Pile It On

'Dressing' yourself is not the same as 'clothing' yourself.

When you dress yourself, you build an outfit, complete with accessories, and complimentary hair and makeup. When you clothe yourself, you are simply putting on something to cover up your nekkid. I am guilty of clothing myself more than I care to admit. I feel rather accomplished if I manage earrings and all my wobbly bits are covered. 

So, I have placed the challenge on myself to put on three accessories every time I dress myself. That could mean jewelry, a scarf or a belt. I have quite a few scarves and belts, but am lacking in necklaces (usually because I have a scarf on) and bracelets

Lately I have found myself wanting to try out bracelets and necklaces more, and catch myself browsing for them online at Forever 21. They have a huge variety and the prices are the lowest I've seen anywhere. Here are some of the ones I am trying not to run out and buy, but probably will anyway! At these prices, how do I resist?

All products today were from Forever 21!

1 Blue Bangles //  2 Rose/Mint Bangles //  3 Multi Bangles //  4 Rosette Necklace //  5 Rosette Swag Necklace //  6 Bird Charm //  7 Stone Hinge Bracelet //  8 Garden Cuff //  9 Cutout Bracelet // 10 Beaded Necklace //

Pants Party

I love me a good print. I also love piling on as many colors as possible.

So imagine my delight when (non 80's soccer mom) brightly colored and printed bottoms starting making a center stage focus in retail stores this spring! 

I have a ton of printed tops that I normally pair with a solid colored pair of pants or a skirt. Now that I am seeing a wider variety of options for bottoms, I can mix the two and come up with endless pairing opportunities, which in turn makes my wardrobe that much more remixable!

Check out some of my favorite finds for my lower half.

1 ShopSosie // 2 Target // 3 Forever 21 // 4 Forever 21 // 5 Target // 6 Forever 21 // 7 Ruche //

 8 ModCloth // 9 Anthropologie // 10 Urban Outfitters // 11 Old Navy //

A Sunday Kind of Love: Mini Prints

I'm a sucker for patterns.

Like the magpie, the more color, the more detail, the better. Mini prints, especially animal prints, are quite popular this season, which is making it hard on my wallet. I have been browsing the interwebs and have come across several prints I would happily add to my closet!

Check out some cute little kitties, horses and elephants I've come across.

All Mixed Up

I'm a big fan of mixing unexpected prints and patterns, hence the whole magpie theme. The more stuff going on, the more excited I get! Mixing prints creates visual interest and makes the pairing opportunities endless.

My two favorite patterns to mix are bold florals and stripes or gingham, and then layering with a necklace or a couple of bangles. Here is some eye candy on the right way to mix patterns!

Hop on over to my tips page to learn more about mixing patterns without looking like you have a touch of the schizophrenia.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Must Love Mustard

I have developed an addiction. Normally you put this on your hot dog at the ballpark. I however, prefer to wear it on my bottom half to anywhere I please. It's mustard. Being blonde with fair skin, I tend to shy away from yellow in fear that I would blend completely with the color.

Not the case anymore.

Granted, I always make sure to have a layer or two of self tanner on, but I do love this color. I catch myself picking up mustard colored items in every store, only to tell myself to chill out and put it back before I start getting into dangerous 'old lady who wears nothing but yellow' territory. 

Here are some pieces that I've been eyeing lately.

Circle Circle, Dot Dot

I have never been much of a polka dots kind of girl. I don't know if it's the curly hair with polka dots making me look around 4 years old, or that they're round and I'm trying to avoid putting any other round thing on my body, but I have just found myself not being drawn to them.

But this top has me swooning. I have seen this fabric on tops in other stores, but the fit never really worked for me. Now that I have found it once again, it seems serendipitous to not at least try it on. These dots aren't as sweet, and I like the multiple layers of colors. Kind of like eating Gobstoppers (anyone have any broken teeth from those)??

In honor of dots and spots, I have found some cute prints that I just may have to add to my wardrobe.

 Francesca's

A Sunday Kind of Love: Navy and Coral

It's a boy! It's a girl! It's... them all grown up.

I cannot get my mind off of navy and coral. The color combination is heavenly to me. I'm not a fan of pink at all, but these two together sing to me! Also, both colors are universally flattering. With fair skin, light hair and light eyes, many colors don't gel with my natural color scheme. So I essentially have found my coloring nirvana.

Now, this isn't something I do often because this little site is a black hole for me, but there is no better place to go than Pinterest to find inspiration in picture form. I will be attempting to incorporate as much of this into my wardrobe as possible.

On a side note, as I type this, my husband exclaims "I can't get my mind off of navy and coral either!!!" I'd wollop him but I'm too busy Pinteresting.

Some inspiration:

I actually had thrifted a shirt with a similar print in a minty green and mustard yellow, but the fit was so funky when I belted it or tucked it into anything, I returned it. So I am SO pumped to find this in my favorite color combo with a very similar print! This would go perfectly with a yellow skirt I just thrifted. Just tuck it in and pair it with a scarf.

Sweatpants of Shame

In my quest to achieve style purgatory, somewhere in between the runway and the gutter, I found myself sitting in the gutter with mud on my face.

It's Friday, its cold, its rainy and I'm lazy. So here I sit in Central Market, having someone else cook my food so that I may eat it in style jail: my living room. Joining me in jail will be serial killers, drug dealers and the sun of Miami. Oh, I forgot to mention I'll be watching Dexter until I drop tonight.

Why style jail? Because I somehow rationalized that unwashed gray sweatpants, Ugg style boots left over from my freezing West Texas days, an old work tshirt and my school fleece jacket would be acceptable because the weather sucks. 

The Next 10 Days... Or So

The past few days have been busy, to say the least. I have lots of exciting things coming up in the next 10 days or so, so I apologize in advance for the delay in posting. 

The camera hunt continues... I am currently in a torrid love affair with the Canon T2i/T3i and the Nikon D3100. I can't choose between the two and hope that one of them whispers a sweet little nothing in my ear soon. 

Sadly, I had two job interviews this week, as well as Valentine's day, so I had plenty of opportunities to 'dress' myself. And I did not. Even though I gained all the weight around 8 months ago, I still find pieces that don't seem to fit anymore. I don't yet have the heart to donate them, because I'm almost there and they're seasonally appropriate. I'm like a enabler for my closet. So I defaulted to dress pants, a button up top and a cardigan with neutral shoes. 

Bleh.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Recent Buys

Since the camera hunt is going to be a bit delayed, I'm posting some items that I have recently added to my closet. My goal is to pick things I would have NEVER given a second look before.

White is something I naturally stray away from because I feel like I usually blend with the shirt. The print was just too cute to pass up!

White Bird Top- Old Navy (gifted- Thanks Mom!)

A blue jean shirt? I live in Texas, where they wear them with blue jeans and boots for the fancy nights out.This is so soft and comfortable, and surprisingly thin, so it keeps you covered AND cool!

Chambray Shirt- Old Navy

Failure to Launch

When I started thinking of starting this blog, I thought, "Hey, this is something that would be fun, keep me accountable and help build my confidence." True on two counts. 

Finding ways to take pictures of myself in outfits that don't look like a bad Myspace knockoff is hard. 

And awkward. Oh, how awkward.

Last night my husband comes home and reminds me that we are going to dinner with his parents. Free dinner! I asked where and he mentioned a very small town about 20 minutes south of where we live. I said sounds great, let me put on some jeans and a shirt. Wrong.