Haul - Thrift, Forever21, NordstromRack

I'm one of those people that has a lot of trouble saving my money for more than a few days. After getting a bit of money from dog-sitting my a family friend's dog, I couldn't help but to go shopping and spend most of it in just a few days. The first place that I had to go was my local thrift store, of course! (sorry, this post is a bit picture-heavy)

All product info will be posted at the bottom!!

The first thing I got at the thrift store was this pair of heeled oxfords. They're really dark navy blue and real leather. I was super excited when I saw these because they're just my style, size, and price range. They had also never been worn before (stickers still inside and soles completely intact). The heels are pretty low and they feel totally flat when I walk in them. They're amazingly comfortable and I'm looking forward to wearing and styling these!

Next, I got this heather grey sweater. I guess it's sort of a cardigan because it has a button, but I'll be wearing it unbuttoned anyway. It's super cozy and just slouchy enough. It's an XL, but basically fits like an over-sized medium. I tried it on in the fitting room with sweater leggings and a tank top and really liked the look, so I'll see if I can incorporate it into outfits that don't involve dresses.

I grabbed this shirt off the 99 cent rack just to try on. Somehow I had never picked up anything with sequins on it before. Super shiny and glitzy things aren't really my style, but I still think it's a good idea to have something like this in your closet. Because the small sequins and bead on this t-shirt are black and match the fabric, they don't stand out too much. I'll probably use this shirt to jazz up a casual outfit with plain jeans or shorts. It'll be great for a lazy day because I could just throw it on and not have to worry about jewelry.

I've always had a thing for lace and don't think I'll ever get tired of it. I already have a number of dresses and tops with lace, but this I picked out this shirt because it's a bit different. It's a really flattering shade of pink and the floral print on it reminded me of vintage designs. The body is lined with a wine-colored silk and the sleeves are just lace.

Another fabric that I haven't been able to get enough of is velvet. I knew I wanted this top as soon as I saw it. I couldn't believe it was on the 99 cent rack, but of course I wasn't complaining. Usually I see velvet in black, navy, maroon, or maybe dark green. The bold, floral print on this tank top was obviously more unique and I could totally see myself wearing this with high-waisted denim shorts once the weather gets nicer.

This is just a simple cardigan, but the fit and color were enough to sell me on it. It's a bit more turquoise in real life. I loved the feel of the fabric: thin, soft, and sturdy. Also, I always need to have pockets in my outfits, so I was glad that this cardigan had two on the front. The length was another thing that I loved about it. I usually buy outwear with longer lengths to pair with my dresses. This means I often buy cardigans a size up so they'll be longer, but this also results in them being wider and generally less flattering. This cardigan, however, is simply designed longer and is still really slim.

The color was what first drew me to this halter top. It's a rich, saturated blue and I thought it would go well with my skin tone. I also don't have any clothing with zipper detailing, which has been popular for quite a while. Even though this trend seems to be dying down, I tried this top on and really liked the way it fit. It's much better looking on than on the hanger or lying flat. It'll be a simple top to style and wear on my lazy days in the summer.

I've been really loving cozy sweaters recently. I grabbed this black one because of the open weave on the bottom of the body and sleeves. It's not really anything  super special, but it'll be easy to style. I'm sure it will fit in with my other clothes and I can already picture a ton of outfits with it. Also, the material is an interesting thick knit. I have no idea what it is, but it's not fuzzy at all and is more smooth and sleek than yarn. I'm hoping that that means it won't get fuzzies under the sleeves after it's been worn.

This is the last thing I got at the thrift store. I glanced at the jewelry rack when I was walking to the register and this big pendant caught my eye immediately. It came on a silver chain, but I didn't particularly like it or its length, so I'm just going to use one of my own. This pendant is probably about 2-2.5 inches in diameter and will be a nice statement piece. The turquoise bits are lovely and bright and I was a little surprised to see that none of them were missing. Also, my jewelry collection had been lacking turquoise (apparently I was missing a bunch of key pieces!), so I'm glad I found this. I'll probably be wearing it all summer.

The next things I got were from Bartell Drugs. The Revlon nail polishes were on sale, so I decided to pick up a couple.

This first nail polish is a gorgeous shade of deep green. Basically the name, Jaded Night, tells you what it looks like. It's a dark, but bold, forest green. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like a glossy creme. This one, being a new shade, was on sale for $3.50.

