For the majority of my career, I’ve worked for nonprofit organizations. I love the work and I love that I feel good about what I do because I know we’re making a difference in the community. I also appreciate that I’ve never really had a hard dress code. Mostly, it’s always been wear whatever you want as long as you didn’t sleep in it (you know, pajamas). My current office is business casual which roughly translates to “anything but regular blue jeans” except on casual Fridays. And I really like this because it forces me to put some thought into my work wear without having to follow guidelines that are too rigid. Some days I feel like dressing up a little more than others and our business casual allows for that.

In my office, it’s not uncommon to see anything from skirt/pant suits to pretty skirts to chinos and a nice blouse. And I’ve worn them all. This is an outfit I work to work last week and it fit quite nicely. It could easily be a drab gray and white number but all of the little details take it up a notch. The tied belt and pleats add visual interest to the trousers while the sparkle of the shoe adds a little pep in my step 🙂

Who says you can’t look cute and fun even when you sit at a desk, entering data?! Now I just have to do something about that hair.

Top: Belk, I think | Trousers: Banana Republic | Shoes: Fioni via Payless | Necklace: Old Navy | Watch & Sunnies: Target

I returned some Christmas/birthday gifts and with the extra cash, I headed to Target to shop for purses and instead found this scarf. I was drawn to it immediately because of the beautiful colors and floral pattern, and I knew I had a lot of stuff I could wear it with but especially these cobalt flats. Like most of us, I usually try to match or coordinate my accessories and this combination was surely a match made in heaven.

this combination was surely a match made in heaven

I wore this outfit to tour a few day care centers near my house. Why was I touring child care centers, you might ask? Because on Thursday I accepted a job offer to work in the Development unit of a local women’s health organization as their development and program coordinator! I can’t tell you how grateful (and relieved) I am that they hired me knowing I’m 8 months pregnant AND knowing that they’re giving me maternity leave when I’ll have only been there for, like, a month. It only took me three months, which was only half the time it took me to find a job when I graduated from my masters program. This is definitely going to make life easier for my little family.

Back to the outfit: It was so nice in NC yesterday that it got too warm for the scarf. In fact, I removed it completely when I took Mia for her late afternoon walk. Now that I’m going to be working again, Nick and I did some shopping over the weekend for office-appropriate clothes should be able to wear both now and after the baby (with the help of my trusty belly band) and I can see myself wearing this scarf with most of the outfits that I bought. That means you’ll probably be seeing it a lot more on the blog!

Sweater: Banana Republic | Jeans: Mavi maternity via Stitch Fix | Scarf: Target | Shoes: Old Navy | Earrings: Spencer’s

How cute is this top? I liked it so much that I bought it in two colors, this one (“silver sash brown”) and fuchsia/purple, and it didn’t hurt that they were on sale. While available in maternity sizes, I opted for the regular size because you can do that when you’re as small as I am! Just one more pro to standing in at five feet tall. I think the best part about being able to wear regular sizes while pregnant is that they will still fit after pregnancy. A two-for-one deal, really. These coated denim jeans aren’t maternity either so I’ve turned to my trusty belly band. I could have worn dark denim but I feel like I wear those ALL. THE. TIME. so I wanted to change it up a little bit.

I started out in heels but quickly changed my mind, mostly because I don’t really like these heels. They’re uncomfortable and surprisingly hard to walk in — and I don’t usually have trouble walking in heels. I wanted so much to love them and I’ve tried very hard to make them work but I think I’m going to have to replace them. For the purpose of this outfit, which was to have lunch with Nick and run to the grocery store for some juice and cookies (yay pregnancy), I think I like the flats better anyway. What do you think?

Also, I’m sorry not sorry about holding my belly in these pics because pre-pregnancy, when I thought I didn’t want kids at all, I would see women holding their pregnant bellies and all I could think was, ‘okay, we get it. you’re pregnant’ but now that I’m pregnant, I finally get it — at least for me, it’s to show that I am growing a human and not just bloated from a burrito. But, haters gonna hate and I sincerely apologize for my past ignorance.

Chiffon-Hem Top: Old Navy | Necklace: Old Navy | Coated Denim Jeans: Banana Republic | Heels: via Payless | Flats: Old Navy | Rings: Old Navy

Linking up with What I Wore to Work | On the Edge

Y’all, with all of this snowy winter weather, I have been in full-on hibernation mode. Where I live, it started sleeting on Friday evening which turned to snow that didn’t let up until Saturday evening, resulting in about 2 inches of beautiful fluffy snow on top of an inch of pure ice. I had every intention of taking fun outfit pictures in the snow, but when it came right down to it, it was just too cold! The low on Sunday was in the single digits. That’s rare for these parts of NC so Nick, the dog, and I stayed bundled up indoors. Luckily, I got some mirror photos/selfies of a few past outfits that I’ll share with you instead. As usual, apologies for the quality but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

Gingham shirt: Target | Vest: Old Navy | Pants: Loft | Shoes: Old Navy 

I wore this gingham/vest combo on Thursday (and then again on Friday) to run errands before the wintery bottom dropped out of the sky. It’s been on my list to wear for a while but I was afraid the pants would be uncomfortable since they’re not maternity, but I was pleasantly surprised how well they held up with just a belly band. The shirt is struggling a bit against the belly, though, so I might have to retire this one until after the baby arrives.

