“A manner serene and sedate”

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Diana

I normally don’t wear outfits with a lot of black, but these capris just looked so right with this blouse, that I couldn’t pass up combining them. I tried to keep the outfit from being too morose by adding a bright green cardigan and red shoes. I think it worked out just fine.

My blouse is the only item in this outfit that is actually vintage, but I love how the whole look has a vintage feel. Somehow it has a “Betty Draper at a summer picnic” feel to me. But without all of Betty Draper’s drama.

I used one of Sally of Already Pretty‘s tricks with my cardigan. It’s a crew neck, but I didn’t like how that looked with the collar of this shirt, so I secured the corners of the cardigan with fashion tape to create a faux v-neck.

How do you create vintage looks with a mix of modern and vintage pieces?

Blouse: Vintage via Sherry’s Yesterdaze
Capris: Erik Stewart
Cardigan: Ann Taylor LOFT
Shoes: Born Codders
Purse: Morelle Charlotte
Earrings: Garage Sale

Quote: Don’t Bump the Glump!: And Other Fantasies, by Shel Silverstein

“Groove the night long”

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Diana

This outfit was my debut for my new black straight leg jeans. I’ve been wanting a pair of black straight leg jeans for a really long time, but for some reason it never occurred to me to check out Levis until last week. I did some research on their site before I went to the store so that I would have a good idea of which jeans I wanted to try on (Levis gives each cut a different number). The only one of my picks that was in the store was the 552, and they fit like a dream. The rise is not too high, but not too low, falling about an inch and a half below my belly button. They are a nice, inky black shade. The straight leg is flattering on my figure, and the hem is long enough for me to decide what length I would like them to be. In these pictures, I shortened the hem by 1″ with fashion tape, to see if I like the length. I’ve come to realize that, on days that I feel like wearing jeans, I also tend to feel like wearing flats. I’m not sure why – I guess maybe it’s a comfort thing. I think these jeans will definitely be a multi-season staple for me.

And did I mention that they’re 98% organic cotton, with a touch of spandex for a nice fit? I love that.

This outfit was a color experimentation of sorts. I really wanted to wear my fuchsia cardigan, but I also really wanted to wear my red Born Codders. Normally, I wouldn’t mix these two colors together, but when I added the red necklace, and kept everything else to simple black and white, it worked.

Never be afraid to try something different.

How are everyone’s Memorial Day weekends going? I’ve been working on some gardening, sewing, and reading. These three things do a fantastic weekend make.

Cardigan: Fossil
Blouse: Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)
Jeans: Levis 552
Shoes: Born Codders
Necklace: Garage sale
Earrings: June Designs

Quote: Bring on that Beat, by Rachel Isadora

I realize that I’m a few weeks late, but I’d like to say thank you to Dolly Features for giving me the Sunshine Award.

“Wardrobe – a collection of clothes”

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Diana

I absolutely love my Boden dresses. So much so, that I generally wear at least one of them every week. Sometimes, I find it difficult to figure out how to remix them. It’s basically summer now, so there’s only so much layering that I can do. Since my workplace currently has frigid AC (this is prone to change on a daily basis, believe me) I can layer cardigans. Thus, I’ve been trying some new remixes of my Boden dresses with different cardigans, shoes and accessories. For this outfit, I stuck to brown and black accessories, allowing the beautiful print of the dress to continue to shine.

Normally, I tend to wear belts at the top of my rib cage, just under the bust. Today, I decided to let the belt rest at my natural waist. It was a nice switch, and I think it flattered the outfit well. I also added an extra punch of color in my blue necklace, which helped bring out the blue in the print of the dress.

How do you remix printed dresses in the summer? What do you do to keep an outfit fresh and interesting when it’s 80+ degrees outside?

Dress: Boden (via eBay)
Cardigan: Ann Taylor LOFT
Belt: Thrifted
Sandals: Dansko Novalee (via eBay)
Necklace: Chocolate Cake Jewels
Earrings: Garage Sale

Quote: Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words: From Accessories to Zany, by Jane O’Connor

Shopping Plan: Weeks 14 & 15

Posted on May 16, 2010 by Diana

Weeks 14 & 15 of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe

After week 13, I had $142 left in my clothing budget for the month of May. I took last week off from posting, so this week I’m catching up. And oh, did I get some awesome goodies.

Like these:

Frye 8Rs: $75 on eBay
Silk/ Cashmere Scarf: Ann Taylor, $10 on sale

Did you see those prices correctly? Oh yes you did! I have been lusting after a pair of Frye 8Rs since I first blogged about them eleven months ago. But that $188 pair I saw at Urban Outfitters was way out of my price range. I started stalking them on eBay, but everytime they would come up in my size, they would get bid too high for me to afford them. Thus I waited. And watched. And two weeks ago, these showed up in my in-box, Buy it Now for only $75. Yes, they are very used and in need of a little shoe polish and will soon need attention from a cobbler. But at this price point, I’m absolutely okay with this. It will be awhile before it’s cold enough to wear them, but I’m still stoked.

