Taking off the Layers

I'm all about layering, layering, layering. It's definitely a necessity right now. I rushed home yesterday and jumped right into bed watching old movies with the husband ;) - it was supposed to be -19°C and -28°C with the wind chill! I drive to work and have my heated seats to keep me warm -  I don't even know how you ladies that commute in weather like this manage to stay warm AND stylish at the same time!

Here's a typical "layering" outfit and me removing the layers LOL (Don't worry, it's PG)

Jeans:  Banana Republic 0P (similar style here)

Blazer:  Mexx XS

Scarf:  dara dot designs

Blazer unbuttoned....

Blazer off....

Sweater: H&M XS

Scarf off...

Sweater off!

(love the bit of sparkle - makes me feel special :P )

Top:  Mexx XS

Ring:  Avon size 5

Did you enjoy the show?  hahaha TOTALLY kidding!

A similar look

More The Limited...

Loft Wool Pants on me!

Ahhh the famous Loft Wool Pants!  See them on other petites in this Alterations Needed Forum post.  Kelly of Alterations Needed had a size 0P up for sale on the forum so I quickly nabbed them up.  I was a little worried that they wouldn't fit as LOFT bottoms tend to fit tight on me but I like the way they fit.  They DEFINITELY do not look like they do on many of the other petites LOL - I am definitely bigger than some of the other ladies that have these pants. They definitely fit tighter than I envisioned, but I love them all the same.

Loft Pants:  size 0P (buy here) 

Cardigan:  H&M XS

Top:  Mexx XS

I love the charcoal colour of these pants - they go with everything in my wardrobe ;)

You can definitely see they have a more fitted look on me and they are shorter on me as well.  I'm not sure I could roll the cuffs up anymore as they are quite tight around my calves. I can wear them tucked into boots too; they don't bunch up at all.

These pants came just on time!  I have NO dress pants right now - a few I have to get hemmed and a couple are in "repair" mode right now.  Luckily I can wear jeans to work everyday of the week but these pants are great as it's been too icky out to wear a skirt or dress. 

As some of you may be aware anything wool makes me itch like crazy.  I was worried about these pants but I thought since they were lined most of the way I'd be ok.  Turns out I was wrong - I can feel the wool through the lining!!!! I am wearing leggings underneath so problem solved. Most days of the Fall and Winter I wear stockings or leggings under all my pants.  I am always cold so for me this is a necessity. The texture of these pants likely won't work in the Spring and Summer so I won't have to worry about the itchiness then.    

Did anyone else grab these pants?

Shop the similar look:

More Dolce & Gabbana...

Petite Fashion Challenge #5

Petite Fashion Challenge #5 was graciously hosted by Cynthia of Shorty Stories  and the challenge was to "brighten up your Winter blahs".  This challenge was timely as it's definitely grey and dreary out around here!

The challenge was as follows:


Create a sophisticated work appropriate look that has no more than one dark piece (it can be a skirt, pants, a blazer, sweater etc...) excluding shoes, accessories and hosiery.

So...I'm not sure how I did in the "sophisticated" aspect but I really don't have many bright main pieces!  Most of my wardrobe consists of neutrals and I throw in colour with some individual pieces or accessories.  My casual wardrobe on the other hand (especially in the Summer!) is a lot brighter.

Anyway, here it is!

Blazer:  Mexx

Dress:  mark by Avon

Necklace:  mark by Avon

Boots:  Me Too (Winners)

Tights:  Ellen Tracy - NOT petite friendly!!!

I honestly don't know if this worked or not.  I work in a casual environment and have worn this dress to work before with a cardigan but I do usually wear it in the Summer.

The dress is not a perfect fit on me, but the style of it isn't meant to be fitted.  It's actually quite comfortable to wear - perhaps I should make a point to wear it more often!

I also wasn't sure what type of necklace to wear with this dress but I opted for something long since the neck on this dress is so high.

And here's a peak at the back of the dress.  This is why I wouldn't be able to wear this dress to work without a sweater or blazer on top!  I think the back is a bit revealing for an office.  And please excuse my hair, I was having an unbelievably extra frizzy day when I took these photos so up into a hair tie it went!



I must say I'm loving these Petite Fashion Challenges as they are certainly pushing me to think more creatively!  Here are my previous entries:

Petite Fashion Challenge #1

Petite Fashion Challenge #2

Petite Fashion Challenge #3

Petite Fashion Challenge #4

To see all the other lovely petites that participated in Petite Fashion Challenge #5 please visit Cynthia at Shorty Stories for all the links.

OOTD: Subtle Accents

Does anyone else feel in a rut or is it just me?  I'm going to blame it on the weather.  The past few days in Toronto have been gloomy and cloudy and cold!  All I want to do is stay in my pj's all comfy and cozy in my bed.  But unfortunately I have to pay the bills and as casual as my work is I'm not sure pj's would cut it!

This is an example of an outfit I didn't really put much thought into.  Basic jeans, simple top.  To make it more professional I threw on my new favorite LOFT blazer.

Blazer:  LOFT size 0P (as seen here all dressed up)

Top:  Mexx XS

Jeans:  Aeropostale size 0 short

Bag:  Coach

Shoes:  Liz Claiborne size 7

oops!  Wasn't ready for the shot!

