2012.01.31 - creme

This might be the first time that I actually post an outfit on the day that I wore it. I woke up late and decided to just throw together an outfit using some items of clothing that I wouldn't usually reach for. 

I look a bit startled in this photo! o.o

cream sweater - mom's
grey long sleeve shirt (mostly not visible) - Nordstrom Rack
tube dress worn as skirt - Wet Seal
thick grey tights - H&M
purple necklace - Nordstrom
crochet ankle boots - Nordstrom Rack
nail polish - Crowded by Urban Outfitters

I've had this sweater for as long as I can remember, but I always only wear it at home. For some reason, I have quite a few sweaters that I never wear out of the house. I love the look of sweaters and slouchy tops on others, but I can never seem to find outfits that I don't think look strange on me. The crew neck cut of this sweater makes me wish I had a bold, collar necklace to wear with it. If I had had more time to get dressed this morning, I would have tried on different button-downs underneath it to see which collars would look good peaking out. The preppy look of a button-down under a sweater is currently one of my favorite trends, which I will hopefully be trying out for myself more as the weather warms up a bit. For speediness, I simply put a plain, grey long-sleeve shirt under my sweater and called it good.

The skirt here is actually a tube dress that I used to wear somewhat often. It has a very summery feel, but I thought I could get away with it considering the warming weather is starting to bring the feeling of spring. The top of this dress is smocking and tends to fall down throughout the day. I knew that I wouldn't be able to make sure it stayed up very easily through my shirt and sweater, so I belted it around the waist to hold it up.

Because the rest of my outfit consisted of light, pastel colors, I wanted to ground my outfit with darker-colored tights. I didn't feel that black would match very well, so I went for a softer grey. Also, to break up the large expanse of beige that is my sweater, I wore a long, purple necklace with a large pendant. At the beginning of the day, there was a smaller, purple and turquoise pendant hanging inside the larger pendant. It must have fallen off sometime during school without me noticing, which is a bummer. I have a matching charm bracelet though, and it has two charms that are the same smaller pendant that fell off. If the empty space in the middle of my necklace pendant bothers me enough, I'll replace the center with one of the charms from that bracelet.

I've been experiencing a few very hectic and stressful weeks, but somehow painting my nails made me feel reasonably better. I hadn't painted them in far too long. Even though I only did a solid color, the feeling of having them painted inexplicably makes me feel much happier. This polish is a wonderful consistency and only requires one coat of medium thickness to completely cover my nails. It is extremely opaque and dries to a nice, smooth finish. Its staying power isn't great, but I usually paint my nails every weekend, and it lasts long enough that I don't have to worry about it having noticeable chips before the end of the week.

Well, today was the first day in I don't even know how long, that I haven't taken a nap. I was probably running primarily on adrenaline due to my recent lack of sleep, but hopefully this helps me get my sleeping schedule back to normal. I'll end my post here to sleep and relieve all of you from my endless rambling about clothes.

Thanks for checking in and follow to see upcoming outfit and nail art posts!
AprilLily

Also, if you're looking for more photo inspiration, check out my tumblr.
http://aprillily.tumblr.com/

2012.01.26 - patterns

This past weekend was a bit hectic and I didn't get around to posting my last outfit, but here it is! A few of my friends and I discovered the requirements sheet for our biology project after it was supposed to have been turned in, thanks to our less than satisfactory leader (who had been given the requirements, but somehow neglected to show or tell any of us about it). Fortunately, our teacher was quite understanding and even offered her classroom to us during club/study time so we could catch up. Thanks, Ms. B!

In the winter, it starts getting dark around 4:00 PM, which makes it difficult to get enough sunlight after coming home from school (around 3:30 on most days). Thursdays, however, are the one exception because our funky block schedule lets us out an hour and twenty minutes earlier than usual. This means I can actually get pictures in decent lighting and enjoy a couple hours of sun before retiring to my room for homework.

The weather on this day was a bit nicer for a change, and I decided to go without tights for the first time this year. Of course, I still couldn't quite go bare-legged, so I wore a pair of grey thigh-high socks. They feature a subtle bow print, which is visible but probably unidentifiable in these photos. My blazer has a thin, plaid print and my dress is an abstract, floral. There could be a bit of a clash between all these patterns, but I felt that it worked out alright because of the clear dominance of one print; the floral.

