Packing for LA (and feeling like Jennifer Aniston)

I have been procrastinating the packing until this morning, when I decided to try some outfits on and take pics for the blog to motivate myself. I'm travelling alone with my daughter (my husband is already in LA and will pick us up at the airport) so I am trying to not overpack. I have imposed myself the rule that for each item that I bring I must be able to create two outfits, except for the dresses for the party.

The first item that I'm going to bring is the striped sequin henley, that I'm going to pair with a purchase from the new arrivals that many of you got right (special mention to casual-crew who picked this one out of all of them in my new arrivals post): I couldn't leave the cropped matchstick jeans in the store (see shopping rule number 5) and as a matter of fact a pair of cropped jeans where on my wishlist this year as I didn't have any. These aren't THAT cropped on me but I really like the supersoft and the summery "dream" wash.
Mrs. anketell, if you are reading, this outfit is for you:




I love the henley paired with the ruffled knit vest, but if it turns out that I don't have enough room in the suitcase this one is going to stay home (as it's kind of voluminous and I don't "need it").
The second outfit with the henley is very casual and I'm planning to wear it to hang out in Santa Monica, Abbott Kinley Bd. or have breakfast on Melrose (although it may be a little bit too far from the villa):



The second item is the tulle fountain top. I really love this top. I'm going to pair it with my white jeans to go out in the evening:



Ok, maybe I am not going to wear the ON neon pink flip-flops to go out but I wanted to show them to you as they are identical to the Jcrew ones (they are more "neon" than in this pic and they only they cost $9.50):



I know that this will sound weird but because I own the hatch print bikini I also plan on wearing it over the bikini to hang out around the pool.
Speaking of pool, we are going to have a pool barbecue on Sunday and I am going to wear one of these:



Yes, that's the Target Teagan tunic. Thanks to Sweet Tea in Seattle who posted the link to purchase it on the Target website in this post, so I could get one (as I never go to Target and I thought that it was in-store only). For $26 it is a stunning print and perfect to wear around the pool (less the jeans).
The other option is my loyal DVF wrap dress from a few years ago, that I am going to take anyway to hang around the house:



That's more or less it. I will throw in a few basic tees and maybe another top if I have enough room (wishful thinking). The question is how much time we are going to spend at the house and how much out in LA. Because our daughter is coming with us and the house is kind of remote, I bet that we are not going to take the car much but our best friends are staying in Santa Monica and they are coming with their son, so I think that at least we are up for a stroll in Santa Monica.

I almost forgot: you must wonder what all this has to do with Jennifer Aniston. Well, besides the fact that she is the image of California to me, a tanned and blonde version of the French Marianne, I had an appointment with my hairdresser this morning and my hair really, really remind me of Jennifer's (pardon my modesty, it must be the excitement of the trip):



Have a great Memorial Day weekend, I will take plenty of pics of the house and the party to share with you (BTW someone asked if we have hired a parsonal photographer for the party. We didn't, but I hope that this little gadget that I bought along with my new camera will take the pictures for us while we sip cocktails).

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!