Valentine's Day Accessories

I’ve loved Valentine’s Day for as long as I can remember and have always dressed up each year. Back in high school and part of college, I was a bit over the top and would actually buy a new dress each year! While I no longer do that, I still love a festive outfit for the occasion. I know not everyone wants to dress as spirited for the holiday so I wanted to share some easy (and subtle) ways you can dress up your outfit this year!

{I made sure to link everything I am wearing in the post below including items that are not on liketoknow.it. Every time something is purchased through my link it helps me not only know what you are all interested in but it also gives me a slight commission which is always appreciated!}

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HEART CLIPS - This is a really easy and cute way to add some Valentine’s Day pizzazz to your hair! Either wear your hair down and clipped to the side or add a clip on top of a braid or ponytail.

HEART JEWELRY - another subtle way to honor Valentine’s day is wearing some heart-shaped jewelry. You all know how much I love rings so I couldn’t resist adding to my collection with this heart ring. The best part about heart-shaped jewelry is that you are not limited to wearing it for only one day.

I’ve linked the exact ring and some similar rings below:

James Michelle Ti Amo Heart Ring

James Michelle Midi Heart Ring

Bellatrina Jewelry Hammered Sideways Heart Ring

James Michelle Tiny Heart Stacking Ring

HEART BELT - These past few months, I have been wearing belts more and loved the heart buckle on this. You can easily wear it with jeans, a skirt or with a sweater dress!

Here are the links to my exact belt and some other similar ones:

Forever21 Faux Leather Heart-Buckle Belt in Red

Forever21 Heart Buckle Hip Belt

HEART GLASSES - These are a great way to dress up your outfit while you’re outside and then easily take them off later. Truthfully, I just wear mine all year round because of how cute and fun they are!

HEART SWEATER - For those of you who love the holiday as much as me, a heart print sweater is perfect! This one has white hearts all over it and pairs so well with white jeans or a white skirt.

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Make sure to checkout my past Valentine’s Day post here.

May: The Month of No New Clothes

As Memorial Day Weekend sales draw near and the month of May is coming to an end, I wanted to share with you an experiment and challenge I have been doing this month. For the month of May, I challenged myself to not buy any new clothing, shoes or accessories. First of all, I do want to explain that this does not mean I did not buy ANYTHING all month. It just means that I cut out any new clothing, shoes or accessories such as handbags. I also defined “new” as anything new to me. So that means I can’t even go thrifting this month to find new, but used items.

I don’t know if it is just me, but I feel like all of the cute clothing always comes out around May because the weather is changing and everyone wants new pieces to add to their Spring and Summer wardrobes. While I found myself wanting to buy everything, I figured doing this shopping cleanse would be a good choice to start the Spring and Summer months on a clean slate.

There are several things that inspired my goal to try this out. I’ve listed them below in no particular order. Some range from super shallow, where as some span to a greater level.

1. The first reason is pretty obvious, saving money. I don’t know about you but budgeting and saving money has been something that I’ve always kind of struggled with. One thing I have struggled with since the beginning of my blogging journey, is how to budget clothing. In a way, buying clothing is part of the job but it also does add up! After my trip to Spain back in February, I realized that I want to focus my money towards traveling more and paying for fun experiences versus material items. Everyone spends their money differently; some people spend their money on going out to eat with friends, some people splurge and use their money towards big purchases, and while I do not eat out that often for example, I do buy clothing more often than the average 24 year old. By not buying anything for a month, I wanted to see if I felt like my paychecks lasted longer and see what I was able to spend my money towards instead. On another side note, the Nordstrom Anniversary sale is coming up and I know I will want to shop that, so by not spending money now, I will hopefully be able to afford several items in the sale this year!

2. Another reason for this challenge was that I already have way too much stuff! When I moved about a month ago into a smaller place and a smaller bedroom, I really realize just how much clothing I already own. Just to put it into perspective for those of you who have not seen my room, if you were to remove all of my clothing, shoes and accessories, the only items I would have would be my bed, my bunny’s hutch and one shelf. Currently I also have a full closet, under the bed drawers, a dresser, a shoe rack and a clothing rack not to mention a few other containers in my closet that are stuffed with clothing as well. The really crazy thing when looking through all my clothing is that some of my items have only been worn once. I have dresses from college that I wore for maybe 5 hours to a sorority formal and then never wore again. Some of these items I had even forgotten that I owned so it seemed crazy to me that I was buying all of this new stuff each month when I don’t even remember or wear a portion of my own closet.

