Tuesday, October 16, 2012

[Try It] First Try It Tuesday Linkup!

I have to admit - I'm a little bit nervous to put this out there today. I'm a pretty small blog, but I've been looking for some motivation to actually do some of my Pinterest pins, and I thought this would give me the boost to do so. Frankly, I'm just hoping that at least one other person links up with me today, haha! :)

For the first linkup...feel free to link up to an older post if you'd like to participate but weren't prepared. The only rules are that your post content is inspired by something else - be it a pin, a page from a magazine, or someone else's blog. Also, please link back to my linkup in your post - the button code is below and in my right sidebar if you'd like to use the button.

For today's inspiration, I went to my outfit pinboard - specifically my pinboard full of outfits worn by other style bloggers that I wanted to try for myself. I at first chose this outfit from Andrea at My Closet To Yours:

Via
I was inspired by the classic polka dots with the classic khaki. I paired a white polkda dotted shirt with a pair of skinny khakis and just didn't like how it looked on me. I think the fact that the inspiration photo uses pink and I wore white, along with Andrea's khakis being a bit darker than mine, made my version of the outfit wash me out. I mean, light colors on pasty white skin is not the most complimentary.

So, I went back to the drawing board. Or shall I say pinboard??

My next inspiration photo came from Merrick at Merrick's Art:

Via
I pinned this outfit because I really like the monochrome - it's lots of blue without the color being overpowering. Since I own this exact top, I thought it would be an easy recreation - and it was! Overall, I stayed pretty true to the inspiration photo.

When using an inspiration photo as a basis for an outfit, I always try to figure out what I like about the outfit - sometimes it's the color combination, sometimes it's the way things are layered, and sometimes it's the way the styles work together, like a flowy top paired with leggings or other tight fitting bottoms. In this case, I knew it was a combo of the layers with the color.



Another thing to think about when recreating an outfit is what parts of the inspiration outfit work for you and what parts don't. Merrick used a belt in her outfit - generally, a skinny belt at that location on my torso doesn't compliment my high hips and short waist, so I skipped it. (Also, she's got a little different definition since she's pregnant!! haha) Other than leaving out the belt, all I did differently was go with a darker brown open toed heel, and added my pop of green at the neckline with a necklace. Overall, I was happy with how it turned out!




Have an inspired Tuesday!





Monday, October 15, 2012

[OOTD] Oldie But Goodie

This outfit is one of my favorites. Maybe it's the white blazer because my other favorite outfit included this white blazer. Then again, when I got dressed this morning, I was using some Pinterest pins as inspiration (since tomorrow is the Try It Tuesday linkup!!! Reminder!!! oh - and the code/button is in the right sidebar) and the outfit I had pinned that had a white blazer in it just wasn't working for me. So who knows?

(Sorry for the crappy phone pics...the outfit was from a work trip)

Top: Target | Blazer: H&M | Jeans: Miss Me via Macy's (see this post) | Shoes: Shoe Carnival




 

 

What item in your wardrobe seems to make an appearance in your favorite outfits??

stillbeingmolly

Sunday, October 14, 2012

[Random] Sunday Soup #8

It's that time again!!

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I found this feature on women who are descendants of American presidents super interesting!!

These more accurate names for candy ring pretty true....

This. is. hilarious. I'm not kidding when I tell you I laughed the entire length of the video. Whoever made this is genius.


Friday, October 12, 2012

[OOTD] Titleless

I'm not usually one for writer's block but today I just couldn't come up with a title. It's Friday, so I get a pass, right?


Dress: NY&Co | Cardigan: Old Navy | Sandals: Payless | Earrings: Target | Necklace: gifted from my Mom | Rings: Charming Charlie's

I always think it's a bit harder to refashion and remix a dress than anything else in your closet. This dress made its first appearance on the blog in the early days, in a dressier style. This time, I made it a bit more casual with flat sandals and a black cardigan.





Clutch: Kohl's | Bangles: gifted, from India


What's your favorite way to remix a dress?

Thursday, October 11, 2012

[OOTD] One Last Time

I'm a total packrat/hoarder.

There. I said it.

I've realized, though, that blogging is actually starting to help me with that issue. These pics are a perfect example.

