Cute in theory

Earrings: Francesca's (option) | Necklace: Stella and Dot | Chambray: JCrew Factory | Belt: Bebe | Bracelets: Stella and Dot Link, Stella and Dot Spike, JCrew (option) | Skirt: Vince Camuto (limited sizes here) | Shoes: Kate Spade

The last time you guys saw this skirt, the grass was a little greener, and my shoes were neon - click here if you'd like a refresher. I'm sure this isn't the last time you will see it either - I'll need to do a winter outfit with it, too! Today's outfit doesn't really have one focal point like those neon heels were; I decided to just level the playing field and pull from the mint lining of the skirt. Initially, I planned to wear my suede oxfords with this, because I love the way oxfords look with bare legs. 

Some of my inspiration:

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Cute in theory, right? I was excited about my Polyvore and everything, but this morning, when it came time to turn my Pinspiration into reality, it was awful. 

I do pride myself in saying that all the outfits you see on my blog are actual outfits I wear in real life. I've said it a couple of times already that I always feel lucky that I can truly wear whatever I want to work. That being said, knowing that I will be posting outfits for you guys does definitely influence my decision making process to a certain degree - I'd be lying if I said it didn't at all. Sometimes I will take risks, especially because of this blog, but I gotta cross the line somewhere.

The shoes were hideous with the outfit and I took them off even faster than I put them on. It actually only took one shoe on one foot, and a quick glance in the mirror to realize this was terrible. One day I'll try it with a fuller, flouncier skirt, but today, I went ahead and just reached for my trusty Kate Spade mint pumps and pretended the idea of the oxfords never came into existence. 

Linking up with Lauren, Erin and Laura.

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Lots of bling

Earrings: Express (option) | Top: C&C California (limited sizes) (option) | Necklace: Kate Spade | Clutch: Vince Camuto (option) | Bracelets: Stella and Dot Link, Stella and Dot Spike, Stretch Pyramid (gifted) (option), Express leopard wrap (option) | Rings: Kate Spade Saturday, Forever 21 | Pants: Express (option) | Shoes: Kate Spade (no longer available) (option)

This weekend, one of our good friends had a CD release party. I had trouble picking out my outfit - I felt like it had to have a bit of funk and flare, I needed manageable heels in case I was on my feet the whole time, I wanted to be in pants vs a dress because I was picturing a bar type venue. 

I started with this top because it's been hanging unworn in my closet and if I can't wear faux leather to a CD release party, then frankly there's no hope for it ever. I didn't want to do leggings because I am firmly against having your butt and crotch visible in leggings. I tried it on with my cobalt skinny pants at first, but something was off, so I reached for my trusty wine skinnies. And then I added lots of bling. Big earrings, chunky necklace, arm party, glitter shoes.

I felt great in this, and these shoes are surprisingly and amazingly comfy. I was probably a little on the dressy side to be honest, but I always would rather feel too dressy than too casual. Always.

If you want to check out our friend's CD - the band is called Spectacles and you can preview/buy their cd here!

Linking up with Kayla.

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Metallic Camo

Top: Bobeau | Bracelet and ring: Express | Camo Pants: Gap | Pumps: Kate Spade

I don't know about you, but when I'm getting dressed, I usually limit my outfit to one standout piece at a time. In this case, it was the camo pants. But the metallic embellishments in this top insisted that I wear these aluminum heels with the outfit. A casual outfit with a touch of metallic. I'm pretty excited to remix these pants with other stuff throughout the season!!

Linking up with Jenny.

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Casual + dressy

Earrings: Express | Baseball Tee: Amazon | Necklace: Chanel | Skirt: J Crew Factory | Bracelet: Tasha | Bag: Marc by Marc Jacobs (option) | Shoes: Michael by Michael Kors

Remember when my lovely friend, Annika, wrote a guest post for me while I was on vacation? She remixed a baseball tee, and there was one outfit in particular that was my fave. Click here to check out the original post. I loved loved loved how the tee paired with the shiny skirt. I love mixing causal and dressy pieces. There are just some outfits that you feel good in. This is definitely one of those outfits for me.

Linking up with Agi, Amy and Amber, Christina, and Lauren.

