Daily MelWear: It's a New Day

Happy Thursday, friends!

We're *soclose* to the weekend and I, for one, am ready.

You know, I've been through kind of a lot in the past 9-10 months or so.

But right now, I feel good.

I feel optimistic.

And I like it.

I hope you're all feeling good too. :)

Have a great weekend, lovelies.

Today's outfit:
Dress: Sears
Brown Jacket: Kohl's (I think...)
Red Belt: Salvation Army
Red Sandals: From my mom
Necklace: Gift from the exceptional ML

Daily MelWear: Red Satin

I love this skirt. A lot. I love the A-line shape of it, the demure length, the silky material, the subtle pattern, and the gorgeous shade of red. Not to mention the fact that it was a Salvation Army find!

What I don't love is the quandary I'm having in finding different ways to style it! I'm usually good with color combos but this shade of red, especially with the pattern involved, poses a challenge for me. I felt like I needed to wear something a little understated this time because of our board meeting, but if anyone has other ideas on how to style this pretty thing up, I'm all ears!

Hope you're having a great week, friends!

Today's outfit:
Skirt: Salvation Army
Black Tank: Kohl's
Black Jacket: Ross
Black Belt: Charlotte Russe? I can't remember
Black Heels: Target
Necklace: Wal-Mart

Daily MelWear: Polka Dots and Purple

Happy Tuesday, friends!

I've worn this outfit before to church but didn't photograph it, so I figured I might as well do that. :) Wearing a belt like this is WAY out of my comfort zone, because I feel like it highlights my hips as the widest part of my body. I really do like it though and might have to find a few more belts like this.

Belts are awesome.



Look, I can do the blogger pigeon toe pose! :)



The pop of purple in the flower makes me smile. I love little pops of unexpected color. It's a happy thing.

Hope you're all having a great week so far! Tell me about your weekend, what did you do?

Today's outfit:
Skirt: Burlington
Tank: Target
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Dots

Flower Pin: From my MIL (actually given to my daughter, but, well...you know...)

Necklace: Gift from the very sweet and super gorgeous ML

Heels: Beall's

Proper Professional: Pretty Inside & Out

The Proper Professional feature was birthed out of my desire to spread the blogging love while also gaining some insight into professional and business attire in various situations. My goal is to feature bloggers from all different professions, whether stay-at-home moms, mega-corporation executive assistants, work-from-home employees, small office staff, business owners or more, to view different perspectives and opinions on what is appropriate, acceptable, and professional. Hopefully you'll be inspired and introduced to some great new blogs, too! To catch up on previous interviews, click here.

I am so very excited to introduce you to today's feature! I've been "online" friends with Charisse for several years. She's seen me at my heaviest and followed my other blog where I chronicled my weight loss journey. She saw me through my divorce and has been a very strong support for me. I finally talked her into starting her own style blog, Pretty Inside & Out, a while ago and now I have the honor of featuring her as a Proper Professional!

Tell us a little about yourself and your blog.

I started my "style" blog after some *gentle* urging from my dear friend here at A Working Mom's Closet. {Editor's note: I AM gentle. *Ahem*} I have recently (in the last two years) lost a lot of weight as is evidenced by the motivational picture on my left hand sidebar. I am a married (yes, legally) lesbian mom who works, cooks, socializes, and tries to be the best for all the people in her life at once. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I fail. No matter what, I love the life I lead.

How did you come up with your blog name?

Even though I have lost a lot of weight, when I take a picture of me or see a picture of me, what I thought I saw in the mirror is not what is reflected in the pictures. It really bothers me sometimes. So, I thought that while taking pictures I could come to love the me outside as much as I love the me inside.

This is the OLD Charisse!

Do you work from home or outside the home, and what do you do?

I work outside the home. I have been a stay-at-home mom twice in my life and I truly do not think I am cut out for it. I work as an Administrative Coordinator in the non-profit world.

Do you have a dress code by which you need to abide (either corporate or self-imposed)? If so, what is it and how do your co-workers (if applicable) approach the dress code?

