Bad Ideas

So I tried to have Bryan pick out my clothes this morning, after waking up an hour after I was supposed to. He wasnt any help. First he picked out my brand new short sleeved sweater that I dont want to wear (for the blog) just yet, then he suggested the shirt I made for the trade show I worked for sedgeway last august. Its a summer shirt, so I was a little irritated. I finally decided to wear something simple though, I mean it is Friday...

So I didnt get a photo this morning, but this outfit was not really photo worthy. my peach and white striped tank which is tight and cute all on its own, with my black low cut polo and bell dark blue jeans. See, not exciting. I say that wanting to wink at whoever is reading this. The only amazing thing for this outfit were my shoes. The white patten leather fubu tennis-shoes with a Ed Hardy like design on the side that reminds me of a toucan that got together with a pirate.

So we are about to watch the last episode of the second season of true blood and its now almost 10:30. Im pooped. Im pretty sure I have some of my anti-aging cream in my eye and I really want to go to sleep, but I put on my Hemp lotion and it made me smell pretty, so I feel cozy and smell nice.

So good night all, happy Friday and remember, you are beautiful and you'll believe it if you tell yourself.

Classy Kate

I tried today...

I tried to tell myself that today would go by fast, that it would be a good day and for the most part it did. At 2 it was lagging a bit but I worked on some stuff and before I knew it, it was 4:15 then 4:30 then, finally 4:50 and time to start packing up. Bryan came to have lunch with me and we practiced dutch a bit over Dim Sum.

This morning I choose an outfit that would go with my big blue fuzzy coat again so I knew I would be warm. I wore my light blue skinny jeans, well not really skinny jeans, but still straight legs and cream short sleeve sweater top. To stay extra warm I put on my BCBC pinkish cream sweater with gold print and topped the outfit off with my favorite gold diamond chainmaille like earrings. I felt very pretty today. I love cream and gold colors together.

Oh! Some AWESOME NEWS! My $200. Bakers Boots that my pit bull decided needed a good gnawing on were finished getting fixed today. The lovely man at Nicks Shoe Repair took a look at them on Sunday and said "Well, we can reconstruct the heal, take this piece of suede off and put a new one on. But it's goin' to cost $45. dollars" Now, he said the 45 dollars with some dismay...and I said, "Oh! Great! They were $200 dollar boots, so I'd rather do that then have to buy another pair!" Anyways, I'm very very excited. I dont have the money nor do I want to try to buy another pair of amazing boots. It all works out though and sometimes, its worth asking if it can be done. (No one thought my boots could be fixed and I decided to ask the shoe maker).

A rule that a very wise instructor I had, was "Never assume that someone (I) will or wont do something, because if you do, that makes an ass out of you and me!" I try to live by this now, and it works!

Believe you're beautiful, because you are!

Night Night all.

Classy Kate

Technical Difficulties.... Not enough Hours in the Day

So, I'm back to listening Regina Spektor, Hotel Song. I was listening to it a lot a few months ago and for some reason lost her until I decided I wanted to listen to a Lily Allen station on Pandora, and couldnt get Radio and Hotel Song out of my head. Listening to so many of her other songs I have fallin in love with her like Imogen Heap. I love Lily Allen too, but the combination of the three of these ladies makes for a very happy Kate.

So anyways I have 3 days worth of Clothes to put into one blog. Monday night was not so much that I ran out of time, as I was working on starting to revise my website www.Shanistudios.com and then last night while trying to work on the blogs, I couldn't get my computer to work and I had to go to the grocery store, so in other words. NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY!

So Monday I decided to wear a designer t-shirt my sister got rid of (aka passed down to me...My little sister is my fashion adviser and passes clothes down to me...). Its a cream t-shirt with a Ladybug flying on it, a black quarter length sleeve underneath it, bell jeans and black ballet shoes. It was raining and the bell jeans dragged on the wet sidewalks, but it was a good day. I had a very good day on Monday. Must have been the happy lady bug on my shirt.

