I'm back!....sort of

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

I know that it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but  life has been crazy! I feel like we've been working nonstop on the new house, yet there are still boxes to be unpacked, and walls to be painted. Unfortunately I don't have a summer-ish clothing photo, or a patriotic one to post, but I do have an outfit that I'm obsessed with.

I fell in love with this leopard print dress from Express back during their winter sale. One day when I was playing around in my closet, (because sometimes I like to go "shopping" in my own closet), I discovered this little ensemble. I still can't believe that I almost put this sweater in the "clothing swap pile". This skinny white belt also almost went into that pile as well....which is why I advocate YOU to shop YOUR closet.

The leggings obviously make this particular outfit a winter style, but I still love the look. I don't know about your work, but mine is always kept in an "artic chill zone", so this kind of style works perfectly. (On the days when I can wear "real" clothes instead of scrubs).

Dress and sweater: Express

Leggings: Target

Shoes: Dress Barn

Necklace: Francesca's Collections

ALSO!!!!

I just started a "part-time" job selling some amazing products that really work! While there is a whole slew of products, the ones that I'm really excited about are the wraps. These wraps help to detoxify your fat cells, which shrink the cells. If you have a problem area (like I do!), and just can't seem to make any improvement, then these wraps are for you! It doesn't seem to matter how hard I work out, or how well I eat, I just can't seem to change the way that my thighs look.  I will post my personal pictures soon, but for now, please check out my website at amandacasella.itwork.com. If you have any questions, please contact me, and I'll answer you! These wraps are great for your tummy, thighs, arms, butt, neck...you name it!

Clothing swap continued.....

So the top half of this outfit is pure clothing swap attire. I've worn the purple cardigan a few times now, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time that I've donned the striped tank. Both of these items were from the last clothing swap that I attended. I should be attending another clothing swap this up-coming weekend. (If all goes well). 

The days have been blurring together recently.....I am so sorry. I hope to be back on a regular schedule soon....ugh.

The pants are from Old Navy, the necklace and the shoes are from Dress Barn (recent). That is all.

Spring Clothes

Lately I have been in the mind set that if I dress for the weather that I want, then maybe the weather will cooperate and be warm. You can tell by this outfit that I was obviously channeling Spring. This particular day was a bit chilly out, so I decided to add my half-cardigan with long sleeves to my floral blouse. 

I love this floral shirt. I mean, when I first got it, I wore it at least once every week. It was a serious problem that I had. Now I try not wear the same thing back-to-back (unless it is my work uniform). 

Semi-cardigan: The Limited (very old)

Floral shirt: Khol's (old)

Jeans: Target

Necklace: (gifted) Macy's

Bracelets: Stella and Dot (recent)

Blue, Gray, and Orange...

This outfit was based on the fact that I had worn my tan pants from Old Navy 100,939 times in February. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration. That would be a lot of clothing changes each day. 

I decided that I needed to wear a different pair of pants. And that's the story about why I'm wearing these pants. 

Hope you enjoyed it. 

Cardigan: Clothing swap

Black & Blue Snake print tank: Express

Pants: Dress Barn

Boots: Khol's

Necklace: Express

Fighting crime

I can't tell you how happy I am to have found this lavender cardigan at the latest clothing swap. I had been wanting this exact color for some time, but I really haven't been shopping (for myself) lately. (Online doesn't count, lol). Since I started going to these clothing swaps, I don't have the want to go shopping as much as I use to. Since I've been able to come home with a load of "new" clothes, I've been having fun styling these items instead of focusing on what is in the stores. Now, that being said, I do like looking at the catalogs that I receive either via e-mail or snail mail. Hence a recent post about Dress Barn and their new spring line. 

This is the outfit that I wore over the weekend when my cousin and I went to the Crime and Punishment museum in D.C. While we had a blast at the museum, we were not there nearly long enough to really see everything. We also did a "lab", which I highly recommend! We had planned on being there for a while, but were limited to 4 hours because of the stinking metro. I understand that it is easier to do the work on the rail system on the weekends instead of during the work week (aka rush hour). But I'm not really cool with it taking us 3 hours to get from point A to point B, including bus transfers. I guess it was an "experience", and it was good bonding time with my cousin. I would rather have spent that time in the museum. :) Okay now my non fashion rant is finished!

I wish that I owned a dark purple cardigan, but I am happy that I had this lavender cardigan to work with!

Cardigan: Clothing swap

Tank: Express

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Express

Necklace: Express

Earrings: Gifted

Colorful leopard with a Spring Line of Excitement

Remember how I said that I get to dress up at least once a week (at my work) now? Well here is my outfit from Monday, the day that I don't have to wear scrubs. This outfit was actually inspired by J's Everyday Fashion. Now I know that my necklace isn't a bubble necklace, nor does it match my jeans exactly, but it works. I really like her colored jeans that also match her necklace, with the addition of the leopard cardigan. I decided to throw in a little lace with my neutral shirt under the leopard cardigan. I also wore boots because my ankles can't handle the cold just yet.

AND...let's talk about Dress Barn's new line out right now. Now I know that I've said this before, but I absolutely hate the name of this place. I mean, who really wants to by clothes from a barn? However, I can usually find some really cute clothes from this store, and their spring line is no exception. Coral and mint/teal are the stand out colors of this spring for them, and I am loving it. I'm also loving how it mirrors many popular brands out there right now that are not cheap. It's got you covered with the jewelry  (Stella & Dot bangles and necklaces) as well as lots of lace clothing,(lace dress from Francesca's Collections), and symmetrical floral clothing (Prabal Gurung for Target). (The color scheme closely resembles that of J.Crew and Express too). Now go take advantage of this spring line. 

