New Year, New Dress

I showed you the shoes, now here are the dresses. New Year’s Eve is the perfect occasion for not only making those skater boys drool, but to also start a fresh new year with a daring new look. Daring and irrational at best, I have chosen a few gorgeous, cold weather un-friendly pieces for you to dress up in to dazzle and delight those dirty boys. From my newest obsession, mycatwalk.com (schooling me on the fashion of Australia), is this adorable Ruby Smallbone dress. It’s pink, shiny, but not overdone, and paired with some chunky gold bangles and a cropped jacket to ruff it up a bit, this piece will take you out on New Year’s and continue to be a great and versatile piece in your closet well into summer.
For those of you more daring with your hemline and with a darker sense of style, this short and cute bowed tunic from Nordstrom will help you outshine the rest. Paired with black tights, the cropped tuxedo jacket from Behnaz Sarafpour for Target, and closed toed shoes, this within budget outfit is perfect for ringing in the New Year and starting you off on the right path to creating a fashion forward wardrobe for this coming year.

Shine on New Years

Now that Christmas has come and gone, finding the perfect New Years outfit is next on your agenda (along with making those dirty skater boys who don’t deserve you drool with the dazzling outcome). For those who want to sparkle (literally) and shine and be the best and brightest style star of the night, consider wearing a pair of shimmer or glitter flats to ring in your new year. They will brighten your casual outfits in the year to come and be a style statement for the night paired with your chosen bowed, shift or otherwise dress. For amazing flats, I went straight to urbanoutfitters.com and I found adorable ballets called Shelly’s London Shimmer Ballet. They come in pink, blue, and black and will be perfect paired with your dress choice for the night as well as the simple styles of spring. For a girl who is known to be quite impracticable most of the time, these comfortable and cute flats with be the toe end of my look, helping me become the head of the class in style for a night, and head of the class as a lowly intern post-party.

Feel like a Ten when not dressed to the 'Nines'

With party season underway, all of those adorable and impracticable outfit-maker heels are probably doing damage to your recently, regularly pedicured toes. To give your feet a break during your downtime when you want to feel like a 10 when not ‘dressed to the nines’, slip on a pair of these adorable loafers by Ugg. Sooth those aching feet by slipping into a pair of these too cute loafers during the day, so those little feet of yours will be well rested and ready to dance the night away. Uggs have continued to revolutionize their line from boots, to slippers, resulting in these adorable loafers. With sheepskin inside and rubber soles, these indoor/outdoor must-haves come in a variety of styles. My favorite is the Ugg Dakota in tobacco or dusk. They have baby pink and baby blue drawstrings and mesh well with your favorite thermal or wrap sweater and jeans. Other styles include the buckled Thelma or the standard Louise. Drawstring or buckled, these cushy shoes will help ease the aching feet pain from the night before while adding a new element to your wardrobe. Both adorable and practical, these slippers are a must have this winter season so check them out at zappos.com and gift yourself something you need…right?

Dee-lish!

Here is my recipe for spicing up your dull winter wardrobe:


1. Add a coat of blue to your winter wardrobe, like this gorgeous blue find from Nordstrom

2. Accentuate to your waist with a heap of style by belting a solid buttoned up cardigan with a thrift store find


3. Mix-up your wardrobe with a gorgeous double color striped sweater like this Free People findthat those dirty skater boys (and otherwise) will drool over.


4. Create a stir with a bright or striped pair of leggings under a solid sweater dress.


5. Heat up those boys collars with some sexy black stove pipe jeans


6. Add dash of color with a scarf turned headband to spice up a solid color long sleeve


7. Prepare to dazzle in a chunky over-sized bracelet, like this Betsey Johnson one or for those (of us) strapped for cash, pick up a ‘flava’ (flav!) chain from alloy.com to wrap twice around your wrist.


8. Enjoy your stylishly updated winter wardrobe!

My Right Hand Man

What ever would I do without my Prada medicine bag? When my friend sprained his ankle drunkenly jumping off his 3rd story balcony into the 16 inches of snow accumulated during the night at my much beloved Midwest university, my beautifully big bag (don’t you love alliteration?) came quite in handy. After the doctors checked out his ankle ( and his head after I strongly suggested it), I was able to fit his shoe, my 12 lip glosses, snacks for our 4 hour emergency room wait and of course, my flats I stow in my bag for when the night has gone late and my feet can’t keep up. For all my fellow interns and otherwise, an oversized bag is a must. Today I carried my Macbook Pro, my brown bag lunch (cliché’ but hey, I’m picky) and my thermos of peppermint tea all in my bag. Though big bags come in very handy when wanting to tote any amount of things stylishly, picking the right one for you should depend on two things, your size, and of course, how cute the bag is. If you are petite, -5’ to 5’3’’ a bag such as the new square Coach patent leather purse would be about the right size bag to be slug on your dainty little shoulder. For us lil’ ladies who range from

5’4’’-5’6’’, a size bigger, such as the Prada medicine bag or the (way) less expensive tan medicine bag from urban outfitters would be two great choices. Finally for those girls who stand statuesque above us rest, you are able to carry any size bag your little hearts desiree, like this amazing red bag from Nordstrom.

