Dress: Loft Outlet | Cardigan: Banana Republic | Sandals: Old Navy | Sunnies: A New Day via Target | Necklace: via FabFitFun

Hi, friends! It’s been a busy few weeks but this dress just couldn’t stay off the blog.

I didn’t think Nick had gotten me anything for Mother’s Day – because he hadn’t! – so we went shopping at the Tanger Outlets in Mebane where I picked up this cute dress and a few other things from the Loft Outlet. It’s my favorite color (purple) and feels like those t-shirt sheets we all had on our dorm beds in college, which is to say it’s so comfortable. This particular Loft outlet has a great selection of petites and that’s why this dress fits so well.

Finally, an outfit post!

I’ve written about how my lifestyle has outgrown a lot of my clothes, so I’m working hard to clear my closet of any item that doesn’t make me feel like a million bucks every time I wear it. I’m also trying to live a more minimal life to focus more on experiences than material things. It’s harder than it should be due to the emotional value I place on things. I’m working on that, as well. I don’t think I’m quite ready for a capsule (or minimalist) wardrobe yet, but I might be moving more toward that direction.

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

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

I bought these pants at Zara last July on my trip to Los Angeles to visit my best friend so I call them my “LA pants.” On the day I got them, we had planned to go hiking in Griffith Park while Nick played golf but when K told me there was a Zara in the mall, I begged her to take me there instead. I wanted to be able to say I went shopping at Zara. Why this was a big deal to me, I still have no idea, but I went and ended up with these awesome pants. I only got to wear them a few times because I knew that I was pregnant and pretty soon they wouldn’t fit. So now I’m making up for lost time. I wore this outfit to work last week and received a few compliments. Not bad.

I like that the floral pattern has a lot of different colors; they’re pretty easy to match with different tops. I chose red for this outfit but I’ll probably go with pink next time and mustard after that. The possibilities are pretty much endless. I also really like the straight leg. While I think skinny jeans/pants look nice and are comfortable, I’m also a fan of the larger leg opening of straight and boot cut jeans because I think they can be just as flattering. And they make me look a little taller than I am!

Cardigan: ModCloth | Blouse: Le Tote | Trousers: Zara | Shoes: Banana Republic | Sunnies: Target

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