What I Wore; H&M Floral Print Culottes

     I had always been scared of the culotte style pants that have been in style for a little bit. having a long torso and short little legs, I never thought it would look good on my body type. Then I found these. They were so pretty with this gorgeous print and great fabric and on sale($20 at H&M) that I had to try them on, lo and behold... They looked pretty great! I think it is because they are high waisted and generally have a flattering fit. I did have to go up a size from my usual size because they were hugging in all the WRONG places at first. While they may still have these in stores on sale, they are no longer online but I did link other styles in various price ranges below. My bag is a vintage Chanel camera bag, similar ones can be found here.  I also plan to wear these into the fall with a turtle neck and pumps or ankle boots since we will still be in Virginia and I don't see it cooling down anytime soon.  My next mission is to find a midi dress that doesn't make me look crazy.

Thanks for reading! 

Check out my instagram and follow along here

What I Wore; Leather, lots of leather

       We are finally completely settled in at our new place in Virginia! We found a great apartment really close to plenty of restaurants, shopping, and nightlife. It's a bit smaller than our home back in CT, but it makes up for that with giant walk in closets, a pool, and a gym. So, I guess that means I am now obligated to get in shape.
   
        Yesterday was my birthday, and I figured it was a good time to come back to the blog world! There are a few exciting things coming up that I am looking forward to. The big one being the move here and meeting new people. A few others are a bunch of weddings happening in the next year, and traveling to celebrate those involved. We are also planning a short stay in the Outer Banks with some friends, possibly, in the next two months. If you know me or have read here before, you know how much I love planning travel outfits and packing (and traveling ANYWHERE in general!).

      My look for yesterday was a little bit rock/edgy with somewhat gothic makeup. You would think  that the weather would be somewhat pleasant since we are "south", but fun fact, it's still cold...

                                              Blazer     here ( on sale)   You can't see it but I am wearing a blazer under the jacket that comes with a tassel tie belt, that I have been using as a choker necklace.     

                        Top  Here (on sale, too!)     $12.99, in black and white

    Jacket (similar)   Here       On sale for $35

Boots are Giuseppe Zanotti, but similar here   for $134. 

In retrospect, even though these boots provided extra warmth, I think I would replace them with regular black pumps or booties and reserve these tall boots for dresses and skirts. 

Thanks for reading! 

What I Wore: Cargo and Plaid

     
          Yes! It's almost the weekend and it is officially spring, everything is in bloom and I absolutely love it. Every time spring comes around I get into a spring cleaning mood and have been beginning to purge my closet. That's when I found this gem of a pant.. and it went to the keep pile. What can I say? They make my butt look great!

Cargo pants similar here. 

Thanks for reading!

What I Wore: Sunday Casual

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I wore this to hang out with family on Sunday following a very late night Saturday. 

This look is almost completely H&M (Jacket, jeans and white shirt). The boots are Steve Madden from 2008 when everyone wanted the Manolo Blahnik work boot. 

Thanks for reading! 

Remember, you can follow me on Bloglovin to get updates on future posts!

My Spring/Summer Wardrobe Update

         When it comes to shopping, I consider myself like every other young(ish) trendy gal; when I get any sort of money, it burns a dark hole in my pocket and I itch to spend it almost immediately. If you don't have this problem, awesome! For those of you who do, know my tremendous struggle. Hence the reason why my husband does our finances and budgeting instead of me. If it was up to me, I would much rather book a vacation than pay a debt because .. well.. YOLO.

         But, for the past few months, I actually held onto some money and planned my spring/summer wardrobe a  little bit better. At first, I purchased this jacket from Express. Even though it is beautiful and when I got it was only $30, it's not really me and doesn't go with too much I already own. Plus, with a larger bust,  it falls strangely across the chest. I went back, and instead purchased sandals since my puppy destroyed my only pair of flip flops and both my gladiators have been long ago falling apart.

       I also saw this yellow blouse in Forever 21 and immediately images were dancing in my head of beautiful outfits I could put together with it; high waisted pants, wide leg linen pants, destroyed shorts... my list went on.

