Crewlet – Page 3 – The Fab Life

Weekend Wardrobe

December 1, 2013

With the long holiday weekend and spending time catching up with family and friends, I had the chance to put together a few more fun outfits than usual in a given weekend. As usual, catching up usually means going out for food and drinks, so here’s a few of my weekend outfits, featuring two of my newest J.Crew (sale) sweater purchases. Actually – all outfits are all J.Crew and J.Crew Factory. I wish I had gotten a full shot of the first outfit but I’m sure I’ll be repeating it again since I only wore it for a few hours on Saturday. I can see wearing this outfit again for the holiday season – the red sparkly flats gave it that perfect holiday flair.

It was pretty cold out, so I sadly swapped the flats for some boots, but I had to get a photo with the flats since that was the original outfit idea. The boots still looked cute and made it look less Christmas-y. Excuse my bathroom scale in the background, haha, I should start moving that when I take photos. Now on to Sunday brunch:

It was a little warmer today, so I went with the flats. Had I been doing much more than brunch and then some errands, they wouldn’t have been a smart choice. Here’s a closeup of the outfit:

Again, I will be recycling this outfit for work with navy dress pants and either the silver Viv flats or my silver Everly heels. I’m so excited I got this French knot Tippi on the second try, I have the ivory one and love it and I know I will get a lot of wear out of this one. Thumbs up on the J.Crew Factory silk windowpane blouse as well – I look forward to styling this one more as well! As the finishing touch, I wore the Navy schoolboy with both outfits. So what do you think of the outfits? Good weekend choices? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

Evolution of an Outfit

November 21, 2013

Hello blog world! I know I’ve been seriously neglecting this space of the interwebs and right now I’m blaming my busy season at work and the ease of Instagram for posting my daily outfits. But I’m not giving up – there are just so many hours in a day. I have to say I did a solid job of outfit planning this week- I actually planned my entire week of outfits on Sunday night. But regardless, there are always tweaks, and sometimes what I think looks good in my head needs a few changes before it’s perfect…I think of it as the evolution of an outfit – add a jacket, key accessory, switch up the shoes, and you’re good to go. I have time for tweaking in the morning before work – I do not always have time for full out planning. Earlier this week I was planning on (finally) wearing my J.Crew maple tweed pencil skirt – the photos in these pics don’t really do this skirt justice – it is gorgeous. There are so many possibilities with this skirt. I immediately went to navy with it but after searching through my closet really liked how the burgundy made it pop – so why not do both? And I might as well toss a pattern in there – the polka dots worked really well with the tweed. Here’s the website photo of this lovely skirt.

I originally planned to wear the outfit like this:

I’m wearing the J.Crew Mona Mary Janes in navy from last year, the J.Crew Factory version of the tie neck blouse and the J.Crew Factory Charley sweater in heather burgundy. This sweater is the Factory version of the Tippi and I find them to be nearly identical for half the price (win!) I felt a little like a flight attendant with the tie neck and the crewneck but I liked it.

So I tried it without the sweater which I actually really like – and had it not been 25 degrees out Monday morning I might have gone with this option. But…I snapped back in to reality and put the crewneck back on. But I wasn’t totally sold…so…

Ta-da! I added a J.Crew Schoolboy blazer in navy and I was sold. I’m convinced blazers cure any outfit and add that final polish I was looking for. Here’s a closeup of the skirt detail and my shoes:

So there you have it…the evolution of an outfit. How about you – do you make changes/tweaks to outfits you thought would look good in your head after you try them on? Which option would you have chosen? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

Grey Area

November 10, 2013

We’ve reached that time of the year where I live where many days can only be described as grey. Maybe it’s spilling over in to my wardrobe, or maybe I’ve just been so busy with work that grey is one of those easy, pairs with almost anything but isn’t as stark as black colors that I find myself turning to it several days of the week. I’ll admit, I’m catching up a bit on a few weeks of photos in my phone, and I’ve been doing the quick post to Instagram thing, so in an attempt to catch up, here’ s a few of my grey-centered outfits from the past few weeks.

Jacket: J.Crew Schoolboy (this year’s version here), Sweater: J.Crew Tippi Sweater, Button-down: J.Crew Factory, Pants: Banana Republic Crepe Ankle Martin, Necklace: J.Crew inspired via eBay, Shoes: J.Crew Factory Emery Flats

I think I could wear this necklace every day and not get sick of it!! Here’s a few outfits featuring the J.Crew Jeweled-shoulder sweater :

On Left: Pants: Banana Republic Lightweight Ankle Jackson Pants, Shirt: J.Crew lightweight boyshirt in stripe, Shoes: J.Crew Viv metallic flats

On Right: Jacket: J.Crew Schoolboy Blazer, Pants: Banana Republic Camden Fit Red Print Ankle Pant, Shoes: J.Crew Factory Emery Flat

And one more outfit with the J.Crew Merino Tippi with Shoulder Embroidery:

Pants: J.Crew Cafe capri (2011 / bright dahlia), Shoes: J.Crew Viv metallic flats, Button-down: J.Crew Factory (old).

So, what do you think? I think I need to start working some skirts back in to my rotation…I’ve been all about the pants these days!! Any outfits you love? Not so much? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!!

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2013

Just a quick post to say hello and wish everyone a happy Halloween.! DH and I celebrated Halloween (and our 6th wedding anniversary!) this past Sunday with my inlaws and six nieces and nephews. We went to find pumpkins, took a hayride through the woods and just enjoyed a nice fall afternoon together. I have to admit, I can’t take complete credit for this outfit – I was inspired on Instagram when I saw Meghan from Everyday Fashion and Finance pair the Factory pom pom dot Tippi with the J.Crew beaded rose necklace and houndstooth pants. I modified it slightly – but the idea is still the same. I wore my J.Crew elbow-patch Houndstooth schoolboy blazer from last year, layered the Factory polka-dot chambray shirt under the Tippi and finished with black J.Crew Matchstick jeans and Corso Como boots (via Gilt Groupe).

