I LOVE a Good Theme: Fireworks Edition

Pregnant or not, I'm all about dressing for the occasion. By that I mean if it's Christmas then I'm wearing red and green and sweaters with skiers on them and if it's Valentine's Day you better believe this MatchiN'ista will be in different shades of red and pink! All in style of course!

Since Fourth of July is right around the corner, it's the perfect time to share my love for red, white and blue and all things Fourth of July. If you are like me, you've been sporting red, white and blue all week! Yes, it's Fourth of July week, but they're classic colors and look so cute for summer regardless of the holiday. Quite honestly, navy has always been my go to color for summer, so I guess you could say nautical is my summer theme! More on navy and nautical another day, we've got some cute red, white and blue outfits to consider, first!

Let me just point out that if you're looking for a complete, head to toe outfit that really makes a Fourth of July statement, then Old Navy is the place to go! They have an Americana tab on their online website which has everything flags, fireworks, and Fourth of July related that you could ever possibly need or want! If you're just looking for a navy t-shirt or maybe some cute red shorts, then there are plenty of other places to shop.

First up, these adorable shorts from Old Navy that can easily be paired with a tank or tee. I will be sporting these for the holiday (as long as they fit when they arrive #maternityfashionfrustration). Best part about them, they are available in maternity and non-maternity, AND they are on sale for $12! Woo hoo!

 Maternity version here and non-maternity version here

 

Let's take a minute and thank our lucky starts for elastic waistbands!!! For all the pregnant soon-to-be mommas out there, I hope you've discovered the joy of elastic waistband shorts! They are absolutely, hands down, the best thing ever! I've found shorts that are non-maternity that I can still wear because they have an elastic waistband in them - so comfy! If you aren't pregnant, well, you can still embrace in the comfort of elastic!! Ok, I know I sidetracked a little. Back to the outfits...

 

 

 

For a one-stop-shop experience, check out these tanks and tees from Old Navy that would look adorable with the fireworks shorts.

Maternity: Red tank not available in maternity :-(, similar white tank here and here, similar blue tee here

Non-maternity: Red tank here, white tank here, blue tee here

 

 

 

And we can't forget about the shoes! If you really want to be matchy-matchy (which you know I'm a fan of), then check out these flip-flops! Who knew you could fancy up your feet with fireworks, too!

Get them here

Oh, by the way, did I  mention these are only $5?!?

 

 

There's plenty of other footwear options....

Red sandal here, criss cross sandal here

 

 

Not excited about the fireworks shorts?!? No problem! There are plenty of other red, white and blue options out there! I'm also loving these shorts. They aren't available in maternity, but I'm pretty confident the lovely elastic waistband will accommodate a growing baby bump!

Shorts here

 

 

Still not convinced you can find a Fourth of July inspired outfit?!? Let me try again with these options...

Maternity version: similar white tank here and here, drawstring shorts here

Non-maternity version: white tank here, similar drawstring shorts here

stars and stripes scarf here, striped flip-flops here

 

 

Looking for something to wear again after the Fourth? Check out this option!

Maternity version: white tank here, striped shorts here

Non-maternity version: plain white tank here, striped shorts here (only available in size 12 and 16)

navy sandals here 

Well, that's it for now! I'm sure many of you have your favorite Fourth of July outfits, so please share!! Fingers crossed, my fireworks shorts will arrive today or tomorrow so I can be a stylin' prego mama this weekend!

Happy matching,

Marcie

31+ Week Hiatus Confession

Hello! I'm so glad to be back to my blog once again! I have a BIG confession to share with all of you which should explain why I've been on this 31+ week hiatus! So here goes...