1. Express  sandals $29.90 30% off right now! ($20.00)    2. Forever 21  yellow blouse $22.90

             

HM lyocel blouse     $9.95, didn't even HAVE to think about this one, I've worn it a few times already since purchasing it a couple weeks ago, couldn't be happier. seen here. 

A few of the things are not up on the websites of the stores. I could not find these shorts or the high waisted white skinny pants. However, you can find them in H&M for $9.95! The white eyelet blouse is Forever 21 found here. It looks a bit different on the model, it is much wider at the hem on me and a bit more swing-y, it also shows more back on me. But, both of these are beautiful quality and detail for around $20. You do not need to spend too much for a quick summery bright update. A few fresh pieces will take you a long way, just focus on purchasing items that can go with items you already own.

This bikini is also Forever 21, this one and more here. If you are looking for a higher waist and not something cheap from China, Forever 21 is a good bet (I found the bottoms to run pretty small, so the bottom here is a medium even though I wear a 4). They have a ton of styles online. Another good one for high waist swimwear is Aerie. 

Thanks for reading about my new fun purchases! 

What I Wore: Mixing Textures

The weather has been crazy here on the east coast and it can not make up its mind. Is it spring? Is it winter? Who knows.. I threw on a few layers to help with this dilemma. In the sun, I was perfectly fine without the coat, but when the wind hits and you go in the shade it feels like January. I am wearing:

White Shirt from H&M, only $9.95!   /    Blue sweater from Poland, Top Secret brand     /      French Connection sleeveless jacket( few years old) here on Poshmark     /     Coat here     /      Faux leather leggings from Forever 21      /    Booties  here  for $32.     /        Bag here from H&M

Thursday: What I Wore

Another quick Outfit of the day post.

Today, I went out for a spontaneous little lunch date and threw this together but I thought it looked very cute so I decided to share. I am wearing high waisted jeans and a very plain white top. I accessorized heavily with a chain belt and the leopard print sneakers. This little lace bra is also too beautiful to hide. 

I was going for a rock and roll casual chic look.

Pants and top are both H&M. The sneakers are Cynthia Rowley. 

Thanks for reading! 

New H&M Purchase and The Cooked Goose

         I am going to admit something that may not be the best thing to discuss on a 'fashion' blog. Up until recently one of my favorite stores was Charlotte Russe... I know.. Let me finish. This is one of those stores where merchandising and visual displays are key! I do not know if this store does this or if they are able to pick what they get delivered to their stores like we did at Zara. I really do not enjoy shopping at this store anymore since we have moved. I am closest to the Crystal Mall in CT and their Charlotte Russe is AWFUL. Nothing is visually pleasing and all their product looks like it is for a 19-21 year old party go-er.. There is nothing normal I can where day to day, it's all crop tops and super tight legging-like pants. It is all thrown on racks and there are giant gaps in the middle of the store, honestly it does not look good. The sales girls are always behind the register talking among themselves.

      The Charlotte Russe I shopped at in NH was great, there was always a ton of people and there was so much product and a ton of space to house it. I could always find something I wanted to buy. It was actually merchandised and had stories. The sales girls AND managers were busy running around putting away clothes, cleaning and helping customers. Albeit, the clothing usually fell apart after a season of wearing it.. Who cares? At MOST it was $40.

    Having said that, the H&M at the Crystal Mall is a huge problem for me. After spending a few minutes there, I have about ten things in hand. I highly recommend it for product, not so much service. This past Monday I picked up 2 things for the upcoming warmer weather(that I'm really excited about!).

I honestly could not find the shorts on the website and the shoes I grabbed right out of their just shipped boxes, they weren't on the floor yet. But, the shorts were $24.95 and the shoes are $29.95. Similar shorts here for the same price, but the hem is a bit different. The slip on shoes are snake print, it's my weakness, and super comfy.

Another thing I have to mention that is completely random and has nothing to do with this; the restaurant we enjoyed for breakfast last Sunday. If you are ever fortunate enough to be in the Watch Hill/ Westerly Rhode Island area you need to stop at the Cooked Goose! Eating out with kids can be tough, but this place is prepared. They have a whole corner for waiting for a table complete with all sorts of toys and books and a beautiful giant fireplace, in the meantime you can drink a coffee. We were seated right next to the play area so my daughter can play once she was sick of sitting in a high chair and we can keep an eye on her because she was only ten feet away. The food was soo good! I had a breakfast burrito and asked for extra cilantro. DELICIOUS. Sadly, they are only open for breakfast and lunch. We really enjoyed ourselves there.

