More Fluevogs at Work

Happy April! I didn't get around to posting another time in March. Teaching is still kicking my butt, but I'm getting the hang of it. Some days are better than others. In the past few weeks, I've had the added stress of being observed (by the department chair, no less). The observation for the first class went really well, but I had a second one today, and let's just say it wasn't as stellar. I get massive stage fright sometimes, to the point where my brain completely blanks. And I don't know when it will strike. UGH, the things I was babbling -- well, now I wish I could shut off my brain....

Despite the stress and lack of sleep, I still manage to get dressed relatively decently and not be late for my 8am classes. Here are more teaching outfits featuring Fluevogs. I particularly love the Grace ankle boots -- they're so comfy! I wear them with skirts, dresses, and jeans because I like to put them on as much as I can. I went up a full size in them just so I could wear thick socks for maximum comfort. The Arabellas are also fantastic.

Top: Effie's Heart | Cardi: ModCloth | Jeans: Calvin Klein | Cat socks: Kohl's? Target? | Shoes: Fluevog Arabella (Integrity family)

Top: ModCloth | Jeans: a.n.a. (JC Penney) | Shoes: Fluevog Grace (also on sweet sale at Amazon)

Dress: eShakti | Leggings: Sockdreams | Shoes: Fluevog Grace (Enneagram family)

Top and skirt: Effie's Heart | Shoes: Fluevog Baskerville (GetUp family)

Top: Kohl's | Cardi: Banana Republic | Skirt: Effie's Heart | Shoes: Fluevog Grace (Enneagram family)

I'm sooooo looking forward to spring break next week. I'm not going to Cancun; I'm going to sleep! I might also get a haircut. :-)

xo, Gladys

P.S. Now that it's April, I'm dreaming of summertime. I need to get new bathing suits! I haven't gotten a new suit in a few years. I looked at ModCloth's selection -- they have a lot in my size -- but they don't look like they'd fit me well. I'm getting old, ha! I think I might try Land's End this year. The idea of tummy control is so soothing to me.

Fluevog Outfits Working It

Work is kicking my butt! I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I'd start teaching at the local community college in February. Well, it's been four weeks since my start date, and here's what I've figured out so far:

• Class prep for three completely-new classes is ROUGH.
• Navigating a new campus, especially at a college level that's different than where I went as an undergrad and grad myself, is also rough.
• Nevertheless, I still enjoy meeting the students and learning about their lives.
• This is my first time teaching lower-division courses, and I have to recognize and accept that not everyone is going to do well, no matter what I do.
• The students who are doing well, however, make me really happy.

One personal perk of doing this job is that I get to dress up a little. I gave away a significant chunk of my closet in January and February -- in part because I gained weight last year and couldn't fit a lot of my clothes anymore -- and then I bought other clothes that fit me better and were more appropriate for work. So far, I've been loving Effie's Heart clothing; their jersey stretch fabrics are forgiving and flattering but also come in some wonderful patterns. I have a few items from eShakti but the fit and fabric have been iffy, and while some are gorgeous, they're not especially appropriate for work (or at least I'm not comfortable yet with wearing the fit-and-flare/pinup style dresses and tops that I bought, even with a sensible cardigan). They've got some really nice items this season, however, so I might give them another try.

And of course, I've been wearing my Fluevogs to work! (Yay, they're finally getting more circulation outside my closet!) Here are some photos from the past month:

FIRST DAY OF SCOOL: Dress with fabric belt: Effie's Heart | Cardigan: Banana Republic | Shoes: Fluevog Qtee (Mini family)

Top: ModCloth | Belt: consignment store | Skirt: Effie's Heart | Shoes: Fluevog Barkerville (GetUp family)

Cardigan: Banana Republic | Tee (not shown): Doctor Who shirt via TeeFury :-) | Bracelet: handmade from this fabulous Etsy shop | Skirt: Effie's Heart | Shoes: Fluevog Barkerville (GetUp family)

ON A REALLY COLD DAY: Top and cardigan: ModCloth | Jeans: JC Penney | Boots: Fluevog Stella (LoFs family)

Skirt: Effie's Heart | Tights: Foot Traffic | Shoes: Fluevog Masarek (Mini family)

Dress: Effie's Heart | Tights: via Sock Dreams | Boots: Fluevog PRI (Radio family)

I've worn more outfits than these, of course, but these were the ones that worked. The others are not shown for a reason! It's been a learning experience for me in more ways than one. :-)

Wish me luck on the rest of the semester, although I hope I'll be able to post again before June!

