You know that joke about groundbreaking florals for spring.
I know that joke.
So, we don’t have to say it, right? Not saying it doesn’t make it any less true or funny; but if we’re all thinking it? We don’t have to say it.
And yes, it’s groundbreaking florals for spring. Which might not be so groundbreaking. We’re offered florals every spring, right? (And sometimes in the fall). Moody florals, dark florals, big florals, small florals, bright florals, daisy florals. There’s never a shortage of them, and if you always have your pick of them, it doesn’t feel groundbreaking.
So we don’t need to tell the joke.
Maybe the magic is taking something that’s not groundbreaking, and making it your own kind of groundbreaking. Fresh florals?
Let’s go back to the beginning. Can florals be groundbreaking? Is there a way to make something that’s a staple your own?
My take? Yes. I think that there’s no other way to wear florals than in a groundbreaking, personalized way.
But, what does that mean?
Well, that probably depends on you. I’m partial to a moody floral, there’s’ something about the dark and the flowers that I like. I’m partial to vintage–done, and redone. This number, with the show stopping ruffle/cape is vintage, but it feels fresh. I love that it flounces, but reads more formal than sun dress.
(Confession? This dress paired with my crazy hair makes me feel a little like Carrie Bradshaw. Which I don’t hate.)
Your groundbreaking floral? You have options. Light/dark, big/small, formal/casual. I think the question becomes: what do you like? What do you feel? Any fashion item only feels and looks stale when we wear what we’re “supposed” to wear, instead of what we like. So can florals be groundbreaking? Absolutely. (Go ahead, read that in Big’s voice). All it takes is you wearing florals the way that you like. That’s the groundbreaking part.
Side note: Feel free to wear shoes with your groundbreaking florals. I didn’t just because I had to climb to get on the ledge.
This floral number is a vintage piece from Timeless Vixen, but you don’t have to despair! There are so many options for you, both vintage and modern. I’ve linked all kinds of florals below, I’d love to see how you make them groundbreaking!
XO RA
Note: This post does contain some affiliate links. While I may earn commission from them, it does not affect the price for you. Thank you for your support.
Tomorrow is the official first day of spring, ironic as winter is making its last stand where I am, it’s so cold and rainy! And while it doesn’t feel like spring, like all of the flora and fauna outside I feel as if I’m finally getting used to the new year (more irony, in astrology spring-or Aries season- is the new year, which makes a lot of sense!) and beginning to “bloom”. Aka making progress to wear I want to be, setting in my goals, and feeling good. The energy has me wanting to do all the things. So let me be one of the first to wish you: “Happy Spring!” Spring is a short season in the places I live; summer comes very quickly. Yet, I love spring. I love the warm but not burning temps, the sense of beginnings, and the way we really into the things we set intentions for in the new year. Though it may be short, I’ve listed my favorite things to do during spring, from flowers to closet cleaning. However you celebrate I wish you all the joy that a spring can bring!
Xo RA
Wildflower Day
From pictures to just taking in the beauty, I think that a day spent in blooms is a day well spent. Make a day of it and do a picnic, or maybe a hike? Whatever you do, make sure that you enjoy the wild flowers before summer!
Closet CleanOut
I know, spring cleaning is cliche. But, it works. Spring is a great time to do a sweep of your closet, get rid of anything that no longer serves you, and move spring items to the front of your closet. It’s also a great time to make a trip to the cleaner or tailor and make sure that all the things you love for spring are ready!
Make a Spring Wishlist
Along with making sure your spring closet is clean, spring is a great time to make a spring Wishlist. Shocking, I know, that I would support shopping. But someone has to get all those great new spring things. It may as well be you! A Wishlist lets you make a note of what you need, find items you love, and stay within a budget!
Refresh Your Goals
A bit like cleaning out your closet or designing your wishlist, I think that spring is a great time to look at your goals. Adjust your routine. Measure your progress and revise strategy if necessary. Or scratch everything and make new goals. It’s a time of new beginnings and a time to bloom, it’s a great time to make use of it!
