Outfit Chronicles: Olive and Berry to the Max!

Dress handmade, Caslon Jacket from Nordstrom, Jewelry borrowed, Flowers from the garden.

Sometimes inspiration is born in the mind, sometimes it comes from an outside source.  I recently got a jolt of style inspiration from two of my blogger buddies.  Michelle over at The Fierce Glamour blog recently posted a pic of her wearing a deep coral color dress with a jade green necklace.  Love it!  Then I saw that Lydia of the Style Independent blog wearing a bright pink top with a turquoise necklace.  Definitely sensing a trend. Bright colors are everywhere this summer; from fashion editorial to in store, but pairing them with an equally bright accessory, brilliant!

Outfit Chronicles: Bring on the Summer

The temperature has been incredibly erratic lately, on Thursday, a week after torrential rain mind you, it reached 80 degrees.  In celebration of the warm weather, and the fact that it finally stopped raining, I decided to don some new summer threads.

Fashion Finds: My New Favorite Hat

An ideal hat; flatters, protects and adds an air of mystery.

A couple weeks ago while I was fashion daydreaming I created this drawing of my ideal hat.  Wide brim deep cocoa color and thick band.  This is what I craved before I even went looking anywhere in store or online.  Hats are everywhere now, but even with the profusion of hat styles flooding the accessory market I have trouble finding the right one. Why?  Because they don't always fit my pint size (but larger than child size) head.  I need a hat that comes in sizes.  My last hat, a navy blue fedora, from J. Crew is a S/M and works perfectly for my petite noggin.  After the frustration of searching in store, I turned to online shopping.  There was an exhaustive search, but I finally found it.

DIY Dose: Super Easy Jersey Bracelets

Jersey Knit Bracelet with silver stretch cord woven through

Happy Monday all! I feel like it's been too long since I got my crafty on, so I am going to share a super easy project I tried this last weekend.

Follow my blog with bloglovin

I am gradually figuring out blogging one thing at a time.  Since I am new to writing and following blogs I did not know about Blog Lovin'.  I know let the shock slowly wash over you, but I had no idea about RSS readers and such, until I started talking to other bloggers and reading a lot of articles on the topic.  If you are loving you some Blog Lovin' then you should know that you can now follow my blog J. Rose Style there.  Hey maybe you will even be one of the first followers. Just click on the "Follow me on Blog Lovin" widget on the home page or search my blog http://jrosestyle.blogspot.com/ on Blog Lovin'. Thanks so much to all the really friendly and supportive people who have helped me with my new ad-venture in blog land.

How did you find out about blogging or blog readers? Did you plunge in or did you do your research?

Bloggers Do it Better: Challenge- Prep School

In an random act of online surfing from one fashion blog to another I discovered the blog Pretty Shiny Sparkly.  Besides being insanely fun to look at and read along with Kristina's style adventures each week, she has been issuing a style challenge to fellow fashion bloggers.  This week's style challenge is Menswear-Prep School, the one requirement was that every blogger don a tie or bow tie and work from there.  Excited by the idea I decided to channel my inner Annie Hall and rock my own menswear inspired look!

Outfit Chronicles: Black Eyelet Skirt - Take Two

Ann Taylor Roll Sleeve T-Shirt, French Connection Black Eyelet Skirt, Naturalizer Spectator Pumps 

In April I shared what I wore for Easter Sunday.  The outfit included my new favorite piece for spring, a French Connection black eyelet skirt.  The skirt in my outfit post was styled to be dressier for church and a family dinner, today I took that same skirt and gave it a more casual vibe.

Fashion Finds: What to Wear on a Rainy Day

Photo: Nina Leen/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Mar 01, 1956

Today I woke up to the sound of raindrops on the roof.  Normally I find the percussive pitter-patter of rain comforting, but I did not have the luxury of staying in bed.  I had to trudge out into the rain to head to work.  While getting dressed I couldn't help but wish I had some more water resistant pieces in my wardrobe.  As I hummed the children's rhyme "rain, rain go away, come again some other day" I made a mental list of some items that would help to keep one warm and dry on dreary, rain soaked day.

Shopping Haul Post: Nordstrom Rack

Today's shopping outing was mainly a reconnaissance mission.  It had been a while since I had been to Nordstrom Rack and wanted to take inventory of the new arrivals.  Usually when I go shopping I have a few very specific items in mind, but I had received a card last week from Nordstrom rack advertising their "Contemporary Event" and it piqued my curiosity.  Going in with no expectations I was able to find a few key pieces sure to make it into heavy rotation in my spring summer outfits.

Fashion Finds: Cheap Monday Domino Dress

Cheap Monday Domino Dress

I will confess I spend too much time browsing fashion e-tailers websites, hence my tech free day last week. There are some sites I like to shop at and some sites I like to look at, knowing full well I could not afford the product, but I like to look anyway.  Shopbop.com falls into the latter category.  It has a terrific webpage and I love their look-books, but normally I shy away from the site because they are completely out of my price point.  However I can't resist the siren-song of the lovely designer pieces so I go to just window shop.  Occasionally they surprise me by having some really high-fashion but completely affordable pieces.  My find today is this black asymmetrical dress by Swedish brand Cheap Monday.

DIY Dose: Say Bye-Bye To Winter Skin With a Lavender Scrub

I have a wonderfully diverse group of friends who I can call on for their expertise on a myriad of topics;  anything from finance, to real estate, to tattoos and beauty.  One of those terrific people is Eduardo, who also happens to be a blogger and wellness guru extrodinaire.  He recently posted on his blog a terrific all natural scrub recipe that is sure to polish your skin and leave you looking glowing for Spring.  I really love natural beauty recipes, so I asked Eduardo if I could share it with my readers and he graciously agreed.  So I would like to introduce my first guest blogger Eduardo Martinez of the blog Eduardo Life.