The other nail polish I picked up was a light, pastel blue. It has small clear glitter in it. I'm excited to see how the glitter looks when applied to nails. Because this wasn't one of the new colors, it was only $2.50 on sale.

I'll post pictures of these polished on my nails when I try them out!

Lastly, I stopped at the mall really quickly today while my doggy was getting his hair cut. I was mostly window shopping (I can't justify these prices after discovering amazing thrift stores!), but I did pick up a few things.

This cute earring set was from Forever21's accessory store, Forlove21. I was mainly attracted to the bottom pair, of course, but I'm sure I'll wear the other two pairs of studs as well. I'm also hoping to get second piercings on my lobes soon, so I'll want a bunch of small studs to wear. I'm really thinking about getting my snug pierced. Google an ear-piercing diagram if you don't know what that is!

The only other thing I got at Forlove21 was this fedora. I tend to like lighter-colored fedoras more than the darker ones and this one was perfect for me. It was exactly what I had in mind when I pictured the fedora I wanted. The striped ribbon is perfect for my taste and I'm excited to wear this in the summer!

Finally, the last things I got today were two pairs of tights. I usually spend much more for my tights, but I found these at Nordstrom Rack for only $3.97. I don't really think that's all that cheap for a simple pair of tights, but I always find myself having to spend much more than that for decent pairs. I've been wanting dot tights for the longest time, but had yet to find any for under $8-10!. I never really bothered to look at the hosiery much at Nordstrom Rack because I assumed they would be just as pricey, if not more. I was actually in the accessory section looking at wallets when I saw these. I didn't want to stand in line just for one pair of tights so I grabbed the floral lace ones as well. I already have a pair of black lace tights, but the pattern is really noticeably different. Also, because I wear dresses almost everyday, I don't think I'll ever have enough pairs of tights. I'll probably break these out and wear them with shorts on the chillier days this summer. Clearly, I already have summer dressing on my brain... It's just too bad that I live in Washington state and it'll probably be relatively rainy and gloomy until well into April or May. 

Alright! I'm going to cut this post off before it gets even longer. Thanks for sticking all the way to the end of it! I'll be back up with another post soon, so check back for that. 

Don't forget to follow and leave any questions or comments below!

AprilLily

Thrifted:

navy heeled oxfords - 4.00

grey sweater - 0.99

black sequin shirt - 0.99

pink floral lace top - 0.99

floral velvet top - 0.99

turquoise cardigan - 3.97

blue zipper halter top - 2.97

black sweater - 3.97

turquoise necklace - 3.00

Bartell Drugs:

Revlon in Jaded Night - 3.49

Revlon in Blue Lagoon - 2.50

Forever21:

earring stud pack - 3.80

fedora - 10.80

Nordstrom Rack:

floral lace tights - 3.97

sheer dot tights - 3.97

2012.02.06 - professional & valentine's day nails

navy jacket - Macy's
black&grey tiered dress - Wet Seal
red camisole - Costco!
white lace camisole - American Eagle
navy tights - mom's closet
black heeled oxfords - consignment store

This outfit is a bit dressier than I usually look because I had a presentation. I'm not one of those people that thinks brown and black or blue and black can't go together. I find that if it looks like you meant to put those colors together, it will look fine. I chose to wear navy and blue this day simply because I wanted to wear this jacket. It hadn't been worn in quite some time and it was just about the level of dressiness that I wanted. To make it look intentional, I wore close to equal parts navy and black. Because my outfit was so dark, I added a small pop of color with my red camisole. It wasn't super noticeable, but made I felt better knowing that I wasn't blue and black from head to toe. As a side note, I swear this dress doesn't look as short in real life as it does in these pictures! It could be because of the camera angle...


Basically I used my presentation as an excuse to wear these heels. It's a little strange to me when girls wear heels to high school without a good reason. I have yet to see a good reason for a girl to wear legitimate pumps to school, but booties and others shoes with a higher vamp (the part on top of the foot) are much better. Really petite girls also seem to be able to pull off wearing heels sometimes because they don't tower over everyone. Now I'm not that tall at a little over 5'5", but with heels I can be about 5'9". 

And I know it's a little late, but these are the nails that I had for Valentine's Day. They were pretty simple and I got the idea from those cute, couple pillows. I don't know if there is a pillow set with this particular design, but I thought it would be quick and easy. It's a boy throwing a paper airplane to a girl. I was going to make the thumb nail a piece of binder paper with the blue lines, but I didn't have the right blue. 

