Friday "What I Wore" Roundup

Let me begin this post by saying I am by no means a fashion blogger. I would never claim to be. I think the fact that I don't own one piece of designer clothing disqualifies me from ever claiming to be one. I do own one Michael Kors watch that was given to me as a gift from Jordan, and one Coach clutch that was a gift by my friend Allison. That's it. The most expensive article of clothing I can think of that I own (wedding dress excluded) is probably a $90 pair of jeans. And the only reason I paid that is because I know I will wear my jeans until they are falling off my legs. Funny enough, my own husband pays more for his own clothes than I do. He usually ends up buying me the pricy things I won't buy for myself. I primarily shop at Urban Outfitters, H&M, Forever 21 and Gap. I occasionally thrift for clutches, skirts and blazers. I peruse sale racks at places like Nordstroms or little boutiques. I score some of my best finds on the clearance racks of places like Marshalls and TJMaxx.

Don't get me wrong, I have a sick love for clothing and go shopping way more than I should. I probably buy new clothes every other week. Nothing excites me more than getting home from shopping and taking my new finds out of the shopping bag and putting them on my pretty felt hangers and adding them to my ever-growing collection of clothes in a closet that is so full I can no longer share it with my husband. (Don't worry, he's cool with it. He has his own closet down the hall.) I have a decent collection of shoes, but am not crazy about shoes like most girls my age. I have more clutches than I use (90% of which are vintage thrift finds), tons of scarfs, and just a handful of hats. I have a decent collection of jewely, although I force myself not to stick with the same staple pieces as I often want to do.

If you want to take a peek inside my closet, check this post when I did a mini makeover last year and replaced my ugly dry-cleaner hangers (I loathe those bright colored, plastic hangers) with pretty felt ones from Marshalls.

I love Pinterest. I use it every day and pin tons of inspirational clothing. I actually use what I pinned and reference them when packing for a trip or getting dressed for an event or even an everyday outfit. Rather than doing a whole outfit of the day post each day to tell you what I wear, I thought it would be fun to do a weekly roundup on Friday of what I wore that week. Since I'm a full time working mom, I just don't have the time to get someone to take pictures of me strolling the streets of my neighborhood each day**. Even though Jordan would totally be my photographer if I asked him. Ok I did ask him. 

Part of doing this is that I'm hoping to motivate myself to step out of the box a bit when deciding what to wear each day. I want to take full advantage of the pieces in my closet and wear them in different ways and be more creative and have fun with my fashion choices.

So I made a point to snap a photo every day this week to document what I wore each day.

 

Sunday: bandeau, Urban Outfitters | tank, Forever21 | pants, H&M | watch, Michal Kors

 

Monday: tank, Urban Outfitters | skirt, Urban Outfitters | oxford, H&M | neckace, Urban Outfitters | shoes, Target

 

Tuesday: dress, H&M | denim vest, Forever21 | scarf, H&M

 

Wednesday: dress, H&M | blazer, Urban Outfitters | belt, came from another dress | watch, Michael Kors

 

Thursday: tank, Urban Outfitters | blazer, Forever21 | jeans, Abercrombie & Fitch | necklace, Ebay | watch, Michal Kors

 

Friday: Shirt, H&M | skirt, Urban Outfitters | chambray shirt, Urban Outfitters | bracelet, Forever21 | shoes, Jessica Simpson (from TJMaxx) | watch, Michael Kors

 

I'd love some feedback to see if this is something people would actually care to see. Again, I'm not fashion blogger, but I do want to have a few more fashion/lifestyle topics to my blog. If you're all yawning right now out of boredom or mentally teasing me for taking photos of myself in the mirror each day, just tell me to stop and I'll stick to my arts and crafts. :)

 

**Disclaimer: I am in no way poking fun at fashion bloggers. I love, love fashion bloggers and follow many of them on Instagram for inspiraton. A few of my favorites include Cupcakes & Cashmere, Leopard & Lavender, Style By Kling, and many many more.  

 

Happy Friday! Hope you all enjoy your loooong holiday weekend. :)

Boston Trip in Pictures

Get ready for a photo overload. This past weekend we took a somewhat impromptu trip to Boston after my mom was able to score us Red Sox tickets from an auction at her work. For those of you that don't know, Jordan is a huge Sox fan. We also love Boston and have made a point to go every summer for a number of years up until I got pregnant. 

