Going with Kim’s wonderful inspiration calendar again, I went with monochromatic blue for Monday.  This challenge surprised me – I figured it would be easy, since I have lots of blue in my wardrobe, but when trying to put something together, I realized that many of the shades don’t work well together.  I finally went with blue jeans (which were fine indoors, but oppressively hot outdoors), a tank and a cardigan (which was indoors only).  I added some contrast by wearing a navy scarf as a headband, carrying a navy tote, and throwing in some brown sandals so it wasn’t too monochromatic.  Neutral silver jewelry topped it all off.

That cardigan was a recent Anthropologie sale purchase.  I adore it, but I hadn’t worn it yet because of the ridiculous heat wave we’ve been experiencing in Florida lately.  It was just right for my nice, chilly office though.  What I love most about this cardigan is the gorgeous details, like the fabric covered buttons, the matching placket lining,the adorable pockets, and the contrasting bands.  The texture is also very unique, as it’s a reverse stockinette in fair isle.  This will be getting tons of wear in the fall.

This outfit also lets me debut my new Born Savory sandals.  I got these a few weeks ago, while looking for a comfortable, strappy sandal.  They took a few days to break in, but now they’re relatively comfortable, only giving me blisters if I do lots of walking.  I love them so much, I’m thinking about buying a second pair in orange or blue, since they’re on sale right now at 6pm.

In the afternoon, I ditched the cardigan, traded the sandals for Chucks, and played tourist with my boyfriend and some friends of ours.  We checked out the touristy parts of our city, and then went bowling.   You can imagine my crazy happy dance when I got a strike.

Cardigan: Anthropologie
Tank: Old Navy
Jeans: Express Stella
Sandals: Born Savory
Scarf (worn as headband): Vintage
Earrings: June Designs
Necklace: June Designs
Bangles: Jill Popowich
Tote: Thrifted and re-conned

Sometimes you find an item in your wardrobe that is made from good fabric, but doesn’t fit you in exactly the way you want it to.  When something like this happens, it’s best to either take the item to a good tailor who can understand your vision for what the garment should be, or if you’ve got the sewing skills, re-con it yourself.  I had worn this (formerly) strapless dress with tops layered over it, but for the most part, I found it difficult to wear.  Having that much khaki close to my face washes me out, and because it was super casual, I didn’t have many opportunities to wear it on its own, other than the beach and Busch Gardens.  When trying to figure out what to wear with a pair or brown leggings I recently purchased, I started to try wearing the dress in different ways.  And then, I started to figure out exactly how I wanted the dress to look.  Lots of sewing, spare fabric, elastic, and seam ripping later, and I had a brand new dress.  

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures while re-conning it and I think a tutorial might be really confusing without images.  To quickly describe what I did, I flipped the top over itself, making the dress shorter and placing the elastic under the bust.  I stitched it down like this, and removed some fabric from underneath to created the straps.  I took some scrap brown jersey knit fabric, made a tube with elastic encased in it, and stitched that to the top of the dress.  I then added the straps, and tacked the brown section to them so it wouldn’t fall down.  I realize that might not make a lot of sense.  Tutorial writing doesn’t seem to be my strong point.

By adding that strip of brown at the top, the khaki doesn’t overwhelm and wash out my face.  The neutral of the khaki and olive green print allows me to pair beautiful, bright accents with it, like my jewelry and purse.

Dress: Target (thrifted and re-conned)
Leggings: Target
Purse: Easy Spirit
Flip flops: Columbia
Necklace: Express
Bangle: Gift from friend
Earrings: June Designs 

This week is vacation week for me, and the weather is beautiful.  Aside from some rain and cloudiness yesterday, it’s been sunny, windy and cool.  Perfect weather for me to break out this light-weight jacket that I love for casual days.  I bought this jacket at a consignment store years ago.  I altered it considerably, taking out the hood, bringing in the sides to make it more fitted, creating slits at the bottom to accommodate my  hips.  It really is a fabulous jacket, and it’s perfect for days like today.

That cuff bracelet comes from a recent shopping trip to a consignment shop I used to go to all the time in high school.  I hadn’t been there in awhile, but I’m trying to explore more used clothing stores because of my temporary ban on mall shopping.  I found this lovely $3 bracelet just as I was checking out, and immediately scooped it up.  I’ve been looking for a silver cuff bracelet for awhile, but haven’t been able to afford the ones I find.  This one was definitely in my price range, and I love how the patina can work with both my oxidized sterling silver and my regular, brighter sterling.

Be prepared for some casual outfit postings, as well as re-caps of the fun adventures I hopefully will have on my vacation.  I see the possibility of a good bit of sewing and biking, so I’ll be sure to take pics.

Jacket: The Limited (altered by me)
T-shirt: Target
Jeans: Express
Shoes: Born Codders
Purse: Dickies
Necklace: Kira Ferrer
Bracelet: ?? (consignment)