Ideas for wearing button-down shirts

I’ve been participating in RA’s Mission: Put Together (M:PT) and last week I asked everyone in the pool what else I could do with button-down shirts. I almost always wear them unbuttoned with a neutral tank top underneath, but that gets pretty boring. I’ve been trying some new things through the M:PT challenge, including being brave enough to wear it completely buttoned. It sounds like it shouldn’t take bravery to do that, but I’ve always been just a little too busty to fit the proportions of button-down shirts and no one likes to see gapping!

This top is cut pretty well for me, though, and I was pleased with how it worked! Can you believe this is the first time I’ve ever worn it buttoned?

I also tried it over a definitely not neutral top another day:

What do you think? Do you have any other ideas for ways I can wear it? (Thanks to RA for the suggestion of rolling the sleeves!)

Customizing a trend

Not every trend is meant for everyone. I know this. I know not every style is going to work on me, and I know I don’t want to look like every other person I see.

But I also don’t want to look like I live under a rock or a decade behind the times. And sometimes I just think something is cute, even if it’s not ideal for me, my body or my life.

Chambray is one of those trends.

Chambray shirts are everywhere. Much as I mocked the look at first  – didn’t we do this back in the grungy ’90s? — I have to admit a chambray shirt paired with a colored pair of shorts is awfully cute.

On other people.

On me, maybe because of my coloring or my lack of a rack, these denim-y shirts look like prison garb. So I’ve hemmed and hawed for months, trying on shirt after shirt and discarding them all. This one was too light. That one was too dark. Another was too streaky. Pockets on the chest just looked awful. Tabs on the sleeve were way too safari.

And then I found it: MY chambray shirt. The Merona Dobby Dot button-down from Target.

The subtle print somehow keeps it from feeling prison-y. (Plus, it reminds me of a pink shirt with dots like this I had years ago, until I wore it into rags.) The shirt is not quite chambray, but it’s close enough to feel like the trend — and more importantly, it feels like ME.

And it looks great with my hot pink shorts.

Are you on the chambray bandwagon? What one worked for you?

Any trend you’ve struggled to fit into?

Two of my new favorite things

I’m not a huge product person. I barely wear make-up and the only product I use on my hair is Big Sexy Root Boost. But I have thin hair, even thinner since I lost a lot of it after giving birth to my second son. It’s finally growing back in but because I have long hair, it’s taking some time. I came across The Small Things Blog maybe a year ago. Initially I loved it for the hair tutorials but I’ve come to enjoy her fashion posts and she recently started a new Favorite Things segment. In this segment she talks about Oscar Blandi Hair Lift Mousse. The way she describes it in her video intrigued me right away. I had to try it. So I did. I LOVE IT. Anyone with thin hair needs to try this product. It will def be one of my staples from now on.

Next up is my new favorite pair of jeans. I got them from no other than…EBAY! However! I know in one of my earlier posts that I mentioned how much I LOVE eBay and I’ve never had an issue. BAH! I just had the weirdest experience ever. I order these jeans and soon after I made the payment I got an email from the seller saying that she thinks she accidentally sent me the wrong jeans but that she sent the correct jeans that day.  I told her I would let her know when I opened them and would return them no problem but that she would have to pay for shipping. I got the package on Saturday so I opened them and they were the right pair. They looked identical to the picture on eBay.  I emailed her and said maybe she had mistaken since I got the right pair. I assumed if I was going to get the wrong pair, I would get them first since she shipped them first. She told me I was wrong and then she demanded a picture. She did agree that the was the right pair when I sent the picture but then got all crazy about where was the second pair….how should I know?  I thought she was a little rude to me for something that I cannot control. I told her that I would never keep jeans I didn’t pay for and that she didn’t need to be rude to me about it. I would gladly ship them back to her if they ever came but that had not arrived. She responds saying that she’s trying to figure out my “scamming technique” on how I’m getting two jeans for the price one.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IS THIS CHICK FOR REAL???

Yes, I went in YOUR closet and shipped MYSELF two pairs of jeans. OMG.

Anyway, I did get a second package yesterday and I just sharpied out my address, wrote return to sender on the package and threw them down the mail slot at the post office in full angry force just for dramatic effect. SO ANNOYED!