We flew up Friday afternoon, squeezed in the game, a few great meals (including one of the best little Italian restaurants we've ever been to on the North End called Pomodoro), and a quick trip to the aquarium before flying home early Sunday morning. Here are a few highlights from our busy weekend.

Even with a Sox loss, had one of the best weekends in Boston. You really can't complain about third row field box seats! We couldn't wait to bring Lucy to Fenway and let her explore the aquarium (Although her favorite part of the entire aquarium was the mini bronze penguin statue in one of the pictures above. She was even hugging it). With two more flawless plane rides behind us, Lucy has proven to be an amazing traveler. We even received compliments from other passengers who didn't realize there was a baby in the seat in front of them because she slept the whole flight. This just means more family vacations are ahead of us.

New Buttons

I recently made new buttons for A Simple Kind of Life.

They can be found on the right side bar if you'd like to share some love.

 

Inspired by Color: Navy and White

I'm not normally a 'blue person'. Whether it be in clothes or home decor, blue was a color that never appealed to me.. until now. Lately I've been craving navy blue. I find myself looking at items when shopping and mentally picking the blue color option. I keep trying to find a way to incorporate some navy into our home without having to do a complete overhaul on one of our rooms. I'm itching to freshen up our guest bathroom and figure that swapping out some linens and adding a few blue accents (without paying an arm and a leg) might satisfy my need for navy.

Here are some of my favorite blues I've been seeing lately. 
I even purchased a few. Can you guess which ones?

 

 

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Product Review: Cygnett Alumni iPad Case

You might remember a few months back when I was on the hunt for the perfect iPad case. Jordan and I had recently purchased iPads and I was excited to jazz mine up a bit with a practical, but feminine case. I found this one from JessLC that I love and have been using with my iPad, but Jordan has been using the generic Apple iPad smart cover. It does the job by covering the screen when not in use (and doubles as a stand), but offers no protection for the back and sides of the iPad. I was thrilled when a representative from Cygnett contacted me and asked if we would be willing to try out and write a review on their Alumni iPad Case. Of course!

Product: Cygnett Alumni iPad Case in blue (check out the website here)

Pros:
- While I would say the design is simple and unisex, it still has a classic and professional look. When opened we both really liked the clean interior design and neutral colored lining.
- We both agree that we prefer this design for a case over the fabric sleeves that some sell for iPads that have to be completely taken off when using. A case that can stay on while using the iPad is a plus.
- The material the case is made out of is awesome. You can tell that they took the time to use a good quality canvas and the leather material is sturdy as well.
- Protection is key. Once the iPad is in this case, it is covered pretty snug on all sides. There is no movement or slipping in this case when using it and the edges don't cover any of the key buttons or fit awkardly.
- Camera hole in back. Surprisingly a lot of cases and covers block the camera. This one has the perfect cut out in the back of the case so you don't need to remove the iPad or adjust it to take photos.
- At $49.99 I think this is a fair price for this product. Considering the quality of the material and the features that it offers, I would certainly pay this price. I've seen equally priced or more expensive cases with much less quality made of more flimsy material.
- One thing Jordan mentioned that he liked about the case is that is looks like a book when closed. It has a sturdy front and back cover and can put easily put into a purse or briefcase without risk of being damaged.

Cons:
- Color options. I blindly chose blue, knowing that this case was going to be used by Jordan and wanting someting more masculine. We weren't thrilled with the bright shade of blue we received. I think we were both expecting more of a navy or denim colored blue. While searching in the Cygnett website, the options for this particular style case are blue, green, pink and black. The black case seems to be the only color that would appeal to most men in our opinion. The pink and green are very pretty to me, but this case of course was going to Jordan. The other styles of the Cygnett cases come in a variety of colors that do appeal to us. Plus, if you are using your iPad for professional purposes, you would want something less bright and more neutral.
- Jordan noticed that it wasn't very easy to fold the cover back behind the iPad unless you lay it on the cover like the below photo. I think this is due to the material they used which is a pro for quality, but more a con for convenience.
- There also is no way to stand this iPad up the way some cases allow.

All in all we were both pretty impressed with this case. The cons we had are ones that honestly wouldn't make or break our decision based on the convenince, quality and craftsmanship of this product.

Thank you so much to Cygnett for allowing us to try out their Alumni iPad case!

For Cygnett's full range of iPad cases and other products, check them out here.

Disclaimer: This is a product review. I received the product in exchange for my input. All opinions on this review are my own and have not in any way been influenced by Cygnett. 

If you would like me to test and review one of your products, please contact me at simplekindoflifeblog@gmail.com.