Daily MelWear BBCA: BBCA Begins!

This post is going to be short and sweet! This is what I wore yesterday and rest assured, I did wear pink on Saturday, the very first day of the challenge, but I don't have pictures of that. You'll just have to trust me. :)

How are you all feeling about the BBCA challenge in this first week, do you have lots of ideas for how to sprinkle pink into your wardrobe? Remember, pink doesn't have to be the dominant color of the outfit; it just needs to be present.

I've updated the list of participants, so be sure to check that out and let me know if you're taking part and would like to be added as well.

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was fabulous. And happy. :) Have a great Monday, friends!

Today's outfit:
Dress: Ross
Belt: Salvation Army
Necklace: Wal-Mart
Sandals: Beall's

Daily MelWear: Fall?

Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time knows that I like to layer. It makes me happy to come up wtih different ways to layer cardigans, jackets, shirts, all that fun stuff.

But when it's 90 degrees out, sometimes layering isn't a great idea. However...I decided to wear longer sleeves and a cardigan anyway. Granted, I'm sweating, but they say beauty is pain, right? Does sweating count as pain?

Eh.

I was almost going to pair this skirt with pink but then I thought I should hold off on that for October when we start BBCA. Have you signed up to participate yet? I'm going to post a list of this year's participants very, very soon. If you're still unsure about whether you can do it, please keep in mind that although I'm doing it for the entire month of October, you don't have to. You can just do a week, or a few days, whatever works for you. I'll continue to add to the participant list throughout the challenge as well, so don't feel pressured to decide right this second.

Are you all having a good week? I think I had such a great weekend that it's carrying over into this week. And I'm excited about this next weekend too. So...YAY!

Have a great day, y'all!

Today's outfit:

Skirt: Burlington
Shirt: NY&C
Cardigan: Target
Heels: Target
Belt: Dots

Daily MelWear: Polka Dots and Purple

Happy Tuesday, friends!

I've worn this outfit before to church but didn't photograph it, so I figured I might as well do that. :) Wearing a belt like this is WAY out of my comfort zone, because I feel like it highlights my hips as the widest part of my body. I really do like it though and might have to find a few more belts like this.

Belts are awesome.



Look, I can do the blogger pigeon toe pose! :)



The pop of purple in the flower makes me smile. I love little pops of unexpected color. It's a happy thing.

Hope you're all having a great week so far! Tell me about your weekend, what did you do?

Today's outfit:
Skirt: Burlington
Tank: Target
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Dots

Flower Pin: From my MIL (actually given to my daughter, but, well...you know...)

Necklace: Gift from the very sweet and super gorgeous ML

Heels: Beall's

Daily MelWear: Double Polka

Somehow I don't think the Double Polka is quite as amusing as the Double Rainbow. {I can't believe you can buy the song on iTunes now. You'd think in this day and age, I would've been able to come up with something comparable to get rich.}

{By the way, if you're thinking, "Wow Melissa, that cardigan looks awfully familiar, didn't you just wear that?" the answer is no, but great observation. :) I have this cardigan in two colors and I wore the turquoise one last week!}

I'm still sniffly and sneezy but instead of talking about that, let's talk about double polka dots! My boss isn't a huge fan of patterns to begin with, so mixing them at work isn't quite an option. Since she's out this week, I took advantage of the wee bit of freedom to pair these two pieces together. I really like it! I love the peach and teal together, plus there's a happy contrast with the white polka dots on the dress and the black ones on the cardigan.

When it comes to pattern mixing, do you prefer to mix two different patterns, or two pieces with the same type of pattern? What are your favorite patterns to mix?

Have a great Thursday, friends!

Today's outfit:

Dress: Target

Cardigan: Forever 21

Belt: Target
Heels: Beall's

Daily MelWear: Momma Polkas at the Office

Okay so I don't really polka at the office. As a matter of fact, I don't polka {or do any other kind of dancing for that matter} at all. I took 10 years of dance lessons when I was younger, was even in the dance company for a year or two, but if you watch me try to dance now, you'd never know it. I have lost all sense of rhythm and it's mighty embarrassing.

Which is why you'll never watch me try to dance. Sorry. ('Cept I'm not sorry, really.)

Hey, guess what?! I'm only 11 friends away from 200 GCF followers! That blows my mind a little. 

You guys make me happy. :) 

What are your plans for this weekend? I know most of you are either in the States or Canada so you have Friday or Monday off. What kind of fun and shenanigans are happening? 

Hope you all have a great Thursday!

Wednesday's outfit:

Brown Dress: Ross

Cardigan: Forever 21

Brown Belt: Wal-Mart

Brown Sandals: Target

Daily MelWear: Bumblebee Office Momma

You know, they say that people with my coloring (dark features, fairly pale coloring) shouldn't wear yellow. I don't know who "they" are, but "they" write a lot of fashion and beauty rules that I just don't follow. Horizontal stripes make you look bigger? I wear 'em anyway. Short chicks can't wear long/maxi skirts? Eh, whatever. Wearing white on the bottom half isn't flattering? Well I like my white pants, thankyouverymuch.

