Wearing o’ the green

This past weekend was busy, busy, busy! I have friends who have an Irish rock band, so the evenings around St. Patrick’s Day are usually jam-packed. Additionally, my birthday was Saturday, and that added to the social whirlwind!

On Friday, it warmed up enough that I briefly retired the brown down and snow boots and wore a trench and my Frye engineer boots instead.

Ignore the snow- spring is coming!

I’m so looking forward to all that snow being out of the picture and watching that sad and barren rose bush come back to life!

Cyser and cider

Later that night I met up with some friends for dinner and drinks before heading out to see the band play.

Sad about some disappointing manchego

I’ve been trying to add a little more variety to my accessories, because I do dress somewhat plainly. The scarf is a relatively new purchase. I’ve resisted scarves because they just seem so fussy. I told my friend on Friday that “I don’t really know how to scarf.” This one has some of my favorite colors and it’s a nice way to add some seasonal green for St. Pat’s, but not look like a leprechaun. And yes, that’s really the only decent picture I have of myself from that night. (I really need to get better at that.)

On Saturday, I met a friend for lunch in Ann Arbor at the wonderful Zingerman’s Delicatessan. Zingerman’s happened to open on my 11th birthday, so I say it’s the best birthday present I ever got!

#23 Mary’s Commute with both an old and a new pickle and a slice of hummingbird cake

I always order the same sandwich at Zingerman’s, the Mary’s Commute. It’s chicken salad, made with hand torn Amish chicken, just the right amount of onion and mayo, and applewood smoked bacon on challah. I would marry that sandwich if it wasn’t against the laws of man and nature! I’m faithful to my sandwich, but not my pickle so when asked “Old or new pickle?” I always answer, with a sheepish, “Can I get both?” New pickles are crisper and more cucumber-y. Old pickles are complex, briny and garlicky.

And because it was my birthday, I got a piece of hummingbird cake!

The hill is starting to wear green, too!

I slipped and fell while dancing on Friday night, and turned my ankle pretty badly. So not only was I sticking with running shoes, but I was trying to keep my weight off my foot. I was registered for a 5K on Sunday, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen. I wore this pretty, but not really seasonally appropriate shirt to lunch, to church, to a St. Patrick’s Day party at the church, then to the Gaelic League in Detroit for drinks and music.

The Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day is the date of the annual Detroit St. Patrick’s Day Parade, or as it’s better known in Corktown, “Parade Day.” Corktown is Detroit’s oldest neighborhood and is named after County Cork, where most of the settling residents originated from. It’s one of several renaissance areas in Detroit and is home to many cool bars and restaurants.

Awesome Irish rock band, Bill Grogan’s Goat

I spent most of the day parked in front of this stage at PJ’s Lager House. PJ’s is one of my favorite places to see live, local music. Besides being a genuine rock club, they have a great staff (fantastic sound engineer), and on Saturdays and Sundays serves up one of the best vegan brunches in the area. On Parade Day, though, it’s a “limited menu, limited bar, cash only” kind of day.

We also went to the first distillery to open in Detroit since Prohibition, Two James Spirits. Had some lovely bourbon, met some lovely young men. When one of them identified his hat as celebrating the “Oregon State Beavers” I had to have a picture taken in it.

But really, GO DUCKS!

That lovely cheetah-print top is actually a CuddlDuds thermal shirt. It was 28 degrees on Sunday and I paired my All Ireland kilt with long underwear and wool socks, because that’s how I do Parade Day.

So, so tired

Today, I am dealing with the after effects of three straight days of celebrating, so my St. Patrick’s Day evening is going to be spent doing laundry in my pajamas. But today I wore my gorgeous scarf with all black.

How did you do your green today?

Sunny day blue and gray

I am not at all blue or gray about today’s weather. It’s above 30 degrees and it’s sunny, so I am pretty nigh on ecstatic!

But today’s outfit is shades of blue and gray. I think this is my favorite outfit of the week.

I seriously don’t know what to do with my hands in pictures.

