#7ShadesofRed and Valentine's Day Recap

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day, in whatever way you chose to celebrate (or not celebrate)! Today's post is a first for my blog: a recap of a week's worth of outfits! I'm very susceptible to themed things, be they outfits, parties, meals, or some fourth category I haven't yet thought up. It's fitting, then, that my first outfit roundup features everything I wore for #7ShadesofRed week. The idea of 7 Shades of Red was simple: people would wear something in red or pink every day in the week leading up to Valentine's Day. I embraced this idea with the wholehearted enthusiasm I generally reserve for self-invented challenges, even though there was absolutely nothing challenging about finding a week's worth of red in my wardrobe, and it was so much fun! Here's everything I wore:

My very first Ur-Collage!

Day 1

Dress: Pinup Girl Clothing Heidi in Leopard Print

Petticoat: Malco Modes tea-length red petticoat 

Shrug: Modcloth, also available at Doll Me Up and Le Bomb Shop

I admit that I cheated a bit on this one. Since I wasn't feeling up to going out to take pictures on Day 1, I posted an older photo of the outfit I was wearing that day. There is something about pairing leopard print and red that makes me ridiculously happy, so much so that I actually devoted an entire post to this outfit and the cake I ate while wearing this outfit.

Day 2: Mardi Gras!

Skirt: ASOS, now sold out

Top: Gap, years ago

Sweater: Same cardigan, oops!

Brooch: Atomic Lucite Rebel Alliance insignia (!!!)

Boots: Bogs Pearl

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to brave the 10 degree weather and 15mph winds on Day 2, as I had a package to mail. To protect myself from the elements, I chose a thick wool midi skirt, which kept the wind out nicely. This outfit did double duty, as I tried to find pieces that would incorporate Mardi Gras colors as well as the requisite red. I don't own very much yellow or purple, which as a Lakers fan is probably a massive dereliction of duty, but the skirt has yellow in the plaid and the top is obviously purple. I'm hopeful that next Mardi Gras will be a bit easier, as so many people have been wearing lovely medium purple or lavender tops and dresses and I've fallen for the color!

Day 3

Skirt: Pinup Girl Clothing

Top: Lindy Bop, now sold out

Sweater: Old Navy, from at least ten years ago

Petticoats: Malco Modes Samantha (red) and Jennifer (pink)

Headband: Dress Barn (?!?)

The deep freeze continued for day 3, so I lived the dream and wore two petticoats. I barely fit through doorways, and loved every minute of it. The best part: I hardly felt the wind through all the fluff! This is one of my new Jenny skirts, and I'm sort of obsessed.

Day 4

Skirt: Vivien of Holloway

Shirt: Gap, from high school (!!!)

Petticoat: Malco Modes Samantha in Ruby Red

Cardigan: That same Modcloth sweater from Days 1 & 2...

Sweater clips: Atomic Lucite
World's greatest combat boots: Seychelles, 4 years ago

If you read my review of this Vivien of Holloway skirt,  then you'll know that this might be one of my favorite red ensembles in recent memory. The boots I'm wearing here are a bit hard to see in the photo, but they're actually one of my favorite pairs of shoes. I've been a combat-boots sort of person ever since high school, when I saved up and got a pair of Doc Martens. Still have those Docs, in fact. While these Seychelles boots don't have a steel toe, they've been my go-to shorter boots since I bought them. 

By this point, it had returned to slightly more civilized temperatures, so I only wore one petticoat. If memory serves, I spent most of Day 4 twirling, and then picking up the things I'd knocked over. My red Samantha petticoat certainly got a workout this week, eh?

Day 5: To market, to market...

Cardigan: H&M

Shirt: Urban Outfitters, from over a decade ago

Skirt: Banana Republic

Brooch: Catty Ways Rebel Alliance insignia

Boots: Bogs

What kind of person needs two Rebel Alliance pins, you ask? ME. I had forgotten about this shirt, but found it while looking a completely different red shirt in my drawer and promptly decided to wear this one instead. I have a bad habit of not wearing favorite items of clothing because I'm petrified that they'll wear out. It's something I've noticed myself doing with the Seychelles boots in Day 4, for instance. There's probably a deeper psychological mechanism at work there, but that's not important right now. What is important is how lovely the flower display in the entrance of the grocery store was. It made for the perfect backdrop!

