mixing florals

I absolutely love mixing prints, and florals are one of the best prints for mixing and matching. They go perfectly with polka dots and stripes, and sometimes even with other florals. Mixing patterns can be incredibly intimidating for some people, but once you get the hang of it you find the rules that work for you and your style and can mix it up like a pro.

Ruche's print-mixing feature Spring Floral Edit premiered this morning, and it's one of my favorites so far. I love the polka dot top layered over golden floral print. That green daisy print top with the black and white stripes is also fantastic. I just had to share. 

In addition, Ruche is having a Style Steal sale for today and tomorrow only, with many of my Novel Dress feature dresses included in the sale for 50% off! See if you can find the dresses for Wizard of Oz, A Wrinkle in Time, The Lies of Locke Lamora (which I love and am currently wearing), and Anne of Green Gables. My Valentine's Day dress is also included in the sale. 

Happy Friday Eve, friends. The weekend is swiftly approaching!

remixing {frocktober, day 7+8}

Dress: Ruche (similar 1, 2, 3, 4), Star Cardigan: Gifted (similar 1, 2, 3), Button-Up: J. Crew

I decided to wear the same dress two days in a row this week for a chance to do some Frocktober remixing.

This amazing aztec-print dress has been remixed on this blog and beyond many times (see here, here, here, here in italy, and here in italy again). I've actually worn it even more than I realized! I've had it for almost exactly a year. I got it for my birthday last year and have been loving on it ever since. 

I don't normally purchase shift/sheath dresses online (or honestly at all) because I'm pretty self-conscious about a straight fit. I prefer the fit and flare. And especially buying online without trying it on, there's the risk that it'll be too tight - but I totally lucked out on this one! It's the perfect fit. It's comfortable by itself and I can always belt it for that added definition. It's the perfect skirt beneath a cozy sweater and works really well for all seasons of layering. 

When I was in Italy in March I wore it belted with tights and boots, with a thin turtle neck underneath it and a green army jacket over it. I don't think it'll ever get that cold here in AZ but there are always fun options for wearing cute dresses when traveling in colder weather!

  

On a total side note, I really wish I could share this star cardigan with you. I'm a tad obsessed. It was a gift from my friend (the shopaholic, although this time she bought it specifically for me!) from Nordstrom's last chance store up in Phoenix and I'm fairly confident there's no way to find it ever again. Which I kind of love because it's incredibly unique. But I also feel sad for you. So, if you're ever in town and need a fantastic knit cardigan for a night out, stop by and I'll share the wealth.
But you have to promise to give it back.
:)

too many stories {frocktober, day 1}

Dress: Modcloth (remixed 1 // 2)

Frocktober has begun! 

I wanted to start out this brand new Frocktober with a dress that I've already blogged before. This is a new remix for this galaxy-print dress. It's one of my favorites! It's probably the softest, most comfortable dress I own. I've worn it plain, with tights and boots, and I've also worn it with a striped sweater on top. This outfit showcases a third way to wear it, tucked into a neutral skirt and swept into a cardigan. 

This dress has a very bold, unique print but that doesn't mean it's impossible to wear! I think sometimes those fun "statement pieces" we buy end up sitting in our closet for years without much wear. Get creative and find ways to incorporate those pieces into your wardrobe more regularly. See what you can come up with!

Speaking of galaxy, this dress always reminds me of some of my favorite space stories -- Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica (don't look at me like that), Guardians of the Galaxy. 

One of my favorite things about Fall is the arrival of new TV shows. I love watching TV and keeping up with characters and stories. The problem is, it's almost impossible to actually stay caught up. My husband and I have an enormous pile of TV shows that we're either in the middle of, just starting, or hoping to start. It's quite overwhelming. I obviously don't want to spend my entire life bogged down with TV, but it is something we enjoy doing together.

How do you decide which shows to really commit to, and which ones to let fall by the wayside? 

We have started/are in the middle of/are currently watching: 

Community, Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, New Girl, The Mindy Project, A to Z, Reign, The Vampire Diaries, Walking Dead, Will and Grace, Playing House, Bones, House of Cards, Parenthood.

Now that I've typed all of that out, I'm feeling pretty disturbed. That doesn't even count our wishlist of shows, which includes shows like Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, Chuck, Fringe, Scandal, Freaks and Geeks, Suits, and Alias.

