Mondays a la Mode – Maxi Skirt Style

It seems that lately you can’t go anywhere without seeing maxi skirts and/or maxi dresses on girls and women of all ages – and why not?  A maxi dress or skirt can easily be dressed up or dressed down, and with the right style, it can look great on just about anyone – even the, ahem, vertically challenged!  ;)  Which is why I am sure many of you have already found love in the long length; I, unfortunately, have had the hardest time finding a style that I really love.  I have tried on dress after dress, and while they certainly don’t look terrible, I have decided that I much prefer the styling of a maxi skirt.  I think it adds an element of flexibility, allowing me to style it to my own personal tastes, much more so than a maxi dress.  Sadly, I still haven’t found a (affordable) maxi skirt that I just have to have, but I refuse to give up!  I am determined to find the perfect maxi skirt for Spring and Summer!  Here are a few that I’ve found online to use as inspiration:

I absolutely love these two floral maxi skirts from Macy’s, but at $89 and $69 respectively, they are a little more than I want to spend.

I would also love to find a great vintage maxi skirt, like this one on Etsy, so I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled, but so far no luck.

Something simple and airy like this one would be great; in fact, the design is so simple I think I just might have to try sewing one myself!

What do you think of the maxi skirt/dress trend?  Do you have a lengthy piece that you just love?  Thanks for reading :)

A Little More About Me

Okay so normally on this here blog I talk about things like style/fashion, the occasional DIY project and “fun stuff,” i.e. fun things I do out in the “real” world.  For this post, however, I wanted to share a little more about what I do, mostly because I’ve made allusions to my work/projects (NAB convention in Vegas), but also because I promised myself as part of my New Year’s resolution that I would make more of an effort to “put myself out there.”  You see, what I actually get paid to do is edit wedding videos at a local wedding company, but what I’ve also been doing in my spare time for a little over a year now (aside from writing this blog and running my Etsy shop) is working on a pet/animal interest TV show and, most dear to my heart, a brand new documentary telling the amazing stories of a few local animal rescues and sanctuaries.

I have always been a huge animal lover.  I share ownership of four dogs (my baby, Audrey, above) and one cat with my mother, but I also love any and all kinds of animals from pot belly pigs (crossing my fingers we film a pig rescue!) to llamas to, most recently, birds (I have never been a fan of birds, but The Lily Sanctuary completely changed my mind – see one of their cuties below).  It has been an absolute joy filming all of the super cool animal sanctuaries and rescues and learning the stories of their remarkable owners/founders, not to mention the fact that I get to work on this awesome project with my boyfriend.

Here is the TV teaser for our Pet World Insider web series, which will be launching this summer!

If you want to see some more teaser videos from Pet World Insider, you can check us out on our YouTube channel here.  I just wanted to let you in on some of the cool things that I do outside of this blog.  I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of some of the other projects I am working on; I hope to share more as each project progresses!  Thanks for reading :)

ps. Do you have any animals that you love??

pps. Did you see the clip of the alligator chomping on a piece of chicken??  I was in the cage with the alligators filming that!!!  Eek!  :)

 

Summer Style Inspiration

I don’t know about you, but sometimes this unpredictable Spring weather (80′s and sunny one day, then 60′s and drizzly the next) can really get me down, not to mention the challenge it presents when trying to figure out what the heck to wear!  On days like these, I like to dream about the upcoming Summer heat and maybe do a little online window shopping.  Here’s what I found lately:

I just love the wispy, gauzy feeling of this silky lace hem dress from Urban Outfitters by Kimchi Blue ($99).

This red floral sundress from Forever 21 is so much fun and looks perfectly light and breezy for those scorching Summer days ($19.80).

And last, but not least, what Summer ensemble would be complete without a stylish hat to shade your eyes from the sun??  I love the polka dot ribbon around the brim and the “boater” style of this hat from Forever 21 ($10.80).

What are your favorite styles for Summer?  Thanks for reading :)

Mondays a la Mode – April 23

Happy [Belated] Flannel Day!  Did you know there really is a national holiday celebrating the magical fabric known as flannel?!  “Though it is not widely celebrated, National Flannel Day is in fact on February 10th of every year” (source).  I’m a little late celebrating this year, but I hope you’ll forgive me considering I only found out this holiday existed, um, a few hours ago.  :)  I’m making up for lost time, however, by sharing these two new plaid shirts that I scored at the Vans outlet in Las Vegas (one of which is flannel) – two shirts for only $15!