Work is fairly casual all the time, but I tend to wear jeans only on Fridays. In spite of that, I own a lot of jeans. My current 40 piece wardrobe is 10% jeans. These are my current favorites and I got them at Kohl’s. It can be really hard to find pants that fit and look good when you’re at the top of straight sizes, but the low end of plus sizes. I carry most of my excess fat in my belly, but I don’t have large hips. So pants that fit my waist usually look ridiculous on my hips. And don’t even get me started on low waist pants for larger sizes. Why is this a thing that exists? I shop in both misses’ and women’s departments and will try on dozens of pants trying to find the right fit. And most of the time, I’m still not happy. I think this pair from Sonoma Life+Style fit me pretty well (that’s also the store/brand of the corduroys I wore yesterday).

The navy hoodie is BCBG and is very, very old. It’s a rayon/spandex sweater knit, so it seems a little more elevated than your standard sweatshirt hoodie. Also, the lack of pockets makes for a sleeker look. The tee is Mossimo from Target. I love their lightweight long-sleeved tees for winter layering.

And I have to talk about those clogs for a minute. I got them at DSW a couple of years ago. BOC leather “Peggy” clogs on clearance for under $25. Comfy, casual and great with jeans. (Though I do have a tendency to subconsciously clop my feet a little more loudly on linoleum- Riverdance, here I come!).

The warmer weather means I didn’t have to wear a hat today and I totally took advantage by adding this scarf for a little pattern in a similar color. I don’t often wear scarves, but I like this one.

Now I just need to get out of the office!

What’s in a name?

When I started this blog, I really only had one thought: “I want to start a blog and it’s primarily going to be about my clothes.” Unfortunately, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to things like a name or a tagline.

After some brief brainstorming, I thought, “Well, my outfits are pretty ordinary, so let’s call it ordinary outfits. But make it in French, because what says ‘fashion’ more than French?” So the blog became Mon Tendues Ordinaire. Then 20+ year old memories of French class and grammar rules flashed back and it became Mes Tendues Ordinaires. The tagline was “The title’s in French, so you know it’s fancy.” I thought that was cute, because of the juxtaposition of “ordinary” and “fancy.”

But I got to thinking. I follow several fashion blogs with French names. For one thing, did I want to look like I was aping more experienced bloggers? And for another, my “cute” tagline could be seen as mocking those bloggers, which was certainly never my intention. I’m a technical writer by training and trade, so I decided to go for a more “plain English” approach.

Ordinary Outfits.

It’s what I wear. It’s who I am.

Inspiration comes in the most far-flung places

I follow a blog called The Rich Life (on a budget), and the author has a monthly call for photo submissions titled “How I wear my…” The theme for March was boots. The post went live today and most of the people featured are wearing lovely riding boots and ankle boots. Very stylish! Not very practical for my locale, though.

We got another 4.5″ of snow overnight on March 1st, so I took a “How I wear my boots” picture on March 2nd, just for fun.

Contemplating my snow boots

I bought my Ahnu “Northridge” snow boots in mid-January and have worn them nearly every day since then. We’re having a one of the worst winters on record in southeast Michigan and I desperately needed something practical (warm, waterproof and good tread). These babies are comfortable, cute and it’s the first winter since 2007 that I haven’t slipped and fallen on the ice, so there’s that!

I wouldn’t normally wear a corduroy jacket with a corduroy skirt (What’s the corduroy equivalent of a “Canadian tuxedo?”), but the plum of the jacket really played up the deep wine color of my boots. I wore fleece lined tights (with wool hiking socks) to make the skirt more weather appropriate. The striped tee shirt is from Target. The skirt is from Kohl’s and features a tone-on-tone floral pattern. The flower pin was purchased at the local farmer’s market, and is made of felted angora from an old sweater. The leather cuff bracelet is a favorite piece purchased from KT Leather Designs at the Michigan Renaissance Festival.

But for how I really wear my boots, we have to consider outerwear.

All bundled up

My signature look for winter is “brown down.” I got the coat as a Christmas present from my parents in 2009. It was purchased from Land’s End and was intended to protect me from the elements when I was traveling to northern Utah for work. It’s great for travel because it compresses to slightly larger than a loaf of bread. Occasionally, it also serves as extra cushion on seats at local historic theaters and an impromptu down comforter. I finished off my look with some hand-knit accessories- my beloved lamb’s wool and mohair Fair Isle earflap hat, and a scarf of my own design. I’m tall, but I have a short neck; so while my scarf is only four inches wide, it’s about eight feet of a luxurious wool/silk/cashmere blend in a lovely rosewood color.

I’m ready for the stuff in the middle to go away