xo, Gladys

Fluevog Visit

Yesterday I visited the Fluevog store in L.A. with dear friends Joanne, Mae, and Cheryl to try on the new Spring line ... and the new styles did not disappoint! It's especially fun this year. And there's a new shoe style called Gladice (the French version of my name) that I think is awesome, cute and striking with a kitten heel! I'll post a pic of the shoes here sometime. Here's a pic of me trying on a different but also cute pair of shoes:

Dress: Effie's Heart | Cardi: Banana Republic | Belt: unknown | Shoes: Fluevog Sam (KKBB family)

Btw, there are still some amazing shoes from last season on sale. (I visited with Mae in early January.) It's totally worth checking them out at the same time as the new line. Get 'em before they're gone!

xo, Gladys

Holidaze 2014

Hello there. :-) Happy holiday season. I wanted to make sure I posted one more time in 2014. Here's my Xmas day outfit, a couple of new favorite items in my closet.

Dress: Effie's Heart | Shoes: Fluevog Liz via Raspberry Heels

The fabric of this lovely Effie's Heart dress is stretch knit and drapes wonderfully. I love how well-made it is. Plus pockets!

I love these shoes. They're a limited-edition colorway that was only available at a store in Poland called Raspberry Heels.

I know it's been a loooooong time since I last wrote something here. It's been a busy fall since I finished up school. Besides volunteering at my son's school and weekly yoga, I attempted NaNoWriMo in November and I interviewed to do adjunct teaching at the local community college -- I start in February! I'll be teaching three comp courses and am putting together the syllabi now.

My siblings and siblings-in-law had an "ugly sweater" theme. Can't really see mine, but it's a Doctor Who sweater from TeeFury.

The holidays have been more relaxed for us this year, which has been nice. Because frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm proud of all that I've accomplished this year, but it's been difficult in many ways, as anyone who's read or seen the news since the summer knows. I'm wishing you all a more peaceful, sane, just, compassionate, and happy new year.

xo, Gladys

It's Happening

Having a blast with my funny boy during a hike at Yellowstone National Park in June

I drove half the day to my university yesterday. I'm here on a mission: to get my committee's approval signatures for the dissertation and submit all paperwork to the graduate office. So far, two signatures down, two to go! I had a lovely long chat with one co-chair over coffee yesterday. Though I don't expect to go into academia, she suggested that I think about turning it into a book manuscript and publishing it at an academic press somewhere, and then offered some leads. (My reaction: Wow! Really?) Anyway, hopefully everything will be done by Tuesday. Cross your fingers that it all works out. It's still sinking in that I'm almost done. I'm really going to be a "Doctor" soon. Whoa....

Random but here are bonus photos of my outfit for a 1950s theme birthday party from all the way back in May. Man, I have been neglecting this blog.

Dress: Emily and Fin via ModCloth | Socks: Gold Toe (for girls) | Shoes: Fluevog Danielson

The shoes are Fluevog of course (I showed them off on the blog last year), and the dress is from ModCloth. Of course. When I find a winning combo, I tend to repeat it over and over. :-)

xo, Gladys

ModCloth Uniquely You: London Summer

London Summer by gladysn featuring oxford shoes

Today I'm excited to share my style board for ModCloth's Uniquely You Campaign! When ModStylist Amy contacted me about their campaign, I was thrilled but also a little nervous. I hadn't put together a style board in loooooong time. But seriously, I shouldn't have been anxious in any way. It's crazy fun to put together outfits especially when you've got the whole of their collection to choose from. And I definitely could have made boards for many of their other dresses, like this one or this one or this one or this one ... there are plenty more on my Wishlist over there. (You all know how much I love ModCloth, right?? Half my wardrobe comes from them!)

But I have to say, given my current obsession with blue and my forever-love of green, this particular dress, Work to Play, was perfect for me. The mint green and navy combo on this dress is killer. I was thinking about where I'd love to wear it this season when all of a sudden, I had an image of me on a gorgeous summer day in London, taking in the sights and having some tea and scones in the afternoon. It's a total fantasy, of course; I've never been to London. But 1) visiting there has been on my bucket list forever (English major in the house) and 2) I've been watching Sherlock over and over and although I know they actually shoot it in Wales, the show tricks me into thinking about London. Haha!

I know there are two pairs of shoes up there, but I couldn't resist giving myself a couple of options (I'd definitely have at least two pairs of shoes in my luggage). The dress is called Work to Play, after all. Both styles would be super cute with the dress, maybe one for walking around town and the other for a nice dinner out. Then of course I had to include the dainty mint purse and adorable owl pocketbook, just to play up that Peter Pan collar. And given that it's London weather, I added the cardigan and the umbrella, for the just-in-case. Et voila, the London Summer style board was born!

This was lots of fun. Thanks for asking me to take part in the campaign, ModCloth and Amy!

xo, Gladys

P.S. Fantastic image of London borrowed from Hull Trains in the UK. Also, I wasn't compensated for taking part in this campaign.

