A Favorite

Dress, sandals/Kohls:: Necklace, belt/Target:: Earrings/Gift from Mom-in-law

This is hands down my favorite dress. I wear it all year long and have featured it several times on my blog. As the weather escalates to more and more uncomfortable degrees, this dress helps me keep my cool.

I have had this belt for a long time but have rarely worn it. Something about its massive size and semi-tribalness has made me shy away from it in the past. Not today. I figured that combined with the print of this dress, it may actually look tame. I couldn't have been happier with it.

In other news, I had the disturbing discovery that my charger for my MacBook officially bit the dust. Sad. Then I discovered how much it was to replace it. Anger. But then I found a floppy hat for our upcoming beach weekend with friends. Joy. That's a lot of emotions in one day.

My blog's catalogue of this dress:

 

Polka dots and Mussels

Top/Old Navy:: Skirt/Thrifted:: Wedge Sandals/DSW:: Necklace/Gift

It is official. I love this skirt. I found it a few weeks back at Goodwill. I honestly couldn't believe my luck that the following occurred:
1. It fit, beautifully
2. It had no stains or horrible tears etc. In fact, it was in immaculate condition
3. It was three dollars. 

After some frustrating thrifting attempts, I was so happy to bring this gem home. J and I are going back to Iowa for ten days and this skirt will definitely be coming with us. 

I wore this outfit to run errands, work on school prep and meet J for drinks and mussels at a local mussel bar. We were celebrating J's a pro bono case he had been working on for the last couple of weeks that was finally settled. I was so proud of J for working so hard on the case and creating a very favorable outcome for his client. Good job, J!

Pedi's in the Rain

Dress, Belt/Thrifted:: Wedge Sandals/Target:: Necklace/Swapped

Wore this dress to meet up with a friend to get much needed pedicures. When I say needed, I don't mean needed in the sense that I get them weekly. I just mean with the beginning of summer and the more regular wearing of sandals, I like to get one pedicure and just hope it last for the remainder of the season. It never does, but I always hope it will. I even get the pedicure in a color I have at home, for easy touch ups. 

The minute the pedi's were done, the torrential downpour began. It was a soppy walk with J from the metro to the car. Good thing I took photos before I went out!

 The one drawback with the pedicure is the way it softens my feet. All that exfoliating leaves my feet silky smooth - and perfect targets for blisters. On Saturday night, J and I went to the Roundhouse Theatre to see Double Indemnity. The play was wonderful, the evening was perfect - except for the rather large blisters I acquired on my pinky toes from my heeled loafers. Should have stuck with sandals...

The Challenge Wrap-up

Well May is over and I was (mostly) successful in wearing all the items from The Challenge. The only thing I did not wear was item #5. When I started the challenge, I did not realize it would become blazing hot on the East Coast. Once the blaze of summer began, the thought of putting on the long sleeve shirt was out of the question. At least with the jacket, I could take it off!

So, not bad if you ask me. And the verdict on the items? Lets see them in review, shall we?

(Loved these dresses! Will wear them often this summer and fall)

 (Shirt on the left did not make the cut)

 

 (I didn't wear the shirt on the left but I did wear the jacket twice!)

 

(Still on the fence about the the blue skirt but the other two are definite keepers!)

 

 

 I had a lot of fun doing this (self-imposed) challenge. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the shear amount of clothes I own that it was nice the narrow down the morning (or sometimes afternoon) search for an outfit. I am really thinking about doing another one of these dealing with accessories!

An Easy Ending

Shorts (challenge item #7) Thrifted:: Top/ Old Navy:: Scarf/Gift from J:: Sandals/Kohls:: Bangles/Target. F21

This is my last outfit from the challenge. I actually wore these short a few times undocumented. I can't believe how much I ended up loving them!

This is one of my favorite scarves. I feel a little bad saying this because when you have so many scarves that it hard to say this is really your favorite. But it is. J is the best gift-giver and he gave me this beautiful scarf for my birthday last year. This should automatically make me bias toward this scarf but I have other reasons, too. This scarf has all of my favorite colors strategically arranged making this scarf combine perfectly with just about every piece in my wardrobe. It is also very light weight, making it a great multi-seasonal piece. And for the girl who would wear scarfs all year round, this makes it a big winner.

The bangles. They're back in a big way. For whatever reason, I equate bangles with summer, which seems slightly odd seeing how, depending on the bangle can feel bulky. But I don't care. Love me some bangles. I would also like to note that I was not lying about the sparkly shorts. 

Well, that wraps up The Challenge outfits. A recap is coming up!

Nationals and Generals

Skirt (Challenge item #9)/Old Navy:: Tank top, necklace, bangles/Target:: Sandals/Kohls

This outfit was a surprising hit with the husband (Surprising, because I thought the skirt bordered on "Old LadyAttire"). Which is good because upon wearing this skirt, I discovered that it is probably the most comfortable skirt in the world.

