Happy Friday, everyone! How’s this for a cute, summer-y office outfit? I’m declaring this summer the summer for dresses because they’re the first thing I reach for in the morning.  I previously wrote about how I have a closet full of dresses that I never wear (which is a lyric from a Shakira song, btw!) and even devoted a whole week on my blog to dresses in an attempt to motivate me to wear them more often. Nowadays, I can’t get enough dresses. Funny how the pendulum swings.

I love the colors in this dress. They’re so bright and happy! I think that’s why I wore this outfit to the office specifically on a day when we took our new intern out to lunch.  Do y’all do that, too? Plan to wear a specific outfit on a certain day because you’re going to be engaging in a particular activity? I do it all the time! I think “Oh, I have this new dress. I’ll save it to wear on X day because we’re doing Y thing.”

I love the flats with this dress but next time I’m going to dress it up with heels. I can’t wait!

Dress: Target | Necklace & Shoes: Old Navy | Blazer: Gap Outlet | Sunnies: Target

And when I’m not dressing it up with a blazer and flats for the office, I’m dressing it down with sandals for family time!

My little family

Happy Galentine’s Day! How cute is this floral maternity dress from Old Navy? It’s really comfortable, too. It would make the perfect Galentine’s Day outfit for brunch with all of my favorite lady friends. Also, I’ve worn it to two (of three) baby showers and I wore it out shopping and to enjoy the beautiful 80-degree weather we had on Sunday. The first two showers were in January, and it was slightly colder then so I paired the dress with my taupe ankle boots and looked pretty darn cute. It’s also office-appropriate so I’ll probably be wearing it a lot in the next few months as I start my new job.

I’m 34 weeks now and the realization that in about six-ish weeks I’ll have a real, live baby is sinking in big time. We’ve had all of our baby showers and finished the nursery, and now all that’s left is installing the car seat and packing my hospital bag. March 24th will be here before you know it!

Dress & Shoes: Old Navy | Necklace: gift | Sunglasses: Target

Linking up with Let it Shine

P.S. What’s Galentine’s Day? Allow my spirit animal, Leslie Knope, to explain:

image source

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

When I do office casual, I follow a simple formula: nice blouse, blazer, jeans, and flats (sometimes heels). I wore this to work on Friday becuase I wanted to be office casual and, even though I can dress down and usually do as I mentioned in my last post about working for a nonprofit, I had to participate in interviewing a candidate for a position in my unit so I didn’t want to dress down too much. I figure the blazer gave me just the right air of professionalism, especially for a nonprofit on a Friday!

This top is from Le Tote. I’ve been using it for a while now and really like it because I get cute tops like this one. At first I struggled with wanting to keep every single piece because I think I was stuck in a Stitch Fix mentality where I had to buy it if I was going to wear it. I don’t feel the pressure to buy like I did in the beginning. I’ll only purchase now if 1) it’s a closet staple and I’ll wear it over and over again or 2) I fall in love. That’s only happened a few times, and this piece was one of them!

How awesome are these cobalt heels from Old Navy? I wasn’t sure I would wear them very often because they’re BRIGHT BLUE but I actually wear them with everything! I love them.

Blouse: Le Tote | Blazer: Banana Republic | Denim: kensie via Stitch Fix | Shoes & Jewelry: Old Navy 

Linking up with Hello Monday | Let it Shine | Start the Week Stylish

A whole month has gone by and I haven’t posted a single thing. For that, dear readers, I apologize. I’ve mentioned a time or two how I’m not the greatest blogger and that’s only made more difficult when life starts to get the better of you.

We received some unfortunate news a few weeks back; Nick was informed he’d be getting laid off from his job, along with about 200+ other employees of this company. Needless to say, I had to focus on more pressing matters than taking pictures of my clothes. I don’t make any money from this blog so it was put on the backburner while we kicked up our job search, reached out to our networks, applied to every job we could find, and considered the very real possibility that we may have to give up our life that we’ve worked so hard to build in a community we love so much.

There is a bit of good news, though! I have amazing friends that have helped out in big ways. Thanks to my friend, Sarah, I started a part-time job as the office manager of a women’s rights organization that I really admire. I’ve also started a job in retail and Nick has picked up a part-time job in a bottle shop so I know we’re going to be alright. I feel really confident that more full-time opportunities in my field will pop up soon and Nick has a ton of poosibilities (not to mention a great mentor) so I just know something will come along for him soon, as well; life can’t get me down just yet!

The other good news is that I regularly get dressed for both of my jobs so that means more outfit posts! In the meantime, here are two outfit that I was planning to share before taking a break:

Blue Stripes Vol. 2:

You’re not experiencing déjà vu, I have worn an outfit almost identical to this one here. When you find a good formula, you should stick to it. I don’t have a lot to say about this one so I’ll just leave it here.

Top & Scarf: Gap | Jeans: Banana Republic | Shoes: Gap Outlet | Necklace: Loft Outlet

Palazzo Pants:

How fun are palazzo pants? They feel kind of like pajamas when I wear them. I feel like they’d look better if I were about 5-10 inches taller but these wedges make them work. I’ve only worn these once because they’re a tad snug these days but maybe this summer I’ll throw them on more often.

Top: Banana Republic | Pants & Wedges: Target | Jewelry: Old Navy

Since I’m regularly getting dressed for work, I’ll have more posts this week so stay tuned!