An Accessory to Style

Today was a glorious day! Beautiful weather - sunny, warm, mild breeze. (It's October, for crying out loud, but I'm not complaining!) We slept in, watched football on the couch, cleaned the apartment, started laundry...wonderful. Now that I think about it, we probably should have gotten off our butts and taken a walk, but we didn't...oh well.

Yesterday was the end of a 7-day work week - also a 13-hour day itself. It wasn't a bad day - just a long one, so I really feel like a earned a day of sweet lounging. I'm off tomorrow, too, and I am promising myself that I will NOT think about work, so no email - NONE! To help me do that, I'm going to 1) sleep in again and 2) go shopping! Well, I'm actually going to return a number of things, but it'll be nice to get out of the house and meander about the town in a totally leisurely way.

I prepared for the length of the day yesterday by building my outfit around low-heeled shoes and a comfortable knit dress. This is also a bit of remix, where I tried to autumnify (a word I think I borrowed from another blogger, though I can't remember who - but what a great word!) a great-fitting tank dress with an embellished neckline that I bought in the summer. It's a really versatile shade of navy blue, though, so I'm hoping to work it into an all-seasons dress.

Olive green canvas jacket - LOFT / Navy blue knit dress - LOFT /  Pink skinny belt - The Limited / Blue bowed kitten heels - Payless

The jacket, which I wore in an earlier casual ensemble, has its own tie and has very little structure. But in the interest of dressing the jacket up a bit, I removed the tie and experimented with other belts. My initial version of this outfit incorporated a teal belt and a turquoise gradated bead necklace. I thought this was fun, but the necklace broke mid-day, so I went home during a dinner break to change. The teal belt didn't work as well with other necklaces I was considering, so I basically cycled through a number of combinations. I love this version, however.The pink belt plays well with the olive green, and it picks up pinkish tones in the necklace. I also thought it was the dressiest version, which I still had to maintain for the evening performances.

I also tried orange and yellow belts, both of which I liked, too. The orange was very autumnal - and I'll definitely revisit that combination - I'm thinking boots and a chunky necklace! The yellow was equally wonderful, adding a punch of color that really brightens up the ensemble. I think such a combination will be great in the spring.

Pearly shell earrings and necklace - LOFT

I definitely feel this outfit does have a more causal feel than one I'd usually wear to work a performance, but I had to compromise a bit to dress for the WHOLE day (the first part of which involved a youth literature festival that took over the entire building...kids everywhere!) The accessories take credit for dressing the outfit up just enough, however.

Interestingly enough, this outfit has given me some ideas of how I can expand my casual style vocabulary, too... 

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