Disclosure: I was invited by Whole Foods Market on a tour of the newly remodeled store in Brentwood, MO. I was provided a Pacha Soap bar and Mineral Fusion Nail Polish of my choice as body care samples to take home with me. All views expressed are my own.
I know the bulk of what I post on this blog is light and airy. Nothing too in depth or serious. I keep it like that on purpose because when I started this blog, I had a pretty stressful and demanding job and blogging became my creative outlet, my breath of fresh air, my one opportunity to march to the beat of my own drum, my reminder that life doesn't have to be so super serious and stressful! As I'm approaching my three year blog-iversary, I'm seeing more and more that blogging does give me an inherent duty to be responsible in certain ways like supporting local businesses, showcasing the many things St. Louis has to offer, and mindfully choosing brands that I'm proud to promote, not only for their products but for their ethics and philanthropy.
Sunnies: TOMS | Earrings: Forever 21 | Necklace:Bauble Bar | Bag: Charming Charlie (shop more fringe cross body bags HERE) | Top:H&M (shop more stripe turtlenecks HERE) | Bracelets: Misc handful from my collection | Skort: Express (option) | Boots:Vince Camuto (option, shop more over the knee boots HERE)
I'm sharing my fashion week highlights a little bit out of order because this outfit was too good to not share on a Hello Monday! If you'd like to catch yourself up, you can see my favorites from the Emerging Designer Competition here. Saturday was dinner and a wrap party for Saint Louis Fashion Week at Ballpark Village downtown. I've only been on a Cardinals game day before, so it was pretty fun to explore it from a night life point of view! I ended up getting sick and couldn't attend last year's wrap party - my last event was the Naturalizer event that you can read about here. Missing last year's party made this year's wrap event extra special!
Oh my goodness, you guys! It's been such a fun and amazing trip! Jenna could not be a more perfect travel partner! If you've been following along on Snapchat (carylee07), I'm sure you're getting an NYC overload! I will have to give you the proper download in another post, but for now, I wanted to share some photos from last night's rewardStyle NYFW party! Naturally, let's start with the outfit!
Last week, I shared a dress with you from one of my new favorite shops - Mindy Mae's Market. This top is another item in their Instagram feed that constantly has me tempted. They were having one of their flash sales, so I decided to finally take the plunge. It really is the perfect berry color, and I like that the gingham pattern is a little bit larger than you often see, yet not super big - it's just right. Leopard most definitely pairs perfectly with pink, so I decided to take it one step further and pattern mix with this gingham top.
I always love leaving you with extra ideas on how to style pieces, so here's a double header for you. Wearing this open over an easy tee with light denim and pink Chucks is a perfect weekend look. And I say this is a double header because I last showed you this pink tee here, so now you have two ways to style that also!
Happy Monday! Or, at least, can we try and make it a happy one? I felt super productive this weekend, which is a definite plus. Unfortunately, I was productive in real life, which means I was adversely as productive in blog life. Don't you wish we can do ALL THE THINGS at the same time?! I kind of killed two birds with one stone though by taking photos of this outfit as we were on our way to run errands this weekend.
I had a handful of things I needed to get and complete for a bridal shower this coming weekend. And, there were miscellaneous things we needed to buy for the house - we've been looking for a storage unit to go behind our table in our eat-in kitchen because otherwise, the kitchen table ends up collecting piles and piles of crap. There is also a corner of the eating area that has accumulated boxes filled with things that I would love to hide in something a little prettier to look at. We ordered this, which should arrive late next week and I can't wait to get organized. Seriously. Having a clean kitchen table feels SO GOOD.
I ordered this tee as part of Express' Memorial Day sale. People like Erin were convincing me that I needed it, and they were right. I'm now contemplating what colors I need next.
If you read Gina's post, you'll see the awesome recap she did of this outfit combination that went a little bit viral on Instagram. While I did manage to re-create the outfit in my own way, I'm re-creating it one more time based on Erin's adaption here. Unfortunately, I had to throw this jacket on because it seriously dropped 30+ degrees overnight. I'm not sure how it is acceptable for it to be 56 degrees this late in the year!!
My weekly workouts have been going well, although week 2 was pretty rough because of my lady time. I got back on the horse for week 3 and I am definitely seeing progress. There is this one Pilates move (the roll over) that has been giving me trouble, and I've finally been able to do it…. well, at least one version of it. I can do this version holding the pegs, but I want to get to this version using the arm springs. Other people make it look so easy, but apparently I have no spine articulation in my lower back and my lower abs are weak! So, that's what I'm working on now!