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2 out of 3

(Pretend my necklace was laying right and my ruffle tunic was straight)

Seriously, the side profile of these shoes is so sexy.

Jacket: Zara (splurge, option) | Necklace: Target (option) | Ruffle Tunic: Marshall's | Wrap Watch: La Mer (option) | Wristlet: Coach | Scuba front leggings: Express 

Ok, so remember how awesomely organized I was on Sunday night, planning my outfits for the rest of the week? Well, I was 2 out of 3. Today's outfit didn't quite work out so well in execution as it did on paper. I just wasn't feeling it, and to be honest, I ended up trying on about 87475897945 other things that just didn't work out. I hate those mornings.

I finally decided to dress around this jacket, which you've seen remixed here before. It's a great piece to transition between seasons. I'm guilty of reaching for the leggings when nothing else is feeling right, but I upped the ante a bit by going for the faux leather/scuba front leggings. Adds a little sumpin sumpin. And then there are these shoes.

Sigh.

Love love love that they are a basic black pump from the front view, the side cut outs are wavy and sexy, and then BAM the rockstuds at the heel are the grand finale. They helped take me from feeling so blah this morning to feeling complete and intentional.

Linking up with:
Sherry for Fashion Informant Linkup

Bethany and Meghan for Three-fer Thursday

Tara for What I Wore to Work

Erin for Working Girl with Style

Elle and Jacqueline for Spotlight Weekly

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Limsanity Remix

Earrings: Kate Spade | Top: LOFT (option, option) | Necklace: Gifted (option, option)  | Bag: Michael Kors (option) | Watch: Kate Spade | Skirt: 3.1 Phillip Lim for Target | Shoes: Pedro Garcia

I almost wanted to hold on to this skirt for awhile before wearing it, just to let the Limsanity calm down a bit, but I changed my mind. To be honest, I did struggle a little bit trying to decide how I wanted to wear this. I kept wanting to reach for my trusty chambray or go matchy-matchy with a cobalt top. Navy and white stripes has become such a neutral combo for me lately, so I opted for this top. The skirt definitely has a girly vibe to it because of its shape, so I wanted to funk it up a little bit with these peep toe booties - which are ridiculously comfortable by the way.

The great thing about a new Target collaboration is that it's viral. You see the collection everywhere, including how it saturates the blogger world. On one hand, I feel vulnerable, like everyone that sees me in public is thinking - oh, that's that Phillip Lim skirt again....But I felt better when someone complimented me on the skirt today and was shocked when I told them it was from Target. Then there's the other hand - the benefit to it being everywhere - there's so much inspiration to pull from! As I was writing this post, I decided to see what else was out there. I loved how these ladies styled their skirts also! Just proves how versatile this skirt is and that each of you need it, too! #enabler

Left: Workday.Weekend | Middle: Trish Lindo Style | Right: Over My Styled Body

Would love to see how you guys are sporting your Phillip Lim stuff! Please share!

Linking up with Lindsey and Shanna.

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Lace and leather

Dress: Ann Taylor | Necklace: Express (option) | Bracelet: Express | Bag: Michael Kors (option) | Boots: Naturalizer (similar)

This dress is a recent purchase, but I'd been lusting after it since it first came out. I'm not an avid shopper at Ann Taylor. LOFT yes, but I can't remember the last time I went into Ann Taylor or shopped their website. I used to shop there regularly when I had more of a strict business casual dress code to comply with, and I think I just developed an aversion to it since then. But this dress. Stripes, lace, bold color - what's not to love about it? Wendy over at wendyslookbook.com turned me onto the idea of a striped lace dress because she's done such an amazing job remixing her own.

Left (source) | Middle (source) | Right (source)

Sigh. I just love her. But yes, she had me wanting a lace dress and while we were in Mexico, I had seen the price drop to about half off, so I had to snag it. It's even cheaper now with an additional 50% off of the reduced price!

For today's look, I decided to wear it as its original intention - a dress. Lace can be inherently dressy, so I thought it'd be interesting to pair it with some suede boots, which can be more casual by comparison. Leather and lace = perfection. And today marks the first day of the season I am wearing knee high boots. I was more excited about this than I probably should be, but yay for fall!!

