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Life of Colleen: October 2010
J.Crew Cord pencil skirt review
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
at 8:01 PM (Pacific)
Top: Eddie Bauer black turtleneck
Cardigan: J.Crew Jackie in Wild Mushroom
Pendant: Red glass, made by my daughter :)
Skirt: J.Crew Cord pencil skirt in Golden Wood
Shoes: Cydwoq Recess
 J.Crew Cord pencil skirt in Golden Wood
I caved and got this, when 'Crew had their 30% off sale items coupon. Even though 'Crew moved this shade from the sale to the regular-priced section, right in the middle of the sale. hmph
I couldn't wait to try it, so wore it today. Hmmm...it's not lined, which would have been a nice touch, but then its regular price is pretty reasonable. And the material is lovely, soft and fine-waled—not as sublimely so as my red cord skirt, where you can hardly see the wales—but sufficiently so the skirt looks more formal than a regular ol' corduroy skirt would.
It was a bit trippy walking in it, as it's more pencil-shaped than any other skirt I own, but it was fun (though I ignored my own advice—"When in doubt, wear the slip, you can always take it off and stash it in your bag"). Worn with tights, I wouldn't have had a choice; it would have been un-walkable without a slip.
The color is why I bought it. On offer was Shadow, which I'd gotten all wrong (see how nice it looks on Shopping with M), and Rich Brown, which was the dark brown color I'd normally have bought.
But I feel rather strongly that wardrobe items have their own, ah, gestalt of sorts. When you see it, you know it's right for you. One handy aspect of taking outfit of the day pics, is you can scroll through them later on when you want to buy something, and get an idea whether the potential new item would work with the pieces you already own.
Cord pencil skirt fits "true to J.Crew skirt size"; mine's an 8. I line-dry stuff like this, otherwise I'd consider going up a size, even though this one is pretty relaxed-fitting.Labels: cydwoq, eddie bauer, indie, jcrew, jewelry, ootd, product reviews, work wardrobe
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So, ladies, how was your weekend?
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Sunday, October 24, 2010
at 9:48 PM (Pacific)
Hope it was stellar.
Mine was actually pretty good, despite endless drizzle. I lived in the Seattle Puget Sound area for a while, and this weather now makes me oddly cheery (it didn't when I lived there). Chill rain, fog and gloom have a way of simplifying your life, and turning everything indoors cozy.
Time for some idle J.Crew perusal...
 J.Crew Cashmere Keyhole Sweater in Bronzed Olive
Isn't this cute? I don't like the color shown (the other three seem prettier), but the back tie is adorable.
I wish J.Crew would offer machine-washable wool items. Can the technology be that difficult? how come Boden has them? If I have to fork over to dryclean something, I factor that into the cost of the item. I'm already considering paying Boden prices—okay, I have a coupon, but they're spendy even with one—if it means I won't have to worry about the darn thing shrinking. Just saying.
 J.Crew Tissue silk drape tee in Dark Charcoal
This looks interesting though I'm not sure I like it. The front panel is silk, but the sleeves and back are tissue-weight cotton. It seems like something you'd wear to work with a cardigan or jacket, so only the silk part shows :D but who's to say? Would it be useful as both a casual and a business-casual shirt?Labels: jcrew, maintenance, wardrobe
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End of another fabulous week!
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Friday, October 22, 2010
at 8:47 PM (Pacific)
Well I had to title this post, and it was actually pretty fab.
Monday's OOTD: Something similar to respect the shoes' Tuesday: a swath of strong color over a neutral base. Only instead of the pretty wine-colored sweater, I had a fitted "cloth suede" shirt in a 1970's rust shade, over a cream turtleneck (J.Crew tissue turtleneck in Champagne), black skirt and black Cydwoq boots.
Tuesday: I thought we were going to the CIO's meeting, so I dressed up some with this necklace:
I've got to take a better picture of it?, something similar to this:
only with a J.Crew Jackie shell in Pearl:
and the Cydwoq shoes here:
We ended up watching it on a webcast.
Wednesday: I wore my nun suit. :D I should explain, though I work in a male-dominated field, my department is heavily female-dominated. I could walk into the office wearing a flour sack and I doubt anyone would notice. Further, my co-worker is used to me; he would look up and say, "Did you update the tables yet? Yeah? Great."
But if I go outside my office, I tend to go more conservative especially in my field. Hence it was the cotton knit skirt, black stockings and shoes here:
with a baggy-ish sweater (it's really neat, sort of a cream with a greyish greenish cast). I think it came out well.
Thursday: ah, here I really wish I had a pic. I had to demo my software (and there is no better way to debug it than to show it in front of a bunch of people? if you've overlooked anything, it's sure to jump out) but to my own department.
So it was either, business and casual got together and had a great relationship, or business and casual got together and produced a demon child... I had my conservative grey skirt and Jackie cardigan here:
but with a more casual shirt. Oh well, I liked the color (strong lavender, actually it was a man's polo shirt from Banana Republic, but a nice one).
