Mother's Day Outfit (Sort Of) and the Tory Burch Kitties

I wore two great outfits this past weekend but I also managed to break my camera, so I couldn't take pics to share. What happened is that the memory card got trapped in the memory card slot (because my daughter chewed on the camera cable when she was nine months old and a new cable costs more or less like a new camera, I use a memory card reader to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer, which means that each time that I have new pics I have to take out the memory card) and not only I broke the memory card in two but also the slot (a piece came away with the card) while trying to extract it. It was quite the bad timing to break the camera because my daughter is going to turn three this Friday. On a positive note, it was time to upgrade it and the price of the camera that I have been watching for months (as I knew that we would need a new one at some point and I started to do my research around Xmas) has finally dropped, so it is on my way and I should have it by the end of the week (hopefully; if you don't hear from me it probably means that the camera didn't arrive in time for my daughter's birthday party and my husband killed me).

Back to the outfits, on Saturday I wore a variation of the outfit that I have blogged about in this post, only with white jeans and the silver Tory Burch thongs. I get compliments every time that I wear the ribbed vest and this time I got one from a lady who lives in the building and is normally very uptight (one of those persons who don't smile or speak or even acknowledge you in the elevator).

On Sunday we went out for brunch for Mother's Day. It was very cold for the season (it still is) but I refused to wear a coat, so I wore my Dauphine jacket instead. I bought the Dauphine quite a while ago, at the first markdown, and then re-bought it for much less during the last 20% off sale promo. I know that this jacket got mixed reviews and some of you don't like the fit, but personally I love it and I felt very chic in my outfit.
The details are amazing and I was impressed when Jenna Lyons said (in one of the interviews that Alexis put up on the JCA blog) that the tweed of these jackets (this one and the blush jacket from the Fall collection) comes from the same fabricant that provides Chanel. So it is the most Chanelesque Chanel knockoff that you can possibly get. My husband was impressed too when I told him (it was the first time that I wore it) and all of a sudden he got over the tweed jacket that I sold last spring on the JCA (he kind of obsessed over it and kept telling me that I Had made a mistake even if I had worn it once or twice maximum and it was brown, which is a color that he normally doesn't like to see me in).
I think that it looks great with the denim pencil skirt and that's how I wore it for our Mother's Day brunch. As I said I don't have a picture of the outfit but I wore something similar a couple of weeks ago when I was trying on the Tory Burch Kitties that I finally bought during the Saks Family and Friends Promo (only, I was wearing a navy top in these pics while I wore the cashmere tee in natural on Mother's Day and it looked much better with the jacket):



Detail of the beautiful fleur-de-lys golden buttons:



Here is a pic that my husband took in the restaurant (where at least you can see the top):



And these are the Kitties in the nude color IRL:





I have to say, they are beautiful but a little bit redundant in my wardrobe, maybe because they are almost flat and they don't change my life in terms of shoe choice, I feel like I could wear another pair of flats that I have instead. I haven't worn them yet (a sign) and in the end I think that I am going to return them and buy a pair of Sallies open-toe in navy when they go on sale (I tried them with white jeans and the check shirt and they looked fabulous and I don't have a single pair of navy shoes).

Have a nice week!

Happy Mother's Day!

When we celebrated Mother's Day at school, the kids had prepared a gift for us: a handprint in clay that they had painted and decorated, accompanied by a poem. The poem must be a teacher favorite so you probably know it already if you have apreschooler (or had one), but I was moved to tears and I want to share it with those of you who have little ones.

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.

But every day I'm growing
I will be grown up someday
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

I will treasure it forever...

Happy Mother's Day!

OOTD (featuring the Safari pant)

I didn't have time to write the post that I had planned yesterday but I want to share very quickly my OOTD featuring the safari pant that I tried last Thursday when I was in store and fell in love with.
I am wearing the pearl color, that incidentally is the same color of the applique flower tee:



The ristop cargo pant didn't look good on me but these have a slimmer fit and I like that they have patch pockets instead of the bulky pockets of the cargo pant. In my opinion they run TTS to small (I bought a 0 and they just fit), but they tend to stretch out a little bit. Granted, at $69.50 they are a little bit expensive for an utilitarian pant and you can find a similar style for less at Old Navy or the Gap but trying them is loving them. However, I wouldn't wear them with heels as Jenna's team suggests, they read as really casual to me.