My hubby and I are expecting our first little bundle of joy on August 29th! We are so excited! Baby Brown has been in the making for quite some time, so I could hardly believe it when I found out I was pregnant! In fact, in true matchiN'ista fashion; I took 5 pregnancy tests because you know, if one is good, two is better, and three is fabulous! YES, I'm still adhering to my matchiN'ista quirks! ;-)

So, why the hiatus? You ask. Well, the first trimester was just plain tough between morning all day sickness and fatigue. And then I hit my own road block, in typical type A matchiN'ista fashion, and I was convinced that I should take a break from blogging because I didn't create this blog to be about maternity fashion or my journey as a pregnant, soon-to-be-momma. AND THEN, I had an AH HA moment: It's MY blog! Duh! I have the flexibility to do what I want with it! Another confession - sometimes it takes me a while to have AH HA moments... like 31+ weeks to be exact!

That brings me to today: 31 weeks and 4 days pregnant! As for my blog, I will continue to share my matchiN'ista confessions about fashion with all of you, as well as, my life as a soon-to-be-momma and everything in between! I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey! :-)

Happy matching,

Marcie

New Year's Eve Style Confessions

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you have something fun planned to ring in the new year!

The hubby and I decided to go ice skating this afternoon and then grab a beverage or two at a restaurant near our house. When we were making these plans, a couple thoughts ran through my mind:

Awe, ice skating is so romantic! And then...

...reality set in about my skating abilities.

So, naturally I decided to focus on a cute, color coordinated outfit to wear ice skating, instead of the actual skills needed to ice skate!  

Here's what I came up with!

I'm SOOOOO excited to share this look with you, because the scarf and beanie are SO CUTE! They were the MatchiN'spiration pieces for this outfit. Did you see the matching socks?!?

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. this outfit!

In all honesty, the scarf and hat aren't something I will wear year after year, because the color will probably be out of style by next season. HOWEVER, I was able to put aside practicality because they were so inexpensive! I mean fall-out-of-your-seat, must have MatchiN'spiration pieces, less than $7, kind of inexpensive!

Shop the look for yourself:

Old Navy Cable Knit Beanie here//Old Navy 'HAPPY' scarf here//J. Crew Puffer vest in Saddle here//American Eagle jeans here//Exact socks no longer available//UGG Bailey Button boots here

SO CUTE, right?!?

I have a confession. As much as I love this outfit, I'm NOT going to be able to wear it ice skating. :-(

We are expected to get lots of snow (YES! YES! YES!) and frigid cold temperatures, so I'm afraid I won't be warm enough in this outfit.

I will likely pull out my hot chili thermal top and bottoms (SO WARM), my cozy North Face fleece,  throw on some jeans, and wear my marshmallow-arm ski jacket AND matching mittens!

This outfit is definitely NOT up to MatchiN'ista expectations, but it will have to do! ;-)

I'm going to put aside my matchy-matchy, color coordinated outfit obsession passion for now, and enjoy the day with my hubby! :-)

What are your New Year's Eve plans?!? Whatever you do, stay warm, safe, and have fun!!!

Happy matching!

Marcie

My Latest Closet Confession: Socks to Match!

I have a confession to make: I don't usually wear socks to match my outfit! GASP! Ok. breathe.

I know, I know, for being such a matchy-matchy person you would think I would color coordinate my socks with my outfit, but that hasn't been the case. To be quite honest, I've always bought neutral colored socks. The typical black, brown, navy, tan, cream, etc., which have worked ok...until NOW!

 

Get ready to be amazed by the transformative power of SOCKS!!! Yes, that's right, SOCKS!!

I found the perfect Christmas sweater from J. Crew. It's sort-of nerdy chic, which I love!

LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

J. Crew Ski Sweater in Deep Turquoise Poppy here

 

 

I paired my nerdy-chic sweater with my super soft, comfy-cozy, favorite jeans.

Similar pair here.

 

 

And then I added a pair of neutral colored socks.

BIG MISTAKE! I took one look in the mirror and realized that this MatchiN'ista was not going to wear this in public without different socks!

 

So, I searched, and searched, and searched some more for matching socks....

 And I found some! A PERFECT match!!!

Not only are these socks the perfect match, but they are warm and cozy too! 

Want your own? Check out the J. Crew Women's Camp sock here.

 

I love wearing them with short boots, too!

 

 

 Now you see the transformative power of socks! Matchy-matchy from head to toe is just what this MatchiN'ista is obsessed with LOVES.