                                                                     Thanks for Reading!

My Easter and How to Hem Your Trousers

      Hi guys, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a great weekend if you don't celebrate Easter. We were fortunate enough to get a long almost 4 day weekend, so we went to visit family. Earlier last week, my husband left me the car so I ventured over to the mall for some time with the little one. They have a great little play area for small children. I also got to stop in to H&M because I needed a new pair of black pants. Luckily I found a fantastic high waist pair that has a decorative gold zipper around the waist. It serves no purpose, just for looks. My GOD they fit great in all the right places but were super long, like most pants on me. I knew I would have to hem them, and I decided to document this. :) I have all this useful knowledge from going to school for fashion, so I decided I would share how to very easily and quickly hem a pair of trousers.

 These are the pants, you can find here for $24.95

I don't recommend this method for jeans because the type of hem this is, it looks best on dress pants or trousers/slacks of this type. It's called an invisible stitch. The reason why is because it's not visible from the right side.

 

So first you need to take out the old stitch that holds up the raw seam, it should look like this afterwards:

 

 

I put them on and figure out how much needs to be taken off and then pin them at that length.

Once you take them off, press the crease with an iron. Take them off again and cut the raw seam about one inch away from the crease all around.

 

 

Keep it pinned and thread a needle with matching thread to the color of the pant. The trick of the invisible stitch is to just grab one or two threads of the pant with the needle so it doesn't show through on the other side.

What you do first is put the needle through the turned up part, this doesn't have to be neat because it won't show.

After this part, you loop up and grab just one or two threads from the top:

After this step, take the needle and poke through just the turned up part again. Like this again:

and then back up:

 

The inside of the finished product looks like this:

 

And the outside of the finished product:

 

 

Not too hard, right?

 

 

I wore these pants dressed up and down this weekend with white ankle strap heels and coral colored espadrilles.

 

 

 

So, I also thought I would talk a little bit about our holiday weekend. In the Polish tradition we color and decorate our eggs and bring them to church to be blessed by the priest, so we did that on Saturday. Afterwards, we had dinner at my parents house complete with and Easter egg hunt for the kiddos. Saturday night, we went out with some friends for one of their birthdays. That brought me back to my childhood! We went crazy in an arcade and played glow in the dark mini golf, with plans to play laser tag, but it got too late :) Sunday, we went to church with my parents and then had dinner with my husbands side of the family. Monday we spent with his mothers side. All in all, it was a really fun family filled weekend.

Day 1 in Miami

Day 1 in Miami was pretty great, once I got around the idea that I don't have to stop what I am doing every 15 minutes because of complaining from my daughter or a dog barking. I also did not bring my computer so I could REALLY relax, so I am backtracking all of this. Our day started at 4 am when our driver came to pick us up, I never wake up this early so trying to look cute or chic for traveling was out the window, however, I am not one to leave the house in sweatpants. Me and my husband finally at the airport:

I used Edreams to book this vacation, and considering it was Winter Music Conference 2014, I got a hell of a deal! Highly recommend looking into this website to book a flight. When we got in, we had lunch with a dear old friend at the Front Porch cafe at the Z hotel... This place is really good! If you have the pleasure of visiting Miami Beach, stop in for some food. If you are going for breakfast and are a cilantro fanatic order the breakfast taco. I think I might be going crazy though because I'm looking at the menu online and I don't see it!

The view from the condo:

                                                                     That Water!!!


                    After we got settled in, we went out for the day and just relaxed, drank, and ate!

                             This was my outfit for Miami day 1, it was only about 74 degrees!!

This skirt is H&M, but it's a couple of years old. similar here    the denim shirt is recent from H&M as well, from my shopping trip post. Glasses are ZARA.

We are so thankful for Alex's family which let us use their gorgeous condo down there! It is really sexy:

The stunning living area

Sleek modern kitchen

                       Really beautiful light fixture from the kitchen looking out to the living area

                                                                      The balcony