Gingham with red and blue

Hello Wednesday, I'm so glad you're here and it's no longer the first half of the week. The low clouds have finally lifted here in SF and there's sun out, but in the shade it's still on the chilly side. I decided to pair red with blue today and this is what I got...

Scarf: H&M, Jeans: Wet Seal, V Nec: Gap, Necklace: JCrew, Gingham buttondown: Target

Since I sit under the air conditioning for at least 8 hours a day I usually have to bundle up, hence the massive scarf. And it doubles as more warmth when the walk to work in the morning is a bit chilly.

I have to admit that I'm really loving chunkier statement necklaces. While this one isn't exactly huge it's still a fun piece. I think I might start looking for more to dress up outfits and give me the ability to remix and add pizzaz to something that I might shove back into the depths of my closet.

Renegade Craft Fair is also coming to San Francisco this weekend and with Saturday as my free day I'll be taking some time to go check it out.


Today's wedding count is at 24. Holy cow - where has this year gone? Tonight I'm heading up to a stationary store to get our colored escort cards. I've decided to do varying shades of color to designate meals. Between my aunt, cousins, mom, sister, and myself we're going to handwrite the approximate 205 cards for my guests. This weekend I also have another hair/makeup run trial with my gal pal/hair and makeup stylist.

So - what's some of your favorite outfit pairings when you want a few minutes of extra sleep in the morning?

Dotted Friday & Liebster blog award

It's Friday... finally! Happy almost weekend everyone! Here's my outfit of the day. Purple has to be one of my favorite colors... I adore it.

Outfit du jour - Blouse: Madewell; Necklace & tippi linen sweater: Jcrew; Jeans: Banana Republic

Necklace close up

I'm honored and thrilled to have been given the Libester Blog Award by Phiphi over at Phiphi's Blog. "The liebster blog award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.". I aboslutely love blogging - so thank you to all of you out there who are reading this. :) It means the world to me!

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves
2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. Remember, no tag backs!

11 things about me:

1) 11 is my favorite number. ;)
2) I love country music.
3) I love traveling and going to new places but I can't stand flying. Airplanes scare me.
4) I'm 100% Italian.
5) If I were to definte a uniform for myself it would be skinny jeans, a buttondown, and either a cardigan or a blazer.
6) I'm a diehard prep at heart. I adore plaid, tartain, stripes, and crests.
7) Up until I moved out I lived in the same house my entire life.
8) I've traveled to more countries than I have US States.
9) I love to dance. I'm not good at it, but whether its on the dance floor, in a gym class, or in my chair I can't stop moving when I hear good music.
10) I own two chinchillas.
11) I finally feel as if I'm starting to get a hold of this fashion thing and dressing for my body type.


Phiphi's 11 questions:


1. what is your biggest fear? Hm. snakes. and besides that, getting old and passing away.
2. in terms of your job/studies, did you end up doing what you thought you would when you were younger? yes and no. i majored in english language literature - so i can write and edit things. i originally wanted to be a teacher but got too used to the biweekly paychecks of a full time job.
3. if you could buy one thing without worrying about the price tag, what would it be? oh man. a blazer. or a birkin. ;)
4. what is your idea of a relaxing day? sleeping in, snuggling with my cat, reading in the sun, and then dinner with my FH at one of our favorite restaurants.
5. how did you meet your best friend? my oldest friend and i met in first grade.
6. what is your biggest pet peeve? people who are late.
7. if you could have an alternate career, what would it be? photo journalism!
8. what is your favourite season and why? i love fall. any excuse to wear skirts and blouses during the day but snuggle in warm sweaters in the evening is fine by me!
9. what is your greatest accomplishment? most likely graduating from college. i'm the only one in my immediate family to do so.
10. where do you see yourself in 5 years? to be honest, a mom. hopefully being able to work from home
11. if you could change one thing from your youth, what would it be? to tell myself not to worry too much now. i sometimes feel like i grew up too fast and missed out on being a kid.

