Clarissa Explains It All valentines!

When I was in third grade, my teacher taped all of the valentines she received to the front of her desk. That year, one of her past students gave her a Clarissa Explains it All valentine and when I saw it, I FLIPPED OUT. It was (and still is) one of my absolute favorite tv shows, and ever since that fateful day in 1994 I have wanted to find some Clarissa valentines for myself. I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating and just being dramatic, BUT NO, I have been looking for these ever since my dad signed up for ebay, and I've had a saved search for these ever since I got my own ebay account. It is, in a word, an obsession.

A few years ago I managed to get like 5 valentines that somebody was selling unboxed. It was a dream come true at the time, but little did I know that in the cold, frigid winter of 2019 it would get EVEN BETTER.

First, in January, somebody listed a complete box of cards from 1996. It was an auction-style listing so I had butterflies in my stomach for six days waiting to see if somebody would outbid me, but I ended up snagging it! Many happy dances ensued. And then, magically, last week somebody else listed a complete box of cards from 1993! And it was a buy it now listing! I have never added-to-cart-and-checked-out so fast in my life.

And now here I am, in possession of the treasure I have sought for a quarter century.

But wait, that's not all!



I decided to just keep (and FRAME. I'm insufferable!) one complete set from each box, plus the boxes. The rest of the cards are available in my '90s valentine sets right here (I take requests!)

AND because I think it would be a crying shame to hoard these images, I scanned them all and you can download them for free right here. 

Whenever I find holy grail stuff like this I hope that maybe somewhere out there there's another girl who missed out on this and has been waiting patiently for somebody to upload the entire collection of Clarissa Explains it All valentines to the world wide web. Maybe I'm the only one (it's honestly more likely, lol!) but I hope that somebody who really wanted to find this finds this.

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

ps. my t-shirt is from hot topic

clarissa explains it all paper dolls!

I am so so so excited about my newest project! It's a Clarissa Explains it All paper doll! ah! It's no secret that I am a massive Clarissa fan -- I even had a Clarissa Explains it All Week here in 2011, and she was the subject of my first Style Idol post. Her style and outlook on life greatly influenced who I am and what I wear. While I don't necessarily have a closet full of cut-off jean jackets and neon t-shirts, her security in marching to the beat of her own drum and dressing differently gave me the confidence to do the same, in my own particular way.

Anyway! I thought her offbeat 90's style would be a fantastic subject for a paper doll! The main outfit is from the opening credits and it also includes 11 other clothing pieces to mix-and-match plus a choker, earth earrings and Elvis of course! ;) I posted this on instagram yesterday and someone pointed out that I left out her ant pajamas. Those were one of my favorites (and probably the instigator for my massive patterned pajama collection) and I can't believe I forgot to include them! So I'm probably going to make a set of extra clothes you can get to add on later. Kind of like Barbie only flat and made out of paper.

They're available here! All of the clothing pieces actually fit on the doll so you can choose to play with it or frame it, it's up to you! ;)

clarissa explains posh frock friday

dress - h&m

vest - from my mom

belt - h&m

tights - urban outfitters

shoes - modcloth

Okay, it's not really posh but it is a frock and it is friday! ;) Unfortunately, today is the end of Clarissa Explains it All Week. I had so much fun while it lasted though! It was so fun dressing like her all week! I know that I didn't really nail her look completely, but I did the best with what I had. And I won't deny that I'm going to really miss doodling on all of my photos ;D

clarissa explains insects

dress - modcloth

sweater - h&m

belt - modcloth

tights - h&m

shoes - high school

necklace - some beach store

This dress is covered in insects! You can't tell too much since my photos aren't close-ups but you can see it better in the product listing here. I got it for three reasons - I love novelty prints, Clarissa had pajamas covered in ants, and my dad has a glow in the dark roach print t-shirt that I've loved since I was a kid. So I guess my dad is a bit of a style icon for me too? ha! He'd laugh if he read that.. I always make fun of him for accidentally wearing his shirts inside out, and with the collars all bent out of shape. He's very absent-minded professor-ish. Almost eerily smart, but he has no idea how to dress himself.