In honor of National Flannel Day, I also put together a little ensemble for today’s OOTD post which includes my new plaid flannel shirt.

I am wearing my new plaid flannel button down shirt over my dark skinny jeans.  I accessorized with a simple black leather braided belt and my basic black flats.  I chose to keep this outfit super simple because I wanted the fabulous plaid shirt to stand out – I just love the rich, warm purple, navy and pale grey color scheme!  Whaddya think?

Thanks for reading :)

Vegas Vacation Recap

I’m back from Vegas and NABShow and I had so much fun!  The boyfriend and I had a great time relaxing, eating (so much great food in Vegas) and, of course, checking out NAB.  The convention was HUGE, as always, and full of all of the biggest (and smallest) companies in the industry, including two of my personal faves: GoPro and IndiSystem (my boyfriend blogged about them here).  We also took the opportunity to take in all of the sights and do a little (okay, a lot) of shopping while we were in town.  I hope you all had a lovely week as well, here are a few pictures from my week.

My outfit for walking the convention (and trust me, there was a lot of walking!) – new mint tank top, dark skinny jeans and comfy navy tennis shoes.

Outfit for seeing the sights – floral racer back tank top, dark skinny capris and comfy navy tennis shoes (we did a lot more walking, but can you blame me, there was just so much shopping!).

One of my outfits for our night out – black patterned dress, black cardigan and black flats (sorry for the terrible quality – I hate hotel room pics, but I forgot my camera in the room and had to take the photo when we got back at the end of the night).

Thanks for reading :)

Viva Las Vegas!

I’m going to Vegas!  The boyfriend and I are headed to the Nevada desert for a mini vacation and to hit up NAB Show, one of the biggest digital media industry conventions around!  We are both super excited to check out the latest gear and to hook up with all of the industry insiders, and of course to promote our latest project (more about that later).  Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you won’t be hearing from me for several days, but I promise to take lots of photos to share with you when I get back!

Thanks for reading, see you soon!  :)

I’m Pinning on Pinterest!

Have you heard of Pinterest??  My best friend, Ashley (her blog), convinced me to join recently and I have to admit that I am already addicted!  It is such a fun and creative way to share your interests with others.  Basically, you find stuff you love – images, recipes, clothing, places to travel – and you “pin” them to a virtual board that people can see, like, share and follow.  If you can easily spend hours (like me) clicking from blog to blog or browsing through the vast and seemingly endless amount of fun/cool/interesting stuff on the internet, then trust  me, you will love Pinterest.  You can check out what I’m digging here: http://pinterest.com/alligatortoe/!

Just a couple gems I pinned:

Thanks for reading :)

OOTD – Rainy Day Remix

This is one of my favorite basic ensembles: a sheer white cotton tunic over black leggings with a bold black & white striped sweater.  I actually posted this outfit several months ago in the Fall (here), but I decided it needed some updating with some fresh Spring inspiration, so I added a bright, floral & polka dot scarf!  Also, because it started pouring rain around 5 o’clock this morning, I wore my warmest socks, comfy black boots and my dapper bowler hat to shield me from the cold and wet.  I love how the red feathers on the brim of the hat pick up the red of the flowers on the scarf!  Whaddya think?

Thanks for reading :)

New from H & M

I found this gorgeous mint green top at H&M today and I just couldn’t pass it up!  I love the silky sheer material and the pastel hue is perfect for Spring – I can’t wait to put together a new ensemble to share with you!  :)

Mondays a la Mode – April 9, 2012

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Sunday yesterday; or, at the very least, a relaxing weekend if you don’t celebrate Easter!  Around here, the weather was absolutely sublime, which was particularly nice considering we’ve got stormy clouds heading our way this week.  But for now, the sun is out and the sky is still blue, so I took my inspiration for today’s OOTD from the sea with some nautical navy stripes!

I am wearing a cropped navy & white stripe sweater, my new Rockstar super skinny jeans and my new tan loafers, which you may recognize both from last week’s haul post.  I accessorized the ensemble with a tan braided leather belt, a gold tone locket necklace and my fave vintage faux-opal ring (both from Etsy!).  Hope you like it!

Thanks for reading :)