dotty, gray jeans, and my day job

[wearing]
sweater: joie (exactly)
jeans: old navy (exactly)
shoes: chinese laundry (exactly)
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)
necklace: ebay'd (j.crew factory version)


[three things]
1. i've mentioned this in passing a few times over the last few months and my last couple closet cleanouts have reinforced this, but i am over wearing color.  it's a little weird because my job is pretty heavily focused on color combinations.  when i am not busy at night being a superhero or vampire, i design the interiors for educational buildings.  i spend a lot of time getting finishes and furniture to be the perfect combination of cheerful and identifiable without being distracting or busy.  lately i've been on a kick of using lime green/magenta/blood orange or fire engine red/light slightly-greenish blue.  yet i find myself wearing more and more gray tones.  i have a pretty serious case of "you can pull that off, but i would never wear it" when it comes to bright colors.  (that was me saying that awful phrase to a building, just FYI.)

2. i wore this last friday to early morning starbucks fun time and casual friday at work with no external meetings.  i'm definitely still a big fan of using pointy toes and a blingy necklace to dress up a seriously simple outfit.

3. how did i not have gray jeans until recently?  okay...yeah, more gray...see #1 above.

dotty, weekend shoes, and some more gray

[wearing]
dress: cos
trench vest: forever21
shoes: tom's (exactly)
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)

[three things]
1. okay, so the only difference between this weekend outfit and the one i wore to work earlier this month is that i'm wearing comfy shoes.  and a different accessory layer.

2. i bought a new pair of comfy shoes after finding these when i was putting together my post about commuter shoes.  my last pair had developed unfortunate holes after being my default bicycling shoes for the last few years.

3. gray.  tan.  white.  that's my summer plan right there.

wishlist: summer staples

oh dear, j.crew factory is all half off this weekend.
one, two, three, four, five, and six.

dotty, friday meetings, and grayed out

[wearing]
jacket: zara (similar)
shirt: pleione (similar)
jeans: old navy (exactly)
heels: vince camuto (similar)
bag: phillip lim x target

[three things]
1. the last time i was wearing these jeans i had a thought that a pair of heels in the same color would be kinda awesome.  as it turns out, i wore light gray spotted heels for my wedding, so i totally had the shoes in my closet the whole time. bam!  these two were just meant to be together.

2. sometimes i end up with a friday schedule that is full of meetings, so i've been pairing my jeans with jackets to keep things a bit professional while still taking advantage of casual friday.

3. pointy toes just seem to make everything better.  amiright?

dotty, wide lines, and print heels

[wearing]
cardigan: twelfth street (similar)
blouse: vince (exactly)
pants: banana republic (exactly)
heels: merona (exactly)
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)
necklace: forever21 (similar)

[three things]
1. pattern mixing!  chevrony lines and snakeskin-ish heels!  this is a new one for me.

2. my closet is kinda lacking in summer tops because i've always worked in cold offices.  this brown one ends up getting layered up a lot in the summer months.

3.i've been asked a few times about the more expensive brands that show up around here and i how i budget for such purchases.  and since i am wearing two of my more spendy purchases, i figured it was about time to talk about it.  i have three sources - the tj maxx designer section, ebay alerts, and thredup's x collection (here's a referral link for ten bucks off) and the rest is just waiting and comparison shopping.  i have a pretty good idea of how much i will/should pay for things like vince silk tops and joie dresses which helps out a lot.  this isn't a sponsored post or anything, i just thought i would drop some of my shopping hints.  

[previously on] vince dolman top


find more posts like this one over yonder.

words: you're pretty

+
one of my co-workers and i have this thing with encouragement post-its for tough situations/days/projects. while "OMG you are so good at paperwork" is one of my favorites, she left me this phrase the other day and it definitely cracked me up.

dotty, gold pants, and tiny triangles

[wearing]
big cardigan: victoria's secret (similar)
tee: old navy (exactly)
gold pants: c/o boden (exactly)
flats: chinese laundry (exactly)
necklace: stella and dot
bag: bookhau

[three things]
1. i'm going to be brutally honest here and talk about courtesy items for a second.  i tend to get excited about the prospect of clothing gifts arriving in the mail just because i am awesome.  or, more realistically, in exchange for including them in my outfit posts.  i like wearing new clothes.  and i like getting them as gifts.  but really, most of time the items i receive don't end up being my favorites.  yup, i just admitted it.  i am guessing that other blog readers see through the transparency of promoting c/o items that only show up once on a blog and are never mentioned again.  that's the terms of the transaction and i get it.  it just seems kinda silly to me.  i don't really deal with this much since i run a small time operation that is mostly for my own amusement.  i ignore almost all of the "collaboration" inquiries that i receive.

