Remixing Everything

HOWDY!!! Just made it back to Seattle from the most amazing trip to Texas! I turned 27 yesterday, Yeehaw! I don't have super big expectations for birthdays, but my Texas A&M alumni found out it was going to be my birthday while we were on the trip and went completely all out. So much Hello Kitty AND a DQ Ice Cream Cake?! They were seriously on point and I felt super special and lots of love from everyone around. This was one of my favorite trips of the year!!! The alumni spent a ton of time showing me around campus, sharing stories and explaining traditions. It was almost like having my own personal Fish Camp. I'm pretty sure my blood has turned a couple shades towards Maroon ;) AND of course I snapped up some sweet Aggie gear. I've decided that I'm obsessed with Texas. I get to go back at the end of next week to hang out at Rice. It's gonna be great!

Today on the blog, I'm remixing a whole bunch of pieces that you've seen before! This knit blazer has been in heavy rotation all season AND I just bought the long lined coat version last week! Looking forward to styling it for real life and the blog. I've recently posted these cooler than school white oxfords. Seriously, how cool are they? Ah. And you saw this dress in a different color a couple weeks back, but I'm wearing it as a skirt here. This sweater has been a fun piece this season as well! This necklace was gifted to me by my one and only, Katrina. She knows me so well!

I went through a rather large closet purge before heading to Texas and I'm looking to make better use of the clothing sitting in my closet. I'm playing around with the idea of either a limited shopping budget or no shopping at all (ugh, I don't think I can do it!) for an extended period of time. I've been SUPER inspired by Caroline of Unfancy, who is creating 37 piece capsule collections for each season of the year. Ah! Sounds so cool, but I don't think my aesthetic is at all conducive to such a minimal approach. So instead, I want to commit to fully utilizing what I have. I think a bit of documentation of my clothing situation is in order :D That's just a snapshot into what I've been thinking about clothing wise. I hope you guys have wonderful weekends!! And obligatory- GOOOOO HAAAAWWWWWWKKKKKSSSSSSSSS!

Knit Blazer Forever 21, exact
Pleated Drop Waist Dress worn as Skirt Forever 21, similar (love this option!)
Embellished Crew Neck JCrew via Goodwill
Necklace Gifted, various options
Assorted Rings H&M, Forever 21
White Oxfords Urban Outfitters (on sale for $30!), similarish

Pink and Purple: Not Just for Barney

Happy Hump Day, lovers! Reporting to you live from College Station, Texas. I've had quite the week so far XD I spent 8 hours in Detroit on Monday after my flight to Penn State was cancelled. After counseling from my manager, we decided to reroute me to Austin to avoid the possibility of getting trapped in the North East. Luckily, my PSU alumni were already in town and know very well how I like to recruit. I feel at ease knowing they are holding it down. Not gonna lie, I was relieved to avoid the sub freezing terrain. AND Austin is FUCKING AMAZING so other than the fact that I had to miss out on seeing my Nittany Lions, not too bad of a trade off. The food, the shopping, the people, the weather!!! Texas has winter figured out :) It's currently 70 degrees and I am flouncing around in one of my favorite summer linen dresses. (The $4 one, actually :D). It was awesome to have a day to recover from travel and catch up on email and work to-do's. I drove to Texas A&M this morning and am here for another two days before coming home for a wedding and Super Bowl! Go Hawks! Whoop!

Today on the blog, I'm rocking a ridiculous color combo: pink and purple. To be fair though, I built this outfit around these fabulous heels which are already pink and purple! I will admit, these are probably the most uncomfortable shoes in my closet, BUT THEY LOOK AMAZE and that's all that matters (for the 2 hours that I wore them, at least :D Totes went home and changed out of them after these shots were taken)

And now, some extra gratuitous hair shots! I can always get on board with a pretty printed A-line dress and this one is particularly fun. I normally don't like the way leggings look with my other dresses, but I think they go well with this one. I feel a little school teacher in this outfit... if you look past the stripper heels :D Okay, enough shenanigans. It's time to eat, again! I love you guys. See you on Friday!

Dress Forever 21
Purple Pea Coat Tulle, similar styles here and here
Shoes Norstrom BP, similar styles here and here

Airplane Cozy

Happy Monday, Cool Cats! Today is a travel day for me. I'm catching a couple connections to State College, PA to hang with my Nittany Lions for the first half of the week. I had an awesome weekend celebrating bae with friends on Friday and taking it easy on Saturday and Sunday. It felt good to have adequate time to reset with errands and chores before hitting the road again. Of course, I made time for brunch! I might need to do a January brunch review of everywhere I've been this month :D Mitch and I also had an awesome Sunday of exploring the U district and taking advantage of the ridiculously gorgeous weather with some mini golf at Interbay (I won! what what!).

