Cooler Coverings - Fall Fashions

Hello Friends!

This week has continued to be yet another crazy one.  I've been to doctor's visits and getting things done with Bryan while he's around.  And hopefully I'll be able to schedule a follow up for some of the tests next week too.  In any case I've been having trouble with my keyboard that's led me to several house of troubleshooting and very complicated systems of trying to work around it as I've written posts and anything else typed online.  I finally found that a separate keyboard fixes the problem, even though it's super awkward since I don't own a Mac keyboard.  My computer is apparently warped enough that the keyboard is having severe problems, and the trackpad is starting to as well.  At this point my laptop is over 6 years old, so it's done well to get this far, but another fix is probably too costly since it's almost to the point of being outdated technology.  (I had to stop updating my OS a couple years ago since if I moved to the next version I wouldn't be able to use Photoshop.  Of course now it's harder to do all the beautiful things I'd like to do with the tools I can find for Photoshop because they're all meant to use with newer editions, and I'm still running Creative Suite 3.)  But on to more fun subjects.

Poshmark

On another note I am loving selling on Poshmark!  I started selling most of my clothes that didn't make the cut for my capsules there.  I haven't even finished listing everything yet and have already had 7 sales totaling around $90.  If you haven't tried it yet go for it, and have a $10 off coupon on me by using my code to sign up - PYIHF at www.Poshmark.com and then just download the app.  You can buy on the site using any device, but selling and the $10 for signing up is only available by downloading the app.

Fall Fashions

Transitioning to Cooler Coverings

Fall is here in full force and North Carolina is finally nice and cool most days.  I woke up this past Sunday morning to frost covered grass and chickadees pecking at our backyard feeder.  I'm finally having to break out my jacket a couple times a week and we tested out our new home's heater too.  In terms of fashions I'm experimenting more to make the summery portions of my fall capsule wardrobe keep me warmer.  Here are some examples:

With this outfit I decided it was time to start pairing some of my fun tees with skirts.  this outfit is comprised of my Switchfoot shirt, bag from Target, skirt from Torrid, leggings from Target, and boots from Hushpuppies/Trendsetter.

 

For Halloween I wore this Doctor Who, 9th doctor inspired outfit.  Dress from Her Universe, bag from Amazon◊, leggings from ModCloth◊, boots from Hushpuppies/Trendsetter.

I'm really excited to get to reading our picks from Fight or Flight's Halloween sale.  And Miles Morales Spiderman is a new one for me, which so far I'm enjoying a lot!

I know I don't show my makeup looks often, because I don't wear as much.  But I have fun playing around with it and a couple weeks ago I donned a bit to go on a double date night with Bryan's parents.  I used Boe eyeshadow in Fun House, Face Stolkholm's Jeanann eyeliner, Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara, and Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Venizia.

This date night outfit is the Paige dress from Cherry Velvet, leggings from Target, and boots from Hushpuppies/Trendsetter.

Another thing I've been experimenting with is styling my dresses.  In this shot I paired my LuLaRoe "Nicole" dress (I'm hosting a LuLaRoe online party for the next 24 hours if any of you readers want to catch a sale with me! You can find it on Facebook here.) with my sweater from Target, plus leggings from Target, and flats from Payless/American Eagle.

I also threw in some Julep nail polish by using the color "Darby" with this outfit, well technically I'd been wearing it for 6 days before this picture was taken.  It just lasts so well!  As always you can try a free box from my affiliates at Julep by checking them out here:

I've been breaking out my jacket from Maurice's, and wore it with a top from Old Navy, skinny jeans from Torrid, and flats from Torrid.

And finally my last outfit I'll be sharing from my fall capsule includes the jacket from Maurice's, top from Target, zip ankle jeans from Torrid, and flats from Torrid.

