How to Stand Out at a Work Conference

I'm meeting some awesome personal finance bloggers at #FinCon12 this year (last year rocked, too), and there was no way I wanted to blend into the crowd. You too, my dear reader, can learn to stand out at your next work conference with these easy tips:

1. Wear bright colors. Obviously, this top counts, but I also wore two other dresses (here and here) this weekend in fun colors. (And you guessed it, they are both a part of my great knit dress collection).

2. Wear animal prints. Oh, leopard print linen pants from J. Crew, how I love you. Plus, I scored these beauties for $20 at a great sale.

3. Wear awesome glasses. These Warby Parker specs have gotten me more compliments than any other item of apparel I have ever owned. Yes, that was quite superlative in nature, but it's also accurate. Maybe I should try the monocle next.

 Downtown Denver view is more like track view.

I have a badge and everything. Totes Offish. Ew, I hate that I typed that. But backspacing is for quitters. Oh, and I was in an infographic for the conference, c/o the awesome guys at Budgetable. Look who's a "Rising Star." Hey, girl. Hey.

Old Navy top (exactly)

J. Crew pants (exactly)

Old Navy shoes (similar)

The Hit-On-Me Dress

Banana Republic dress (exactly)

Banana Republic boots (exactly)

Gap scarf (exactly)

TKO watch (similar)

On the way to work yesterday, wearing this dress, I thought, "I'll blog about how much I dig this dress!"

But as the day went on, I realized that THIS. DRESS. IS. AWESOME.

Y'all. Wearing this dress yesterday, I got hit on. For real. And not just a hollering cat-call, but a bonafide I'm-hitting-on-you line.

Now, I'm happily married. But even a married woman likes a little extra recognition. So this is now my hit-on-me dress. It makes me feel amazing. Sure, it's just a dress, but I think there's a few key points here. And on we go:

1. Find a dress that really (really) flatters your figure. I'm just a little hippy, and this dress hugs me perfectly so as not to emphasize my hips (I'm lookin' at you, empire waists), but to make my curves look proportionate.
2. Find a dress in a color that works. I don't think I have anything else in this color, and I don't know why. Against my fair skin, it's great. And for the Fall, it's greater.
3. Find a dress that leaves plenty to the imagination. This one hits just above the knees and has a pretty conservative neckline. It's much more Katie Couric than Kim Kardashian, and I think that's what makes it work.
4. Find a dress that shows off your best features. I dig my arms (and will dig them more as I get farther along in my race training). The only thing that would make this dress more perfect is if it showed off my shoulders.

I probably should go buy this dress in every color I can find.

Tell me about your hit-on-me dress.

How I feel at first when guys hit on me.

Then I'm all like, "That was interesting!"

Ahem.

I'm feeling rather wordless today.

I wore this outfit to a work breakfast. It was hosted by the women from Daily Worth, and it was all about women in finance (specifically about how to market to them). Most of the women there worked in financial services or marketing firms, and many of them were dressed pretty fancy, I'd say. A step up from business casual.

If you know me, you know that I work at a start-up (it's several years old, but a start-up nonetheless). And if you know anything about start-up culture, you know it tends to be more... um... casual. This outfit is about as dressed up as it gets (unless our founders have fancy meetings).

But for the breakfast, I decided to "dress up." And this is what I came up with. What can I say? I guess I enjoy the start-up culture too much to take on pumps and suits everyday.

MNG blazer (from Spain), Gap top, Old Navy Rockstar jeans, Target flats, gifted (from Venice) scarf

Surprise

Guess what?

Come on, guess!

Gap top, jeans & City Flats, Homako necklace

OK, I'll tell you.

I'm blogging from my home state of South Carolina! (Admittedly, these photos were taken in SF. No, my parents home isn't identical to mine.)

My dad and I pulled off a great surprise for my mom: me showing up to hang out for a long weekend visit. Dad picked me up at the Charlotte airport (it's much cheaper) and after a huge traffic jam, followed by a detour, we made it home to surprise my mom, who was really excited.