This outfit is how I like to do fall – a few layers under a sweater and I also added a black puffer vest. I have some pumpkin patch pictures but not sure DH wants his pic out on the interwebs so my outfit it is 🙂 Here’s a closeup of the sweater and necklace:

My necklace is the Groopdealz version of the popular beaded rose necklace – I was excited to find inspiration to pull this in to Fall. This is also only the second time I’ve worn this blazer and I think I definitely need to be working it in to more outfits this fall/winter. And here’s a little peek at our weekend fall fun – the pumpkins were dwindling for sure! This is about the extent of our Halloween fun this year – the kiddos had fun carving pumpkins and we had fun watching them enjoy themselves so much! Halloween itself is quiet – we live in an upper apartment and no kiddos of our own so I cooked a nice dinner and we tucked in while the nasty weather brewed outdoors.

How about you? Did you have a fun Halloween inspired outfit? Are you all over black and orange for Halloween or do you put a different spin on it? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

J.Crew Factory – Optical Lace Top and Scalloped Lace Top

October 24, 2013

Scalloped Lace Top

I purchased this during the 50% off sale when the latest round of new arrivals were released on Factory’s website. After seeing that the sleeves were not white underneath like the photo shows, I knew I had to have it. I have the Retail and Factory versions of the short sleeve Raindrop lace tee that this blouse is modeled after and I wear them all the time. I went with a 12 in this, to be conservative, I might have been able to get away with a 10, but I didn’t want to deal with any pulling in the chest area.

Excuse the bathroom shot. The only time I can take photos during the week is early before I leave for work and by the time I get home it’s almost dark. Photographing the black top was a little tougher – but you get the idea. I love this top. It’s a little looser but I think going down a size might have been a smidge tight. My eternal struggle of being between two sizes. And I wasn’t planning on wearing all black to work…but I had my new Iced Lariat necklace from Baublebar I was dying to wear. I swapped out my patent pumps for my Banana Republic Bailey studded flats and overall was pleased with the combination. This top will look great with jeans, pencil skirts and was easily layerable under a blazer. This is a keeper.

Optical Lace Top

I was on the fence about this top but had admired the retail version and figured for the 50% plus my extra 20% off, I’d give it a shot. It looks like a blouse you could dress up or down and who doesn’t love black and white? The question was if the lace print would look cheap, and it’s of course polyester compared to the retail version that was silk. I went with a large, again, erring on the conservative side.

Meh. I tried it untucked and tucked and tucked was worse than untucked. I didn’t even attempt a blazer, because if I can’t wear the blouse solo then what’s the point? I’m glad the fit was off because I was conflicted about the pattern

The center lace pattern is very intricate and in my opinion, you can’t really see from a distance that it’s a print. Those darn strips down the side bugged me though, they definitely look printed and the seams also annoyed me. Even if this had fit better, I’m not sure I could have looked past these items. But I’m glad it didn’t look good on me because it made it easier to dislike this part of the blouse. So, off to the outlet this weekend. My email tells me that the Factory Stores are doing 40% off this weekend so maybe I will find some other fall goodies. Another item I ordered was the factory version of the Tilda – it is the EXACT same shirt. Or at least the stones are spot on. The shirt fabric is more textured and I actually like it a bit better than the retail version.

So – what do you think? Do you have or are you planning on purchasing either of these items? What else are you loving from Factory these days? It seems like every other day I’m placing an order – their prices are reasonable, the sales are good and on items like the merino Charley sweater, I’m finding them to be almost identical to retail at a fraction of the price. Thanks for visiting!

Feeling Inspired

October 23, 2013

I have to admit, I’ve been lacking in the inspiration department lately. Or at least I feel like I’ve been. I’ve had a bout of writer’s block and I think it also is spilling over in to my wardrobe (perhaps a random association but it makes sense to me…). I’m not going to whine about it any more than that, but it is definitely frustrating. I’ve been waiting for that spark of inspiration – the moment when all of the items in my closet jump out at me and say “wear me! together!” or when whatever I’m writing starts writing itself – that moment when the inspiration kicks in is incredibly fulfilling. I know I’m just talking about clothes. And short stories that I write just for fun…but I think this can have meaning in many other areas of life. These are just two primary examples right now and since my blog is well, primarily about clothes, there’s my example.

I love it when an outfit comes together – when all of the items of clothing just click and it works. Today, my new J.Crew inspired necklace was the item screaming “wear me!” and after enough iterations of finding the right shape of pants (my Banana Republic crepe ankle Martins and my J.Crew Everly mirror pumps…again) and combing through my clothes, I came up with this. Finally, some inspiration. I felt completely on my game today, and even though work is crazy and there are other random things going on that I wouldn’t bore everyone with here, I had a pretty fierce outfit on and that pushed me through the day. Ok, maybe a little cheesy but, I feel like the inspiration spark is finally back, so I’m trying to run with it while I have it!

Here’s a closeup of this lovely necklace – an “inspired” version of the gorgeous J.Crew flower lattice necklace as well as the J.Crew Navy tweed jacket. I have the matching pants but have yet to wear them – I’m still working on ways to style this blazer. The blouse is the J.Crew Factory version of the Blythe blouse from last winter.

So, how about you? Do you have times when you’ve lost your inspiration? Any tips on how to get it back? Would love to hear what you think of the outfit too and thanks for visiting!!

The Fab Life

Making every day fabulous

Category: Crewlet