Boston!

After my birthday trip to Boston and Boston College this past weekend, I couldn't be more sure that BC is the grad school for me! My mom and I headed up to the area Thursday and stayed in Newtown Centre with a family friend. The weather wasn't the best, but luckily the rain stayed away long enough for us to walk around the gorgeous BC campus:

 The architecture is beautiful. I wish I took more pictures of the flowers everywhere!

It was unseasonably warm, but the rain left a chill in the air, so I decided it was a good day for tights and boots.

Shirt: from Christina's, Ltd. in Watch Hill RI. XS

Belt: Forever 21, XS/S

Corduroy Skirt: American Eagle, sz. 0

Tights: Simply Vera by Vera Wang ***note: they look black, but
they're actually a dark patterned brown!**

Boots: Franco Sarto, sz. 5

Bag: Dooney & Bourke

Lucky for us, the sunny, hot weather on Friday was a big improvement from Thursday's rain. I spent my birthday walking around Boston, absorbing all the sights and sounds:

Sam Adams: Founding father, beer legacy.

A statue honoring the Irish immigrants (my ancestors among them) who sought a new start in America after being devastated by famine. There's a famine statue alongside it, but I thought this one would make for a less depressing photo.

Mmm...New England, Kennedy-kitchen style! 

The famous Boston Duck Tours...on a vehicle that drives right into the water. I went on one of these with my family as a kid. 

My mother in front of Quincy Market, a famous historical marketplace now known mostly as a good food spot for hungry tourists. I picked up some saltwater taffy.

Jack Rogers were not the best choice for walking on cobblestones- I nearly tripped twice!

We ate lunch at the Salty Dog, and had a seriously fresh-tasting seafood meal. New England clam chowder, seafood salad sandwich, and raw littleneck clams:

Yum! They taste better than they look.

As a newly turned-21 year old, I had to buy a beer of course. It would've been more exciting if I had actually gotten carded!

Inside Fanueil Hall. 

The city is full of history; everywhere you turn there's a historically significant building. I love how the city is bustling and busy without being as cold and overwhelming as Manhattan. Thankfully, it has a great public transportation system, because I definitely don't want to have to navigate by car through the disorganized streets- unfortunately, it lacks the neatly-laid out grid system of New York.

I wish I would've had more time to explore the downtown city area, but I only had a few hours before I had to return home in time for our dinner reservations. No matter- hopefully I'll be a MA resident in a year, and then I'll have all the time in the world to explore!

Your future New Englander,
*ShortBlonde*

How to stay sane (and stylish) in stressful times.

With great ambition comes great stress. If you're an overachiever like me, sometimes staying on task with the millions of things you feel you must do perfectly can make you feel, well, like this:
 

(click for photo cred)

I decided to take extra classes this semester to expand my teaching certification from grades 1-6 to birth through 6. What I didn't count on, however, is having to study for the GRE. As I've posted about before, my #1 goal at the moment is getting into Boston College (Lynch School of Ed) for grad school. What I wasn't aware of until a few weeks ago was that I had to take the harder version of the SATs GRE exam. So with the extra coursework plus the intense study sessions, my life has gotten a bit nuts. Here's what I do to keep my sanity (and style):

1.) Take mental breaks. As tempting as it is to bury yourself in work for hours, your brain will FRY and won't retain half the information it needs to. Same goes for chores: after a while you'll be doing a poor job at half the speed. Just like with exercising, I like to work in intervals. I'll read or study vocabulary intently for an hour, then I'll watch an episode of Gossip Girl. Then I'll continue working. Trying to work for several hours straight is just asking for some serious procrastination and lack of focus.

 2.) Keep your space looking pretty. If it can be pretty, why not make it pretty? Having a visually pleasing environment helps you stay relaxed.
For me, this means having a pretty agenda:


a lovely set of note paper on my desk:



And my beloved little palm plant. (Not my photo, but the same plant!)

3.) Give yourself rewards. It is much easier to deal with an overwhelming to-do list if each task has a little reward at the end. Like I mentioned before, an hour of hardcore studying earns me an episode of Gossip Girl.  A completed reading assignment may earn me a homemade cookie, and a successfully-tackled vocabulary list can be self-rewarded with the latest issue of Cosmo. And if there's an ultimate goal at the end (for me it's getting accepted into BC), always keep it in mind.