 

 

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that my philosophy with things that I LOVE is this: if one is good, two is better and three is fabulous! Thanks to my hubby, I am now the proud owner of the J. Crew Women's Camp sock in EVERY. SINGLE. COLOR!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy matching!

Marcie

 

A Little Bit of Everything CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I hope this post finds you and yours in the Christmas Spirit. I know I sure am. It's been a few days, ok maybe more than a few, since my last post, so I thought I would share a little bit of everything today. Outfits, baking, crafting, all of the above!

First up, SHOPPING! and more shopping! and YES, more shopping! I enjoy finding the perfect Christmas gift for the special people in my life, which means I spend a lot of time at the mall and local stores this time of year. This was my go-to shopping outfit this year.

The red puffer vest was the MatchiN'spiration piece for this outfit! It's so Christmasy!

Shop the outfit: American Eagle jeans in similar wash here//Shiny puffer down vest in roasted pepper from J. Crew here//Similar tissue-t turtleneck here//Plaid scarf from J. Crew Factory store here//Similar gray cable boot socks from American Eagle here (they are out of the all gray ones, but they have cream and gray which is super cute, but not a match for this outfit) //Similar brown boots here, distressed look here, love these and these, too!

 

Another one of my go-to shopping outfits featured one of my FAVORITE scarves!

The scarf is from one of my Stichfix picks, so it's not available at an online retailer. If you like the scarf, you can join Stitchfix (learn more here), pin my photo to your Pinterest board and they will try to send you the same item, or something similar. 

More from this outfit: Similar navy toggle coat here//Jeans from American Eagle here//Similar brown boots here 

This next outfit just melts my heart! It incorporates two of my favorite things: a scarf and plaid!

I wore this to work last week and got so many compliments! The red plaid tunic was an item I received in one of my Stichfix picks, so once again, it's not available from any major retailer. You can always join Stichfix, pin my photo to your Pinterest board and share it with Stichfix.

 

Also in my outfit: Similar pant leggings in black here//Waffle infinity scarf in dark poppy from J. Crew factory here//Similar boots here//Alex & Ani bracelets here

Next up, Christmas cards! Who doesn't love to get Christmas cards in the mail? Of course in order to get them, you must send them...which can be a bit of a time consuming process. In years past, we've sent out store bought cards, but this year we decided to do a photo card! Talk about time consuming!! I was a little obsessed passionate about having a theme to our card, staging the photo and color coordinating our outfits, so that we could create the perfect card. YES, I love the nerdy cards where the entire family is dressed alike...I just can't help but smile when I see these cards! I surfed Pinterest for ideas and found so many great ones! Well, it was anything but easy! Lesson learned: hire a photographer if you want a perfect Christmas card photo! Here's some of the pics we took a long the way.

 Mike suggested that we wear our Kansas Jayhawks outfits (he's an avid fan and I just thought the matching Kansas sweatpants and sweatshirt from Victoria's Secret was cute!). Once we settled on a theme, we decided to add the candy cane heart idea (thank you Pinterest). Let's just say that Wesley was less than cooperative! He was interested in licking the candy canes, NOT smiling for the camera!

 

Eventually we settled on a not-so-themed or color coordinated card, which was ok with me. I got over sending the perfect Christmas card because truth be told, I was exhausted from trying to capture the perfect picture life isn't perfect! :-) 

 

I've also been tapping into my creative gift giving, cookie baking side! I really wanted to follow the Swedish tradition (Mike and I are both Swedish) and bake 7 different kinds of cookies (spritz cookies, thumbprints, pepperkaka cookies, etc.) but there weren't enough hours in the day! So, I relied on my go-to source for everything, Pinterest, and I found this recipe for Red Velvet Crinkle cookies. Mike LOVES anything red velvet, so I knew these would be a hit with him. They were soooo easy to bake!  

I baked two batches of these cookies and then packaged them up in vintage-style, wide-mouth mason jars. I tied ribbon around the top and voila, they're ready to give as gifts! If you're a baker or a crafter, or both, then you're probably not very impressed, but this MatchiN'ista is neither, so I'm grinning from ear to ear at my craftiness!