Day 6

Dress: Bernie Dexter Romance in red toile

Shoes: BAIT Footwear (see my Instagram for photos, because they are awesome shoes!)

Let me tell you a longwinded, detailed story with a foregone conclusion. I wanted this dress from the moment I first saw it, but because it was expensive, I decided to wait for it to go on sale. Mistake! It was on sale for a hot minute, and while I was thinking about whether I should order it during Christmas-shopping season, it sold out. I was crushed! After a few weeks, though, I checked the website again and it had come back in stock, which was especially fortuitous since Bernie Dexter had a 25% off sitewide sale at the time. I ran to the other room for my wallet and ordered it straight away. It arrived quite quickly, as Bernie Dexter shipments tend to do, and completely and utterly exceeded my expectations. Here is why this is the best dress ever: 

1) It fit as though it was made for me. 

2) The print is even prettier in person.

3) It's very comfortable.

4) It's basically made for petticoats.

5) It matches my ruby slippers perfectly.

6) It has long sleeves!

7) It has a scalloped hem.

I hope this dress comes out in more prints and colors, because I could seriously wear this cut every day for half the year.

Day 7: Love Day

Shirt: BeepBoopBeep Clothing, limited edition

Skirt: Gap, last year

Shoes: Gap

Brooch: The Sparkle Bakery (similar)

In my Valentine's-themed Wishlist Wednesday post, I mentioned that I'd gotten this shirt. I knew I wanted to wear it on Valentine's Day, but it really was a wrench having it for over a week without wearing it. Patience paid off, though, because I felt super festive in my punny Star Wars shirt and floral skirt.

Enjoying the novelty of being able to see my feet.

It snowed on Valentine's Day, but the snow very courteously waited until Jeff and I had completed an early-morning Trader Joe's run and I'd gone to the gym. Jeff and I are basically the opposite when it comes to holidays: while he's never been one to deviate from his normal routine just because Hallmark/a religion has declared that a particular day is special, I will literally take any excuse to celebrate and be festive. 

Despite this difference, we do agree on a couple of things about Valentine's Day. We both believe that love is something you should show all year round through actions, rather than with gifts on a single, arbitrarily-chosen day of the year. We both make gagging noises when we see those horrible Jared's/Kay Jewelers/Zales commercials. (Sidebar: there are less than 1,000 independent jewelers left in the US. Don't go to those awful mall shops. Instead, find an independent jeweler and support a true artisan. You'll get nicer pieces, too!) Finally, we both believe in the cosmic powers of cheese, charcuterie, sparkling wine, and chocolate. We don't typically exchange gifts for holidays or birthdays. Instead, we celebrate in a way that my great-grandmother would have approved of: we say it with food!

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I did get Jeff a present this year, but I bought it a month ago and only gave it to him on Valentine's Day to wind him up a bit. He really loved it, which was exciting. He brought it to sit on the back of the couch with us after dinner.

Jeff's hero. 

He put it next to the only other gift I've given him: a Sigmund Freud figurine.

Jeff had quite a bit of work to do, so we saved our annual Valentine's bacchanalia until dinnertime. We used to have bread and cheese for dinner fairly often, but  we haven't done it since our first night in our Chicago apartment, so I was giddy with excitement to indulge in a carb-y, cholesterol-filled calorie-fest for the first time since September 1. Let me tell you, it was 100% worth every minute of waiting!

Grapes, prosciutto, three kinds of cheese, bacon jerky, prosecco, radishes and green beans, bread, turkey salami, and assorted olives, all for two people! Don't worry, we gave it a good home... 

All in all, it was the most successful Valentine's Day yet, mostly because I decided to go hog-wild (quite literally, given the bacon jerky and prosciutto) and buy every food that caught my eye. I tend to drag Jeff down Memory Lane about once a month or so, but last night, we focused on the present and the future, and just enjoyed each other's company.

If you chose to celebrate, what did you do for Valentine's/Galentine's Day?

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