Potter's Clay Culottes & Crop Top

The other day was my first day of school/work for the 2016-17 school year.   Here are my educator stats to date:

 

🍎 Starting year #9

🍎 3 Schools: Buena Vista, Queen Elizabeth, Lakeview, and now I work in a variety of schools supporting teachers in Prek-Gr. 8

🍎 1 School Divisions
🍎 Grades taught: PreK-Gr.4
🍎 Most experience in: Early Years (K-Gr.2)
🍎 Students taught: ~250 +
🍎 Principals: 4
🍎 Provinces taught in: Saskatchewan, Canada

 

 

Many teachers prepare their first day of school outfits in the same fashion as students :)    For me it wasn't so much the first day but the second, when all the teachers in our school division get together for a beginning of a new school year celebration.  I knew that I wanted to wear these  culotte pants that I snagged while doing a little bit of shopping in London this past summer.  You could say it was love at first sight with the cut/style and even more so with the color;  I was super pumped to see the potter's clay color in the pantone fall 2016 color palette.  The other color I am super excited to wear this fall is the spicy mustard!

 

 

I paired these sweet pants up with my new crop top from Top Shop, which I will wear all winter long under a blazer, and it pairs nicely with my circle skirt that I wore last week and heels.  And this year I was able to snag my very own back to school backpack from Zara.  

 Shop the Look: 

Culottes (similar) option 1; option 2

Backpack (similar): Simons

Crop top: Top Shop

Happy back to school everyone!!!

Little White Dress

A little white dress can go a long way in the summer.  Work life, dinner date, patio drinks, weddings, church, or in my case a baptism.  I used to shy away from anything white but then a couple of years ago I joined Alison's Get Your Pretty On Style Challenge, and invested  in a pair of white jeans and  tee's.  Now I wear white a LOT, without fear, and bleach is  always on hand :) 

A couple of weekends ago we were invited to celebrate our nephews baptism. It was a beautiful Sunday and following the church service we were heading outside for a BBQ at my sister in-laws.  I decided to wear this adorable, new to me, white dress, courtesy of my sisters closet YAY! I also paired it up with a floppy hat, and some sparkle from Hillberg and Berk. 

This stunning, three-in-one, rose gold, necklace was a gift from my sister and her family for my birthday.  Eek, I am one lucky girl.   

 

 

Last, but certainly not least, my girls agreed to wear these adorable, matching dresses.  They are totally not into matching these days but I was so excited when they both choose to wear their lovely, spring bloom, maxi dresses to the baptism.  I just think they are so darn cute and still head over heels in love with their cousin Cooper. 

 

 

Happy Hump Day!!!

City Girl, Country Girl

This city girl had an absolutely fabulous weekend from start to finish.  The highlight of the weekend for sure was the GARTH BROOKS concert we went to with  friends.  I have always liked Garth Brooks but I was not even close to a die hard fan, well I AM NOW!!!  The man is amazing.  He is a hard worker.  A lover of music.  Extremely talented.  Dedicated to his job, family and fans.  He did 6 shows in our city in 4 days and each one was full of energy and pure love.  Friday and Saturday evenings, he performed back to back shows.  We went to the late show which officially started at 10:30, but due to the large crowds was delayed.  That didn't mean that Garth didn't give it his all, nope he played from 11:15 p.m.-1:36 a.m.  We did not stop singing and dancing the entire time. Our seats were unreal, so we got some sweet video's, check it out below.

What did I wear?!?  Well, I was pretty pumped to get my country girl outfit all ready.  My cowboy boots, which I recently purchased while out shopping with my eldest daughter.  A mini jean skirt I snagged off of a local buy and sell for a sweet $5 just for this occasion.  Finally, this bohemian top that I adore and immediately fell in love with from H & M.  I love the shoulder cut outs, the whole peek-a-boo style.  I also love the the embroidery on the front of the shirt that shoes a little bit of skin, or the illusion of skin, right down the middle but doesn't give anything away (for work, I wear a tank underneath it and a longer skirt :) 

Date night with out of town friends. 

