Pocket Full of Sunshine

The sun is finally out and it's actually starting to feel like May!  With the weather doing so much flip-flopping, sometimes it's hard to plan an outfit out for a day that will start off chilly and yucky, and then halfway through warm up.  My solution?  A classic jeans and tee combo, layered with a cute denim jacket!

Tee: aerie || Jeans: GAP || Sandals: MIA Shoes, via Marshalls || Sunnies: aerie || Bag: Kate Spade (similar) || Pom Poms: Wish app (similar) || Watch: c/o Fossil || Jacket: GAP, via Savers

Seriously, how stinking cute is this graphic pocket tee from aerie?!  It's one of their many, many super soft cotton tees, and my t-shirt drawer (that's right, I have a drawer in my dresser dedicated to all my basic tees), is full of these bad boys.  They're ridiculously soft, they're fitted, but not skin tight, and they're perfect for layering, or just rocking with a pair of your fave jeans!

And right now, you can stock up on all the colorful, super soft tees, because it's BOGO 50% off!

How do you rock the jeans and tee combo?  :)

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Spring Trench + Stripes

J. Crew is on point with their spring jackets; and I'm completely on board (I also love this field jacket that I featured on the blog yesterday)! 

As I get older, I'm starting to realize the phrase "quality over quantity" is truer and truer (you were right after all, mom).  While I still love buying fun trendy pieces, I've come to realize that I need to be smarter in spending my money, and that the bulk of my money spent on my wardrobe should be dedicated to well-fitting, quality pieces that are classic and can be worn for many, many more years.

Enter, this beauty, the J. Crew Factory trench jacket.

Even though April just ended, the weather has been very unpredictable with many cooler and rainier days.  That being said, jackets are still a must even though summer is right around the corner.  I love this timelessness of the trench, and that I can throw it over any outfit (good or lazy...) and still look put together!

Trench: J. Crew (on sale!) || Tee: J. Crew || Jeggings: American Eagle || 

Sneakers: Puma || Crossbody: Banana Republic || Sunnies: aerie || 

Watch: c/o Fossil || Bracelet: J. Crew, clearance find (similar)

The trench is a classic wardrobe staple, that looks awesome thrown over a fun sailor stripe tee and jeans for a chic casual look.  It was perfect for a day of shopping and lunch with my mom!

Speaking of classic investment pieces, how gorge is this Banana Republic cross body (also comes in a nude color) I scored at their sale yesterday (40% off!)?  Every girl needs at least one good leather bag in her style arsenal for a quick polished look.

What are your classic wardrobe staples?  :)

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Easy Peasy, 1,2,3!

Sometimes getting an outfit together in the morning is a big ol' pain; blank stares into your closet, wondering what the heck you're going to wear today.

I have a super simple solution.  Break it down; just like your would one of those unnecessarily long math word problems.  When you dissect an outfit piece by piece, I've found it's much easier to pull something together than when you're just thinking of the whole outfit.

Pick one piece that you love, and then go from there.  Today I chose a fun, vintage inspired jacket.

Step 1: Start with your basics.  When I'm styling a fun, detailed jacket, the rest of my outfit is composed of basic pieces so that the jacket is the crown jewel of my look.  Today I'm wearing this nice, light aerie button up top (perfect for the warmer weather, or in this case, layering), paired with a pair of classic black American Eagle jeggings (perfect for any clean, classic look!).

A statement piece is only as good as it's basic base.  At least to me anyways.  If you feel good in your base pieces (the fit, comfort, etc), then you'll have the confidence to rock the hell out of your statement, no matter how bold it is!  When you feel good, you'll look good (never underestimate the power of confidence!).

Plus, a good basic outfit can be style in a hundred different ways, depending on what other pieces you decide to add on; it's basically your blank canvas, to dress up any way you want!

Step 2: Add one or two fun elements...but don't get too crazy!  Again, you want the jacket to be the star of the show.  I added this recent purchase, a J. Crew suede clutch (goes with everything!), and a pop of color in the form of a vintage silk scarf (this one is great too!).

Step 3: Add that statement piece!!

...in this case an awesome jacket!

I found this awesome vintage inspired military jacket (similar here!) on Poshmark (use code PNXBH when you sign up to get a $10 credit!).

How do you cut down time on morning styling? :)

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Not So Basic Tees + WIWW

Who doesn't love a good jeans and tee combo?  It's basically the cool girl uniform (just add leather jacket, lol); but, some days you just need a little extra oomf to your usual go-to...but not too much, just a nice, happy medium.  Essentially, the not-so-basic tee is your ticket to being dressed up, without having to get dressed up.

So what's a gal to do?

Tee: American Eagle || Jeans: GAP || Sunnies: Wish app (similar) || 

Sneakers: ZARA via Poshmark (similar, similar; sign up + use code PNXBH to get $10 credit) || 

Clutch: J. Crew (under $50!) || Watch: c/o Fossil

The What I Wore Wednesday Link Up (hosted by the lovely: Jenna, Brenna, and Grace) is live, so make sure you join up!

Personally, I've become a huge fan of pairing my jeans with simple tees that have a little something extra, enough to make my outfit interesting, but without the overkill.  A simple tee and jean combo can become so much more when your tee has some added detail: some ruffle at the hem (like my current fave from American Eagle; it comes in a few different colors, I got the cream and dark charcoal ones!), or maybe some monochromatic embroidery, even a little bit of embellishment around the collar!  On of my favorite details?  Stripes!  I cannot get enough!!