This dress has a couple lines of smocking across the bust, which would normally probably have given it an empire waistline. It was a bit big on me, however, so I belted it around my waist to achieve a more figure-flattering silhouette. I liked the cap sleeves, which I tend to think minimize the broadness of my shoulders.

The hemline was originally cut straight across, but I cut it into these points. It was around four inches longer when I bought it; I prefer mid-thigh length dresses on myself, though. Below the current hemline, there used to be another band of the floral print that covers most of the dress. I was inspired by the bright, red pattern that is now at the bottom of my dress. It reminded me of triangular banners, so instead of cutting it straight, I followed the shape of 'flags', leaving about an inch of solid red. This is a variation on the scallop trend, which I am also loving at the moment. I have been cutting the bottoms of shirts, dresses, shorts, and skirts with scallops and some definitely turn out better than others. There are some materials that simply work better to hold the scallops. Thank goodness this dress worked perfectly well. There has yet to be any fraying on the open edge and the fabric does not curl up at all when stretched horizontally. It has even been through the washer and dryer without any changes!

This is just a close-up of the brown, woven belt I wore over the dress. The loop that the excess belt goes through is not movable, so I used a bobby pin to keep it down. I just stuck it through the weaving and secured it on the belt it was wrapped on top of. I used my medium-brown belt as an excuse to wear my brown oxfords, yet again. I reach for those almost every time I don't want to pick out a different pair. I'm one of those girls that has too many pairs of shoes and items of clothing, but wears the same things over and over. I constantly go to my closet and complain about how I have nothing to wear, but in reality, I still have loads of clothes that haven't even been worn. I simply get in ruts with the clothes I wear. One of my many goals this year is to wear some pieces that have been sitting in my closet, untouched, since I bought them.

floral dress - Ross
plaid blazer - Nordstrom Rack
brown belt-  from mom
grey thigh high socks - Forever21
brown oxfords - Steve Madden from Marshall's

Follow and keep checking back to see how I wear those pieces! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. I will probably post some nail art pictures tomorrow to take a break from these outfit-of-the-days.
AprilLily

p.s. Check out my tumblr if you want to get to know me a bit better and see some of the things that inspire me!
http://aprillily.tumblr.com/

2012.01.25 - casual stripes

This was one of the laziest weeks I have had in a while. Missing a week of school led to a bunch of work to make up, which led to extremely late nights and tiredness. I like to wear shorts and tights on days that I don't want to spend much time getting ready in the morning because I can basically throw on any pair of tights, shirt, and outerwear. On the days that I wear dresses, I have to find something to wear over them that will work with whatever length the dress is. I usually want my coat or cardigan to be close a couple inches longer or shorter than my dress. With shorts and tights, I can wear the shorter jackets in my closet that don't get much use.

This blue-ish cardigan has one button, which I left undone, and a tie around the waist that I tied in the back. I will try to remember to snap a picture of that the next time I wear it. It was a few inches longer when I first purchased it, but shrank after being washed. It is now just short enough for me to want to wear it with shorts because my shorts will peak out the bottom. With my longer outerwear, I can sometimes get and awkward effect where my jacket will be just long enough to cover my shorts. This usually means it looks like I'm not wearing pants from the back... Looking like I'm wearing a jacket that goes just to the bottom of my butt with a pair of sheer tights is not good.

My striped shirt is a nice basic and I found it a while ago in a drawer full of clothing that, for some reason, had never been worn. It has three small, white buttons on one of the shoulders, which I should also get a picture of next time. These shorts are some Levi's that I also found at the bottom of a drawer that I never use. They were the strange early-90's length, but I just had to roll them up to have a more modern pair of high-waisted shorts. They are quite big for me around the waist, so I did not tuck in my shirt, which I normally would have done. These tights have small vertical stripes on them, which you might be able to see in the picture above. Lastly, I wore these two-tone oxfords.

