Summer Dresses and I'm Giving Away another Necklace!

After a long break, I'm back. And I'm ready to give away something! Before I get started on that, I wanted to mention one of the many things I love about summer clothing:

being able to wear dresses and not freeze to death.

I love wearing dresses in the summer because (1) you don't have to worry about finding a top and pants/shorts, (2) you automatically feel cooler on a hot day, which then makes you feel more relaxed, and (3) you have so many different styles/prints/colors to choose from—you'll never be bored.

There are some different categories of summer dresses—daytime, nighttime, casual, and more formal. I'm going to highlight casual, or effortless, summer dresses. Effortless summer dresses are dresses that you can wear to run errands, but also wear out on a daytime date. It all depends on the accessories you choose. Some of these dresses could even work at the beach, but like I just said, if you want to make one of these dresses "more formal," then it's all about the accessories: adding a belt, a trendy purse, jewelry, etc. These dresses just scream, "I'm-sitting-on-my-porch-reading-a-book-and-sipping-a-glass-of-lemonade." I've divided these six dresses by solids and prints. Also, the websites featured below have tons of other great effortless summer dresses, so check out the sites!

1.) Mossimo Womens Belted Dress with Neck Detail at Target, $24.99. I got this dress on sale at Target, so it was only $18. Check your local Target to see if it's still on sale. It's perfect because it hits at the knee, so it's not too short. It's also slouchy enough so I don't feel like I'm sticking to the dress (and I won't feel self-conscious if I ate one too many frozen yogurts that day). It's also available in a yellow color. Also, the nice thing about the Target website is that it shows the dress not only on the model, but may also have a video of the model moving in the dress—that way you can see if the dress is long enough and how it moves on a person.

2.) Merona Womens V-Neck Crossover Value Dress at Target, $19.99. This dress was also on sale at Target for $18. This dress comes in a wide variety of colors (I have it in navy blue). I especially like this dress because it's timeless and I know that it will still be stylish years down the road. This is also a dress that I could see myself wearing to the beach (if I ever get back near the ocean, that is) and wearing it on a date, to work, etc. 

3.) Merona Womens Trapunto Dress at Target, $27.99. This dress comes in a wide variety of colors. I like the fact that this dress has sleeves, so you don't have to worry about adding a cardigan if you're worried about modesty. 

4.) Braided Print Dress at Gap, $59.95. This dress also comes in a magenta color. I love the print on it (reminds me of a classier version of tie-dye) and the detail on the braided neckline.

5.) Grey Ivory Stripe Wrap Dress at Dorothy Perkins, $29.00. It has stripes and the perfect silhouette—and it's only $29. What more could you ask for? They also have solid versions of this dress on the website.

6.) Slouched Chiffon Dress at DownEast Basics, $34.99. This might be more of a dressier summer dress option, but this dress can still be dressed down with a pair of flat sandals. I love the color (if you don't, it's also available in a tan color) and I love it paired with the belt. 

Now on to the giveaway. . . . 

I'm giving away this necklace that I made

Sorry about the semi-blurry images. I have to use my phone camera since my regular camera is acting weird. The bottom bigger pearls are gray and the smallest pearls on the top tier are white. 

Here's what you need to do to win this necklace:

(1) comment on this blog entry

(2) follow this blog (click on follow at the top bar on this blog).

You have until Thursday, May 10, at 8 p.m. MDT to enter.

Here is last giveaway's winner, Jess Scott, looking beautiful in the turquoise necklace she won (p.s. I'm still going to give away the coral version in the near future!). This could be you! :)

Good luck everyone!

Favorite Things

So this past week and a half I've been feeling under-the-weather. I've had some bad stomach problems. Just when I thought they were getting better (and was put on some prescription meds for it) they started to come back a little bit. Fingers crossed everything just gets better. Anyway, since I haven't been feeling well, I've decided to just do a quick entry about some of my favorite things (products, things in general, etc.). Unfortunately, I'm not like Oprah and I can't give away all of these items to you like she used to on her "Favorite Things" episodes. Hopefully my list will help you out, though, and make me feel better (as much as it can) in the process!

