Elephants on Parade

Blouse: Forever21

Skirt: Zara

Shoes: Target

Watch: Guess

Bracelet: "borrowed" from my mom

Earrings: DIY Shrinky Dinks

I really like combination of this shirt and skirt because the skirt is kind of rough but school girlish while the shirt is very feminine. The ruffles, lavender color and the shoe bows soften up the whole look. This skirt is one of my favorite pieces of clothing and I wear at least once every week! It is so versatile, somehow I have managed to convince myself that it matches everything else in my closet. In the winter or at the office it goes perfectly with tights and boots. 

The earrings were made at a craft party that I hosted when I lived in Spokane. They are made from Shrinky Dink plastic and colored with Sharpies and colored pencils. I have been aching to make some more so look for a tutorial on how to use recycled plastic to make them! I can get a few of my friends together I might have another Shrinky Dink party sometime soon. They are super easy and fun to make so they are the perfect party craft. 

It is starting to get hot in LA, like summer is suppose to be, which means we will finally get to really enjoy the pool. I can't wait! It is as close as I am going to get to a vacation this summer so I am going to have to make due. Oh well, is anyone else going on a really great vacation that I can vicariously go on? Please let me know, that would be fantastic! 

Stripes + Florals

This is my (work friendly) take on the blogger trend of stripes and florals together. It is a completely different approach to the look than I have seen before on blogs and places like Chictopia. The color palette is very soft and you can barely tell that there are stripes on the jacket. It is hard to tell but the shirt is sheer and has an all over flower pattern. Three different floral prints in one outfit! This skirt is from a phase where the majority of my closet was florals but now I only have a few pieces.

I do realize that this outfit really washes out my skin tone but it perfectly matches my "Mae" necklace so I had to wear it! :)

Shirt: random store in Berkeley years ago

Tank top: Zara

Skirt: Macy's, Necessary Objects

Jacket: Michael Kors, thrifted

Shoes: Aldo

Earrings: Buckle

Necklace: made by my coworker 

Mae Necklace

My co-worker Debby that made the crochet flower necklace for me posted the pattern on her blog for anyone that is interested in making one! She even named it after me! I might have to learn how to crochet...

Oh! Darling

I felt like dressing up for work today so I threw on my favorite party dress! To make it more work appropriate I added black tights, a black scoop neck shirt underneath and a black blazer. I'm always a little hesitant to wear "party" dresses to work because I think that they make me look young and I already have a very young face. At work especially since I greet clients and such I feel like I need to look at least my age! This outfit seemed to go over well though and no one mentioned that I looked too young in it. Definitely a good sign.

Dress: Forever21

Belt: from a formal jacket

Shirt: gift, Rampage

Tights: probably Target

Necklace: Enbedia, from a giveaway seen here

Shoes: Seychelles, seen here
Brooch: gift from friend

This brooch was given to me by one of my friends for my last birthday. I LOVE it! Sparkly and a bow - two of my favorite things together! She got this piece at a vintage show! I was suppose to go with her but wasn't able to make it and I'm really upset that I didn't because she said that there were so many amazing pieces there and racks of awesome clothing. Hopefully, they have one again next year! 

The pictures were taken in the lobby of the building that I work in. The lobby is so modern, clean and bright! I love how it looks. It is an awesome place for people watching because there are several talent agents, modeling agents and a trendy restaurant in our building. You never know who you might see hanging around or walking through the lobby! 

Crochet Flower Necklace

I mentioned before that one of my coworkers is an exceptional knitter and crocheter, well she just started her own craft blog! See Deb Craft! Currently, she is working on a free form flower crochet shirt and she offered me some of the flowers! My idea was to connect the flowers together (bib style) and then use some chain to make it a necklace but Debby make something even better! Hopefully tonight I'll be able to take some pictures with the necklace!

The Secretary Look

Blouse: H&M from Danish cousin

Skirt: Zara

Necklace: Pearls from Nordstroms Rack

Shoes: Bebe from Buffalo Exchange

Bows: Vintage shoe clips from my grandma

Photographer: my sister Jessica

Dreaming of the 70's...

