First blush

Wide leg pants are having a moment which is excellent news for me. The weather in AZ is just too hot to wear skinny jeans. 88⁰ anyone?! I added my flimsy blush button down shirt and enjoyed a sunny  summer spring day.

Liberty Jacket

I love this jacket. I bought it with such high hopes… and now, here in Phoenix; I can’t wear it as much as I like. The weather is just too hot for a lined jacket during the day. That’s why my sweet baby is only going out at night. Not its best time to shine, poor thing!

Globe trotting

Yes, literally! We went for a visit to the mining town of Globe, a two hour drive east of Phoenix. My past experience on road trips had shown me it’s better to be slightly dressed up than utterly casual. This time however it was all for naught. Being Sunday, the whole town was closed down!

By the way, there was a theme to last week’s outfits: pretty prints (or printed pants as the case be). You may have noticed that the pants (and one skirt) I wore last week were all patterned

Asymmetrical pants

That’s the name of these wild creations, a cross between skirts and pants (with a dash of palazzos). I was crazy enough (and maybe bored, too) to decide to give them a try and bought them yesterday. Today taking them out for a spin, I was facing the real challenge: what kind and color of top I can wear them with. See, that was something I didn’t give a minute thought to when buying these. As the pants hanged on me in a shapeless confusion, I had a moment of clarity: make it intentional! … and that’s why I went with the most ladylike top and accessories I could find in my jumble of a wardrobe! The outfit looked good!

Edgy blush

Blush is one of those colors that conjures up visions of lace and flowers and sweet little girls. I however was feeling anything but sweet. That’s why I added leather jacket and modern heels. Slicked back hair and smoky eyes helped too!

An Ikat tuxedo

Today was slightly cooler (75-80⁰) which was a great opportunity to layer and get one more wear out of these fitted pants. Starting last summer, it looks like the only source of inspiration for my outfits is the weather!

Retro girl

The combination of graphic tee and pants and denim jacket had a bit of retro vibe which I extended by cat eyes and matt lips. Not a look I go back to but fun for just one day!

Meeting new friends

You know my philosophy about meeting potential friends for the first time. That’s my excuse for keeping this outfit simple and classic! You can’t go wrong with black and white!

Good on paper

Sometimes you plan an outfit even days in advance and it comes together nicely. Sometimes all your planning are for nothing and the pieces that looked good in your vision, don’t work that well in real life. As the case with this outfit. The yellow undertone should have tied everything together but… ah, well, back to drawing board!

Black and white Monday

I finally wore this skirt. As much as I liked to go colorful, I restrained this outfit to black and white. Good thing, the skirt is eye-catching enough, being short and having the graphic print. The whole look came out as very ladylike!

Relaxing

Sunday afternoon could become downright depressing! My cure: cool clothes, a big chocolaty drink and the latest book from Terry Pratchett!

Stripes and lace

The back of this jacket is all lace, so that has the thematic dressing taking care of. Also no pastels until Monday, at least! Crop top and high waisted A-line skirt is a combo I keep going back to. Why mess with a good thing!

Apple green

I am not a pastel kind of girl. I am not sweet or girly or cute! I am also not a lace dress kind of girl so on the subject of this week’s theme (Lace); I couldn’t bring myself to wear another pastel lace dress. Therefore I figured the little embellished lace at the collar of this dress has to be enough to satisfy the theme and went for an intense color scheme. As to it being springy, I splashed on my apple blossom scent generously. Can’t get  more springy than that!

I bought this dress last year and didn’t get a chance to wear it. It is a bit on the formal side but the green color and arty tropical flowers are right on trend.

Happy Persian New Year!

I feel blessed to have my dad this year with us for the New Year. I wish everyone a wonderful year full of joy and success. May all your dreams come true this year!

This  blush lace dress from Free People is the epitome of Spring in my opinion. I saw it on their website and dreamed of it for a couple of weeks until I was able to find it in a boutique here in Chandler. To a good year, cheers! 

I am also feeling blessed to be able to stay home and spend the day with my family this year, instead of rushing to work or school! So very peaceful!

Blue lace

I’ve been looking for a blue lace dress with not much luck when I found this ice blue lace top. I thought it could work and snatched it up. I think it has potential, don’t you? Here it looks well with my old ice blue wide leg pants.

White lace and pistachio

I think styling a white lace dress is hard if you don’t want to look too saccharine. I tried to give it a more ladylike look with a longer jacket and added bright green accents. It toned down the sweet/little girly vibe a bit.

Mint and lace

Last week became a week for blues. For this week I am actively choosing a theme: lace, in honor of spring’s official arrival and the Persian New Year on Thursday. So the first outfit of the week:

I added the bag at the last minute because of St. Patrick’s Day!