I’m so in love with this new pair of jeans. I have tried them on before but would never never ever pay that much for jeans but I found these on eBay for 24.99. I bid on them and won since no one else did! Yahoo! I always have issues with saggy butt jeans and these are not them. 7 For All Mankind.

No saggy butt!

 

 

Mentioning unmentionables

Yup. I’m going there…undies. But, fear not, I’m not delving too far into the topic…just wanted to share a new find:

Lace Waist Hiphugger
http://www.victoriassecret.com

I got a coupon in the mail for a free pair of undies from Victoria’s Secret. Not one to rebuff a freebie, I went to claim my own pair. Turns out that I really like them. They’re super comfortable and the best part: the lace waistband doesn’t squish or bind, so they’re very flattering. They run true to size and come in tons of cute colors and prints. I’m not sure how they  perform in the “visible panty line” department–I  haven’t put them to that test yet–but for wearing under forgiving pants/skirts/shorts, they’re my new favorites!

Tassel Hassle

I want a nice plain gold necklace that looks like a tassle. I really don’t think that should be too much to ask.

This tassel necklace would be great it if wasn’t all “Look! I’m from Coach! LOOK AT MY BRAND!” And also if it didn’t cost more than $150.

Vince Camuto’s tassel necklace is only 16″ long, though it is better at $98. It also has “gems,” to which I say, “Meh.”

Zappos is selling a different Vince Camuto tassel necklace for only $38. But it is still too short.

Kendra Scott has a tassel necklace that is long enough- yay! But the necklace is more about the colored stone pendant than the tassel- boo!

This Stella & Dot necklace might be the winner. It’s $138, which is more than I want to spend. But it is a plain gold tassel, it’s pretty, and you can adjust the length.

In shocking news (to me, at least), J Crew’s tassel necklace is actually less expensive than Stella & Dots! It is only $68, though it seems to be backordered until July at this point.

Purple and Green Theme

I narrowed down my wardrobe to 31 items this month for Mission: Put Together, and I found that this exercise sort of distilled it into its essential elements. When I’m forced to limit myself, I will choose skinny jeans, cardigans, skirts/dresses, and flats. In the same way, 2 weeks into this experiment, I see that I subconsciously chose a lot of purple and green. Out of 10 outfits so far, 6 of them have included 1 or both of these colors:

• May 1: purple Anthropologie skirt
• May 3: green J. Crew jacket
• May 4: green lawn game Olympics shirt and purple J. Crew Factory cardigan
• May 6: green Charming Charlie statement necklace
• May 7: green Gap jeans
• May 9: purple Target flats and J. Crew Factory cardigan again

And this doesn’t even include when I wore my colorblock skirt that has a strip of green at the hem.

Now, the green thing doesn’t surprise me, but the purple kind of does. I didn’t intend to focus on these colors when I chose my 31 items, but it happened anyway. Given such restrictive parameters, it’s interesting to see emerging themes.

What’s a theme in your wardrobe?

P.S. It’s not too late to jump in to Mission: Put Together and earn a chance to win free jeans!

Summer Hat Style

Do you wear hats?  I know derby hats have become semi-popular again in the past few years, and everyone loves a good sun hat when you are strolling the beaches of St. John, but are hats becoming a regular accessory again?  I went to a “Derby de Mayo” party over the weekend and thought to be somewhat festive, I’d just pick up a cheap hat on the way.  I ended up loving it:

You guys, I got this hat at Wal-Mart.  I am not proud, but it was SEVEN NINETY-NINE and I will probably wear it to the pool/park/zoo all summer.  (I have a 21 month old – my outings are not fancy.)

Obviously we don’t live in a world where people are walking around in wide-brimmed sunhats in day-to-day life, but hats are kind of fun, right?  Do you wear them?

Narrowing It Down to Three Gold Watches

I have been watch shopping since the beginning of December, and yet I still don’t have one.

I wore a Timex that I bought Target for a while, and I really loved how it looked. But the face got drops of water in it, so I replaced it with an identical Timex from Target. And somehow it turns out I am allergic to the identical watch. I can’t wear it because it makes my wrist break out in an itchy rash. I’m not sure what the deal is, but I figure I’ll just get a nicer watch and hopefully not be allergic to it.

I asked for watch brand recommendations on Twitter a while ago, and the most common recommendations were Fossil and Nixon. I think I’ve narrowed it down to two Fossil watches, though I also like the Michael Kors watch I’ve included below. It appears that I like gold watches with white faces.