3. As a blogger there is definitely pressure to be constantly selling and styling the newest, coolest trends but in order to do that, you have to buy them. I do know some bloggers who will just take photos in items or will return them right after but for me, if I am posting about an item, 99% of the time I still own it. The pressure of always being “in the know” and “on trend” can get tiring and takes away focus from all the older items in your closet. I totally get it and fall victim to this type of thinking that New is always Better. When you are taking outfit photos all of the time, it is easy to feel like you cannot rewear an item. Or if the item is too old, that you should not post it because then you can’t link it on Liketoknow.It or sell it to your followers. Although this is important for making income, I think it is also important to fight the peer pressure of “needing” new items for every event, photo shoot or daily outfit photo. Most of the time, I feel like no one sees a photos and remembers all of the past times I have worn and posed in that article of clothing. It is possible that maybe some of you do, but then is there really anything wrong with outfit repeating??

Here I am in the same dress, four different times. Even though this dress is so last year (literally), I still love it and will wear it anyways!

4. The last and in a way, most significant reason that I wanted to try this is for the sake of our lovely planet. Last month was Earth Month and I kept reading so many articles about how our consumer-focused society is hurting our planet. Obviously this does apply to buying other items not just clothing and shoes, but the clothing industry ranks pretty high as far as destructive items go. Part of the issue is that most clothing is cheaply made causing the average consumer to feel the need to buy more, more often. I definitely am guilty of buying a lot of brands that are not sustainable. Going back to reason #3, part of showing off on-trend items is that you are participating in fast fashion where the item will probably be discarded in a few years when it is no longer relevant. These items are usually cheaply made as well (which is why they are inexpensive) meaning that if you do keep them, they probably won’t survive a ton of wear and ear over the years. About 3 in 5 garments will end up in a landfill within a year of purchase which is seriously so bad!! Learning all these facts about the way we consume clothing really made me stop and think more in depth about how my fashion blogging is impacting our Earth.

So now what? Well currently the month is not over and to be honest, the past few days have been quite a challenge! I get so many emails every day from brands I love telling me about what great sales they are having. Scrolling through my Instagram feed, almost every blogger is selling an outfit on Liketoknow.it that I want to buy but can’t. I’m already trying to prepare myself for this weekend when there will be talk of all the Memorial Day sales everywhere. There are so many great sales happening right now that I am already having a hard time not clicking the Checkout button haha.

One thing I did notice over the past few weeks was that I will do most of my online shopping when I am bored or have down time. I usually only online shop in the evenings when I am lying in bed about to go to sleep. By filling up my time with other activities (I was running after work for awhile during that sunny week), I had less free time to waste scrolling through online websites. I also used this month’s paychecks to fund a trip to Seattle with two of my friends!

This monthly experiment is honestly just the beginning. I would love to hear what you all think and if you have or plan to try something like this out! I’m hoping to try this again soon; maybe every other month? I would love to say that this has been eye opening and I will never shop again haha but I already have a ton of stuff in my cart that I want to buy once it hits June 1st🙈 I do plan on being more thoughtful about the items I am buying. Often I shop with events in mind versus sustainability over time so I definitely want to focus more on items that I plan to own and love for more than just a few seasons.

I would also love to continue the discussion about sustainable fashion and other people’s shopping experiences so please leave me a comment or send me a DM!

Lloyd Local

Shopping Local this Holiday Season with Lloyd Center’s Lloyd Local Initiative

This holiday season, I paired up with Lloyd Center to introduce their Lloyd Local movement! Growing up, Lloyd Center was the mall closest to my house and I have many fond memories there. It is where I took ice skating lessons, where I have gotten all of my piercings and where I would head at midnight to wait for the release of the newest Harry Potter book. Therefore when Lloyd Center reached out about their newest initiative, I was excited to be a part of it! The Lloyd Local movement is a new thing this year starting just in time for the holidays!

