Romantic Spring: Wearing This Season's Floral Trend

Romantic Spring by itsrobyn 

Fat Face red top
$63 - fatface.com

Rag Bone racerback tank
marissacollections.com

Forever New pleated skirt
$74 - forevernew.com.au

Peep toe shoes
$33 - newlook.com

H M handbag
$17 - hm.com

J Crew white necklace
jcrew.com

Alexander McQueen white sunglasses
neimanmarcus.com

Spring Inspirations Dogwood Bush Pink
joann.com

Winter Casual - Polyvore Fashion Collage

It's Robyn - Winter Casual by itsrobyn.

This is a typical outfit that I would wear to an event at my children's school (sports, dance concert) or out running errands for the day.

Forever 21 for the 40+ . . . recent finds

My daughter turned Sweet 16 on the 18th of this month. As a present, she received a Forever 21 gift card which was burning a hole in her pocket so I took her shopping last week and actually found a few things for myself.

I've shopped at this store many times since my daughter started high school and began caring about fashion. I probably would never have even entered the store had it not been for her. The prices are fabulous (the quality is hit/miss) if you want to score trendy items that you don't expect to last through several seasons. The majority of their stock is geared toward the teen/20's age group but if you shop carefully and with a "how would I style this" mindset, you can find some great pieces that will work for more mature fashionistas.

Here's what I got and how I'm going to wear it:

1) I'm much more curvy than the model.   This striped scoop neck top with ruched sleeves is going to be fabulously sexy on a casual date night with the hubs.  Add dark wash boot cut jeans and black high heels (see below). . .voila!  

 .  . .with my black Vera Wang heels from Kohl's

2) No, I won't be wearing this color blocked sweater with leather pants.  I imagined myself wearing it with dark wash skinny jeans and black motorcycle inspired boots.

3) I will wear this retro inspired t-shirt top underneath a 3/4 sleeve cropped blazer with ruched sleeves (see below).

. . .with my Metaphor blazer from Sears

4) I chose a size of this tiger/union jack shirt that was more form fitting than the one on the model.  I think loose fitting clothing adds pounds on a curvy girl so I prefer a fit that embraces my curves.  I'm going to wear this vintage inspired t-shirt with snakeskin skinny jeans (see below) and some wedge booties (see below).

. . .with my black Apt 9 snakeskin coated skinny jeans from Kohl's

 

. . .and my Merona wedge "shooties" from Target

 

All Dressed Up and Someplace to Go

The first weekend in August was my husband Jason's annual Trader Joe's regional company party.  Our region (Northern Cal) holds its party every year in Sacramento, California.  Trader Joe's is very generous and provides a lovely hotel room for guests driving 30 or more miles to the event.  Although it's very hot this time of year, which isn't conducive to sight-seeing around our state's capital, it is a nice way to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary (which was August 13) for free.  Attendance isn't mandatory and we actually haven't been to the party since 2009.   They have hosted the party at the same venue for the past 3 years, so we didn't really have the desire to spend the extra $$$ on the gas it takes to drive 3 hours if it wasn't something we haven't done before.  Well now that enough time has passed, it felt new to us even though it wasn't and we were definitely ready for a free night of fun on Trader Joe's. 

I won't bore you with too many pictures of the hotel but you can check out my previous post from 2009 if you're interested in seeing more.  It is quite luxurious.

We were lucky enough to get a corner room this time with fabulous views in two directions.  This is the view standing by the window looking back at the little entry way and the front door.  I love that there is a full length mirror at the very end.

 

 

 

Standing at the door.  Bathroom is on the left, main room on the right.

 

Since it is a corner room, there is an angled wall with the desk and swivel t.v. on it.  Great use of space.

I love having an excuse to get all dressed up. My everyday life just isn't this glamorous (click on the photo to zoom on the detail of the dress--it's metallic crochet).



All of my makeup (except lipstick) is Aromaleigh.

The one time a year (in this case three years) that Jason wears a suit.



 To show their appreciation for their managers' hard work, they host a cocktail/hors d'oeuvres hour prior to dinner, which includes free wine and beer (yay for free wine!).  The dinner is always elegant and delicious.  What's that you say?  You want to see pics of our food?  I knew it.  Here you go. . .

 

Just kidding.

And after dinner, if you're up for it, there is LOTS of dancing.  Sorry no pics of me boogie-ing down.  Mama gets a little crazy on the dance floor and I have a reputation to uphold (lol). 

Lucky us, the party is held in the hotel that our room is in so we can drag our tired butts right to bed without having to hail a cab in the wee hours.

 

And just a few more pics before I go. . .

 

 

I'm sharing my post at Not Dead Yet Style's:

Dress:  I.N.C. Metallic Crochet (look Ma, no spanx!)



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Singing Its Praises: Ballet Flats

Although I've admired ballet flats from afar and found them attractive on many women, I've never tried on a pair that were both stylish and comfortable (most slip off my heel with each step and immediately wear a raw spot in my skin) so I'd kind of given up hope on them.  And honestly, I prefer heels (3-4" usually, but higher for date night) because they make my 5' 4" frame appear taller and leaner.  I'm too tall for most petite pants (even in flats) and the "regular" length are usually too long for a flat shoe but perfect with a wedge heel so that's what I tend to stick with.  But that being said, heels aren't practical for every situation so my search for a cute and comfy ballet flat continued.