1.) Favorite TV Show

Once Upon a Time definitely takes the cake on current favorite TV show. Every episode has you thinking and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The show has to do with fairytale characters who get cursed and put into modern-day life (a town in Maine called Storybrooke), but they can't remember their fairytale past. It's interesting to see the writers' take on classic fairytales and how they're intertwined with other fairytale characters' stories. It might sound a little weird to you, but I'm telling you that you really should watch it. All of the episodes are available on Hulu Plus (they're just wrapping up season one in the upcoming weeks). Recent episodes are available on Hulu (not plus). My coworker Whitney and I have even got our other coworkers into the show. Whitney and I joke about how funny we must sound to the coworkers who don't watch the show when they overhear us talking about "Rumpelstiltskin" and "Jiminey Cricket", etc.

2.) Favorite makeup brand

I love Clinique. I have been using that makeup brand since I first started wearing makeup. The brand is available at almost all department stores. The thing that I love the most about it is that you can go in and sit in one of their white chairs and have them do your makeup for you and tell you what eyeshadow shades, blush shades, etc. work best for your skin tone, along with the type of skin you have (oily, normal, or dry). Their makeup doesn't make me break out and it's long lasting—that's the difference that I see in Clinique and the brands you can get at a drugstore. I'm especially a big fan of their lipgloss. I tried to venture into lipstick, but I didn't like the feel of lipstick as much as lipgloss. I use Clinique's "Stellar Plum" shade and swear by it (it's picture above). I'm not trying to brag, but I do get a lot of compliments about my lips (I know—as shady as that sounds). As a result, I have people constantly asking me what brand of lipgloss I use. Funny story about that: when I worked in retail, I even had an older woman come in and ask me what lipgloss I used because my lips looked so nice and full and she liked the color. I told her that I used Clinique's Stellar Plum. She said, "OK. I'm going right over to Macy's right now to buy it for my daughter." I wanted to tell her that my lips are already naturally big, but she was gone before I could give further explanation. Moral of the story: Just because the lipgloss looks good on someone else, doesn't mean that it will look the same on you. Stellar Plum looks good on my skin tone, but it might not work on others' skin tones. If you're after having fuller looking lips, Clinique's Long Last Glosswear is not a lip plumping gloss. Just FYI.

3.) Favorite nail polish brand

OPI nail polish is amazing because it's SUPER long-lasting and it has just about every shade out there. Also, if you want to see how a certain OPI color will look on you, you can go to the OPI website and "try" it on (you select your skin tone and it will show you how it looks with your skin tone). They have also started selling OPI at Walmart and Target now. Sephora also has a brand called "Sephora by OPI" that is just as long-lasting as the original brand.

4.) Favorite song (at the moment) because we all know that changes all the time.

Andy Grammer's "Fine By Me". This song just has a great summer feel to it. Plus, Travis and I both love singing along to it when it comes on the radio. We even "fight" over who gets to dedicate it to whom first. Yes, we're always weird and lovey-dovey like that. My friends Katie and Maizy have met Andy Grammer before (I saw the pic on Katie's facebook. . . . stalkerish, yes). What do you say about a collaboration on this song, Katie (you on guitar, me on piano)? :)

5.) Favorite store for work wear

This is actually a tie between H&M and The Limited. I've already blogged about my love for H&M, so I'll spend this time talking about The Limited. I actually used to work here a few years ago, so I'm a little bit biased. Their clothes are great quality, work appropriate, yet still stylish. Another great thing: a lot of their dresses and skirts are actually knee-length so it's easy to be modest. They also have great sales (such as taking an additional 40% off of clearance items). They opened their first store in Utah (hallelujah!) at City Creek. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.

6.) Favorite thing guaranteed to make you laugh

I don't have time to watch the Ellen DeGeneres Show since I work during the day, but Whitney and I often share funny YouTube clips from the show. Ellen's pranks on the show make me laugh so much. Here are some of my favorites:

David Beckham Goes Undercover at Target (my favorite is when he says "please stop spreading rumors" hahaha)

Scaring Ellen's Staff with Dance!