2. with that said, how neat would it be if you got a pair of courtesy gold pants in the mail and then you legitimately liked them?  yup, that just happened.  (well, it was more like a month ago actually.)  my original post about these pants is back here and here they are again with more gray.

3. this bag got demoted to yoga clothes transportation duty for awhile, but it is definitely back in regular rotation now.  it's not big enough to fit all my towels and waterbottles anyway.  

dotty, pineapples, and pants days

[wearing]
jacket: zara (similar)
pineapple: zara (exactly)
pants: theory
flats: old navy (exactly)
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)
sunnies: rayban (exactly)

[three things]
1. i posted about this fruit-print tank a few weeks ago and then the boy randomly ordered it for me.  for some reason, he did not pick the shirt with the googly eyes.  maybe i'll have to get crafty to make that one happen.

2. when i was in high school, we played a homecoming game against fruitport one year, so the hallways were decorated with all sorts of fruit destruction themed signage and stickers.  i'm pretty sure there were still pineapple and orange stickers on lockers years later and i'm guessing that fruitport's hallways were not plastered with our coonskin hat stickers (our mascot was a pioneer).  #whoreallywon

3. i'm back wearing pants for construction meetings again at least one day a week.  boo.  it is definitely my least favorite part of my job.

dotty, fitbits, and summer grayness

[wearing]
dress: cos
scarf: banana republic (exactly)
flats: chinese laundry (exactly)
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)
super pretty bracelet: fitbit flex (exactly)
paper airplane earrings: gift (similar)

[wearing]
1. as the weather gets warmer and i am more likely to not be wearing long sleeves, my fitbit buddy has been getting noticed a lot more.  i've been wearing it every day since christmas and i'm totally amused by all the statistics.  i am less likely to be wearing a hair tie around my wrist these days, but this rubber wristband is here to stay.

2. dress season!  getting dressed for work just got so much easier.

3. it's going be a neutrals kind of summer, so i better get to work on my pinterest board!

dotty, short pants, and spring coats

[wearing]
jacket: zara
cardigan: victoria's secret (exactly)
blouse: joie (similar)
jeans: old navy (exactly)
clutch: zara (similar)
loafers: zara
sunnies: vintage

[three things]
1. i ordered these jeans in short size to see if i could get the perfect ankle length without getting them hemmed and it totally worked!

2. i'm kinda done with coats.  i keep putting them away in the back of my closet and then having to wear them again.  not cool, midwest, not cool.

3. the neutralness of my mbmj bag is great, but sometimes a super bright clutch is just the ticket.  

dotty, derby day, and big hats

[wearing]
hat: j.crew (exactly)
moto jacket: forever21 (similar)
dress: rachel rachel roy (exactly)
shoes: zara
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)
scarf: vintage

[three things]
1. over my last few summers in chicago, horse racing has become part of our social calendar since there's a track out in the northwest suburbs.  (you can look back on our track adventures from last year, two years ago, and three years ago.)

2. when some of the boy's friends invited us to a kentucky derby party this year where hats were encouraged, i was definitely excited about busting out my oversized straw hat early this year.

3. seersucker pants.  

dotty, spring grays, and southwestern loafers

[wearing]
tee: old navy (exactly)
jeans: old navy (exactly)
leather: michael michael kors (similar)
flats: forever21 (exactly or colorful version)
bag: marc by marc jacobs (exactly)

[three things]
1. these heathered v-neck tees are some of my favorite staples, so this time i got one a size up to have it be a little bit more slouchy.

2. i wear these gray v's with pretty much everything...tucked into pencil skirts, untucked with jeans, with all sorts of other gray things, etc.

3. light gray jeans!  i'm not entirely sure yet how versatile these will be, but i caved and bought a cheap pair to test it out.  they are definitely helped me get out of my winter black+dark gray mode.







[previously on] old navy v-neck tees