Friday Favorites: Favorite Book, Dresses and Accessories for Spring

It’s Friday, so y’all know what that means!  It’s time to link up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci to let everybody know what some of my favorite things are right now!

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I surprised this kid at school with Whataburger earlier this week.  Seeing his face so happy to see me is always a FAVORITE for me.  I’m hoping there never comes a times when he rolls his eyes when he sees me at school, but I know those days might be coming….so I’m going to appreciate his happy little face while I’ve got it!  🙂

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New Favorite Book

My friend Melanie wrote a new book, and my goodness is it a favorite!  She’s written several over the years and I’ve enjoyed all of them.  I mean, she’s a New York Time’s Best Selling Author for Heaven’s sake.  Just as impressive as the title as “New York Time’s Best Selling Author” is the fact that I have read them all.  Me.  I READ THEM.  #andyouknowidontread

This new book is a devotional.  And it’s good.  It’s really good.

When reading it, you’ll feel like you are just hanging out and talking to Melanie.  Her stories and God moments are so relatable.   And you know what else they are?  FUNNY.  When I read Melanie’s words “I feel you, Moses.” I lol’d.   I mean, I don’t know about you, but I don’t typically laugh out loud when reading a devotional.  But I have to say, I enjoyed my lol moment.  And here’s what’s cool, while your lol’ing, you’ll also have some God moments where you hear things that you need to hear.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a devotional that I considered a page turner, but I literally have to stop myself from reading more than 1 devotion a day.  You need Everyday Holy .  Grab this for yourself and for a friend.  And then talk about it together.  You’ll love it.

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Embroidered Blouse

I highlighted this shirt for y’all earlier this week on my JCPenney post with white denim shorts and Birkenstock dupes (click HERE for the post), but I knew it would look cute dressed up a bit too!

embroidered top / earrings / MUST HAVE denim jacket / white jeans / must have wedges

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Favorite Earrings Back in Stock!

Some of my favorite earrings (that were a total splurge) from last year are BACK IN STOCK!  They also come in white, blue, red, and black.  The rest of my outfit is no longer available.  🙁

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Adding Color

You saw this combo on the blog last week with a black tee (click HERE for my DENIM SHORTS REVIEW of 3 different pairs!), but the outfit is just as cute with a more vibrant color.  And the tee comes in tons of colors, so if this one isn’t for you, you are sure to find one that is.

tee/ earrings / denim shorts / belt ON SALE/ bracelets c.o. Accessory Concierge/ sandals / wood handle tote / bag tassel ON SALE c.o. Accessory Concierge

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Striped Tunic Tee

This tie front tee was one that I just walked by in the store.  But the sweet sales lady insisted I try it on because she had seen several others try it and proceed to buy it immediately.  I was more than skeptical about it.  But I was wrong.

This tunic tee is CUTE (and ONLY $24!).  I’m calling it a tunic tee because it’s much longer on me than it appears in the picture online. I wasn’t drawn to try it on because it just looked so long and kind of blah on the hanger.  But I’m telling you, once it was on me, I loved it.

I have it on here with the jeans and flats I was wearing, but it’s going to be absolutely darling with my favorite white jeans and my MUST HAVE wedges.  I’m wearing a small, but I’ve ordered an x-small to try that one too (because they didn’t have one in store).  I’ll obviously take one of them back.

This is how I plan on wearing it:

 

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A Cocktail Dress I Feel Great In!

Okay, ladies!  This next outfit is for the last night of a blogger conference that I’m attending this weekend.  I showed it to you in a flat lay last week, and so many people asked to see it on me, so here you go! It’s cocktail attire, and I looked high and low for a dress that I felt great in.  I also wanted it to be comfy (comfy is always a high priority for me), and I didn’t want it to break the bank.  Well, this dress is incredibly comfy and stretchy.  You just slip it on, it doesn’t even have a zipper, and it hugs you in all the right places.  AND YOU AREN’T GOING TO BELIEVE HOW MUCH THIS DRESS COSTS.  $45.  FORTY FIVE DOLLARS. #iknow #itscrazy

It comes in several colors, but I went with the classic navy.  I’m sassing it up with the heels and clutch, so I went simple with the earrings.