Would You Wear These Swimsuits?

My absolute favorite: Ellen's Hilarious Harry Potter Cameo!

I hope you enjoyed my list of favorite things. And in parting, I leave you with this HILARIOUS mannequin from Changzhou, China. One of my friends from my China group took this photo. Thanks to Shelly for taking it!

If that doesn't cheer you up, then I don't know what will!

Also, I recently made this necklace (not the best picture—sorry. I just wanted to take a quick pic). I'm thinking of giving it away soon. What do you think?

Shopping Trip!

This is a much overdue entry.

A few weeks ago after work, Whitney (my coworker at the Joseph Smith Papers Project and friend obviously) and I went on a shopping trip to Fashion Place Mall. She said that she was getting kind of sick of her wardrobe and wanted me to help her pick out some fun things. Plus, it was her first time going to H&M. Love that store!

Whitney had already established that there were a few things she wanted: a blazer and more pencil skirts. H&M is great for business workwear at an affordable price. They always have cute pencil skirts and blazers for awesome prices. I'm happy that they now have two H&Ms in Utah—it's about time!

Anyway, so as we walked around the store and ended up with tons of clothes that we wanted to try on. I have a love-hate relationship with trying on clothes because a part of me secretly hopes that whatever I'm trying on will look AWFUL on me so I won't buy it. The good thing was, I ended up walking out with only one thing (meaning everything else didn't look so great on, haha). A cute blue and white polka dot peplum top. I'm loving the peplum trend right now. Those of you not familiar with what a peplum shirt is, it's when the bottom of the shirt kind of ruffles out to make almost a little skirt at the bottom of a shirt. They're also really popular right now with dresses/skirts:

Who better than Kate Middleton to use as a fashion example?

Note how the top of her ensemble is in the peplum style.

Now, back to Whitney. After trying on some cute clothes and sharing some of my opinions, she decided on getting some great staples for any working woman's closet. Here are her outfits for the next few days:

The blazer (from H&M). A great way to make an outfit seem more businesslike and a great way to add sophistication to a pair of jeans. As shown in this outfit, it's also fun to pair a fun, flirty shirt underneath a blazer. It also gives you girls concerned with modesty an excuse to buy a cute tank top—pair it with a blazer! Also, fun thing: Whitney's shoes reminded her of the Commuter Fashion post I did a few months ago. Definitely reminded me of that too!

I also have this dress (from H&M), but mine has a cream and black print on it. I recommend it because of its comfort and its flattering shape. And it's only $25! I love that H&M has so many different colors/prints available for their clothing. This dress is so flattering because it drapes around the waist and creates a nice feminine shape. Whitney paired this dress with red accessories, which is definitely a good idea for a black dress. It's a great way to make a neutral dress more interesting.

For those of you who work in the office, a button-down shirt is a must. It can flatter your shape (when fitted correctly) and looks especially sophisticated tucked into a pencil skirt. Also, weather permitting, Whitney paired her ensemble with fishnet tights. I love a good patterned tight (especially lacey tights or fishnets!) and fishnets can add a fun factor to your sophisticated ensemble.

I had a lot of fun shopping with Whitney and sharing my advice and opinions on the fit, material, etc. of clothing. Those are all really important factors to take into consideration when shopping. For example, "will this fabric pill, run, wear out quickly, etc.?" "How many layers do I have to wear with this shirt?" I like to think that's the practical part of me coming out when I shop. :)

Now who's next?!

Swimsuits for 2012 and Necklace Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! I had so much fun making the necklaces. The winner for the first necklace giveaway is . . . Jess Scott! Her comment number was chosen by a random generator. I was originally going to have Travis choose a random number, but he said that it wouldn't be as "random" as I thought. Anyway, Jess won the turquoise necklace. That means that I still have the coral-red one to giveaway. . . . For those of you who had your eye on the coral-red one, stay tuned for the chance to win that one! I'm also in the process of making some other really cute necklaces and bracelets.

