30 x 30 | Day Fourteen

Today was such a bleh day - woke up after three hours of sleep to mother calling me frantically about car trouble, raced from the Lexus dealer back to the house to let one of the contractors in, rushed through a shower, realized I seem to have misplaced my winter foundation and so my face looks like it received a terrible spray tan, went to work with spray tan face still on and left work to find a nice sleet snow combo covering the roads.  So looking forward to spending some one on one time with my bed.

dress | h&m, tank | old navy, leggings | under armor

I cannot believe that I will be halfway through doing this challenge tomorrow; it has been such a blast and has introduced me to so many amazing bloggers (Thanks Sam!).

Linking up with Shanna and The Pleated Poppy today :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Nicole

30 x 30 | Day Seven

Have you ever been completely enthralled by someone's outfit and gone to leave a comment and then this pops up:

And after trying to figure out if that's a byrV or byW, you sadly shake your head and exit the page without leaving a comment? ME TOO. This actually happened yesterday and the spam detector outsmarted me at least five times before I just gave up - talk about adding insult to injury. I promise I'm not a robot, I'm just spam detector challenged :(

polka dot chambray | old navy, striped knit | forever 21, chino pants | h&m

I got dressed twice before I pulled this on and decided it would work.  I have a love-hate relationship with these pants because I love the color but sometimes I feel that it's so bright that it's hard to wear another bright color with without looking too ROY G BIV.

necklace | charming charlie, silver glitter flats | payless

Print mixing is still kind of terrifying to me - I'm totally envious of people who aren't afraid to jump in and throw on three different patterns and manage to make it work. This polka dot chambray shirt has pushed me a little closer to the deep end though, or at least stretched me to my tippy toes in the middle of the print mixing pool.  Baby steps.

closer look at the stack

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been taking the time to read and leave encouragement on my post - it means a lot :)

Nicole

Happy Holidays!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate it -- if not I hope you had/are having a wonderful break from work :)

Here's a roundup of some of the outfits I wore this holiday season!

sweater | ralph lauren (old)
tartan button up | old navy (recent)
cobalt chino pants | h&m (fall '12)

I wore this for my last day of work before Christmas -- I'm a huge fan of sweaters over button ups and this pairing felt festive without being too red and green.

dress & leggings | h&m (fall '12)
glitter skinny belt | walmart

The outfit I wore for Christmas Day (I actually lasted in the booties for a while!)

striped knit | forever xxi (fall '11)
sequin vest | target (winter '12)
brocade skirt | jcpenney (winter '12)

 And...what I wore today :)  Brought back the brocade skirt and got a little dazzly.

So I went a little crazy with my shopping this month and I wanted to try something new on the blog so I'm really excited to share I'll be participating in the 30x30 challenge that Sam is doing.  The idea came from Kendi and is a spectacular one: go through your closet and pick out 30 items.  Then use the next 30 days wearing outfits only composed of those 30 items.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to actually stick to a monthly clothing budget in 2013, so I'm kicking it off by not doing any shopping the first month (yes, I'm already sweating it).  I picked out my 30 items tonight and will be sharing them with you all this weekend before the challenge starts on Tuesday!

Happy Holidays,
Nicole

The lead up to Black Friday and the crazy side of retail has been pretty quiet (thankfully).  The beginning of cold weather has led to lots of sweater weather, but I've been fortunate to get a 70 degree day every now and then.

colorblock sweater | old navy

Love this sweater so much that I bought it in the navy and light blue as well.  They ended up only being $12 each and the relaxed fit, length of the sweater and dropped shoulders are huge pluses for me.

striped shirt | forever xxi
yellow skirt | thrifted
bubble necklace | etsy

You may remember this skirt from my last post.  Yellow's my favorite color so I was chomping at the bit to wear this skirt and got so many compliments on it.

dress | old navy
necklace | charlotte russe

Picked this dress up during Old Navy's dress sale last week and it ended up being just $17. The A-Line cut makes it easy to belt or dress up with a necklace or scarf.  Definitely one of my favorite additions to my closet and I'm thinking I might have to scoop it up in another color.