This fall capsule has gone well, better than I thought it would when I was panicking that first week about how to style things.  Now I'm thinking ahead to winter and the next capsule.  However I'm going to be doing a mini capsule for December as I adjust when my seasons change.  I've found that grouping the months of October-December would have been a better choice with less need for both summer and winter items.  So next year my capsules will run from January-March, April-June, July-September, and October-December.  I'll tall you more about what I'm planning for December in my next fashion post around December 4th.  I'll be taking a break from writing next Friday for the holiday and so I can focus on filling orders from my Etsy art shop at http://LydiasDesigns.etsy.com where you can find art like that in this picture below:

I'll see you all Monday!

Love,
Lydia

Thred Up VS Poshmark + A Julep Giveaway!

Hi friends!

Today I'm finally getting to my comparison review of Poshmark and Thred Up.  Both are excellent sites to sell your new and gently used clothing, shoes, and on Poshmark accessories and makeup too.  So, let's take a look!

Thred Up

Buying from Thred up

Pros: 

1. Good sized inventory for most sizes
2. Quick turnover, especially in plus sizes
3. Pretty fast delivery since your order comes straight from their warehouse
4. Items have little or no signs of use (supposedly, for what it's worth I bought a dress that had a rip in it which got past their inspectors)
5. Free returns within 2 weeks of receiving your order
6. You can get $20 in credit (no strings attached! You receive it in your account as soon as your friend makes their first order of any amount.) for each person you refer, and they get $20 too.  Here is my link - http://www.thredup.com/r/A6CEKT

Cons:

1. Very little plus size selection over a size 18, there are typically 200 or less items in my size (20-24)
2. Some fantastic brands are not accepted by their site - City Chic, Aeropostale, American Apparel, many department store brands from stores like Belk, JC Penney, Kohls, etc, and other less known or foreign brands.
3. People can hoard items by putting items in their cart for 24 hours, and repeating before time is up (I've found leaving a browser window with the first page of your size open and hitting reload every 10-15 minutes in the evening will show new items often)
4. Items may be missing belts or other accessories, always noted.
5. It can take 3 weeks or more to process a return
6. They're desperate enough for plus sizes they tend to have a good number of items that aren't on trend from brands targeted to more mature women simply because they're nice quality. (example below, hello dated seasonal applique!)
7. The site has sales on items only when they've been in their stock longer than they'd like, which I have never seen happen with any plus size items because the demand is so great.

My buying experience:

I bought 4 items between the credit I had from a friend, the $5 payout and spend $11 out of pocket for the remaining amount.  Of the 4 items two were too big, one was surprisingly too small, and one item fit beautifully, but had a rip at the waist.  I loved the ripped item enough to keep and repair, though I was surprised that it got past their inspections.  The other items were pristine though!  I think in most cases you will not run into this issue, so I will be buying from them again.

This is what I ordered, the green dress was the item kept, the boots were too small in the calf, but gave no measurement so I was ordering blind and assuming Lane Bryant would have reasonably wide calf boots.  The tiny flaws listed on two of the items were marks that would come out in the wash or very light signs of wear.

Selling on Thred Up

Pros:

1. They do the work for you - you get a postage paid bag sent to you, which you fill and send back.
2. It takes very little time.
3. You can get cash (through Paypal) or credit for your items.
4. You can clean out your closet in the least intimidating way possible.

Cons:

1. They typically accept under half of most bags sent to them.
2. You have to be very critical of what items you send in regards to condition.
3. The don't accept certain brands and are overstocked on others, check their site for details.
4. You get 1/4 of whatever they think any item is worth, which may not be very much.

My selling experience:

I sent a bag with a total of 17 accepted items (out of about 28, so a good ratio for those selling plus size).  I got a total if $18.06 for those items, and paid $12.99 to have the remaining items shipped back to me.  I'm glad I did because I didn't realize until after mailing things to them that they wouldn't accept items from City Chic (an Australian brand I love which is sold in Nordstrom and a growing number of their own US stores, which are so far all in California.)  So I made a whopping $5 in profit.  I was not impressed, and quickly knew I wouldn't be selling with them again.  However, depending on the stores you prefer you may do much better than I did.  I don't think their service is bad, just not right for me.  I'd rather put in the work and see greater profits because of it.

