5 Days, 5 Ways: The Little Black Dress

Today's "5 Days, 5 Ways" theme is dresses!  I love dresses for spring and summer and I have a couple in particular that get a lot of good wear.



I have 2 black tank dresses that are pretty much my ultimate go-do dresses.  One is from Gap (from 4 or 5 years ago) and has a slightly full bottom half.  The other is from the J.Crew Factory store (2 years ago) and has a slightly more straight bottom and ruffles around the arms.  

What I love about these dresses is how versatile they are.  I can seriously wear the same dress over and over and style it differently each time.  

School

Weddings

Bridal Shower

Baby Shower

Funeral

Church

Concert

Dinner

Bachelorette Party

Yup, I wear these dresses for pretty much everything you can imagine.  

Summer lunch with friends!

All dressed up for a friend's wedding!

And this is why I don't blog outfits of the day...

These pics were taken by my personal photographer (AKA my 11 year old brother).

This took about 6 attempts.

Dress:  Gap (old)

Cardigan: Gap (buy it here)

Shoes:  Madden Girl (old from TJ Maxx)

Sunglasses: Fossil (fairly recent from Gordman's)

This one isn't too bad!

Jacket:  Gap (old, but they have cute ones here)

Okay, it's not 5 ways, but my brother and I were too hungry to take anymore photos!

I most commonly wear these dresses with my denim jacket or a cardigan.  Since I have a lot of  ridiculous amount of cardigans I have a lot of options with colors.  

C'mon over to Along the Lines of Style and check out how other bloggers style their dresses!

(PS ~  I'll get back to more school / teaching related posts next week!)

DIY Glitter Flats

Once again, Pinterest and blogs got the best of me and I was inspired to do a fun DIY project!  

After my closet clean-out this week, I decided to try to glitterizing some old flats in an attempt to give some old shoes new life.  I searched "DIY glitter shoes" on Pinterest and found a bunch of pins linking to this project.  I also remembered that my friend Andi did a super cute glitter DIY to some shoes.  (You can see here post here.)

The perfect pair of shoes for this project was a pair of well-loved Target flats.  Due to lots of wear and the material of the shoes they were a little worn in spots and had pretty much been retired to the old shoe box in the sky (otherwise known as the top shelf of my closet).  

Worn, but still in decent shape!

Before shot!

I stopped into JoAnne Fabrics (the new one by my house is much more like a Michaels than a fabric store) and sought out some glitter.  Since the flats were black and this was my first attempt at this project I knew I wanted to go for something dark.  I also wanted to get a super fine glitter (following a few recommendations I found online).  

3 materials

I ended up getting this super pretty glitter in "onyx."  It's very dark, but with  blueish sliver glow about it.  It's a lovely alternative to just plain black!

Onyx glitter

The easiest "recipe" for this project was to combine glitter with Mod Podge and paint it on one layer at a time.  I mixed this on a plate and used a sponge brush that I found in my craft box.  I already had the Mod Podge, so the total cost was $2.99 for the jar of glitter.

Layer #1 on the first shoe!

As you can see, the Mod Podge has a milky finish before it dries.  I waited about 20 minutes between applications and did a total of 3 layers of glitter.  I had to remix my Mod Podge glitter each time and I actually ended up making my mixture a lot heavier on the glitter after the first coat.  

Finished and ready to dry!

I left them to dry (and went to a friend's house to enjoy conversation and wine) and came home to find my lovely dried glittery goodness flats!  

All dry and sparkly!

Please excuse my super white feet!

I used a little leftover mixture on a spare black headband!

I'm thinking about glitterizing some sandals next!  

Have you done any DIY projects lately?

5 Days, 5 Ways: My Go-To Accessories

Today's the third day of "5 Days, 5 Ways" with Fran and Whitney!

You can find us today (and the rest of this week) over at Along the Lines of Style!

I'm going a slightly different direction with today's post and combining it with a post that I already had in the works.  I'm a huge fan of accessories, so it was hard for me to choose just one accessory.  I was already planning on doing a post on versatile accessories, so I'm going to share my top 5.  These aren't 5 ways items, these are ALWAYS items!

1. Leopard Scarf - I've never been a huge fan of animal prints, but last fall I decided I get one.  It's gotten a lot of good wear and I even had to stalk Gap's website to get my mom her own!  I've found this scarf is great to dress up a basic outfit and that even with the brown and black it goes with a lot of colors and patterns.  (Here are some leopard scarf options.)
2. Black Coach Purse(s) - I have 2 black Coach purses that I have been rotating over the past few months.  One is leather and one is a fabric.  They go with pretty much everything.  I've started investing in purses a bit more in the past few years, so I try to go with things that are on the versatile and slightly more classic side.  These purses will be favorites for years to come!  (The style pictured is the Coach Ashley Large Leather Satchel from the Coach Factory store...  I bought mine over a year ago, but it still pops up online every now and then!)
3. Tortoise Watch - I debated adding this one in since I haven't owned it more than a few weeks, but I've been wearing it almost everyday since I bought it!  (I'd actually been eyeing this watch for about 2 years!)  It seriously goes with everything!
4. Black Flats - A good pair of basic black flats is pretty much a go-to when it comes to shoes.  I can go out of town for a few days and be perfectly fine packing just a pair of black flats.  They go with jeans, black pants, and dresses...  Pretty much everything!  (Here are my current faves!)
5. Statement Necklace - I love this necklace from Banana Republic and it's always the one I turn to when I want to dress up a basic outfit.  It was a super clearance find (I think I spent around $10) and it's gotten lots of great wear over the past few years!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    What are your most versatile accessories?  
   
   
   Do you have any items that you can wear with virtually every outfit?

Confessions of Teen Show Addict

I have a confession...

I'm 28 years old and I still love teen shows.  

