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.

Chapter Draft Done!

OK, this is not an academic blog, but I'm so relieved to be done that I'm posting a Wordle of my chapter! I always do one of these Wordle things when I finish a chapter. Over 14,000 words, baby!

Oh, and you know what today is, right? May 4 ... Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you. (As it was with me, I suppose. Yay for being done! Though it almost burst my bubble when I realized that the last time I did one of these was YEARS ago. Yikes. But hey, I'll let it roll off my back. On to the next -- and last -- chapter ... after some rest and relaxation, that is. I need more sleep!)

xo, Gladys

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