Past Week Outfits

Wow, what a week! We "woke up" from the holiday sleep on Tuesday morning with our last school interview and then we had a-school-a-day event for the rest of the week that felt a little like the last burst at the end of a firework. We are now DONE and in exactly a month from today we will know if our daughter is going to be accepted in one of the schools that we toured (possibly our favorite). Fingers crossed!

The weather has been absolutely crazy here, we had a change of season at least three times. At the beginning of the week we have been hit by a cold front that made the temperatures drop into the low 20s, then it warmed up again until Saturday that felt almost like spring with temperatures in the 60s, and yesterday it was cold again. Now, not that I want the temperatures to stay in the 20s but could we have some sort of stability, please? It gets really complicated to get dressed in the morning.

Anyway, on the coldest day of the week (of the season, actually) I had to attend a panel at one of the schools and I needed to dress up a bit. I had a hard time not only because I was afraid that I would freeze on my way but also because the skirt that I had decided would be perfect for the event gave me some challanges.
The skirt is the No. 2 pencil skirt in glen plaid that is currently sold-out on the website but should popback. Even if I bought this skirt in store and I had tried it on, I am afraid I should have bought a 2 instead of a 0. It just fit with a silk skirt tucked in (the shirt is Madewell from last year):

but the problem is when you want to tuck in something heavier that a silk shirt, like that night. In case you haven't thought about it, the bow (which is the cute detail of this skirt) makes it almost impossible to wear anything untucked with this skirt (even a cardigan left open doesn't look good). Tuck in or die!
So when I tried to tuck in my cashmere turtleneck in caramel from a few season ago, it looked very bulky (or like I was about to explode). In the end I added my Ralph Lauren blazer (that is exactly the same shade of caramel than the sweater) that covered up a little bit what was going on in the middle area, so I felt comfortable neverthless but keep this in mind if you are interested in the skirt. This is without the jacket (about to explode, as I said):

On another day, I wore the outfit below to another school event. It was much warmer but I had a cardigan on that I didn't take pics of. In any case I love this part of the outfit and the silk polka-dots tee is probably one of my favorite purchases this year (I had missed on it but found it on the JCA weekly exchange for cheap). I am wearing a size 0 in the tee and a size 2 in the flair skirt:

By the way, I have the perfect necklace to wear with the tee, once come spring:

Let's move forward to spring! As I said Saturday was a very warm day and a lot of people were out and about without a jacket. I wore my Lolli pants from last year (I wore them a LOT this year) with the boardwalk-striped zipper tee. The colors go really well together and I received a lot of compliments both on the pants and the necklace, which is "vintage" JCrew, aka from 2008 (see second picture):

So as you can imagine I had very little time to shop last week, but I did take advantage of the Lilly Pulitzer two-day sale and ordered something for my daughter and one item for me (that should be here today). I also (quite surprisingly) caved on a couple of items from the Boden spring collection. Stay tuned!

OOTD (Or the Spring-ization of the Lolli Pant!)

Hello, I hope that you had a great weekend and you survived Monday (I know that it is not the same thing when you don't work, I still remember the stomachache waking up on Monday mornings and realizing that I had to go to the office, but it is a change of routine for us SAHMs too, not having daddy around and all).
I actually feel like I have survived spring break (do they give out medals for that?) My daughter goes back to school today after two weeks of iatus, yahoo (you know that I love her but we were going a little bit crazy here, especially since the weather didn't cooperate at all)!!!

And, dare I say that it is getting warmer and spring-ier? It is not spring in full bloom yet but I feel like the worst is behind us.
Yesterday I woke up with an irrisistible envy of wearing my Lolli pant, that I have worn only once (and only around the house) since I bought them before the holidays (you can blame it on the snow). I must admit that I almost put them up for sale on the Weekly Exchange because for some reason I categorized them as "holiday wear that won't be worn until the next holiday season if I still like it", until I browsed the previews of the next JCrew Fall Collection and I saw that they made pair that looks exactly the same (in fact, it looks like they recycled them). This made me change my mind about selling them because I know that when I see them styled in one of the Fall catalogs I will probably be taken by the urge to buy a pair, when I already had a pair just waiting to be worn in my closet. And that would be silly, wouldn't it?

I sold them I would have missed on the spring outfit that I wore yesterday morning, which turned out to be one of my favorite outfits ever. Absolutely speaking, the best color to wear with the Lolli is charcoal grey IMO but I was looking for something lighter when I scanned my clothes in search of something to wear with them. Then I realized that I could wear them with a neutral top and my watercolor pastiche scarf from last year, which is to my closet what cherry blossom is to nature: an ode to spring. I hope you agree!

