Not Quite a Copycat

It's Pinterest again for my inspiration this week.  For once I am not trying to recreate the look exactly, but taking the color mix that I loved and using it with elements from my own closet.  Here is what I came up with.

 I know what you are thinking.  Skinny jeans and brown boots again?!  I can't seem to help myself.  I was missing a major element in my look though, and that was the pop of yellow bag.  I tried to find something of equal weight for my look, but nothing that I tried worked for me.  I settled for the look as is, and sometimes that is ok.

XO,
Alyssa

Teatime Tidbits

(Ignore my titular alliteration)

I spent Friday afternoon at the wonderful English Rose Tea Shop in Carefree with a great friend.  I have never gone to a tea shop so it was a new experience for me.  I thought that my new floral dress would fit the bill just right, and since it is still a bit cold here I had to do tights with my shoes.  First time I've done that combo with these shoes and I really liked the way the whole thing came together.  I tried on about a dozen necklaces and nothing even remotely popped off of the heavy floral, so I though I'd let my belt and my arm bangles do the accessorizing for me.  Oh...and there was also this, in the tea shop...

Bad self portraiture, but is that hat not TO DIE for?!  They had a huge chest full of great hats for the picking.  Perhaps gross, but I had a great time.  It was about 2 sizes too large for me, but I just balanced it on my ears for a while.  It got the job done!  I felt perfectly festive for the occasion.

There was also some silliness going on.

Yes, I wear glasses and I have hair in my eye.

It's how we roll in AZ.  I also took a few fun pics at the "dump", which isn't really a dump but a collection of shops and consignment booths.  [If I knew how to do a "more pics after the jump" jump, I would spare you all of this.]

The lovely Natty who made it all happen.

Thanks for sharing my day with me!  It's Monday...so you know what that means.  And more than likely I'll link it up on Wednesday too so look for me at Patti's, Molly's and at Lindsey's!

XO,
Alyssa

Cautionary Copycat

I love how the ensembles on Polyvore look so cute and complete.  I can imagine it on a person so easily that I readily jump into the style.  Since I am not a 5'10" size 0 however, I sometimes have a hard time translating the outfit for my body.  Especially when the silhouette is a skinny one.  Or if it includes a scarf apparently. 

I happen to have 2 different black scarves.  One is shorter than the other as you can tell from the first to the second image.  It's really obvious that I have a short neck when I have a scarf wrapped that tight to it!!  Wasn't a good look.  The second is ok, but its still too short I think.  I wore it, and no one threw things at me so I guess it would pass.  I also don't own a leopard bag so skipped that element all together.  In retrospect, would my long leopard scarf have done a better job than trying to recreate the look directly?  Possibly.  

The lesson?  Be careful where your scarf lands or you could end up looking like it's trying to choke you.  AND don't use a belt unless you really need one.  I used one to tie in the brown boot since I didn't have the leopard bag to do it for me, but the inspiration is a slouchy look and I think it would have been best to leave it all slouchy.  Why don't I ever learn the lessons before I take the pictures??  I think my blog would be doing so much better if it weren't about what NOT to do.  LOL

XO,

Alyssa

It's Thursday so go check out Carly and Mary's link party and do a copycat post of your own.  I'm sure you'll be a DO!  

Unexpected Inspiration

I am a GAP  brand girl, this is no surprise to anyone who reads my blog regularly.  You also by now know I work there.  What you may NOT know is that I was offered my first sales associate position because of the amount of time the store manager saw me shopping in her store.  True story.

Working in retail can be a boon, but in my case I have found that I only tend to shop in my "family" of stores where I can use my employee discount or store card discount.  I have sort of cut myself off from shopping anywhere else because, well, in short because I'm cheap. 

What is my point you may be asking?  Well, I had to go to Home Depot for a toilet seat the other day.  No, my inspiration didn't come from there!  It didn't take me long to find what I needed and right next door to the Home Depot is a Kohls.  I have only ever been in there a few times and have NEVER found anything I would buy, but I had all this free time on my hands and it was right there!  Well, guess what?  It was end of season closeout time and I came away loaded up with new goodies for my closet!

One of the things I found was this great printed, tie-neck blouse.  It has beautiful details like the pleating in the front, which is echoed in the back.  I loved the floaty sleeve and the colors, and immediately saw a bunch of different ways I could use this.

Click here for Kohl's Blouse Shop

I loved it layered with my cool leather jacket.  I thought it added a masculine element to the feminine aspect of the blouse.  I threw in a great clutch and off I went, happy in the knowledge that there are more places to shop than my own stores and deals to be found if you take the time to shop.  Lesson learned world, lesson learned.  Inspiration can often be found in unexpected places.  Now that I have my eyes open, where will I find it next?

Where have you found unexpected inspiration?

XO,

Alyssa 

** I got called out by the social media dogs for not linking to Kohl's, so out of courtesy I added the link.  If you so choose, you can also use the blogger promo code TENFORBLOG now through March 9th.  

Casual Copycat

I think putting Copycat in the title of my Thursday posts is going to become a "thing".  Watch for it.

From my Pin; followed 12 links back and gave up.  I'm guessing Archimedes on Polyvore is the originator.

How easy and cute is this little mix?  I loved it so much, it inspired me to get back into the Copycat game.  Of course, I can never manage to leave well enough alone so I had to do it my way, using the pieces i had at home.

My shoes and belt are a lighter neutral than the tobacco color in the Pin, and because the buckle on my belt is silver, so too became the accessories.  You know, I felt so great in this super simple outfit.  I thought it looked put together, even though it is really just jeans and a tee shirt.  I could have used a couple more necklaces to really make it sing, but I wanted to just stay simple.  I will do the tobacco colored neutrals another time...dressier wedges and gold and coral jewels instead of matching.  Then we can see which interpretation we like best!  This is a cooperative you know.

So...I'm linking up with Carley at Texas Lovebirds and Mary at Trusty Chucks.  I think you guys should too...copycats are FUN!!!  See the sidebar for links loveys.

XO,

Alyssa