Like I mentioned in the last Five Take post, us Five Takers (Gina, Becky, Claire, Nicole, and I) were going to start doing the weekly series again once we had settled into the new year. Five Take is where us five take a theme or clothing item and show our own “take” on the theme. The first theme of the new year is BOOTS! Let’s not take my capital letters as excitement about boots because boots and I have a love-hate relationship that typically ends in disappointment. Major disappointment.

At 5’4″ with Shrek-like calves, I have not been able to find a single pair of tall boots that fit me appropriately. I’ve tried every style I can think of: ones with stretchy inserts, laced up backs, zip closures, wide width, extra wide width. These calves were not meant to be enclosed by boots, apparently. I own one pair of boots that may have popped up on here last year (although I can’t for the life of me find the post), so I thought I would try those again even though I knew they were too tight on me, and as I pulled and pulled to try and shimmy them up my calf, I asked why? Why am I torturing my body in the name of boots?! So farewell to you boots, at least for now.

Since I gave up on wearing boots, I went for the next best thing: booties. Booties are much easier to find, and my calves definitely appreciated it. This outfit happened from a series of trying on different items together. I kind of love going to get dressed thinking you are going to wear one thing, and then seven options down you’re wearing something you hadn’t expected at all. Love it.

I’ve worn this dress before here, and as top here and skirt here,  but I haven’t worn it since winter last year and honestly had forgotten that I had it in my closet. The dress has gotten shorter since I first bought it, so since it’s so easily manipulated I decided to make it into a tube dress which gave me an extra inch or so. These tights are my fist pair from Making It Big. They are soooo comfortable but a little sheer. I know most people swear by We Love Colors, but their tights don’t fit me well around the thighs. This brand is definitely much less restricting and offers more sizes.

Lola decided to photobomb my pictures, sorry about that! I had originally tried to find some cropped options to wear with the dress, but once my red Eloquii blazer was on, it just felt right. I love a mixture of sweet and feminine with crisp and slightly edgy. The booties helped me take this look away from sugary sweet which lace often leads to.

I added on some sparkly jewelry, and mixed some gold with dark silver. I typically keep my metals to one color on an outfit, but let’s be honest, people are only going to see the sparkly parts of these pieces.

I also got the chance to style my hair in the way I had imagined with my new hair color. I think this picture better shows how the highlights come from underneath, but I wish it were a little more dramatic.

INC dress at Macy’s (2010), Eloquii blazer, Making It Big tights, Torrid booties, Aldo necklace, Forever21 ring

With my family gone for the weekend, I was all dressed up with no where to go. I just went out and got dinner then came back and watched Jane By Design and then a couple crappy but enjoyable ABC Family original movies (party animal, eh?), but I’m still really happy with the outfit, and I think I will wear a variation of this for my birthday or to the group dinner for the Fat Studies Conference.

 How do you wear boots or booties? Do you like to dress them up or wear them casually?

Don’t forget to check out Claire, Becky, Gina, and Nicole‘s boots posts!