Fall Flowers

I'm always on the look out for new murals. (It's become somewhat of a hobby to track down new and unique murals in the Los Angeles area and beyond!) Instagram is a great place to find new locations and murals, like this gorgeous floral mural in Anaheim. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to track it down and visit. When I arrived at the location, which is actually a parking garage near a Goodwill store, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the mural was even more expansive and beautiful in person. To be honest, some locations look really amazing on Instagram but awful in person! (I guess that just goes to show that things always look better on film!)

While this dress is actually from a few seasons back, my Pom Pom shoes are brand new and I am head over heels in love with them! I purchased them last month and, because they were on sale, I also sprung for the same pair in pink. These shoes are not only supper cute but also very comfortable, which is always a plus in my book. While I realize that my shoes, my entire outfit nor the mural scream "fall," I'd like to think that the orange/red color palate is one step in the right direction towards autumn!

Dress: J. Crew similar here, here
Shoes: J. Crew here
Bag: Zara similar here
Sunglasses: Prada
Hat: J. Crew similar Panama hat here

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Purple and Pink Dress

You might remember that I wore a shirt in the same fabric as this dress a few weeks back on my blog. Well, I am back with the a dress in the same fabric!  As I have mentioned before, the sales lately at J. Crew are just too good to pass up and, as much as I love the blouse, I think I adore the dress even more! As I stated previously in the post I did a few weeks ago about the blouse, there is something about this fabric that just screams 1980s to me, which is fine with me because I am essentially a product of the 80s!

Speaking of being a product of the 80s, I wore this dress a few weeks ago on the weekend after my birthday. It felt like it was the perfect dress to wear for a birthday celebration, even though there wasn't much of a celebration due to everything going on right now between work and the pandemic. To be honest, I am not really into big celebrations, so my husband took me out on that particular weekend to get a little dessert (to go) because we didn't have any birthday cake on the actual day. To be honest, what I really wanted was my favorite dessert of all time, which is a cannoli. Unfortunately, the Italian deli we went to was out of them and so I had to settle for another dessert. I think one thing I have learned during the pandemic is that things seldomly go as planned but you just have to make the best out of the situation and enjoy the little things in life!

Dress: J. Crew here
Bag: Mansur Gavriel similar here
Shoes: J. Crew
Sunglasses: Gucci here

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Fashion Rules

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the three day weekend! I know I am thrilled to have a little bit of time off to relax. Speaking of Labor Day, I am sure everyone knows the fashion rule that states that one should never wear white after Labor Day. Unfortunately, I am just getting around to wearing white shorts, as depicted in this post, and now I am not liking the idea of having to put them away until Memorial Day! (I thought they would be the perfect complement to my floral blouse, which, I must admit, is also very summery!) Luckily, I think most of us have moved on past the no white after Labor Day rule. I remember hearing the rule quite often growing up but today it's not really something I abide by for several reasons.

One reason I am okay with wearing white all year has to do with location. After living in Southern California for more than a decade, I have realized that it's summer about 3/4 of the year out here. For example, this weekend, which is supposed to be the end of summer, we had a record temperature of over 120 degrees in some parts of Los Angles! I can't transition into fall when it's sunny and that hot! Don't get me wrong, I love fall but it just doesn't feel or look like fall here at all. My second reason for continuing to wear white is that there are plenty of seasonally appropriate ways to incorporate it into your wardrobe during the fall and winter months. Personally, I am a big fan of wearing white jeans in the cooler months or you could also go with a winter white sweater when it's cool. Unfortunately, I feel like all of this talk about cooler months is just wishful thinking because, let's face it, it's going to be a long time before it's actually cool here in Los Angeles!

Shirt: J. Crew here
Shorts: Target similar white eyelet shorts
Sandals: H&M similar bow sandals here
Bag: Zara
Sunglasses: Prada

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Rainbow on Rainbow

Lately, I have been dressing pretty casual due to the heat and also the fact that people are pretty much viewing me from the shoulders up on Zoom! This outfit is a great example of what I like to wear on a regular basis, which as you can see is casual but still colorful and fun. In fact, this is what I wore to go to Costco last week. The rainbow top I am wearing is from J. Crew Factory and it's on major sale right now! It also comes in a skirt and a dress, so you know I had to spring for all three given the amazing prices! The rainbow stripes of the fabric are also the perfect complement to my rainbow Michael Kors bag. In my opinion, you can never have too many rainbows!

On my way to Costco, I spotted this amazing wall of flowers, which I figured would make for a pretty background for my casual outfit. Oftentimes, I don't really have an idea of where I want to take photos, even if I am planning on taking some for a post, but sometimes that works out better than having a plan. While I am normally a planner when it comes to many things in life, it's nice to also let things happen organically.