This necklace pendant came from a necklace that I found at my thrift store. I wear the chain that it came on separately. I wore this larger pendant with this outfit to break up the simplicity. These shoes are mostly dark brown faux leather with accents of cream. The cream areas are a slightly fuzzy material, but thankfully they have not been getting dirty, which I expected them to. I like that these oxfords have thicker, ribbon-like laces, which sets them apart from the other pairs I have. I do, however, generally prefer the tradition, round laces.

blue cardigan - Aslan's Thrift
red&white striped shirt - found at home
necklace - Helping Hands Thrift Store
Levi's - found at home
black thin stripe tights - mom's closet
two-tone oxfords - Nordstrom Rack

I still have a lot of homework to catch up on this weekend and am trying to sneak in a few blog posts in my free time. I will probably get another post up tonight. It will either be the last outfit from this week or I will think of a different idea.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and thanks for checking out my outfit!
AprilLily

2012.01.24 - romantic

Tuesday was another chilly day, so I started out my outfit by choosing this long, mottled sweater. I found this dress on sale at NordstromRack and bought it in two colors. I hardly realize that they are the same dress anymore because they have different prints, which give them completely different feels. I wear both of them a bit too often. I love flowy, chiffon-like materials, so when I'm having lazy days, and don't feel like spending the time to find a more creative outfit, I throw on one of these dresses and go. 

b&w sweater - Nordstrom Rack

pink floral dress - Nordstrom Rack

cream camisole (not visible) - American Eagle

black knit tights - from mom's closet

maroon knee socks - daiso

brown oxfords - Steven Madden from Marshall's

This is just a quick post to get an outfit picture up. It was really cloudy and grey this day, so the lighting was terrible. I tried a different location in my house with the self-timer on my camera. The focus was a bit off, with the only clear bit being around my stomach, but I was too tired to hunt for a better location. School from 7:10 AM to 3:00 PM is killer. 

Thanks for checking out my blog.

AprilLily

P.S. Check out my tumblr if you want to see some of the things that inspire me and my taste in clothing.

http://aprillily.tumblr.com/

OOTD 2012.01.23

I was far too busy this week to post my outfits the days that I wore them, but I will be catching up over this weekend. Today was supposed to be the end of semester, but due to the snow, there was no school all of last week and the end of semester was pushed back a week. Fortunately, our non-student day was not taken away, so we still get a long weekend, starting tomorrow. The reason I have not posted in so long is not only because I did not have outfits to post last week, but also because my power was out from last Wednesday until Sunday night. Anyway, I am back and here is my outfit from Monday!

After having over a week of wonderful sleep-filled relaxation and no school, I was not very excited to have to wake up and get dressed before 6:00 AM. I was drawn to my velvet button-down because of its comfort and warmth. There were still several inches of snow on the ground, but it was over 40 degrees, so a thick jacket wasn't necessary. I purchased this shirt at my local thrift store for about $3-4. It still had its original tags on it and was priced at $68! It is an XL, but I could still not pass it up and I wear it over-sized with the sleeves rolled up. I instantly loved the color of this shirt and the fact that the collar and sleeve cuffs are lined with silk.

Zina (one of my doggies) snuck into my picture.

Here is a look at my outfit without the button-down. The sunlight and glare from the snow washed out my full body photos, so the picture on the right is more true to real life in terms of color. This mint green tank top is also over-sized. It has pleats, lace, ruffles, and three buttons on the front, which produce a tuxedo-shirt-like design. I purchased it in a L or XL so that it would be extra long. I wanted it to be at least to the bottom of my bottom so it could be worn as a tunic. I use this trick of wearing longer tops over dresses all the time. It instantly adds the couple extra inches I need on my hemline and another layer for warmth in the winter. I simply wore a black sheath dress under the top because of its streamlined shape. I found this dress at Wet Seal for $2.50. I finished off my outfit with purple-ish tights and plain black oxfords ($12).

I hope you got a bit of outfit inspiration from this post. On my laziest days I usually pull out a few outfit techniques such as wearing comfy outerwear and this 'tunic over dress' tip.

Thanks for reading and hope you check back for more later!
AprilLily

OOTD 2012.01.09

So I realize I haven't posted in a while and this outfit is a bit overdue. I was having a crazy week with a ton of homework and hopefully that gives me a reasonable excuse for the plainness of my outfits. The weather here has been crazy this week with over a foot of snow, which is almost unheard of in the lowlands in Washington. We usually only get a few inches for a couple days every winter. However, the day that I wore this outfit, we had not yet gotten any snow and it was a relatively warm day. 