One of the additional challenges of a stressful, busy lifestyle is maintaining a sense of style. It is way too easy to pull out the sweats and forget any sort of makeup regime when there's a million more important things to do. When I look frumpy and unapproachable, however, I feel frumpy and unapproachable. Here's how I keep my style when I'm in a rush:

1.) Mascara + concealer. Brightens the eyes and hides my dark circles/redness. Two minutes and I look well-rested/revived!

2.) Button-down shirt, dark jeans, high boots, pearl earrings. Bam. Instant polish, no thought necessary.

3.) Dry shampoo. Sometimes, I'll admit, there's no time to properly wash and dry my hair. For "skip" days, I spray a bit of dry shampoo on my scalp and brush it out. No more greasy hair! I use one made by Tresemme.

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I hope to find time to continue posting on a somewhat regular basis. If you don't hear from me for week intervals, just know that I didn't fall off the planet, I've been consumed by GRE prep. Can't wait for my visit to Boston in a few weeks!

Hope your life is less stressful than mine currently is,
*ShortBlonde*

New boots! The search is over.

BOOTS: Franco Sarto Women's Rivoli Boot, sz. 5 (buy here)
Jacket: H&M, sz.2

Jeans: LOFT, sz. 00P

Scarf: Francesca's Collections

Bag: Dooney & Bourke

Yes! Despite having skinny calves, extremely picky tastes and an unpopular shoe size, I managed to find my perfect pair of boots.

The leather is soft and a lovely tan color, and a much better option than suede (my black boots are suede and ALWAYS dirty!). I love that the slight heel doesn't make the annoying "click-clack" noise that some boots make, and that there is a zipper in the back for easy pull-on/off convenience. 

Trying to find a size 5 pair of tan leather riding boots that would look decent on my skinny calves wasn't easy. Most boots have at least a 15" circumference, and my calves are a scrawny 12". Imagine my luck when I found this pair, which have a narrow 14" circumference! Not narrow enough, mind you, but narrow enough to not look ridiculous. My trick?



Leg warmers. Adding a pair of these under my boots fills out the shaft just enough to prevent the leather from bagging around my ankles, and also fills out the top part of the boot nicely. (If you have extremely scrawny ankles like I do, I recommend tucking most of the fabric down around your ankles and the tops of your feet). IMHO, I believe that using this trick is the best bet for skinny-calved ladies, and that it's not worth paying hundreds more dollars to have custom-made boots, especially after Kelly's lukewarm review of the (only?) petite-friendly boot company DuoBoots.

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I am super excited that boot season is nearly upon us- can't wait to wear these everywhere! I'm particularly looking forward to wearing them around Boston and its suburbs, which is where I'm headed in a few weeks for my 21st birthday. My mom and I will be checking out Boston College- my absolute #1 choice for graduate school- and I couldn't be more excited!



More on that soon.
*ShortBlonde*

Tired of eBay for designer consignment? Try Style.Ly

Yesterday, I came across a brand new website that allows women to buy and sell their "loved already" (or often new) clothing and accessories online without bidding and without the hassles of site commissions: style.ly!
 

Launched by former eBay executive Danny Leffel, the site describes itself as "a social buying and selling marketplace where fashionistas buy and sell new, gently used and vintage women's fashion and accessories" (check out the article about the site here on auctionbytes.com). Items are organized into "Coteries," which are either categories such as City Chic, or stores such as Ann Taylor. The site is heavily linked to Facebook (which is how I found out about it), which I like because I can find out about items recently added to my favorite coteries through facebook:



(Note: It doesn't blow up my newsfeed, either- they feature one item a day). The seller page on the site makes it seem like selling an item is quick and pain-free. However, like most consignment shops, not everything is considered "worthy enough" to sell on the site. From the words of the style.ly blog, "the style.ly team will hand-pick the items we think our buyers will MOST want to buy and we’ll include them on style.ly. This process can take up to 24-48 hours."

The site is only a few days old, so naturally there are probably many kinks to work out. From the looks of it though, this site seems like a good place to buy consignment online.

Will you check out Style.ly?