Today, I'm throwing it back to our ONE day of snowfall earlier this winter! Gotta love living in the PNW :P This is an accurate representation of what I wear during half of my travel days. The other half is a sportier (aka scrubbier) version of this with yoga leggings, tennis shoes and a Microsoft branded hoodie/vest combo. Not gonna lie, I feel super cool sporting my Microsoft gear, especially since the HOLOLENS announcement last week! Honestly, I cannot contain my excitement and pride for my company right meow. WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE. Ohmygawd, I got off track. #notsorry :)

Uh, anyways- like most human beings, I enjoy being comfy on planes. I love that I can maintain stylishness and still feel super cozy in this outfit. What do you guys got queued up for the last week of January? I'm turning 27 this week! MEEP! Birthdays are so nice in this digital age. It feels wonderful to have friends near and far reach out with kind words. I love reconnecting with everyone that drops me a note. Only 3 more years until the name of this blog isn't legitimate anymore, huh? Don't worry, I'm already working on it!

Have the best week ever, y'all! Sending my love from the friendly skies!

Rain Jacket London Fog, similar
Leggings Pink, an assortment
Sweater Love by Design via BP, an assortment
Shirt Forever 21, exact, different colors
Shoes Tesori, similar

Groovy Date Night

Happy Friday, movers and shakers! I'm back in Seattle and it feels good to be home. This recruiting season, I've been so mindful about creating efficient event schedules so I can spend a bit more time at home. I'm basically trading more time on planes for more days with bae. Well worth the trade off! Today is his birthday and I am so happy that I get to be home to celebrate with him and few friends. I'm here for the weekend before I'm off for another solid work week running between State College, PA and College Station TX!

Today on the blog, I'm wearing a date night outfit from last week! Mitch and I are all about our weekly dinner and a movie ritual. Not gonna lie, lately I've been lazy and opt for the comfy leggings plus cardigan option. You know when you come home from a long day after a long week of work and immediately need to take off EVERYTHING?! It makes getting dressed for date night a real struggle, but I'm committed to bringing the magic back! I've realized that Mitch basically only sees me in my pajamas. He leaves for work before I can even get myself out of bed on most days and returns home after I've managed to get back into my pajamas. Perhaps this needs to be an official February goal. haha!

Anyways, I love how Seattle weather appropriate AND glam this outfit is. It's hard to pull that off in the winter! The black pieces balance out the statement necklace and statement skirt. Does that top look familiar? It's my favorite fall sweater dress that I've used as a top! Ever since my NYE outfit, I'm really into this dress-as-a-top thing! Versatility is a virtue :) I hope your weeks are wrapping up nicely. See you after the weekend, lovelies!

Sweater Dress worn as Top Forever 21, exact
Skirt JC Penny, similar styles
Oversized Blazer H&M, similar
Shoes Jessica Simpson, similar here and here
Statement Necklace Amrita Singh, similar styles

Orange and Teal

Hi Friendz! Sounding off from Durham, North Carolina this week! I'm in town meeting and recruiting Duke students for software engineering positions at Le Microsoft. And also eating. The Downtown Durham food scene has some serious game and these trips typically involve me gallivanting from food stop to food stop with the alumni between recruiting activities.

One of the most annoying things about travelling is packing! Although, I think I've finally gotten this whole "one week of your life into one carry-on bag" thing down. I took exactly three outfits for each day of recruiting activities, enough spandex for three hot yoga sessions (found a studio 1 mile from my hotel!) and I'm using the same outfit for both travel days (yoga leggings, comfy sweater and a vest). I was able to get everything into my osprey 40 liter including an extra pair of shoes! This probably isn't something to gloat about since I used the same osprey for a 3 week adventure around Asia but WHATEVER! Hippie travel clothing does not pack the same same as work travel clothing, amiright?!

This outfit I'm sharing on the blog today is similar to the outfits I packed for recruiting activities. A recruiter uniform is usually a branded logo shirt and jeans, but I try to dress how I'd normally dress at home. Not to hate on jeans and a tshirt because sometimes I feel that vibe too, but it's not actually what I feel most comfortable in. I want to feel like ME when I'm on the ground meeting the kiddies. Lately, what feels most like me is a lot of color and A-lines. I feel like I can get shit done in an outfit like this and still feel good about what I'm wearing. Thanks for reading! See you at the end of the week, y'all!