I do not have a set dress code, as is evidenced by the swing from super casual to all dolled up looks that I post on my blog. I do, however, always need to look nice and presentable to the people that stop in. Those can be people looking for help, therapists in town, Board Members, or the steady stream of people coming in looking to volunteer. My co-workers are not always n the building, as their programs require them to interact with the outside community much more than I do. We all try come to work looking presentable, but I come to work to be the face of the agency.

Do you choose your outfits in advance or in the morning, and how long does it take you to get ready in the mornings?

I choose my outfits whenever I can. Sometimes I will think up an outfit the night before as I am lying in bed waiting for sleep to take over. Sometimes I know that I want to wear a certain color. Some days I know nothing about what I want to wear until I have tried on everything in my closet and strewn it about the room. I have coined the phrase clothes-tastrophe to describe those kind of days.

I would say that it takes me, on a normal day, about an hour and a half to get ready. This is from shower to complete makeup and hair and walking out the door. I am one of those women that does not go ANYWHERE without her makeup on. On the rare occasion that I do leave the house without makeup, I have an essentials makeup bag in my purse that has a set of all my favorite things to make a quick look.

If you were commissioned to rewrite the dress code, what would you change (if anything)?

I would say that we need to have a dress code that was not quite so relaxed. Then I realize that my Director works with kids in schools and talks about tough subjects all day. One program director deals with grieving families. The other program director deals with crises. I guess that they need to be able to be comfortable and make the people they are working with comfortable at the same time. Not to mention that I live in a super relaxed, open, liberal, crunchy granola type town where MOST people are laid back and dressed like my coworkers.

Do you think companies should take into account the potential cost for certain dress codes to be achieved and if so, should they be concerned about the cost being equal for both men and women?

I don't necessarily think that it is the company's job to take into account the dress code. I DO think that the dress code should correspond to the amount of professionalism that you are trying to present to the world. Not only that, but our dress should correspond to the actual job you are doing. While women seem to HAVE a lot more clothes and WEAR a lot more clothes than men do, it is not absolutely necessary for us to have to have that many clothes.

What is your definition of professional attire and would this vary if the business is a small business compared to a larger corporation?

Professional attire should always represent the image of respectability and knowledge. You should look like you know what you are doing and you should look like you SHOULD be doing what you are doing. I don't think that idea changes whether it's a small or large business.

What are some pieces that every woman should have available in their professional arsenal?

MY list would include the following:
Crisp white button up shirt
At the bare minimum a pair of black, brown, and off-white pair of heels
At least one nice pair each of black and brown dress slacks
An assortment of tanks or camis to layer with
A pencil skirt AND a flared skirt.

{Editor's note: I have these same shoes!!!}

What pieces are never professionally appropriate regardless of the situation?

Flip flops (even though you will see them occasionally on my super casual days on my blog) Exposed midriff 

Torn or frayed clothing 

Wrinkled clothes

Describe an outfit you'd wear in each of the following settings: 

1. A typical day at work.

A skirt or slacks with a nice shirt

2. A formal business meeting. 

These would be out board meetings and I have always worn a nice skirt with hose and heels and a nice blouse

3. An informal meeting with co-workers. 

This would be an event out in the community where we are probably doing some fundraising. I would and have worn dress pants or even jeans with a nice shirt, not a t-shirt, but not necessarily a blouse.

4. A business dinner with co-workers and superiors.

This would be similar to our board meetings. I would likely wear a skirt and heels with a nice blouse. 

Thanks Charisse!!! If you haven't checked out her blog yet, go do it now! 

And as always, please let me know if you'd like to be featured as a Proper Professional. I'd like to capture the opinions of women (and men!) from all professions, all ages, all walks of life. It doesn't matter if you work in what you consider a professional environment, these questions are about your opinion. Email me at {aworkingmomscloset at gmail.com} so I can schedule your feature!

Have a great Monday, everyone! 

