Shoe Post the First.

We <3 shoes.  When I started working with Kathy, we were super twittered to discover that *gasp* we have the same shoe size.  And, we have an affinity for shoes of many varieties, AAAAAND we both love Nine West's offerings. Seriously, almost all of my shoes are from Nine West.

Recently, I have been lusting after a pretty pair of heeled peep-toe sling-back sandal-shoes to wear to work.  I discovered my ideal in the Nine West Sharina.  This weekend I tried them on, and wouldn't you know it... I loved them mightily.  I ended up with black patent leather, which I have in one other pair, but I don't wear it very often.  Plain black leather seems to be my go-to shoe material.  I did not get those from Zappos, but the color selection is so much better there, and I may keep my eye on them, and get another pair should the price go down.

Nine West - Sharina

I got them from Macy's - which is having a great friends and family event right now, with coupons for 25% off almost everything.  

They are comfy, and have a really nice little platform so they don't seem tall at all.  I <3 them!  Highly recommended.  

T-Shirts

Yes, T-shirts.

We love the cute, the nerdy, the downright pretty little t-shirts out there.  Now, I used to sneak these little darlings into my work attire when I worked at the public library - at least, the less whimsical of them.  Now, they have resigned themselves to after work/weekends, but I still love them.  The other day, Kathy and I were discussing... where to find these cute T's?

1.  We love Shirt Woot.  One super-cute shirt is featured per day.  Today's design is actually pretty relevant to our interests:

Shirt Woot for April 27: Thesaurus by Jason Newman

If you're familiar with Woot and Shirt Woot and even Wine Woot - they have one awesome deal each day, with a limited quantity, but great price, and as far as the shirts are concerned, they're pretty flippin' cute.  I'm sure I'll post favorites every now and again.

2.  I've recently started coveting a few shirts on Zazzle.  I discovered Zazzle thanks to the hilarity that is Regretsy.  It's really hard to explain Regretsy - some people seem to DESPISE the site, and I think it's one of the most ridiculously awesome blogs to follow, but it does offend some people who take their art very seriously.  Here's the Regretsy merchandise available on Zazzle.  I desperately need this shirt:

Namaste Bitches by Regretsy.com

I'm not sure how my yoga classes would take it... and of course, I'd be tempted to wear it to them.

3.  You can't complete this post without Cafepress.  I bought two of my most favorite little T's here, which temporarily immortalized my love for The Buffy.  I even got engaged in one...

WWBD - What Would Buffy Do?  Tshirt

You know you want one.

4.  I also find really pretty little graphic tees at places like Express... let's check out their current selection:

Graphic Tee - Daffodils from Express.com

Cute.

Tshirts... how I wish I could wear you every day!  Alas... I do try to pick up 2-3 that I really like each year.  As they start to get old, they do migrate to my pajama drawer, but such is their life cycle.  :-)  Happy T hunting!

Book of the week - Bossypants

Okay, maybe it's a bit premature to say "book of the week" considering this is my first post and I seriously doubt I'm going to be posting a book once a week. But this is certainly the book for this week. Bossypants, if you are not aware (and let's face it, if you're reading this blog you must be), is a memoir by the amazing comedienne Tiny Fey (see photo in our last post). Our library got this book in last week, and I was thankfully the first person to get my hands on it! I had been awaiting this book eagerly for many reasons:
1. I love Tina Fey and have been a devoted 30 Rock viewer since the first season.
2. I wanted to read Tina's take on her success, her past, and everything else that I knew was going to get discussed in this book.
3. I knew it was going to make me laugh.

The book did not disappoint. I could easily have devoured it in one sitting, but I chose to sleep (since I did have to go to my librarian job in the morning). I literally laughed out loud many times, so often that my husband stopped looking over from playing video games to ask me what was so funny. I think what I loved most about the book is the same thing that so endears many of us to Tina Fey in the first place. She never takes herself too seriously, and she deals with the same problems we all do (unwanted hair, not so perfect proportions, awkwardness...) She doesn't try to gloss it over and act like she has a perfect life. It's especially refreshing to read about her struggles to balance a career and a family (even if she can afford a nanny). I don't have kids, but it's definitely something that I've thought about, and I know Amy has too. And our jobs are way less demanding than Tina Fey's! (most of the time...) I also love Amy Poehler, so I really enjoyed reading about their relationship on SNL and beyond.

And, on the fashion side, Tina offers some great wisdom. I LOVED the chapter on surviving a photo shoot. I love that she takes something that seems so glamorous and shows how unglamorous it actually is, especially for someone who isn't supermodel-sized. There are also some classic shots and descriptions of her clothing, both past and present. I don't think that Tina would consider herself a fashion icon, but there are a few pieces, especially those she wears on 30 Rock, that I definitely emulate. On my personal list of clothing must-haves for fall is a ladyblazer, a la Tina:





I am a die-hard cardigan lover and I think this would be a nice, somewhat more professional-looking alternative. I will, however, be staying away from the fanny packs. That's definitely straying over the line to frumpy librarian...

So, in short, I definitely recommend buying (either in paper or as an e-book) or borrowing this tome from your local library!

Welcome to our Blog!

My awesome coworker, Kathy, and I *LOVE* clothing, shoes, books, and lots of librarian stuff, and discovered that there was a dearth of blogs out there discussing these finer things in life, so here we are!

Both of us love shopping, and we look pretty darn cute most of the time if I do say so myself. Of course, we might look cuter if we had tons of cash, but.. as we're librarians, that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.  That being said, librarian fashion runs the gamut, from the sexy pinup:

(Just try googling sexy librarian and see what you get....)

Quiet, Please by Richie Fahey

to Ms. Tina Fey, who totally rocks the sexy librarian look despite not being a librarian, and who is a personal hero of both of us...

Our Hilarious She-Ro, Tina Fey

to the unfortunate frumpy librarian stereotype, complete with, well, lots of different stereotypical attributes. I'm not going to post a pic illustrating this or go into detail; the point of this blog isn't to belittle what other people wear.  Our goal is more to find a nice balance between too-sexy pin-up and frumpy. 

So, that was the first reason to start this blog... the second involves the fact that while we love magazines (InStyle!), and fashion blogs like The Sartorialist, we also noticed that the outfits listed in their features retail for something like $2,000+ if you were to buy all of the items listed.  WHO has that kind of money to spend on an outfit?!  

So, a few of the questions to answer via this blog...

1. What do we, as librarians, or more importantly, as stylish professionals, want to look like?  
2. What do we value in our clothing choices?  
3. How does a normal person build a professional wardrobe that will last and work with all of the crazy fashions that are to come?
4. How does one not break the bank in the process of building said wardrobe, not to mention the fun bits of wardrobe for the weekends that also must be purchased?
5. What hella 'spensive stuff do we wish for, and possibly save up for to purchase maybe possibly one fine day?
6. How do we weed the crap out of our closets, and keep our clothes nice?
7. We are not fashionistas... we are average, and we noti
8. What awesome books are we reading? - Hey, we *are* librarians, after all.

I can't wait to see how it goes!