A couple weeks ago I guest posted on Brittney's blog while she was vacationing and wrote about tips to stay cool during summer while still dressing appropriately for the office. If you didn't get a chance to read it, check it out!

Last year at this time I was all about the cardigan for work outfits. It seems this year I've moved on to blazers and one of my favorite summer office-wear tips is to find brightly colored short-sleeved blazers. That's why I'm so glad I found these cute little ensembles at Burlington a few weeks ago! Adorable skirts with perfectly bright blazers; I can remix the skirt AND the blazer with so many different things, for work or for play.

Last week's outfit was fun with the sandals and necklace, but today we have a corporate Town Hall meeting so I needed to wear closed-toe shoes and no jewelry. I was SO very tempted to pair this with a pink belt and pink flats, but then I figured I shouldn't push the envelope too much around all the executives. I'm trying to play it safe. Even this print is pushing it a bit with our strict dress code.

But they promised snacks. And that's enough for me.

By the way, what are some of YOUR favorite tips for dressing professionally in the summer?

Have a great day, my friends!

Today's outfit:

Skirt and Jacket: Burlington

Black Tank: Target

Black Belt: Can't remember

Black Pumps: Target

Daily MelWear: Peachy Keen

Look at me, just look at me! I don't actually mean me, I mean look at the blog!!! Especially if you're reading through a reader (that sounds so redundant). Nelah installed her design over the weekend! Didn't she do a fabulous job? I really love it. She perfectly encapsulated who I am and what I like. We still have a few tweaks to work out but I can't begin to tell you how much I adore her design. So, so much!

If you're a fan on Facebook, you may have seen that I posted a little contest over there to see who could come up with a name for the new feature that I mentioned last week.  There are some GREAT submissions and while I think I might have made a decision, I'm not calling it yet so go suggest something!

Speaking of the new feature, so many of you expressed interest in either participating or reading about others' points of view on the subject of what constitutes professional attire. I want this feature to inspire and encourage all of us. That's why I'd like to know what YOU want to know. I've come up with a questionnaire to ask the featured bloggers, but I don't want to only ask them my questions; I want to ask them your questions as well.

Let me know what questions you'd like to see answered in this feature via the comments or send me an email {aworkingmomsclost at gmail.com}. I'll include as many of them as possible!

Now for the outfit. It's hard to tell in the photos but this sheath dress has some silvery criss cross patterns on it, subtle enough that I think it works for the "no patterned skirt" policy. With the polka dots in the cardigan, there's just enough pattern mixing to make me happy but still office-appropriate (I think so, anyway). This cardigan is a recent purchase from Forever21.com. I ordered it on the Friday that they offered 100% of proceeds to be given to the relief efforts in Japan. I also ordered one in teal with brown polka dots. So cute! There's a bow design that's hard to see but it's there and it makes me happy. I will say that I ended up buttoning the top buttong and pinning the top of the dress to the cardigan so it wouldn't droop down - I have to make sure my neckline is as high as possible. 

Let's recap:
1.  Click through to the blog (unless you're there already) to check out the new design by Nelah!
2. Go to Facebook, become a fan, submit a suggestion for the feature title.
3. Leave a comment or send me an email {aworkingmomscloset at gmail.com} with some questions you'd like answered for the new feature.

Easy, right?

Have a great day!

Today's outfit:
Dress: Target
Cardigan: Forever 21
Heels: Target
Belt: Payless

Daily MelWear: I'm Late!

You guys. I am SO committed to you all that even though I woke up two hours late this morning and had to skip my work out and drying my hair and a few other things (I feel so unfinished - didn't even have time to pick out jewelry!), I still made sure to take pictures so that I can blog and say hi to all of you.

So, HIIIIII!!!!

It kinda stinks when you forget to set your alarm. Oops. Good thing I picked out my clothes last night instead of waiting until it's time to get in the shower like I usually do.

Today was supposed to be the day when our boss gave us her decision on our dress code requests. However, she said that she didn't have much time to ponder them over the weekend so she would need today to do that and she'll let us know tomorrow. That gives us one more day to pray hard for her understanding and agreement!

And in more exciting news, Nelah of 52 New Days has been working hard for a while now on a new blog design for A Working Mom's Closet! We're getting very close to being able to install it and I. Can't. Wait. She has done an amazing job and I'm so, SO excited for you to see it!

Hope you all have an awesome Monday!

Today's outfit:
Polka Dot Dress: Ross
Purple Cardigan: Plato's Closet
Belt: Gift from my mom
Heels: Wal-Mart

Daily MelWear: Let's Polka!

So today is Polka Dot Day over at Everybody, Everywear! I don't have a lot of pieces with polka dots but I found this dress in the clearance rack at Target over the weekend, so I snagged it real quick. I have lots of different styling ideas for it!

We have our bi-monthly board meeting tonight which means I needed to dress as close to "in code" as possible. Technically the polka dots are out of code because patterns are supposed to be small enough to appear solid from a distance. I think that's my only violation today though! Yay for me!