Before you start sending me all of those "technology-is-evil" videos about looking up and living life and throwing our TV out the window, we don't actually spend all of our time watching TV. We actually haven't watched any TV at all this entire week, which is really the problem. We started watching Gotham and are already 2 episodes behind. We've been trying to finish Will and Grace for almost 4 years. There are a lot of shows we want to watch, but I think the real skill comes with knowing when to say, this is never going to happen. We need to try to be wise and figure out the shows that are actually our priority. We've gotta cut some of these loose, especially the ones that require weekly viewing. They'll either be phenomenal and we'll watch them leisurely online in 10 years, or they'll end up crappy and we'll be glad we didn't waste our time (ahem, looking at you, himym). 

How do you choose which shows to watch? What're your current faves?

Also, there's a cat in this picture. Sneaky.

the ugly button-up

This week has been rather record-breaking when it comes to skies-that-make-me-love-arizona. 

Big, never-ending, whimsical expanses of blue and puffy white. Several times this week I've had to pull over on my way home from work just to take a second and look at the sky, wide-eyed, without crashing the car. 

I'm sure the sky here has always been this humongous. I think I just treasure it a little more, it catches my attention a lot easier. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that jazz. 

It's definitely a main reason why I love Arizona, and specifically this hometown of mine. I don't think I'm meant for city life. I just love the sky too much. I love the space, the land, the desert wildlife. They're all my peeps. 

In other news, this entire outfit is from another batch of shopaholic gifting. 

We went up to her apartment this week for a night of fun-hopping. We went and saw What If with Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, which was positively delightful, by the way. It's going on the rotation for sure. We then went out for sushi. But before all that, we were at the apartment, and she dives in to her room for a sec and emerges with a large pile of clothes for me. Including a dress she bought on her birthday weekend in May. I was there. 

I'm not kidding when I say this entire outfit, either. Shoes, skirt, blouse, sweater. 

When I pulled this denim top out of the pile, I wrinkled my nose a tad. The shirt is sleeveless, and it's so long I almost mistook it for a dress. I hopped up and put it on over my shirt, which revealed that the hem hits me right below my bum, and showcases quite an extensive amount of my underarm area. The armholes are excessive. 

My shopaholic friend burst out laughing. "Oh man, I don't know. I'm not sure what I was thinking with that one!"

I don't know what that means to you, but to me it was like, challenge accepted. I knew right then that I had to try and wear it and make it work. It'd an odd little reject of a shirt, but the patterned denim is really cute, and I can already imagine the sweaters I can layer over it in the winter with the collar peeking out. 

I feel like maybe there's a life lesson in here somewhere. People and things can always surprise you, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, keep your mind open to potential, shoot for the moon, etc. I think it's really a gift to see things for what they could be. Like a rundown shack turned dream home. Live your life like the Property Brothers. 

Besides, no one has to know that if I yanked my skirt down in this outfit I'd be ready for a hoe-down version of a Risky Business dance number. 

Have to save that for a rainy day.

remix: hummingbird dress

collection of old posts: 1 // 2 // 3 

Me and this dress go way back. 

These photos are all over the place, taken over the course of a few years (and a few camera upgrades), but I really wanted to show the mixology of this one simple piece. It is probably the most creatively layered item in my closet. I generally love a good dress because it's so independent, but it also plays well with others. Wear it alone and it's good to go. Tuck it into a skirt, and it's a secret blouse (no one will know!). Layer a sweater or loose top over it, and it's a featured skirt. With a tank-top dress like this one, you can also get really creative in the winter using a thin turtle neck or button-up to layer underneath. And obviously a dress with a fun print can take part in all of this grand layering while also dabbling in pattern mixing!

The funny thing is, this dress would definitely be labeled as a Spring dress. Yet most of the photos above were taken in generally cool/cold weather. I laugh in the face of seasonal dresses. 

Be bold, and wear hummingbirds in the snow, my friends. 

hello, hello

Dress (remixed, remixed, remixed): Ruche (similar, similar), 
Top (remixed): Modcloth, Earrings: from Venice

Since March 1st was my last blog post, I'm going to acknowledge my embarrassing lack of blogging last month! I can't believe it's already a solid week into April.

Quick update on my life: our trip to Italy was amazing, pizza and pasta will never be the same. We came home and took a weekend road trip to North Carolina with some friends, then celebrated the upcoming end of law school with our Barrister's Ball. Some of our best friends from college visited for a week and we spent the weekend with them in DC, and this past weekend we celebrated my husband's 25th birthday!