She's a teacher, so I wanted to make sure to make it back to visit before her semester started. I'm looking forward to our shopping trip tomorrow! (You'd better believe Target will be one stop.)

I had the chance during my travels to try out my new NOOK, which I'm really enjoying. Has anyone read The Hunger Games? The sub-$5 price on Barnes & Noble convinced me to try it, after several recommendations from friends. I'll let you know what I think.

Conte's Gluten Free Margherita Pizza Review

This is what I look like when I wait till I get home from work to snap my outfit photos:

Target dress, gifted cardigan, F21 belt, bracelets & necklace, Old Navy boots 

That first one is rough, I'm tellin' you. Out of a total eight photos taken, these two were the only salvageable ones. But I'm not here to talk about the bags under my eyes (particularly since it's Friday, y'all!), I'm here to talk about this:

Conte's Gluten and Wheat Free Margherita Pizza

I picked this Conte's pizza up the other day while I was browsing at Whole Foods. (Darn you, Whole Foods. You always convince me to buy things I wouldn't otherwise.)

It wasn't cheap. Maybe $9 for a 3-4 serving pizza. Not too shabby, but not great either.

But it is gluten-free, and that's the point. Gluten-free products are often more expensive. So I was willing to give it a shot for an easy weeknight dinner (accompanied by a spinach and mixed-greens salad, of course).

The pizza baked true to the package instructions. I left it in for a few minutes more, which is typical for my oven, so I wasn't surprised. What I was really impressed by was the crust. Very crispy, thin and satisfying for a gluten-free crust (well, for any crust). The part I didn't love? The gobs of sauce. I know it's a margherita pizza and the point is the sauce and the cheese, but the sauce was applied a little heavy-handed.

All in all? Pretty good! Now I'm just waiting to find a good gluten-free, dairy-free frozen pizza. I never really stock up on frozen pizzas in the first place, but occasionally they're nice to have around. Especially on a baggy-eyes work day.

Days 2-6 and My Debut at Herbst Theatre (It Pays to Have Musical Friends)

Shopping temptation radar (days 2-6): 0! (It helps that I'm between paychecks and wouldn't have the cash to spend if I wanted to.)

I've been a little M.I.A. lately, but for good reason. Involving medical stuff you don't need to know about.

I'm better now, thanks!

I had a delightful weekend. You'll see some more pictures from it later.

So, just to update you, I did manage to go for a run on Friday. Saturday the hubs and I did a lot of walking around with our neighbor, so I'm counting that as my exercise for the day. And yesterday (Sunday) I worked a half marathon, loading and unloading boxes and carting them to and fro.

Today I was less-than-thrilled about some frustrating stuff at work, so I went for a quick run before heading home. It was perfect because by the time I got home the hubs was too hungry to wait for me to cook dinner, so we went for Turkish food. Yum! In fact, we still have some baklava that we got "to go" waiting to be eaten.

Anyhoo, this was Friday's work outfit. Unfortunately, I rarely wear this merino wool sweater. Mainly because it's a bit too form-fitting. But it's a great basic piece. I just need to find more ways to incorporate it into my wardrobe.

 Banana Republic sweater, gifted tank, Gap jeans, Old Navy scarf, old necklace, Madden boots

Some awesome news I got today? I get to sing with this orchestra while they accompany this musician in a couple of weeks. I'm amazingly honored to be asked and so excited to participate.

When I'm 64...

...or 53.

A friend of mine just shared this link with me. Have you heard of Inès de la Fressange? I hadn't before just a few moments ago. She's 53. Yes, 53. And she's still stellar model and runway walker. 

She's quite the lady to admire.

Old Navy top (it's an XL), tank, and scarf; gifted jeans; Toms shoes

I especially love some of the fashion advice at the end of the article. Check it out:

"Wear two scarves, one on top of the other. This works equally well with two T-shirts, two blazers, two belts."

"Team your old worn-out denim jacket with a silk blouse."