Shopping Buddies

Confession: I love a good online shopping spree. Since I normally stick to my tried and true brands and stores, I almost always successfully choose the right size and style without having to see it in person. However, there's nothing quite like the shopping experience. I love taking my time wandering through a store feeling everything and picturing outfits. Most of my favorite stores are just as much about the smell and feel of the store as they are about they clothes they sell. Unless I am by myself (which is wonderful in it's own way), my shopping experience has a lot to do with who I'm with.  Some people are just better shopping buddies than others. 

My mom happens to be one of my favorite shopping buddies. The great thing about her is that she never makes the situation more serious than it is. If I get tangled up in a dress that is slowly smothering me in the dressing room, we can laugh about it while she untangles me. We just take it as proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. In fact, at Nordstrom Rack a few weeks ago I convinced her to try on a pair of boots. After getting them on we discovered that the leather had suctioned to her leg and was not going to come off easily. She stood there freaking out as I used all my body weight to pull at them. We started laughing so hard that I had no more strength and ended up just sitting right in the middle of the aisle laughing at her. When I finally got them off (nearly flying halfway down the aisle) we decided that the boots happened to be very evil. I wouldn't let her walk away without trying a better pair. You can't let those things ruin the experience or discourage you. They might just turn out to be one of your best shopping memories. In the end we found the perfect pair of boots that didn't try to cut off her circulation. 

When I come out in a too tight, too short, too everything kind of dress she will quickly say, "Dear Lord Jesus that dress looks way too good on you. Your father would have a heart attack." It's always the clothes' fault, never my body's. We never walk out hating our bodies. Instead, we walk out laughing about how horrible the dress was or evil those boots were. 

Roll with the punches, take a good shopping buddy, and never allow yourself to leave feeling like something is wrong with your body. Most importantly, learn to laugh at yourself! 

Proverbs 31:25

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.

The Comfy Pants

So, I'm totally doing the college girl thing this year and loving it. I live with a couple girls in what we lovingly refer to as the "Barbie Dream Apartment". Chocolate is an official food group, we have a tiffany blue wall, and most nights are spent in our sweats watching Grey's Anatomy. Livin' the life! Now that I have you all super jealous (right?) I will move on to the moral of my story. The other morning the BF came up to visit me. When he got here I texted one of my roomies, "Seth is here.... so dress accordingly." If it was just me I wouldn't really think twice about her walking around in a towel, or jammies, or whatever she felt like wearing on that Sunday morning, but Seth changed the rules. It was no longer just our girl haven of comfort and closeness. All of a sudden there were fashion guidelines that had to be followed to avoid an awkward encounter. 

Earlier in the week, we were talking about how funny some social rules are. For example, if Seth and I went to the beach and I wore a bathing suit it would be perfectly normal, yes? No one would give me funny looks or whisper under their breath. However, if my roomie would have come out on that chilly Sunday morning to see me in my kitchen making breakfast for Seth while in a bathing suit that would definitely inspire looks and whispers. It makes me feel funny just imagining it. Same outfit, different situation. It truly does matter. 

It is perfectly acceptable and actually preferred for me to wear one of Seth's old soccer shirts and my comfiest pj pants when we hunker down for a six episode marathon of Grey's. However, when Seth drove down to buy me ice cream and walk around museums it would have been really odd for me to stay in that outfit. Same outfit, different situation. Catching my drift? One of the most important keys to successful dressing is dressing for the occasion and the goal. If your goal is to watch a whole season of Grey's anatomy, share a bag of dark chocolate chips, and paint your nails with your roomie then by all means get those comfy pants on as fast as you physically can. If your goal is to remind your boyfriend that the long distance thing is totally worth it because you just so happen to be future first lady material then the cute floral dress and boots are the way to go, even if he still thinks you look cute in the comfy pants. So, know what your day looks like and what you want to accomplish & then dress accordingly. 

A Pink Bow

So, as some of you may know, my mommy is currently in Cambodia on a mission's trip. She is ministering to women and children involved in sex slavery and everyone else she lies her eyes on really. I'm super proud of her, and really jealous that she is there without me. In typical fashion, she is having all sorts of wild adventures. More importantly though, she is having major God encounters, which you can read about in her blog here. She met a little girl with Down's Syndrome living in an HIV village. She didn't even have a name, she was clearly being abused, and she was mute. Well, my mom prayed, named her Esther, and she spoke! Voila!!! Just like that. How great is our God? 

