NCsquared at the Food Truck Rodeo

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend! We celebrated the unofficial end of summer by eating delicious food at Durham’s Food Truck Rodeo and having a night in with our neighbors on Sunday and by watching a lot of Netflix on Monday. It was pretty awesome. Luckily the weather was great all weekend because we had to turn off our air conditioner yesterday due to a possible freon leak — the house started to smell like band-aids every time the air would kick on, so weird — and the techs are coming out this afternoon to check things out. Other than that, we had a pretty uneventful weekend.

But this is my end-of-summer outfit. Warm enough for a sleeveless blouse and close enough to Fall for cute open-toe booties. Wearing boots in the summer can be super stylish, but I’m just now getting comfortable wearing them in warm weather. It actually took me a while to come around to wearing booties at all, which is silly because they *are* so stylish. They’ve become one of my go-to shoe choices.

On Monday morning, while Nick and Sebastian slept, I drank my coffee on our back deck. The air was crisp and the morning dew lightly coated the patio table and chairs. The birds chirped and playfully hopped through the branches in the trees. The sun peered through the clouds, creating a sweet halo of light around the yard, and it was pure bliss. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but this is my favorite time of year. While I am very ready for Autumn, I’m glad we still have several weeks of warm weather here in NC. I don’t have to put up my tanks and tees just yet, but I can break out the comfy sweater cardis. I really love those things! And I love those beautiful, cool mornings!

Coffee on the deck, enjoying the beautifully cool morning

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed your four-day work week. I know I’ve already started counting down for this weekend when I can relax all over again 🙂

Blouse: Old Navy | Jeans: Gap | Shoes: Madden Girl | Jewelry: Old Navy | Watch: Target

Linking up: Start the Week Stylish | Link up on the Edge | Spread the Kindness

I’ve been blogging for several years now — even thought it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long — and I was curious as to just how much my style has changed over those years, especially now that I’m pregnant. It was really interesting to go back through the blog to see my outfits and the way I’ve evolved from year to year.

Reflections: I see consistent uses of a completer piece and denim. As much as I want to have a well-rounded wardrobe of jeans, dresses, and skirts, and non-denim bottoms, I always find myself reaching for the denim because it’s quick and easy to style. Also, I went through a phase, mostly when I was consistently working in an office, of wearing blazers ALL. THE. TIME. I still love blazers but it seems as though today’s style trends have started to move toward a more casual look, and blazers don’t feel that casual to me. I’m more interested in vests and sweater cardigans these days. Perhaps if I find another office job, I’ll be more likely to bust out my blazers. The biggest change I see is that my style and outfit formulas have gotten slightly more simple, which I think is a trend we’re seeing everywhere.  I don’t have a ton of time to plan what I’m going to wear so keeping it simple will also keep me sane! Do you think about your style evolution? Is it different or similar to what you were wearing 4 years ago?

2017 Original Post: Tee + Jeans + Boots

I wore this outfit to my doctor’s appointment and learned that I should be eating more peanut butter, avocados, loaded baked potatoes, ICE CREAM AND COOK OUT MILKSHAKES.

2016 Original Post: Girls’ Day Out

A couple of my grad school friends came to visit me and we had a wonderful girls’ day out. We started with brunch & margaritas, then went to a wine tasting, then shopping, had “hipster” coffee, and ended the night at the best sushi place in town. And this is what I wore.

2015 Original Post: Distressed Denim and New Loafers

Flats in the winter because it felt like spring. NC just can’t make up it’s mind on whether or not we have seasons!

2014 Original Post: Winter Pink

This was a January day when NC decided it actually was winter and gave us 20-degree weather. Some of you might laugh at me because you regularly deal with negative temps in the winter but this was really cold for us!

Yesterday I talked about how my go-to formula lately has been sweater (top) + jeans + boots. Here’s another example of how well that works. It was almost 70 degrees so I got to wear a tee under the cardigan and I’m not complaining.

I wore this outfit to my doctor’s appointment the other morning and I told my midwife I was concerned that I’m not gaining enough weight. She said my belly and Baby S are measuring just fine, BUT I should start eating more peanut butter, avocados, loaded baked potatoes, ICE CREAM AND COOK OUT MILKSHAKES. Pretty much all of my favorite things… and it’s doctor’s orders! This pregnancy thing isn’t so bad 😉

It was totally warm enough to not wear the cardigan but it wasn’t too warm that I was uncomfortable in it, so I mostly left it on.

You can see the tip of my sock, which I think is cute. I hate the advice I’ve seen some bloggers give that your socks should never be visible but there really isn’t anyone looking down my shoe so I see no reason to worry about it. Plus, it could give a nice, unexpected pop of color.

Tee: Gap | Sweater Cardigan: Loft Outlet | Jeans: Liz Lange Maternity via Target | Boots: BP Trolley via Nordstrom | Necklace: via Le Tote

My fall and winter maternity formula has been sweater + jeans + boots. Completer pieces may vary.

Even though I don’t have an office to go to anymore, I feel that I’m more productive if I actually get dressed instead of staying in my pajamas all day. I wore this to run to the UPS store and to grab a quick lunch. It saw very little daylight but it did see me do some laundry, get some freelance work done, and prepare for a job interview, so I’d call it a win. Plus, I liked it enough to want to share it. I’ll be putting it on repeat for the next few weeks, at least until the sweater doesn’t fit over the bump anymore. You can see in some of the photos that I’m not too far from that. Also, I debated whether to wear this necklace because you can barely see it in the photos but in real life I think it looks nice, so no regrets.

Here’s the evidence (below) that my bump is almost too big for this sweater. See how my tank top is showing underneath because it’s longer/fits over the bump better than the sweater? I won’t be able to wear it much longer. Le sigh.

The weather has been very spring-like lately so it hasn’t even been that cold. If this keeps up, I might have to change up my formula to cute top + jeans + boots/flats sooner than expected. But, really, who am I to complain about beautiful sunshine and 60-degree weather?

Sweater: J. Crew Outlet | Vest: Banana Republic | Necklace: Old Navy | Jeans: Liz Lange Maternity via Target | Boots: Steve Madden | Sunglasses: Target

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! 😀