Shirt: Forever21

Jeans: Virgo, Nordstroms in Spokane

Clogs: Steve Madden, Nordstroms

Necklace: Betsy Johnson, gift

Bag: Coach, Camarillo Outlet

Belt: Michael Kors

Ring: my little sisters

Nailpolish: OPI Quater of a Cent-Cherry

This weekend was casual and busy at the same time so I settled on a variation of one of my favorite outfits. This outfit was built around the clogs, then the jeans and lastly the shirt. This shirt from Forever21 is one of my favorites because it is so soft, stretchy and has a great design. Unfortunately, there isn't a picture of the back of this shirt because it has an interesting cut out design. If I ever see this shirt again in our colors, I will definitely buy them all! After I picked the shirt I instinctively put this necklace on because the neckline of the shirt perfectly displays the necklace. I added the ring as part of an attempt to get out of my comfort zone of only wearing earrings and necklaces and more into rings and bracelets. And lastly, I had to show off my nailpolish that has (mostly) lasted an entire week (including several trips in the spa/pool)!!! 

Jewel Tones

Shirt: F21 - it's a bit more more purple than the camera picks up

Skirt: DIY by me almost 8 years ago

Shoes: Steve Madden from Emeryville Store; 

got these on sale for $20 because this pair was marked with the wrong price!

Bracelets: left arm - both purplish and beaded

right arm - Christmas gift from co-worker

Nail polish: OPI Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

This is a modified version of the outfit that I wore to work today. I was really sore today from hiking Runyon Canyon yesterday with the family so I decided not to wear the heels or the skirt and opted for some plain black dress pants from Express. Occasionally, comfort is the deciding factor in what I'm going to wear to work that day. I am not a morning person by ANY means so pants are usually easier to throw on in the morning instead of trying to find tights and a skirt. 

The skirt is made out of a men's large t-shirt from my grade school days on LHTV (Laurel Hall Television). I made it sometime in the beginning of high school when I was really into making clothing for myself out of old t-shirts from all my LH class trips. The band of the skirt is made from an old Limited Too sweatshirt that I wore when I was little. You can see the red of the band peaking out in the picture that I am holding Tanner in (it is the same color as the nail polish). 

I love this bracelet that one of my co-workers got me for Christmas. I am not quite sure where she got it but it came in the cutest case with some Italian on it. I don't wear it very often in real life (except picture taking) because it is very chunky and catches on all of my clothing, which drives me crazy. The same goes for rings, they tend to get in the way of typing and other activities, plus I take them off and play with them and subsequently lose them! So I just try and stay away from most rings and bracelets but I want to venture out more and try wearing more rings and bracelets.  

Disco Ball Necklace

Shirt: from some 2nd hand store in LA but I can't remember where!

Necklace: from a giveaway on Selective Potential's blog

Where: in the kitchen at my office

One of my co-workers took these pictures for me today while we were on our lunch break. We usually spend our lunch breaks knitting, which is awesome because my co-worker is the best knitter and she always helps me when I make a mistake (which is often). I get teased a lot for knitting but I seriously love to knit. It's really not just for grandmas - there are so many trendy knitting patterns from designers! Knitting was trendy a few years ago among celebrities and other hip people in LA and I wish that was still the case because there were so many more cool knitting stores. One of my friends went to a knitting store to get me a birthday present and the worker kept showing her things that a grandma would be interested in and my friend was like "uhh no, I don't think that she would like any of those things, they are all for older women". The worker was surprised that she had a friend in her 20s that knitted. Ha!

My favorite part about knitting is that I can make something truly amazing from a few balls of yarn and some pointy sticks. Also, unlike sewing if you make a mistake it is sooo much easier to just take out some stitches and fix the mistake. For me that is a BIG plus because I tend to make a lot of mistakes because I am usually multi-tasking at work and forget a few stitches in a pattern. The only downside is that I get really bad pains in my right arm after a long day of knitting at work so I often have to take long breaks in between projects.

I love how sparkly this necklace is, it was distracting me all day! I won the necklace in a blog giveaway from one of my favorite blogs, Selective Potential. You can tell that she spends a lot of time on her blog and she that seems really genuine and friendly. AND she is super pretty!

DIY Studded Bracelet

I was inspired to make this hot pink and studded bracelet after seeing NYDesignStudio's DIY tutorials. It is VERY easy to make and only requires duct tape, studs and velcro. I made mine with the hot pink duct tape and pyramid studs that I already had on hand but any combination of studs and duct tape will work. Tonight I am going to try two rows of studs and see if I like how that looks. 

(Sorry the pictures are so crappy, I only have my MacBook camera with me at work, I need to get my own camera!)

Sneaky Snake Belt

I got a request to post a closeup of the snake belt. Excuse the blurriness of the photo.

Have a good memorial day weekend! I will be spending it by the pool trying to not get sunburned. :)