Birthday Fun at the Huntington

So, I'm still struggling to finish the same dissertation chapter I talked about last time. But I'm getting so grumpy from lack of sleep that I thought I'd take a break to post here and fondly remember some recent events. My dear friend M and I had a ladies day out last weekend to celebrate my birthday. We went to the gorgeous Huntington Library and Gardens and of course we dressed up. It turned out to be perfect weather, and really the whole day and evening were fantastic. What a gift.

Dress and sash: Tulle via Modcloth | Cardi: Banana Republic | Leggings: ? | Shoes: Fluevog Erika (different colorways available)
M is also wearing a Modcloth/Fluevog combo. Her boots (compliment-magnets, I tell you) are still available (Bartoli in red).

My dress without cardi or sash

With cardi but no sash

Trying for fierce expressions

Closeup of my new glasses. This is my usual expression when I look at people/cameras.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Huntington, as expected. We loved walking around the place in our pretty dresses and even better-looking and comfy shoes. Our favorite thing was seeing the mind-blowing Archimedes manuscript exhibit. Archivists and restorers are hardcore. Seriously.

Of course we had to eat somewhere special, so we went to the famous soup dumpling restaurant, Din Tai Fung, in Arcadia, just a few miles away from the Huntington. If you've never been and you love delicious fresh Chinese food and you live in SoCal or are visiting, I highly recommend it.

Then of course we got dessert, despite being already stuffed. These were from J.J.'s in the same plaza as the restaurant.

Then, what do you know, in the same plaza we found a cute little clothing store. Their markups were unfortunately too much. We tried on a couple of things anyway, including these adorable rompers that caught our eye from the window. They're certainly well-made and of good fabric, but much too expensive (at least for us -- does $140 for a romper sound reasonable to you?).

Special thanks to dear M for making my birthday special this year! Oh, and thanks also for drawing this for me:

Can you guess who it is? Ah, she knows me so well. Hee hee! #Cumberfangirl

xo, Gladys

Pretty, New Glasses

I've been meaning to post for a couple of weeks now, but I'm seriously way past a deadline. Trying super hard to finish a dissertation chapter in time to get it to my advisers before the end of the spring semester. I'm thisclose yet still have more to do. I'm only close to finishing because I have pulled back from my workout schedule the past few weeks -- I bruised a rib on my left side (probably from coughing due to allergies, yikes!! and ouch!!) so I've had to take it easy and just stay home. Sad to have missed yoga for two weeks! Anyway, I also managed to deny myself the pleasure of blogging (but not unfortunately the procrastinative pleasure of following Benedict Cumberbatch via his fans on Twitter and Tumblr, argh) just so I could keep working on the chapter. I hope to be done in the next couple of days. Oh please oh please.

Anyway, I'll have to be brief here. Just a few photos featuring my gorgeous new glasses (Tiffany & Co!) to which I treated myself for my birthday this month. They're navy, and they have bling. I haven't had new frames in almost six years so I was way overdue. And yeah, I splurged. I didn't buy these because of the brand, but because they turned out to be the most flattering for my face shape. Of the eight pairs of blue frames I tried on (yes, they HAD to be blue), I thought these looked the best on me. Received compliments from the get-go. My SIL says she likes them because they show off more of my face, particularly my eyes. (And yeah, looking at recent photos with my old glasses, my eyes do look a little smaller, or like my face is obstructed by the old frames.)

Here's a closeup. Aren't they pretty!

Dress: Ya Los Angeles via ModCloth | Sweater: Urban Outfitters | Tights: Foot Traffic via Sockdreams | Shoes: Fluevog Jen via Amazon

This is a terrible photo taken of an outfit that was actually much cuter in person. Wore it for two parties one Saturday earlier this month. I was inspired to put it together because of the color of my glasses. But the lighting was bad at the time (sun too bright) so you can't see much detail, including how utterly adorable the shoes are!, and my hair was messed up completely by the wind (wind is the enemy here in the high desert).

Here's a better photo of me with calm hair and wearing my new glasses, at my family birthday lunch. Also, I love this photo with me and my guys; we don't get to do a lot of family photos, just the three of us. Thanks to my brother for taking the pic.

xo, Gladys

Super Liz on a Night out

So, hi there. Yes, I'm still around. (A theme seems to be emerging around here ... hopefully it won't continue.) I almost can't believe that the last time I posted was in late January, but to be fair it's been a busy couple of months. There were lots of birthday parties to attend, including my son's 6th birthday for which we threw two parties (one was just for family), and almost every weekend since the start of February has been taken up. I'm still volunteering at my son's kindergarten class; I've added to my weekly workout schedule -- one hour of yoga, one hour walking, and at least an hour of Zumba; also, and this is big, I'm back to working on my dissertation, yay!