Which brings me to Poshmark

Buying from Poshmark

Pros:

1. You usually see the exact condition of the item you're getting
2. You can ask the seller questions
3. The site will have sales that give you free shipping or other discounts pretty regularly.
4. You can make a lower offer on an item you like.
5. Shipping is usually pretty fast because sellers want to please their buyers.
6. There is a huge amount of plus sized items!
7. There is more variety in brands, and items since they also allow you to sell jewelry and makeup.
8. You can earn $5 when a friend uses your code on their first purchase.  It also gets them $5 off their purchase, win-win!  You can use my code PYIHF for $5 off at http://www.Poshmark.com

Cons:

1. There is a chance you could get an item that doesn't match up with the pictures or condition it was reported to be in, but you can dispute that and get a refund.
2. There are more well used items to sift through.
3. Photos of items may be less than ideal.
4. There are people who make careers selling here, which you may or may not want to deal with.
5. You can't return items, though you can certainly resell them.

My buying experience: 

I haven't bought from Poshmark yet, but having made a sale I can see pretty well how it works from a buyer's standpoint.  You'll be a little nervous the first time or two, but mostly have great luck with honest people like you who want to sell their clothing for fair prices.  I have my eye on several pairs of purple converse sneakers and there's much less rush to purchase items.  You have a much better chance to compare items without the pressure to buy while it's available as Thred Up would be.  Here's a shot of their search interface for desktop, it just keeps scrolling and has hundreds of items for what I searched:

Selling on Poshmark

Pros:

1. It's easy for anyone who's tried eBay or Etsy.
2. You mostly fill in blanks and pick the category your item is in.
3. You print a prepaid shipping label and drop your item in the mail if your item sells.
4. You can get cash or credit from Poshmark.
5. You can bundle items (and add a slight discount on bundles), which make buyers more likely to purchase from you.
6. You get a better cut of your sales.
7. You can always go back and edit your item listings, and even lower an item's price, which will send an email to anyone who saved it if you changed the price by 15% or more.

Cons:

1. You have to follow site rules, not too tough.
2. You get better results if you use your own photos, so you have to be able to take reasonably good photos.  
3. You have to post all sales through their app, not on a desktop site.
4. You have to make your item as accurate as possible and be very honest about any flaws it may have, which can take work to sounds good.
5. You have to remember buyers are also paying $5 for shipping.

My selling experience:

I listed my first items on October 4th and added a couple more a few days later.  One of the items listed later (October 12th!), sold on October 14th.  And I've found the process very easy to handle.  I listed the item at $15 (originally $25, it was still in new condition), a person made me an offer for $12, which I accepted, and I earned $9 off the sale. You only need 1-3 sentences about your item, a good description and a couple photos.  Pictures of the item on you or another person who's not a model tend to do well, but my first item only had a shot of it on a hanger as the main picture and a picture of the model wearing it as a secondary photo.  I love the site, and I think the only thing I don't like is that I can't list on my computer.

Thred Up

Use this Thred Up link for $20 off!     

Poshmark

My Poshmark Closet (use code PYIHF for $5 off)


If you've got more tips are trick for either site let me know in the comments.  Thanks so much for reading and please look below for my first ever giveaway!

Love,
Lydia

Julep Giveaway!

One lucky reader will get a set of 4 Julep nail colors and a set of holographic decals.  Julep makes amazing nail polish which last up to a week without chipping, and they even have a subscription box!  You can sign up here via my affiliate link and read more about my last unboxing here to find out more.  This giveaway will last just over a week, so hurry and enter while you can!  The colors included are as follows: 

1. Lydia - a Stardust textured finish in a pyrite color that shows as gold to green
2. Lee - a red creme finish (these first two being my first and middle names!)
3. Florence - a lovely nude creme shade
4. Sandi - an eggplant creme color