Here you go (the tee is the cashmere tee in natural from a few seasons ago):

The belt is an important part of this outfit, it just ties everything together. This is the patent skinny belt in orchid shadow from spring 2010, that I bought on a popback last month. I don't have many colored belts, I tend to gravitate towards neutrals, but it is the perfect color for the Lolli:

Then I added my Gap blazer:

Here is another spring-y outfit with the Lolli and the suckered gingham shirt from last summer. I love this shirt and I am kicking myself for not buying more colors on sale (this was called light berry, I think?) I almost ruined it when I put it accidentally in the dryer but three ironing sessions later it is almost like before (in case you have it, DON'T PUT IT IN THE DRYER), just a little bit more ...suckered:

I have the perfect sweater to wear with this shirt, that was sent to me by a friend of mine with whom I swap clothes (we are the same size and we love the same brands). It is a Calypso sweater in a color almost identical to JCrew orchid shadow. I love that it is a short V-neck cardigan, perfect to wear with the Lolli:

And more formal, with the Gap blazer:

I hope that I gave you some ideas on how to wear the Lolli pants this spring.
Do you have the Lolli and if yes, are you still wearing them? Please share!

In my next post I will share pics of the Tory Burch shoes that I bought during the Bloomies F&F promo last week. Stay tuned!

Inspired by The Catalog: Lolli Pants and Cobblestone Sweater

I really thought that I would let the last 25% off promo go, because I already took advantage of the one before, and the one before and the one before that one. In fact it looks like this season there has always been a promo around and I think that in the end I didn't buy anything FP (actually I did buy one or two things and I was able to return and rebuy them for a lower price).
But of course they got me again. What could I possibly need more than what I already have? The lolli pants, apparently! I have to say that they didn't strike my fancy when they came out an made a buzz on the JCA. But I really, really like the following look from the holiday catalog and when I realized that I could easily reproduce it, withstanding the lolli pants (now sold-out online), I had to have them:



At first I thought that the model in the picture was wearing the cashmere turtleneck in heather cobblestone, that I have and is the only cashmere turtleneck that I bought this year, but she is probably wearing the heather orchid as the cobblestone is a "fall" color that went on sale and isn't offered anymore (so glad that I bought it with my Mickey card). In any case the effect is very similar. My pumps are the grey Juliet patent and suede heels from last year:



I don't have the Bonbon coat (I don't need another coat but I really like this one), but I have the Script from last year in a similar neutral shade:



I have to be honest: I wasn't completely sold on the pants because the bright dahlia is a shade that is not in my usual color palette and very unusual for pants but they are really growing on me. As you can see the retail version doesn't have a zipper at the ankle and has a cuffed hem. I am not sure if the website version and store version differ or the pic in catalog shows an older version that didn't make it to production (please chime in if you have them and you bought them from the website). Even if I knew about it, I was a little bit shocked when I first saw in person that they are unlined and very thin. You would think that a pair of pants that comes out in the Holiday catalog when half of the country is under the snow could be a little bit more weather-appropriate and lined. However, they are flattering like that and NOT ITCHY AT ALL (no worries, I have sensitive skin on my legs). I bought my usual size 0 and I find them TTS to a little bit big.

I tried a few different outfits/color combinations with them. The first is very similar to the cobblestone turtleneck, the Olive top in dark charcoal. This top is one of my favorite JCrew pieces, as you probably know if you are a regular follower:



I have only another item in my closet in a similar color as the bright dahlia. It's the cashmere v-neck cardigan from last spring (this is the one that I paid something like $35. I am still kicking myself for letting the navy and the black go, also because the yarn is thicker than many sweater in the current offerings). The color was called bright plum and it is a little bit more intense than the color of the pants. I think they work together exactly because they are very similar but not the exact same color. What do you think? Too much of the same? Little Red Hat effect?



Of course it works with a black top. I reorganized a little bit my closed yesterday and found the silk posy top from last year, that I had completely forgot to have (you know, it was under a cardigan). I really, really love it with the pants (of course I would wear black shoes):





The cardigan is the Dulphine open one. I am a little bit on the fence about this one. I like that it's very slim and short for us petites but it's more casual than I thought and the fact that it is sheer means that it doesn't look good over tee shirts. Thoughts?

Another dress-up look, with the silk ruffle cascade jacket in wild blackberry (navy) from last year (this is up for sale, BTW) and the crystal symphony necklace:



This last look is a little bit hazardous. I am sure that it would make a great holiday catalog look, but in real life? Too harlequin-esque? The color of the satin soiree jacket has more green in it IRL than it appears in the pic though and the contrast between the two bright colors is nicer than here:



I like that they are an unusual but still wearable choice for the day and they easily dress up for the evening. I can't wait to wear them this holiday season.

What do you think of the Lolli pants? Which one of the outfits above do like better?