Dine al Fresco
Before it gets too hot, spring is a great time to make use of the patios in your life. From dinners in the backyard to happy hours on a patio, I love being outside during this time of year!
I’d love to know: what do you love to do during spring? What’s on your spring bucket list?
wishing us all a week of new beginnings and amazing shoes! Xo RA
It’s St Patrick’s Day – will you be wearing green for “luck”? My one St Patrick’s story that I think about every year was about the St Patrick’s when I was 8 (maybe 9), and I had strep throat. It was raining and I was in the backseat of the car with my sister, coming home from the doctor. At the time, I thought of myself as chic (for a child), wearing a white, ribbed skirt with a white sweatshirt with a teddy bear on it (I LOVED that sweatshirt). No green. And my sister pinched me. From there on out, I make sure that I always green on 3/17. Even if it’s a small shamrock sticker.
What’s weird is that I’ve never thought of St Patrick’s Day as lucky. Or green as my color. There are things that I’ve worn for luck- we all have, I think being a little superstitious is a part of the human condition. My favorite animal is a pig, and I have shirts and socks that I will throw on if I need a little luck. I’m a huge fan of my alma mater’s sports teams and will wear purple (all the way down to lingerie) to will them to win. Evil eye jewelry, special necklaces, there a few things that I know I can turn to, to at least make me feel lucky.
I have this one bracelet- thick, red, inscribed with huge white letters that says “Luck is believing you’re lucky”. It’s not one I wear often, but I think about it (and its message often).
This week I’ve been thinking about luck. And what we wear to feel lucky. There are things I wear for luck, but most of them I wouldn’t wear into a big meeting or event (I love my pig socks but they don’t scream chic).
Yet, there are outfits that I’ve felt lucky in- that fit me perfect, that I trusted I looked good in, that made me feel powerful, that good things seem to happen in. Is that luck? Or just a good outfit? And what is the distinction between the two?
One of my acting coaches used to say that luck was only opprotunity meeting preparedness (even if it’s not, we’re pretending that’s a word). Maybe that’s what a good outfit is like- when you feel confident in what you’re wearing you’re more open to things, when you’re confident and believe in your luck more doors open. It doesn’t matter if it’s green or if it’s black, if an outfit makes you feel lucky, it’s lucky.
The thing that I love about this theory? It gives us the power. We’re the lucky ones, not the outfits. Though I’m never, ever going to tell you to stop wearing things that make you feel lucky. If it works, why jinx it?
And I do suggest wearing green – just in case!
Xo RA
As someone who has background in theater, I have mixed feelings about reviews. I have friends and peers who avoid them like the plague, colleagues who take every word of every review to heart, and the elusive person who is somehow able to take the constructive criticism out of reviews and forget about the rest. I strive to be like the last person, but honestly? Getting reviewed is hard, especially if it’s a project that’s personal.
So, what does that have to do with fashion? Beyond the similarity that having someone criticize your outfit can be awful, reading reviews is how I’ve recently upped my online shopping game.
I have always loved online shopping-the convenience of buying at anytime from anywhere, it’s like getting a gift in the mail from yourself, and you can avoid dressing rooms (which I have a love/hate relationship with). There are so many good things from online shopping. And yet- there are some downfalls too. Even though I sometimes hate trying clothes on (I know, it’s weird- I think it’s the combo of getting undressed/dressed, body issues, and poor lighting), not being able to see (or feel) what you’re buying in real life can be annoying. And lead to even more annoying returns.
Yes, even though I can hate trying clothes on I do recognize that it is an important part of getting clothes you love and will wear! Part of what I love about online shopping is that I can do the try on in the comfort of my own home!
Usually, my online shopping is on point, but lately I’ve had a few orders that were just off. The size was completely wrong, the material felt so much cheaper that I was expecting, the tailoring was undone. Returns are often annoying and time consuming, and to save myself the pain of that, I have made it my mission to become a better online shopper. How I’m doing that? By reading reviews.