Luckily I only inherited the eerily smart gene ;) har har. Actually neither of my parents like clothes very much. My mom has like 8 dresses that she wears on rotation, and my dad wears the same old polo shirt & jean combination every day. Somehow me and my brother both ended up being very interested in style, though. Whenever he mocks my extensive dress collection I just mention his tie hoarding problem and he drops the subject completely ;)

clarissa explains the spice girls

shirt - gift from my dad

shirt/vest - forever 21

shorts - h&m

tights - h&m

shoes - c/0 blowfish

necklace - some beach store

hat - my childhood

First, no your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, the writing on my shirt is indeed backwards. I take my pictures using my imac webcam and for some reason I like this alternate backwards version of me & my room much better than the real life version, so I keep the photos this way :)

I highly doubt Clarissa would have liked The Spice Girls, but I thought it would be fun for two of my 90's obsessions to collide ;) This is definitely the wackiest (and least flattering lol) of the outfits for Clarissa week, but I had so much fun taking the pictures! I found this pink hat in the basement with some of my other childhood relics and I had to wear it, even if I was left with a pounding headache after squeezing it over my skull (or trying to) for the photos ;)

Style Idol - Melissa Joan Hart

//image links back to the source

clarissa explains unicorns

dress - h&m (altered by me)

shoes - target

plaid shirt - forever 21

headband - h&m

necklace - some beach store

I keep seeing horse prints everywhere lately, and while I think horses are a super cute animal, I really love unicorns more. And what is a unicorn, but a horse with a horn, right? So when I saw this adorable red horse-print dress at h&m a couple weeks ago, I decided to fiddle around & make my own unicorn print dress with it.

Materials needed:

1 horse print dress

1 white fabric paint marker for dark fabrics

LOTS and LOTS of time to waste

After I finished working one day last week, I popped a bowl of popcorn, picked out some cheesy bad horror movies on netflix and sat at my desk for three hours adding little white horns to all of the horses on my dress. I love how it came out!! It's really subtle, but if you look closely you can tell they're unicorns. Now I think I need to try it on something more bold, like this sweater :)

clarissa explains it all week

dress - h&m

cardigan - old navy

shoes - modcloth

tights - h&m

bracelet - vintage

I am a HUGE fan of Clarissa Explains it All, the 90's tv show starring Melissa Joan Hart. For the last decade I've had to satisfy my fix with my old VHS recordings that have since almost entirely lost their sound, or buy bootleg copies of other people's old VHS recordings that have since almost entirely lost their sound. I still watched it every once in a while, but I couldn't enjoy it the way I used to, thanks to the muffled audio and irritating tracking lines. BUT NOW... drum roll ... TeenNick is playing Clarissa every weeknight! Eep!! Words can't even begin to describe my excitement!

In my very first Style Idol post earlier this year, I wrote about how much of an influence Clarissa has had on my life & my sense of style. While I don't normally dress like her, per se, her individuality and disregard for fitting in played an important part in shaping how I dress myself. She was, and always will be, a huge role model for me in my attitude towards life and fashion.

Despite the fact that I don't dress like Clarissa on a daily basis, I do tend to buy things just because she'd wear them. I can't even count how many times I'm in a store with my mom and I hold something up to her squealing "Wouldn't Clarissa wear this?!?!?!" I usually buy it. It might be totally different from what I normally wear, painfully 90's and not at all flattering to my shape, but I buy it. And this week I'm wearing it. I thought it would be super fun to do a week of all Clarissa-inspired outfits, and finally drag all of my "omg this is SO Clarissa!" items out of my closet ;-D Some of the outfits I've picked out are awfully goofy, but bear with me, because I'm having SO MUCH FUN.

If you've never seen the show try tuning into TeenNick one night this week! It was a kids/pre-teen show, but I think it definitely holds up now that I'm an adult. I might be biased since it's so important to me, but I really do think it's stood the test of time as a classic show for kids AND grown-ups :)

Style Idol - Clarissa Darling

New series! I've had this in my head for a while, and although I know the basic idea is nothing new I'm really excited about it! Each week I'm going to do a feature on one of my style idols, starting with my #1 style idol of ALL TIME. If I had any taste at all, I'd probably pick Audrey Hepburn or Coco Chanel, but no.. my ultimate fashion icon is Clarissa Darling.

I don't think any celebrity or character has had a greater impact on me - both internally and externally. My fashion sense has always been dictated by the words "Clarissa would definitely wear this!" and her personality definitely rubbed off on me too. (Unfortunately Ferguson also rubbed off on my brother, but that's another story for another day.)

I worshipped her as a child. My mom decorated my bedroom so it would look like hers, and even wrote to Nickelodeon Studios to see if they could send her the plans to make Clarissa's headboard .. I collected hubcaps and license plates (and a real stop sign! best birthday present EVER), and prided myself on my stylishly mismatched room when all my friends were stuck with frilly floral bed sets that their moms picked out. (ps. have I mentioned that my mom is beyond awesome?!) I emulated her in every possible way, and I'd be lying if I said I don't now. It's funny that a fictional tv teen can still have such a huge impact on my life, but she does! The show seems even better now than it did when I was a kid. It's just bubbling over with wit and wisdom, and exceptionally unique and amazing fashion.

I remember reading an interview with Melissa Joan Hart from when the show was still on the air where she was asked if she ever got to keep the clothing. She said she didn't even want to because it was too weird :-O I was shocked!! My nine year old self would have done anything to have her wardrobe, and quite frankly, at 24 I still would!