That's enough randomness for one Monday! Have a great week!
Happy hump day! This post will be short and sweet, much like this dress! This was yet another purchase from a recent LOFT sale. I couldn't resist the stripes, and I was craving a gauzy summer dress. It's definitely very voluminous - more than I'm usually comfortable wearing, even after I've tied it a bit in the back. However, it doesn't bother me, and I actually think it's quite appropriate for the style of this dress. Perhaps it's because I'm picturing myself sipping a pina colada wearing this dress walking barefoot in the sand somewhere. I suppose that's why LOFT called it the Cabana dress.
I fell in love with this dress immediately after seeing it online here. This red, white, and blue stripe combo is so crisp and always tugs at my heart! Topshop's stuff tends to run pretty small for me, so I always end up sizing up. Welp, I got the dress and was swimming in it. You know those photos of Jared holding up his pants pre-Subway? I looked like I was wearing the shirt that goes along with those pants! So, I placed a second order for one size smaller.
And before you start thinking I'm crazy - Nordstrom has free shipping and free returns, so there's really nothing to lose other than time, and this dress wasn't for anything time sensitive. Plus, after I got the first dress, I checked to see if it was available in one of my nearby stores so I could simply try it on. I love shopping online, but this dress is definitely one of those things that would have been best to try on in store.
Left: attempt #2 | Right: attempt #3
The pic on the left above is dress #2, which as you can see was still a little big and borderlined looking like pajamas. If I didn't love the stripes so much, I would have just given up, but I tried one last time and ordered one more size down (pic on the right above), and it worked like a charm! I also switched the belt for a "real" belt, which visually made the dress even better to me.
I'm sure I will still people will still ask me why I'm wearing my pajamas at work since my coworkers always feel the need to make comments of my outfits, but oh well! I love me some stripes and a good shirt dress, so no regrets here! Oh, and if these sandals look familiar it's because I have the exact same pair in red.
My little Jeffrey Campbell collection is growing, and apparently I like to buy them in pairs. And in suede! It's hard to resist though because these particular sandals are the perfect heel height and the suede makes them extra comfortable - no weird pinching or rubbing on my feet. And I normally try to avoid any kind of shoe that I need to buckle because, well, I'm lazy, so the velcro closure is such an added bonus for me! I will definitely add some ball of foot pads though to keep foot from sliding forward. No one wants to see that toe-verhang!
So, I've never been on the Birkenstock train. Ever. Not even a decade ago or so when they were initially trendy. They've just never appealed to me. But last week, I was perusing American Eagle's website and they had their shoes BOGO half off. I ended up buying a pair of leather flip flops and. These.
I was pretty excited to get them. Which made me feel all sorts of confused. Are my tastes changing? What's wrong with me? Granted, they aren't as chunky as the traditional Birks, but you can't say that these weren't inspired by them. Sigh. They're kind of the perfect better-than-a-flip-flop slip on sandal, and I was wearing them non stop over the weekend! But seriously. If I buy a pair of Crocs, please call the authorities.
I figured I would round out the trilogy of San Antonio posts with what I wore during the non-wedding day events. I was there for one whole week after all, so here is everything I wore, ate, and did during my stay! As with other random roundups, I will only link to the pieces that are still available!
So I'm working a little bit backwards and sharing what I wore for the rehearsal dinner *after* I already shared what I wore to the wedding. When I saw this dress on Express' website, I immediately ordered it. I'm a fan of a good jersey wrap dress, and I'm also a fan of asymmetry. I loved the zipper detail on this so much! Clearly it looks much different on me than it does on the model, and I actually preferred the way it fit me than the model. The color is stunning!
I wasn't lying when I said it rained the entire week last week. The walk to my parents' front door is partially covered, so I was able to stand outside and take photos despite the fact that it was drizzling. The rain ended up being a positive though because it brought cooler temps along with it. I certainly don't miss the humidity there though, and neither did my hair!
Oh! And this bag is also a purchase from San Antonio. I had a shopping date meeting another one of my online friends - Di from Click Clack Diaries. I've mentioned her once or twice on the blog before - she's just as sweet and stylish as I pictured her to be. She lives just outside of Austin, so we ended up meeting in the middle at the outlet mall in San Marcos. We met right around 2pm and didn't say our goodbyes until almost 8pm. Granted, we did have lunch and a coffee break during that time, but we certainly did our share of shopping!