It’s not that I never read reviews before, but I often let my desire for the item be the driver of my purchase. But now? I’m paying attention to the reviews, I’m loving seeing how others react to pieces, and I’m grateful for the input of amazing strangers! While I don’t always go solely by the reviews, I’m finding that there are a few things in reviews that really help me shop better!
Pictures
Reviewers who post pictures are saints among us. It’s so helpful to seee pieces on real bodies, as sometimes the models have been pinned into the clothes! When I’m looking at pictures, I look to see fit, how the garments drape, if there are any obvious issues. It’s so helpful to see the item being worn!
Consistency
We’re all different, with different body types, preferences, etc. Naturally, that can lead to varying reviews. However, if I find that a bunch of reviews have the same comment or concern, I take it seriously. Recently, there was a skirt I loved-yet every single review said that the waist seemed to run small in comparison to the rest of the skirt, leading to bunching. It wasn’t just one or two reviewers, but a consistent review. I didn’t buy the skirt, as I trusted all the reviewers!
Details
Often reviews can be incredibly general. Simply “fits great!”. I know it’s so easy to be that general, and I find myself sometimes doing the same thing. So, anytime a reviewer adds details, ie the waist is high, the darts aren’t even, etc I take it into account! Details are incredibly important (And I’ll try my best to add them in here!), and can make or break a garment- or shopping decision!
Obviously, when I’m online shopping I still think about how much I love the item, how I can style it, price, etc- but reading reviews has really helped me in my shopping. Do you read reviews? What do you look for in reviews?
The reason that slip dresses, in particular bias cut slip dresses, come back in style often (we’re not going to talk about how suddenly the 1990s are vintage as it makes me need to lay down) is because they are infinitely flattering. Nightgown. Gown. Dress. Slip. These type of dresses are so easy to slip on, and yet I love that they never look as if there are something that’s just thrown on. From nightgown (which technically this one is, from the 1970s) to gown, these slip dresses wear as if they are made for you- and the styling possibilities are endless.
I could wax poetic about cuts and fits and all the things-or about how I’m a fan of wearing pjs as street wear, or how vintage is so easy to make modern-and while all of those things are true, lately I’ve become more interested in the details of styling.
For Example:
Make it your own. Often when we bat that phrase about I think we think about styling, but make it your own can also mean fit. This fantastic slip nightgown (from my beloved
Normally I would pair a slip dress with heels. And yet, lately, I’ve been wanting to explore my styling, and perhaps get a bit out of my comfort zone. Instead of heels, I’m loving this slip dress with boots- wedge boots to be exact. The gold matches the dress and wedge makes it a bit more like a heel (or at least that’s what I tell myself) While not in my wheel house, I love the boots here. They feel modern, a bit daring, a bit not me but perfectly me at the same time.
Lately, I’ve been incredibly interested in choices that are me but aren’t my go-to, these boots are so me but feel like a fresh change with a slip dress.
This shawl was my grandmas (I have a thing for a piano shawl, as they are both statement pieces and simple accessories). I love that it adds a bit of drama to a simple outfit (that’s still stunning), and yet isn’t the star of the outfit. I also love incorporating beloved (be it vintage, family or just special to me) item into my outfits. Here I love knowing that my grandma is with me- though she probably wouldn’t wear her nightgown out, even if it looked like a slip dress! Little details mean a lot to me, and I love knowing what they mean, even if Im the only one who is aware of all of them!
From any era, I recommend a slip dress. They are flattering and go with so many options- from dance floor to sleeping (and if you like you can wear the same slip dress for all of that!). I’m a fan making things your own with tailoring, and I love shoes that feel both you and a fashion risk. An outfit that you can just slip on and be fabulous? That’s a must in my book!
This slip dress (nightgown) is vintage but I’ve linked similar, as well as these exact boots (a splurge but you can most likely now find them on resale sites- need help with that? Please reach out!), and the shawl is antique but I’ve found you some as well!