I started my outfit with this striped bodycon dress simply because I had not worn it in a while. I layered a kimono-like, chiffon cardigan on top of that and topped it off with my dark grey, plaid boyfriend blazer. Also, excuse the awkward lighting in this picture :)

Here's a quick look at the different layers. I wore knit, navy tights for warmth and black oxfords. My cardigan-like top is a silky chiffon and is covered in a swirly, paisley pattern featuring varying shades of blue and green. It is trimmed all around with white lace and has a drawstring tie around the waist, which I chose to leave undone. I purchased this in a large size, so it is not meant to be worn as slouchy as it is shown here. I most use this top as a layering piece, so I wanted it to be a bit long in order for it to peak out from underneath whatever i wear over the top of it. 

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/caramelchucky/Triplebowback4.jpg

The dress I wore has this triple bow detailing on the back, except the stripes on mine are vertical on the bows. Also, my tights have a subtle stripe made by different textures in the knit which are not quite visible in the whole outfit pictures. 

So the past two weeks have basically been completely hectic with all the school work, which made me extra thankful that it finally decided to snow here giving us snow days! Unfortunately, I had lost my camera for the better part of a week, which prevented me from uploading these outfit pictures for far too long or taking new pictures. Also, after staying up until 3am almost everyday to finish homework, I wasn't exactly jumping out of bed in the morning to pick out a nice outfit and put on makeup, which explains why all these pictures are sans mascara. D: 

Hope you enjoyed this post and check back for something new soon! I probably won't have any post-worthy outfits until the snow starts melting and school starts again, which is predicted to be Friday or maybe even tomorrow if it rains tonight (hopefully not). 

As always, thanks for reading!

AprilLily

OOTD 01.06.2012

Here's the outfit that I wore to school yesterday. I ended up falling asleep for 14 hours after getting off my computer...so that would explain why I am posting it today instead of yesterday.

I'm a pretty big wimp when it comes to cold weather, so I like to layer up. But, I don't want to look super bulky, so I try to wear clothing that is warm without being too thick. I wore black sweater leggings over a pair of thick, knit tights on bottom. The velvet dress I wore was featured in my recent haul. I only had to wear a camisole underneath to prevent the cold underside of the velvet from being directly on my skin. It is a very warm material and I only had to layer a long, knit cardigan over the top. Even though my waist wasn't really visible under my large cardigan, I still decided to belt the dress.

On my feet, I wore some lace-up, ankle boots that I just got at Nordstrom Rack. I love the crochet panels, but I didn't want my feet to the wind through them and my wide-knit tights so I also wore maroon knee high socks, which I scrunched down around the tops of my shoes.

Lastly, I wore this little pendant, which is a basket of flowers. It's actually a small pin, but I always find brooches and other small trinkets and re-purpose them as necklaces.

I hope the new year is going well for all of you and you haven't given up on your resolutions yet! I'm glad to be back on my blog and will post again soon, so check back! I will be trying to post during any free time I find between college apps, school work, and random stuff at home.

Thanks for reading!
AprilLily

OOTD 01.04.2012

This is the outfit that I wore on Wednesday to school. It was the first day back from winter break and I wanted to wear something because I knew I would be tired after having been able to sleep in all break. Usually when I need an outfit that does not require much planning or thought, I wear shorts with tights because I can wear anything on top.

I wore a bright reddish-coral top and my black, boyfriend blazer on top. The tights I wore were quite a thick, open knit, which meant that they were very warm and insulated, but let the wind through. Again, I took my shoes off when I got home, but I just wore plain brown oxfords. I also wore the watch that I showed in my recent thrift haul.

If you would like to know where any of the things I wore are from or how much they cost, leave a comment below and I will get back to you!

I'll be having many school projects and large homework assignments in the weeks to come so I may not be able to post after school very easily. I will however take pictures of my outfits everyday and catch up with posting them on the weekends. I might end up doing outfits of the week posts instead. I will post the outfit that I wore today later today or possibly tomorrow if I end up sleeping too much today. I have been staying up way too late finishing my homework all this week and will definitely have to make up for the missed sleep over this weekend. Why is it that not a single teacher of mine assigned any homework over the long winter break, but then piled it on with super short turnaround as soon as we got back to school? I would have much rather been able to work on this homework slowly over break when I was actually bored at home, wasting time online. Well, at least this week is over and I can try to get ahead on some of my homework over the weekend.

As always, thanks for reading and check back for more posts soon!
AprilLily

Small Thrift Haul

After making it through my winter break without breaking the bank buying clothes, I decided to take a quick trip to my local thrift store and pick up a few things for myself. I tried on a bunch of things, but only picked up four items of clothing. Then while walking to the check-out counter, I spotted a watch that I had to grab as well.