This outfit, with my trusty jean jacket, went with me and J on an unexpected trip to the local bar to watch the Nationals game. I picked J up from work and off we went to drink beer, eat crab (seasoned) chips and watch the Nationals play a sad game against the Phillies. We blamed the pitcher (you know, because we could clearly do better than his attempts to get the ball over the base in strike formation) but our pitchers of beer kept us happy despite the poor showing by the Nationals. 

When the chips were no longer sufficient, the bartender suggested we order chinese. So we did. General Tso's and Curry Chicken arrived to the us, bellied up to the bar. It was glorious. Beer, chinese food and TV (we don't have one at home). We were even provided plates and utensils (our food came with none. Not even a pair of chopsticks!) by our friend behind the bar. And there we sat making all the patrons green with envy. 

A pretty good night, if you ask me. 

Sunday Best

Dress: (Challenge item # 2) and belt/Target:: Heeled Loafers/DSW

Wore this to church on Sunday. Actually, I wore this to church two Sundays ago. This Sunday was spent at the office with J. He had a project to finish and instead of staying home, I just hopped on the metro and went in with him. I love going in to work with J. I love being in his office and watching him work away on his two computer screens. I was definitely not as productive as he was. While he was typing up a report, I took a nap, wrote some blog posts and ate snacks. If you are now imagining "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" you would have an accurate image of the day. I was about three minutes away from doodling pictures and running around the halls playing hide and seek in the empty offices. 

I have fond memories of this "holiday". My dad took me to work several times when I was little. He worked at a bank in downtown Chicago. I loved riding the Metra with him and being in the Big City. One year, the bank put on an actual event for the kiddos. My memory is a bit fuzzy but I'm pretty sure they had the kids learn about occupations like interior design, you know, something really practical. (It is no wonder that kids who grew up in the 90's believe that they could do anything...Interior Design? Really?) After that visit, my dollhouse was never the same. It became my "work" because, of course, after hearing a lady talk about interior design for half an hour, I believed I was destined to be an interior designer. I had it in my head that if I could practice designing my dollhouse, I would soon be discovered and my career would take off at the ripe old age of 13. 

Obviously, this dream did not pan out. If you saw the last three places I've lived, you would know why. I actually have little to no ability to design spaces. And keeping those spaces clean and organized is a whole other matter. 

A Simple Fix

 Top (Challenge item# 4) Thrifted (Charlotte Russe Brand):: Necklace/Swapped:: Rockstar Jeggings/ Old Navy:: Wedge Sandals:: Moto Sweater/Target

I liked this outfit. Although not the most practical outfit in the world, it was fun to wear an unexpected piece for an average day of “facilitating”. I’m pretty Charlotte Russe would consider this item of theirs a dress but, on me, it is definitely a top. I think this item was also meant for someone with a flat chest as the elastic band where they considered the waist to be was a little too close to the ladies. 

It was an easy fix. I simply removed the elastic gathering at the “waist” to have more control over where the waist should be. Normally, I would belt this top (it came with one) but on this particular day, I didn’t feel like have anything clinging to my body. So I let it go. (Sorry Stacey and Clinton!) 

I quite liked it this way, as it allowed the top to feel more casual for a day of running errands and teaching prep (lots of reading) for the fall. 

The major problem I had with this top was how much it made me perspire. But now that I know it is easy to layer, I might hold off and wear it more in the cooler months. I might give it a whirl with shorts next week. Since I don’t have many tops in this challenge, I will probably have to wear it again.

What do you think? With shorts? As just a top with a skirt? 

Summer of Arms

Dress (Challenge item #1), belt/Target:: Necklace/Swapped:: Sandals/DSW

I have declared this summer the “Summer of Arms”. No, I will not be taking up arms but, rather, embracing the exposure of my arms to the world. If there were one area of my body I would gladly cover with clothing all the time it would be my arms. 

From shoulder to wrist, I find my arms to bit of a problem. They flub, they blub and thanks to a lovely condition called Rosacea they are red and blotchy most of the time. My love for the colder months is very practical. Colder months = layers and that means covered arms. So it no surprise to those who are close to me that I dread the warmer months because of their forced removal of my protective sartorial layers.

Since J and I have moved to the east coast, an area known for some seriously oppressive summer weather, I decided that I have no choice but to embrace the inevitable and bear a little arm. And since no place in DC is without AC I can still bring that security-blanket/cardigan to cover up when out of the heat zone.

This dress is my declaration of the “Summer of Arms”. Right off the bat, I received a boost of confidence when J told me how nice I looked and how much he liked the dress. Boost of confidence from my love? I’ll take it!

This dress was purchased last fall (on super sale). After some minor fixes (taking out the unnecessary elastic waistband and taking in the area under the arms, I can say with confidence that I will be wearing this dress for many days to come. It is so comfortable, almost like wearing pajamas as a dress and is the perfect blanket pallet to remix accessories with.