Sweater: Banana Republic | Skirt: Target | Boots: Old Navy | Scarf: Target

I wore this cute little sweater/skirt combo to meet with my career coach to learn how to improve my resume. She gave me some really good tips that I’m hoping will land me a job sooner rather than later. This was taken when I was only about 6 months along (so about 1.5 months ago) and the career coach had no idea I was pregnant until I told her. Looking at this photo now, I can understand why. Tiny little bump!

Sweater and Tank: Banana Republic | Jeans: Target (Liz Lange Maternity) | Boots: BP Trolley via Nordstrom | Necklace: via Le Tote

I wear this outfit all. the. time. Seriously, it has become my go-to outfit for everything from errands to doctor appointments to hanging out to whatever. I love the layered look and it’s really comfortable and the boots make it feel even more stylish. I don’t really know what else to say about it except that I love it.

Sweater: J. Crew Outlet | Vest and Jeans: Banana Republic | Boots: Old Navy | Necklace: via Francesca’s

So, this was a really cute outfit but an example of one that didn’t quite work so I had to change it up a bit. These are not maternity jeans and they did not hold up well with the belly band. I wore this outfit to do some shopping and after my first stop I came home to change because I was literally pulling my pants up every 3 seconds. Very uncomfortable. The purple sweater/vest/purple boots combo, however, is on point so all I did was change into a pair of light washed, distressed maternity jeans and got the same effect.

 Anyway, I hope you’re all having a happy Friday and not tucked up in bed bed all day to avoid the back luck that is thought to come on Friday the 13th! Did you know that there are TWO Friday the 13ths in 2017?  January 13th (today) and October 13. Everyone beware, mwah-ha-ha! 😀

*this is a long one but hopefully worth the read*

I took a six-month blogging break so I could figure out what blogging meant for me. Am I even a blogger? I like writing but what do I want to write about? And would anyone else care about what I had to say? These were the things I thought about and even consulted with some of my friends. There were plenty of times I thought I was ready to start back up. A post idea would come to me and I’d start writing it in my head but the post never made it to paper/screen. Before I could sit myself down to write it all out, I would have talked myself out of it. I’d tell myself that it was a stupid idea and that no one would care about it. Or I would put together a super cute outfit and get tons of compliments on it and think, ‘this should go on the blog,’ but then I’d hear that voice telling me that sure, it’s a cute outfit for me, but it would never stand up to some of the outfits being displayed by the more popular bloggers — even though I had all the same elements.

I’m writing this post because I recently had an epiphany. Okay, maybe epiphany is too strong of a word. But I realized that I first started my blog because, although I was still learning how to be fashionable myself, I really liked my style and was getting a lot of inspiration from other bloggers, and I wanted to share my new knowledge with others like me, average girls who wanted to feel pretty and stylish. I came to understand that everyone who has a blog does so because they just put their stuff out there and that stuff makes its way to people who like reading it, whether that’s an outfit, a story, travel tips, life hacks, etc. I know that’s very simplistic, but in a nutshell that’s all blogging is.

Now, I’ve hated telling people about my blog because I haven’t felt like a real blogger. I’m just someone who puts words and pictures on a screen and then sends those words and pictures out into the ether of the internet. Even now, I mostly put together my outfits based on inspiration I’ve gotten from other bloggers and what I see on Pinterest. My google searches often start with, “How to wear…” so that makes me feel like I don’t know enough about fashion to be a “fashion blogger.” But one time, at a party, I showed my friend the trick for wearing non-skinny jeans with tall boots and she told me that I just had to put that on my blog. At the time I resisted because it was already on someone else’s blog but now I know that while I may not have come up with that idea, I did help spread it to a new audience. Isn’t that what the internet is even for?!

So, yes, I look to Pinterest, other bloggers, and the styled mannequins at clothing stores for outfit inspiration, but I’m pretty good at putting my own spin on whatever I put together. In high school, I proudly wore purple pleather pants, dammit. I’m going to continue to wear what I like, write about things that interest me, and share it all with you in case you like it, too. Maybe it’ll help you. Maybe it’ll entertain you. Maybe you’ll find it educational. But that’s what blogging is to me and it’s what I’ll continue to do!

 Sweater: J. Crew Outlet | Hat: Old Navy | Necklace: Stitch Fix | Denim: Banana Republic | Shoes: Target