HOLIDAY LACE&GRACE

I found this black lace dress at Macys and it was love at first try-on. It reminded me of this gorgeous black lace dress that Tien has, but that I can't get a hold of because there are no H&Ms in Houston. GRRRR. Well, this was the next best thing, and I wore it to my company's holiday party this past weekend!

I love the long sleeves, the beautiful black lace, and the kicky tulle lining under the skirt. It fit so wonderfully, and even though I wore it with an all-black ensemble, some light makeup, baubles, and shiny heels ensured that I looked like myself and not like some strange wannabe goth AmyK (because I left those days in high school, kids, and I don't ever want to revisit them).

'victorian loves lace' dress, free people [x] [x]

black tights, hue

patent peeptoe mary janes, cole haan

monocle necklace, gift

faceted glacon bracelet, j.crew

pave heart ring, coach

And I think Boyfriend must be starved for some proper blog attention because here's what I found after taking a detail shot for you guys:


Sneaky devil. But he also got gussied up for the holiday party, so it's only fair that I show off his ensemble as well:


Yup.

And finally, at the end of the night, Boyfriend and I found ourselves alone on the roof of the parking garage overlooking Houston's glorious skyline. So what do we do? We take pictures like this:


I don't know what I'm saluting, though. Holiday cheer?

apologies! and a very, very late holiday dress update

READERS! It has been too long since I've posted, and too long since I've kept up with all the lovely blogs I follow! I'm terribly sorry for unexpectedly going MIA. With Christmas coming up (eeeek!) I've been rushing around after work taking care of shopping and other Christmas-related chaos. I'm sure most of you have been doing the same, too!

Here's the way overdue look at my original holiday party dress, the Crinkle Cascade dress from J.Crew (now on sale for $99!):

worn with:
bordeaux tights, Hue
Polly heels, Tahari
glass gem necklace, J.Crew Outlet
gold bangle, F21
cluster ring, J.Crew

I got this dress in a size 4 and it fit like a dream. It's completely true to size. For a shortie like me, the length was still modest, but I'd imagine that on taller gals, this frock may be a little too mini.

I ended up changing dresses at the last minute to the Garnet Satin Sheath Dress from White House Black Market because my company's party venue changed at the last minute to an unheated location. Layering a cardigan over the J.Crew dress proved fashionably ridiculous, so I ended up sporting the red dress to the party instead. The red dress was super fun, so I wasn't too torn up about the last-minute change in attire:

worn with:
xhilaration gray tights, Target
stripe lace tights, Urban Outfitters
Polly heels, Tahari
glass gem necklace, J.Crew Outlet
gold bangle, F21
cluster ring, J.Crew

I wore a black cardigan over the dress for most of the night, which is obviously not pictured here. And see the BF's outfit? I picked out everything except for the shoes. He had to look "dress up" appropriate, but the BF is a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, so I opted to dress him up as casually as possible. He's wearing a dress-down-able (yes, that's a word now) gingham shirt, a charcoal v-neck sweater, a knit tie, and heathered brown slacks. He ended up loving the entire look, noting that it's "surprisingly comfortable." See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Might I dare say that he's kind of excited about after-Christmas shopping with me for new additions to his currently 6-item wardrobe?

holiday party dress, take 2

You may or may not remember, dear readers, but tomorrow is my company's holiday par-tay. And I say par-tay because a) I'm super hip (no I'm not) and b) there is a 99.9% chance of drunken karaoke involved. It is an unspoken understanding around these parts that when you add "drunken" to "karaoke," the par-ty is automatically elevated to par-tay status. Especially since there are rumors that my company's founder got up on stage and did a far-too-accurate rendition of "Insane in the Membrane" at the last party (sorry, par-tay), I can only speculate on the kind of holiday shindig my company throws.