Here are the bits I picked up!

White cardigan with gold chain trim. $4.97

The first thing I got was this white cardigan with a gold chain that runs around the entire front edge. It is from the brand Merona, and is a Large. As you can see, it still has the original tags on it, which means it had not been worn before being donated. I often try on cardigans and shirts that are in larger sizes to try to find ones that will drape nicely over my body. I tried on a few cardigans at the store this day, but this was the only one that fell nicely. Also, I find that when wearing over-sized tops, the sleeves usually still have to fit relatively snugly in order for it to look like it is meant to be worn over-sized.

This piece is very basic, but the extra detail of the chain keeps this cardigan from being the same one that everyone else has in their closets. Also, somehow I had never picked up a white cardigan before, and this is a basic that everyone should have. Because it is a large, it falls quite long on me. I like this because I wear dresses almost every day and I prefer for my outerwear to be longer to be in proportion with my dresses.

Black skirt with metallic gold pattern. $3.97

I mentioned that I wear dresses almost everyday. I realized that I did not have many skirts in my wardrobe. I hardly ever wear shirts because I do not like to wear jeans. The only days that I do not wear dresses, I wear shorts with tights. I only have a few skirts that I like to wear, which made me start looking for more skirts so I can wear the tops I have that don't get much use.

It is a medium from the brand Ecote and sits just above my bellybutton. It also has pockets, which I love in all my clothing. I like this piece because it is casual but can be dressed up due to the shape and the metallic gold pattern on it.

Unbelted velvet dress. $4.97

I have been needing a velvet dress and found this large velvet shirt, which looks like a complete rectangle. It is just long enough for me to feel comfortable wearing it as a dress. It covers up my bottom completely but I will probably still wear it with leggings or thick knit tights rather than sheer ones. The neck is a rounded square shape.

Velvet dress belted.

Here is the same dress with a brown skinny belt around it. Not only does this accentuate my waist, but it produces an A-line shape in the bottom portion, which is much more flattering on me than the straight shape it has without the belt.

Nina K embellished blazer. $5.97

The last item of clothing I purchases was this black blazer with gold embellishments on the front of the shoulders and on the pocket flaps. It has a single button with fake pearls and rhinestones. It is a large and it came with shoulder pads, but I removed them. It is a bit over-sized on me, but without the shoulder pads I think it can pass as a somewhat over-sized boyfriend blazer. I am also glad that it is long enough for me to wear with my dresses without awkward length proportions.

Geneva watch on. $3.00

The last thing I got was this Geneva bracelet watch. It is a slightly burnished silver with a gold face, which means it will go with most other jewelry. It is an oval shape and fits my wrist really well, which is good considering it is not adjustable and there are no links that can be taken out.

That is all I got on my most recent trip out to my local thrift store. All of the clothing I purchased looked as though they had not been worn very much, if at all. I was glad to finally have a few new items to go back to school with. Today is the last day of my winter break unfortunately, and tomorrow I will have to wake up early again and try to put together a presentable outfit. The plus side of this is that I will be posting new outfits once again. I will try to take pictures of my outfits after school and at least do quick, little posts for them as often as possible.

Thanks for reading and stop by for more posts soon!
AprilLily

Trending: Peter Pan Collars

Trending: Peter Pan Collars by aprillily featuring a peter pan collar blouse

Peter Pan collars are my favorite aspect of the 60's trend, which will continue to be big in the new year. Contrasting collars are especially popular because the shape will stand out more. Also, special variations such as lace and double collars. Three of the most prevalent colors for collared shirts are black, white, and nude. Fortunately, all of these colors are neutrals, which means they can be paired with almost anything. They look great with jeans, but I find that they look best tucked into high-waisted skirts and shorts. 


This is just a quick, little post on a trend to look forward to in the new year. If you have any questions about how to style this trend, leave it in the comments. Thanks for stopping by and check back for more trend posts!

AprilLily

Giulietta blouse
$490 - net-a-porter.com

DKNY black shirt
$177 - my-wardrobe.com

Oasis polyester shirt
$60 - oasis-stores.com

Jane Norman peter pan collar blouse
€25 - janenorman.co.uk

Dorothy Perkins blouse
$39 - dorothyperkins.com