Without the blazer (boring!)

So because the entire outfit was VERY neutral I wanted to add a splash of colour with the bag (this is one of my favorites even though it's so big!)  and the shoes:

These shoes are my only other item in leopard print as I mentioned in this post.

So that was my attempt at some subtle accents when I wasn't feeling all that hot.  My hair was even doing some weird thing so up in a pony tail it went.  Speaking of hair for anyone that has bangs how do you get them to not split like mine do???  I assume I need to "train" them to stay in place?  The problem is my hair is curly so I don't always wear them down and have to blow dry them straight to look like that.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Oh and if you haven't done so already, please enter my first giveaway featuring Petit Plume.   And please (without sounding too desperate :P)  Tell your friends about it too! :)

 **** you have until Monday October 18th - midnight EST to enter!****

OOTD: A (new) typical work outfit

I'm calling this a new typical work outfit because it's not something I had ever worn together before but it makes a great typical work outfit for me!  It was actually inspired by Kelly at Alterations Needed when she "deconstructed" her go-to outfit.  I loved this idea of breaking an outfit down into elements.  I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of vision when it comes to putting together an outfit.  When I see something I immediate know if I'm drawn to it but often times the vision I see in my own head does not work out so well when I'm standing in front of a mirror!  I appreciated Kelly breaking it down a bit so I could see why it worked and instead of copying the look exactly, figuring out which elements I had in my own closet to pull off the overall look.

This is what I came up with:

Jeans:  Banana Republic Trouser Jean size 0P

Blouse:  Mexx XS

Cardigan:  Old Navy XS (in Canadian stores, not online - and disappeared from the US site!  But THIS is similar)

Belt - Danier XS

Necklace:  mark by Avon

Kelly had 4 basic guidelines I was trying to follow:

1) A fun top.  I don't have too many of those so I just went with an "interesting" top with the pattern and added the bold necklace.

2) 1/2 buttoned cardigan to give an "x-shape".  I did this but the cardigan itself is a little boxy and I don't have a really defined waist so to add further emphasis I added the belt.

3) Dark Denim.  Check

4) 3/4 sleeves.  Check

I also like the flower embellishment on the cardigan to add more elements of "fun" to the look ;)



So...how did I do?

Also....don't forget to enter the giveaway from Lisa of respect the shoes.

She's giving away a beautiful Anthropologie necklace to celebrate her 200th post (WOW!!!).

Enter until September 17th!

Casual Evening Outfit: Boyfriend Jacket "look"

I wore this outfit the other night out to dinner with friends.  I didn't want to feel too dressed up but I wanted to feel pulled together.  I picked the top specifically because it's flowy and unrestricting hence I could eat more LOL.

Since the print was pretty busy I didn't wear a necklace but I wore pretty bold earrings. (sorry for the quality, I'm not sure why the pictures are extra blurry here...)

Blazer:  Mexx size 32

Top:  White House Black Market size 00

Jeans:  edc by Esprit size S

Sandals:  Gap size 7

Bag:  Coach

Earrings:  mark by Avon

I really like the whole boyfriend jacket look but I have never been able to find one that didn't look like I was drowning in it. They always looked so boxy on my.   I'm not sure if the boyfriend jacket look itself is very petite friendly.  The proportions always seemed off when I was trying things on.

I was able to take more fitted blazer that I had in my closet and improvise by simply rolling up the sleeves.

Here is what the blazer looks like on it's own:

It's obviously more cropped that what a boyfriend jacket should look like.  You can see from the pictures above that it hits my hips, but I think this length just suits me better.

Well that was my attempt at the Boyfriend Jacket look!  Hopefully I pulled it off - I got a thumbs up from my husband so that should count for something ;)

Work Wear: Black and White

In general I'm a really organized person.  While I don't need every single minute of my day planned out I do like to have an idea of how my day will go in my mind. 

This includes what I will wear for work.  If things go well in my day and evenings I usually plan out what I will wear the following day.  This usually ends up only working for Mondays and Tuesdays.  The rest of the days I end up staying up later than intended (this is even MORE true now that I've discovered the blogging world!) so the next morning I hit my snooze button one (or two, or three...) too many times to get that extra few minutes of sleep.  This routine ALWAYS leaves me scrambling for work.  On those days I tend to gravitate towards my "go to" work outfits.

This combination has become one of my favorite "go to" outfits for work.

Skirt:  Mexx size 2

Blouse:  Mexx XS

Camisole:  unknown

Shoes:  Westies by Nine West size 6.5M

Necklace:  mark by Avon

The skirt is admittedly a bit lose on me as it sits more on my hips than at my natural waist but I think the height of of the skirt suits me well.  The blouse itself is completely sheer so a camisole is a must.  I have many camisoles as I usually don't fill out a lot of shirts so I always need to layer!

I really like how the skirt is pretty full too so it swings when I walk :P

Another reason this is a "go to" work outfit is that the blouse doesn't need to be ironed!  I HATE ironing so this is DEFINITELY a bonus :) 

The skirt is super comfortable too.  It's a mix of linen and viscose so it's light and airy but it doesn't get wrinkly throughout the day.

Any other ideas for great "go to" work wear?