Before I was a parent I had different "categories" of clothing.

Weekend clothing.

Going-out clothing.

A long time ago I owned a silky, floral-print vintage blouse that I had found in one of those upscale secondhand stores. It was beautiful, but I ended up giving it away because I'm not really a blouse person: I always think I want to wear one, but then I put it on and within minutes I'm tugging at the sleeves and neckline and wishing I was wearing a t-shirt instead.

Except the second that particular vintage blouse was out of my hands I wished I still had it…mostly it was just really pretty. And as (literally) buttoned-up as blouses can feel, there are times when you want to dress up your denim just a bit - like when you've invited over a ton of people to celebrate your son's third birthday and to meet your daughter.

Anyway, I'm done mourning the loss of my blouse, because I found a gorgeous replacement for a crazy-good price, and no time-consuming hunting through racks of vintage clothing was required. (I love vintage shopping as much as the next girl, but I do not love the fact that the first thing my son does when he steps foot into one of these places is to hide under a rack of leather coats and give me a heart attack.)

Sometimes you have to get a little crazy with it, no?

What I wore to shoot some images for InStyle and Gold Toe (another look is coming up in a few weeks): all sorts of crazy stuff, from leather short shorts to argyle socks pulled up to there to a pair of suede heels in the most to-die-for shade ever. (Seriously, I wasn't sure those heels would go with a whole lot, but I've been wearing them constantly these past couple of weeks, with everything in my closet).

(If you'd like to try the shorts-and-heels combo in a sightly less HELLO HERE ARE MY LEGS way, try layering a pair of opaque black tights under the socks for a little extra coverage and warmth.)

Let me be clear: this is in no way, shape or form a costume. It is, however, a way for you to feel ever-so-slightly-festive on Halloween while still really being a total Scrooge about the whole thing. Which is a completely valid choice, in my opinion, made even more valid by the fact that it requires investment in a pair of leopard skinny jeans, which are an item of clothing that you really should own anyway.

(If this outfit - minus the cat ears and pumpkin - looks familiar, it's because I wore it while dancing around with Kendrick in this video.)

P.S. I totally already stocked up on Halloween candy on a trip to Party City to pick up supplies for my son's birthday. Which means that it is not yet noon, and I have already eaten several miniature Baby Ruths. Quite the excellent Wednesday indeed.

No, totally kidding. These are not walking shoes. They are, however, FABULOUS shoes, and that is what a pair of flats tucked into your purse for the train ride home (when your feet have had the biscuit, so to speak) are for. (These foldable flats, by the way, are really great.)

For the final day of my turn hosting Kipling's Always On launch at Grand Central, I went for the kind of outfit you can really only wear when the temperature is just right: warm enough for shorts without tights, cold enough to make thigh-high boots not look ridiculous (or at least not more ridiculous than they already do; and of course I mean that in a good way), a floaty blouse, and no jacket because we haven't quiiiite arrived at jacket-wearing weather yet.

And because there's no reason to wear one bag when you can wear two, I carried a grey tote for all my stuff (camera, iPad, the aforementioned flat shoes), and tucked a burgundy crossbody (best color? best color) inside for apres-event activities…which, if we're going to be honest here, consisted of a slice of Two Boots, a large sangria in a to-go cup and an US Weekly, but that sounds like a party to me.