A Few New Purchases (and some that are going back) Part 1

Over the last few (ok maybe 6) months I have picked up a few fun new outfits.  I have found some good sales on end of summer stuff and for the most part it is still hot as all get out here so I have plenty of opportunity to wear them.  Most of the time all I have to do to turn a summer dress into weather appropriate for the rest of the year is add a cardigan or blazer.  I have also picked up a few new more traditional fall pieces since last fall/winter I weighed about 15 pounds more than I do this year.  I didn't buy too much last fall since I had just reestablished my office appropriate wardrobe last spring after leaving the retail world for the office world.

I bought this dress sometime over the summer and because it is linen it is perfect for when the weather is crazy hot.  It has sleeves so I don't have to worry about the extra warmth of a sweater to make it work appropriate.  I also really like this dress because I had to get an extra small for the dress to fit correctly.  Sorry, people who are actually an extra small this is not the dress for you. I think this dress may only be available in petite sizes so maybe small short people can wear it.  

I was a bit skeptical about this whole romper trend that seems to be going on.  I thought they were cute but was not sold that they were something that I could wear successfully.   When something has to fit my hips and rear and also fit my upper body there is often a problem.  I was pleasantly surprised when I tried this romper on and it actually fit.  It is lightweight so I have been able this summer but I am looking forward to throwing some black tights on underneath it and wearing it as the weather cools off.  That is if it ever cools off here!

This pretty striped dress was a find that I wore to my cousin's wedding earlier this summer.  It looks totally different on the model that it does on me.  Hello hips! It is a bit hard to see in this picture but I have a really cool hammered gold necklace (and a bracelet too) that looked really good with the dress.  I used to wear almost exclusively silver jewelry but over the last year or so I have been gravitating more to gold.  I would say at this point I wear half silver and half gold.

When I first saw this sweater across the store I thought "oh, how cute" but when I went over to it and was a bit more skeptical.  I wasn't sure how I felt about that sort of tassel thing that hangs down the front.  After I put it on I decided I actually didn't mind it and ended up buying it.  I have worn it with jeans and also with a pair of navy blue cropped linen pants.  I often wear a petite in dresses but very rarely wear a petite in pants.  These pants ended up being the exception.

I bought this skirt with the hopes that it would be a nice flowey skirt to wear to work.  I tend to wear a lot of pencil skirts (or dresses) to work but sometimes I just want something that is really easy to sit cross-legged in.  I ordered this online and when it arrived it did not fit in the way I was hoping.  It was technically the right size but the black waistband just kind of folded over and scrunched up when I tried it on.  This skirt went back.

The really cool reversible bag was part of one of my Stitch Fix boxes but it is actually also available in the junior's department at Nordstrom too.  I discovered this fact when someone at work had this same bag in a different color.  My purple and light tan is not available at Nordstrom but there are a couple of other pretty color combinations.  It fits my laptop and is a great bag to take on as a carry on bag on an airplane.  For $48 you can't really beat it.

I love love love this bulldog tee and even though I have only had it a month I am pretty sure a week hasn't gone by where it hasn't found its way into at least one of my outfits.  It is thick enough that I can wear whatever bra I want which is a huge bonus because a lot of my tops require smooth bras.






As I have mentioned previously recently I have found some on sale dresses at Anthropologie that have spoken to me.  I bought this super flow, almost sack like grey dress a few weeks ago.  I wasn't sure if the shape would work on me but I ended up loving it.  It may not be the most figure flattering dress in a traditional way but it is so comfy and such a different look for me that I am embracing it.  I paired it with a big chunky blue necklace at my cousin-in-law's bridal shower a few weeks ago.  I actually wore it with a cropped sweater to work the other day and that gave it a bit more of a nipped waist.

 

When I first started this post I didn't think about how may different pieces of clothing I really had to talk about.  That being said, I got about halfway through talking about my shopping adventures and it had become evident that this was meant to be a two post topic.

On another but related shopping topic the wedding dress I ordered arrived today.  Assuming I can get the top altered the way I want it I have found a winner!