Top: J. Crew Factory here, dress version here, and skirt version here
Jeans: Old Navy similar boyfriend jeans here
Shoes: Target similar here
Bag: Micheal Kors similar rainbow bag here

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An Out of This World Mural

Last week I celebrated a birthday but, as many of you already know, celebrating a birthday in 2020 is a little different than it was before! With so many things still closed here, it's a little hard to plan a fun day to celebrate but I managed to put together a little outing to Venice Beach for a quick bite, sightseeing and, of course, wall hunting! (Venice is home to so many gorgeous walls and murals that it's truly paradise for a wall hunter such as myself!) This fun mural that looks like it came straight from the imagination of Lisa Frank has been on my list of places to hit up for a while now. It's definitely a color lover's dream come true and the spaceship makes it out of this world! To go with all of the bright colors, I dressed myself in head to toe neon, including this pink neon sequin skirt that I've had for months but never got around to wearing until now!

As I previously mentioned, it was hard to do a lot in Venice due to the fact that so many things are largely shutdown but, luckily, Venice offers a wide variety of outdoor activities for visitors to enjoy, including walking on the boardwalk or down Abbott Kinney Blvd. where you can take in the people and the shops, some of which are now open. We also went to a hamburger stand that is supposed to have the best cheeseburgers in Los Angeles. I'm not sure if they were the best cheeseburgers in LA but they were very good! In fact, I would be willing to go back in the near future to get another one...and to hit up some more murals for photos! So, all in all, this was a great way, an out of this world way, to spend the day and also a birthday!

Skirt: J. Crew here
Tee: Target here
Shoes: J. Crew
Bag: J. Crew similar colorful straw tote here

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Strolling Through the Funk Zone

A few weeks ago, my husband and I took a trip to Santa Barbara. It's been a while since we visited this beautiful and scenic part of California and it was good to be back! Santa Barbara offers a lot of fun and unique things to do while still being able to "social distance" and stay safe. One thing that we did during our trip was visit the Santa Barbara Zoo, hence this colorful safari print shirt that I am wearing in today's post! It was fun to see all of the animals, although, according to a recent article I read, apparently animals in zoos have been enjoying not having people around! After the zoo, we went to a part of town that was new to us called the "Funk Zone". The "Funk Zone", as its name implies, is a trendy part of the city with lots of wine and beer tastings, restaurants, and street art. Speaking of street art, how perfect is this tiger mural with my safari shirt? Stumbling across this mural was a happy accident, although, unfortunately, the really cool part of the mural was inaccessible due to a van being parked in front of it.

In addition to visiting the zoo and strolling through the "Funk Zone", we also went to a couple of wine tasting rooms. Most of the wine tasting rooms in Santa Barbara are now open and serving guests outside. (Many require reservations, however, so you really need to do your research first.) It was sure nice to sit outside and sip some local wines in the very temperate climate of Santa Barbara! We also went to an unassuming taco restaurant, which actually was one of Julia Child's favorite restaurants to visit when she was in the area. To be perfectly honest, the lines and wait at this place were very long and the food was a little overpriced, but at least I can say that I ate at a place that Julia Child loved!

Shirt: J. Crew here
Jeans: Old Navy similar boyfriend jeans here
Shoes: Kate Spade
Belt: J. Crew similar pink belt
Bag: J. Crew here
Hat: H&M similar hat here

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Pastel Rainbows

This pastel rainbow peasant top makes me feel like I'm a kid in the 1980s again! Maybe it's the colors or the fact that the fabric has a metallic silver thread that runs through it, but the top just seems like the type of thing I would have worn while playing with Rainbow Bright or watching Punky Brewster decades ago! In addition to the retro vibes, the other thing that made this top irresistible was the price. I know I have mentioned this to the point of sounding like a broken record but the sales going on right now, especially at retailers like J. Crew, are unbelievable! While I understand the deeply discounted prices might not be a great sign for retailers, I can't complain as a consumer!

As always, I wanted to try to scout out the perfect location for this outfit. Believe it or not, this pastel rainbow and butterfly mural might seem like it was made for this top but it actually was not my first choice or even in my top three choices as a background. To be honest, I actually forgot that this alley with its brightly colored murals even existed. Luckily through a happy accident of wandering around and just wanting to get out of the excessive heat of last weekend, I stumbled upon this alley again and it proved to be a match made in rainbow heaven for my top!

Shirt: J. Crew here
Jeans: J. Crew here
Shoes: J. Crew similar lilac suede pumps here
Bag: Chanel similar/budget version here
Earrings: c/o Zenzii here

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