Love this girl to pieces.  We've been friends since high school. 

Style Perspective: Summer Dress

I am so excited for this prompt  from the ladies over at the Blended Blog today.  I adore wearing dresses, mainly because I feel like a good dress can make a statement all on it's own and there is minimal work involved.  I also live in skirts and dresses during the spring/summer as much as I can. 

 

Today I am going to feature two dresses that I have been wearing to work and are prefect for drinks, date night, a baptism, wedding, etc.   Both of these dresses have been staples in my closet for the past two summers and the best part is they were FREE!!!!  Yes you read that right, FREE.  My wonderful sister loves to shop and generally after one season she passes pieces from her closet down to me, who eagerly awaits like it's Christmas morning.  Just last week I sent her a text to see what she had for me for my summer wardrobe and I can't wait for my grandma, who is out in BC visiting her, to bring it to me next Monday.  I am a lucky,and spoiled, girl. 

 

Look #1 is pleats, pleats, pleats!!!   This dress is so lightweight and flowy.  It is extremely versatile and  I wear it to work, both in the classroom and for meetings, for lunch/dinner dates, and any events that we have throughout the spring/summer season. 

 

 

Look #2   I wear this work often in the spring and also love it paired up with brown boots & my mustard cardigan in the fall.    Recently I purchased these lace-up flats from the Bay, and they are on sale for $39.99 right now.  They are extremely  comfortable and will be a staple in my wardrobe for our trip to London/Paris at the beginning of July. 

 

  

Fall/Winter Look

 

WISH LIST DRESS: chambray, off the shoulder dress from Chicwish (below) and a new Maxi dress that I am hoping I will find through some of the other Link Ups via the Blended Blog. 

 

 



 Also linking up with Threads for Thomas, weekend addition.  Great looks by Rachel herself and many others.

 

 



Simply Casual

Last week the temperature took a dip back down in e and it was cooler than we had been experiencing, but this week its full on summer weather!!!  Anyway due to the chill, my body kind of aching and a lack of time/desire to shave my legs I spent a lot of time in pants.  Some weeks you just want to live in your jeans,  but due to work office dress code these two simply casual outfits were a perfect match. 

 

#1  Leggings, tunic, a lovely spring floral scarf I picked up at Reitman's for $5 and I added some bling with a new/borrowed from my mom H & B bracelet.  Click on over to the Blended Blog to check out how other ladies are styling this prompt. 

H & B Renee Bracelet

Simons Tunic (similar)

Floral Infinity Scarf

 

#2 Linen pants, printed top, blush purse (by far my favorite color this season) and nautical wedges.  Oh, and this is my old hair that desperately needed a makeover which it got over the weekend :) 

Bird Print Top RW & Co.

Casual Trousers (similar)

Wedges (similar)

 

Here are the Polyvore I  looks created for week 4 utilizing  my capsule wardrobe. 

 



 

 

 



Week 2 of the Capsule Wardrobe- Spring is Here!!!

Oh boy, it's been so busy around our house.  I seriously need more hours in a day to get everything I need/want accomplished.  It didn't help that we all went down with the flu last weekend, one by one, from Thursday to Tuesday it was puke palooza in this household.  We are all on the mend now, thank goodness. 

 

Anyway, I am linking up with the Blended Blog to attempt to style their prompt this week, a graphic tee.  My closet is primarily filled with work clothes and old shirts for around the house, so I only have ONE graphic tee, I know I need to invest in some, and it's not  a cool saying or anything but I wear it all the time as part of my mommy uniform.  This weekend was no different, I pulled on my graphic Guess tee, white jeans, comfy Roxy shoes and off we went to Costco! (FYI, I hate going to Costco but it's got to be done).  Be sure to check out how others styled this prompt. 

Costco trips are completely overwhelming and entirely too much work!