All in all, March was good to us. It was a month too busy and thriving to even blog about, but I'll attempt to play catch-up over the next few weeks while we start wrapping our minds around the fact that we're moving back to Arizona next month. 

Until I get my act back together, may I just say hello, how are you, how have you been?
It's so nice to see you again.

just call me whimsy

Dress: Zulily, Top: J. Crew, Necklace (similar): Ruche,
Booties: Urbanog, Tights: Target

Here's a very true fact about me.

I was a little bit boy crazy. Gasp, I know, it's true, it happened. 

I had many real-life crushes but, even worse, my walls were covered in magazine clippings and home-computer print-outs and life-size posters of Orlando Bloom, Tom Welling, Elijah Wood, etc...my adolescence was obviously smack dab in the middle of Lord of the Rings and Smallville mania. 

It was a good time, my friends.

I was young and foolish I suppose, but you know what else? I was still young and foolish when I got married. Maybe I still am. Is there such a thing as being young and foolish until you're old and grey? 

I feel like I can say I'm not young and foolish anymore...but I also feel like that's something a young and foolish person would say. 

I'm getting off track I think. The point of this whole conversation is that I kind of got to skip the whole dating scene. I was the typical boy crazy adolescent, but my husband and I started dating in high school in the midst of all that, and have been together ever since.

No awkward bar conversations, no flirting with strangers at the baseball game. No awkward pick-up lines. Part of it makes me feel a little excluded, because I don't have any funny awkward stories (about that, at least). 

I did have a guy drop a sugar packet once and tell me that I dropped my name tag. But it was when I was 13, maybe 14, and it was at a Christian summer camp. Haha. Look out!

Until Monday, I had pretty much avoided all of those cringe-worthy encounters. I didn't know what being hit on would even be like.
I would just wave it off naively, like, oh, he was just being friendly! 

So here it goes: I work in a library, and there's a guy that I've seen several times due to his exceeding number of interlibrary loan requests. He's a nice-looking guy, maybe a year or two older than I am.
He's had some problems with his account lately, and after I helped him out again on Monday, I was starting to walk away when he quickly says,

"You're looking whimsical today, by the way." Wink. 

I'm not gonna lie, I did love my crazy print-mixing ensemble and being called whimsical is the best kind of compliment for me, truly. Right next to you could be in an Anthro catalogue and I feel like Jess from New Girl would wear that. But then he winked and made it weird.

Why are winks so creepy? Why?
I love winking. I think it's adorable, it's sweet. But to a stranger? There is nothing in the world that's creepier than being winked at by some crazy nomad, some wandering half-blinking soul.

You know when it's not creepy? When it's a secret, a wordless exchange between two people who know and love each other:
Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale, winking at his lady.
Geoffrey Rush in The Book Thief when he's winking at Liesel, his adopted daughter.

Winks should be reserved for those who don't need words, because their hearts are already entwined.

Don't be a creep. Don't wink at strangers. 

my style addiction

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I think it's safe to say that my style addiction is mixing prints and patterns!

I love accidentally finding bold ensembles that somehow seem meant to be. I know it's risky and it's a style choice not everyone would make -- but I love mixing things up and seeing the way stripes compliment florals, and the way polka dots love being absolutely everywhere.
There are rules, of course -- but mostly I think they're meant to be bent.
I generally like to stick with:

1. Two prints only -- unless you're feeling super crazy.
2. Treat polka dots like neutrals because they should always be invited to the party.
3. Choose prints within the same color scheme.
4. Mix big patterns with little patterns.

These are not all-inclusive, of course -- each pattern-mixing outfit I wear usually sticks to one or two of these rules, not all of them at once. I'd also say that I often treat stripes as a neutral as well, and basically any black and white pattern. I love the way a black and white striped sweater looks with a loud, colorful print.

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I think it's the experimenting that I love the most, and the way my eyes are drawn to ensembles while scrolling through my closet. It makes me wish I had a closet like Cher from Clueless. 

I think patterns were meant to be mixed, colors to be scrambled and worn and paraded.

What do you think about pattern mixing? Would you do it? And if so, what rules would you stand by?

If not -- what is your style addiction?

#mystyleaddiction