OOTW (A Great Tee + A Ruffled Vest = Effortlessly Chic)

Ladies, I'm soooo excited about this outfit that Saturday, after wearing it all day, I almost got up in the middle of the night to blog about it.

It features a new purchase that I had seen it on Summerilla first and I knew was something that I would probably like for myself. It's the Ribbed ruffle vest, the coolest thing that was brought to us by Jenna Lyons, ever. Jenna, you totally deserve you million dollar bonus, you are a genius. When I saw it in my store last Friday (where I stopped after going to the sample sale for the second time, like I hadn't spent enough) and tried it on, I couldn't leave it in the store, even if at $78 it's a little bit pricey for a knit vest (I had a 10% discount, so I paid a little bit less). Once home, I tried it again and cut the tag off on the spot, which you will agree, is a sign of unconditional love. I tried it on very quickly with the new "Lester's hats" tee that I also bought (more on the new arrivals in one of the next posts):



The weather cooperated Saturday and I could already wear it without a jacket (it was in the 70s, almost a summer day). I picked my last years' favorite tee, the Imperial one, to wear with it and it was a perfect pairing:





The scarf that I'm wearing with it is the fringed linen scarf that I bought at the sample sale. My throat is fragile and I get a sore throat very easily, so because I wasn't going to wear a jacket it was important that I put something around my neck. To be honest I wasn't 100% sure that I would wear this scarf a lot because of the neon color but as a matter of fact I have already worn it twice and I'm kicking myself for not getting it in other colors while I could (they had a light grey and the hot pink one on Thursday, but they were all gone when I went again on Friday). As you can see, I took these picks just before heading out and that's my daughter's sippy cup that I'm holding (in the morning we went shopping for running shoes for my husband and I stopped at the Baby Gap to stock up on spring clothes for my daughter).
Moreover this vest got both my husband's and daughter's approval. My husband rolled his eyes when he saw me but then he gave me a smile and my daughter said "Mommy is a bird" (clearly a compliment and I can't deny that it felt a little bit like a bird plumage, in a positive way).
If I have to find a fault in this vest is that you can only close it by the means of a belt as it doesn't have a hidden push-button or ties on the inside. Even with a belt it tends to open up while wearing it and I was constantly pulling the two panels towards the middle because I wanted my jeans' button to be covered by the vest. But this is easy to fix if I really want to. The important thing is that I felt like a model wearing this!

I'm not sure that this vest is for everyone, so I don't want to enable you to run and buy it. You need to have a pretty casual lifestyle to appreciate it I think, but if you are a "tee and jeans" kind of girl, you should try.

What do you think of this vest? Is it something that you would wear/buy? Please share!

Let's forget about Paris ... (more JCrew)

Are you still there? I hope so, even if I'm sure that you haven't missed me nearly as much as I did. As you have guessed, I'm back from my trip to Europe but I'm not ready to show you the pictures yet or undertake what in my jet lagged mind looks like the impossibly difficult task of a post on the "European latest fashion trends" (nothing less) or the fabulous shopping in Paris that I could have done but didn't do because 1) I was completely sick and 2) I was all the time with my husband and mother in law, ie the opposite of shopping fun. Let's just say that I didn't buy ANYTHING in Paris (besides a tee for my daughter) but I made up a little bit for the Parisian non-shopping in Milan where I was alone with my daughter (my husband stayed in France for work). Not that going shopping with my daughter is the best (she wouldn't stay with my parents so I had to take her with me everywhere) but is definitively better than shopping with my mother in law (at least she doesn't tell me just yet that I have plenty of clothes and I don't need anything).
OK, I'm being a little bit negative. In reality more than the absence of shopping it was the fact of being sick in Paris that really bummed me. I got the classic "flight virus" that started as soon as I arrived with a sore throat, then transformed in a very bad cold (actually I think that it was the WORST cold that I ever had and I couldn't smell anything for more than a week. In Paris! No need to say that we didn't waste our money dining at expensive "restaurants gastronomiques").
So let's forget about Paris for the time of a few posts (but I promise that you'll have your Paris post in the next few days. Besides from the cold and the frustration of being unable to shop we had a good time and actually when I left I was a little bit nostalgic because Paris was simply gorgeous. Plus seeing my daughter go completely crazy for the Eiffel Tower - especially at night when it sparkles and she saw the "stars" was worth the trip).

In the meanwhile I have more Jcrew to post about (and this I can do even jet lagged). We got back yesterday afternoon and I found on my doorstep a familiar envelope. It was the Jcrew package with the order that I had placed a couple of days before leaving and that I have missed for a couple of hours. I was really nervous about this package waiting for me for two weeks, not because I was afraid that someone else could pick it up (it couldn't possibly happen here) but because I had so many problems with my Jcrew orders recently, with items missing or wrongly sent to me, that I was almost sure that even this time I would have a (bad) surprise. And I would have to explain it to a SA two weeks after the delivery of the package. But, incredibly, everything that I had ordered was there, even the Monterey striped skirt that I snagged on a popback after much stalking and I couldn't believe that could actually ship.

I didn't want to try everything on immediately with my suitcase still unopened but I couldn't resist and tried the Monterey skirt with the Imperial tee (someone, ina or mrs.anketell asked to see more outfits with this tee, so here you go):



I really hope that it will be warm enough in September because I absolutely want to wear this outfit this year. But I also have an alternative outfit if I need more warmth, with the perfect stitch shirt and the Gap schoolboy blazer (still, my legs need to be bare with this skirt):



I love the crispness of this look and I'm planning to wear it for my daughter's first day of nursery school next week. What do you think?
The blazer is the Gap schoolboy blazer that I have posted about a while ago. I ended up buying it with the 40% off coupon and I'm very happy that I did. I'm not sure that it comes across in the pictures because the position of the arm that holds the camera makes the side of the jacket to fly away from the body, but this blazer fits me perfectly (I bought a size 2) and for $56 it's a great buy (it's $98 FP). When I bought it I took a few pictures that I never got around to show you, so I'm posting them here. Casual, with jeans and a tank:



And with the Imperial tee and white pants, for a more sophisticated nautical look:



I will post about the other items in my package in the next post. I just wanted to let you know that I'm back. I'm also trying to catch up on reading everybody else's blogs and I'm sorry that I haven't commented back in the last two posts but I was a little bit overwhelmed with the packing. I promise that I will go back in the next days!