Watermelon Stripes

 

I hope everyone had a restful and reflective Memorial Day weekend! This weekend, we went to a couple of fun places in Los Angeles, which I am looking forward to sharing soon on my blog! In the meantime, it feels like summer is now in full swing and I'm very excited about summer vacation being just around the corner! Like many, watermelons are one thing that I strongly associate with summertime. I'm looking forward to making my favorite appetizer, which is comprised of cubed watermelon, feta cheese, and a little mint or basil on a toothpick and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water! Well, I haven't had any watermelon to eat yet this season but I have worn quite a bit of watermelon print clothing already! New to my collection is this watermelon print blouse that I just got on clearance at J. Crew Factory. They had a great sale last week and I also picked up several other goodies that I am waiting for to arrive!

 

I was searching in my closet for the perfect thing to wear with my new watermelon shirt and, at first, I thought I would just go with something simple like a pair of jeans or a seersucker shorts. But then, I stumbled on this watermelon stripe pleated skirt from last year. Because watermelon is already in the name, I figured it would be the perfect match for my top and, as it turned out, it was! While many watermelon prints are more red in hue, this one features pink tones, so it was a perfect match with my skirt from last year. I suppose this outfit represents something old from last summer, paired with something new that I will look forward to wearing this summer!

 

Top: J.Crew Factory here

Skirt: J. Crew here and similar version here

Bag: Red Dress Boutique similar bamboo bag here

Shoes: Old Navy similar neutral espadrilles here

Earrings: J.Crew Factory similar coral earrings here

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Ruffles and Rainbows

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I love anything with rainbow stripes! I also love little details on clothing like ruffles. So, when you add ruffles to a rainbow stripe print, it's definitely a match made in clothing heaven! For this reason, I absolutely fell in love with this sleeveless ruffle top in rainbow stripe from J. Crew Factory. I discovered this top on a trip to the outlet mall during my spring break. Normally, I do most of my shopping online but when I saw this top in the store, I knew it had to come home with me. Plus, it was marked 50% off, which was a great deal! While the sales are always fluctuating at stores like J. Crew Factory, this top appears to still be on sale at a good price!

I decided to wear this top with some bright green pants and an even brighter neon yellow clutch. I think this top would also look equally great with light, subtle pastel colors or something simple like jeans. I actually forgot that I took these pictures of this outfit weeks ago but I'm glad that I discovered them, as I was going through photos and deciding what I wanted to do for a post today. It's hard to believe that I could forget about such a fabulous top but it's been a very hectic month, or year for that matter!

 

Top: J. Crew Factory here

Pants: Banana Republic similar green pants here

Shoes: J. Crew similar pink ballet flats here

Bag: J. Crew Factory similar neon yellow bag here

 

Summer Stripes

 

I love stripes in my wardrobe, especially a good striped skirt! While I have quite a few striped skirts (and striped everything, for that matter) in various colors, I was excited when I came across this orange and white striped skirt because I don't have anything like it in my closet, which is saying a lot because there's a lot in my closet! This skirt is currently on sale at Anthropologie but, like many of the items that hit the sale rack there, it's going to sell out fast, so I also linked below to another similar orange and striped skirt for those of you who want to add an orange striped to your wardrobe too!

 

I wore this skirt out for a Sunday stroll and lunch and I must say that it's the perfect skirt for such an occasion! I styled it in a fairly casual way with a mint tee, denim jacket and straw bag. I also opted for my Kate Spade tassel sandals, which are now a summer staple in my wardrobe. Whenever I post these shoes on Instagram, I notice that most of the comments are about my shoes, as opposed to the rest of my outfit! (I guess they really do steal the show!) I bought these tassel sandals years ago on clearance at Marshalls and, unfortunately, I haven't seen anything quite like them since. I don't know if tassels and pom poms are "out" as a trend lately but I'm always on the lookout for a similar pair for both myself and my readers!

 

Skirt: Anthropologie here and similar orange and white skirt here

Tee: Target here

Jacket: Old Navy similar denim jacket here

Sandals: Kate Spade

Bag: Zara similar round straw bag here

 

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Cherry Print Shorts

 

With summer right around the corner, it's time to wear shorts again! I just recently discovered this cherry print at LOFT and it was love at first sight. I thought I would first get the shorts in this cherry print because I liked the cute tie in the front and the elastic waist but I'm very tempted to get the dress or top in the same print! (I guess this continues the fruit theme that has been prevalent on my blog for the last couple of months or so.) Last week, you might recall that I posted about a blueberry sweater and now I'm moving on to cherries! I really can't get enough of fruit prints this year for the spring/summer season!