Now, of utmost importance with this dress…let’s talk about the undergarments.  I will be wearing my favorite strapless bra (duh) and I went ahead and bought myself this pair of Spanx.  #GodblessSpanx  This pair totally smooths me out, but I can still breathe.  Which I very much appreciate.  🙂

earrings / dress / heels / clutch

Get The Look For Yourself Here:

 

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A Great Summer Clutch

During the Spring and Summer months I love carrying a clutch to events because I hate messing up an outfit with a big bag, so I’m always on the hunt for a great one.  I spotted this one just yesterday.  It looks VERY similar to a Stella and Dot clutch I got last year and love, but I never posted about it because it sold out immediately.  This one is only $39.95, and I’m betting it will sell out quickly too.  It would be sooooo cute with my ruffle sleeve and hem black stretch cotton dress (click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the post to see me in the dress)!

It will also be cute with jeans and wedges and all sorts of sundresses!

Here’s one way to style the clutch:

 

Here’s another way to style the clutch:

 

And one more way here:

 

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Ruched Tank Dress

This next dress is one that’s been around for a good long while.  AND GIRLS.  It has 1,196 5 Star Reviews.  THAT’S IMPRESSIVE.  I’m not sure why I’ve never tried it before, but man am I glad I finally did.  I’m so happy to have this ruched tank dress in my closet.

The fabric is soft and comfortable, and the draping and ruched sides make it very flattering.  I personally won’t wear this dress without a denim jacket (and maybe a military jacket!), but you know I love pairing my denim jacket with just about everything.  I settled on this really pretty persimmon color, but it comes in a ton of great colors.  I went with a medium in this ruched tank dress, and I’m glad I did.  I often times have to size up in dresses (to accommodate my rib cage and boobs), so a medium in a dress is actually true to size for me for dresses.

It also comes in a long sleeve version HERE.

tank dress / earrings / must have jacket / must have wedges

Get The Look For Yourself Here:

 

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Pom Pom Scarf

Last month I featured pom pom scarves with a CRAZY discount code, and the post was a FAVORITE of y’alls for sure.  Some of you missed out the first time, and the ladies at Accessory Concierge got several requests to bring back the code, SO THEY HAVE!  It will end Sunday night at midnight, and we don’t have plans to do it again, so don’t miss out this time!

The code POMPOMPARTY will make these pom pom beauties ONLY $8 each.  And they are regularly $30 each.  WHOAH.

So, let’s review!  And let’s see this pom pom scarf/sarong/ cover up thing in action.  (If you want to see more of the colors on me, click HERE for the first post.)

LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS AS A COVER UP!  You can tie it several different ways, but my favorite way is like this.  I just knot it once (or twice) kind of off to the side in the front….and VOILA!  It comes in black, white, royal blue, sky blue, hot pink, and taupe.

If you love the tote, make sure to use the code STMTSAVE10 for 10% OFF your Barrington order.  And if you are a loyal Barrington shopper, you need to go check out their new spring patterns and monograms!

pom pom scarf c.o. Accessory Concierge/ swimsuit at Nordstrom / swimsuit at J Crew with better stock / white bead drop earrings /palm leaf tote bag c.o. Barrington / flip flops

You can also wear it tied behind your neck like this.

Or as an actual scarf.

Here I am in 3 of the colors with my favorite black tee and a great pair of denim shorts.  I size up to a medium in these tees because I like them slouchy, and I wear my regular 27 in the shorts.  If between sizes, I would suggest sizing down.

pom pom scarf/ black tee/ denim shorts / flip flops

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Facebook PSA

I’m going to take up some space on today’s post for a PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

I received a handful of messages on facebook earlier this week from readers saying things like “so happy to see you on here again“!  And I was all, Ummmmmmmmmmmm.  I never went anywhere.  🙁

I’ve been posting regularly like I always do (most often 2-3 times a day), so all this means is that I’m not showing up in y’alls feeds…even though I’m posting.  I hate that for you ladies, because a lot of SALE ALERTS go down on facebook which means you’re missing out.  I also sometimes preview things the night before they go live on the blog, so facebook is a good place to follow me!

A lot of work goes in to posting to facebook, and so it’s a let down that even though I have a little over 60,000 facebook followers, sometimes as few as 3,000 of you even see my posts in their feed.

If you are somebody that follows me on facebook, but rarely sees me, there are a couple of things you can do that I’ve heard will help put my page back in your feed.  If you go to my page, make sure you “like” it and are “following” it.  Here’s a blog I was recently introduced to (MAJOR home inspiration), so I made sure I went to her facebook page to both like and follow it (see picture of screen on left).