That lovely rose scarf was a bit of an impulse buy, but when a super soft silk/cashmere scarf is only $10, I find it hard to resist. Even though it’s spring/summer now, I can still wear it in my currently freezing workplace, or with a nice dress at night.

All from Triage

Ann Taylor Ruffle Tee: $15
Teal Tunic: Hilos, $13
Purple Cardigan: Anthropologie, $13
Shorts: J Crew, $7

During week 15, I decided to trek out to a South Tampa consignment store that I’ve been meaning to revisit for years, Triage. I was not disappointed. I got an awesome selection of good quality items at very low prices. The J Crew shorts are a bit snug right now, but for $7, I felt that it was worth going for it. I’ve been losing a little weight lately, so they will likely fit me before summer is out.

So, I spent a total of $133, leaving me with $9 for the rest of May. But Anthropologie is having their twice-a-year really big sale this Tuesday. So, um, I’m probably going to go over. We’ll see how it goes.

“I have my own heart”

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Diana

Hello folks! My week off was wonderful and refreshing, and I feel like I’ve got a lot of great new ideas for Smiles Go With Everything. As you may have noticed, I spent part of my time last week re-vamping the look of the blog, and I am so incredibly happy with it! It feels great to actually be able to apply what I learned in my web design class last year, and I have to say that I felt quite pleasantly nerdy spending two hours last week playing with CSS, HTML and Photoshop.

You may have also noticed that my blog’s tagline has changed to read “style and sustainability for the optimistic soul”. As I mentioned last week, I want to shift my focus slightly. Sustainability is an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and I am fascinated by the way that it intersects with personal style. I want to spend more time digging into that issue, and in particular I want to talk even more than before about shopping second-hand, hand-made and local. As always, I will be talking about these issues with an optimistic perspective. It can be easy to get depressed when talking about how much humans have screwed up the environment, but I would rather focus on the positive side of what we can do to make things better, as opposed to dwelling on the negative side.

This is still a style blog, and I will continue to post Daily Outfits, Etsy Love posts and tell you about how I shop in my weekly Shopping Plan posts. I’ll still talk about how I alter clothes to work for my figure.

For now though, there probably will be fewer outfit posts than before. With my current schedule at my job (which I love!), it’s hard to get four outfit photos every week. It was getting to the point where it was becoming a chore for me, as opposed to something I enjoyed doing. For right now, I’m only going to post outfits twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. If I can get to a point where I can take more outfit photos every week without it feeling like an obligation, then I may increase the number of outfit posts. At this time, it’s just about figuring out what kind of a schedule works best for me.

Outfit posts will definitely always be around, though. I think that they are a vital part of this blog, and they fit in perfectly with my new focus on sustainability. I put a great emphasis of shopping second-hand and hand-made in my personal life, and outfit posts are a a great way to demonstrate that it is completely possible to be stylish in a way that is not detrimental to the environment.

I’m very excited about all the great new things to come, and I hope that you are too!

Cardigan: J Crew (via eBay)
Blouse: Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)
Skirt: Semantiks
Shoes: Clarks Apple Sky
Necklace: Coryell Design
Earrings: Wear-thou
Watch: Target

Quote: It’s Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel, Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell

“Chic (that is French for fashionable)”

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Diana

This outfit is more or less a repeat. Except for one element that wasn’t there before (or was there, if you like). My hair! This is the first time I have ever cut my hair this short, and I love it! I’m still getting used to it. I keep thinking that it’s up in a ponytail or something, because this is the first time that it actually stays out of my face. I really, really like this cut, and I think that it’s going to be perfect for the hot summer months.

I know I said I was going to talk about my new plans for the blog today, but this weekend went by super fast, and I haven’t had any time to write up posts or flesh out the ideas that are milling around in my head. So, I’ve decided to take a week off of blogging. I think having a short break will help me to determine my focus for the new direction I would like my blog to take. And it will help me to catch up on my blog reading, since I got way behind this week. So you’ll see me again next Monday, with some awesome new posts lined up!