What is Lloyd Local?

Lloyd Local is a new initiative starting this year where a wide range of local businesses are doing pop-up shops throughout the mall. The local businesses range from restaurants to plant shops to clothing boutiques and several will remain past the holiday season.

When it comes to holiday shopping, I love being able to go to one place, on one day and check off the majority of my shopping list. In the past, I have had to divide up my Christmas shopping into a trip to the mall and then many trips to all of the local businesses around Portland that I want to buy gifts from. By having both local and larger stores in the mall, I am able to do more of my shopping during one trip while also supporting local entrepreneurs.

What Businesses are Included?

Adorn/Rachelle M/Gild Shoes

Animal. Plant. Mineral

B Store

Bobablastic

Bricks ‘n Minifigs

CBD World

Cracked Pots

Cultural Blends

Five O’ Tree

Frock

Migration Brewing’s Burger Shack

My People’s Market/Pallet42

Portland Pedal Power/MUJI

Reis & Irvy’s

Seven Virtues

Shoeshineboyz

Sock It To Me

Stubborn Stiles

Ugswea

Xray Radio

The Lloyd Local Incubator (rotates different businesses)

{I’ve tagged all of the Instagram accounts so just click on the name to check them out!}

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For more information on Lloyd Local and all the fun events coming to Lloyd Center this holiday season, check out Lloyd Center’s website and follow along on Instagram.

You can also shop this outfit and many others here.

[This post is sponsored. Photographs by Shauna Dullanty and Linnea Havener]

Faux Fur Coats

Tis the season for fur coats! Although one could argue that fur coats are meant more for the winter and holiday season, I personally start wearing them as soon as the weather gets cooler. Last year I also found that waiting too late into the winter season made finding the person coat more difficult since many of them were already sold out. There are currently A TON of options out and a lot of affordable options at that. I should first note that when I say “fur coat” I really mean faux fur! As the owner or a rabbit which is an animal that many companies still make clothing items from, I am completely again real fur. With that out of the way, I have decided to share with you all some of the amazing coat options I have found. All for under $100! Since there are so many types, I have divided my findings into three general categories: colored/pattern fur, longline fur and short fur.

Colored & Patterned Fur Coats:

Short Fur Coats:

Longline Fur Coats:

I already have quite a few fur coats as you can see in the photos above but they are just so perfect for someone who is always cold but still wants to look cute A.K.A. me! This year is definitely the year of the colored/patterned fur so you’ll probably see me with a new addition sometime leading up to the holiday season!

One Set, Three Outfits

For the longest time I have been trying to find the perfect set! The struggle I always came across was that either the top was too cropped, something was see through or the set was really fun but not something I would actually wear out in public. Luckily this cute set from Forever21 ended up coming back in stock and I bought it right away! The key with sets is to find the option where you can buy the top and the bottom separately. I wasn’t sure about my size so I ended up buying the top in two sizes. I’m honestly super happy I did because I ended up picking the larger of the two. The great part about sets is that you can style them so many different ways which I wanted to share with you all below!

Look One

The first and simplest way to wear the two pieces is together. They were literally made for each other and so it is pretty much guaranteed that they will look cute together. Kind of like a romper or a dress except that it is cute in half so you don’t always have to wear it as your whole outfit.

Look Two

Another way I styled this set was by pairing the top with jeans and a hat. It is a great way to transform the outfit for fall and you can easily add a sweater or jacket if it is cold that day. The funny thing is that seeing this outfit alone, you would have no idea that the top is part of a matching set. It really just looks like a cute top that you paired jeans with. When picking out bottoms, I made sure to choose ones with a similar rise. The shorts are high waisted so I paired the top with my high waisted jeans so the hem would hit at a similar spot.

Look Three

The third outfit I created was using just the shorts. i paired them with a neutral colored top since there is already a pattern on the shorts. Although I could have added a different crop top, it can be hard to find one where the hem hits in the same spot with the high waisted shorts. I love crop tops but I like when the do not actually end up showing my stomach. To avoid this problem, I picked a longer tank top and just tucked it into the shorts.

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