 

On the LOFT website, they paired these shorts with a navy and white striped top, which I thought was very cute but I decided to take a different route. As you can see, I selected a pink eyelet top from Target instead of a striped top. Because I love the idea of this cherry print with stripes, I opted for stripes in the form of my blue and white Clare V. tote bag. It brings out the navy in the stems of the cherries. I'm not sure what type of cherries have navy stems and leaves but it does make for a cute print!

 

Shorts: LOFT here

Top: Target here

Sandals: J. Crew similar gold sandals

Bag: Clare V. similar blue and white striped bag

 

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Pastel Rainbow Dress

 

Last week was Mother's Day and I wore this pastel rainbow dress for the occasion! For our Mother's Day celebration, I made an Ina Garten recipe of sea scallops au gratin, which is always a hit. In addition to being delicious, the other thing I love about this recipe is that you can make it in advance, pop it in the fridge for up to a day and then just take it out and throw it in the oven when you're ready to eat. One of the other positives about prepping the meal in advance is that you're free to get a little more dressed up due to being liberated from the fear of messing up your outfit while cooking! As you can see, I took advantage of this by debuting this new dress, which like the scallops, was also a hit with my family!

 

If the rainbow gingham print looks familiar to you, it's because I have several other items in the same print that I recently posted on my blog over the last couple of months. I would promise that you won't see this print again on my blog but I just realized that I haven't yet posted about the shoes that I also purchased in this print, so you might not have seen the last of it! The good news is, if you love the print as much as I do, you won't mind seeing it one more time!

 

Dress: J. Crew here and sleeveless version here

Shoes: Target similar purple sandals here

Bag: Chanel

Necklace: Target similar here

 

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Blueberry Sweater

 

Fruits are everywhere this spring, whether they be in supermarkets or on clothing, and I've certainly featured quite a few fruit prints over the last month on my blog. While many fruit prints feature cherries, lemons, watermelons, or strawberries, this sweater from J. Crew features a blueberry print, which is a somewhat unusual spin on the fruit theme! While blueberries are actually one of my least favorite fruits to eat, I am quite enthralled by wearing a sweater featuring this pretty blue fruit!

 

Blue looks lovely with so many different colors so it was difficult to decide just how to style my sweater. I thought it would be best to go bold and really make the blue pop by pairing it with a yellow pleated skirt. Today, I actually wore the sweater with jeans for a more casual look. I could also imagine pairing this same sweater with white jeans or maybe something pink in the future, which just goes to prove that the possibilities are endless when it comes to styling this blueberry sweater. It's enough to possibly convince me to be more enthusiastic about eating the fruit, as I love wearing it so much!

 

Sweater: J. Crew here

Skirt: Target similar yellow pleated skirt here

Bag: J. Crew blue bag here

Shoes: J. Crew similar blue pumps here

 

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Floral Pencil Skirt

 

When I first started blogging, I was obsessed with pencil skirts! At the time, as I recall, J. Crew was somewhat responsible for bringing back this classic silhouette with their no. 2 pencil skirt. While it's true that nothing gives you a polished look quite like a pencil skirt, over the years I moved on to more flowy skirts in my wardrobe. (It's interesting to see how your style evolves over the years!) Well, I'm back in a pencil skirt with this fun, floral pencil skirt! What attracted me to this skirt was the vibrant, colorful floral print that I thought would be the perfect addition to by spring wardrobe! After spending the last year living mostly in sweatpants (despite the fashionable outfits you see here on my blog!), I will have to say that it felt nice to be wearing a pencil skirt again!

 

After years of blogging, one thing I've learned is that you have to be prepared for any situation when taking photos! For example, these photos were taken outside of a florist that's located in an alley. While it's not shown in the photos, above this florist are apartments with small balconies that have wide open slats for the balcony floors. The reason I'm sharing this detail is that, as soon as we started taking pictures, someone above me on the balcony started opening up boxes and was throwing the around contents! It made me a little nervous because I thought something might fall and hit me in a head! Luckily, only some cardboard fell down through the floor slats, which scared me at first, but the blog photos must go on!

 

Skirt: J. Crew here

Top: J. Crew similar ruffle top here
Shoes: J. Crew similar blue pumps here

Bag: Chanel budget version pink quilted bag here

Earrings: J. Crew here

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