Hope your week's going well.

xx,
NG

what I wore

I feel like it's been so long since I've posted so I figured I'd start with a run down of the past week or so in outfits.

deep purple cardigan | costco, last season
purple paisley shift dress | dressbarn
glittery purple skinny belt | walmart
necklace | charming charlie's
silver bracelet | versona

I jokingly referred to this outfit as 50 shades of purple to a friend, but I think it's a pretty accurate name.  I paired it with black leggings and tan boots since it has been getting cold lately and got a ton of compliments on how well put together the end result was.

pink 3/4 sleeve cardigan | costco, old
navy bird print tank | old navy
khaki chino pants | h&m

I'm loving the animal silhouette trend that seems to be catching on lately because they add a memorable detail to my favorite combo: cardigans + chinos.

cream and black lace a-line dress | h&m, fall sale ($10)
black skinny belt | walmart

 The skinny belts I bought out of the kids' department at WalMart have been so versatile.  I'm thinking I may expand the collection soon by adding a gold sequined one from Target.

white cardigan | old navy
ikat printed top | target
yellow bubble necklace | blue bird bride  on etsy
blue chino pants | h&m

I found this top as I was digging through my dresser the other day and remembered that I'd only worn it once since buying it for $10 on sale at Target.  I think this outfit would look even cuter with a yellow or cobalt blue cardigan instead of white.

polka dot chambray button up | old navy
black dress | boutique
statement necklace | charming charlie's

peacock patterned tights | apt. 9

I was in love with this outfit. I bought these gorgeous tights in preparation for fall and I think they are so fun.  Looking forward to finding different ways to wear them.

today's outfit:
blue gingham button up | old navy
cream sweater | polo ralph lauren
blue chino pants | h&m

Sweaters over button ups always keep me warm and I get cold pretty easily so this combo will be popping up quite frequently :)

What are your favorite combos for fall?

xx,
NG

OotD: Chevron Pants

I was so excited about the chevron pants I got over the weekend that I had to attempt to style them right away.

I'm not the biggest fan of this outfit so hopefully the next go round is a little better.

white cardigan | old navy
pink tank top | old navy
chevron cropped pants| old navy

Any suggestions on how what to pair these with?

xx,
NG

3 ways to wear: polka dot chambray shirt

polka dot chambray button up | old navy

I hadn't found a chambray shirt that I was completely in love with when I spotted this one online shopping one day.  Right after I purchased it, I realized everyone else had as well - the shirt has been quite popular on instagram recently.  I had briefly worried that the polka dots would limit how I could style the shirt, but I've found that it's a versatile piece.

- paired with orange and gray zig zag skirt -
skirt | target (spring)
coral acrylic chain necklace | target
ring & brown bracelet | charming charlie
pearl and gold bracelet | made myself

Patterns have been huge this season and pattern mixing has been a trend.  I felt comfortable in this mix, because the polka dots aren't so loud that they clash with the skirt.

- tied up over a LBD -
black gladiator sandals | clarks
little black dress | planet funk
ring | versona accessories

I went out to lunch with a friend and wanted something that was light to wear over my sleeveless dress. I skimmed through my closet before pulling out the chambray shirt and tying it into a knot mid-torso. It made the dress more casual and the outfit was easy to run errands in afterwards.

- paired with cream cable knit sweater and coral chino pants -
sweater | ralph lauren
chinos | h&m (similar here)

I hate being cold so I've found pulling a sweater on over a button up is a good way to go during the autumn and winter months.  I rolled the sleeves on my cable knit twice before cuffing the sleeves of the shirt over them.  The fabric is double printed around the cuffs so it made the polka dots look more uniform.  Lots of compliments on this combo at work.

How would you wear the polka dot chambray shirt?

xx Nicole