As promised, here are some really cute swimsuits I found online. Some of them are pricey (as almost all swimsuits are), but I figured that if you can't afford these exact swimsuits, you could always take a look at the trends and cute designs to get some inspiration while you're swimsuit shopping. For those of you looking to buy a swimsuit on a budget (as I am) I find that Target, Old Navy, and Kohls have excellent deals on cute swimsuits (for some looks from Old Navy and Target, see swimsuits 2, 7, 10, and 11 below).

1.) La Blanca Twisted Tankini Neiman & Marcus, $93 for tankini top, $39 for bikini bottom. Can I tell you how much I LOVE red swimsuits? Something about them automatically screams "retro."

2.) Juniors Vintage Target, $29.99. Comes in black as well. I love how this swimsuit has a retro feel to it.

3.) Tulle Underwire Tank J Crew, $125. Comes in many other colors: black, navy, mauve, dark purple, bright purple. My favorite is this bright green color.

4.) Anchors Aweigh Skirted Tank J Crew, $125. I love the belted look!

5.) Asymmetrical Ruched Bandeau Tank J Crew, $98. Comes in many other colors such as navy, black, red, purple, and dark green.

6.) Lampone Shabby Apple, $82. I like the skirted look to hide the least flattering part of my body . . . my upper thighs.

7.) Assets by Sarah Blakely Ruffled 1 Piece Target, $49.99. So cute for such a good price.

8.) Beach Blanket Bingo One Piece ModCloth, $89.99. A purely vintage look!

9.) Beach Cruiser Tank/Bikini Bottom DownEast Basics, $36.99 (top) and $25.99 (bottom). I love the details and color on this one.

10.) Ruched-Bandeau Swimsuit Old Navy, $29.94. I saw this in store and was so tempted to buy it. . . .

11.) Ruffle Tankini Top/Boy-Short Bottom Old Navy, $24.94 (top) and $19.94 (bottom). I love the sporty look of the boy shorts mixed with the ruffle on the tankini top.

12.) The New Maillot Norma Kamali, $385. I don't expect anyone to buy this. I know I never will because of the price. But I had to include it because it's so beautiful!

I hope this list helps you with your swimsuit shopping! For next time: a blog entry on a fun shopping trip with Whitney!

First Necklace Giveaway!

As promised, I'm giving you the details today about a necklace that I am giving away. Lately I have really been into statement necklaces. For those of you who don't know what that means, a statement necklace is a necklace that stands out either by size or color. It is best to pair statement necklaces with a classic outfit (I like to pair mine with neutral colors to make them pop more, but you can still pair them with colors). Remember this: be careful about other accessories that you wear—you don't want to pair a statement necklace with huge earrings or huge bracelets because you may look tacky.

I first saw the tutorial for this necklace on Pinterest. If you want to try making the necklace yourself, go here. I'm a huge fan of coral/red so I decided to first make this necklace in that color to try it out. The bright, bold color makes it a statement necklace. I'm giving away the necklace in either this coral-red color:

or this turquoise color (this image below is taken from the blog with the necklace tutorial):

I am currently finishing up the turquoise necklace, so I don't have any finished photos for you other than the example from the other blog. Bottom line, you get to choose what color you want: turquoise or coral-red. All you need to do to enter this giveaway and here's how you do it:

1. Comment on this blog and tell me which color necklace you want.
2. Follow my blog.

It's that simple. You have until Monday, March 19, at 8 p.m. MDT to enter. I will choose the winner randomly based on the comment number. Even if this necklace isn't your particular style, enter the giveaway anyway—this necklace would make a great gift! Good luck!

Next entry: 12 cute modest swimsuits for 2012. I have the blog entry all ready, but I didn't want to overwhelm with too much in one blog entry!

Picture Submissions

So it's been quite a while since I posted anything. . . . Sorry about that! Things have gotten crazy with work (I've had so many design projects to grade lately). Anyway, I have received some picture messages that display some fashion disasters. Keep them coming! This blog post is going to be all about those pictures.

