creative hair day

tee, Banana Republic Factory Store

Worthington skirt, JcPenney's

       Whew ... it feels so delightful to wear "real" clothes again. Last week was Bike Ed, which meant I spent 45 minutes outside each day and wore shorts a lot to deal with the heat.
        It's Spirit Week at school! I used spray-on color to put a few bright blue streaks in my hair to celebrate Creative Hair Day on Monday. I liked the blue streak better than I thought, so much so that I wondered for a bit whether I'd want to dye a streak into my hair. Not sure whether I'd get tired of it, however, and with dark hair I know I'd end up doing some heavy, hair-damaging bleaching.

     Fall intersession is only a few days away, which means my thoughts have turned to fun, creative projects that have nothing to do with work. I'm looking forward to doing some reading, baking, and maybe even making a tassel necklace. I also found a lovely little wood-and-glass terrarium at Ross on Sunday that I'd like to set up.
    What's something you're excited about doing in October?

pencil skirts: Worthington vs. Liz Claiborne

      Our bricks-and-mortar JcPenney's closed down quite a while ago, but I got curious about their pencil skirts - I've been wanting to add a few patterned skirts to my collection. A discount code knocked the sale price down even further (I paid about $20 for each skirt), so I decided to purchase a few and try them on.
      A gripe: sizing charts are just about useless. First off, it's a generic standard chart - but in reality, any department store stocks a multitude of brands, all with different fits.
      Here I'm wearing the Worthington belted sateen pencil skirt (size 4) in the thrive print:

   The fit is a bit straighter than my beloved Calvin Klein pencil skirt, but not intolerably so. The skirt also seems to be longer, but that's an easy thing to fix, particularly since it's unlined.

Best representation of the color

PROS

•  it's cotton!
•  I know, I know, I know ... petites are supposed to wear small prints. But I happen to love splashy almost-abstract prints like this one - are they hearts? flowers? 
•  Nice mix of colors - the print contains white, gray, black, teal, and a light green, which will make it versatile.

CONS

• I was surprised to see that it's not lined, but the fabric feels thick enough (and the print is busy enough) that I'm not really worried about show-through.   

     I purchased a Liz Claiborne cotton pencil skirt in the same size for comparison:

My best meh face

   
         I like my pencil skirts to hit me at my natural waist, but this is sitting on my hips.

Slightly happier now that I've pinched it in the back so it sits properly

      I was so unsure about the sizing that I actually ordered this beautiful skirt (also a Liz Claiborne) in a size 6 (even more pinching required!)

PROS: 

• it's cotton
• it's lined
• it comes in a great variety of colors and prints

CONS:

• they don't make one size down, which is the size that would fit me properly. 

VERDICT: My mom tried on the coral skirt and it fits her, so I'm giving that one to her and keeping the Worthington skirt for myself. I loved the print on the blue skirt so much that I considered for a moment keeping it and altering it, but ultimately decided to not add to my growing pile of clothing that needs fixing. Now I wish that I had ordered a petite pencil skirt or two to compare the fit (the Art Deco-ish print on this one caught my eye).