Yesterday wasnt as great of a day though. We had a meeting and I brought up the fact that our manufacturer and service center (who is a 15 min drive away from us) would like us to have repairs sent directly to them. "BUT THEY ARE OUR CUSTOMERS..... THEY JUST DONT GET THIS! ITS FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF THE COMPANY!" In other words I got yelled at in stupid non-settling gibberish and finally asked, "So its sent to us to for the customer service reasons. Great, that's all I needed to know" And then my co-worker...She had to talk to me like I'm 5 years old. I just wasn't happy most of the day...and this misfortune, though did not contribute to my clothing choice did spread over to today. So today wasn't a good day either, but lets go back to what I wore Tuesday.

Im starting to grow tired of being cold again so yesterday, though its not pictured, I wore my big fuzzy blue jacket. I was very cozy and warm. Underneath it however I wore a shirt that I love wearing with my black vest because it seems to fit well together. A long sleeved gray shirt with "Live Your Life" (I also love it because this is my moto!) written in script on it. The black vest covers the writing a but but it still looks cute. I finished it off with black jeans and my favorite wedge boots, to tie the gray back in. Though it was a loathing work day and I counted the hours before I got to go home, I was cozy while I was at work.

Today... today I thought I dressed the most stylish of the three days though. Purple tights, and black and white checked button up shirt. (Dont worry I wore a tank and a long sleeve shirt under in, that you couldn't see, so I wasn't cold.) Black slouch boots finished it off, and my hair was pushed up into a kind of small pompadour and gear looking earrings.

Today though, my boss/step-dad yelled at me while I was asking questions about pricing. I kept trying not to irritate him by asking and keeping my cool while he was getting upset but I hate being spoken to like that. I grew up being treated with respect my whole life, even from when I was 2 years old, so why should I expect anything less than what I give, from my employer/new family member? After he left the room I spent a spiteful hour playing on the computer because I couldn't look at the price list I had been working on anymore. Then after that I dabbled around doing some of my work, some more spiteful playing on the internet.

I am going to go to bed tonight thinking that tomorrow will be a good day. It will go by fast and I will look FABULOUS! Maybe Ill listen to one of my happy songs, "lucky twice" by Lucky.

There's nothing you can do
To keep it out
There's nothing you can do
Just scream and shout
Saying

I'm
So lucky lucky
I'm
So lucky lucky
I'm
So lovely lovely
I'm
So lovely lovely

You can fool yourself
I promise it will help
Now every single day
I just wanna hear you saying

I'm
So lucky lucky
I'm
So lucky lucky
I'm
So lovely lovely
I'm
So lovely lovely

This stanza of lyrics says what I say to my friends and anyone feeling down about themselves all the time. "Tell yourself you're beautiful, wonderful and Great, because you are! and the more you say it the better you will feel and present yourself!"

Night off...

So I decided to take the night off because I have some other work to do... however its now 10:35 and I have to be up at 7- for an interview I have at 9-.

Today, I wore my brown sweater with a black tank under it and my skinny dark blue jeans and brown calf high rounded toe (cheap, because the dog ate my expensive ones) boots. I was warm and comfy in my sweater all day. The day went by relatively quickly and I'm warm and home now. Happiness...

Once again, I dont feel good.

So, I'm not going to lie, Im tired and do not want to write anymore, but Im trying to have discipline! and I WILL!

So for the past couple of days I have been thinking about wearing a this tank-top I found in my drawer because its cute and frankly I forgot about it. So I wore it today for the first time since summer. I tried it with my wrap around crop-sweater, but ended up wearing the satin cup sleeve one instead. My indian pendant that my grandfather brought back as a souvenir for me when he taught there for a few weeks went perfectly with the red tank. Dark blue skinny jeans and calf high boots finished this simple yet classy outfit off.

The day went by fast and tends to have a faster pace when I'm warm and keep on track with emails. I talked about moving my work up to the front today, but it seems my co-worker doesn't like the idea... I froze the rest of the day in the back because I had to do some work only my mac could accomplish.

My car is falling apart, my stomach has been hurting recently and Im not sure how Im going to blog while spending time with my man once my sister leaves with her computer, (my lap top is dying...) Sad woe is me complaining.

This morning brought new light to my work motivation though. A friend of mine has offered to help me get some things together to start on my pursuit of happiness.

"You can fool yourself, I promise it will help just every single day, i wanna hear you sayin', 'I'm so lucky lucky, lucky lucky.'"

You are, and you're lovely too!

Classy Kate

More Rain...

