5 Days, 5 Ways: Casual Friday (Spring Style)

Today is the last day that I'll be linking up with Franziska and Whitney for "5 Days, 5 Ways."  It's been super fun sharing with everyone this week and seeing the ideas that other bloggers have to offer!  

Today's theme is "Casual Friday" which is pretty appropriate for my typical Friday attire.  At my school, the teachers dress up on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  On Tuesdays we wear our anti-bullying t-shirts and jeans (or another school shirt) and this year we officially declared Friday to be a jeans-and-whatever day.  It's great to be able to dress like a "regular person" and not a teacher 1 day of my week as it allows me to wear some items that are work appropriate with that don't necessarily go with dress pants.

Casual Friday

This time of year Fridays are busy with activities like Pioneer Day, Field Day, pizza parties, inservices, and field trips.  Pretty much any jeans day you'll find me wearing my trusty American Eagle Boyfit Crop jeans.  I seriously hoard this style (especially since I always seem to score them on amazing sales)!  It's a little embarrassing to admit that I think I currently have 7 pairs (in various washes) in current rotation (although 2 of those are holey distressed ones that I don't wear to school).

Here's the lowdown on the styles I'm featuring (from upper left):

• This is pretty much the ultimate field trip outfit...  A comfy, colorful tee, cute sandals, and some sunglasses.  I'll be sporting this look when we go to the zoo and the baseball game next month!
• My Tippi sweaters transition really well from season to season and work with jeans as well as work pants.  I love my brighter colored Tippis for a casual, yet still pulled-together look.
• A tee, cardigan, and TOMS (I have these in gray and black) are a great go-to look.  This is a combo I find myself rocking on teaching days as well as inservice days when I want to be comfy, but also look nice enough to go out to lunch with co-workers.
• Ahhh...  Another appearance by one of my J.Crew colorblock tees!  These shirts are just so stinkin' cute!
• Last, but not least...  A K-State tee!  I rock these pretty much every Friday during football season, but still fall back on them throughout the rest of the year.  There's nothing wrong with indoctrinating my little third graders with some purple pride.  I'm inspiring them to go to (the best) college!

What's your casual Friday style?

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!)

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?

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!  

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.)

Sunday (or Monday) Social

Well, so much for being back on a good sleep schedule...

I decided last minute to jump in on this week's Sunday Social over at A Complete Waste of Makeup!

Click here to join Sunday Social!

This week's questions were along the lines of (re)introducing ourselves.  I figured since I have quite a few newer readers this would be a good one to join in on.

1. What is the name of your blog?  How long have you been blogging?  My blog is called Third Grade Rock Star (there's really no good reason for that name, just something I came up with) and I've been blogging for close to 2 years.  I've been blogging on a (semi) regular basis for about a year and a half.
2. Why do you blog?  I totally got into blogging randomly.  I learned about Blogger a few years ago when I was working on my Master's degree.  My group decided to create a blog for first year teachers as one of our projects.  My instructor (who also does professional development in my district) asked me if I would teach a class at our learning center on blogging and tech tools.  I actually created this blog for the sole purpose of teaching that one day course, but had so much fun putting it together that I decided to expand it into more.  As I started following more blogs in the meantime, I decided I wanted to join in on the fun and share my own experiences with others!
3. What is the first blog you ever followed?  J's Everyday Fashion...  She's awesome!  
4. What is your favorite post you wrote in 2012?  This is a hard one...  I love posting about fashion and shopping, but I also really love posting about things that help others become better teachers.  I'm not one of those teachers that posts cute things I make all the time, but I do love giving tips and hints to others, be it about teaching or shopping, to make life easier and help save people some money!
5. What are your blogging goals for 2013?  I want to be a more consistent blogger and continue to develop the identity of my blog.  I want this blog to reflect all of my favorite things.  I wouldn't mind reaching 300 or even 400 followers by the end of the year either! 
6. Top 3 favorite blogs to follow:  My current must reads each day are Along the Lines of Style, Franish, and Just Another Smith.  I love reading these blogs because all 3 of these girls are so down-to-earth and the types that I feel like I would be friends with outside of blogging.  (Okay, actually Andi of Just Another Smith and I have known each other "in real life" since we were babies.)  Out of my 100+ subscriptions on Google Reader, if I'm pressed for time, I look for updates from these girls each day!