Crowned

Time for a change, at least when it comes to my hair.

Don't worry, once water touches my nape the curls will return to their normal flounce. Just needed something different and a way to experience festival prep without heading to the festivals.

That's right you guys, I'm selling my Coachella tickets to pad up my savings account. To be honest, it's going to suck. Actually, knowing I wont be there now sucks. Suck so hard. But in life one has to make unpleasant sacrifices to experience amazing-ness down the road. 

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Even if one can't attend a festival this season there's no reason to not incorporate a few of the trends into our daily outfits. Whether it's a fun lip color (this one is amazing), denim pieces, or a never before tried braided style - all these little things are a fun way to spruce up any outfit.

Jacket: Zara (old similar here)  Sweater: Madewell (old similar here)  Shorts: Old (similar style)  Necklace: Athra Luxe  Ring: Kendra Scott  Purse: Elliott Lucca  Sunglasses: Madewell  Boots: Wanted  Sheer Tights: Hanes  Socks: c/o Boohoo.com  Lipgloss: c/o NARS - Priscilla

I'm particularly indulging in not having to worry about my hair for a few days and am thinking about doing my hair done a bit more throughout the year. You know, just to mix things up.

What do you think?

Photos by Lydia Hudgens.

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Pink Lady

We're almost in the long stretch for amazing spring!

But since we're in the over 50 degree threshold might as well start busting out the bare legs now. Oh bare-leg season how I miss you.

I've been finding the sleekest spring office dresses from LongTallSally.com - appropriate for work, cocktails, and baring legs obvi. If you're on the tall side of things - definitely recommend you checking it out.

For this particular dress, I wanted to play with spring's pastel trends but keep it professional enough to head into client meetings. Skip the sunnies and I fit right in at my creative office space. Here's another look with the same jacket. Or as my Ma says, "my age."

If you've been following along on the blog, you know I've been prepping pretty hardcore for bare leg season. Every other week I discovered a new brand that gave me moisturized skin to combat winter's harsh elements. All of them amazing and each one served its purpose. 

This week I saw a Body BB Cream from Jergens and had a very "WTF" moment shortly followed by a "I need to try that."

Sound familiar?

It had the words "Body Perfecting" on the packaging, so I had to try it.

It definitely had a strong smell, but then again so does my hairspray. It made my legs silky soft with a luminous glow and gave them some much needed color. The color did get a little deeper with continued used but no orange Jersey Shore streaks here. P.s. Notice how they are not blindingly pale!

Although the BB cream couldn't fix my knees, nothing really can, it's a great cream to use as we transition to sans tights weather. If you're skin is more on the sensitive side tread lightly, this may be not-so-great for your skin.

Jacket: bebe (old similar here)  Graphic Dress: c/o Long Tall Sally  Sunglasses: Asos (old similar style)  Necklace: Capwell+Co  Ring: House of Harlow 1960  Purse: Cambridge Satchel Co. (selling mine here)  Booties: Easy Spirit  Lipgloss: Buxom Full-On Lipgloss in Megan

On that note, any tips on how I can make my knees looks less rough around the edges. Seriously, ALL the sugar scrubs can't save them at this point. HALP.

Photos by Victor Cerejo.

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The Investment

Lately I've been cruising the city streets with blinders on. Avoiding sales and cute spring wear after a long winter is BRUTAL.

The battle is twice as hard once I go online. The internet is such a timesuck and these Piperlime sales are not helping.

Every now and then, I'll add something to my cart and immediately x-out of that page. I admit it, I love to shop but I love traveling more. My Poshmark corner (where clothes wait to get listed) is a constant reminder of my love and how it hasn't previously helped in the travel department. In fact the only thing this pile gets is an exasperated "UGH" from the boyfriend... Like every day.

Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, I feel you.

You're probably wondering why not stop shopping completely. Speaking from experience; cutting myself off would only lead to an insane and unplanned shopping spree. 

So, in an effort to save up for my trips and hopefully build up my closet (wishful thinking) I decided to go the route of investment shopping. Hopefully these tips will help you too.

Investment shopping would:

1 - give me a purpose and a goal to work towards

2 - prevent mindless shopping (very important)

3 - free up space by getting rid of similar (lower quality) items

4 - help establish my lewk by only investing in pieces that I've carefully thought about

I've put this plan into action last month and so far it's been going good. The first two pieces I decided to roll this plan out with were an Equipment shirt and this Acne leather jacket. 

Here's the break down:

1 - goal: an Equipment signature shirt + Acne leather jacket

2 - mindless shopping has stopped. Instead of spending $400+ on things I didn't need, I started saving $160 a month for my investment pieces. Plus, I've been able to save an additional $350 per month for my future trips. All in all - lots of saving!! By December I will have enough for a jacket (got the shirt last month on eBay) and will have enough by summer for my winter trips.

3 - every month, there's a mini purge and lots of things have been Poshmarked or donated. It can be a little hard at times to list everything, but small changes will lead to big progress.

4 - establishing my look is a work in progress, but I'm getting there!

So what do you think, are these helpful or not so much? Are there any investment pieces in your closet and how did your big purchase?

photo credit: one, two, three, four, five