Fit and Flare Dress Forever 21, exact
White Moto Jacket Forever 21, similar
Lace up Booties DSW, similar
Pashmina from Thailand

Thank you, Dr. King

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, friends. For those of you that have this day off, I hope you are enjoying it fully. I hope that you are also taking a bit of time to remember that this day is about honoring a man whose life's work was dedicated to achieving true equality for all in the United States.

I watched Selma last week with Mitch and a couple friends. It was a random weeknight and we had the entire theatre to ourselves. I had never seen a trailer for Selma and didn't know what it is was about until Mitch informed me, "It's the MLK movie" on the way into the theatre. This movie was intense and incredible, to say the least. It wasn't overly dramatic, but I was still feeling all the feels. The part of the movie that really spoke to me was when Dr. King was putting out the call for anyone who believed in their cause to come to Selma for the march to Montgomery after they were met with violent brutality on their first attempt. There's a montage of American families watching the footage at home and some folks are so compelled by what they are seeing that they pack their bags and go to Selma. It made me question whether or not I would have gone, even though I feel so deeply for causes like this. Sometimes I struggle balancing my emotions for such things and not quite knowing what action to take or feeling guilty for not taking any action at all. It's something that I'm still figuring out.

There's something about humans being so cruel to other humans that I cannot understand. Hateful discrimination against someone because of their race, religion, sexuality, or any other distinguishing quality that doesn't affect the way another lives their life is a concept that I cannot accept or empathize with. I can't believe the Civil Rights Movement happened just about 50 years ago. I like to think that we've come a decent way since then, but it scares me to know that when our mothers and fathers were adolescents, the KKK was in their heyday and African Americans were being bullied by government officials and state laws out of their right to vote. That time period is too close for comfort and it is clear that we are not out of the woods on the issue of equality in America.

I asked Mitch how he felt about the movie afterwards, wondering if his Nigerian nationality would offer a different perspective from mine. He simply replied, "I feel the way any decent human being should feel." Empathy for the struggle of our fellow humans.

I am sad knowing that Dr. King isn't with us today mostly because I think about how much more work there is to be done and how much more progress we could have made with this leadership and guidance. Eventually, I think we'll get there (just think about how far we've come since the Dark Ages). We're going to figure this out. I believe in us.

Blue Devil Dress

Happy Friday!! So I know, this necklace is a complete repeat offender but I would say I am basically wearing this every other day, so, this is accurate of everyday life, okay?! As cool as pants are, nothing makes me feel more fierce than a powerful dress. Do you guys have that one go-to dress that you can count on to ALWAYS come through for you even on the blah-est of days? THIS dress is that dress for me! I wore this ensemble to Nini's birthday before the holidays. Typically, if I'm wearing a bold dress, I go for a more subdued shoe, but sometimes you just need to live your life. And these orange velvet frilly wedges are the kind of shoes that make you feel like you're living life to the fullest!!! Okay, maybe it's not THAT big of a deal, but you get my point :) Add a couple richly colored accessories AND BAM. You're good to go!

I'm relieved the weekend is here. I've intentionally left my calendar more free so I can have time to pack, clean and get things in order before I leave on Monday for Duke. I guess this post can also pay homage to their blue devil mascot? DEAL. Hope you guys had a good week and an even better weekend!

PS. Basically, whenever it's difficult for me to narrow pictures down for a post, I basically just post all of them :D

Dress Eliza J,similar
Shoes Bamboo, similar

A study of gray, but RAINBOW

HEY GUYZ! Today's post is a quick one. The start of a 3 week travel saga is starting on Monday and I've been running around between office and home to prepare for it! I'm also trying to prioritize Mitch time before I go so I'm typing this post up fast as lightning before he comes home for dinner :)

So, I think you guys have noticed by now that I'm completely all over place on the style spectrum. I would say my go-to is glam girl, but since I started style blogging more frequently, I've tried to give myself more opportunities to explore outside my favorite aesthetic. This is definitely one of those times. I love me a good menswear inspired outfit. I am CRAZY OBSESSED with this knit blazer. It makes me feel polished and laid back all at the same time. My intention was to monochrome this entire outfit, but then I looked over at my side table and my favorite necklace was calling my name. I like that this ensemble acts as a clean canvas for my little pop of color.

Like I said, short and sweet :) Hope you guys are having great weeks. Sending you my love!

Knit Blazer Forever 21, exact
T-shirt Forever 21, exact
Boyfriend Jeans Gap, similar
Necklace Gifted, various options
Assorted Rings H&M, Forever 21