Outfits of the week!

This week has been so incredibly hectic! In fact, the entire month of January has been - something I'm still not very used to after the lull and laziness of the holidays. As such, I haven't had a ton of time to take photos (read: I've had absolutely no time at all) so I'm taking a page out of Khatu's book and posting my outfits of the week via Instagram. You may have seen some - alright, most - of these if you follow me on Twitter, but I figure it'd be good to add these here all the same.

TUESDAY 
[H&M boucle skirt & button-down, Calvin Klein blouse, Topshop belt (similar)]

WEDNESDAY 

[ASOS cropped pants, H&M blazer, bangles from India (similar)] 

THURSDAY
[Topshop shirt (similar), thrifted wool skirt, H&M belt]

FRIDAY 

[wearing Topshop blouse (similar), American Eagle sweater (similar), MixIt necklace, Delia's jeans Sz 0]

I'm trying incredibly hard not to stray from my New Year's resolution to buy only items I need (since I've already epically failed at my other NY goals, namely, to eat healthier and go to the gym regularly). It's been tough! I caved and bought a pair of amazing wedge booties from Piperlime (see my image here) - but I don't think these count against me since I used a gift card ;) Have any of you been able to stick to your New Years' resolutions so far? 

Lusting after...spring pastels and LOFT new arrivals.

Snow hasn't even hit NYC yet (unless you count the freak snowfall on Halloween, which I would just like to erase from memory altogether...) but spring fashions have definitely hit the stores - and I'm loving the pastel colors that are everywhere this coming season! So much so that I just wanted to share a few items with you all that I'm dying to wear. Can't we just skip over February and March?

The other day, I stopped by a nearby LOFT to see what they had in stock (Twitter followers may have seen some of the items I Tweeted about when there). I fell in love with the Patch Pocket A-Line Skirt in Scuba in 00P. It doesn't seem to be available in petite/small sizes online, but there were several in-store. If you're interested in this skirt, I suggest you go check it out in person to see if it's available (or, of course, do a Stylefinder).

Graphic prints and polka dots.

I've always found mixing patterns to be a challenge. There are some people that are just so naturally good at it, and I honestly don't know how they manage - whenever I attempt to mix paisley with stripes, or stripes with plaid, or what-have-you, I feel like I just end up clashing.

But one of my (many) New Year's resolutions is to venture more outside of my sartorial comfort zone this year, and this is one goal I am absolutely determined to keep. One thing I've learned about trying out fashion trends you're intimidated by is to start off slowly...so that's exactly what I did.

Petite Fashion Challenge 12

It's that time of month again - by which I mean, it's time for Petite Fashion Challenge #12! I was actually very excited about this one, which is being hosted by the lovely Khatu:

From Night to Day: Restyle a glamorous look that you would typically wear for a night-out-on-the-town into daytime casual wear. Easy right? Bonus points if you can restyle it for work! 

This one really "hit home" for me in a lot of ways, because when I first moved home after graduation, I was commuting to work in the city from Long Island. This meant, of course, that if I intended to go out at night, I had to really plan ahead - I couldn't pop back to my apartment to quickly change into something more appropriate for a bar/club/general night out on the town! 

Reviews...H&M

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday! Mine was so relaxing - I went home to Long Island for the weekend and got to hang out with the entire extended family (not to mention, I think I gained about ten pounds). I also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to H&M - and I literally mean squeeze, because oh my god, the store was so crowded. It was, in all honesty, even worse than Black Friday.

The photos are, again, terrible quality, because Blackberries have awful cameras. But I just wanted to quickly share my reviews about a couple new items (and one old) with you.

I specifically went to H&M looking for a kelly green dress that I'd seen on both Elle of Fast Food & Fashion and Jean of Extra Petite. I was in love with the color and silhouette, and heard it fit fairly small. Unfortunately, the kelly green was sold out in everything smaller than 6, but I was able to find the same dress in black to try on in a size 2: 

Statement necklace and an LBD.

Is anyone as terrible as me at Christmas shopping?? Not only do I procrastinate at buying gifts in general (I still haven't bought any!) but I'm actively awful at figuring out what to get people. It's not that I don't know what my friends like, it's just that I have all these ideas floating around in my head, and then I get to the store(s) and just get completely overwhelmed by all the options and just give up entirely and pick the worst thing there is. Without fail! All I can say is - thank god for gift receipts.

For example, I stopped by H&M on Friday. I thought that, what with their year-end holiday sale going on (practically everything's on sale from $5 - $15 right now!) I was guaranteed to find stuff for everyone on my list. Instead, I ended up purchasing...just one dress. For myself. Um, oops. 