My 11 questions:

1: What's your favorite place that you've been to?
2: What do you do for a living - do you enjoy it or is it just work?
3) What would be your last meal on earth would be?
4) What's your favorite accessory?
5) What's one thing you do every day regardless of where you are?
6) What's your favorite book?
7) What's the most exotic thing you've eaten?
8) If you could go back in time to any era, what would it be?
9) Do you have any pets?
10) What made you decide to start blogging?
11) How would you spend $1000 that you randomly found?


And in no particular order, my nominees:
Law Fashionista
Add Bubbles to Taste
BeauChaton
The Lilac Pages
Colorful Corporate
The Jess Journals
CPA9
That Brunette One
Hello Katie Girl
A Package A Day
Granola 2 Glam

Monday stripes & One Lovely Blog Award

If you took one glance outside the windows today you'd think that it was winter. Ah, summer in San Francisco usually involves fog - so take note visitors - wear layers.

And with today being Monday (and me being tired) with the new work week ahead of me I decided to play it casual but warm. I picked up this striped tippi sweater yesterday that was marked down at J Crew (I couldn't resist, it was stripes..I love stripes) and just paired with a white button down for a casual but still work appropriate look for Monday in the office.

Tippi sweater: JCrew, jeans and button down: Banana Republic; shoes: gift from Morocco; watch: Michele

I kinda can't get enough of stripes. I'm still on the hunt for a striped blazer and am considering a few - there's one I'm eying from Lands End. And of course there's the J Crew Factory maritime stripe blazer. Decisions, decisions!

Life has definitely gotten busy. We are officially 33 days until our wedding day (yay!) and life has been consumed by the small details outside of my 9-5 - so thanks everyone for being patient over the past week while my posts got few and far between.

And speaking, of a huge thanks to Jeannie of Colorful Corporate who awarded me with the One Lovely Blog Award.

As part of getting this award I'd like to go ahead and nominate 15 lovely ladies to receive this as well.

Lisa of Respect the Shoes
Katie of Hello Katie Girl
Phiphi of Phiphi's Closet
Cori of La Vie Petite
Glistenpearls at Glistenpearls
Cindi at PurrinCup
My4Boys at Tweed and Toile
Katherine at Feather Factor
Cate O at A Package A Day
Rosa at Love at First Shop
Chris at Granola2Glam
Mez at Domestic Divinity
Aili & Ailyn at Jane Squared
Hannah at 17 Inch Heart
Tokki & Oliver of Tokki & Oliver

And thank you to everyone for reading/commenting/coming along this ride with me - you all are so great!

UniqueSF Roundup

This afternoon FH and I had the chance to go to the UniqueSF Craft and art show and we had so much fun! They had free drinks, massages, crafts, and booths upon booths of jewelry, soap, clothing, stationary, and other hand crafted goods.

Here's what I came home with (and boy was it hard to narrow it down to these...)

From Honey my Heart - I got this gorgeous blue drop necklace. I've really been wanting to change up some of my necklaces and move toward a more simple and classic look. Part of me really wants to wear this on my wedding day.... but I still have my heart set on wearing my grandma's pearls. The shop owners and creators are just the sweetest - it was so great to meet both of you!

From Solstice LTD I picked up this organic sterling silver stacker ring. I had been tossing around the idea of putting a small silver band in between my future wedding band and engagement ring but didn't want to swallow the price of what I've been seeing online. So when I saddled up to Linda's shop and saw these I had to have it. I'll have to snap some pics of what my stacked bands look like together, but for now this will have to do. :)

I've started to see necklaces like this pop up around various places, and I had been lusting after one. Kyle Chan Design had just what I was looking for - and I adore the sparkly sapphires with the gold of the necklace. His shop was huge - and to be quite honest I have to keep myself from going back and buying more of his awesome goodies!

I met the two lovely ladies of Frolick Jewelry and they were so kind. They only sell at craft shows but I will make sure to hunt them down the next time they are here in SF. I wore this out tonight with a simple button down and can tell this is going to be a favorite of mine!

And of course, this is hilarious and I couldn't pass it up. Filthy farm girl is actually a soap maker out of Hawaii, and I got a bar of their rose mint soap in the "Filthy Kitty" design in December. I have to tell you - the bar (which is still sealed) has an amazing scent that I can smell whenever I go near my jewelry area. So I got this for my sister, partly because it smells amazing, and partly because it's an excuse for me to call her dirty.