Cardigan: From Clothing Swap

Tank: Express

Pants: Express

Boots: Khol's 

Necklace: Khol's

Earrings: man I'm drawing a blank right now.

Just another OOTD

This outfit was based on one of those days wear you want to wear one specific item. That item was the orange cardigan, and I decided that adding a patterned tank with it would make a pretty good outfit. I also decided that I wanted to go sans-boots and went straight for my flats. HOWEVER, it was really really cold and I ended up wearing my brown boots. (After I ran a bunch of errands around town and I thought that my ankles were going to fall off.) 

Moral of the story: it's not flats season yet.

Cardigan: Dress Barn

Tank: Express

Pants: Old Navy

Flats: Old Navy

Necklace: American Eagle

Spring on the mind

I don't know what it feels like at your house, but it is COLD here. I would like it to feel warmer outside, so therefore I decided to dress in spring colors. The cardigan that I'm wearing in these photos is one of the items that I got from the clothing swap. I had just decided that I wanted a light purple cardigan right before I went to the swap, so when I saw this on one of the tables, I knew that I had to have it. 

OOTD

Cardigan: From clothing swap (Daisy Fuentes @ Khols)

Floral Tank: Express

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Candies @ Khols 

Necklace: Express

Earrings: gifted from Alaska 

Dots and Spots

I am back from Jamacia! Woo hoo! I tried to remember to take pictures while we were there, but of course I don't have my camera cord to connect it to my computer. I never turned my phone on while we were there either as I do not have phone service there (without it costing tons of money). 

If I can find time soon, I will recreate my outfits at home, to show you what I wore. Since I have been back, my days have been long (yesterday was an 11 hour work day), so I only have one outfit to show you. However I do have some good news. Once a week, I will be able to dress up instead of swearing scrubs to work! You fashionistas out there know why this makes me so happy. 

The cardigan in these photos came from the clothing swap that I recently attended!

And Happy Valentine's Day!

Cardigan: Simply Vera Wang (clothing swap)

Tank: Express

Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Candies at Khols

Necklace: Francesca's Collections

Earrings: Forever 21

*Yup, I wear glasses. (Some days.) This was one of those days. 

Purple and Teal....plus a sale!

SALE ALERT!! Francesca's Collections is having a buy one, get one 50% on new jewelry in their stores right now. Okay, so that is a common sale that goes on in that store. However, they are also having a buy one thing on clearance, and get something else on clearance for free. The clearance sale is store wide, so you may want to go check out a store near you. I had gotten a gift card to Francesca's for Christmas, so I had a lot of fun over the weekend shopping in the store. The man and I were meeting his dad and little sister for lunch near our local Francesca's store, so after lunch us girls went shopping! We told to boys to go find something to do because we were going to be a while. Haha.

**THIS POST CONTAINS MANY PHOTOS!!**

While I was shopping, I found a necklace that I thought went better with my outfit than the necklace that I wore when walked out of the door that morning. 

Cardigan: Express

Teal & Purple Tank: Express (recent)

Pants: Dress Barn

Boots: Express

Necklace: Dress Barn

Earrings: (gifted) Francesca's Collections

Wearing the necklace that I bought while shopping.

I purchased two necklaces and two bracelets while shopping. The mint bracelet and the gray necklace were the regular priced items, and the purple and gold necklace and the black and gold bracelet were the clearance items. 

Leopard, black, and purple

I'm not going to lie, wearing scrubs to work everyday makes me cry a little bit every morning when I get dressed. Okay, maybe that is a lie. I don't cry *every* morning. Come to think of it, almost every job that I've ever held had either some sort of dress code (as is uniform) or required scrubs or jeans (because you don't dress up when you work on a farm). 

The only time that I got to play dress up for work was when I was a P.A. for a loan officer while I was looking for an actual job. Darn.

Well, at least I will be interacting more with patients soon, so wearing scrubs won't be so bad. (Let's face it, I don't want to bring blood and what not home on my nice pretty clothes.)

I have a feeling that life will stay busy, giving me reason to dress in fun clothes....as long as I have time to go home and change first. 

This is one of my many house hunting outfits. I probably haven't called the others"house hunting" clothes, but that's not really important. 

I was going to originally going to wear the leopard shirt with black pants, but I wanted to try to stick to the "rule-of-three". Since I do not own any bright cardigans, I decided to keep the cardigan black and the pants brights. Yup.

Cardigan: Khol's

Leopard shirt: Express (recent)

Pants: Target

Boots: Express (recent)

Belt: Target

I decided to go sans necklace and bracelets with this outfit. The shirt actually ties at the top, and I felt like a necklace made it too busy. I was also in a fuss-free mood and didn't feel like dealing with a lot of accessories. Yeah,  life is just so rough. 

White & Black & Red all over

When I originally bought this cardigan, I only wore it buttoned up, over a brightly colored cami. (Usually canary yellow). For some reason, I just never thought about un-buttoning the sweater to turn it into a cardigan. I almost got rid of the sweater until one day I thought to myself, why not try wearing this opened up over something? That little move opened the (closet) door to so many new outfits, and I am so happy that I did not get rid of the sweater. 

Some days, I just want to wear something comfortable, so you get this outfit. 

Cardigan: Old Navy (very old)

Shirt: Old Navy (very old)

Pants: Dress Barn

Boots: Express (some stores MAY still have them)

Necklace: Kay's (gifted)

Earrings: Kay's (gifted) (the silver ones are from the piercing parlor)

Watch: Tissot, Jared's (gifted)

Rings: Maryland Renaissance Festival (all silver ring) and Charlotte Russe (black and white ring)