I then clicked on the “follow” drop down box, and chose “see first” (see picture of screen on right).  If you don’t choose anything, then “default” is checked, but supposedly “see first” will help new posts show up in my feed.  AWESOME!

Another way to make sure you continue to see bloggers you follow in your feed is to make sure you are liking or commenting on their posts.  If you don’t, facebook’s algorithm assumes you don’t like their stuff and no longer puts it in your feed.

Same goes for instagram.  If you want to make sure you are seeing certain people in your feed, make sure you are liking and commenting on their posts, even if it’s just a heart emoji.  It’s almost like you need to prove to instagram that even though you’ve chosen to follow somebody, you actually want to see their posts.  You can even go back now and like the last several posts to get things moving in the right direction (and you can do the same thing on my facebook page).

If you want to go the extra mile on instagram, you can actually click on the three little dots at the top right of a person’s profile (see picture on left), and you can choose “Turn on Post Notifications” and “Turn on Story Notifications” if you want to make 100% sure you aren’t going to miss any content (see picture on right).  Now, I only do this for a handful of people that I really want to see, because getting notifications from too many would get annoying.  However, I do love the guarantee of seeing certain people that I absolutely do not want to miss.

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How to Use LIKEtoKNOW.it

And now we need to do a little Like To Know It education today because things have changed over on instagram again.  If you follow other bloggers on instagram and know about Like To Know It, I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but you can no longer like a picture while on instagram and receive an e-mail with links to the products (due to internal changes on instagram).  Now, if you have the Like To Know It app, you can still screen shot the picture and then find the details in the app or continue to get an e-mail (depending on what settings you choose), which is super easy to do…you just have to download the app (and it’s free)!

HOWEVER, there are lots of different ways to do things.  And all are REALLY EASY.

First of all, you can always go to my personal Like To Know It page.  Click HERE to get to it (bookmark it if you like it), and click around to how it works! There will be a pop up that asks you if you want to “open in the app”, but you can decline that if you wish.  You just scroll through my pics (most recent pic on top), and then click on the little thumbnail pictures if you are interested in the item! Like I said, you don’t even have to have the app to do it this way!  I’m going to do a little instagram story about it soon and I’ll put it on my story highlights.

If you don’t have the app, there is another easy work around.  First of all, if you are looking at my blog on your computer (and not on a mobile device), a tab was added on the top of the blog called “SHOP MY INSTAGRAMS“.  See where the red arrows are pointing below?  You just click on that tab!

If you click that tab while on your desktop, it takes you to a page like the one you seen below.  You will find my most recent instagram posts all in one spot.  You can click on the picture you are interested in….

And then a screen like this will pop up.  It will have my instagram picture on the top, and all of the items I’m wearing in thumbnail pics below.  You can click on those thumbnail pics and be linked directly to the source of the item!  I mean, HOW EASY IS THAT!

If you’re on a mobile device, you won’t see my “shop my instagrams” tab on the TOP of the blog, but if you scroll past a couple of posts you will see a black box that says “subscribe” on it, and right below that you will see the text SHOP MY INSTAGRAMS with my most current instagram picture below it.  Click on that picture and it too will take you to my personal Like To Know It page.  I promise it’s actually all very user friendly.

I know all of this seems confusing, but after you navigate the options once, you will see how easy all of it actually is!  Please let me know if you have any questions.

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Favorite Belted Shorts

Last outfit for you today.  These belted shorts are without a doubt a new favorite.  I love the tailored look and the belted waist.  The waist is higher than my normal shorts, and that paired with the tie helps them create the look of a really tiny waistline.  #SIGNMEUP  And they come in khaki too!

I’m wearing my regular size 4s here, but I think they run a little large.  The 2 reviewers said that as well (but they both still gave 5 STARS), so I want to try the 2s.

I’m wearing the shorts casually here, but I definitely think they lend themselves to going dressier with some type of fun top and wedges!

beach tee at Nordstrom HERE / beach tee at J Crew HERE/ earrings / initial necklace / must have denim jacket / belted shorts / slide sandals

Get The Look For Yourself Here:

 

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I’m at a conference this weekend with lots of blogging friends, and I hope to learn a lot and of course have some great girlfriend time too!  I hope y’all have a great weekend with your people!

Filed Under: Fashion 16 Comments