What do you slip on? How do you wear a slip dress? Do you wear nightgowns-especially those that look like gowns? I would love to hear all about it!
XO RA
Note: This post does contain affiliate links. While that does not affect the price for you, I may earn commission from them. Thank you for your support!
When you woke up this morning there’s a good chance you lost an hour of sleep (if you live in the States and if you’re not in AZ. If you don’t meet those criteria, know I’m jealous of you). Daylight Saving Time (where we spring forward in the spring and fall back in the fall to try to “control” time) is not my favorite. In a week, I will love that the days seem longer and that I have more sunlight. However, right now, waking up with it being an hour earlier, and no way for me to explain all that to my cat, I’m tired.
Actually, most of us who are under Spring Forward, or Daylight Saving Time are tired. Did you know heart attacks increase during the week following the spring forward? I find that to be crazy. But, I’m not going to argue any case against who we tell time, or whether or not we should keep Daylight Saving or get rid of that- that’s above my fashion grade.
What I would like to talk about? All the things I plan on doing with my “extra” hour of sunlight. I have to spring forward, I might as well enjoy it!
I plan on working in the backyard, pulling out my pool, and getting in the water. Happy hour with my feet in a pool? Sounds amazing! Eating outside in the brief time before it gets too hot? Count me in. Evening walks, reading outside, if it involves using my extra hour to be in the sun, I’m interested.
Besides the time- it feels like the year has sprung forward. It’s getting hot (not warm, hot!) where I am, and while that makes me scared for the summer, though we are supposed to have a “cold” front this week which I am now excited for. The heat makes it feel as if my wardrobe- from what I’m wearing to my wishlist- is springing forward. I’m in summer clothes, and I love it, but at the moment it feels fast. Time, not the clock, but time itself feels as if it’s gone a bit forward. The beginning of the year felt a bit slow, and all of a sudden things feel fast and busy. That could be a sign I need to adjust my personal schedule and routine, but it could also just be the season. (Most likely a combination of both!) Perhaps the best use of my new hour of daylight is to find ways to adjust to all the springing forward everything is doing!
Do you spring forward? How are you dealing with losing an hour of sleep? What are you looking forward to doing with your extra hour? I hope that if you sprang forward, that today was easy on you!
Wishing us all a week of daylight and amazing shoes! XO RA
I’ve always been a bit nervous about crop tops. My fears? That they wouldn’t look good, would show all the midriff parts I hate on me, and (more recently) would make me look old trying to look too young. (VERY ironic advice from an old acting coach of mine: show the audience where you’re vulnerable and they will fall in love with that. I’m not sure if this applied to wearing cropped tops or not)
Therefore, the most surprised person in the past few seasons has been me: because there are so many cropped tops that I have loved. Crop Top sets, stand alone crop tops, even this button down cropped shirt- I have loved so many, put so many on wishlists, and even dared to wear some. Maybe the cropped tops have changed, or maybe I have. Perhaps I’ve managed to find crop tops that were in my comfort zone and didn’t stoke my fears. Or we could guess that I learned to let some of my fears go- though I have to say that they still pop up from time to time. But, for all my concerns about cropped tops, they are becoming a staple in my closet.
How did I make peace with the crop? (I’m sure this is where I’m supposed to tell you to also make peace with you, but I think that’s a lifelong work in progress and I’ve found it much easier to make peace with the cropped tops!) First, I think find a crop top that you feel comfortable in. Maybe that means the cropped top isn’t super short, or maybe it’s long sleeved, or is a button down- or any one of the 100s of things a cropped top can be. The thing is you have to like it and feel comfortable in it (read not feel as if you have to pull it down all day) And a pro-tip about feeling comfortable in a crop top- don’t be afraid to size up!
While this cropped top isn’t my only cropped top, I feel so comfy in it- it’s not super short, in fact it is just a hair longer than my waist- and the button down silhouette makes it feel very work appropriate (and a little grown up!).