The first gem that I received was from my best friend from home, Laura. She lives in Boston now, so I'm sure she sees tons of weird fashion happenings.

This is a no-brainer. You should not wear pajama pants out and about (unless you are deathly sick or someone stole your pants and all you have left are these). Laura told me that this was around 5 p.m. at Stop & Shop (a grocery store). Even less of an excuse. This wasn't a quick run to the store in the morning to grab milk—this was almost dinner time! To make matters worse, he's wearing socks and sandals! Maybe I'm mean, but I have very little pity for men and their levels of comfort with clothing. Women have to wear skirts or dresses in order to dress up. Men get to still wear pants. If this man wanted to still achieve a high level of comfort but go out in public, all he had to do was put on some loose-fitting jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers—not a stylish outfit, but just enough to avoid looking like a huge bum. Done. A lot better than pajama pants and socks with sandals. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was sick that day. . . .

Laura also sent me this. I figured that her face is blurry enough in this photo, so I didn't have to worry about blurring her face out. The issue that I have with this outfit is mostly the fit. Her skirt (what you can see of it) is much too tight and honestly, too short. The tighter/shorter the skirt, the less flattering unless you have a model's body—and most of us don't! She would have benefited from wearing a skirt that was more of an A-line skirt (the most flattering shape for every body type, but HIGHLY dependent upon where the hem hits on your leg). I think the short boots combo also makes her legs look shorter than they actually are. She should have opted for a longer boot or a flat (unless she really wanted to wear heels. . . . ). I'm also not a huge fan of the hipster look, so the whole leather jacket/big glasses combo seems a bit too out there for me.

This woman is apparently wearing a jacket out of aluminum foil. Well, at least it looks like it. I know that metallics are really popular right now, but the material on this just looks too stiff to actually be comfortable. Also, this is a really bright silver. Try going for a silver that's a bit more subdued or even darker. This bright silver just looks like aluminum foil or like it's part of a space costume. Thanks to Aunt Kris for this photo and the next one!

I know this picture is a little blurry, but if you look closely at this fellow, you'll see that he's wearing a hat with a large feather sticking out of it. I don't even know if I need to give an explanation for why this is bad, but this is all that I thought of when I saw it:

Don't you see the resemblance between Pinocchio and the guy pictured above?

I have a few more photos I wanted to post, but I'm running out of time. You'll see them soon.

In the next blog entry (up TOMORROW—I promise!) I will be giving away a really cute necklace that I made and I'll be talking about the cutest modest swimsuits for this summer. I have some great future entries up my sleeve!

Dressing for a Semi-Active Date

The title of this entry might be confusing. I'm referring to going on a date where you're involved in a semi-rigorous activity. How do you dress for that—especially if it's your first date and you want to dress to impress? I use myself as an example.

On the day of my first date with Travis (my husband) I had absolutely no idea what to wear. I hadn't even met him before (I was set up with him through my friend, Grace). I knew that he was going to call me soon to tell me what we were doing and I was nervous about what we were going to do. When he called me, he asked if I wanted to go kite flying (it was fall 2009) and then out to dinner. I thought it sounded cute, so of course I said yes. When I hung up and he said that he would be there in a few hours, panic set in. I'm not exaggerating either—A LOT of panic set in. First thing I thought of, "What am I going to wear?!" I was so panicky because I always wear high heels (wedges, stilettos, etc.). But I would look like an idiot if I wore high heels while kite flying. I had done my fair share of kite flying at my elementary school (we had kite day for gym class every year). I knew that not only would I look like an idiot in high heels, but I ran the risk of falling. On a first date. How embarrassing.

I called my friend/little sister, Kristen. She still makes fun of me to this day about that phone call. Looking back on it, I feel like the phone call was just a blur. I remember FREAKING OUT and telling her my dilemma. What color shirt was I going to wear—nothing too dressy since I would be running around with a kite, but not a t-shirt! "But I hate wearing sneakers in public," I said. It's not like I refuse to wear sneakers at all—as girly as I am with my daily fashion, I'm still really into playing sports—I played sports year-round throughout my high school career and started the BYU Field Hockey club until stupid BYUSA kicked us out for being too "dangerous." The point is, I like wearing workout clothes for the specific athletic event/workout. Not out to dinner or on a first date.

