Green and Navy (pt 2)

 

Dress: Modcloth / Cardigan: H&M / Belt: Madewell / Sandals: Gap / Necklace: bought in Italy 

 

I am in love with this color combination right now. I'm not the biggest fan of the pale pastels of spring, but I will always get behind this bright kelly green, which feels so perfect for this season to me. See my other navy-and-green combo here.

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 On a personal note:

I love working with the kids at my school; they are, on the whole, charming, curious, intelligent, and absolutely hillarious children. It is not, however, always (or even often) perfect. Two weeks ago was particularly trying. The kids were testing, and had been for days (the amount of tests in LAUSD is staggering), so they were bored and annoyed and restless.

On Monday, the boys' bathroom was graced with the graffiti "Lauren is a b****" (well, they didn't use the stars, but you get the idea). On Wednesday, I intercepted a note, elaborating upon the sentiment, "Lauren is a b**** and a h** (points for proper spelling?).

I'm pretty sure both of the sentiments were in reaction to something I've tried to stick to: holding the kids to high expectations. Even if they don't have their homework 90% of the time, I will still ask them for it every single day, will still express my dissapointment that they don't have it, and will still follow through on the reprocussions that should follow.

The other week, by doing this, I definitely pissed off a few 10 year-olds. Maybe it had been bothering them for a while and was exacerbated by the days upon days of testing; maybe it had nothing to do with this at all. Maybe some of them just don't like me. But I realized then that holding the kids to high expectations--keeping them accountable, paying attention, following through, and making sure they know that I know they can do it--is infinitely more important than 100% of my classroom liking me, 100% of the time.

Or, as our Principal put it, "If they're not calling you names, you ain't doing your job!" :)

Happy weekend!

Petite Fashion Challenge #15: Chic Pin-spiration

This month's Petite Fashion Challenge is hosted by Long Live Classy:

 Find a pic of an outfit you love on Pinterest, and re-create it the best way possible!

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I had a few inspiration photos to choose from, but in the end I chose this one because a) it's a bit of a departure from what I usually wear, and b) I want to figure out what to wear with this awesome orange H&M skirt I got last fall.

Inspiration photo:

My interpretation:

Top: Gap / Skirt: H&M / Shoes: Target / Necklace and Ring: Amrita Singh / Bangles: bought in England

 

I was immediately drawn to recreating this outfit because of my very similar orange skirt. However, the amount of jewelry the girl in the inspiration photo is wearing is awesome for her, but a bit daunting for me. So, I tried my best by putting on my showy Amrita Singh turquoise necklace to echo the turquoise in the photo, along with an Amrita Singh green and gold ring, and some gold bangles bought in England (which is about 2 more pieces of jewelry than I would usually wear!).

I don't have a gold belt, or blue shoes (which I really want, now...) but I still think the outfit works, albeit in a bit simpler version.

Until last year I had zero orange clothes in my closet, but now this is, strangely enough, my second orange skirt. I paired the other one with this Amrita Singh necklace too; I really love the combination of orange and turquoise.

Check out all of the other participants (after 8pm Eastern time) over at Long Live Classy!

Coming Up: PFC #15

Petite Fashion Challenge #15 is this Tuesday, April 24th.

This month's challenge is hosted by Long Live Classy. The challenge is:

  

Find a pic of an outfit you love on Pinterest, and re-create it the best way possible!
Be sure to post the pic of your outfit inspiration in your post as well!

Here are the outfits I'm choosing between:

 kryzu

Emerson Fry

Any thoughts on which I should try?

I'm looking forward to seeing all of the participants!

Bundle Up

Seeing as I'm moving to Boston next year (and by next year I mean 2 months from now), I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need a coat. Honestly, I have never felt more Californian than when I think about preparing for a Boston winter. As far as I can tell, it will involve water proof shoes, coats (see below), and possibly earmuffs. The boyfriend says adults can wear earmuffs, but I'm not so sure.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start with the coat. I think I'd need two, one pea coat type thing, and one waterproof/puffy coat. So, I turn to you, who must know more about this sort of thing than I do; am I on the right track? And are there any secrets to shopping for coats on sale?

Winter Coats by petiteonapenny featuring j crew coats

Sun and Shades

 Dress: gift, from a local boutique / Cardigan: from a local boutique / Hat: borrowed, from my sister, from her boyfriend / Bag: vintage Coach, via eBay / Sandals: Gap / Earrings: from a local boutique / Sunglasses: Target

 

I love getting clothing as gifts. Clothing given as a gift often leads to me owning something I might have passed over in a store on my own. See: this dress. I own very few brown things (purses and shoes aside, this dress is the only brown thing I own), I don't think brown looks that great on me, and I probably wouldn't think twice about this dress in a store. But, as a gift? Turns out I like it!

Hope you are all having a lovely week.

A Little Less

 

Dress: from a local boutique / Cardigan: Target / Sandals: Gap / Necklace: from a farmer's market / Bag: Gift, from Guatemala 

 

My car died this weekend, by which I mean the battery is fully and completely cooked. It's a Prius, so this may mean (if it's the fancy Prius battery) a nice chunk of change to get it replaced. Hot on the heels of having my first car totaled, this most recent adventure in grown-up car ownership got me thinking about how much I'd like to simply not have so many...things.

Of course, that may sound too simple. No car means no totaled vehicles, no paying for batteries, no batteries dieing in the first place, and no annoyance of what to do when the car's not there. (This is all presupposing a great public transportation system I could rely on, and is after, obviously, counting my blessings that I am able to have a car and pay for its fancy new battery in the first place.) But fewer things do, I think, mean less mental clutter and more breathing space in the long run.

This is something I've always want to do with my closet. Get it down to the few, perfect, timeless, beautiful pieces that I could wear anywhere, to do anything. I'd love to have everything match everything else so perfectly that putting looks together is a breeze. I'd love the paired-down simplicity of the one perfect cocktail dress, the one perfect blazer, the one perfect white shirt. But, in reality, I do buy with the trends (though I try to do it sparingly), I do like doubles and triples of things I wear often (skinny jeans, t-shirts, boots), I do buy silly impulse purchases, and I do think I "need" that cute new dress from H&M, when really I should save my money for the one perfect dress from a much more timeless store. This, I think, is what my wardrobe aspires to be, when it's all grown up. Simple, timeless, paired-down, and thoughtfully put together as opposed to bought on a whim. I'd like to think I'm getting there (with a few unnecessary purchases along the way), piece by piece by piece.

Blogging on a Budget: March

This month, I spent:

$0 on hair products

$0 on makeup

$54.57 on clothing (one top and one dress)

$0 on jewelry

I just got back from a visit to the East Coast to check out my graduate school, so forgive the laspe in posting! More stuff coming soon!