Because the tee has a small splash of neon orange, I tucked it in and wore a neon orange belt (bought for $6.99 this winter), that helps to break the outfit:



My pedicure matched the orange details:



By the way, I am wearing a pair of Old Navy faux-leather flip flops. They come in an array of colors (including a neon pink that I also have and it is perfect to pair with the neon pink that JCrew is offering this season) and they are only $9.50 (the white and black appear to be sold-out online but you can look for them in store). I highly reccomend them over the Jcrew leather version (I also find them more comfortable because they have rubber on the sole). In any case the life of the leather flip-flops is very short so I would rather have plenty of colors to chose from than one expensive pair.

Have a happy Mother's Day weekend. It looks like is going to be rainy here...

Product Review: the Flower mosaic embroidered tunic (aka the Cozumel tunic)

Before revealing my mystery purchase, I wanted to post a quick review of the Cozumel tunic in case you are considering ordering it. I don't remember why everybody refers to this tunic as to the Cozumel tunic, since the name on the website is Flower embroided mosaic tunic. It must be what the store ticket reads (mine disappeared so I cannot check).

Anyway, I bought this top at the Collection store event organized by Summerilla two weeks ago as it was the only new arrival that was already on the selling floor that night and it was on my wishlist. I bought the shadow color in XS without trying it on, as I didn't have the time to try on but didn't want to miss the opportunity to buy it with the 20% off that they were offering for purchases made during the event.
As far as I can remember it is the first time that an item sized XS-L comes in petite sizes and that should have been a warning sign. The (regular) XS was HUGE on me (I didn't even take pics because it was so low cut that it was indecent) so I reorder in a Petite S (they honored the price).
After trying it at home I also changed my mind on the color because the pretty embroidery was a little bit lost in the shadow color (it was overall very dark).
This is the petite S in pale lilac:



Because it is shorter than the regular size but still big (especially around the armpits), it gets boxy:




It is very sheer and still low cut (although not as low as the XS that almost uncovered my umbilicus), so I would say that unless you are going to wear it all the time with a cami and/or a cardigan, it is not meant to be worn in the city. It is a bummer because I loved the color (the embroidery is in the same color than my crystal buttons, aka bling, cardigan):



But I really don't need something that I can only wear on an island (I hate wearing camis), so back it went. Sizing further down wouldn't have worked anyway because of the boxiness. I would say that this top will work better on tall gals with a long torso who can get away with their regular size. If you are a shorty, definitively order a petite in this top.
Summerilla, who also bought this top that night and as you know is much taller than me, looks great in it in this post.

Have you ordered or considered this top?

Back from Seattle and a OOTD

Hello everyone, we are back from Seattle but because our flight to NY had a seven hours delay due to mechanical problems (you know, you get into the plane and make yourself comfortable, then they tell you to get out of the plane and wait, which when you travel a toddler is particularly challenging because toddlers can't "wait") I have been a little bit more tired and jet-lagged than I should have the last two days.

Anyway, we had a great time in Seattle. The weather was as one can expect and actually colder than I thought (I traveled with my Script coat and I was happy that I had decided to take it at the last minute) but at least it didn't rain.
It was my first time in Seattle and my knowledge of the city could be reduced to two movies, "Sleepless in Seattle" (of course) and "Little Buddha" (the first part). So we did all the touristy things and we went up the space needle (my husband really wanted to do that because he had been to Seattle a couple of times before for work and he never had the time). This is one of the few pictures that I have from the trip (we had our camera with us all the time but for some reasons we didn't take a lot of pictures):



