Thursday, November 14, 2013

Warm fall day

Sartorially, fall is my favorite season. I love a bit of layering, I really love outerwear, and I love the jewel tones that are associated with fall-winter.

Where I live the fall has been unusually warm so far so I haven't been layering much. The dress I am wearing (Free People) is also surprisingly warm since it's made with a couple of body-hugging layers.


Check out those shoesssss


Dress from Free People, shoes from Prabal Gurung x Target, metallic bomber jacket from Forever 21.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Fall!

Just a quick outfit post! Inspiration: the traveler.



Just being my usual sillyface self!
Accessoriesssssssss
Copper maple leaf necklace

Dress: Free People. Multicolored vest: Forever21. Belt: Forever21. Boots: Rocketdog. 

Thursday, September 19, 2013

end-of-summer outfit

So... I just noticed that I didn't post any outfits this summer. ACK!  What is my dysfunction?!

Well! I will fix this right now. Here is a quick end-of-summer outfit since it is now fall. It includes some essential summer outfit elements: crop top, denim vest, (faux) leather skirt, and sandals.



Vest - Feed x Target. Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell. Crop top - Beyonce x H&M. Skirt - Charlotte Russe.

I highly recommend the denim hoodie vest from Feed x Target! First, it's for a good cause. Some of the proceeds from the Feed x Target line go towards feeding hungry families in America. This $30 vest will provide approximately 24 meals. Awesome, right? 

Second, it is an all-seasons piece of clothing. This Feed x Target look will be great for fall:
Image credit: Target
 I know I will be wearing the vest all year long (and will probably post pictures here). It is actually quite warm (which I looooove). Third, it has a cotton hood which is so warm and cozy and wonderful comfortable and waghghhhhhghhhghhg it's so nice. I know the Feed x Target collab has died down (and the Phillip Lim x Target is so IT right now), but consider getting some cozy-comfy things from the Feed x Target collab. It's pretty awesome.


Thursday, May 30, 2013

Happy spring!

Gotta post some a quick spring outfit before summer gets here! Floral pants at the ready!
Springy!
Ready for your closeupAHHHHHHHHHH!
I D.I.Y.ed the headpiece with some stiff metal wire, Swarovski crystal beads, and shell beads (from Michaels).

TIP: If you have a peplum top/skirt/dress and feel like the peplum flares out too high on your waist, you can lower the flare with a wide belt!

See?

Free people top, Nyla Anthony purse, Lucky brand necklace, Via Spiga pumps, Dylan George pants, D.I.Y. headpiece.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Oh spring, wherefore art thou?

So, this is what I woke up to this morning, here in Colorado:


Oh, April. Cruelest month.

I love these galaxy leggings.








 I have my sneaker wedges and flower headband... so when is spring coming?!

Bundled up to go out.


Friday, February 1, 2013

Guess who's taking all my money

Happy February, everyone! The month just started and I am already broke because of the Target x Prabal Gurung collab launching Feb 10 THANKS A LOT GUYS

Seriously, I haven't been this excited about a designer collaboration in a long while. When the Target x Neiman Marcus collection came out, I didn't get anything right away (well, except the Rodarte wrapping paper). Despite Karlie Kloss's efforts, I just wasn't super excited about it. But you can bet that I will be stalking the Prabal Gurung items like a panther stalks a deer. A really juicy, brightly-colored, printed deer.

Without further ado, here are my must-have items from the collection! Images are from elle.com, which, of course, they got courtesy of Target.

MUST HAVES:


Must have: Sleeveless blouse in First Date print, $26.99, Wedge sandals, $29.99. Two of the most-loved pieces of clothing in my wardrobe are a Jason Wu x Target blouse and a Jason Wu x Target tee. It's because they are versatile tops that can be worn to just about any casual (wear with jeans), business (wear with slacks or a suit), or formal event (wear with matching print skirt) I attend. I think this blouse will have similar versatility.

I just think the white and black wedge sandals are striking, and a good purchase for $29.99. The heel height doesn't look crazy high either - total bonus!

Must have: Short sleeve dress in First Date print and black, $39.99, Wedge sandals in apple red, $29.99. Prabal Gurung is known for his prints, and this dress is no let down. The black side panels might also be a bit slimming. I say might because I am a normal person and haven't gotten to try it on or anything yet.

