Day 7 - Purple (10.7.10)

Shirt: Ann Taylor Loft (2009 - on sale)
Skirt: Express (on late winter 2010)
Shoes: Famous Footwear (on sale)
Necklace: Forever 21 (9.80)
Thigh highs: VS

Total cost of outfit: <$75

What didn't work:
These sleeves are too short. My wrists were cold most of the day.
I forgot to properly adjust my necklace before the pictures, but this taught me to keep an eye on it during the work day.
My shoes stretched and are slightly loose when I walk. I think I need those little pad things to put in my heel like I have for my purple shoes.

What worked:
The thigh highs were wonderful.

When you take a lot of daily photos, how do you limit yourself to only putting a few on your blog? I have a lot of difficulty choosing.

Note I am much happier with my pictures today and I used my good camera.  I'm proving my theory.   I tried to make myself not look as dead today. I tried really  hard around the eyes.  I don't think I looked as sick.  I didn't feel that sick once 10am hit. I think super stressful meetings scare the cold out of me.

 The bruise on my knee is sort of visible. I wish I remembered how I got that.

So can you tell I weighed 6 more lbs today than my average weight in July?

I got a compliment on my necklace today, but I think it was a forced compliment. I had just mentioned how it was the first time I wore my new necklace.

Today I realized that I always want to scrapbook, but I never do, so I invited Nicole over. She's coming Sunday and I'll finally get to scrapbook. Yay.

Today at work, I only had 2 meetings. I was extremely busy. I worked an extra hour. I lost track of time and at 5:15 I realized I missed the start of Body Pump at 5.  With all that working, I still only got to cross 1 thing off my to do list. I got a lot of new tasks and then did them but it is still sad to end the day with only one thing crossed off.  I learned my director wants to put me on a new task. This new task is a secret RCA. I guess it's good that my director has faith in me doing these very challenging tasks, but sometimes I just want to do my regular work.

My neighbor wanted to borrow a 1.75" circle punch from me today. I don't have that. I have a circle coluzzle that was a 1 7/8. I also have a 3/4", 1", 1 1/8", 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 2", and 2 1/2" circle punches but no 1 3/4".  She needs it for her Halloween candy things she's making.

I used my new card reader today. It is nice. I think my memory card is bad. It still asked me if I wanted to scan and fix it. It never actually lets me scan it if I want to. It always still works, but one of these days I fear it won't.

My husband told me that I should do color rotation for the rest of my life. It really does make picking out my clothes in the morning so much easier. 

October 16 is my breast cancer walk. I am hoping pink matches whatever color is up in the rotation. 

Does anyone have big plans for the weekend?

Day 6 - Blue (10.6.10)

Shirt Express

Pin-stripe Pants: Express

Shoes: Famous Footwear

Necklace: Target

Earrings: Kohl's

I've realized all the pictures I'm unhappy with are the ones with my older camera. I'm a camera snob now I guess.  I guess I have to take pictures with my good camera.  Also the black and white except what color I'm wearing for the color rotation challenge turns out like crap with my older camera.   At least now I have my new card reader so I can keep my camera set up on my tripod.

I have had this shirt forever. It's awesome, because it doesn't need to be ironed. I wear it so much. It is wearing out. I wore this on my third day of work at Westinghouse and it is what I'm wearing on my badge even though you can only see the very top of the collar.

These pants are the same style from Express as yesterday but are 1 size bigger.  They are older.  They are one size difference, but they feel like a lot more than that difference.

I woke up and when I looked in the mirror, I thought I looked a little dead. I even went to sleep super early and slept in so I was surprised.  Then I kept sneezing.  My nose kept running.  I got a cold.  I couldn't go home because I had an important meeting to run.  It was an important scary meeting.  It seemed to scare my cold out of me or something.  My cold isn't nearly as bad.  I have a feeling it will get worse though because I worked the entire day. I kept thinking I'd go home sick, but I did not.  I apologize for looking dead in these photos. I even attempted to not look dead.

My new purse that matched my outfit yesterday.

I went to Olive Garden with Haley and finally got Cheese Fondue.

