Pretty Lace Top with Jeans

There's that Honeybee necklace again! This lace top is as comfortable as a long sleeve tee, but is much more interesting. (Exact Forever 21 top below in Ivory, and only $12!)

On Safari: Camo with Leopard and Zebra

This trifecta just happened organically. I knew I wanted to dress up this vest to wear to school, and this is how it went down. I love how it turned out!

Vest Forever 21

Blouse Classiques Entier

Pants Express

Shoes Tahari (similar)

Earrings Forever 21

NECK PARTY: DAY 4

Ever since I saw this blue blazer on Yolanda (from the highly intellectual documentary Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), I've been dying for a similar jacket of my own. To my delight, Gap is offering a very similar version in 3 colors - of which I now own 2. Here I am channeling my inner Yolanda, and layering a few bright necklaces to fun-ify it.

 

 

 

Vest Gap (similar)

Blazer Gap

Tank Paiva (tougher version)

Necklaces both old H&M

Bracelets ebay, Mom's, Indian wedding favor

Jeans Old Navy in Polliwog

Shoes old Via Spiga (similar)

Sunnies old H&M

NECK PARTY: DAY 1

I have a few girl friends who text me pictures of outfits for my opinion, and Ellery's Surprise Date Night look inspired this week's theme: Necklace layering. She also gave me the term "Neck Party" - which I'm sure you can decipher is the necklace version of the Arm Party.

The first necklace I put on has built in layers, but I added this cute little arrow necklace for an extra bit of interest. A bunch of chains is one thing, but adding a charm gives it some personality.

 

Fun fact: this skirt used to have a few inches of tulle hanging longer, but I cut it to be even with the rest of the skirt. MUCH better!

Sunnies old Forever 21

Necklaces Lia Sophia, Forever 21

Bracelet ebay

Vest Forever 21

Tee Paiva

Skirt really old H&M

Tights DKNY

Shoes Cole Haan

Hell Bent For Leather

Hooray, jeans to work! Thank goodness I only had to wear real work clothes for one day this week - I need a little time to get back into the mood. I've been hanging onto this shirt for over a month, and finally wore it out. It's a bit sheer, so I layered a nude cami under it . I don't  mind a hint of bra when I'm out at night, but I don't need to share my undergarments with 14-year-olds. (It was so cold in my room, I ended up wearing the vest 90% of the day anyway.)

It took me a while to finally bust these American Eagle jeans out, too. These are the same as the black ones I bought in store. I liked those so much that I ordered these in blue online. I tried to wear these to the Bulls game with my tee and Converse, but I looked like I could easily fit in with the 8th Grade.

• Vest Forever 21 (buy, last worn)


• Shirt Zara (similar, similar)


• Cami old Club Monaco (similar)


• Earrings “borrowed” from Mom (similar)
  


• Necklace Stephan & Co. via Nordstrom (buy, last worn)


• Gold bangle ?? (similar)


• Rhinestone bangle favor from Indian wedding (similar)


• Jeans American Eagle (buy)


• Shoes ooold Old Navy (similar)


• Nails Sinful Colors in Beau Khaki via Walgreens

Tickled Pink

I wore this for Report Card Pickup Day. I feel like when I'm trying to look super professional, I tend to err on the side of BOOORING. I immediately grabbed this white blouse and the black sweater vest (just like I did for Picture Day - still waiting to see how those came out...) but decided to add some serious color to make the look less, well, serious.

Browsing through This Time Tomorrow's shopping site, her Alaia's reminded me that I still had these cute little maryjanes. I only lasted about 15 minutes in those heels before changing into my Tieks - the heels aren't particularly uncomfortable but after walking up and down our super long hallway 3 times, I realized it just wasn't happening.

I did, however, get A LOT of compliments on my necklace. Meanwhile, you can't even see most of it! It has 7 different flowers in a variety of colors, but only 3 peek out of my collar. That's okay, I'll save the big reveal for another day.

• Coat: old J. Crew (similar here and here)


• Sunnies: Forever 21 (similar here and here)


• Shirt: Limited (buy here)


• Sweater vest: Brooks Brothers (buy here)


• Pants: Mossimo via Target (buy here)


• Necklace: old Forever 21 (similar here and here)


• Ring: gift from my Mister - one of very few 'real' jewelry I own (similar here, here, and here)


• Shoes: old Fioni via Payless (similar here and here)


• Nail polish: Essie something from the salon - it was much more purple in the bottle

Friday Night Strikes

If you've read/heard ANY NATIONAL NEWS this week, you know that the Chicago Public School teachers have been on strike. Our union color is red, so I've been wearing only a variety of red t-shirts and jeans/leggings all week. Finally, I decided today was the day to spice that picket line up a bit.

I mostly just wanted to bust out my (super comfortable!) boots to get away from the gym shoes and flipflops I've been rocking all week. And thus a cute outfit was born.

Remember Jill? She brought her awesome camera to the event, and during some downtime decided that I needed my first official Outfit Blog Modelling Session.  It was AWKWARD to say the least, especially since we were at a bus/train station (to hand out flyers). And doing anything for the first time IN PUBLIC, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT is weird! But Jill assured me that posing for blog photos is always weird (even a few months in, for her). So here are my very first Intentional Outfit Blog Photos:



So silly! Jill taught me the "shoes to the side, body to the front" pose that gives you guys the best view of what I've got going on.



Blue Steel. And what.



Jewelry detail. My modeling skills need work, but at least the merchandise looks good!  I could've just gone with black sunnies, but that felt too match-y. These white ones are still neutral, but less of an obvious choice.

Here's a sad iPhone picture of the purse I was wearing during the day:



Since it was Friday, and the boyf woke me up from a much needed afternoon nap saying I had approximately 4 minutes to get ready, I wound up wearing the exact same outfit out that night with only a shoe and bag change. I switched to ballet flats because we were hoofing it to a bar several blocks away AND it was still warmer out than anticipated. I also swapped the Union Red bag for an oversized clutch to make the overall look read more "evening".

• Vest: old Gap wool (buy it used here) (similar here) (faux fur alternative here)


• Blouse: Forever 21 [this came with a little "tie" attached, which I cut off and saved for later] (buy it here) (similar here) (similar here)


• Tank: old Agaci (similar here) (similar here)


• Jeans: AG "The Legging" (buy them here) (other colors here) (polka dot version here)


• Boots: old Kenneth Cole (similar here) (similar here) (similar here) (similar here)


• Necklace: Gift from Mom, source unknown (similar here) (similar here) (and here) (elaborate alternative here)


• Ring: old Loehman's find (similar here) (similar here) (understated alternative here)


• Sunnies: Gift from a friend from Target, probably in the Dollar Department (similar here) (similar here for $4!) (Ray Bans here)


• Nails: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Sonic Boom (buy it here)  and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Red Carpet (buy it here)


• Red purse: old Target (similar here) (similar here) (and here) (and here)


• Black purse: thrift store find (similar here) (similar here) (and here)


• Black ballet flats: Tieks (buy them here) (similar here) (similar here for $15)