It was the end of January last year, I already had my Valentine decorations up, so why not a pre-valentine outfit. I usually like to do black for valentine's and accessorize with red, which is what I did. I had decided to get my hair done that day, but I took the full outfit shots before going to the salon.

Black dress was a gift, black belt from Sears, Kenneth Cole Reaction handbag from Ross and sandals from Rainbow.

Necklace was a gift from a friend from a garage sale, earrings from Miss A, watch from Target and bracelets from Miss A.

I had a Groupon for two blow dries at Christie Pea Beauty Lounge and it was well worth it. I have naturally straight hair, so I like to have curls whenever I can and they did an amazing job and pretty quickly too. As always when I get something new, I take many pictures to show it off.

I am writing this as the rain and wind begin here from hurricane Irma and the electricity has been flickering, we will get the worst of it starting tonight and tomorrow, luckily we are no longer in the cone, but we will still get hit with floods for sure. For now this will be my last post until this passes, maybe Monday, let's see if work will resume this day or not. This was during December of last year and I had gone shopping for some new plaid shirts, since I had really liked my blue one, luckily there were still some options left. Again I paired plaid with a pencil skirt, but went for a light colored skirt, I felt it looked better with this plaid top. I was still cooler weather and I was still able to wear my booties.

 

 

 New plaid top from Rainbow, glittered pencil skirt from The Limited, blazer from Madrag, booties from Sears and blue handbag from dd's discount.

 

 

 

 

 Necklace from Forever 21, earrings from miniinthebox.com, which is a sister company of Light in the Box, kind of like the popular site and app Wish, engagement ring from Zales, watch from Target, bracelets from Miss A and other wrist is a new cuff my fiance at the time got from one of the shows at Fair Expo, which is his second job. He had gotten so many of these, I used them as Christmas gifts for so many people and the rest were given to my mother to give away in Nicaragua, along with hundreds of pens, backpacks and shopping totes

 

 

On this day I wanted to pair a peplum top with a tight skirt, I liked the look, but would've been better if the skirt was longer. I tried to pull it down as much as I could, but with this material, it just kept riding up. Again since my new handbag is blue, thought it would go great with a dark blue. This was for December, so temperatures here were still not as hot as the normal.

The peplum top is from rainbow, skirt was a gift from a friend, stripped jacket from Forever 21, handbag from dd's discount and booties from Sears.

Necklace came with a top bought at Rainbow, earrings from Forever 21, engagement ring from Zales website, watch from Target and bracelets from Miss A.

The fall looks continue with plaid, burgundy and black tights on this casual Friday. The top is actually a peplum, but since it's a high waisted skirt, tucked in was best. I paired it with my statement necklace and as always, my booties. This plaid skirt is a favorite, many older women have commented they used to own skirts like this years ago when they were younger, it's a style that never goes out of fashion.

Peplum top was a gift from a friend, skirt was also a gift from an aunt, booties from Sears and black tights can be found anywhere, I have many pairs, but I think these were an opaque black from Target.

Statement necklace from Forever 21, earrings from Payless, engagement ring from Zales website, watch from Target and bracelets from Miss A on both wrists.

My engagement ring finally arrived just three days before Thanksgiving and he actually got down on both his knees and professed his love. We are not traditional, I actually picked out my ring and we had already discussed we would get engaged well before we started looking for rings, but with him proposing, I knew I wanted that tradition. He had been married twice before, but never for love and this would be his first, I always say it's because I'm special and he appreciates it very much. I didn't have a manicure done when he proposed, so I had to quickly do one for my photo-ops, since working in a bakery, manicures don't last, I had stopped doing them.

For Thanksgiving I wore this new dress I had received as a gift from Forever 21, booties from Sears, freshwater pearls necklace from a site that no longer exists, pearl earrings made by me and watch from Target.

I didn't want your typical diamond engagement ring, since I love blue, I wanted one with a blue gemstone that also wouldn't break the bank, though he had told me I was worth it, I still didn't want so much money spent on it when there are more important things we could use the money for. This blue topaz ring with white sapphires is from the Zales website, manicure was with Sally Hansen polish and Opi glitter.

The lovely couple. At this point I had wanted to get married on a significant date, so the first date I had come up with was December 30th, which was the date we got back together the year before, but honestly that was not enough time to plan anything and it turned out to be a very busy season with both my employers, plus holiday parties, so I moved to May 2nd, when my parents got married. Worked out well. Will be a future post.

Another casual Friday in the fall, this for the month of November last year, just before my engagement ring arrived by mail from Zales. This was one of the newer tops I had bought and wanted to pair it again with my pencil skirt and booties for work, since plaid is a favorite for fall. This was also just a few days before Thanksgiving.

Plaid shirt from Rainbow, one of many that I bought from there, pencil skirt bought brand new at Goodwill years ago, blazer from Rainbow as well, booties from Sears and red Kenneth Cole handbag from Ross.

Blue necklace and earrings from Forever 21, middle promise ring from Walmart with other rings from Ross, watch from Target, new gold bangle was a birthday gift from Express.

Other wrist had a stainless steal bracelet that was a gift, pearl and blue bracelet from Miss A.

This casual Friday landed on Veteran's Day and I played with that in my wardrobe that day. A blue dress, white earrings, silver belt and red accessories. I didn't have a white belt, so I went for the next best thing, silver. As you can tell I really love these booties, they are so comfortable even with a slight heel and not too hot for Miami weather.

The blue dress was a gift, red handbag from Kenneth Cole Reaction from Ross, belt and booties from Sears.

Earrings from Icing by Claire's, necklace was a gift, ring from Charming Charlie, red, white and blue bracelets from Miss A, watch from Target and other bracelet was made by my friend.