My spring wardrobe capsule is working so well.  I love getting up in the morning knowing my outfit is ready to go, no thinking necessary.  Check out week 1 worth of outfits here. 

Week 2 Work wear

This week my two favorite outfits were:

 

1.  Jumpsuit.  I love everything about this jumpsuit!!!!!  In fact I have discovered that I  love just about any jumpsuit/romper I have tried on.  They are comfy and easy to dress-up or dress down. Throw on a blazer, heels and some jewelry and it's perfect for work or date night! I snagged this one on sale at the Bay in December just before we heading to Cuba for vacation and have been dying to wear it since. I wore it out a few weeks ago, when we still had snow and then recreated it last week, without the snow! 

2.  Old stripped dress.  I was debating whether to place this in the donate pile when I was planning my capsule but choose to stick with it at least for this season.  I find this dress is super comfy but because it hugs all your curves you have to be feeling good about your body the day you choose to wear it.   Little miss wanted to be part of the fun and get in on some pictures. 

Silly faces

Shop this post:

1.  White Jeans (similar) Gap

2.  Graphic T-shirt Simons  (Yes, please)

3.  Romper (similar)  Bay

4.   Stripped dress (similar)  JC Penny

 5.  Roxy shoes Roxy

Spring 2016 Wardrobe Capsule

I took the plunge two weeks ago and created a spring capsule wardbrobe. Lately  I have been feeling overwhelmed by all the  choices in my closet  and the process of getting dressed on busy morning ends up putting me in a bad mood.  I am of the philosophy, "less is more".  When I have stuff everywhere, I quickly become over-stimulated, can't make a decision, and struggle with where to begin.  A part of me  screams in frustration on the inside and the other part of me has a desire to crawl into bed and hide under the blankets.  During such times my strategy is generally to, a) go for a run and clear my head, or b) walk away, make a list and then tackle the items based on  the order they are on the list.

My process:

 

1.  After looking on pinterest for inspiration, capsule wardrobe example,  and reading this article I decided to include the following items in my capsule wardrobe:

             6 t-shirts                        

             6 blouses

             5 pairs of pants

             5 bottoms (skirts)

             5 dresses

             5 sweaters/outwear

I didn't not include my daily wear, like lulu pants and cleaning shirts, my jewelry, shoes, or workout clothing.  

 

2.  I pulled EVERYTHING I own and  began separating the items into fall/winter and spring/summer wear.  I placed my fall/winter stuff away into storage and my summer stuff that didn't make the cut in this capsule into a large plastic tub in my closet. I also made a huge donation pile and shipped them out of the house.  I was overwhelmed and exhausted by this step!

      

 

 

3.  Out of my sprint/summer stuff, I started to pick my pieces out for my capsule.  I especially focused on items that I could wear to work, as most of my week is spent at work, but also keeping in mind that I like to have a few items for date night, and mommy wear.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  I sorted and downsized until I had my wardrobe down to the list above.  Everything else got placed into my summer container in my closet so that the only things in my drawers and closet are more or less the wardrobe capsule.  

5.  I organized and created my work wardrobe for the week with Polyvore so that I can just get up and get dressed.  I always think about what my days at work will entail, (will I be in meetings, working with young children in classrooms, providing Professional Development, etc), and what the weather prediction is for the week.    

 

 

 

What I learned:

Through this process I realized  I had a LOT of stuff!  I am not even a hoarder, I donate stuff all year round but apparently not nearly enough.  For the first time ever, I have an nearly empty drawer in my dresser.  I LOVE IT!!!  I feel happy seeing neatness and organization in my closet and drawers.  I am worried about lasting three months but I feel pretty sure I can make it with this wardrobe at least for two months.  I also found out which pieces I love the most and which ones I need to replace with different pieces.  I feel confident that I wont just be buying random pieces but will be much more focused.  

One of my favorite outfits this week was my coral pencil skirt, chambray shirt, little brown belt as an accessory, statement necklace and comfy,  Nine West, nude pumps. 

 

How do you organize yourself and your closet?