It took me three coats of white polish to get it as opaque as I wanted, which made me a bit impatient for the remainder of my painting. It's pretty evident because you can probably see a number of smudges that I was too lazy to fix. I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out though!

Hope you all are having a good day and stop by soon for a quick thrift haul!

AprilLily

2012.02.01 - mulberry

Sorry I've been away for a while! Just the usual: homework, school, tests, family and friend stuff, and I got sick for a week. 

This outfit is from a couple weeks ago. I haven't even been taking pictures of my outfits for a while because I've been out for 12 hours at a time on most days. When I get home I'm just too tired (and lazy) to spend time taking pictures. I also look pretty ruffled by the time I'm finally home, so it's hardly even worth it to take pictures. 

This day was fairly casual, but I spruced it up a bit with my watches. 

cream cardigan - thrifted

mulberry shirt - ModBod Clothing

black shorts - Levi's (vintage from my closet)

tights - Forever21

black oxfords (not pictured) - Ross

silver Geneva watch - thrifted

rose gold watch (Style&co.) - Macy's

lilac nail polish - Urban Outfitters in Crowded

I wore all solid colors this day, but my cardigan was the focal point because of the pretty ribbon and pearl details on it. Under my cardigan, I wore a basic shirt with elbow-length sleeves. The neckline is supposed to be a rounded V, but it's basically just a high scoop. It's a pretty maroon, mulberry-ish color and surprisingly warm. Next, I wore my black high-waisted Levi's over a plain pair of sheer, black tights. I wanted my outfit to be relatively plain so the details on the cardigan would stand out even though they are all the same creamy color. Also, I wore my black oxfords, but had taken them off at this point. (:


In the second-to-last picture, you might be able to see that my shorts have a bunch of white fluff on them; this cardigan tends to shed. I rolled up the sleeves so I could wear my watches. I also just liked the look of my cardigan better with the sleeves rolled up because they were a bit big. I find that I can buy large and extra-large shirts and cardigans and they will look like they are meant to be over-sized if the sleeves fit. Even though the sleeves on this cardigan showed that I purchased it in a larger size, I made an exception because the ribbons and pearls on it were so pretty. It was in great condition and I couldn't pass it up since it was under $5. It wasn't even missing any pearl beads or buttons!


As for why I'm wearing two watches...I had seen this look a few times before, including from SecretLifeofaBionerd. Look her up on youtube or ThreadBanger if you haven't seen her before! I've seen this come up a couple times, but I don't think it's really an established trend yet. The first time I saw the idea of wearing two watches at once was in the third outfit in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_575643&feature=iv&src_vid=T5M5qx8jHmk&v=rd-ThSINsVk

I'm on mid-winter break this week (thank God), so I'll be trying to make up for my absence. It feels good to be back on my blog! Thanks for checking it out, and come back for new posts soon.
AprilLily

Nail Art - refreshing

I thought I would post something other than an outfit today for a change. With my schedule being filled to the brim, I  haven't really been painting anything interesting on my nails. I do still have some older pictures that I never posted, however. Hopefully I remember to set aside some time this weekend and start up my habit of painting my nails again! But for now, enjoy the pictures.

Graphic palm tree design

Shoddy attempt at bamboo on light silver background

Variation on the usual black lace over pale colors. I must say I prefer to do my
lace nails with any color other than white, but it was still worth trying out. 

Simple, cute panda nails for going to the zoo

Halloween last year. 

Thumb: witch shadow over moon, with autumn leaves surrounding.

Index: tombstone and ghost

Middle: haunted house

Ring: black cat on fence with moon behind

Pinky: RIP tombstone with hand coming out of grave

Ocean scene

These are most of the remaining designs that I found pictures of on my computer. I might check and see if I have any others that were taken on my phone (which explains the poor photo quality). Leave me a question if you want to know what any of these polishes are, or how I created the designs.

I'm thinking about taking pictures throughout the process of my next nail art design, so I can put up a mini tutorial with photos. Let me know what you think!

Also, if you are interested in seeing my previous post with more nail designs, check here: http://lilyinlace.blogspot.com/2011/12/ready-for-new-year.html

Hope everyone is having a wonderful new year so far. I can't believe we're already a month in. Thanks for stopping by, and follow for more nail art!
AprilLily

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/