Channeling Mad Men...Shift dress and leopard cardigan.

I'm so excited for the holidays! There's something about seeing the lights twinkling on every streets and the pine trees for sale on every corner that makes me so happy - and oh, all the yummy Christmas-themed drinks for sale!  

But even though it is almost Christmas, the weather doesn't feel like it! Today was almost 60 degrees; I think this has even been recorded as one of the warmest Decembers recorded in history. I'm loving it, and definitely taking advantage of it to wear out some of my dresses sans tights for as long as I can.

Eggplant purple and mustard yellow.

The weather lately has been completely inexplicable...not that I'm complaining! I love layering clothes, but I definitely don't like -5 degree weather when not even ten layers are enough to keep you warm. And at that point, it's just impossible to look stylish if you don't want to freeze to death, too. 

I know that the temperature isn't going to stay this warm forever - 68 degrees at the end of November is just too good to be true, after all - but I'm taking advantage of it while I can! This weekend, I didn't even need a jacket when I was traipsing around outside, which made me very happy, because I really wanted the colors I was wearing to show!

Cobalt blue and H&M coat review!

Happy Cyber Monday and belated Thanksgiving, everyone! Did you buy anything during this sale-heavy weekend? I definitely did - maybe a few too many things, but that's when a good return policy comes in handy, right? 

Please forgive me for the crazy range in my photo quality! My mother just "gifted" me with her old Nikon Coolpix DSLR, and I'm still not quite comfortable with all the options...in other words, I have no clue what I'm doing yet! But nevertheless, I'm very excited to have such a quality camera - I can't stop playing around with it. Does anyone have any tips or websites they can direct me to on how to take and edit pictures with a DSLR? I'd be forever grateful!

One of my favorite colors of the season is the cobalt blue that's been everywhere. Unfortunately, I think it's a little too bright for my workplace - or maybe I'm just personally not daring enough to try it! The only piece I think I would even chance at the office is this lovely Ann Taylor ponte skirt (see on Extra Petite, Really Petite and Petite Little Girl), but unfortunately I wasn't able to snag it in my size when it went on sale. 

Boucle skirt and sky-high pumps.

This post has been a long time in coming, so please excuse the mishmash of topics! Life has been very hectic lately, so I haven't had a chance to write about a lot of petite fashion-related things that are on my mind...

Such as a more comprehensive review of the H&M items that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, for which I finally got around to taking proper photos and measurements. I'm actually obsessed with this boucle skirt, both because of the quality (it's fully lined, and the material is nice and thick - perfect for winter!) and the pretty color. Since it isn't a solid red, but instead has flecks of other colors such as green and blue, it's so very easy to match with. It goes great with neutrals, but also works with brighter hues!

Reviews...H&M

So I popped over to H&M today, and was really impressed with some of the items they have out right now! I wanted to buy so many more than I actually ended up purchasing, but isn't that always the case?

Originally, I headed in to check out this tie-collar cardigan that I had seen (and loved!) on Really Petite's blog. Coincidentally, I was also on the hunt for the wool mini-skirt she's wearing too - I need more skirts that aren't black and camel, and the grey option is so cute! But unfortunately, I didn't find either of these items. I knew I should've jumped on that skirt when I saw it a week or so ago...oh well. Luckily, I did manage to find a few items that I loved - and some real bargains, too.

In particular, I wanted to highlight this wool-blend skirt - the photo is from my Blackberry (I really need to start carrying around my digital camera when I go shopping) so the colors are a little off. In person, it's a beautiful rust and grey wool blend. The reason I'm so excited about this skirt in particular is because it fits so small. Seriously, it's like I had it tailored for my pocket-sized frame!

Lusting after...Versace for H&M

I've always found it difficult to find high-end designer items that fit - leaving aside the fact that said designer items usually tend to be far beyond my price point anyway, I'm additionally deterred from buying anything due to the extensive alterations I'll inevitably have to do ($250 for a button-down is steep enough - I don't need to tack onto that price tag with sleeve-shortening and side-slimming!). 

But that's exactly why the new Versace for H&M collaboration has got me oh so excited. It's Versace! It's (somewhat) affordable! And, here's the kicker, if it's sized even remotely according to H&M's standard, it might actually be petite-friendly. 

After browsing through Vogue's gallery, I've come up with several items that I'm definitely going to have to nab. First is this beautiful black silk dress that's going to retail for $79.99. Amazing! I love the slit-sleeve detailing...and you can never go wrong with adding another LBD to your wardrobe, right?