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Capsule Wardrobe Woes

Hi friends,

This week has been a busy one for me.  And maybe it's just the season, but it seems like I've got more on my plate and mostly that's great.  I'm finding myself able to deal with more stress and getting better organized too.  I finally found a planner to carry with me that I really love too!  I heard of it though Scruffy-Little Nerdherder's Blog and I can't wait to get it in the mail from Ruskerville's Etsy shop!  This is the planner I went with:

I love it because not only is it awesomely Harry Potter themed, with quotes and lovely details put into it, (and Ravenclaw!!) but it also consists of just monthly calendar pages and notes (he makes other kinds with days too).  I find that looking at a whole month is much easier for me than trying to do things day by day.  Which might sound a little funny, but I think it's because I'm detail oriented enough that it makes me crazy to try planning every second of my day.  Plus all the times I've tried to plan out my days I feel discouraged because they never go as planned anyway and I feel doomed to fail before I even start if it feels too busy.

Capsule Wardrobe Woes

Anyway, I wanted to start off this post with something more positive because I can't help but feel like I'm going to be more negative than I'd like as I assess the failings for my fall capsule wardrobe.   (Which you can take a peek at here!)  Maybe it will turn out to be in your advantage that things haven't worked as well.  So, the biggest problem I've had is with my tops.  I feel like I don't have enough variety or perhaps enough flexibility with them.  I think going forward than means I need to have a couple more basic pieces, which is something I managed to do much better in my summer capsule wardrobe.  Here's a quick comparison:

                                              Tops                 Layering                   Bottoms
Summer                                14                      3                               11
Fall                                        16                      3                               10

As you can see things look pretty good if we're going by the numbers.  But let's break this down some more and see if we can make sense of it.  Of the 16 tops 3 can only be worn in colder weather.  So that puts me at 13 tops the can be worn and layered.  I've found that this layering piece from Forever21 really only works with 4 of my tops, and it's not very useful.

So it will be one of my first pieces to go up on Poshmark! (an app/site for buying and selling new and gently used clothing)  I'll be replacing it with this Old Navy Perfect Henley:

My other problem, which doesn't feel so bad, but is still in need of change is that I added these corduroy Toms to my capsule wardrobe without first checking to see if they fit properly.  *facepalm*  They don't fit me, they're a half size too small and will be finding a new home via Poshmark!

So I'm left without a sneaker or other warm shoe other than boots.  And boots aren't for everything....plus as much as I now love my boots I don't want to wear them out too fast.  I think I'll be replacing the Toms with some Converse Chuck Taylors in purple as my first Purchase on Poshmark.

I'm hoping the one new top will make all the difference, but I think in some ways my problem is simply the wild weather here in North Carolina.  I may reconsider this later, but right now I feel like I could-

1. Have smaller summer and winter capsules, and larger fall and spring ones, rather than the typical capsule.
2. Try my changeovers at a different time, so that summer might be July-September, fall October-December, winter January-March, and spring April-June.
3. Have two main capsules and two mini transitional ones.  Summer would be in use April-September, and winter October-March.  The mini wardrobes would be laying pieces and pants in fall, and tanks and shorts in spring.

For now I'll still be planning my winter capsule wardrobe to start in December, and I may do a whole year before trying to change my methods.  My problem may be that I have too many unique pieces less suitable for laying.  If so spending a whole year on this project will help me cull them at least.  I'm really not sure what I'll end up doing, but writing down my options allows you all to give feedback if you have any ideas.  So please feel free to send any tips my way!

Love,

Lydia

Fashion Inspiration

Hi friends,

So today I wanted to talk about some of the fashionable folks I'm inspired by and soon I'll also examine some of the recent frustration I've had with my fall capsule wardrobe, but that's enough for a whole post of it's own.

Fashion Inspiration

Zooey Deschanel

I know she's got the whole manic pixie dream girl thing going on in most of the acting she does, but her style is just great!  She rocks the retro inspired looks hard and stays adorable while she makes music, helps run the website she cofounded, and acts.  The link above goes to her site Hello Giggles!

