recap: october

reading: water for elephants by sara gruen.  yeah, i know i'm about five years late on this one.  

watching: scandal. one of my co-workers recommended it and i'm totally hooked. it's like if west wing and law&order had a television baby.

buying: my purchases were all over the map this month...a tweed jacket, assorted tops from a stop at the j.crew factory store in indiana, steel-toed boots for work, an awesomely weird suzi chin dress, and an order of potential holiday party dresses.  i counted it up and we have four holiday soirees this year just for my job, so i'm going to need an arsenal of dresses that are festive and corporate-appropriate.  i've had a lot of trouble with this before because i don't want to wear something i normally wear to work, but can't go too crazy.  and i need that times four.  bah!  #firstworldproblems




wearing: jackets, cardigans, scarves.  that's all pretty typical for me though.  mustard yellow, purple, and rusty-bricky brown seem to be the only colors i wore this month.  i've been spending more time in the field (meaning a construction site) so i'm on the hunt for pants that work with steel-toed boots.  skinny pants seem to be my best bet, but i always end up crazy dusty.  i was totally that kid that would always get marker all over their hands in art class, so i shouldn't be surprised by this.  

dotty, mustard, and tweed

[wearing]

dress: diane von furstenberg (exactly)
jacket: h&m (similar)
boots: target (similar)

creative: this dress is my favorite color, but the open lattice detail on both the front and back require some layering to make it work-appropriate.  this is where the softest tweed jacket ever comes in.  seriously, this thing feels like the inside of new sweatpants.  
young: i have these ankle boots in both beige and black and they are perfect for making a tweed jacket a bit tougher.  
professional: black tights, black shoes, tweed jacket.  i have a ridiculous collection of colored tights, but i'm feeling like this winter i'll be wearing more subdued hues.

dotty, weekends, and fall staples

[wearing]
top: joie (exactly)
jeans: old navy (exactly)
jacket: mine c/o marshall's (similar)
giant bag: banana republic
necklace: forever21
flats: old navy (exactly)

+
this is what fall weekends look like.  
and i match this wall ridiculously well.  

dotty, a fall jacket, and pocket flaps

[wearing]
jacket: c/o eshakti (still available in black/white)
scarf: forever21 (similar)
top: spense (exactly)
pants: j.crew (similar)
boots: target (similar)

+
eshakti kindly sent me over this purple boucle tweed jacket and it's just what my closet wanted for fall.  seriously, check out those darling little pocket flaps!  i ended up ordering a standard size for this jacket, but pretty much everything from eshakti is customizable.  i also have a wool dress from them and was similarly impressed this time with the quality of the piece.  



p.s.
happy birthday to my amazing mama! i purposefully did not wear magenta and rust together today just for you.

dotty, purple, and chestnut

[wearing]
blouse: joie (exactly)
skirt: j.crew (exactly)
wedges: apt. 9
rock collection: forever21
sunnies: thriftastic
bag: zara (similar)

+
i've totes worn this color combination before with this same skirt, but only my blog remembers what i wore three months ago.  

[previously on] rust-colored joie silk top

dotty, competing patterns, and fall shoes

[wearing]
chevrons: everly (similar)
spots: old navy (exactly)
belt: j.crew (similar)
skirt: the limited
tights: simply vera
wedges: old navy (similar)


creative: competing patterns!  who's going to win?  i'm betting on chevrons.  
young: glitter belt.  it looks like a perfectly normal skinny belt, but it's so sparkly up close!
professional: cardigan, pencil skirt, opaque tights.  

dotty, the mitten, and fall layers

[wearing]
tee: old navy (exactly)
cardigan: zara
jacket: mine c/o marshall's
pants: tahari 
flats: old navy
giant scarf: dotty-knit

+
somehow the trees in illinois just aren't nearly as good as the ones in michigan.  even on cloudy days they are still so saturated.  anyway, lately my packing plan for going home for the weekend just involves putting a whole bunch of soft neutral pieces in a bag and hitting the road. 

friday four: goggles decision time

i know that my facial expressions kinda give away how i felt about each frame, but just for kicks let's float a poll on this one.

which frames would you pick?
	1
	2
	3
	4
pollcode.com free polls

dotty, fancy pants, and business casual

[wearing]
jacket: h&m (similar)
sweater: gap (similar)
coated pants: forever21 (similar)
flats: old navy (exactly)
belt: j.crew 

+
these coated pants are shiny on the front and matte on the back, so i've been bending my office's no-jeans policy since these are such fancy pants.  and they make me feel much cooler than i actually am.  