Fossil Retro Traveler Watch for $125

Fossil Stella Watch for $125

Michael Kors Mercer Chronograph Watch for $275

SAO Says: Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Jenny J: I think the key to a good Mother’s Day gift is to give something that she’d never spend money on for herself. For me, that would be a gift card to a store that I love, but don’t often buy anything from (Lululemon, Anthropologie, Sephora, Nordstrom). For instance, a Target gift card is always, always, always welcome, but you know that if you give one of those to a mom, it’s going to be used for diapers, Clorox clean-ups and Snapple. Also nice ideas would be a day to herself–a gift card for a movie, plus a gift card for a restaurant, etc.

Becky: I like this Aqua Harper Crossbody Bag from Patina, a local store that also has online shopping, and I think this little Change is Good change purse from Fossil is really cute. And I like that the color is called Flamingo Pink. For my own mom, I have no idea what to get! She does like to get flowers, but I feel like that’s boring. I’ve given her gift cards to book stores before. My mom also likes statement jewelry, so I’ve given her big bangle bracelets before too, like this from Nordstrom.

RA: My mom is hard to shop for because she always tells my sister and me to “not spend any money,” and then when we get nice things for each other, she’s like, “Ohh, you girls always have such nice things!” ARGH, MOTHER. Plus, my parents keep talking about how they will eventually sell the house where my sister and I grew up and move, but it’s been, like, 8 years of talk and nothing has happened. I have strayed away from gifts of stuff for them, in case this plan ever gets off the ground, and now I lean more heavily on gifts that can be consumable or experienced. SO, this year for Mother’s Day, my sister and I are going in on an Edible Arrangement. It’s a little hokey, sure, but I find them to be surprisingly impressive in person, and Mom can feel okay about us splitting the cost.

Andrea: I got my mom one of these insulated wine glasses. She loves a glass of wine in the evenings when she sits on the patio and reads. And I’ll probably also give her an Amazon gift card for buying books for her Kindle. Lately though, doing stuff seems like a better plan than buying stuff. So, my sister and I have talked about taking her for a pedicure. We took her to brunch (just the girls) for her birthday and that was a big hit. And a few years ago, we did a crawfish boil for mother’s day because she loves crawfish.

Jes: I bought my mom a scarf from Connected in Hope. They’re handmade in Ethiopia by women in the Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Association. I bought one for me, too, and love it. (Don’t worry, I usually buy ‘something I found at Marshalls’ for Mother’s Day. This ‘save the world’ gift kind of fell into my lap this year and I grabbed the opportunity!) Plus, you can get free shipping through May 7 with code MOTHERTOMOTHER!

Recommendation: LL Bean shirts

My husband ran the Boston Marathon. He’s fast and we all were far from the finish line when the bombs went off, but we scrapped our plans to hang out downtown for the rest of the week and headed north. We ended up in Maine — Portland and Bar Harbor and Acadia Park, all of which were wonderful — and were not prepared for the chilly spring temperatures.

Let’s be honest. It wasn’t THAT cold. In the mid-40s most days. However, we’ve lived in Florida for going on nine years and our boys call jeans “long-sleeve pants,” so that’s cold enough for us to need better gear.

We made a stop at the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport, Maine. I don’t normally buy from LL Bean, but someone had recommended it as being worth a visit and we all needed hats. Seemed like a good idea. After prowling all three floors of clothing and finding several good deals, I was a convert.

Our wool hats are nice, not least because they were less than $10 from the sale rack. The boys love their new Teva hiking shoes and fleece hats. But the hands-down best things I bought were the French sailor’s shirt and the toggle cardigan. Here they are in action together on the way home.

Both are 100 percent cotton. The cardigan is thick enough to be a coat in mild weather, but light enough to work as a layer. The shirt has three-quarter length sleeves and is long. It’s not bulky, but it doesn’t cling. Here it is in a work outfit.

I feel like this is the perfect casual shirt. It’s nice enough that it can be dressed up, but super comfortable and washable. I’m hoping it doesn’t pill — only time will tell — but it seems too thick and sturdy to end up with the tiny little pinholes that usually plague my thinner T-shirts all too soon. I ended up spending enough at the Freeport store to earn a gift card, and I’m pretty sure it’s going toward another one of these shirts in a solid color.