So that's how I spent my Saturday... what have been some of your past picks from art and craft shows?

Casual Thursday

I have to admit that today I just wasn't in the mood. Perhaps its been the few hours of sleep I've been missing the past few nights by laying awake contemplating everything from work to the wedding, or maybe its the fact that when I check the weather at night before bed it says one thing and then drastically changes when I wake up in the morning.

Jeans: Banana Republic; Blazer: Frenchie; Blouse: JCrew; Necklace: Franchesca's Collection; Scarf: Gift

Regardless, today I just decided to err on the casual side, especially since I have a meeting at our wedding venue after work (and I have to put up with air conditioning blaring down on me for 9 hours a day at the office so layers are always nice).

I have to tell you that I'm really excited over this scarf. It was a gift and I had ordered something just like it a few months ago and then bam. It was lost in the mail. So imagine how thrilled I was when this popped up!

I also feel as though I took a bit of a chance on the beaded necklace. It was on uber sale for 9.00 and I don't normally gravitate toward orange but I really like this combo. It's the first of a big chunky necklace kind that I've purchased and I really like it. I'm hoping to branch out a bit more with statement necklaces/chunkier pieces to add a bit of pizazz to my outfits. That way, I can mix and match and feel as thought I can turn an old favorite outfit into something new.

This weekend is my bridal shower... I'm so excited! I can't believe that it's almost July. We've started to get more and more little pieces of things in the mail for the wedding and the RSVP's are still trickling in.

So... talk to me about accessories. What's your current favorite piece and why? I do have a necklace coming in the mail from etsy that I'm so excited to have come and that might be my new favorite piece. :)

The statement jacket

For several months now I've been on the hunt for a statement jacket - or something very Chanel-esque. I long for tweed, for something with herringbone, something that I could pair with numerous things and would always be timeless. I searched Nordstroms, thought I saw one I liked at H&M, and had my eye on a few at Zara and Mango (which, if they ever go on sale, I might nab too because hey, who doesn't like variety?).

I had seen this particular jacket in plain navy as well as the pink tweed. And of course, last Thursday with some extra cash in my pocket I was told that this was recently marked down. And an extra 30% off. So I said wrap it up.

Presenting my statement jacket... the J Crew Plaid Boucle Tweed Jacket. I took a size 10 because the size 8 I tried on was a little tight in the arms - the SA's said that these ran a bit small. (I also apologize for the not so great pics - today was hectic at work and I couldn't get any good pics until I got home, hence the odd cropping). Buy online here - check in stores for a much cheaper price.

I have to admit that this is going to take me a bit of getting used to - i feel as if its so bright - but I got a bunch of compliments on it today at work (and from a stranger, too).

I'm happy to say that I'm coming out of my grey shell and loving color.

Skirtaganza

With today being the first official day of summer and the sun actually being out on my lunch breaks I've been in a very skirt kind of mood lately. Couple that with JCrew's 30% off sale and my wardrobe is now home to several new colorful skirts.

Shirt: H&M, Skirt: JCrew (buy here), Shoes: BG

I wore this yesterday and the second I walked out the door a neighbor told me she loved it on me. So I'm glad I snapped this one up - I believe it came to about 35.00 with the discounts in store. I want to get a more bold and try pairing a green shirt with it, but I just don't know which shade would work best. I hesitated when I first tried it on in store but my sister uged me to go for it and I'm glad I did.

Silk blouse: Zara, Skirt: JCrew (different color here)

And here's today's outfit - I LOVE this skirt and I'm so glad I added it to my wardrobe (thanks mom!). I almost paired it with a plaid shirt this morning but I'm not to sure I'm that brave yet. ;)  And way at the bottom I'm wearing my spiked flats. Love these too! It gives me a little bit of edge with this outfit.

And a few other skirts that I picked up... Gondola stripe and the raj paisley pencil skirt.  I'm happy with my skirt choices but shaking my fist at Jcrew.. their sale is just too good!

Have you picked anything up at the JCrew sale lately?