So back in the day … meaning last summer. I was caught out on the streets of Harlem by Gabbi of Gabbi Fresh for my street style for Essence Magazine.  Oh how I miss my hair that way. I love my new hair color but I really miss my curls. The color has lengthened and straightened my hair quite a bit.  I’m hoping I can nurse it back to this look. Don’t get me wrong, I love the length too but I hate that I don’t have bangs anymore.  I will keep you posted about my hair health. I will say aside from the curl change my hair is actually quite healthy. I have been making sure I deep condition or steam it on the regular.

Any who, if you want to check out my street style video. You can watch it here —->Essence Street Style. I’m at the 2:02 mark.

Former Danity Kane member, Dawn Richards, recently did a campaign for Canadian retail chain Aritzia. I don't usually like her look, but I am loving this Brooklyn hipster chic style. It really looks good on her.

Do you like?

Images via YBF

Me and my mom at Christmas

T’was the Wednesday before Christmas and I was catching up on my blog reading.  I follow so many blogs that I have to set aside time to read them all.  While perusing blogs I came across this post from Kelli of True Bias about an infinity scarf she knitted for her sister.  I have been longing for an infinity scarf for ages but I can’t knit at all.  Nor have I seen one in the stores that I liked.  Sure, I can crochet but sometimes certain things look better knitted.  Whenever I come across blog posts or articles that I think may interest my mother I forward them to her since she doesn’t follow any.  My mother’s knitting is a secret skill that I have never seen her execute in my life. But she has mentioned that she can knit in the past, so I sent it anyway.

My email to my mother

When I forward emails to her sometimes she responds, sometimes not.  So I didn’t think anything of it and actually forgot about it.  So imagine my surprise when I opened my last gift at Christmas and there was a knitted infinity scarf in the box. My brother joked that this was the first time he ever saw my mother looking like a grandmother when he witnessed her knitting.  My mother is a “Glam-ma” not a grandmother.

.  Wearing the lovely scarf my mother knitted.

One of my niece’s wearing it as a snood.

I can’t believe my mother pulled this off in such short notice.  The things that parents do for their kids always amazes me.

Hopefully this has sparked a knitting fire in my mother and she will knit more.  My SIL has already requested one.  As you know, I’m making an American Girl wardrobe for my niece’s birthday and I have come across some lovely patterns for knitted sweaters.  I will be sending them her way. 

I can’t speak to how the knitting was executed but you can read and see YouTube videos here about the scarf.

I recently had a reader email me and inquire on an older post I did about natural hair t-shirts.  It was such a great inquiry that I decided to write about it again.  I know many of my natural sisters are very proud of their hair and love to let everyone know about it.  We Love Fine have the cutest t-shirts and even have a special selection dedicated to natural girls like myself.  I own three of the shirts already and plan to add to my collection very soon.  We Love Fine even has children t-shirts for your mini-me. So check them out. The prices are great too.

Also, the lovely people at We Love Fine is offering my readers a 10% discount on anything on the site. Use coupon code LIMERICKLANE10 at checkout.

I had a business meeting the other day and wore the dress I purchased when I went thrift shopping with Inez of Style Chic 360. Out of all the things I bought that day, this one is my favorite.  It fits me very well since it is a petite dress. The proportions are just right. I normally wear really huge earrings but kept it classic with small sterling silver ones.  My shoes are a Chinese Laundry kitten heel shoe.  When I put them on, all I could hear was Evelyn from Basketball Wives talking about me. 

I’m sorry, but I live in New York City which requires trucking it up and down subway stairs all day long.  I’m not wearing stilettos.  And I see some of you walking in those sky high shoes that clearly hurt your feet because you are walking all kinds of crazy.  Just the other day I was standing in front of the 7-11 talking to a friend on the phone and this chick walked by wobbling.  The lady next to me who didn’t speak any English was witnessing my same view.  We both looked at each other and could only shake our heads out of agreement that what we just saw was crazy and didn’t make any sense.  Kudos to you if stilettos don’t hurt your feet and you can do summersaults in them. More power to you.

Any who, I thought the kitten heels complimented the Mad Men look I was trying to achieve.  Granted this outfit doesn’t channel the sexiness of Joan, but I think I’m pulling off Betty (I’m still on Season 3) quite well.  I added a rope belt that I borrowed from another dress.  The dress originally had shoulder pads in it but I removed them.  I truly do regret removing them. I thought it added to the dress.

Here I am acting a fool.  If you know me, then you know this isn’t out of the ordinary and that I’m quite silly. Oh…and please excuse my scowl in the pictures. The sun was in my eyes. One day I will learn to take a decent picture of myself.  I’m great at taking pictures of others, not of myself.

I am not a thrifter nor do I claim to be.  I have tried it before and have had mini successes, but it is not something I do on the regular.  I do better with personalized shopping in a boutique atmosphere. I get overwhelmed and immediately walk out. Another reason why I don’t do it is that I think that thrift shopping in NYC is very expensive in comparison to other cities.  But perhaps I don’t know where to go.  My friend T. Nicole of Pint Sized Influence always finds wonderful things thrifting.

When I was home a couple of months ago (yes, this post is long overdue) I had the chance to go thrift shopping with Inez of Style Chic 360. I had a wonderful time. Inez is a wealth of information when it comes to thrifting.  She really has that eye and can see potential in something that I would have found ugly and old.  We ended up meeting up at Value World. Inez had got there early and already had some items picked out for me. She explained that she likes to go in with an idea in mind of what she needs to make shopping easier.

Therefore I started with skirts and dresses. I must say that the Value World was very clean and organized.  It was even stylized by color which made shopping so easy.  I have never been in a thrift store that was maintained so nicely.  If more stores looked like this, perhaps I would thrift more often.

I had a ball trying on different clothes.  Inez picked out the above skirt for me and it fit like a glove.  Of course I had to take it home.

The above are some of the items I purchased .  I budgeted myself to spend only $30 and I kept it under that. The skirts I purchased were less than $4! You can’t beat that with a stick.

I was even able to get some vintage patterns for30 cents. Doesn’t this one look like something Rachel Zoe would wear?  I will be making this for the fall.

Here I am wearing my thrifted skirt.  I had a chance to wear it the BlogHer 2012 ConferenceI. (I still need to fill you guys in on that too…I’m so behind in blogging.) Did I mention that the majority of my skirts have pockets? I LOVE pockets!

I thrifted a scarf that I used for my hair.  I love the pop of color it adds to my hair.

How have you faired thrift shopping? I’d love to hear your thoughts on thrifting.

Vogue Magazine recently did a spread featuring their natural haired Booking Associate, Simone Tetteh. The photoshoot titled Five Days, Five Looks, One Girl features Simone’s hair styled by Anthony Dickey of Hair Rules salon. You guys already know I’m a client of Dickey, so I will use any chance I get to highlight is work.

Check out the rest of the spread here. It’s so good to see mainstream magazines embracing women of color. My favorite is the updo look with the scarf. What is your favorite?