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.
Lately I've been getting more of my inspiration from Instagram instead of Pinterest, mainly just because I am more active on Instagram than Pinterest by a landslide. Sometimes when I can't sleep, I scroll through my Insta-crushes and take screen shots of outfits I need to re-create. This was one of those outfits. If you don't know Tatiana, you really should! Gina did an awesome coffee date post with her here if you need a CliffsNotes version of all of her awesome-ness.
Are you the type of person that has to say, "I turned off the flat iron" out loud before you leave the house so you actually remember that you turned off the flat iron? Well, I "like" so many outfits on Instagram that sometimes even my screenshots can get lost in the shuffle. But if I do a flat lay of the outfit, it sticks on my brain a bit longer, and makes it easier for me to remember I must wear the combo! It's kind of like the flat iron example, no?
Sunnies: TOMS | Earrings: Forever 21 | Necklace: Kate Spade (shop other Kate Spade jewelry HERE) (budget option) | Bag: Chloe | Top:LOFT | Bracelet: JCrew | Bottoms: Current/Elliott (shop other options HERE and HERE) | Heels:BCBG (option here)
I finally got around to wearing it, and needless to say, I loved all of it. I feel like a broken record, but sometimes it's the simplest of combos that I always forget about. Red and navy are so classic together, yet I have no idea why I never would have picked these pieces together had I not seen the outfit on Tatiana. The leopard is such a great finishing touch. I remember when I used to shy away from navy, but I'm less scared of it nowadays, and see it as much more versatile than I used to. And navy looks amazing with leopard! Thanks, Tatiana, for such perfect inspiration all day every day!
PS You can also follow her on Snapchat (tatibonilla) - she has the cutest accent, you might fall in love with her more! I really enjoy hearing people's voices in snaps! Knowing how people sound really adds some new life to their 2-dimensional photos!
Speaking of people you should follow - please see Noelle's post here! She polled some fellow bloggers, including myself, to highlight some of our must-have pieces for fall!
Admittedly, I feel like this outfit looked better in real life than it did in these photos, but for the sake of full disclosure, I am sharing with you guys anyway! Though, I'm not sure what I would do to make it a little bit better - I'm just unsure of how the top is laying. Perhaps this would have been better with more of a structured top, like a chambray. Regardless, I do like the principal of this outfit, which is a tank dress as a base layer, worn with an open shirt, a layered necklace and barely there sandals. Summertime easy.
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!
On Monday, I gave you a recap of the Spring Style Soiree hosted by ALIVE Magazine, St. Louis Fashion Week, and West County Center. I mentioned coming home with one top, and that would be this perfect peplum. I bought it from Altar'd State, which I had never heard of before that night. I was impressed by their runway presentation and was excited to see what else they had to offer.
Apparently they have stores all across the midwest and southeast part of the country, so I'm a bit surprised I was completely in the dark. Yasmin, another local STL blogger, described it as an affordable option to Anthropologie because of their boho styling and clever home decor pieces. I can definitely see where she was coming from with that! I could have spent a lot more time in the store and know that I will be a repeat customer. For now, I was happy to add this peplum to my collection.
If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the sneak peak I gave you of this top. Before I left for San Antonio, I could not resist styling it for a flat lay. I got all giddy when I realized how perfect my beaded necklace would look with it!
I will have to wear the necklace with this top next time. Today, I decided to dust off my leopard pumps. I haven't worn them since my Remix challenge! You know it's bad when I shrug off leopard! But, I was craving them again, and lately I've been loving navy with leopard, so i was really excited to see today's outfit come together. And on a final note - I'm pretty sure anything + white skinnies = spring, amiright?
If you couldn't tell, I'm all about American Eagle bottoms this week. Nope, they're totally not paying me to be their spokesperson, I just had an overhaul in my pants collection and American Eagle is one of those places where I know their pants will always fit me.
Every time I think of mint bottoms, I always want to recreate this outfit I wore last year, which to this day, is still one of my most favorite I've ever worn on the blog. So, in an effort to shake myself free from that look, I started scrolling through Pinterest.
I love this little peplum zip jacket I got from Zara a few years ago, and I don't wear it enough. When I saw the pin above, I figured I could do a modification of this outfit by wearing my striped jacket and solid colored Barcelona cami. Instead of the taupe sandals, I decided to do nude pumps, and pair it with my new taupe bag.
Every March we get our bonuses at work, and every March Nordstrom has triple points. Coincidence? I think not. This year, I decided to add a Chloe to my collection. I had been wanting the Marcie satchel for a few months now, but Jenna suggested this crossbody, and I fell in love with it immediately. Plus, it's something that I can still use on the weekends, since I tend to only use my satchels during the work week.
The bag arrived and it was gorgeous! The color was even better than it looked online. I noticed there was a Y-shaped indention on the front of the bag, but figured it was just the way it was packed and it would relax back to normal after a couple of hours. Well, two days later it was still there. I even tried to take a blow dryer to it to warm the leather a bit and massage it out with my fingers. Still no luck.
With the help of a wonderful sales associate, a fresh bag was shipped to the store immediately and I was able to swap out my bag for a new one. I wouldn't expect anything less from Nordstrom, but I also hated feeling a little bit anal and high maintenance about the blemish. But let's face it, it's not a Forever 21 bag, so it's ok to be extra critical of the quality, amiright?
I love it a lot, and if you're debating this bag, I highly highly recommend adding it to your collection! It definitely holds a lot for a crossbody bag, but is still very comfortable to wear!
I love brunch. It's my favorite meal hands down. And it pains me because in our little suburb, there are so many great restaurants, but very few of them serve brunch. My favorite over here is Cleveland Heath, which I've mentioned before on the blog I'm sure. It's probably my favorite restaurant period in these parts. Unfortunately, they're closed on Sundays, so they only do brunch on Saturdays. Needless to say, we still get our fill.
There's a fairly new place that just opened called Gulf Shores. Every time we've tried to go, it's been a ridiculously long wait, but shortly after our New Orleans trip, we were able to get in for brunch, and it was uh-mazing. They even had Cafe du Monde beignets! Shut up! We'll have to go back there again, stat!
The moral of this story is, I love brunch. And when I saw this tee at Kohl's, well, it was a no brainer. It could not have screamed my name louder!