Sky blue

Let’s close the week by the lightest blue in my wardrobe: my comfy, casual shirtdress. This week was full of blues. I hope next week is much better! It should be, Persian New Year is on Thursday!

Turquoise blue

For a day trip to Sedona and other northern AZ cities, I went with accents of turquoise, appropriate for entering Indian Territory, no?

Blue and chinos

I finally wore these chinos as they were supposed to, casual and sporty, instead of pairing them with heels. It would have been impossible of course walking for four hours in botanical garden trails in heels.

I did continue with the blue theme of the week however. You may say I’ve been extremely blue this week!

Navy sandals

I felt lucky finding these stack heel sandals in navy. They add just the right amount of height without any discomfort. And of course I had to wear them right away with a matching outfit.

Oxford blue

I've collected a few blue oxford pieces. and have become addicted to this color and the grainy texture of this material. So I’m looking for excuses to wear my blue oxfords. And yes… I get it! This pants don’t go that well with the top. I just wanted an excuse to wear the pants with something light on top!

Cobalt is the new black

I had a busy day ahead of me so I wore my favorite shade of blue. Looks like right now is the perfect weather for skirts in AZ, a bit warmer and I can’t stand anything except loose dresses. So, layering cobalt blue on blue on blue...

Forgot something and have to rush out to get it? Doesn’t mean you have to look rushed too!

Blue Monday

There is a negative draining kind of energy associated with Mondays, take my word as a scientist! To salute this depressing day, I mixed hemlock and classic blue denim together.

Garnier Clean Nourishing Cleansing Oil

My face and skin is having the hardest time adjusting to Arizona’s weather. From last summer, I keep getting dry patches on my face, irritation and sometimes peeling. I had changed my skincare products so many times in the past 8-9 months and still no improvements. When I finally saw this cleansing oil, I thought it is worth a try, my skin can’t get worse! Although I was very skeptical at first about using an oil on my combination/oily skin, I am happy to announce it works miracles. After almost a week of use, my breakups are down, the dry flaky patches are almost gone and my pores are smaller. Overall my skin looks better (no redness) and more clear. Highly recommend it!

Weekend?

What weekend? It looks like these days my weekends are as busy as my weekdays if not more. I had this light yellow crop top from many years ago and thought it would add a touch of sunshine to my day, since these days I’m wearing a lot of black. Just had to dress it up with a tuxedo jacket and heels!

So many things to do, so little time

These days are overwhelming. My only consolation is that I look well and pulled together when I rush to get stuff done!

Peter Pilotto for Target skirt:

I usually don’t buy items from Target colab collections. The quality is generally low, the colors garish and the hype too much. After all these years I can count the number of my Target colab purchases on one hand, a Lela Rose top, a Kirna Zabet dress, a Michael Kors dress and a Marc Jacob pouch. To that number, I added a Peter Pilotto skirt a few weeks ago. I’m still not sure if I’m going to keep it, but am trying to convince myself that the black and white color scheme would help me get some wear out of it.

The attitude of people here toward these collections is so different from people in Orange County. There, people would stand in lines hours before opening time on the day of launching the collection and by midday everything was gone. Here a month after launching, all the pieces and sizes are still hanging on the racks. Such a big change for me!

Cropped and high waisted

That’s my formula to wear the crop top. Another pairing of this top and pants although this time I made it more formal by wearing a blazer.

I think I figured the secret to crop tops (at least for someone my age): they have to be a bit loose and baggy on you. Wearing them with high waisted pants or skirts helps too. As the final touch, add something structured and formal, heels, a jacket or a structured bag.

Black and white tuxedo*

I’m dressing according to my inspiration board these days, jackets, jackets and more jackets… I have to get a year worth of wear out of my jackets and blazers before the weather hits mid 80s and becomes too warm to wear them! So here it goes in clear black and white:

* The title sounds rather like a cat. I guess tuxedo cats are the best dressed in feline world!

Python blush

When I found this Equipment top a few months back, I thought it would look great with tan or brown bottoms, but this morning I discovered it goes amazingly well with my blush jeans. Throw in a goes-with-everything black blazer and I had a Monday outfit which I was happy with.

Powder blue

After the rain and cold of yesterday, I am wishing for spring and nothing feels more spring to me right now than white jeans and light blue. I had too meet a bunch of strangers, so maybe it was more in lieu of power blue.

Pink and blue

Two of my current favorites to cure this sudden cold and rain. 60⁰? Turn on the fireplace! It is also raining cats and dogs so I was doubly glad I hadn’t packed my winterwear for storage.