 

Janelle Monae

Ms Monae writes brilliant music that crosses genres forming a commentary on society as well as singing about love, and even science fiction.  Bryan and I both really enjoy her music and her style draws from retro and menswear styles, though these days she's doing more feminine looks too.

With Wonder and Whimsy

Liz is a blogger like me who has a fun and girly sense of style that I love!  I used smaller images here because I really think you should stop by her site and check out more pictures and her own writing as well.  I've been taking some cues from her blog and will soon have an option for folks to shop my closet as I try out Poshmark! (A site you can buy/sell new or gently used clothing)

Felicia Day

Felicia is kind of nerd famous, and I love her.  She's written a book and been in numerous TV shows and such.  Along the way she's great at finding ways of staying true to herself.  Her style is the most casual and in many ways the most like my own.

Who inspires your sense of fashion?  I'd love to hear more and be inspired by you too!

Love,
Lydia

Mixed Bag

Hi everyone,

So today's post is a bit of a mixed bag with a couple comics and other things in store.

First off there's news:

Bryan and I had been planning quietly to go to Texas for a little vacation, but we hit a snafu almost as soon as I announced it.  Because Bryan changed jobs in the last year he makes a little more, maybe 15% after taxes.  However when I sent in my income based repayment information so good old Sallie Mae, oh wait, I mean Navient (their sad rebranding to try to shed the image attached to their other name) I got the results in the last week of what our adjusted payments would be.  Somehow a 15% jump in income means we can suddenly afford double the payments each month.  I don't know how their system works, but it sure is confusing!  What this mean is we're giving Navient an extra round trip flight to Texas each month.  So only I will be able to go for the wedding, and I won't spend much extra time there.  Maybe I'll be able to do something fun while I'm there meeting new friends and seeing old ones, or perhaps Bryan and I can go on some other adventure closer to home.  Either way I'll still be working on the travel series, but it will just end up different than I initially thought it would be.  Overall it's a little disappointing, but not the end of the world.  It leaves plenty of other possibilities open closer to home.  I'll have the next part of my travel series up either September 21st or 28th, so be on the lookout for that!

Secondly I'm thinking about how I can keep moving towards having a more ethical wardrobe and habits in general.  I've been testing out Thred Up ($20 off for you in the link there!), a way to sell or buy second hand clothes online and plan to do a comparison for you all, since I think Poshmark is also a site you all might be interested in.  They do basically the same thing, but with Poshmark you do more of the work and make more profit.  We'll see if it's worth it.  I started comparing my summer wardrobe, which at best has about 5% as ethical.  I'd have to check tags to know for sure, but I'm lazy and haven't yet.  However, with my fall wardrobe there's at least 5%, maybe a little more.  So that's progress of a sort.  And as I look at buying anything new I'm trying to check options from my ethical clothing list first these days.  Then there's Etsy, which is a fantastic place for gifts as well as clothes.  (I start my Christmas shopping early!)  And I'd also like to visit local thrift stores more often, which may turn into a new goal if I can get my husband, Bryan, on board!  I really like the ideas for repurposing and glaming up thrift store finds in this video below:

I think this means I'll be featuring some more Pinterest and DIY projects here soon!  Also my studio is slowly starting to get unpacked.  Finally!  haha  That's been a long time coming, and I'm glad to have work space again.  I also have the challenge of decorating it, so decor DIY here I come!

And now for the book review of the week:

This week I picked up The Ancient Magus Bride Volume 2 by Kore Yamazaki and it was just as good as the first volume!  There are more secrets, depth, and character development packed in this volume.  Chise finished things in the town of cats and meets some new fae.  We see her learning magic and find out how it drains her.  And finally she begins to make allies of who we thought might be enemies before we get to the edge of your seat ending.  I'll be honest, I kind of wish I hadn't heard of this series until all the volumes are published, because now I have to wait until December to read more!  haha Really though it's a great series and I'll have another pick for you all next week.

Love,
Lydia