I decided to wear a plain white shirt (not a t-shirt) and jeans. Now the trickier part: the shoes. I opted to wear my Pumas, which I think works great for a stylish sneaker, but one that you can still run around in. I hate wearing normal sneakers (like my running Asics shoes) with jeans because I feel like it makes you look like you have dinosaur feet. They make your feet look wide and fat. Anyway, here's a picture (below) of what the Pumas I wore on my first date kind of looked like (the main shoe part was all white with a blue stripe instead of purple). I don't recommend wearing Pumas with skinny jeans, though. They will make your feet look like submarines. No joke. Shoes like this that make your feet look longer (including Vans) are best worn with a flared jean. So I wore flared jeans. This still didn't prevent me from feeling self-conscious about dressing so "casual" on the date, but I didn't fall when we flew kites and Travis wanted to go on a second date.

Just when I thought, "Yes! I can wear clothes I'm more comfortable with for my second date," my joyous thoughts were soon dampened. Travis suggested we go play broomball at Seven Peaks Ice Rink. I love playing sports, but I thought, "Great! Is he ever going to see me dressed cute?" I called Kristen, yet again, panicking about what to wear. Call me a nerd, but I googled "broomball" to see what people wore when they played. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to be in full workout garb or if I could get away with a comfortable pair of old jeans and a sweatshirt. Kristen told me that I could just wear jeans and a sweatshirt and be fine. Broomball is played on ice, but you wear sneakers, not skates. If I wore my Pumas I would be falling on my butt every ten seconds—they don't have very good traction. So I had to wear my Asics and look like I had dinosaur feet. To fix this, however, I wore a jean with a wider flare to cover up the wideness of the sneaker. Dinosaur feet hidden.

Next problem: what was I going to do with my hair? I hate wearing my hair up, but if I was going to be running around (quite a bit more than kite flying), then I wouldn't want my hair in my face. Genius that Kristen is, she suggested putting my hair half up (why didn't I think of that?!). The date went well and I came home and looked in the mirror and my hair held well, and I actually thought I wasn't looking too bad. As you know, this is all so silly looking back on it, because I ended up marrying Travis. I could tell you that it's because I strategically didn't wear my Pumas with skinny jeans (and thus avoiding submarine feet), but I can't say that's true. It could have helped. . . . maybe.

After that long story, here are some tips that I gathered from that experience for dressing for a semi-active date:

1. If you still want to wear cute footwear on your date, opt for a "stylish" sneaker (like Pumas) or wear a cute, basic flat with a nice, strong sole. Aerosoles flats always have strong soles (with good traction too!). It all really depends on how active your activity is. They are almost always selling Aerosoles flats at TJ Maxx.
2. Don't wear shoes that generally make your feet appear "longer" (Vans, Pumas, etc.) with skinny jeans. Your feet will look like submarines. Opt for a flared jean instead.
3. Avoid wearing active sneakers (like cross-trainers) with jeans—especially skinny jeans. Your feet will look like dinosaur feet. If you must wear them, opt for a bigger flared jean.
4. As far as tops go, wear a top that isn't too fancy (it could hinder your movement), but is basic instead. Don't wear a t-shirt (such as a BYU Athletics t-shirt you would wear to the gym). It looks sloppy and you still want to look nice on your date.
5. If you're worried about how to wear your hair and hate wearing it all the way up (and you're going to be running around quite a bit), wear it half-up. If you feel comfortable wearing your hair up (unlike me) then wear it all up.

These aerosoles (available here) come in a wide variety of colors. They're not too fancy, but are still really cute!

If you've been dating this guy for a while, it shouldn't matter as much because chances are he's seen you in workout clothes or when you have dressed down. Those first few dates are especially important because you're establishing some first impressions. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't act like yourself, but that you don't look sloppy or like you don't care.

Next post, I have some photos of fashion no-nos that were submitted! Be excited.