That being said, the attire is still "cocktail," so even for a night of booze and nerdy white guys doing angry rap covers, I'm still expected to dress nice. Which I have absolutely no problem with. If you knew me, you'd know that I am game for any excuse to buy a new dress. Examples of previous excuses include the following:

- girl's night out

- hot date

- dinner party

- it's Wednesday

- full moon expected that night

- sneezed 3 times in a row

That being said, procuring a dress for the holiday party tomorrow proved to be way more frustrating than it should ever be to buy a dress. First, I tried on a bajillion (actual figures!) dresses at Anthropologie, but because of my stump-tacular stature, they were all either too long or just hit at the wrong spots. Then I went to Nordstrom and looked at frocks there, but nothing worked out. I decided that I hate the fact that my bum is a good 2 sizes bigger than my upper body, making most dresses that didn't have an A-line cut impossible to fit into.

I finally settled on J.Crew's Crinkle Cascade Dress, which I loved. I bought it in black plum, and found that it was brown on arrival. Sad face. So I exchanged it for black and all was well... for a while. No worries, though, I did manage to snap some pictures, which will be posted soon.

BUT THEN the news came. Our party location was being moved from a climate-controlled venue to a non-heated venue. Read: it will be way too cold for bare shoulders, especially since the venue is little more than an industrial warehouse. I freaked out a bit because the poofiness of the crinkle cascade dress doesn't really lend itself to be layered underneath anything. Or at least, it can't be layered under anything I already own without me looking like I have a really good sense of humor. So it's going back to J.Crew next week.

Luckily, White House Black Market saved me from having to arrive at the par-tay in the buff. During a frantic last-minute rush to the mall last night, I found this beauty in WHMB:

Garnet Satin Sheath Dress, White House Black Market [x]

Hel-looo, dress! It fit like a dream, and the little pleats on the bodice are super flattering and make me look itty-bitty in the waist. Nice! I took my usual size 4 with no fuss. It even slipped on quite well over my bum without being clingy. There were quite a few pretty little dresses at the store, but I went with the only non-white and non-black one there, haha... I like that the red isn't of the HEY LOOKIT ME I'M WEARING RED variety, too. I'd describe it as an almost velvet-y looking shade of red in real life.

I'll be wearing sheer black tights with these layered over them to cover my little legs:

Blair Open Crochet Tights, Urban Outfitters [x]

Sorry for the lack of an OOTD today. I hit snooze too many times and rushed out the door. Siiiigh.

crinkle cascade, you are divine

Your order from J.Crew has shipped.

YIPPEE!!! Holiday party season is right around the corner, and you know what pretty little frock I have headed my way? This beauty:

Crinkle cascade dress, J.Crew [x]

I tried it on in the store last weekend, and the BF gave it a big ol' thumbs up. I was worried it would look too twee and cupcake-y, but the tie sash does a surprisingly effective job at reigning those tiers in. It fits TTS, as I took my usual size 4 in it. I'm a short gal, so the dress hit slightly below the knee rather than right above the knee as seen on the model here. My store didn't carry it in the black plum color (pictured), so I ordered it through the red phone. I can't wait for it to arrive! SQUEEEE!!! Gimme gimme nowwwww!

I'm going to hit up Anthropologie this weekend to scope out some other potential holiday party dresses. Thank goodness for J.Crew's 90-day return window. I'm also charged with the duty of picking something stellar for my lives-in-a-t-shirt-and-jeans date. I don't know whether I'm more excited to pick out my dress or his outfit. Finally, my subscriptions to Esquire and GQ may come in handy!

I hope you're all super excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow! I better get turkey. Or else I'll be miffed.

UPDATE: One of my wonderful commenters, sweetsy, brought it to my attention that the Cascade Crinkle Dress is now $178, down from the $250 it was just yesterday! Weirdly, it's not marked as being on sale. It appears that the price just dropped for no reason at all. What's with that, J.Crew? Not cool at all! My suspicion is that J.Crew realized it was too pricey and decided to reduce the price, but didn't mark it as a sale item because of the "extra 20% off sale items" promotion going on right now. Hiiiiiiighly suspect! Needless to say, I called customer service right away and got a nice price adjustment. Thanks, sweetsy! This blogging community is the best, and I'm so happy to be part of it and have such wonderful readers!