Saturday Stuff: Reviews and Pleas

Happy Saturday, everyone! Did you all have a good week?

For this week's edition of Saturday Stuff, the first thing I want to do is tell you about a product and company that I'm pretty certain most of you are already familiar with: Misikko!

I have to admit that when it comes to my hair, I tend to be too lazy busy to actually style it much. I don't like to put product in my hair, I don't enjoy twisting my arms around pretzel-like to get my hair blown this way and that, and I don't like using other elements like a curling iron and what-have-you.

I do, however, think that it's not quite professional to show up at the office with wet hair. It just makes it appear that you don't care very much, about how you look or how you're perceived or about what you do.

Now listen, don't hate me because I'm lazy (remember that "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!" commercial? Kind of like that, only not really at all), but since I don't have much time for my hair, it usually just takes me about 7-10 minutes to simply dry it. That's all I do. I don't style it, just get it dry.

However, with the Misikko Hana Air professional hair dryer, it takes me a whopping THREE MINUTES. Did you hear that? THREE!!! I can almost justify drying my hair even on the weekends with that time. 'Cept I probably won't. Cuz weekends are lazy.

The box when I first opened it.

The people at Misikko are incredibly professional and helpful, and customer service is fantastic. I don't know if what they sent to me is their standard package for everyone, or if it was specifically a blogger review package, but it was BEAUTIFUL and came with tons of extra goodies like shampoo, frizz control, nail files, bath soaps, sanitizer (how did they know I'm a germaphobe?), and even a little stuffed monkey that I gave to my daughter.

They have so many products to choose from, like the Chi Blow Dryers or the Tourmaline Flat Iron. I do have to admit that I don't think I could ever afford to buy one of these on my own, but for those of you who are in the market for a new dryer, flat iron, curling iron, or anything else hair related, definitely check them out!

A PLEA TO CONNECT

And now on to my pleas to all of you. Listen, I don't like to beg, but there are some things that I'd like all of you, as my friends, to think about and consider. 

The first one is please, please, please, if you have a Blogger profile, edit your settings to show your email address! I LOVE the community aspect of blogging and being able to reply directly to comments. When I get a comment, I normally just click "reply" on my email and send an email response to the person. But sometimes, it says "noreply-comment@blogger.com". And then I can't respond to you! And I don't like to respond in the comments section of YOUR blog because that section should be just about you and your post, not what you wrote on mine. 

Anyway, there's an easy and simple fix for this, as pointed out by Janae of Diaries of a Grumpy Grateful Mom: 

#1.  From your Dashboard go into Edit Profile.
#2.  Check the box that says Show my email address.
#3.  Enter email address under Identity.
#4.  Save. 

Now, if you really would prefer to not share your email address, that's totally up to you. But I know most of you do have an email that you use for your blog, and you CAN use that one instead of your personal email for this purpose (and still maintain your personal email as your sign-on for your account - that's what I do). It would just be awesome to be able to reply to more of you and connect more often. 

ONE FINAL PLEA, FOR KINDNESS AND MERCY

Okay, last but not least, my one final plea - PLEASE, for the LOVE of all things SIMPLE and out of the kindness of your hearts, PLEASE remove the captcha/word verifications from your comments! I think that's probably where I spend most of my time when I'm commenting is on those little word things. 

I can tell you that since I removed it, yes, I have received some spam comments, but thanks to Blogger's pretty spectacular spam catching system, NONE of them have actually been posted on my blog. They've gone into the the little spam holder in my dashboard and I can go in and publish any that I need to (I think it's only caught one real comment, ever) and I can delete all of the spam comments in one fell swoop.

It's MAGIC! And really, it saves SO MUCH TIME when you're commenting on hundreds of blog posts, to NOT have to do that word verification thing. I honestly don't think it's even necessary now that Blogger has a system to catch spam comments.  

So there's my Saturday Stuff for this weekend. Riveting, isn't it? You're welcome. 

I hope you all have a SPECTACULAR weekend!