My wedding outfits worked very well (in the end I wore the Banana Republic dress at the reception and the beaded ribbon top with jeans at the rehearsal dinner). It was actually a much colorful wedding than the last one that I had attended in NY and I would say that less than half of the guests were wearing black.
My outfit to the church with the Ames dress and the Celosia cardigan (topped by the black script coat) was just perfect and I even got a compliment from someone (a man, I should add) in the bride's side whom I had never met before and who almost cried out, after eyeing me from top to toe, "That's a nice outfit!". It really was.
But I have to say that because it was the wedding of a close friend, the outfits in this case were less important than being witness of our friend's happiness that day and listening to the heartfelt speeches of the two family members (the mother of the groom came from Cameroon and the bride is from a Greek family settled in Seattle so they had jokingly called it their "big fat global wedding").

Back to NY, we slowly went back to our daily routine. Yesterday we celebrated "Mother's day" at school and I wore a casual but cute outfit with the hand-cut flower art tee:




I liked that the color of the cardigan is almost the same color of the applique flowers on the tee. The cardigan is the Featherwight rolled-up sleeves cashmere cardigan in the copper dust color (which is less reddish and more salmony IRL, almost a neutral) and I got it for a real bargain in store a couple of weeks ago (it was $54 but I had 10% off on top of it). It is currently $69 on the website and there are few colors/sizes left but I am sure that they will restock it at some point. Because it is short-sleeved it is perfect to throw on to go out in the morning when the air is still fresh.

While I was at school a friend who regularly reads this blog (and I actually met through this blog) called me from the Jcrew sample sale and asked me if I was still interested in the downtown field jacked (that I was hoping to find at the last sample sale) because they were selling it for $45. At that price I was still interested, of course, and she was so kind to pick up one in black for me. I have to say, I could have used a downtown field jacket in Seattle, my Zara windbreaker (that you can see in the first pic) wasn't heavy enough. So hint to the New Yorkers, there could still be a downtown field jacket waiting for you at the sample sale if you are looking for one. These are from the stock and aren't defective (they only have a black mark on the inner tag to prevent in-store returns).

Coming up a review of the Cozumel tunic and a very unexpected purchase...

Wedding in Seattle: Outfits

The wedding in Seattle that I have blogged about a while ago is coming up this weekend and I will fly out to Seattle on Friday. I have worked on my outfits in the meanwhile and want to share with you what I have decided to bring.

I have listened to your comments and looked for a cardigan to wear with the watercolor dress (in any case even in NYC it would have been too cold to wear it alone). I don't have a black cashmere crewneck (a no-brainer) and the only option currently available is the featherweight cashmere cardigan that is still full price. After trying different alternatives (including the Jackie in pink frost that is a perfect color match for the dress), I have settled for the Celosia cardigan in black, which goes very well with the style of the dress and also has the advantage of being very thick so that it should keep me warm. I am going to wear this to church, probably:





I think that the black Celosia is a nice option for those of you looking for an evening or dressy cardigan: the ruffles are elegant but not overwhelming. Before buying this one, I sold my other Celosia in cinnamon spice on the JCA Weekly Exchange because I didn't want to have many cardigans in the same style, especially ruffled. I think that I am going to wear the black much more often than the cinnamon spice.

For the evening reception, I have two options and I think that I am going to bring both and decide at the last minute.
The first option is to wear my BR cocktail dress with my BR velvet blazer from last winter and a BR necklace. I hadn't thought about it when I was putting it together, but it's a 100% Banana outfit, which, for me, is kind of unusual as I don't own a lot of Banana:





In pictures the dress is a little bit loose on the top but that's because for the life of me I couldn't zip it up and I didn't want to force and break the zipper just to take pictures of myself (that would have been silly, right?) The necklace is very sparkly IRL and I bought it along with the dress on supersale for something like $18, after seeing it on the adorable Slastena who highly recommended it.