I know all of you are just dying to know if I got away with my shoes and short (in my opinion) skirt from yesterday's outfit (because I'm just so fascinating that it's all you can think about, right? Right? Anyone?). The answer would be yep! I don't think my boss even looked at my shoes all day to notice the peep toes and I pulled my skirt down often enough so she didn't notice that either.

By the way, did you see that a winner was picked for the Shopbop Giveaway?

Today will probably be another really busy day at work so once again, I'm not sure I'll get around to visiting blogs much. I miss you guys!

Hope you're all having a great week so far!

Today's outfit:

Polka Dot Dress: Target

Cranberry Blouse:  From my aunt

Striped Tights: Wal-Mart

Black Belt: Can't remember, think it came with a dress

Black Pumps: Target

 

Daily MelWear: BBCA Day 26

Have I mentioned lately how much I love pumpkin? I really do. I'm sitting at my desk (you know, the one that I have for just the next six weeks) enjoying some Pumpkin Spice coffee from the K-cups given to me by my generous mother-in-law (erm...ex-mother-in-law? I really don't like the way that sounds, someone give me a nicer adjective!) and while it might be a high of 90 today, the taste of pumpkin makes me feel like it's fall and that's really all that matters.




Along with the B&BW pumpkin scented candles and wallflowers. I love pumpkin.

At least when we move this Saturday the high will only be 81. Better than 90.

I'm surprised today's outfit didn't come to mind earlier this month.  This dress has to be one of the best purchases I've ever made because I wear it all.the.time. I wear it to work, to church, on nights out, on days at home, everywhere. And to think that I found it at Plato's Closet for about $8. Awesomeness.

I decided to use the polka dot belt for a little splash of pattern. The outfit turned out a little more sweet than I'd expected, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm not sure what's up with my bangs though. Sometimes I want to grow them out because that cowlick is so aggravating, but then my hair is so incredibly boring to begin with that the bangs at least add a little something.

You guys - we're coming close to the end of the Blogging for Breast Cancer aWEARness Challenge! And we have a few more joining us this final week so make sure you take a look at the list if you haven't recently. There were so many things I wanted to do throughout this month: featuring different bloggers, sharing stories, highlighting participants' favorite outfits. But, life happens and I ran out of steam (not to mention time). I'd really like to do this challenge again next October and hopefully can accomplish everything next time around! For those of you who are participating or did participate at some point this month, do you think it's something you'd do again next year?

Today's outfit:
Black Dress: Plato's Closet
Pink Shirt: Dots
Black/White Polka Dot Belt: Plato's Closet
Black Bow Pumps: Wal-Mart

Daily MelWear: Oh Monday...

I earnestly wish that I'd worn something sleeveless.  And shorter.

My office is normally somewhere around 69-72 degrees.  I have a space heater under my desk.

Not today, however.  Not today.

Instead, the AC is broken, so it's 80 degrees in here. The AC company is on site trying to fix it. It breaks a lot, but it's never been quite this hot in here before. I guess it hasn't broken since the start of this unusually warm summer.

To add insult to injury, I think I might have caught what The Princess had last week. I don't have a fever (well, I might now with it being so stinkin' hot in here), but my throat is a little sore, my head hurts, my nose is congested and I'm just exhausted and so sleepy.

I did get up at my usual 4:30AM to work out, but I just did a two-mile Leslie Sansone walk instead of my normal Insanity or The Firm routines.

What I'd really like to do is go right back to bed. I'm so tired. I suppose that's the reason I feel so blah about this outfit. It's just sort of okay to me. It works, I'm clothed, but it doesn't do much for me. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day!

So how was YOUR weekend? How's your Monday starting out?

Today's outfit: 

Top (all one piece): Kohl's

Skirt: Ross

Belt: Plato's Closet

Shoes: My mom (Payless, I think)

Pink Earrings/Necklace: Beya 

Daily MelWear: Polka Dots and Flowers

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a good Monday.  The beginning of the week is hard, isn't it?

Today I'm incorporating another Plato's Closet find: this belt.  I think it's fabulous. It's elastic so there's some give to it.  I love the bunched up look and the polka dots. 

My process in this outfit started with the dress.  This dress is old.  O.L.D. My husband remembers it from around the time that we met.  Which was approximately 11 years ago.  I can't even remember the last time that I wore it! I saw it in my closet and decided that it has a classic look to it so it'll still work.  The white band at the neckline continues to the straps of the dress and around the armholes.  Maybe I should've taken a picture without the cardigan.  Next time. 

I haven't worn this cardigan in a few months and I love it, so I thought I'd wear it today.  I wasn't going to belt it at first, then figured I'd throw on a black belt, then I decided I'd do a little bit of pattern mixing and wear this new belt instead.  I like how it came together!

The shoes were my mom's.  Technically I think they're navy and white.  Technically.  But with a black and white dress, the shoes also look black and white so it's okay.  They'll look navy when paired with a navy something-or-other.

{Am I way off base?  Do they look navy and thus ridiculous with this outfit?}

There you have it. Wasn't that entertaining? Hm.

Today's outfit:

Dress: From the store of ANCIENT (really, I don't remember)

Cardigan: Kohl's

Belt: Plato's Closet

Shoes: From my mom (I think she got them at Payless)