Sure, I've been on the computer and online as per my usual, but the only thing I can think of that happened back in January that may have had something to do with the last two months of radio silence here was the airing of Sherlock's Season 3 on PBS -- after which I became slightly obsessed with the show and the actor who plays Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch. I'd been a fan of the show since I saw the first two seasons on Netflix in late 2012 or early 2013. But then Star Trek into Darkness happened. And, um, this, this, and this. Also, his voice should be illegal, especially when it's speaking poetry or narrating over the purrs of Jaguar engines. But what really clinched it was watching his interviews on YouTube (try 1, 2, 3, 4), and I loved this really long interview that's not on YouTube. I have had crushes on the smartest boys in class since I was a little kid, and that man is intelligent and eloquent as all get out, even in silly interviews. He's also wonderfully humble. Then he tempers the effect with some goofiness here and there so you know he's just a smart, normal guy with nerdy tendencies. Come on, I'm sapiosexual. So maybe you can understand why I've spent whatever time online I have on that? As I can attest, it's the perfect way to procrastinate! :-)

BUT ANYWAY. Hope you're having a happy spring so far! I thought I'd break my radio silence by posting a recent "photo shoot" of me dressed up for a ladies' night out.

Top: Vivace via Amazon | Jeans: Ann Taylor LOFT | Shoes: Fluevog Liz (Kitschy Kitschy Boom Boom family)

I'm trying something new, posing like this. I want to branch out from my usual tilted-head, hand-on-hip, and big-smile poses, which I have to admit works most of the time (and yeah, see below). I thought I'd do something superhero-ish for a bit -- Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Storm, take your pick. The extra two inches from these delicious heels made my legs look a tad more lithe and long, if I do say so myself, and I thought that deserved a superhero pose. Super Liz! Love them.

Comfy and beautiful Liz heels. Great for dancing; I just wish we had better clubs in this town! Or at least clubs where my friends and I didn't feel too old, and grossed out by some of the things people do when they're drunk and, um, libidinous. My friends and I are now determined to have some summer nights of dancing together to our favorite music. E is planning to rent a dance floor for some family parties, so we'll have at least a couple of weekends to make it happen.

On E: Top: DKNY | Jeans: via Sears | Shoes: Fluevog Luxon (Hopeful family)

And here is beautiful E with her princess hair, looking smoking hot in this fun outfit. She continues her quest for health and fitness and is, as you can see, succeeding extraordinarily. :-) Here's to more fun outings. (And I promise to post on them later.)

xo, Gladys

Christmas, Doctor Who Edition 2013

Do our outfits remind you of something, or maybe someone?

That's right! My sisters and I dressed as three different Doctors. From the left, my older sister is dressed as #10 (David Tennant, probably my favorite Doctor), my younger sister is dressed as #11 (Matt Smith, her favorite), and I am dressed as #9 (Christopher Eccleston, the fantastic one-season wonder who is my second favorite).

In contrast to our (sorta) ass-kicking faces above, here we are channeling the goofy and fun aspect of the Doctor:

ON ME: Suede jacket: Ann Taylor LOFT (from many years ago) | Top: GAP | Jeans: Gloria Vanderbilt via Costco (!) | Shoes: Fluevog Qtee via Amazon

It made me happy that we all managed to get into some kind of costume. I think the casualness of our interpretations was perfect for the holidays (it wasn't Halloween or a Comic Con, after all) ... although I wish I'd worn boots rather than my admittedly-gorgeous but still-not-appropriate Mini Qtees, at least for the pic.

Anyway, here are some of my other favorite photos of the day, with lots of kiddos, yummy food, and a last look at our growing family.

Happy New Year's Eve! If you'd like some inspiration on making your New Year's resolutions, here are a few articles and video that I enjoyed:

• "Here's The Science You Can't Not Know Before Making That Ambitious New Year's Resolution" via Upworthy
• "How to Actually be Successful in Achieving Your 2014 Goals" via Good
• and "The Most Important Thing You Can Do In The New Year To Lose Weight, Get Sharper And Live Longer" via HuffPost

All thought-provoking. The takeaways? Let's make our resolutions specifically for the New Year in order to harness the power of optimism on this occasion. Instead of roaring out of the gate and being immediate-results-oriented, we should start with small steps to build strong, identity-based habits that will last throughout the year. (We won't burn out so quickly that way.) Finally? Get more sleep!

And with that, I bid farewell to the good and the bad of 2013, and look forward to a wonderful start to 2014! I wish you the same! See you in this space next year. :-)

xo, Gladys