Second part of how to make peace with the crop top is to love (and feel comfortable in what you pair the crop top with! Maybe that means the skirt (or shorts or pants) are a bit high rise, maybe the bottoms are a bit oversized, maybe there’s a belt, maybe not. There is no tried and true method, which can be frustration as that can mean you’re trying things on. BUT with that much possibility, it means you can have fun.
Years ago, I never would have thought that I could wear an outfit like this (or any of the other shorter, tighter cropped tops I have!). And yet, this outfit is now a spring favorite, I love the way that it makes me feel- and it’s fun. Maybe there’s something to this cropped thing.
Do you wear cropped tops? How? And how did you make peace with them?
This cropped top is Target (I sized up to a Medium) and the skirt is vintage (though I found you similar). The shoes are my beloved Sarah Flints and code SARAHFLINT-BAINVESTMENTPIECE gets you $50 off your first pair!
I can’t wait to hear about how you crop!
XO RA
Note: this post does contain affiliate links. While that does not affect the price for you, I may earn commission from them. Thank you for your support!
Note: This article first appeared in the New York Times, here. I also loved this piece from the Wall Street Journal. I have always loved all things shiny, stories (the feel good kind) from the Holocaust, and fashion; Judith Leiber combines all those things! Enjoy! XO RA
Judith Leiber, 97, Dies; Turned Handbags Into Objets d’Art
Judith Leiber, the handbag designer whose whimsical creations were prized as collectors’ pieces and frequently displayed as objets d’art, died on Saturday at her home in Springs, N.Y., a hamlet in East Hampton. She was 97.
Ms. Leiber died just hours after the death of her husband of 72 years, the painter, lithographer and sculptor Gerson Leiber, who was known as Gus. He also died at their home.
Both died of heart attacks, according to Jeffrey Sussman, their biographer and spokesman, and they were buried together on Monday.
In recent years the couple had mounted joint exhibitions of their work on Long Island and in Manhattan.
Stella Blum, the curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1983, once said that describing Judith Leiber as an accessory designer was “a little like calling Louis Comfort Tiffany a designer of lighting fixtures.”
Her handbags were often on view in museums and are in the permanent collections of a number of them, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the Chicago Historical Society. Ms. Leiber nevertheless demurred when Andy Warhol described her bags as works of art. “Truthfully, I don’t consider them art,” she said. “I’m an artisan.”
Although she designed luxurious handbags with discreet clasps and frames for daytime, she was best known for her imaginative and eye-catching evening creations, among them colorfully beaded bags in animal, flower, fruit and egg shapes, and bags shaped like boxes and shells with variations on antique Asian motifs.
Her classically shaped metal evening bags were built of cardboard and sent to Italy, where they were stamped in brass. The animal forms and more complex shapes began as sculptured wax models and were also sent to Italy to be copied in metal. Feet and ears were cast separately and soldered on; other parts and touches, like the head of a horse or the bow on a cat, were stamped in two halves and joined seamlessly.
The gold plating was done after the bags were returned to America. So was the encrusting of the bag in rhinestones and other beads.
A number of Ms. Leiber’s clients amassed scores, and in several cases hundreds, of her designs, despite price tags that reached well into four figures for each bag.
At major charity events, it was common for a woman who had left her Leiber evening bag on the table while she danced to find on her return that other guests had gathered around her table to admire it. Occasionally a bag would disappear, returned only when admirers had finished passing it around.
“Sensuous and tactile, they ask to be picked up,” said Dorothy Twining Globus, a former director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and curator of exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design.
Most of Ms. Leiber’s evening bags, particularly the glittering metal creations, were designed to hold a bare minimum of necessities. She allowed that lipstick, a handkerchief and a $100 bill might possibly fit. A $100 bill? Not small change, she admitted, but not unreasonable for a Leiber bag owner. As for carrying such necessities as eyeglasses, keys and a few other odds and ends, she would ask, “What’s an escort for?”