Friday: hmmm...I went out to lunch with my co-worker. It's important to take your programmer out to lunch, otherwise he ends up fused to his desk for months.
It was raining a bit today, so I wore my black suede rain boots (Canadian), this skirt and sweater:
with a J.Crew tissue turtleneck (dark grey).Labels: cydwoq, indie, jcrew, jewelry, wardrobe
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Awww...
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Saturday, October 16, 2010
at 12:16 PM (Pacific)
 J.Crew Plaid Sundrine flannel shirtdress
Am I too old to wear this? I hope not. It would be longer on me, and zooming in reveals a red, rather than dark pink, color.
There are two other Sundrines: one's wool (to die for, but must dryclean), the other gingham (nice, but light blue? black and white would've been better).
That's all on my current 'Crew drool list. I'm looking at Boden, actually, over 'Crew, because I'll need to replace my wool cardigans pretty soon, and Boden makes machine washable ones.
I've been procrastinating replacing the sweaters—they're easily twenty years old, but one of them is this ambery cherry red color? I can't find it anywhere. Every time I wear it, someone is sure to comment that this color cannot be found anywhere! It's literally falling to pieces; I have to mend it every time I wash it.
Boden doesn't have it either, but they seem to roll out new products every month or so, so I'm still optimistic.Labels: jcrew, wardrobe
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Seagoon: Well, these earplugs seem to be all right. How much do you want for them?*
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Thursday, October 14, 2010
at 8:59 PM (Pacific)
Cardigan: J.Crew Jackie in Pearl
Top: Banana Republic
Skirt: J.Jill
Shoes: Cole Haan
Earrings: made by me even though you can't see them (grey pearl with a little faceted slice of aquamarine)
This is as close to a monkey suit as it normally gets. We had a honchos meeting today, it was still a bit on the hot side, so I opted for the same Banana Republic top I've been pimping (since 2008 apparently):
I wear a camisole under it, but that doesn't detract from the lovely lace design (it's quite a bit prettier in real life).
What am I doing at work? Something interesting, spliced with the usual breakneck stuff-as-many-programs-before-February-as-possible...it's like that every year. There's no other way to do it, because when we're open in summer, that's all we do, and we can't upgrade stuff while it's being used. After we close, we fix the stuff we wanted to fix during the summer. Actually it's gotten a bit worse because of the recession—we can't hire extra seasonal help, so our programs have to target whoever is being sandbagged the most.
I was pleased with the honchos meeting though, in the sense of walking away with only four things to do. That means my programs are working. The four things...one could be potentially grueling though I suspect it involves a single giant file. shrugs One is less grueling but more exacting, since it has to work perfectly to avoid a deluge of international student visa-related complaints (most of which would fall on a different department). The remaining two should be reasonably simple, and just need to be done well.
* Grytpype-Thynne: 100 pounds.
Seagoon: How much do you want for them?
Grytpype-Thynne: 100- Aha. Take your earplugs out.
Seagoon: Why don't you answer? I asked you, how much do you want for them?
Grytpype-Thynne: 100 pounds!
Seagoon: That's funny. I can't hear him.
Grytpype-Thynne: They cost 100- Look, take out the earplugs.
Seagoon: Stop all that silly miming, man! How much?
Grytpype-Thynne: 100 pounds!
Seagoon: I've had enough of this, Bloodnok. He obviously doesn't want to do business. Come on, get out, get out! Get out! You steaming English idiot.
Grytpype-Thynne: No, no, no! Look here-
[door slams]
Seagoon: 100 pounds for earplugs we can hear through? Ha, ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha! Not likely!Labels: banana republic, comedy, jcrew, jjill, ootd, work wardrobe
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No man can tell them what to do...
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
at 8:30 PM (Pacific)
Pound for pound, they say they're ruder than you... It's too hot.
Top: J.Crew Jackie shell in Pearl
Skirt: J.Jill
Off-white micronet stockings
Shoes: Cydwoq Category
Glass pendant: gifted:
I've found the Jackie shells fare pretty well in upper 80's dry heat. Not sure why; seems they'd feel heavy, but they don't. The skirt is linen, lessee...I'll get a better shot of the pendant some day, but it's just the thing for this weather: blue waves.Labels: cydwoq, jcrew, jewelry, jjill, ootd, work wardrobe
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Update on "cornstarch removing ancient old stain in clothing"
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Sunday, October 10, 2010
at 6:34 PM (Pacific)
I tried this a while ago and actually managed to forget about the whole thing. The only way for a shirt with cornstarch on it to survive intact around here, is if it's tucked away in a place where no one ever sees it.
I dusted it off today...hm. The little piles of cornstarch came off readily, but a bit of starch still clung to the two stains. (No! this is not my slobbiness...but I do want the shirt back, so...)
