Spring Has Sprung

Guess what day it is? HUMP DAY. Okay, now that I’ve got that out of the way…Haha. Today I thought it might be fun to walk you through how I put this outfit together. I wore this during my spring break in California to go shopping, go out to dinner, walk around town, and just be touristy in general. 🙂

I started this outfit by picking the blouse. (That’s how I begin my outfits lots of times. I either pick one item I really want to wear and build the look off of that, or I brainstorm an entire look or a few pieces that might look cool together the night before I want to wear them.) I picked this blouse because a) I haven’t worn it in a while, b) the yellow color is springy and happy, and c) it hasn’t appeared on the blog yet (but its twin has, seen here).

The next thing I considered was the weather. I knew it was supposed to be in the high 60s/low 70s so I wanted something warm enough for the breeze, but cool enough for when the sun was shining. I needed some sort of jacket/sweater to fit that criteria…

…But I didn’t want to wear my jean jacket because I planned on wearing jeans. I thought pants were a better option for the cool weather than jean shorts, which I considered. So I moved on to other possible layers.

I wanted my outfit to feel like spring, and a great way to do that is to add a bright color (something people wouldn’t typically wear in the winter). This green works with the yellow because the blouse is soft and a pastel, and the green is bold but an interesting shade—more of a relative of mint than Kelly green. Since one color is bright and one is more subtle, they work really well together and don’t compete for attention/make the outfit too busy. The denim also helps to keep the outfit from being too colorful.

The outfit now had texture (the dots on the blouse), a unique detail (the ruffles), and a fun color (the green). It just needed that extra umph, so I reached for some jewelry and fun shoes. I picked the shoes first, and I added the sparkly necklace to tie the sparkles of the shoes back into the outfit. I finished the look by cuffing my jeans to showcase my shoes a little better.

Voila! You have an interesting and fun outfit perfect for spring. I always find it helpful to know why people paired certain things together (I used to love to watch “What Not to Wear”!), so hopefully this post was useful to you too. I think it just helps get the creative juices flowing and makes us see outfits in our own closets that we wouldn’t have thought of on our own. 🙂

Have a great day!

Miles of smiles,

Grace

Blouse: Kohl’s, $20, similar here // Cardigan: Nordstrom, $30, last seen here, similar here // Jeans: A.N.A. via JCPenney, $25, last seen here // Shoes: DSW, $40, last seen here, shop espadrilles here // Sunglasses: Icing, $16, last seen here