The second option is more elegant in a classic way. It features an old dress by Caterine Malandrino that I had bought years ago at a sample sale and I was simply afraid to try on because I was sure that it wouldn't fit any longer. Well, it looks like I did loose all that baby fat after all, as it fits me again like a glove!
It's made in a double layer of silk chiffon and has a beautiful draping:




I think that it is maybe a little too serious for a friends' wedding but the advantage over the first outfit is that I am very comfortable in this dress and I can dance the night away without worrying about my ladies coming out (which is always a problem with a strapless). What do you think?
The only outfit that I haven't figured out yet is the one for the rehearsal dinner. The invitation says "Dressy Casual" and I interpret it as evening casual without jeans. So I was thinking of a pair of pants or a mini and a nice top, like the ribbon beaded one. Any advice?

If you have something to say speak now or keep silent forever ;-).

Saturday Outfits (Checks for the Day and Black for the Night)

I hope that everyone is having a good start of their week. For you today I have a post on the outfits that I wore this past Saturday, as I broke out one of my favorite purchases (non-JCrew) of the season, that I hadn't the occasion to blog about yet.

But let's start with the first part of the day, when I went shopping for a car seat for my daughter (and I also stopped by a Jcrew store nearby to check the sale section because as they say you never know). It was very sunny Saturday (even if not as warm as one could think) and I felt like wearing something summery, and what's more summery than white jeans? I paired them with my navy check shirt and added the navy cashmere tee that I have bought at the last sample sale. I have to say that many people stopped me while I was at Jcrew to ask me about my shirt. A lady in particular looked like she was going to open her wallet and offer me to buy it off my shoulders, had she been my size. I think that I made her day when I told her that it was offered online. Does it count as good action?





In the evening I met up with some other JCAs for a fantastic private event organized by Summerilla at the Collection store. I wished I could have spent the entire evening shopping with these fabulous ladies but I had to run off after half an hour because one of my best girlfriends was throwing a dinner to celebrate her 40th birthday and I couldn't have missed that.
For the (double) occasion I wore a dress that I bought during the Bloomingdale's F&F event (along with my Marc Jacobs purse). I first saw a version of this dress on the lovely Dinagideon of My superfluities who wore it around the holidays. It's by INC, which I thought was a brand only sold at Macy's and hers was black with a white embroidery (if I am not wrong) on the front. When I saw it on Dina this it wasn't available for purchase any longer, but they made another version for the spring in a different color combination that was featured in one of those Macy's special 4-pages ads that are distributed with the Sunday newspapers. When I saw the ad, I immediately checked the website and I would have bought it if the color (of the embroidery) wasn't called "parrot green" (it looked more like a gold in the ad). I made a mental note to go to Macy's and see in person as the website showed that it was available in the NY store, but never got around to.
Soooo, to make a long story short I stumbled upon this dress when I was at Bloomingdale's for the F&F event and I ended up buying with the 20% off.
I like the versatility of this dress because being short-sleeved and made in a cotton-modal blend it can be worn in the winter, with tights/boots and a cardigan or in the summer, with bare legs and flats or sandals (not in the summer hottest days though, because the fabric isn't the most breatheable). I think that for the price ($78) is one of the most flattering dresses out there.
On Saturday night I wore it with tights and my Juliet mid-heels as it was too cold to wear it without tights:




The parrot green color of the embroidery is very similar to the Jcrew spice olive color. In fact I had planned to wear it with my soiree jacket from last year (but I ended up wearing a coat instead):



My husband liked this dress A LOT but when I topped it with my (new) black script coat he asked me a little bit puzzled if I hadn't a coat like that in another color already (note: it is very unusual for him to notice something like that, but I guess that the script coat doesn't go unnoticed, even by easily distracted husbands). Well, yes, but the black popped back during the last 30% off sale and I couldn't resist buying it for around $120 as it is one of my favorite coats ever and I needed a black coat (unfortunately I didn't have the time to take a pic of the entire outfit). What can I say, I guess that next year I won't need to buy a coat.

I didn't buy much at the event because I was in a hurry and also a little bit shopped out, but I did buy the Cozumel tunic that they had received just that morning and I will review it soon (fits BIG). For more about the event at the Collection store, read this post by Summerilla.