*ShortBlonde*

**Note: This review was provided entirely based on my own interest. There is no compensation/promotion from style.ly.**

PFC #10- Summer to Fall: 1 striped top, 2 seasonal outfits.

Petite Fashion Challenge #10: Take traditionally summer pieces (like tank tops, shorts, mini skirts, sundresses etc.) and make them appropriate for fall.

For this month's petite fashion challenge, I took a summery striped long tank top from Forever 21 and made it fall appropriate by adding a silk cardigan and brown belt:

Tank Top: Forever 21, XS (similar here)

Cardigan: Banana Republic, Petite XS

Belt:....no idea!

Jeans: Forever 21, 25/29

Earrings: Vintage

The cardigan is extremely light-weight (a silk blend), which makes it ideal for early fall. Its length can be a challenge to style, but its a perfect match for this long top that peeks out the bottom. I kept a neutral color palette for a classy, put-together look, giving the summery stripes a subdued autumn-friendly feel.

Since this top is usually something I would wear in the summertime, I also created a summer-appropriate outfit with a white skirt, shown below:

Tank Top: Forever 21, XS (similar here)

Skirt: J.Crew, 00
Necklace: Forever 21

In the upstate NY town that I live in, this outfit would only be appropriate for another week or so. White skirt season is ending, and boot & sweater season is just around the corner!

Thanks to Liza for hosting this month's PFC!

How do you style your summer clothes for fall?
*ShortBlonde*

The easiest clothing fix ever.

Many of us petite ladies have been there: you spy a cute sleeveless/tank top or dress you love, only to discover in the dressing room that the neckline plunges down too low for comfort. Don't be so quick to put it back on the rack! A strap adjustment is one of the easiest fixes you can make, and it makes such a difference in the way a top or dress can fit.



All you have to do is find the seam that's usually in the middle of the strap (if it isn't there, create one!), and fold the strap down evenly (see above) to create a new seam. When your done, trim the excess fabric, and voila! It's an easy, hand-sewable job that can make a huge difference in the way a top or dress fits. I'm glad it worked on my new Forever 21 striped top:



This wonderfully versatile (and inexpensive!) top will be featured in my next post, Petite Fashion 

Challenge #9: Summer to Fall.
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Classes start tomorrow for me, it's time to get into academic mode! Are any of you starting school again as well?

Staying studious (and stylish),
*ShortBlonde*

A favorite item of both petites and preps...

Judging by many posts that I've read throughout the blogosphere, there is one item I've discovered that is universally loved by petites, preps, and petite preps: J.Crew's Jackie Cardigan. I've mentioned it several times on my blog, but I decided my most recent purchase deserves its own post.


Cardigan: J.Crew Jackie Cardigan in Bavarian Blue, sz. XXS (buy other colors here)
Tank: Express, sz. XS (a great thrift find)
Pants: Gap Skinny Pant, sz. 1

Anyone who has read my blog before knows I don't like paying full price for anything. Why bother when you can almost ALWAYS get what you want for less? In this case, I had my heart set on getting a blue XXS Jackie cardigan at the J.Crew Factory Store when I was at the Tanger Outlet Mall. The Jackie cardigan I already owned was from the factory store, and I was satisfied with its quality, but I this time I wanted a new color (my old one is slate) and an XXS rather than an XS. What do I find when I get there? NO XXS at all (maybe they haven't started to make that size for the factory stores yet?) and not a single shade of blue. Such a bummer!

So instead, I looked to the internet to help. I visited the J.Crew Aficionada blog that I follow, and checked out their "Looking to Sell" weekly feature, hoping someone miraculously had the size and style cardigan I wanted. No luck. I decided to post on the "Looking to Buy" feature instead, asking for an XXS Jackie Cardigan in a shade of blue, offered for less than full price. What do you know, someone had exactly what I wanted! A lovely seller named Susan offered to sell me her Bavarian Blue cardigan from the actual store (not the factory store), new with tags for 40 bucks shipped (same as the outlet price!).



The cut of the sweater is perfect for petites. It has a short, cropped length, and flattering 3/4 sleeves. The XXS is a snug fit, but petites that are around my size may also like the XS, which fits slightly looser. It is a wonderful, classic style named for the icon of classic American style: Jackie O, of course. :)

If you haven't picked one up yet, I highly recommend that you do!!

*ShortBlonde*