She went back to visit her a few days ago and brought her a small pink hair bow along with some other completely rational items. Now, being a girl who loves a good hair bow the thought of that really got to my heart. I can only imagine the look of pure joy on her face over something as simple as that pink bow. That little girl had only ever been constantly reminded of how imperfect, unworthy, and low everyone thought she was... but our God does not see her that way at all. That little pink bow says, "You are pretty. You are loved. You deserve to stand out." I realize that Esther needs and deserves far more rational things and I'm confident that God will work through my mom and the rest of the team there to give her all of that. However, I love that our God is an extravagant God that cares about far more than our stomachs needing food or our heads needing pillows. Our God cares that as girls we desire to be pretty and special. He longs to dress us in royal garbs and seat us by His side. After all, we are daughters of the king are we not?

I hope this blog inspires you to pray for Esther or those little girls God has placed in your life to be an example of His love. My prayer for Esther and for all of you is that you will learn to walk in the abundance of God's love and realize His call that has been placed on your life to SHINE... & then that you would dress accordingly (the order is important).

My prayer:

That you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

Philippians 2:15

Turn the other Chic

The days I feel the best dressed is when I'm wearing things that just scream, "Megan!" You know those pieces that my best friend or mom see in a store and say, "This just looks like it belongs in your closet." I love those days when I know that I successfully dressed accordingly.

One of my most favorite, albeit sometimes frustrating, things about clothes is that they wear differently on everyone. Although we are basically the same size, if I were to wear my best friend's mostly black wardrobe it just wouldn't fit. Similarly, I would probably giggle if she donned one of my ultra frilly dresses. All this to say, I have an appreciation for many a fashion muse. Some share my look and inspire me by rockin' it harder than I do. Others, while wearing something I would look silly in, simply inspire me with their loyalty to who they are and what their look is. 

One of my current muses is the chic-to-death Olivia Palermo. At first, I liked her because I wanted to be hair twins. Very quickly I became enamored by her ultra classic and crisp while still soft and sweet look. Although she has been known to sport a mini skirt every once in a while, she always succeeds in dressing to flatter her killer figure not to simply show as much of it as possible. Now, that's a skill we can all respect. 

I'll dub her queen of "turning the other chic". Her look is achieved by sticking mostly to the classics. Her silhouettes are simple and her accessorizing is never overdone. All this said, my favorite thing is that she doesn't shy away from a statement piece. Wouldn't I just love to make a huge fur vest or animal print shorts look effortless??

What does she say her secret is? Confidence!

Read over this blog of hers I stumbled upon today. Sounds eerily familiar right? Oh, OP I knew we were meant to be twins.  

The moral of this fashion story: figure out what your look is! If you can't think of it right away look over magazines or Pinterest and see what catches your eye. There's no harm in studying and recreating someone else's look. You know what they say, imitation is the                                      sincerest form of flattery darling.

 

Moments of Insecurity

No matter how beautiful or confident you are, you will have those days when you wake up and feel the very opposite of beautiful and confident. I was extremely blessed to be raised in an environment where compliments were abundant and true confidence was taught. However, I am not immune to the insecurity bug. Today was one of those mornings. It was one of those login to Facebook, see a picture I was tagged in, and wonder "does my face really look like that" kind of mornings. So what do you do when insecurity slaps you in the face on an early Monday morning? For most of us, all we want to do is give up, put on sweats, avoid the mirror(or any people for that matter), and get back into bed to wait until we feel pretty again. Is this helpful? Probably not. Was this even possible for me today? No. I mean the new Taylor Swift cd is waiting for me at Target!!!! Come on people! So what can a girl do? 

My arsenal is twofold when I come face to face with this kind of enemy. 

1. This morning I read in Galations that we are clothed in Christ. Now, I realize that this verse has absolutely nothing to do with actual clothing, which is why  I love it. Insecurity is deeper than our looks. It is good to remember that our spiritual wardrobe comes straight from Christ. I had to remind myself that God created me with all my quirks and "imperfections" and He said "it is good". Beauty is so much more about how you carry yourself. I walk a little taller knowing that God placed me where I am right smack dab in the middle of a bunch of people who love me. Insecurity is pulled out by the roots when you get to the heart of the matter. KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!! 

