Pantone Color of the Year: Ultra Violet

Well Happy Wednesday, friends!  It seems like so long since I've done a style post.  There's just something about stuffing my face full of holidays foods that makes me not feel like putting on actual clothes to pose for pictures.  You know what I mean?

But today I'm posting over at The Blended Blog about Pantone's color of 2018, Ultra Violet!  I happen to own exactly one piece of clothing in this pretty bluish-purple but I've found a few items to add to my wish list, and you can find them over at TBB.

But while you're here, voilà, my one piece featuring Ultra Violet!  A blazer!

I like blazers but find that I don't wear them that frequently because they feel too dressy.  Instead of giving up on this piece, though, I challenged myself to create a more casual look around the blazer.  I purposely wore my distressed denim and Adidas sneakers to dress the look down as much as possible.

I don't entirely feel like me in this outfit but I'm happy that I made an effort to remix this blazer.  I mean, I definitely need to wear it more this year because it is Ultra Violet!

What do you think of Pantone's color of the year?  Is it a hue you wear a lot of?  Something you want to incorporate more into your wardrobe?  A color that you are going to choose to ignore this year?  Let me know in the comments!  And link-up your Ultra Violet looks with TBB below!

Common Threads Challenge: Week 2

Well hello!  I hope you're all having awesome and stylish weeks!  For those of us participating in the Common Threads Challenge, we're over halfway done.  Can you believe it?!  I'm still loving this series and how it's stretching my creativity and my closet.

Previous Common Threads Challenge Posts:
Introduction
The Pieces 
Week One

But y'all, one thing I've learned about myself is, no matter the intention to get dressed, I will wear leggings and a sweatshirt on the days when I don't have to leave the house.  And I had two of those days this week.  So here you are, the five outfits I wore for the CTC this week!

October 10th featuring my Tunic: I'm pretty darn pleased with this outfit!  I wore it during a sixish hour drive to Madison, Wisconsin.  Even though I was wearing leggings and a fuzzy tunic, the scarf and d'Orsay flats made me feel very put-together.

October 11th featuring my Skinny Jeans: Like I mentioned in a previous post, I knew I would be attending lots of sporting events this month so I included my skinny jeans as one of my five items.  Nothing beats jeans and a sweatshirt, right?!  Go Edgewood Eagles!

October 12th featuring my Ankle Boots:  I purchased this swingy, boxy cardigan in Belgium and have been waiting for the weather to be cool enough to wear it!  They are all the rage in Europe this season, by the way.  I thought it would look classic and chic with stripes and these ankle boots!  I felt great for a day touring Milwaukee and the Lakefront Brewery.

October 13th featuring My Ankle Boots: Ever since my boyfriend told be about a local apple orchard and shop, I've been so excited about spending a fall day there.  And this was the day!  We found our way through a corn maze, tasted wine, went for a hayride and enjoyed donuts and cider.  Shades of olive and the ever-popular blanket scarf felt so very fall for this autumn excursion.

October 14th featuring my Tunic: Okay, so I did manage to get dressed on one of my lazy days this week.  Although I was quite productive despite not leaving my house.  Anyways, at least I'm wearing one of my pieces even though it's not that exciting, right?

So I realize that I didn't wear my mustard cardigan or olive skirt this week!  That's probably because I think of them more as "work" pieces and I had the week off.  Don't worry, they are getting lots of wear and you will see them again soon!

And don't forget to link-up your Common Threads Challenge looks below!

Common Threads Challenge: Week 1

We are already one week into the Common Threads Challenge!  You know, the style challenge where you choose five pieces to incorporate into each and every outfit you wear during the month of October?

I'm having so much fun with this series!  It's getting my creative juices flowing without being too much to handle for this tired teacher brain.  Granted, it is only the beginning, there is a chance that I will begin to struggle towards the end of the month.

But I'm trying to plan in advance so that won't happen.  I have a list of outfits I've already created in my head that I can pull from as the month progresses.  As I'm making this list, I'm making sure that each of my five pieces are represented equally.  I've also started a Pinterest board where I'm pinning looks that are easily replicated with my five items and other pieces from my closet.

The only thing I'm struggling with are my days off when I wouldn't necessarily get dressed.  Admittedly, on day one (October 1st), I ran a 5k and then spend the rest of the day moving in a sweaty t-shirt and shorts.  And today?  Today (as in the day I'm writing this) has been the first day I've spent resting at home since July (I'm not exaggerating) so I'm shamelessly still wearing my pajamas.  I do have outfits planned for these days so I plan to feature my unworn outfits at the end of the month and vow to wear them in November so that I can say that I fully participated in this challenge!

How are you doing?  Are you finding this to be easy or a bit tricky?  Are you having fun being creative with your wardrobe or wish you wouldn't have committed to this challenge?  Please share your ups and downs with us on our Facebook support page.  We're also having fun sharing some of our daily outfits over there!

Now that I've gotten the words out of the way, here are my looks from the first week of the challenge:

October 2nd featuring my Olive Skirt: It's still pretty warm in my neck of the woods but I love that I was able to channel some fall with some autumn hues in this outfit.  And it was fun to put this skirt back into rotation since it's been so long since I've worn it.  Why did it get shoved into the back of my closet again??

October 3rd featuring my Ankle Boots: The jury is out on this look.  While I liked the idea of a pretty dress with these ankle boots, I don't think the combination is quite right.  But a really stylish girl I met in the bathroom of a restaurant told me she loved my outfit.  So maybe it works?  In any case, experimenting is a part of this challenge so I'm glad I tried the outfit!

October 4th featuring my Tunic: I'm finding this challenge is helping me to use lots of pieces I haven't worn lately beyond my chosen five.  This vest and pair of ankle boots used to be fall staples so I'm excited to be using them again this fall.