In fact, I think I watch more teen shows than I did when I actually was a teen.  I probably watch almost as much MTV as I did when I was 16.  

So, let's go through my top 3 guilty pleasure teen show addictions.

Awkward.

This is seriously one of the best shows MTV has ever produced.  The writing is great and it's a delightful mix of dry humor and drama.  I have friends my age and even my mom's age that love this show.  The third season is coming back in April 16 and I get a little super excited every time I see a promo for it!

Degrassi

Those Canadians know their drama!  I started watching "Degrassi" back in college when I would babysit late nights and then watched a marathon of it for like 3 days straight when I had the flu.  After that, I was hooked!  It's been on for a long time and they cycle through characters, but I still somehow get hooked on the storylines.  It's on Teen Nick and is currently in the middle of 12th season.  

(Fun Fact:  It's actually the continuation of the original Degrassi series back in the 80's, but the ties to the original show aren't really there anymore...  Only 1 character from the 80's show is still on there.  I also recently discovered PBS has posted episodes of the original series on their You Tube page.)  

The Carrie Diaries

This one is a new show that's the prequel to "Sex and the City" and it follows Carrie Bradshaw through high school in the mid-80's.  I'll admit the 80's thing is what got me interested in the show, but it's such a good show, that I sometimes forget that's when it's set.  I'm not a huge SATC fan, but know enough about the show and Carrie's character to appreciate this show.  I think AnnaSophia Robb does an awesome job playing Carrie.  She's way cuter than Sarah Jessica Parker actually was at the time (here's proof), but her narration and mannerisms are very convincing to make it feel like it's the same character only younger.  I really hope this show lasts longer than this first season.

Do you have any guilty pleasure shows like these?!?

5 Days, 5 Ways: Black Skinnies

It's the second day of "5 Days, 5 Ways" and I'm linking up over at Franish today!



Today's theme is pants, so I selected my black skinnies to share with you some of the ways I wear them.

If you'd told me a few years ago that skinny jeans / pants would become a favorite of mine, I would have laughed.  

In your face.

My legs are not my slimmest feature, but my theory in shopping is to pretty much give everything a chance in the fitting room.  Sometimes a trend can pleasantly surprise you!

5 Days, 5 Ways: Black Skinnies 

I feel like black skinny pants are about as versatile as a good pair of jeans. I wear these for work a couple days a week and have found myself wearing them on weekends as well. (Something I very very rarely do with my wider-legged dress pants.)

Here are a few reasons why these pants are awesome:

• You can wear them with virtually everything.
• They're slimming!
• They let your top make a statement.
• They are a great non-jeans bottom to pair with chambray or denim if you're not into the head-to-toe denim look.
• They instantly dress up your look and take you up a notch.
• You can wear them with pretty much any kind of shoe...  Flats, heels, boots.

My 2 pairs are the Mossimo Slim Fit from Target (pictured) and the Gap Outlet Aubrey pants.  I'm hoping to get my hands on another pair from the ones from Gap because they're possibly the best fitting pants ever.  (If I'd known I'd love them so much I'd have bought 2 pairs since I don't make it to the Gap Outlet very often!)

Don't forget to check out the rest of the awesome bloggers linking up with Fran!  

To Do Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!  It's time to revisit last week's goals and see how I did!  Since it was spring break I had a lot of extra time to get things accomplished and be productive!

• Get some cleaning done around the house.  I did pretty well on this.  I still have a few projects to tackle, but I have a pretty clean home at the moment!  I also managed to do a little closet clean-out and sell some items for extra cash!
• Make lesson plans and sketch out units for the rest of the school year.  I could have done a little better on this one, but I did get plans done and get a few things ironed out for the remainder of the school year.  I have a 4 day weekend this coming weekend and will try to continue this on my days off.
• Get my workout on!  I made it to the gym 4 times last week!  Oh, it felt sooooo good to be back!  

Here are this week's goals!

• Keep up with regular workouts.  My after school tutoring gig is over for the year, so I'll be able to leave work about an hour earlier than I was when that was going on.  I'm hoping to get into the routine of just going to workout straight after school before I come home.  (I hate going during that time, but I think that will be easiest for me to stick with.)
• Cook at least 2 real meals this week.  That's aiming a little on the low side, but that's the goal for right now!
• Complete at least 4 blog posts.  I'm trying to get back into the habit on blogging on a regular basis.  I've settled on the fact that this blog is going to be about a little bit of everything, so I'm just going to write about whatever!  School, makeup, home decor, shopping...  Whatever!

What's on your to do list this week?  

Did you have a productive spring break (if you had one)?

5 Days, 5 Ways: J.Crew Colorblock Tee

I'm super excited to be linking up with Franziska and Whitney this week for

5 Days, 5 Ways!

These two are a couple of my favorite style bloggers because they have such a similar sense of style, shop on a budget, and are about the same age.  (And, even better, Whitney is also a teacher!)

Today's theme was tops...  Since I don't have a very good way to take outfit photos, I've decided to go the Polyvore route, but I tried to use mostly items that I actually own (or very similar).  

I decided to go with my J.Crew colorblock tee for today for several reasons...  I love this shirt and own a few variations of it.  Plus, I feel like if you don't have this one yourself there are a lot of "knock offs" of it popping up in stores all over now.  I missed out on getting it at the retail J.Crew store last year, so I was quick to snatch it up when I arrived at the J.Crew Factory a couple months ago.

5 Ways: J.Crew Colorblock Tee 

This shirt is super versatile, which is why I wanted it so much. I saw a lot of cute styling ideas online and knew it would get a lot of good use!  My 5 ways include 2 dressier options, 1 in the middle, and 2 casual ideas.  (I've also paired mine with my black blazer and denim jacket for additional layering.)