Linking up with Christina, Lauren, Erin and Laura.

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Feeling organized

Hope everyone had a relaxing and wonderful weekend! I don't know if it's the vacation or what, but I felt extremely productive this weekend. Today I went grocery shopping, which I have not done in, well, forever. I did a couple loads of laundry, organized the closet room, made some lasagna - from scratch, with the exception of the noodles! My first time, so excited! Got the dishes done and now sitting down for the first time today to catch up on all my correspondence. I started thinking about what I wanted to wear this week - I'm excited to get back into it. I feel like it's been forever since I've done a proper outfit post. As I started brainstorming, I decided to put together this polyvore. Hopefully these outfits look as good on me as they do on the computer screen. Stay tuned to find out!!

Linking up for Sunday Style and My Style Monday.

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The vacation highlights

I know you all have just been sitting on the edge of your seats dying to hear about my vacation, yes? OK, well fake it a little at least, for me? The resort we went to is about an hour south of Cancun. We fly direct into Cancun (direct flight = awesome) and then take a shuttle to the resort - Barcelo Maya Palace. This resort is made up of 5 smaller hotels -  Beach, Caribe, Tropical, Colonial, and Palace. This marks our 4th time there. The first time we stayed at the Beach, and the other 3 times we've been at the Palace. We ended up meeting my brother and his girlfriend along with two of their friends, so there was 6 of us total.

Soooo, the downside first. It rained incessantly. Torrential downpours 3-5 times a day. Drizzle in between. And when it was not precipitating at all, it was cloudy. There was never a time that I saw blue clear skies. Yes, yes, it's the rainy season, I realize that, but I've been to Mexico 6 times now, all during this same time of the year, and it has never ever been this way. When we landed and I saw rain, I immediately brushed it off because rain comes and goes there literally in a matter of minutes. Not this time though. The most sun we ended up getting was the last day - there were 2 and a half hours of sun so I managed to come home with a tan, but I didn't leave feeling as beach rejuvenated as I usually do. I firmly agree with the Vitamin D deficiency theory. I was dying to see the sun again.

All that aside, there were definitely lots of highs which I shall summarize for you now!

1. I loved our group! It was perfect! We had never met their friends before, but they turned out to be a riot and a lot of fun to hang out with. The four of them ended up only staying 4 nights vs. our 7, so it was sad to see them leave!

2. We met tons of great people! Even though it was cloudy and rainy, we still managed to fit in some pool time. I mean, we were getting wet anyway, and there wasn't any lightening, so may as well enjoy the swim up bars! And I love the camaraderie that happens when alcohol is involved. Our small group of 6 ended up growing to include people from Iowa, Jersey, Italy, Russia. I lost track after awhile to be quite honest.

3. Spa time! While we were there we managed to get a 50 minute massage, and then I went back on our last day for a mani/pedi. I've never had a mani/pedi done at the same time. It was quite.... weird, but good? Definitely good, but I think I prefer keeping them separate. Regardless, my nails are a pretty shade of red.

4. Excursions! We ended up doing an excursion involving zip lining, snorkeling, and ATVs. Thankfully, the weather held out for the majority of our day. The sky opened up on us while we were on the ATVs, but when you're driving through potholes of muddy water and getting quite dirty, the rain was refreshing. The husband had an incident on the zipline - he actually stopped about 9/10ths of the way to the end. One of the workers had to zip line out to him and pull him in. I would have freaked, but he just acted chill, as if he weren't hanging 20 feet above the jungle.

5. I saved the best for last. MY BABY BROTHER IS ENGAGED!!!!! Eeeeeee I'm so excited!!! I knew all along he was planning to propose on this trip - it's half the reason why I wanted to book in the first place. He ended up doing it the first night we were there, and I'm just so happy and honored and excited that I got to be there and snag some pics of the moment!

And that's about it! The week went by way too fast! I wish I had the rest of the week off, but alas, it was back to work immediately after. Starting my countdown until my next day off. And for the first time ever, I did not end up turning my work email on until I physically sat at my desk and logged on from my computer. I'm milked this vacation for all it was worth!!!

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