I washed the item and examined it closely. The stains were reduced by about one-half, in my estimation, almost good enough to wear. I'm trying a second round of cornstarch tonight.Labels: clothing care, wardrobe
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Marilyn: I wish they'd pass a law like that for me.*
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Friday, October 8, 2010
at 8:40 PM (Pacific)
Shirt: J.Crew Herringbone boy shirt
Cardigan: J.Crew Jackie in Dark Charcoal (also worn here)
Skirt: gifted (also worn here)
Boots: Cydwoq Extreme (also worn here)
Earrings: made by me:
I had a "crewpon" burning a hole in my pocket—no, not a coveted "JCA" crewpon, I am considerably lazier than actual J.Crew bloggers; still, it was a nice discount. I thought I would indulge myself in this fabulous shirt.
I had been perishing to integrate plaid into a female work wardrobe, knowing it would be a bit tricky making it look formal enough. You'll note 'Crew paired their ladies' plaid shirts with sequin-encrusted pants and mini-skirts—not as awful as it sounds—but gear like that is out of the question for me. I ended up going for a trusty Jackie, denim skirt, and mid-calf boots. (Did I mention mid-calf is ideal for our mid-warm weather?)
The grade report is in production; I've finished my part of this phase of the code port, except for a nagging file serve issue. It works in Firefox, of course, and it works in dev in Firefox and IE. You want to use it in production in IE...do you really? Can't you just use it in dev? :D It's harder testing in this environment, otherwise I think it's a fairly trivial header issue.
* Sorry...Truman Capote isn't even my favorite writer.Labels: cydwoq, indie, jcrew, jewelry, ootd, work wardrobe
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Mmm?
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Thursday, October 7, 2010
at 8:54 PM (Pacific)
Recently, I visited the shiny happy clothing crackhouse J.Crew b & m store. The Cord Pencil Skirts are catalogue/online only, but I figured the cord pants are in some of the same colors, right? How 'bout checking out the pants?
Initially I'd come to see this beautiful blue-grey baby:
 J.Crew Cord Pencil Skirt in Shadow
...but Shadow, irl, seemed more a drab version of purple than a snappy storm-blue.
The dark brown one, eh, I didn't bother. I already have a dark brown skirt.
J.Crew Cord Pencil Skirt in Golden Wood
Now the golden brown one was surprisingly good. It looks light and kinda useless here, but in person it's darker. This I could be tempted to buy.
Or...? The sole corduroy skirt I own is this red one:
...and I'll have to say, the material is beautiful. It's this super fine-waled cord, and the skirt has little side slits, giving it a sort of cheongsam effect. Mmmm...haven't decided yet.
I've pretty much finished the grade report program, after slaving away at it all day. I ended up cobbling together an old Lasso load program, an old temporary table I had left on the server, and some new PHP code. PHP is noticeably faster than Lasso, which makes sense, since the Lasso guys have all these pre-written functions, which do make your life easier, but entail more overhead. That's why I'd suspected it would be faster to write new PHP code than try making the old Lasso code work with our new system.Labels: jcrew, wardrobe
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The light was leaving.
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
at 7:08 PM (Pacific)
She seemed to fade with it, blend with the sky and clouds, recede beyond them. I wanted to lift my voice louder than the seagulls' cries and call her back: Marilyn!
Okay, that was hella cheesy, but the story was on my mind, the light was actually kind of fading, and it's far easier to work that into a post than what I've wanted to quote for weeks:
That's a photograph of Norman Mailer. He was a very great writer; he, uh, donated his ego to the Harvard Medical School for study.
*g*
Cardigan: Sundance Catalog
Top: J.Crew Jackie Shell in Pearl
Vest: Banana Republic
Skirt: Velvet by Graham and Spencer
Shoes: Cole Haan
So...I have this atrocious Lasso code I wrote, for our annual grade reports. I'd slapped it together in a hurry, tried to reform it the following year, and now it's that time of year again.
A. Do I do the fun thing, which would be to render it into spiffy PHP? That would make it easier to integrate the grade report into our new back end later on.
B. Do I do the dreary thing, which would be to figure out what the Lasso code was doing in the first place, run the grade report through, and worry about converting it to PHP later?
I'm leaning toward A, actually, if only because I suspect it would be faster to produce (I used the old Lasso load program for the data already).Labels: banana republic, jcrew, ootd, sundance catalog, velvet by graham and spencer, work wardrobe
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Random wardrobe meanderings part 24
posted by Colleen Shirazi
on
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
at 6:50 PM (Pacific)
I'm totally craving this. It's supposed to be similar to clear nail polish, in that, if you have a hole in your stocking, you brush this on it. But! it won't stick to your skin, it won't dry hard, and you can even use it proactively on high-stress areas of stocking to prevent runs.
The only bugger here is it doesn't seem widely available—the only obvious place I found was the RunFree site itself: http://www.runfree.comLabels: wardrobe
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