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Even though Thanksgiving still hasn’t arrived yet, it seems a lot of people are already preparing for Christmas! I don’t like to skip any holidays…but I must admit, all this Christmas cheer is making me pretty excited. Not to mention, the blogosphere has already been inundated with holiday-themed posts, Christmas music playing in the background of Instagram Stories, and gift guides galore. So many gift guides, in fact, that I feel no need to create any of my own. Today’s post is all about this fun wintery outfit and why you won’t be seeing any gift guides from me this upcoming holiday season.
I wore this stylish blue outfit to class a few weeks ago because, what can I say, I like to dress a little “extra” for school. The printed skirt is actually a dress I layered underneath this blue striped sweater from Gap. At first, the sweater was too long for the dress, making my legs look really short; to rectify this, I simply folded the bottom of the sweater under to raise the hemline. You might think the fold would just end up falling down all day, but it stayed up surprisingly well—the sparkly belt helped to secure the placement. I topped off the look with my favorite cobalt blue peacoat to stay warm and cute grey lace socks beneath my black quilted boots.
Not only does this outfit make a cozy and stylish look for school or work, but it would also be perfect for a holiday party, Christmas Eve mass, or even just a fancy dinner out.
Now on to today’s main event: gift guides. This time of year, bloggers love to share their best gift ideas for everyone from mothers to significant others to cousins and even to pets. Of course, I love giving gifts too, and I too am at the point in the year when I start to stress about what to buy everyone (sound familiar?). But ultimately, there are a few reasons I’ve never made gift guides in the past and why I will continue to refrain from them this year.
- They’re overdone. Like I said, tons of bloggers like to offer their best advice for gift giving. There are so many guides out there, and I feel like if I make one more, it will just be redundant. Not to mention, I know lots of other influencers would do a much better job than me anyway. They’re so talented with making items easily shoppable, and I just don’t have those skills yet. Also, I don’t do a ton of shopping as it is! I don’t want to recommend items to you that I wouldn’t buy myself. I prefer to leave the guides to the experts. 😊
- They’re not my favorite. I know gift guides are super useful to tons of shoppers, and that’s great! I’m glad there are professionals out there who can deliver highly reliable and beneficial shopping guides. However, making shopping posts is difficult for me, and more importantly, I never like reading gift guides from other bloggers myself…Personally, I think they’re pretty boring—I’d rather see a gorgeous outfit and read some fashionable words of wisdom! I also have never found them particularly useful in the past. I love to put a lot of thought and effort into gift giving, which usually means the items I choose are obscure or very personal to the person receiving it. I simply can never find items from gift guides because they’re made universally, not for a specific person in mind.
Since I tend to find gift guides rather boring, I figured I’m probably not the only one out there…But I’d love to hear all of your thoughts and feedback on this topic. Would it be useful for me to make gift guides on the blog? If so, for whom should they be designed? Or do you prefer regular outfit posts instead? Let me know in the comments below! My goal is to best serve you, my readers. If you would like to see gift guides in the future, then by golly there will be gift guides. 😊
I hope you’re having a wonderful start to your week and getting the chance to relax a little as Thanksgiving approaches!
Miles of smiles,
Grace
Blue Striped Sweater: Gap, $16 // Cobalt Blue Peacoat: Francesca’s, $40 // Grey Lace Socks: boutique, $16 // Printed Dress (Worn as Skirt): Target, $30 // Black Quilted Boots: Nordstrom Rack, $40 // Sparkly Belt