Ms. Leiber created five collections a year, in all about 100 designs. She said she was inspired by paintings, museum pieces, artifacts and nature. One of her most popular bags was shaped like a snail; another, an example of the commonplace made uncommon, was fashioned from an antique quilt and enhanced with bits of colored glitter.
The women who carried Leiber bags included first ladies, queens and princesses, and celebrities like Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Diana Ross and Joan Sutherland. Queen Elizabeth II was presented with a bag during a visit to California, and Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of the Soviet leader, received one from Barbara Bush.
Mrs. Bush carried a Leiber design at her husband’s inaugural ceremony. She also had one of the Leiber metal bags shaped, with slight variation, to resemble Millie, her springer spaniel. It was later duplicated and sold for $2,500. Other first ladies were customers as well: Nancy Reagan ordered white satin Leiber bags for both her husband’s inaugural balls, and Hillary Clinton had a bag modeled after Socks, the family cat.
But even the first ladies couldn’t compete in patriotism with a Texan who was invited to one of the Clinton inaugurations and ordered a bag beaded with the stars and stripes on one side and the Statue of Liberty on the other.
Many of Ms. Leiber’s customers used the bags for aesthetic purposes as well as practical ones. Some displayed them in a vitrine or étagère, and one Los Angeles matron invited her friends, their Leiber bags and their husbands to a dinner party. When they arrived, she took all their bags and lined them up on a mirror, flanked with votive candles, running down the center of the dining table. It was a table decoration not soon forgotten.
Ms. Leiber maintained that a story of a husband who had given his wife 14 Leiber bags in seven years and wanted them back as part of a divorce settlement was not apocryphal. “I could retire on your Leiber bag collection,” he reportedly said. The wife kept the bags.
Ms. Leiber was born Judith Marianne Peto in Budapest on Jan. 11, 1921. Her parents, Emil and Helen Peto, hoped that she would become a chemist and repeat the success of a relative who had developed a complexion cream. In 1939, she was sent to England to pursue scientific studies, but World War II intervened and her theoretical cosmetics empire vanished.
“Hitler put me in the handbag business,” Ms. Leiber said.
Back in Budapest, Ms. Leiber, who was Jewish, enrolled in an artisan guild, which still accepted Jews, although fascism was on the ascent in Hungary. Her training began with sweeping the floors and cooking the glue. By the time she had completed her guild training, first as an apprentice and finally as a master, the war was raging.
She knew all the stages of handbag manufacture, but there was no place to use this knowledge because Jews were being sent to concentration camps. She and other family members escaped that fate when they were pressed into service sewing army uniforms. She also began a small handbag business at home, using whatever materials she could find, and after the war sold some to American soldiers stationed in Hungary.
Mr. Leiber was an Army Signal Corps sergeant in postwar Budapest when he and Ms. Leiber met. He was working as a radio operator maintaining contact between Vienna and Budapest. They married in 1946 and the next year left for New York, Mr. Leiber’s hometown.
With her training, Ms. Leiber had no difficulty finding work in her adopted country. She became part of what she called “strudel assembly lines” at a number of handbag manufacturers until 1963, when her husband decided that they should open their own business.
They began in a small loft. “I knew from the beginning what I was going to do,” Ms. Leiber said. “I was going to make the best.” She designed and supervised the manufacture of her bags, and Mr. Leiber looked after the business end.
Ms. Leiber’s sister, Eva Ecker, died in 2015. No immediate family members survive.
In time, Ms. Leiber’s designs were rarely sold from handbag departments. They were generally featured in specially created Leiber sections and boutiques in major department and specialty stores, both in this country and abroad.
Ms. Leiber received most of the fashion industry’s major prizes. She was given a Coty Fashion Award in 1973 and the Neiman Marcus Winged Statue for Excellence in Design in 1980. She was voted accessories designer of the year in 1994 by the Council of Fashion Designers.
The Leibers sold their business in 1993, for a reported $16 million, to Time Products, a British firm in the watch distribution business. Ms. Leiber remained the firm’s designer until 1997.