Shirt: NY&Co | Jeans: Gap (seen before 1, 2) | Wedges: Payless | Necklace/Earrings: Charming Charlie's

I have had this shirt forever. Forever. I probably bought it....in college? And next year it'll be 10 years since I graduated? So yeah. A long time.

Guys, this is a problem. But as I mentioned above, blogging is helping. How? I see this picture and think "this shirt is 'just ok'".


So what does that mean? After I wore this shirt - it went directly into the "get rid of" bag. While it's not awful...seeing it in these pics made me realize it's also not fabulous.

Recently, I came across this post by Katie at Modern Even that is exactly what a sentimental type A person like myself needs: a wardrobe editing decision tree!!! This will definitely help along with my picture taking from here on out.


This necklace, though? Fabulous. Also the shoes. Loving the shoes.


How do you edit your wardrobe?

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

[Life] 90 Years

A few weekends ago, I went home for my Grandmother's 90th birthday. I thought I would share some pictures from my trip and her birthday party!

WARNING: Picture heavy post!!

Me with Alex, my friend Emily's 2 month old! He was asleep here, haha.

Me, my grandmother, my cousin Cameron, my cousin Sarah

Some of my family members traveled far to be there for Grammy's birthday - family came from NH, CT, FL, VA, and GA just for this very special day.

The Hubs and cousin Sarah's 5 month old son Lee

We all had tags with our name and how we knew/were related to my grandmother. This was the first time she was meeting great grandson Lee!

And of course, my hubby thinks he's funny. What was also funny was that my brother wrote "favorite grandson" on his, and my dad wrote "favorite son-in-law" on his. Apparently this sense of humor runs in the family. My hubby is Indian by way of the UK, so he didn't spell "favorite" wrong, at least according to him. 

My "little" brother and his girlfriend, who I got to meet for the first time!


Cousin Sarah and her son Lee

My Uncle Bob; the only son and my mom's twin brother

I know this picture is a little fuzzy, but this is seriously the best representation of my grandmother. She is always laughing and smiling and giggling about something - it's how I always think of her. I firmly believe this is one of the reasons why she turned 90!!

The "Squeezebox Trio" - the one thing my grandmother wanted was to polka on her birthday so this is what we had.

Grammy, her husband, and her kids

With her daughter Phyllis's family
With our family

With her son Bob's family - one of my cousins is missing here - Mike lives in LA and wasn't able to make it back. :(

Grammy and her kids

Grammy and her great grandsons - no great granddaughters yet!

Me and Hubby...we always photograph best when taking them of ourselves haha

Just a glimpse of how many people were there to celebrate - there were twice this many!

It was so nice to see how many peoples' lives my grandmother touched and to celebrate with family I rarely get to see!!!

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

[Try It] Try It Tuesday!

I can almost guarantee I'm not the only one with this problem: I pin ideas like crazy and then never do them. In order to keep that from happening, I'm instituting a "Try It Tuesday" around these parts. At least every other Tuesday (maybe every single one...let's see how I feel haha) I'm going to try something I've pinned and post it. This could be a new manicure, a hair style, a recipe, a home DIY - anything!

Since I'm sure I'm not the only one who never tries their pins...I'm going to make this a linkup! So here's your warning: next Tuesday, October 16th, will be the first Try It Tuesday linkup. I will always try and give you a week heads up for the next linkup so you can choose and try a pin. Now go find something on your pin boards to try out for next week!

For my first attempt at pin recreation/inspiration, I chose a manicure that I had pinned from The PolishAholic.

This is the manicure that I was inspired to try:

Via
And here's what I did:

I started with a base color. I chose Sally Hansen's Fuscia Power.


Then, I dotted Sinful Colors Easy Going and Wet N Wild Ebony Loves Chris on the tips. I tried to concentrate most of the dots towards the tips like the inspiration photo with only a few dots towards the nail base.



I originally read you should use a toothpick to dot, but I couldn't get a toothpick to pick up enough polish that it would leave anything on my nail. I read that there are "dotting tools" out there for this specific purpose, but I have no idea what they look like or where to find them. So, in a pinch, I just used the polish brush and ended up with some less than round dots. And I'm ok with that.




What are you going to try from Pinterest?