Pastel Stripes

National Stripes Day, which is a totally made up holiday courtesy of J. Crew, is here again! While I am naturally fond of wearing stripes and I wear them quite often, I really tried to amp up the stripes in preparation for the holiday this week. The irony is that although the holiday was created by J. Crew, the outfit I have on, including the striped tee and pastel purple pants are all from Old Navy! (Shhh...don't tell J. Crew!)

Obviously, nothing screams spring like pastels. Since Easter is just days away it seems particularly appropriate to bedeck oneself in pastels from head to toe. For this reason I didn't think it was too over the top to add my light pink Mansur Gavriel pink circle bag to the pastel mix! Speaking of things that indicate that spring is officially here, how amazing is this bougainvillea behind me? While I love the gorgeous pink petals of the bougainvillea, there is one thing I actually hate about these gorgeous trees that now seem synonymous with Los Angeles and that would be the spelling of the name! Every time I write about them I always have to look up the spelling! Maybe I should just stick to simple words that are easy to spell like "stripes". Now that's an easy one!

Tee: Old Navy "Mariner" tee here
Jacket: Target/Merona similar here
Pants: Old Navy "Rock Star" jeans here
Shoes: Old Navy here
Bag: Mansur Gavriel here
Sunglasses: Alive and Olivia

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Bohemian Fish

You might have to look very closely, but my skirt for today actually features swimming fish! The fish were probably the first things that drew my attention to this Betta A-line skirt from Anthropologie, as I've always loved fish. Plus, the skirt is by one of my favorite designers, Eva Franco. Another reason for loving the skirt is that it reminds me of the things that I used to wear in college. I had a ton of these longer length skirts that had sort of a Bohemian feel to them "back in the day". Wearing the skirt definitely made me feel young again, almost as if I was taking a stroll down memory lane!

Regarding a Bohemian feel, I decided to play up this aspect of the skirt by pairing it with some straw accessories. Even though I just purchased this round circle tote, it's now become a staple in my spring wardrobe because it holds everything, it's cute, and it also has a tassel! To match, I also broke out these new pom pom straw slides from H&M. As of late, H&M has come out with some really cute shoes and they are all so reasonably priced. So, as you can see, from head to toe I am channeling a little bit of Bohemia, not to mention a bit of nostalgia!

Skirt: Anthropologie here
Shirt: H&M similar here
Shoes: H&M here
Bag: Zara similar here
Earrings: BaubleBar here
Sunglasses: Prada

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Stripe and Floral Inversion

It's finally starting to feel like spring here, so what better way to celebrate that than with a little bit of floral! I love this floral print top from Target's Who What Wear line. (Well, to be quite honest, I love everything from the line!) If the print looks familiar to you, that's not surprising because I also have the skirt version that I wore about a month ago in this post entitled Maxi Flowers. With that look, I wore the floral skirt with a black and white striped turtleneck, but here I am clearly doing the opposite with floral on the top and stripes on the bottom!

Clearly, there is just something about the combination of stripes and florals that I am just naturally drawn to. It's certainly a winning combination! I am also drawn to all of the blooming trees and flowers that have been present here on Southern California over the last month or so. I tried to capture some of these here to give this outfit a springtime feel because nothing says spring like a fantastic floral print and some gorgeous flora to match!

Shirt: Target here
Skirt: T.J Maxx similar striped skirt here
Shoes: Christian Louboutin "Simple Pump" here
Bag: Mansur Gavriel here
Earrings: BaubleBar similar here
Sunglasses: Prada "Baroque" here

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Bathing Beauties

It was love at first sight when I saw this sunbather tee from J. Crew, mainly because the illustration on the tee feels vaguely like it could be by the likes of an artist such as Picasso or Gauguin. According to the website, the illustration is actually by an artist named Virginie Morgan who is an illustrator and children's book author. Regardless, wearing this tee is like wearing a little piece of art wherever you go!

One of the other things that I liked about this tee is that the swimsuits that these bathing beauties have on are striped and you know how I love stripes! I played up the stripe motif by wearing my Clare V. striped tote. I also decided to do some pattern mixing by wearing a polka dot pleated midi skirt. Last, but not least, since these bathing beauties look very beachy I decided to wear my new orange mules from Target for a little summery pop of color. Now if only I could have worn this outfit while actually being on the beach, I would have been all set! Maybe once the weather warms up here I can make that happen!

Tee: J. Crew Sunbather tee here
Skirt: Forever21 here
Bag: Clare V. simple tote here
Shoes: Target here
Sunglasses: Celine

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Twinning in Target

I have to admit that I've been buying a lot from Target this spring, but who can blame me when Target keeps coming out with cute things like this embroidered cardigan? Apparently, I'm not the only one who can't resist the spring styles at Target because I wore this outfit a couple weeks ago to a Korean BBQ restaurant and when I sat down at our table, I failed to notice that the woman seated at the table next to me had the exact same sweater on! When I sat down, she said, "I like your sweater" and I replied "thanks" only to look up and notice that she was wearing the same one! I guess this is the official sweater of women who not only love shopping at Target but who also love Korean BBQ!

Like the woman at the restaurant, I also paired the cardigan with jeans, however I decided to opt for something a little different than your standard blue jeans. These pale pink "Rockstar" jeans are perfect for spring and perfect for my floral cardigan. They almost look white but there's just a hint of pink, which makes them very subtle and very versatile. So, as you can see, I wasn't completely twinning with the woman at the restaurant, as I definitely had my own unique spin on the cardigan!

Sweater: Target here
Jeans: Old Navy "Rockstar" here
Shoes: H&M similar here
Bag: Zara similar here
Sunglasses: Alice and Olivia

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Saving the Green

Since I am wearing all green in this look, not to mention orange shoes evoking the flag of Ireland, I am going to count this is my belated Saint Patrick's Day post! Although I didn't wear this outfit for Saint Patrick's Day, I did wear it the week of the holiday, so I guess it kinds of counts. I actually wore a kid's T-shirt with Hello Kitty sitting by a rainbow and a pot of gold yesterday to celebrate. Truth be told, I didn't do anything particularly exciting to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, save for making a grocery store run for some Guinness and eating corned beef and cabbage with family for dinner, so wearing a T-shirt and jeans turned out to be the perfect outfit for the occasion.

Keeping with the theme of green, this outfit, especially the dress, did not cost a lot of "green". In fact, the green and white striped shirtdress I am wearing is from Forever 21 and was under $25. Forever 21 is really doing a fantastic job with many of the things that they are featuring for spring this season. Part of me is starting to think that I might be getting too old for the Forever 21 brand (I know, this coming from a woman who just mentioned she sometimes shops in the kid's department!), but as long as they continue coming out with styles like this that can be worn by women of all ages, I don't mind spending the green at their store!

Dress: Forever 21
Jacket: Target
Shoes: J. Crew
Bag: Zara
Sunglasses: Celine

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