Tank: Old Navy
Cardigan: Ann Taylor LOFT
Capris: J Jill (altered by me)
Sandals: Dansko Sela (via eBay)
Bangles: Jill Popowich
Earrings: Wear-thou

Quote: Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire!, by Jane O’Connor

“The new normal”

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Diana

Ack! Things are so busy lately! I’ve got a lot of big things coming up soon. At work, there’s several big events in the next few weeks that I’m an planning and preparing for. And here on the blog, I’ve got some exciting projects coming up soon. There will be some new changes coming up soon. For quick idea of what’s to come, I’m planning on starting to write more posts that focus on buying hand-made, second-hand, vintage, local and eco-friendly. I want to shift my focus more on these issues, because they’re something that I’m very passionate about, and I want to support them more and encourage others to support them. I’ll go into more details on Monday. Stay tuned!

I’ve noticed that, with the warmer weather, my weekend uniform tends to be a variation of what I’m wearing here. Shorts, sandals, sleeveless blouse, light cardigan. It’s taking me a bit to readjust to warm weather dressing, but I think I’m finally starting to remember how to be a Floridian in the Spring/Summer without looking too sloppy.

What’s your weekend uniform for warm weather?

Blouse: Anthropologie
Cardigan: Ann Taylor LOFT
Shorts: Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)
Sandals: Born (via eBay)
Purse: Morelle City Bag
Earrings: Mackie Jewelry
Bangles: Jill Popowich Designs

Quote: No Talking, by Andrew Clements

“Zooming down the street”

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Diana

I talked about this blazer a good bit on Sunday, but let me say again that I absolutely love it! And it was perfect for work last week, when my media center was hosting a teacher meeting. I wanted to look very professional, and this blazer did that perfectly. Yellow is definitely becoming one of my favorite colors to wear.

My hair is getting overdue for a cut. I’m thinking of shaking things up a bit and trying something I’ve never done before: getting a variation on a pixie cut. Not super short, but definitely shorter than anything I’ve ever tried before. I figure that summer is a good time to experiment with a new hair length, since it gets so hot, and if I don’t like it, I can just grow it back out. While I love my bob, I’ve had it for six months now, and I’m starting to get a bit bored with it. I think something short, layered and piece-y could be a lot of fun.

What do you think? Should I go for the pixie cut?

(And by the way, do you like the new header? I made it with my mad photoshop skills )

Blouse: Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)
Jacket: J Crew (via eBay)
Skirt: Semantiks
Shoes: Clarks Apple Sky
Necklace: Chocolate Cake Jewels
Watch: Target

Quote: In My New Yellow Shirt
, by Eileen Spinelli

“And if you’re the type that gets finicky-finick”

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Diana

This has been the week of comfy, put-together outfits. I’ve been trying to meet the challenge of remixing outfits as the weather warms up, and it hasn’t been easy. There have been a lot of days with repeat outfits that I didn’t photograph. Adding a few new items to my wardrobe has helped to freshen things up a bit, but I’m still struggling to create new looks in the warm temps. Cardigans have been my saving grace lately, and I’m dreading the 80 + degree temperatures that will soon become the norm for the next four or five months here. Without the cardigan, this outfit would have just been shorts and a tee – which is a bit too casual for me most days. A cardigan adds a nice dose of polish to it. Right now I’m very much on the lookout for nice sleeveless blouses and light, short sleeved cardigans to get me through summer.

It’s come to my attention lately that I wear a LOT of blue. Blue has always been one of my fall-back colors for clothing, because I’ve always loved how it brings out my blue eyes. During the winter, I started adding a great variety of colors, but much of my summer wardrobe still centers around this hue. I’m trying to diversify my wardrobe more now by adding yellow, green, fuchsia and other colors into my summer wardrobe.

What’s your fall-back color?

Tee: Old Navy
Cardigan: NY & Co (via Classy Consignment)
Shorts: Ann Taylor LOFT (thrifted)
Sandals: Clarks Rime (via 6pm)
Purse: Morelle Charlotte
Bangles: Jill Popowich
Earrings: Sara Westermark

Nail Polish: Essie Calypso

Quote: You’re Only Old Once!, by Dr. Seuss

“Stepped ashore on the beach”

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Diana

On Thursday, I had a lovely day at the beach with my mom. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was slightly overcast, which kept the sun from baking us too much, and there was a fantastic light breeze. We ate lunch and spent some time looking at the shops at John’s Pass, then we walked over to Treasure Island and sat on the beach for awhile. It was so wonderfully relaxing, and it was great to get to spend some time with my mom. It’s funny to me that, even though I only live about 45 minutes from the beach, I only actually go there about two or three times a year. In my undergraduate years, I used to go a lot more often. But now that I’m working full-time, I just don’t make the time to get down to the beach very often.

Aren’t these starfish earrings adorable? I got them at a garage sale a few months ago, but had never worn them. A trip to the beach seemed like a good time to debut them. I think it’s kind of fun and cheeky to wear starfish earrings to the beach.