I love it! LOVE LOVE LOVE the rain, but it makes me want to cuddle up and read books or watch a bit of T.V. or sit and watch the rain with a fire crackling in the wood stove.

So today...I woke up to the big rain drops pounding on the roof. Got out of the shower to water still running from the gutters and decided I wanted to wear my brown american apparel dress, but wanted to dress it up a bit because when I have worn it before it has looked a bit like a long dress version of a long underwear top. So today I put one of my magic cleavage tanks, in yellow, under it and the belly dancing belt that my (new/step) grandma gave me. I wore light bell jeans with pointed toe brown snake skin boots.

I was comfortable but I still don't think the dress was worn as well as it could have been, it just doesn't seem to work the way I want it to. Any thoughts on how I can make this dress work?

Tell yourself your beautiful because you deserve to feel the best you can!

Classy Kate.

Red Coat, Rainy Day

Right now I feel tired and crampy. Oh the woes of being a woman. So after getting home from work and being invited out to dinner I am now sitting in the center of my couch with my sweatshirt hood on my head and Victoria's Secret Pink sweats on. The snowboard socks I disguised under my calf high granny boots are still keeping my feets warm and all I want to do is cuddle up and watch a movie. The only reason Im not currently doing so is because this needs to become a habit for me, or I will fail.

So today was alright. It was the first day without our manager (he took off for 3 weeks to Peru... lucky guy. When I started working there in June he was just leaving for a trip to Europe for 2 weeks. OH! How I want to go back to Europe and just plant roots there and never leave!!)

Back to today... I woke up and decided a run was out of the question, because of the heavy rain and went back to bed for another half hour. I got up and took a shower. I decided, that since I have a giant spot on my cheek from ravenously picking at what I thought was a black head, I would put more than my usual amount of make up on. Concealer and Powder is not my friend... it makes me feel like I have baked a cake on my face. So I did my make-up in a very porcelain doll-like way and had smokey eyes. All for a job interview scheduled after work.

I dressed in dark blue jeans, with healed granny boots (in leu of the rain), my ruffled collared button up shirt and my black stretchy belt with bamboo clasps. Oh, I can not forget that the undershirt, a black one like the one I mentioned before, boosted me up enough that when my jacket was taken off at dinner, Bryan complimented me in hushed tones how great my I looked in my outfit. THIS made me feel really good. Well, my job interview was rescheduled for Sat, so I didnt need to wear the cakey makeup, but I did feel good today.

Confident and Bitchy, almost to a fault. I became snippy with my coworker who had no right to be making the decisions she was making, and who's head had grown a little too big from the "so & so is doing more the 50% of the workload of the office while the manager is out, so you have to do everything she tells you to do" that the owner said in the meeting. I keep reliving the moment because I was so irritated so I tell my friends and each time I think I did it more and more civilized, though I know my tone was not as refined as it has become the more I tell the story.

Confident and Beautiful, because I say so (and you can feel that way too!!)

Classy Kate

House Cleaning and Three day Weekend.

So today is the last day of my 3 day weekend. Surprising my boyfriend Bryan with this fact was a complete success. He woke up at 8:40 telling me he thought it was 6:40, then after rubbing his eyes began to frantically tell me it was 8. I didn't freak out so he asked, "What's going on?" It was quite funny.

This weekend I have done nothing but contribute to the efforts of cleaning my house and garage. So, needles to say I have been in ugly levis which are too big for me, a t-shirt and my hair in a ugly pony tail, not ugly because its a pony tail but ugly because it continues to fall to the side. My hair is just TOO HEAVY!

I did call a stylist yesterday though. I cant seem to find anyone who will do it for less than $100-. Urg.

So I thought I would be able to go do something fun today, but seeing as how the hallway is scatted with my belongings that were left in my old room and you can barely walk through there, I don't think anything outside of the house will be happening today. Maybe we'll go see a movie.

Its not the 1950's. We dont have to dress classy while cleaning house!

Have a good day and tell yourself you're beautiful, 'caus you are!

Classy Kate

A touch of gold...

I actually had a pretty easy time getting out of bed this morning. Recently its been awful...but then again maybe its because its Friday.

I played my Ipod while I showered and "Ants Marching" Dave Matthews Band was the first song on. Today the lyrics really spoke to me.