I came home and watched Community, The Event, and then Grey's Anatomy.
Poly sat on me during some of the TV watching.  I wanted to eat cake so I got up. I was worried to disrupt her, but as soon as I got up, she stretched out to steal my seat.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

08:25:53 AM - @briecs what pressure?
10:42:46 AM - sometimes i wish i had a blanket here at work.
02:30:13 PM - stressful meeting just ended. sigh.
03:13:11 PM - @TENroaches what company?
04:24:04 PM - I want to buy a spare bodymedia armband but I don't know how. I also don't know how to pay for another year of service. my year is up.
06:05:45 PM - @mikecherepko it always confuses me that you are ahead of me. I'm on Day 5 #colorrotationchallenge
07:36:45 PM - Eating cake
07:39:37 PM - He had a question mark RT @TENroaches: @mikecherepko You said yesterday was Day 10.
11:43:33 PM - http://colleen.akwire.net/_clothes/ updated. look at the #colorrotationchallenge so far
11:44:03 PM - pants and skirt picked out for tomorrow. Not sure if I should wear my new pumps or black boots.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

Shopping Desires

Now that the season is changing I have too many shopping desires. Every fall, I remember how I hate fall. I can't buy clothes from nearly as many places because sleeve length is a problem and pants length is a problem.  I think it is much easier to find a skirt that fits well than it is to find  well-fitting pants.  Most of the time it gets cold and I don't wear nearly as many skirts.  I need to/want to wear my skirts more often. This year I have dresses that I wore in the summer. I need to wear those this fall and winter.  The problem it that is is so cold at work.  Today my feet were freezing. I had on pants with kneehighs and my new Hot Kiss shoes. 
Every year I want better pants. This never ends. I buy new pants, but I want pants that fit me better. I have way too many pairs of pants and I only really like how 2 pairs fit me. Now both of those pairs are from Victoria's Secret so you may think I'm golden and can just order pants from them, but I have 3 other pairs of pants that I hate from VS.

Every year I want cardigans. I actually found a few this year for the first time in a long time.  I found 2 last year and already had one. I bought 3 in the spring (even though I really only like the white one).  I just got a red one and a turquoise one at Express. I like them both. I just got a brown one at Target. I hope it washes well.

Every year I wear shirts that I own that the sleeves are too short and then my wrists get cold. Then I get annoyed and don't wear these again for a few months. I always end up wearing them again because I can't remember what I didn't like about them.   I've done some googling and learned that most people like Victoria's Secret sleeve length if they have issues with sleeves.  I have for the most part been happy but the shirt I wore last week is an example of a shirt that didn't work.
Express sweaters have a great sleeve length but the style of their button down shirts is too short the past 2 or 3 years. It is very annoying.  If I find a sleeve that goes down to my wrists usually the arm pits are way too big and messed up.   There are other stores that advertise about their great sleeve length but then I can't get a size small enough. The same thing happens with stores that offer Longs. Most of those stores only start carrying a long in size 8 or something.  It's all very annoying.

So I have all these wants and I've been buying a lot of things lately that aren't even really those things.  I have done a lot more shopping for accessories lately. Necklaces fit from a lot more stores so then I don't get discouraged.
There are lots of times I can't even find shoes. I have seen lots of cute shoes at Forever 21 for such good deals but then they never have larger than an 8 when I ask about the certain styles.

I also have desires for things and I can never find them. I hate that.
I've wanted new bone/ivory/nude/winter white pumps for 3 years. I can never find any. I look every time I'm out shopping thinking that might be the season that sells the color I want.
I want brown print skirts that will go with my new boots. I couldn't find any.
I wanted a yellow shirt so that I would have one for my color rotation challenge so I don't have to skip a color and I couldn't find yellow anywhere. Do you have any suggestions on what to get to go with that? I wear the pants without the blazer and wear a navy shirt or a red shirt.
I have a winter white business suit but I would love to wear the jacket with a dress or skirt and I never find a skirt or dress at the store that goes with it. I don't think I own one now.
For about 5 years I have wanted brown dress pants. I have purchased a few pairs over the years and don't like any of them.  One pair I liked for a little bit but now they are too big. (I bought the smallest size they had at Tall Girl.)
I always get comments from people to just buy things online but I have so much trouble with fit and need to try things on that online shopping doesn't work unless I already know the brand/store.

Sometimes I think I should go shopping in my closet.  I forget about things that I own and every time I buy something new, I bet there is something old that I forgot about in my closet that would match it and look great.

Do you have something that you always want to buy but can never find?  


I hate how I own certain things that I am not even sure what they go with so I never wear them. Sometimes colors go but textures or materials or lengths just don't work out right.
Do you have a favorite go-to item in your closet that goes with almost anything so you don't have trouble pairing things together?

Day 5 - Green (10.5.10)

Shirt: VS

Cami: actually a Soma cami/bra

Pants: Express

Shoes: Mudd (forget where I bought them)

Necklace: Charlotte Russe

The emphasis on this is kind of lost. Perhaps I messed up. The green doesn't even look green.

I went to the gym before work so I had my work clothes packed. After the workout, I showered, and got dressed to learn my pants were too tight. Bummer. I had to suffer all day with them too tight. They weren't even that tight.

I had a busy day at work.  I went to yoga at 4:30.  It was only a half hour yoga this time. Every time there is yoga at work it's different. Also they say down dog and up dog instead downward dog and upward dog.
I then went back to work.