Between the black and white wedges and these red wedges, my closet definitely has space for these red ones. I love 'em!

Must have: Dress in First Date print, $34.99. My closet (and my budget) only has room for one of the dresses in the last couple pictures, and I'm not sure which one it is. I'll (hopefully be able to) have to try them on and find out! My guess is that it will be this one because screw the slim illusion, I just love this print.

Must have: Sweatshirt in First Date print, $29.99. I just love this print. Just OBSESSED. Let me know if I'm crazy! Usually designer sweaters are a $million gazillon dollars, so a designer sweater for $29.99 seems like a total steal! But again, let me know if I'm crazy. But in general, a fancy sweater is a good investment because they merge the worlds of comfy (yess) and good-looking (yessss). Other bonuses include trendy and will-be-worn-many-times (I couldn't think of a good adjective).


OK! So those were my definitely-stalking, total-hit items. Here are the items that I think might be exciting, but I have my reservations.

NOT SURE:

May be exciting: Lace-up pumps in Nolita print, $34.99. These shoes are fantastic looking, but I have no idea if they're comfortable or how high the heel is. I already have enough shoes that I have in my closet but never wear. They are totally boring. I need shoes I can wear!!

May be exciting: Dress with full skirt in Floral Crush print, $49.99. I think this dress is lovely but also kinda looks awkward in the picture. This dress you DEFINITELY have to try on before deciding to buy. The fitted waist may end up too low (or high) on a person that is a different height than the model.... that's just about everyone. Whether this dress looks good or not totally depends on proportion and material, so this is definitely a try-on-before-you-buy-on this dress.

May be exciting: Blazer Floral Crush print, $49.99. I think I love the blazer but I can't tell because this outfit is so crazy.

May be exciting: Lace-up pumps in Meet the Parents print, $39.99. I am split on these shoes. They are kinda awesome. But kinda ugly. Which probably means I'll get them. What do you think?

If you're wondering what I'm definitely not going to get, I'm not feeling any of the jewelry, the miniskirts, the shorts, or the dress in the last picture in any color.

What are your thoughts on this collection? What are you definitely going to buy and/or avoid?

Monday, January 28, 2013

Handmade flower power

Hi everyone! I hope everyone's 2013 has started off fantastically! Or at least without incident. Well, let's try and get pumped up for 2013. WOOHOO, 2013!!! YEAH!

When I was shopping for Christmas presents (which was, like, forever ago), I found this pretty awesome book for a friend:

Myra Callan's Adornments, available on Amazon

When I bought it, I thumbed through it, and I liked it so much I bought it for myself. It teaches how to make your own fabric flowers (like the ones on the cover), and gives you many, many ideas on how to work fabric flowers into your own adornments. Of course, you don't have to do the exact projects that Myra lays out, and I personally like to use this book as an inspiration book and guide for my own ideas.

The instructions in the book are easy to follow and have lots of pictures (thank goodness). In fact, I think the instructions are easy to follow because there are so many pictures (thank goodness, again). The only difficult aspect of the book is that some sort of millinery or dapping set is recommended for making flowers (in order to make them "permanently" concave). Myra suggests a much cheaper "hot spoon" option for making flowers - unfortunately I haven't tried it yet and have no idea how effective this option is.

Fortunately, you can always buy your own flowers (duh!) AND the book cover's project does not even require a millinery or dapping set (phew). So I decided to give the book cover's project a try (yay)!
Spring in winter?
flower closeup!







I figured it would be a bit disingenuous for me to post a tutorial since I basically followed the instructions in Myra's book. That would probably be plagiarism. Probably.

I can, however, post some tips that I used in making my adornment that weren't in the book. First, the book cover's project was done on a hair comb (I think), and I did mine on a headband. I wrapped a metal headband frame in some blue ribbon (with a lot of glue at each end). To make the big white flower in the middle, I used a flower that I bought at JoAnn's, to which I added larger petal layers. The pink flower was also store-bought, as well as the sprig with lots of little white flowers - basically, I did very little flower-making. The leaves were, of course, also store bought, and everything came with stems that I wrapped onto the headband (with A LOT of glue). All in all, it was a pretty easy project and it came out well, don't you think?

Let me know if you like the headband and/or will be trying the DIY yourself! It's kind of nice to have a little spring bloom in your hair while it's still cold and wintery outside, I think!

Pretty rainbow!