Aside from using these stylishly large bags to tote your stylishly small phones, you can use them as a mini closet. For this little blonde intern, transitioning from day to night and wanting to make an impact both on my bosses and my boy(s) seems to be a difficult task, but carrying an oversize bag (a.k.a. mini closet) helps with the transition.

Ever Daring

For a lowly intern, the newest Betsey Johnson jewelry is slightly out of my league (not to mention Patrick Dempsey...although I’m foreseeing trump-esque hair come 60 : / ). The ever daring designer’s jewelry line pieces mix a variety of elements; metal colors, charms, and jewels, to create unique pieces that are romantic with an edge and saucy (like my use of the word saucy?) For all my other lowly unpaid interns or otherwise, here is an adorable substitute from delias.com. Wear it over a flowy navy tee or tank, skinny dark jeans, with an animal print wedge. (Double A (adorable and affordable) ones at Target!)

p.s. the mystery belt is ridiculous and I can’t find it! No replacement in sight…why do belts cost so much? Tear :*(

Practical but Stylish

For a fashion forward intern looking to be practical but stylish, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the perfect site, frenchsole.com. They have the most adorable ballerina flats I have ever seen! They have a variety of colors including these little lavender ones, and if you are looking to complete your mod look this winter, these black and white polka dot flats are perfect for that head to toe look. The rasberry glitter flats are for the brave, but paired with a subtle white sweater, jeans, cute pink argyle socks, and some gold bangles, they will draw all the right attention.

Snag a pair of leggings..not tights

The evolution of leggings has left us with tights this winter. Tights bring a new element to an outfit but a lackluster sex appeal, so for those of you looking to wow your man or potential ( if he's lucky) man, I veto the tights look for the more skin ( though little) revealing leggings. Though it's winter my vote always is for open toe shoes because 1. I am impracticable and 2. Closed toe shoes are for work not fun! Here are my two new favorite finds from my beloved Nordstrom. Though I do cherish my bang for the buck finds, I couldn't help but fall in love with this Jaloux Silk Chiffon Tunic and BCBG's newest patent leather heels with big gold buckle accents. Sometimes you have to splurge on yourself, you've worked hard this year!

Accessory Junkie

There is no such thing as too many headbands, just as there is no such thing as too much caffine. Headbands are everywhere this season and I just can't seem to get enough. The running count is now at 12 ( !) and I dont know when this addictive behavior will stop and I am reluctant to go cold turkey on the habit. Headbands of all styles, widths, and material can be seen everywhere but my favorites I have picked up have been from nordstrom and urban outfitters. Just yesterday I added two more headbands to my collection; one white, one black, both skinny, velvet and accented with a dainty bow to the side. This style of headband is perfect for my new intern ballerina bun 'do and will help keep my angel hair fly-aways out of my face as I concentrate very earnestly on my research project. I have also seen belted style bands, which if found in patent brown leather ( think the new patent leather coach bag in chocolate), could be the final addition to my growing collection. Or maybe not.





As I was musing on the topic of headbands with my younger sister, a bright idea sprang into my little blonde head. I was commenting on a headband I saw Britney Spears wearing during her much publicized outings with Paris Hilton; a black band with an oval of diamonds placed at the side. I wondered outloud if I could manage to make one similar, seeing as I could not find one online, though I had searched and searched. As I looked online I remembered an old wrap skirt I had bought a winter ago that had been accented with a broach, so I headed to my closet, threw clothes over head and finally found it! I pinned it onto an old fabric headband and voila! A new chic headband perfect for the holidays! My little sister graciously posed as my model ( best hair class of 2007..beaming with pride of course.) and as you can see, with little material and a bit of imagination, one can make a big style impact.

Future Aussie, Lowly Intern

So what can I say? I love fashion. As well as caffeine (coffee’s just not my cup of tea) and dirty skater boys; weaknesses that I just can't seem to over come. My newest obsession? Scouting for deals, steals, and lining up the perfect wardrobe for my semester studying abroad in Sydney, Australia. What are the Aussies wearing? To die for Steven Shien/Lee Riot necklaces! This L.A. based designer makes the cutest necklaces and I can't wait to see if one is waiting for me under our tree!