And sometimes just adding a cute accessory or an edgy leather jacket can make all the difference of turning your favorite plain white (or any color, like this grey one!) tee from 'ehhh' to 'OMG'!!

GET THE DETALS HERE

GET THE OUTFIT DETAILS HERE

Some of my favorite places to score a great tee are American Eagle, Forever21 or J. Crew.

If I could splurge on a statement tee, it would definitely be this white tee with a giant black flower detail from Rosie Assoulin!  Sadly, I don't have $855 to drop on a shirt (*cue the tears* hahaha).

Next time you're in the market for a new tee to go with your favorite jeans, forgo the plain white tee, look for a little something more: a peplum waist, some nautical stripes, or a little bling around the collar!

How do you rock your not-so-basic tee?  :)

Shop my not-so-basic picks here!

Totes My Spirit Animal

Pic from Buzzfeed, make sure to out the rest, they're hilarious!

LOL...with that being said, Kourt K is hands down my fave Kardashian; my spirit animal if you will. And as I've said before, I love doing dupes of celebrity OOTDs, with pieces from my own closet, and Kourtney Kardashian gives me total OOTD envy; her wardrobe isn't 24/7 outrageous, and a lot of her looks are easily duped because of that.  Recently I went on a pinning spree (follow me @classicallycait!)...as I always do...and I came across this Kardashian look:

pic from OutfitID

I was super excited, because right away I knew this was a look I could re-make because I had all the pieces in my closet already!  Even better?  It's easily remade on a broke girl budget! #highfives

Shirt: aerie || Leather Jacket: H&M (similar) || Jeggings: American Eagle || 

Sneakers: Puma (similar) || Tote: aerie || 

Sunnies: Wish app || Belt: Forever21 || Watch: c/o Fossil

The best part of this outfit is that it's a big impact made up of several basics...aka, pieces that you can re-wear in hundreds of different combos with other pieces in your wardrobe.

For example, every girl needs a good leather jacket.  You can wear it whenever, it goes with everything, and it instantly gives your outfit a wow factor without having to try hard.

Black jeggings/skinny jeans/leggings, every girl has at least one pair in her closet (if not five or six! lol). 

Once you break down your fave celeb's look into all the different pieces, it's easy to recreate it as your own and start with pieces that you already own before you start draining the bank trying to copy it piece for piece!

Anyone else on the Kourt K bandwagon?  :)

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A Day at the Met

A mini-cap of this weekend's micro trip into NYC with Richie. And I say mini-cap because we probably only spend a total of five hours in the city, lol. 

It was the perfect day for it, the weather was gorgeous, not too hot, not too cold; I was able to rock my fave leather jacket and my fun new Express fringe jeggings (and they're under $40!).

Jeggings: Express (on sale, under $40!) || Shirt: American Eagle Outfitters || 

Leather Jacket: H&M (similar) || Fringe Cuff: Dynamite (similar) || Sunnies: aerie || 

Booties: Old Navy (on sale, under $20!) || Bag: Marshalls (similar + similar in white) || 

Watch: c/o Fossil

We weren't in the city for long (we both had such a long, busy week that by the time the weekend hit, we were too tired to do anything crazy), but it was still a great little trip. It was nice to get out of the house, and out of town for something fun that we wouldn't typically just go out and do. If you don't have a lot of time when visiting a big city, I suggest you do what we did, pick one big sight to see (we chose the Met), and then a smaller stop (we picked up macaroons at Laduree on Madison Ave.); that way you get the adventure without being overwhelmed.  Plus, in a place like NYC half the adventure is just getting to and from your main sights.

There was a bit of a wait to get into Laduree, so just be prepared, especially if you go later in the day.  This was my first time going and having the famous macarons, so I was determined to get my box of 6...plus I was super excited because they're almost too pretty to eat and they turned out to be delicious.

How gorgeous is their window display?!  All the bright colors and tons on pretty, yummy macarons in the windows make me ready to leap right into spring!! 

At first Richie was impatient to wait, and thought I was silly for spending $21 on six macarons (trust me, soooo worth it!); but later the next day, I made him try one, and let's just say that now he's a believer and was super happy I made him wait on line with me.

Luckily, Richie was a super good sport that day; not only did he wait on line at Laduree, but he took several outfit pics until I got some good ones to share with y'all.

It was a short and sweet little trip, but it was just what I needed!

Here's some of my favorite sights from the museum!

How amazing is this artist we passed?!  He drew quite a crowd, he was that good!

Egyptian wigs on point.

Some of the French rooms they rebuilt in the museum were drop dead gorgeous; I was ready to move right in!  Just give me a tiara and a silk gown and I'll be good to take up residence any day!

This courtyard was so impressive that I forgot I was still indoors!

I was wide-eyed and in complete awe with the fact that the Met rebuilt whole rooms and structures inside the museum!  I kept telling Richie I felt like I was on a movie set because there was no way it could all be so real; it was surreal.

I wonder who I had to talk to about getting my hands on this necklace??? haha...but really, I would rock this beauty all day, every day!

The paintings were gorgeous!  They made me a little envious that we don't dress up like this every day!  I'm putting it on my bucket list to get dressed up and have a photo shoot in a gorgeous gown, and get made up just like an old royal.

Have you taken any micro trips lately that you had a blast on?  :)