[previously on] spotted, pointy-toe flats

dotty, brick walls, and this is what tuesday looks like

[wearing]
pants: j.crew "hutton"(exactly)
top: vince (similar)
polka dots: forever21 (similar)
jacket: mine c/o marshall's
wedges: elie tahari (similar)
bag: banana republic


creative: really this is just one of my favorite tops and my favorite style of j.crew pants, so there's not much creativity going on.  it did seem like the perfect outfit for my day at work.  it drives me crazy when i can't figure out what i want to wear in the morning...it seems silly, but it throws me off when i leave the house without liking my outfit. 
young: polka dots!  sometimes this scarf feels a little too silly/juvenile for the office, but when it's hanging out with cocoa-colored silk, it's a-okay.
professional: these always feel like grownup pants when i put them on...in a good way though. 


um yeah, i realized that since i take most my photos with the camera in a fixed position, i can splice them together like this and still keep my horizontal format while showing more head to toe photos.  i'll let you know when i get over it, but until then yyyyyyeah.  

dotty, roadtrips, and lots o layers

[wearing]
pants: tahari (similar)
cardigan: old navy (similar)
shirt underneath: joie
jacket: mine c/o marshall's
boots: target
necklace: c/o swaychic

[going]
on a midwestern roadtrip.  we didn't buy fireworks here, but we did manage to fill up our gas tank, donate the two bags of clothes that have been haunting our backseat, and taking these photos all in one parking lot.  multi-tasking for the win!

dotty, funny pants, and bees

[wearing]
yellow jacket: brooklyn industries (similar)
pants: silence and noise (similar)
top: club monaco
boots: target (similar)

+
these funny pants came to work with me again.  



[previously on] printed pants

dotty, leopards, and tweeds

[wearing]
dress as shirt: soprano (similar)
skirt: banana republic (similar)
cardigan: j.crew (similar)
clutch: vintage (similar)
flats: old navy (exactly)

+
i really love the idea of red, but i always feel like it is too punchy for my complexion and personality.  i have to be in a very particular mood to sport my red skirt, but this tiny red clutch is a smidgen of red that i want to pair with everything.

dotty, pretending to be edgy, and really just wearing dark colors

[wearing]
wool jacket: h&m
tee: american apparel (exactly)
pants: tahari (exactly)
boots: target (similar)

for a whole lot more ankle boots action, check out the two birds inspiration monday this week!

dotty, bridesmaids, and shiny gray dresses

[wearing]
dress: j.crew (exactly)
jacket: mine c/o marshall's (similar)
boots: target
rock collection: forever21

[going]
dinner-ing.  i bought this dress to wear to a wedding, but it has a bridesmaidsey look to it, so i ended up wearing something else entirely.

dotty, yellow, and a giant purple scarf

[wearing]
cardigan: j.crew (exactly)
skirt: the limited (similar)
scarf: american apparel (exactly)
heels: bdg (exactly)

[previously on] yellow suede heels

dotty, white shirts, and wool sweatpants

[wearing]
white collared shirt: new york and company (similar)
pants: j.crew (similar)
jacket: mine c/o marshall's (similar)
wedges: elie tahari (similar)

creative: these are basically sweatpants, but they are made of wool instead of cotton/poly blend.  so, since they're a in-betweener i dressed them up and took them to work.  
young: i would like to think that this jacket makes an elastic-bottomed pants outfit slightly less octogenarian.  yes?  please?  
professional: can a white buttondown and grownup shiny wedges counteract the elasticness of these pants?