October 5th featuring my Mustard Cardigan: This is my favorite outfit of the challenge so far and it was so simple to put together!  Comfy dress + favorite cardigan + scarf = how can you go wrong?

 October 6th featuring my Skinny Jeans: I'm a teacher so most Fridays you'll find me wearing jeans and a school shirt.  Although this particular Friday, I attended a football game at my high school!  Yep, this sweatshirt is over a decade old!

October 7th featuring my Mustard Cardigan: My whole family convened in my hometown this weekend for a number of events including family photos.  It's a good thing the decided-upon color combination for the shoot was mustard, burgundy and grey!  Mustard cardigan for the win!

October 8th featuring my Mustard Cardigan: And to round out the weekend of festivities, my nephew was baptized on Sunday morning.  This cardigan is the only one of my pieces that works for really dressy occasions so I wore it two days in a row.  Luckily, cardigans are such a basic staple piece that no one seemed to notice!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you'll join us as we continue this really fun challenge!  If you're already playing along, make sure to link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Travel Capsule: Summertime in Europe- Outfits Ten, Eleven and Twelve

Welcome back to the fourth installment of my Summertime in Europe Capsule!  I've you've missed a few posts, you can find them below:

Introduction and Outfits One-Three
Outfits Four-Six
Outfits Seven-Nine

Outfit Ten

Ahh, we've made it to the flying home outfit!  When you spend nine hours on an airplane, comfort and layers are key!  Truth be told, it was absolutely roasting for our entire flight home so I immediately ditched the jacket and scarf.

Outfit Eleven

You may be wondering why I have more outfits to show you if I already flew home from Belgium!  That is because I flew back into Washington D.C. and then proceeded to road trip up the East Coast as I headed back to Michigan.  Instead of packing for two separate vacations (European and road trip), it made more sense in my brain to continue the capsule!  Here I'm dressed for a hot day touring the streets of D.C.

Outfit Twelve

From D.C., we headed to Philadelphia.  When rompers feel like pajamas, they make for comfortable car-wear and a chic outfit for touring the city!

Make sure to stop by next week for the last three outfits in the capsule!  And I'm still planning a "how-to" capsule post afterwards so let me know if you have any questions or topics you want discussed.

Travel Capsule: Summertime in Europe- Outfits Seven, Eight and Nine

You know what I love most about travel?!  Great blogging backdrops!  Just kidding, it's the food.  I definitely travel to eat!  But isn't this background beautiful, anyways?

In case you missed it, I've spent the last couple of weeks sharing with you my travel capsule wardrobe from a trip to Belgium this summer.  If you want to check it out, you can find the fifteen pieces I packed as well as the first three outfits here and you can find outfits four through six here.

Outfit Seven

You know, I'm finding it difficult to write something original about each outfit on this trip.  That's because each and every outfit was comfortable, versatile, layerable and mix-and-matchable.  You know, just what a travel capsule wardrobe should be!  I wore this little number during a day trip to Antwerp, which I learned is called Anvers in French.  Yep, Antwerp and Anvers are the same place.  This made for some slight confusion during our train ride.

Outfit Eight

In all honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed with my outfit (and my hair) on this day.  Although I guess that is bound to happen in every capsule, you'll love some outfits more than others.  But this did make for an easy-to-wear ensemble while binging during a chocolate and beer tour of Brussels.

Outfit Nine

A possible pitfall of traveling with a capsule wardrobe is spillage.  Yep, I spilled wine on this tank top on day one of the trip (let's just blame it on jet lag).  We didn't have easy access to laundry facilities so I got a little creative and knotted the tank to wear over jeans.  I think I like this outfit better that way, anyways!

Alright, friends!  Stay tuned for more capsule outfits next week!  Also, I've decided to write a capsule tips and tricks post when I'm finished posting outfits.  Sarah got me started with a few questions she has about creating a capsule wardrobe but I would love some more!  Anything you want to know or need advice about?  Leave a comment!

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Travel Capsule: Summertime in Europe- Outfits Four, Five and Six

Hey, friends!  How have you been?  I had every intention of getting back into regular blogging once the school year started but I have been so dang busy.

There are lots of wonderful and exciting things happening in my life right now that I promise to share more about later, once things calm down a bit.  But for today, I promised the second installment of my most recent travel capsule photos!

If you missed it, you can find the list of items in my capsule as well as the first three outfits here.

Outfit Four

Did you know that during the first Sunday of every month, you can get tickets to many of Brussel's museums for free?  My friend and I were able to hit four museums in one day!  Therefore, as with the first three outfits, comfort was key.  This wrap skirt felt like pajamas but I still felt pretty all day.

Outfit Five

These might be my favorite blog pictures that we took during the whole trip!  You gotta love when the backdrop, the lighting and the outfit just come together so easily!  I wore this simple yet classic outfit while on a day trip to Bruges.  I was really happy that I wore my Adidas sneakers because we walked a lot this day!

Outfit Six

Can you tell I was tired when we took these pictures?  We actually snapped these right before enjoying a mid-afternoon nap.  This outfit made of classic, simple pieces took me through the Royal Palace of Brussels and an art museum.

Actually, it is the classic-nature of all of the pieces in my capsule that made these pieces so easy to wear!  What do you think so far?  Do you have a favorite outfit?

Travel Capsule: Summertime in Europe- Introduction and Outfits One, Two and Three

Hey, gals!  I'm super excited to be starting a new mini-series on the blog today!  When I traveled to Europe in April, I did so with a small, capsule wardrobe.  I loved the cohesiveness of my look throughout the trip as well as the ease of packing lightly.  I loved it so much, in fact, that I decided to do another capsule wardrobe for my summer travels.