In recent years, retrospective exhibitions in New York have showcased the talents of both Leibers. (Some of Mr. Leiber’s work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) In 2016 the Flomenhaft Gallery in Manhattan presented a joint exhibition, “The Artist & Artisan”; another, “Brilliant Partners,” was seen last year at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook. Also last year, the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan gave Ms. Leiber a one-woman show, “Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story.”
Throughout her career, Ms. Leiber was often asked if she ever carried handbags other than her own. She had a standard reply.
“I either carry my own or a paper bag,” she would say, “and I won’t carry a paper bag, so you figure it out.”
Some Judith Leiber bags I love (and some of my choices are affordable!):
You can find your own Judith Leiber bag here as well:
Note: This post does contain affiliate links. While that does not affect the price for you, I may earn commission from them. Thank you for your support.
As much as I love fashion, and coming up with looks that I feel represent me, and stretch my style- I also love looks (in this case a dress) that do all the work for me. I’m ironically both very heard working and very lazy at the same time! But, who could blame me when the dresses that do the work are this chic? And the secret? Colorblocking. No matching, no worrying about things going together- just letting the colors and the prints do the work.
Part gown (have I ever mentioned that there isn’t a party dress that I don’t love?) but also part great for any occasion (from brunch on), I’m just in love with this colorblocked dress.
I love the color blocking, IMHO red and pink are an underrated color combo, and here I love the take with a slightly maroon red and more of a hot pink. The subtle animal print (matched on the shoes) is just as refreshing pop (as opposed to my go-to leopard). The cut- from the neckline to the billowing sleeves, and I also love the way that the skirt flows around me. I’m such a huge fan of how clothes make me feel- and this dress made me feel vintage in all the right ways, and sophisticated and fun and ready for anything.
Lazy? Not so much, but incredibly efficient. What I love about colorblocked dresses like this one is that the outfits are completely foolproof. Don’t feel like putting together a look? Hate to choose? Simply let the color blocked dress do the work for you. There are days when that helps- and if your fashion helps, that’s a story I’m interested in.
This dress is FKSP, I’m a little in between sizes, but am in a small here and it fit perfectly! I’ve also linked similar dresses and these exact shoes (which will also go great with everything from shorts to jeans to dresses like this one)- and while I’m not usually one for matchy-matchy- I love how these pink shoes match the dress.
What are your go to colors? And do you ever color block them? I would love to hear all about it!
XO RA
Note: This post does contain affiliate links. While that does not affect the price for you, I may earn commission from them. Thank you for your support!
Is anyone else really tired? Not just regular tired, but extra tired. For years, I’ve been joking that being tired is a part of my personality. But lately, this has felt especially true. And I’m not 100% sure what to do about it.
There are lots of reasons to be tired, just on a daily basis. I love running my own business, but it often means that my work hours are non-traditional, and days when I feel like I’m working all day. And that’s on top of balancing family and friends, travel, workouts, errands, and all the things. Also, fun fact about me? I sometimes have a hard time sleeping.
So, there’s all that.
After this past year, and the pandemic though? I’m more tired than I was before. Maybe it’s because I feel as if my schedule lately had been a bit overwhelming. It’s not that I’m going all day, but I am finding that when I have to people a lot, or have a lot of out-of-the-house appointments, I am way more tired than I was in the before times. I’m sure some expert could tell us that part of the tired is processing the trauma, accessing our safety in real time, and getting used to activities again. Yes, I’m feeling all of that.
Perhaps I should even be more tired than I am!
All the combinations and reasons to be tired- how do we deal with it? How do we get rested? If you have the answers, please tell me. I’ve been trying to give myself “days” off, get on a sleep schedule, have regular down and alone time, and all the things that we’re supposed to do. I’m still tired.
How do we get the pandemic to pay for us to have a vacation? Anyone else have any ideas?
Wishing us all a week of rest and amazing shoes! Xo RA