the purple pants and a slight maybe on the burgundy dress… But, I also might just give up the $20 styling fee and buy nothing from this box. I still want to try another box though, so that I can give my feedback and see how the box choices change.

Feel free to use this snazzy voting tool or just leave your comments below. Thank you in advance for rocking my socks off.

By the way, this was NOT a sponsored post. I went looking for Stitch Fix, they didn’t come after me and buy my love with free clothes. My love actually can’t be bought with free clothes… well… maybe. Nobody has ever actually tried to buy my love with clothes before. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work though, unless you were Tim Gunn and you wanted to replace my entire wardrobe with your perfectly chosen items instead. *

Anyways, if you decide to click through on my special link and try them out yourself, I will receive referral rewards. Here’s my link. So thank you for anyone who chooses to click through and support my shopping addiction.

*Do any of you remember the TV show from a few years ago called “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style”? I LOVED it and wanted him to come to my house SO FREAKING BAD to fix my entire closet/life/style. Tim… call me!

Psssst…Do you love checking out what other people received in their Fixes? I added quick links to every single one of my reviews on my Stitch Fix Reviews page!

Twice IS pretty nice

First off, I want to STRESS that this is not a paid promotion or advertisement in any way. I know that I make it pretty darn clear when I am compensated in some way for doing a review or giveaway (and only give good reviews to products that I actually really like), but I get a little gushy in this post. Okay, I get a lot gushy… but it’s just because I’m super excited about this website and I think you, my awesome readers, might like it too. In fact, the company doesn’t even know that I tried their service and decided to blog about it.

Ok…let’s move on to the awesomeness.

In the past I’ve shared my seasonal switchover process of packing up all my off-season clothes to make way for the next season. I do this partially because I don’t have a lot of closet space, partially because I like the space I have to be super organized so I can actually find what I’m looking for, and partially because it makes me furious to pull out something to wear that doesn’t fit.

Wow, that’s a lot of partially.

Anywho, at the end of every summer I pack away my summery dresses and skirts and bring out my heavier sweaters and tights. I usually end up with one bag of clothes that due to various reasons ends up being donated to the thrift store so someone else can pop some tags.

In the past, I had thought about consigning some of my nicer items. However, I never really felt like dealing with the hassle of taking clothes to a consignment shop and waiting to be paid a percentage of their sale. I was creeping on My Year of Fabulous one day and a reader suggested that Holly try out Twice clothing, an online consignment store.

When I clicked around the Twice site, I saw that they would send you a FREE bag so that you can send in your brand-name clothes to be consigned. Once they receive your clothes, they check them out and make you an offer. You can accept the offer, or decline and pay $5 to have your clothes returned. The reason I liked this more than your typical consignment store is that you don’t have to wait to find out if someone buys your item to get paid; they pay you and then deal with selling your clothes.

I decided to try it out for myself and when I switched from winter to spring I came up with 7 items to consign. There was nothing really wrong with the clothes; I had just bought some larger sizes to wear when I was in the early phases of my pregnancy. Everything was in great shape and the brands were all on Twice’s approved brand list. So I gathered them up, stuck them in the bag that Twice sent me (for FREE!) and dropped them off at the post office.

Within a couple weeks, I received an email offer of $25.00 for my clothes and chose to be paid in store credit since it gave me a little extra money. I then started stalking the site on a daily basis to decide how to spend my “found” money… and came across this shirt and dress:

I placed my order and within a couple days the clothes were delivered to my house. While I LOVED the dress and wore it one night at BlogHer, the shirt wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. So I printed out a free return form, repackaged it and stuck it back in the mail. For FREE!

twice 3 — Here’s my Ann Taylor dress from Twice… I LOVED it, especially for only $24.95!

It was incredibly easy and I was really impressed at how quickly my money was refunded to my account. I’m definitely going to start including Twice when I sort through my clothes that I want to get rid of at the end of the season. While $25 doesn’t sound like a lot of money, it is nice to “find” some fun money to spend on myself. Also, I’m still donating a small bag of clothes to the thrift store… so everyone wins (and yes, I write off the donation on my taxes).

With the Fall coming so quickly, I think this is a great chance for you to try them out too. Right now they’re running a referral bonus where you can get $10 off your first purchase (for new sign ups that use my special link) AND if you decide to sell your clothes you can get an additional bonus payout of $10 in store credit. Here is my special code: liketwice.com/Ddm2y

Disclosure: I was not rewarded by Twice for reviewing their company on my blog. I reviewed their service because I feel like you guys might benefit from having an easy consignment option for getting rid of your old clothes. Or buying other people’s consigned clothes. If you decided that you want to click through on my special link, I will receive credits on my account (click here to access my special link) and you will receive money off of your order!

So what do you think, is this a company that you would use? Is there a website that you found that you’re totally in love with and gush about to all of your friends? If so, please share it in the comments!