JD and Dan were in Cranberry and they ended up sitting near me.  I wasted a little bit talking to them.  Then I spent more time talking to JD.  So then I ended up staying at work until 7:45.

I came home, ate half my dinner, watched one TV show, and went to bed.

The last time I wore this necklace was August 4. That was also the only time I wore it. It's big and scary. I'm mostly afraid to wear it.

I last wore this shirt on November 7, 2009 or at least it's the last time I took a picture of me wearing the shirt.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

05:50:59 AM - I'm tired. Poly was sleeping on me that I hated to get up and disturb her.
08:27:40 AM - went to the gym this morning. my pants don't fit.
02:22:36 PM - I think I have lost my love for excel because of stupid things I have to do in excel for work.
03:39:34 PM - Well I'll be. RT @PittsburghPost: Mom guilty of trying to let her boyfriend impregnate daughter: A Fayette County ... http://bit.ly/cVAe9o
09:10:24 PM - You need to upload your pics to picasa RT @mikecherepko: Day 10?: Black #colorrotationchallenge http://twitpic.com/2uzkcz
09:51:59 PM - She is. RT @mikecherepko: What a pretty cat RT @_Poly_Kitty I'm cute http://yfrog.com/caebknj
09:56:41 PM - going to sleep early. was going to do my outfit post but the pictures won't load to my computer (they are on picasa already though).
09:57:03 PM - and no post because i have to crop the pictures before blogging with them.
10:16:46 PM - Are these odd times to have for preset alarms? http://plixi.com/p/48961929
10:19:49 PM - That stupid plumber said he'd be here last week buy would call first to pick a day. Well the week came an went. Grrr.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

Cake

I couldn't go to sleep without a post since I need one daily. My daily pictures are still having issues uploading so no daily photo post today.

Here's my birthday cake.   We made it late Saturday while watching a movie. It was a few days late but we forgot I didn't have cake. We had a Christmas Cake mix so we made that.

I had it for breakfast on Sunday.

It was so good, but I haven't eaten any since Sunday morning. I half forgot about it.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:26:12 AM - meeting in 7.5 hours. I better go to sleep.
12:40:00 AM - oops I didn't go to sleep yet. Gonna give running a try tomorrow and Body Pump. Hope my knee holds up.
09:14:43 AM - Day 4: Yellow #colorrotationchallenge http://bit.ly/9q3xLE
11:22:44 AM - @lisafilipek yellow was a rough one for me. I'm also wearing the only yellow shirt I own besides my t-shirts I sleep in.
02:28:36 PM - what a day what a day what a day
02:55:22 PM - now it is cold at my desk.
05:45:29 PM - The hostess just got all excited about my "adorable" earrings and my "cute" coat.
08:34:01 PM - @lisafilipek I need to buy more yellow because Dave says I can't skip yellow next time it comes around.
08:52:51 PM - i don't have yellow any of that. I said if yellow fell on a weekend next I do have a Shaw Shirt (elementary school T-shirt that I sleep in)
11:33:30 PM - I have a cute cat on my lap

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

Day 4 - Yellow (10.4.10)

Shirt: Anny Taylor Loft

Cardigan: Target

Pants: VS

Shoes: Famous Footwear

Earrings: Target

Belt: Target

I think the outfit looks better than it appears.  These pants always photograph horribly.

I hate the black and white picture with only yellow.  Today the pictures were taken with my Canon Powershot SD1000 digital elf instead of my Canon T1i Rebel.  You can tell the difference.  I'm so disappointed.

It was cold today. It was below 40 when I left the house and below 60 when I came home. It's the first time I got to wear my Armani Exchange Jacket to work that I bought in Washington, DC. (I don't think I have a post about that day in DC but we went to Pentagon City mall and I look and look for coats. I have no idea what stores I'm going into. I find one store that actually had coats with the sleeve length long enough. I like them. I got get Dave to get his OK and approval. Then we walk into AE. He wants to know why I'm shopping there. I said I have no idea what it is. He pulls out his iPhone and looks up Armani to give me a lesson. I said Armani sounded vaguely familiar.  This is evidence that I should not write about what I wear or fashion because I don't know anything. So I get the coat. I wear it the entire way to the hotel. I get to the hotel and take my picture in it. Then I look at it and it still has the ink tag on it. We are leaving in the morning. My husband won't go with me to go back to get the tag removed. I pay for the Metro and go myself. The worker there is on the phone and doesn't even say 2 words to me. He doesn't apologize. I'm so mad. Then I go back to the hotel. It took well over an hour to do this round trip business and I had to navigate the metro myself.)

I was home before Dave today so Poly would not leave me alone. The 2 pictures of me in my coat are from after work.  I missed body pump because Dave worked from Cranberry and he wanted to go out to dinner.  My day was so stressful. It was hard to keep him occupied.  Also he seemed like he was in a bad mood.

