closet essentials / the plain white tee

and we're back with another edition of the closet essential series! this week emma and i each styled a plain white t-shirt. not only is this something that all of you probably already have, it is something that can go with just about anything and still look glamorous. the white tee can give you the casually elegant and effortless look that i'm pretty sure everyone wants to achieve.

to get my look, i put on the last bottom in my wardrobe that fits (see below)- this magenta midi skirt (found at the rack for $20). typically, i would wear this skirt high waisted and i would tuck my shirt in, but in order to show off my belly, and because i couldn't pull it up any higher, i wore the skirt low with my shirt untucked. i strapped on those old sam edelman sandals that happen to be my favorite color in the world (citron/chartreuse), and added this purse in the same color (also from the rack). i threw on my simple gold bangles, forgot to take off my black rubber band (which drive me crazy, but not crazy enough to edit out), and put on my favorite summer headband that is perfect for covering up 3-day old hair. i topped the whole look off with my ray-ban aviators from nordstrom. 

the formula for making a white t-shirt look good (in my book) is: white tee + simple and cute accessories + any bottoms you have + legit sunglasses. the sunglasses are probably the most important part. anyone can pull this look off with ease and grace!

one thing that people don't tell you when you get pregnant is just how much your butt and thighs will grow, and how quickly they will do so! or maybe they do tell you that, but you just won't believe them until it happens. like the whole morning sickness thing- i never believed that it could happen to me. it seemed like something that you could overcome with just a bit of will power. well that doesn't work either. anyways, you assume when you get pregnant that the thing that will get in the way of your old clothes will be your belly. in the beginning, my little bloated belly was uncomfortable, but i could get away with wearing my pants unbuttoned and be fine with it. i could probably continue to do so, but now i can't even get my pants past my thighs, not to mention my butt! so, pretty much every bottom that i own is out of the question. pencil skirts, high waisted pants, jeans. done for. this skirt is about the last bottom that i have that works. so, i bought my first pair of maternity shorts (did you know they have a maternity section at ross??), and i pretty much wear dresses every day. i pretty much hated pants anyways!

to see how emma styled her white t-shirt head over to her blog inspireandinstyle.com!

fashion / suit up!

i'm not going to lie, i'm kind of obsessed with this outfit. my whole life i have mocked women who wear suits- we don't need to wear pants to prove that we are as good as men! dresses and skirts look so much better! what kind of lady wears a pantsuit? well, apparently this lady has converted in a big way (though i'm not sure if any other suit will do it for me like this one has).

i found this baby at h and m for $50 altogether. actually, it wasn't even displayed as a suit. i found the pants, which obviously i had to have. and then as i was looking for a new blazer (my latest obsession), i found this matching one. the windowpane patterns vary slightly in size- but i kind of love that about it. the best part about the suit is being able to wear the blazer or pants separately or together. there was a month where any given day you would see me wearing one or both of the pieces. i'm not ashamed to admit it.

i knew i needed something bright to go with it so i got this pink triangled tank from tjmaxx, whipped out my favorite bright red target purse and my favorite ysl lipstick. pairing pink and red has been one of my favorite things to do lately. my shoes are old, from urban outfitters. they are probably my favorite pair of heels, but i sometimes hesitate to wear them because there may have been a few 'tripping and falling and ripping my pants' incidents in them. i don't want to talk about it.

ps. how awesome is this graffiti that syd and i found in la? sometimes i wish there were more street art in temecula...

fashion / modern monochrome

i am kind of obsessed with this look, though sometimes it's hard to pull off. wearing all of the same color can seem either drab (all black) or crazy (all coral)- but if you get the look right it can be just straight awesome. for sydney's outfit we used my bright orange floral pants (from nordstrom last year), and paired it with her lacey orange top. it works because the top has enough white to break up the color, but still has the vivid hue we were looking for. she is also wearing my seychelles platforms that are the same color, and my small coral purse from target. we also put my favorite lipstick on her. we added in my fedora to offset all the color, and pull the whole outfit together. what do you think? would you be brave enough to wear something like this??

ps. i got to talk to this cute girl yesterday! she was on her way from the mtc to costa rica and sounded fabulous! if you'd like to see what she has been up to/why she will be gone for a year and a half, you can read about it on her blog.

fashion / vintage dress + green shades

this dress is possibly the luckiest vintage item i have ever found. when i studied abroad in london with kira we used to devour portobello road for hours on end. we stayed so long that we could never make it to the end of the road. we finally realized that we needed to start from the bottom up. we took the metro a couple of stops down, and found the mecca that is at the end of portobello (not quite as picturesque as the first few blocks, but wayyyy more affordable). that's where i found this dress that has accompanied me to some major life events. like my interview at anthro (that i was late for an didn't get the job because of it- i'll never learn). i love it so much. 

i paired my (old) teal t-straps (seychelles from anthro), my gold bow headband (from anthro), bright blue earrings (world market), and green warby parker sunglasses.

fashion / sydney's birthday dream!

it's sydney's birthday today!! we are so sad that we don't get to celebrate with her but will be thinking about her all day! before sydney left on her mission (it has been two weeks today and already feels like forever!) we had to go up to la to get some paperwork for her visa. she had talked about taking pictures at the urban light sculpture at the lacma, so we made her dreams come true and did just that. we actually photographed a bunch of different outfits to create a little stockpile for while she was gone (of course they'll only last about a month though!). i think i'm going to get one of the photos framed but i can't decide which!

syd is wearing an old juicy couture dress of mine that is perfect for spring/summer. i love the bright pattern and the big bow in front. we put my black and white peter pan collared shirt underneath (she got bright red lipstick on the shirt when she put it on! can you spot it?). her little flats were from tj maxx, but we have seen shoes like that all over the place right now. 

we walked around the lacma a little bit more- it is one of my favorite places in la!

happy birthday sydney! i know you won't see this but i love you and am proud of you! if anyone wants to send her some birthday love you can email her at sydney.carpenter@myldsmail.net.