"Take these chances
Place them in a box until a quieter time
Lights down, you up and die"

This part specifically. I feel like I put things off for when I have more time, and I'm done with that. This is proof.

So today, as with many days that I 'dress to impress' (okay im sorry, but if Im hanging around my house cleaning Im gonna be dressed in less than stylish jeans and probably my Got Vape shirt, caus it just looks hot on me!) so anyways, I planned my outfit quickly in my head while laying in bed, then refined it while in the shower.

Today includes my suede slouch boots, my skinny jean material tights, long black and grey sweater with scoop neck (its in the turtle neck style) and a stretchy black belt with bamboo gold connectors.

I'm currently writing while on lunch and cant write much but wanted to make a post for today.

Cool song playing when I started though, on my iTunes dutch radio Bnn.Fm was The great defector - Bellx1, I think its an 80's hit, which the station plays a lot, but I liked it.

Happy Dressing, Tell yourself your Beautiful, caus you are!!

Classy Kate

Blue and Grey for a Foggy Day

1/13/2010
Originally uploaded by katesk286

It was two days ago, when I was running late for work that I decided to create a challenge for myself of dressing classy and professionally everyday, even though my job doesn't deserve it. I realized only today though, that because I was comfortable and confident in my looks, I was able to stay awake at my desk, focused and didn't loathe my work life quite as much.

My fashion ways did put a damper on one of my favorite parts of my work life, completing a Sedgway tour.
(Because my boss/step-dad is constantly searching for our product, I'm going to intentionally spell it the way that some of our clients like to say the word. I don't really want him knowing how much I dislike work, or why and I have a feeling I may do a bit of unloading on this blog.)

The tours are my favorite part of the job though. I love people! Love talking to them, hearing their stories, and understanding them instantly. I have a knack for people you might say, and thats why my main job is a professional photographer. Yesterdays outfit however, took me away from the only part of my job that allows me to really interact with people. As cute as my red skull heals may be (you will see them, and they are to die for cute (for a meer € 19.95) I wish I had brought some flats to roll around O-town for a tour and a break from the office. Oh well, I will plan better in the future.

Today I feel I dressed utterly comfortable while also feeling good about myself and my appearance. There is no doubt in my head that I could have dressed with more layers, more coats, however, how would I have felt about myself? I know, I would have felt lazy, like a slob and begun self-loathing again. My grey collared sweater, with light purple tank (bra inserted, which makes my small breasts look much better than they would without the extra umpf), Skinny (very skinny and tight) leg jeans, and the boots, which made the outfit! They are rubber wedge with blue faux suede blue bottom of the shoe, and then the leg of the boot is a cream all with dark blue thick stitching, and the very top is folded over with what looks like lambs wool. SO ADORABLE!
**I have an obsession with shoes and jackets, so excuse me if I go off on the adorableness of my beautiful shoes. **
I finished the outfit off with chandelier silver earrings.

I felt comfortable, happy and awake all day. Like I had a purpose. I truly believe that if you have one "right piece" for every outfit, you can make anything work.

You should look in the mirror at least once a day and tell yourself "I am the most beautiful woman!" (believe me, it makes you feel good and helps you stay confident).

Night for now,
Classy Kate.

If youre reading this, you should know some background, Yes?

I am the owner of my own photography studio in the Bay Area California, and I now share the house I grew up in with my boyfriend, his best friend and my best friend. When my family all went their separate ways upon my parents divorce, the house was left to me along with our 4 cats, dog and pond. While my father is away in an in-treatment facility I am caring for his sweet pit, who I had to rescue from doggy jail because she is an escape artist. My best friend then brought her dog along to live with us too. Its crazy around here for the most part, but that is not why I began this blog.

I had started to become lazy with my hateful feeling I harbored for my job and the ice box (literally) appeal it had. I stopped running everyday and started dressing in sweatshirts and jackets. No one really saw me anyways so what did it matter? Little did I really know how much my clothing really effected my attitude towards myself and my feeling of self-worth. This blog will be a diary of how I feel on a daily basis based off of what I wear and probably what happens at work everyday. I hope in some way my readers find it helpful and if not, at least interesting.

I have 3 other blogs as well, Business (shanistudios.blogspot.com), Etiquette (properk8.blogspot.com) and My book.