Camo

  It's the first of the month! Can you guys believe it's November already? The holiday season has officially begun and with that comes colder days. Luckily, the temperature here is still decent (it can't seem to make up it's mind.) and I can still wear tanks and tees without scarves on some days. 

On Wednesday, Mel and I had date night and we went to a Jamaican restaurant for dinner. The food was bomb and I ate almost everything on my plate plus had a few bites of carrot pie. I know, I'm greedy but it made me so happy. :-)

I styled my look with my camo pants, and white tee, and a neutral cardigan. Camo is a cool trend that will always be around and when the weather does get a bit colder, I can style the pants with a graphic sweatshirt and some moto or combat boots

Have a great weekend!!

Outfit Details: pants Urban Outfitters | tee Forever21 | cardigan Old Navy | boots Dolce Vita | watch Target

Linking up with: Style Elixir | Simple Easy Style 

Fringe Benefits

Style Me Friday is back!! Yay! It's been two weeks since Eboni posted an inspiration for the weekly challenge due to her busy work schedule. Sometimes we have to work hard so we can play harder. :-)This week's inspiration is denim cutoffs and I've done this challenge a couple of weeks ago with Real Girl Glam. I styled my look then by dressing up the shorts with heels so naturally for this challenge I knew I would style my look by dressing it down. I scored these fringe ankle booties from Target while I was in  LA for the sewing conference. The boots are really cute and I love the studded detail around the ankle. These boots also come in black and gray and I think it's on sale right now. The heel is not too low and definitely not that high which makes it very comfortable to wear all day and that's saying a lot because I have flat feet.  :-) Have a great weekend!

Outfit Details: Cardigan - Thrifted Shorts - DIY Tank - Walmart Similar Boots - Target Cap - Gifted Watch - Target Sunnies - Target
Linking up with: Fashionista Next Door | Coffee Beans and Bobby Pins | Aloha Friday | Simple Easy Style | Face it Catalog

DIY: Skater Skirt

You should know by now how obsessed I was with skater skirts. If you didn't you can read about it in this post. Since I didn't have a skater skirt I decided to make one on my own. I read some blog tutorials and watched a couple of youtube videos and took different pieces of info from what I learned and combined it. It was pretty easy to make. The most tedious part for me was sewing the hem of the skirt. It was so long all I kept thinking was "FML" and when I finally finished, of course I didn't like the skirt. I was extremely tired but I actually do like it and now that I have made my own I am no longer obsessed over the skater skirt trend. Yeah, I know it's only been a couple of weeks but that's me, I get over some things quickly. Here's my tutorial.

Supplies needed:

1 1/2 - 2 yards fabric

7 in or longer zipper

matching thread

chalk or marking pencil

measuring tape

scissors

sewing machine

1. Make sure fabric is at least 50 inches wide. The wider the better. My fabric was only 44 inches but I got lucky.
2. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise. Make sure the raw edges are lined up and the fabric is smoothed out.
3. Fold it in half again. You should have a square shape or something close.

4. Take your waist measurement where you want the skirt to be. Skater skirts are usually around the belly button. Divide your measurement by 6.28. This is your waist radius.
5. Using the corner of the fabric where there are no raw edges only folds, measure your waist radius and make a mark. I used a plate to get a even round circle and connected the mark with the ends of the fabric.

6. Take the measuring tape and place it diagonally under the marked waist line and mark the desired length of the skirt .
7. Use a ruler or something round or you can just eyeball it and mark the bottom of the skirt. I used a skirt I already had. (This is when I realized I indeed had a skater skirt from a longer skirt that I  thrifted and cut shorter.)
8. Cut both marked lines. When you open the skirt you should have a full circle with a hole in the middle..
9. Fold the skirt in half where it looks almost moon shaped. Cut straight down the middle only on one side. You can also cut down on the fold on the side of the skirt.

10. Using the excess fabric, cut  a rectangle the length of your waist measurement for your waistband. Make sure one side is on the fold. Cut it as wide as you like. I think I cut mine about 2 inches wide.
11. Sew down the open edge of the waistband wrong sides facing each other. Iron the band flat.
12. Pull the waistband through so that you can see the right side of the fabric.
13. Pin the waistband down to the waist of the skirt right sides facing each other with the seam on the edge of the waist. Make sure the ends of the band are lined up with the open split of the skirt and the.
14. Sew around the waist about 5/8 in from the seam of the band.