Well, I can tell you that since last night, my search is finally over!  While out killing time waiting for my teen daughter's dance class to end, I found the trifecta of ballet flats (cute, comfy and affordable) at Payless (I know!)  While I'm not a brand snob and I DO love a bargain, I haven't had a lot of luck with Payless over the past couple of years.  It used to be my go-to place for inexpensive but cute sandals for my daughter and me and sneakers for my son when he was a toddler but it seems like they've raised their prices considerably but not the quality.  So when I popped in there last night, I wasn't expecting too much. 

And that's when I saw Claire (deflex by Dexter).  She was sitting there all pretty with her shiny toes and heels and tempting me with brightly colored signs assuring me how comfortable and flexible she was.  I didn't want to be deceived by her good looks so I was sceptical when slipped her on my feet.  It was love at first feel (cue the AC/DC music).  I walked up and down the aisle in disbelief at the fact that she was comfortable (felt like I was wearing slippers) and didn't slip off my feet even a little.  Needing to share my joy with someone, anyone, I spotted a salesgirl coming down the aisle and I showed her the shoes and said, "These are the best flats EVER!"  We chatted for a few moments about our mutual love of Claire and we became instant BFFs.  Well not really, but we both agreed they were the most comfortable flats we'd come across.  And. . .they were only $24.95. 

Although they also had a cheetah print and a grey flannel, both with black patent accents, I picked the black ones.  I figured they will go with more things in my fall/winter wardrobe and they have such a nice sheen to them.  And the gathering is only on the sides (not in the heel area like some shoes I've seen) and it stretches just enough.  It's like a gentle hug on your foot.  No curled up elf-looking toes either.  I love my new flats!  Maybe I should get a second pair now in case Claire gets worn out and I find out they don't carry her anymore.  I hate it when that happens, don't you?

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3 Easy Ways to Spice up a Basic Black Tank

Lately, I have moved away from the basic black in my wardrobe and have opted for more colorful choices.  I see lots of women wearing a black top/blue jeans "uniform" and it just doesn't look special or exciting.   When you're a busy wife and mother, I know it's easy to just grab something quickly from your closet that you feel flatters you but there's nothing flattering about boring and unimaginative clothing.  So, not wanting to have all of my (probably more than 10) basic black tops go to waste, I decided to freshen up the look simply by adding a bright patterned scarf knotted low and hung loosely around my neck.

Here's a representation of the outfit I wore. . .

Not a scarf girl?  Another way to update up this look could be to eliminate the scarf and instead add colorful earrings and sandals. . .

. . .or a statement necklace and bold bag. . .

I hope my suggestions have inspired you to come up with new ways to liven up your basic black wardrobe.

Easy and pretty daytime eye + my outfit of the day

I know I've posted a similar if not identical look before, but the colors are so pretty and they matched my outfit so I had to share.

For this simple daytime eye, I started with Meow's iprime all over from brows to lashes.

Then I applied Aromaleigh's fiddlesticks all over the lid and into the crease.  I blended out the crease with a fluffy brush to diffuse the color and remove some of the sheen.  I do this when I don't have the time to apply an additional crease color.

In the inner corner, I used Aromaleigh's pink portent to highlight and add brightness.  With what was left on my brush, I swept it across my brow bone area just to add a subtle glow.

Add mascara and voila!  Easy pretty daytime eye.

My outfit of the day is the classic boot cut jeans by Inked & Faded.  I found them one day by chance while shopping at Sears for a pair of denim capris for my daughter.  I hadn't been in Sears for years but a friend of my daughter's told her she found some cute shorts there so we checked it out.  These jeans fit me perfectly and they were on sale for $14!  The chiffon burnout velvet cardi is from Forever 21 and the sleeveless drape neck top was from Target.  The whole outfit cost around $50.  Proof that you don't have to spend a lot of money to look cute.

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My new yellow shoes!

Do you remember the other day I posted about my new striped top and I did an inspirational collage to show how I would wear it?  If not, click here for a reminder and then come back and read the rest of this post, k?

Okay, so last night I went shopping with my daughter, one of her friends and the friends' mom.  We were at Kohl's looking for a prom dress for the friend and I wandered into the shoe department (alright so I made a beeline for it the second I walked in the store but who's keeping track).  Low and behold, I found these beauties (the last pair in my size).

They are almost identical to the ones in my collage (see the tan leather-esque detail on the strap?) and these were on sale for $21.99 (reg $54.99).  Plus, I had a 30% off coupon so they ended up being only $16.61 (incl. tax)!!!  I don't believe in paying a lot of money for shoes in general but it's especially true when the shoes are a trend that I probably won't wear more than a year or two at most and these fall into that category.  I'm still working on finding a pair of white jeans (yikes!) but in the meantime I can wear them with regular denim jeans or a pair of white denim cropped pants (aka peddle pushers, capris) I already own.

Thanks for letting me share my shoe joy with you.  Please come back and visit soon.

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