I hate all my pictures from today. I was in a real hurry. Dave kept getting in my way.

Dave said nobody reads my blog because I don't write well. :(

Dave just walked in and saw my blog post and said, "Nobody is going to wonder what you look like."

9.29.10 - Boots

I took your advice and wore my boots.  I got one compliment on them.
Shirt: VS
Skirt: Ann Taylor Loft
Boots: Famous Footwear
Necklace: Walmart

Wednesday was the Wellness Fair at work and I walked around for almost 2 hours and my feet didn't hurt at all. The boots also helped with the cold because half the fair was outside. I have no idea why they put the booths outside. It drove me crazy.  They should have warned me so I wore my sweater.

 Poly wanted to play in the bag my Pampered Chef order came in.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

08:44:25 AM - I failed. RT @polahbea: @SmilinColleen trying to "stay awake" http://yfrog.com/5hi3huj
08:48:23 AM - #colorrotationchallenge http://picasaweb.google.com/colleen.michelle.mccloskey/ColorRotationChallenge#
08:49:03 AM - Ha. I didn't see this and decided not to run it. RT @_magic8ball: @SmilinColleen Outlook not so good :(
10:10:49 AM - updated: http://colleen.akwire.net/_clothes/
10:15:34 AM - my 1 year is up for bodymedia website use but the site still works and I can't figure out how to pay for more.
01:15:52 PM - RT @_Poly_Kitty: If I hold @SmilinColleen down she won't get up. http://plixi.com/p/48575940
01:22:05 PM - These steeler games are exciting.
02:50:08 PM - it's surprising how easy it is to put on weight when you stop running.
04:19:09 PM - @mikecherepko - similar to what I thought when I saw it. RT @soonerleesa: Holy shit- jeff reed made the extra point.
04:21:06 PM - @TENroaches re: Reed - I tried to get her a Reed jersey a few years ago and they don't have 'em anywhere.
06:31:59 PM - Wearing yellow tomorrow the I only wear on black and gold day is going to suck. Stupid steelers. #colorrotationchallenge
08:47:15 PM - Dinner: 4 leftover breadsticks w/cheese(pizza hut), 2 ribs (houlihan's), 1 pulled pork sandwich (texas roadhouse), velveeta shells & cheese.
09:13:10 PM - #colorrotationchallenge is hard. I don't know how to wear yellow tomorrow. need to layer bc shortsleeves will be cold. http://bit.ly/cFPGTa
09:13:49 PM - and don' twanna just wear black and gold because steelers are bums thought of navy pants but lack a cardigan to match.
09:14:49 PM - or brown cardigan but what pants OR this skirt with black cardigan http://bit.ly/cuU2atbut the skirt is summary and needs to be ironed. help
09:20:28 PM - @mikecherepko http://bit.ly/bvgZ4O cardigan near bottom with brown pants? http://bit.ly/9DyJbk or these pants http://bit.ly/ciYskw
09:20:43 PM - those tan pants or whatever pb said they don't go with yellow though
11:30:30 PM - you have a lot of colorful accessories RT @lisafilipek: Day Three: Orange #colorrotationchallenge http://yfrog.com/jp1fkej

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

Day 3 - Orange (10.3.10)

Shirt: NY&Co ($7 - June 2009)

Jeans: Express (years ago on sale and a coupon. - $23)

Belt: American Eagle Outfitters ($24.50)

Shoes: Famous Footwear - Nickles ($5)

Scarf: Charlotte Russe ($4.50

Total cost: $64.  That belt really made my outfit expensive.
I went to take my picture out in the back yard but the neighbor 2 doors down was out grilling so I retreated and went to the privacy of my front porch.  The Steeler game was still on so I thought no cars would drive by. I was right.

I actually love light colored jeans. I think they have been out of style for 3-5 years because they are impossible to find to buy.  These have been stretched too much through the years when my waist was fatter so when I move it is hard to keep the back above my butt. This is why I don't wear them.  It has been so long since I wore them that I forgot why.  Otherwise I think they fit pretty nicely.

It was a little chilly outside to take my daily picture.  I almost put on a cardigan as part of my outfit while getting dressed but it's warm enough in my house that I wouldn't have had it on more than 10 minutes.

<center><a href="http://scrapandrun.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFe9Ps96jp0kor46ZgD0nRjO2f2Kb3ZWybxomWuJF1w64NvLGi0NOKgRbOKDB9UXwVuhtyXF7-9paGx2jzfbPRPzh3mLCXX0dzoiwoeLdKGj8Abmdeu2kai1khv_Yl2eY1dJvdRYP8n0Q/s1600/IMG_4546b-web.jpg" /> </a></center>

Color Rotation Summary

1. Pink Express Knit
2. Red Express Cardigan
3. Orange NY&Co Tee