15. place and pin the zipper down to the open edge of the skirt. Make sure the top of the zipper is even with the top of the skirt.
16. Sew a seam along the edges from the bottom of the skirt and stop where the zipper ends.
17. Using a zipper foot, sew each side of the zipper to the skirt.
18. Fold the bottom of the skirt about 1/2 inch twice to create the hem. Iron flat.
19. Sew a straight stitch around.
20. I ironed creases on my skirt to give it a pleated look. You can also sew pleats onto to the skirt.

Outfit Details:

Tee (old) - Forever 21

Cardigan (old) - H&M Men's

Skirt - DIY

Boots - Dillards

Necklace and bracelets - DIY

Linking up with: Monday Bloom | My Greatest Hits | Monday Mingle | Visible Monday | My Thrifty Chic

Goodwill Thrifting

This past Saturday, Goodwill Stores had a 50% off sale on all apparel and shoes. I haven't been thrifting in a while so I spent my day digging for treasures. I mean, literally the entire day and night. I started at 9 right after my dentist appointment, which by the way, I will have one final appointment for in July. I went to about 4 different Goodwills. I was the last customer in one of them. I also stopped at Buffalo Exchange as they were having a dollar sale on select items to benefit the Humane Society. There were some cool digs but you couldn't try on anything and I didn't like that so I didn't purchase anything from there. I also took a break halfway through the day and chilled with Mel at the Berkeley Flea Market. We ate shrimp and chicken roti from the Caribbean food vendor. It was my first time having one and it's so good. It's thick and very filling. Okay, back to the haul. I scored 16 items for a total of $59. Is that a steal or what? :-) Here are my finds.

Light pink blazer. $6.99

Old school denim blazer. This jacket is big on me but I couldn't pass it up. 

I will be altering it myself and I can't wait until it's done. $4.49

Casual Corner teal blazer. $3.99

The back of the blazer has a small hole but I really like the color so

 I am going to cover it up with lace from a curtain that I found for 99 cents. 

Finished jacket coming soon. 

Forest/tree bark patterned utility jacket. It has small holes here and there but the ruggedness 

of it is appealing. $5.49

Ann Taylor Loft red orange dress slacks. I love the gold button embellishments.

$4.99

J Crew floral ankle pants. My first item by this brand. $4.49

Gap cobalt blue broken in khakis $4.49

These are capris that I will cut shorter to about a 5 to 7 inch inseam. $3.99

Bongo high-waisted jeans. Remember Bongo!?! (or am I really showing my age?)

$5.49

I found this vest for Mel. It would look good with a pair of dark blue denim 

and some white chucks or cognac dress shoes. $2.49

Forever 21 navy and cream sleeveless cardigan. 

I usually need a large in their tops but this fits really good. $2.99

Red green and white striped sleeveless button down. 

I can wear this with some cut offs and boots. $2.49

Really colorful floral button down. I like the colors a lot. $3.49

Plain white crew neck tee. It looks pretty good for a white shirt from a thrift shop. 

The white shirts I notice usually have stains or are off white. When I showed it to Mel she

 thought I got it from somewhere else. $1.49

The last item that I bought was a red medium sized heart shaped bowl. 

I put all of my bracelets in it. .99 cents

Do you like to thrift shop? Are there any pieces here that you like?

                                          

Gone Corporate

It's Hump Day! So far so good. Today I decided to dress it up a bit and go corporate style. As I've stated previously, I do not dress up unless it's mandatory. Sometimes I get in a girly girl mood and dress up just because. Today is one of those days. Here's something I would wear if I had a stricter dress code.

You would think corporate women were mean and didn't smile based on my poses. :-)
Do you have to dress professional where you work?

                                              

Outfit Details:
Skirt - DIY Similar
Button Up (thrifted) - Talbots Similar
Pumps - Nine West Similar
Cardigan - Old Navy Similar
Necklace/Rings - DIY
Watch - Burlington Coat Factory

Today I'm linking up with:

 Style Elixir, Real Girl Glam, All That Glitters, The Pleated Poppy, Because Shanna Said So, Rolled up Pretty, Fashion and Beauty Finds, Rejoicing In The Rain.

Mid-Week OOTD - Preppy

This past week has been very busy for me and I'm not sure why when I really don't have much of a life. WEIRD. I can't even recall what I've been up to but apparently I didn't have time for my blog. I told myself that I will definitely post my weekly Wednesday outfits no matter what because once a week is better than none. I do have some DIY projects coming so look out for that.

I decided to go a little preppy today. Here's what I wore.

Casual Friday

 

It's Friday!! This was the fastest short work week for me this year. I'm glad it's over. Time to chill and have fun.