2. I once found some shockingly profound advice in a book by Bobbi Brown on teen beauty. Essentially she was giving advice to teens on what to do when they wake up with that huge zit right between their eyes.  She recommended not obsessing over the zit. Poking and prodding would only make it worse and prolong it. Just as staring at your face in the magnifying mirror and dissecting every little flaw will only cause your insecurity to be inflamed. Instead, she said to put on your prettiest eye shadow, double up on mascara, and force people to be so entranced by your eyes that the zit pales in comparison. I don't think that makeup is the answer. I even resisted the urge to put on makeup this morning. I do, however, think that accentuating the positive can cause the negative shrink into the background. Putting on that new shirt, doing that super cute braid you just learned on Pinterest, or wearing your special occasion perfume on this utterly normal day can only help to remind you of the confidence you have access to. So by all means take off those sweats, remind yourself who you were created to be, & DRESS ACCORDINGLY!! 

The Dress

You all have those one or two items in your closet that hold a certain memory or feeling for you. I, especially, associate my clothes with events or how I was feeling when that item was the newbie in my closet. Some people do this with music or smells. For me, however, it is clothes. There is a particular dress that makes me just giddy when I look at it. 

I was 15 and it was 2008. Seth Morrison had just asked me to homecoming, which was in two weeks. I was completely out of my mind excited because I never thought I was going to get to do all those "high school" things that my unique approach to school didn't include. On the other hand, didn't he know a girl like me needed way longer than two weeks to pick out the perfect dress?????? Thankfully, my mom knew before me and had scouted out a dress that she said, "just looked like it belonged to me". So off we went to Anthropologie, a store she had previously avoided me discovering. Immediately I knew I had found my own personal style haven. There were no mini skirts or tacky polyester shirts in sight. Things were classic, lovely, and modest! The Anthropologie girl was something I could relate too. She didn't have to wear low cut shirts or too tight pants to be pretty and attractive. Thus began a romance still thriving to this day. Needless to say the dress was perfect. It was classy and covered everything it was supposed to. It had polka dots and a bow to keep it fun. Most importantly, when I put it on all I wanted to do was twirl. That's when you know it's right.

Fast forward to the night of homecoming. I felt like a princess in my perfect, polka dot dress. He gasped when he saw me so that had to mean something right? As his parents drove us up to the school I caught glimpses of the other girls all dolled up. Then it hit me. This was a HIGH SCHOOL HOMECOMING! Classy and refined was not exactly their goal. Some of their "dresses" had to have been meant to be shirts. Everything was skin tight and definitely not from Anthropologie. I panicked. Do I look like a gramma? Should I have gotten a sequined, mini dress? Thankfully the freak out was momentary. I remembered that I was not a sequined, mini dress girl. He hadn't asked me because he was expecting me to be one either. I had confidence because I knew who I was and I had dressed myself accordingly. So I gathered up my courage, put a smile on my face, and walked into the dance arm in arm with someone who actually liked me better for being an Anthropologie girl. I twirled all night and for the second time that week, thus began a romance still thriving to this day. 

1 Timothy 2:9

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control...

Dress Accordingly

There are a small handful of things that I get very passionate about when they come up in conversation. Two of them happen to be: faith and fashion. One might think that these two really have nothing to do with each other. I do agree that our feelings about fashion do not affect our salvation or our view of God. However, our view of God(and ourselves) do shape our feelings toward everything, including fashion. Yay fashion! 

I believe that God is an artistic God and we are made in his image. For some, they express this characteristic through your typical artsy endeavors e.g. music, painting, photography. All of these expressions are beautiful and talents I often envy. However, I was born with the God-given desire to express creativity through clothing. I say this is God-given because I was definitely not taught to have this particular passion. Just ask my mommy. I came out with a very clear view of what I wanted to wear and what was absolutely not going to be put onto my body (I don't care if you are 1,000 times bigger and stronger than me). So, thankfully my mom learned to appreciate my desire to wear plastic heels and tiaras and hopped on board to cultivate my passion into something that reflected the girl she was raising me to be. There are many muses and fashion rules (most are from my mother or Coco Chanel) that my wardrobe has been shaped by. In this blogging adventure I will share these with you along with shopping adventures and all things outfits. If I were to pick one rule that forms my fashion foundation it would be the following: 

Epictetus was a Greek philosopher. See fashion can be deep too!! You might be wondering, "How again do clothes have anything to do with faith other than being 'artsy'?" Well, this quote says it all. As Christian ladies we must know first, who we are in Christ. Who did He create us to be? Where has He placed us? What has He called us to do? Figuring out the answers to these questions must come first, and then we simply.... dress accordingly.