 

More Christmas crafting!

Mike and I both had ugly Christmas sweater days at work, so we decided to make one together! All you need is a little tinsel, felt, bows, a hot glue gun and you can make one of your own! We had a blast putting this together, and it was a hit at both of our jobs!

 

In all of the Christmas craziness, I've been enjoying White Christmas coffee from my favorite Starbucks ceramic mug!

 

 

That's all for now! Have a very Merry Christmas!

 

 

Happy matching!

 

Marcie

 

 

 

Part II: Stuff the Stocking with Sprinkles of Sparkle!

Get ready for more stocking stuffers, ladies! If you're new to my blog, thanks for stopping by :-), and welcome to my "I LOVE stocking stuffers" Christmas confession! If you want to see my full confession on stocking stuffers, check out this post.

Thanks for joining me for part II of this post which happens to be a stocking stuffer guide for anyone in your family that adores a touch of sparkly, shiny, glittery, delicate things! I want to highlight the word delicate, because this MatchiN'ista is not one to wear anything flashy. As the saying goes, all good things come in small packages dosages...including glam and bling. This rings true for my beauty routine as well. My everyday makeup look is pretty plane jane, with the exception of my lip gloss. There's nothing that I love more than glamming up my lips with a healthy dose of lip gloss. Shiny lips make this MatchiN'ista feel fabulous, and who doesn't love to feel fabulous?!? Yes, I'm a girly girl at heart. <3

What exactly do you fill the stocking of a modern, classic, sparkle, little-bit-of-glam, kind of girl?!?

1. & 2. First up, Kate Spade Skinny Mini Bow stud earrings and matching bracelet. Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen?!? I bought these at the Kate Spade outlet store, but you can buy the earrings here and the bracelet here. I highly recommend visiting the outlet store if you can! :-)

 

If you adore the bow earrings and matching bracelet as much as I do, then you need to sit down for what I'm about to share with you! Are you sitting?!?

 

Wait for it....Wait for it....

 

It's a perfect match!

This outfit is so stinkin' cute!! If you have been following my blog for a while now, then you know that I am obsessed with love matchy-matchy outfits! The bow earrings and bracelet are the perfect accessories to wear with this outfit! How about the black flats with bows!?! Too cute! I had to add my favorite jeans to the mix, or the outfit wouldn't be complete! ;-)

Shop the outfit here:
~Bow Tied Pullover from Anthropologie (only available in size medium)

~Intarsia Bow Sweater from the Limited (great selection of sizes available)

~Matchstick jeans in Classic Rinse from J. Crew (30% off - limited sizes, but check out the same jean in other washes)

~Emery Glitter Bow Flats from J. Crew Factory (plenty of sizes available-on sale!)

3. Another everyday favorite are my Montana Blue earrings by Alex & Ani. If you aren't an Alex & Ani fan, I hope after reading this post, you will check out their website and become one!

4. For the LOVE of NARS! I could be considered a NARS lip pencil hoarder, but I'm ok with that! :-) I love the rich colors they carry. They are available in 3 different finishes: Velvet Matte, Satin and Velvet Gloss. They glide on just like a creamy lipstick! It's basically lip liner, lipstick and gloss all wrapped in one beautiful color! I'm wearing the NARS Satin lip pencil in Garnet in this photo (same color that's shown in the collage).

 

 

5. My favorite lip combo is a NARS Velvet Matte lip pencil color (in any color) topped with Fancy Nancy Nourishine Lip Gloss by Mary Kay. Fancy Nancy matches everything, and it creates the perfect amount of sparkle and shine on your lips! When I want a gloss with a little more color, I go for my Nourishine Lip Gloss in Red Passion.

 

6. I was shopping for Christmas gifts at Bath and Body Works the other day and I discovered the Thousand Wishes body spray. I fell in love....instantly! It takes a lot for me to focus on anything else other than the 3-wick candles because I am obsessed in love with them, and insist on smelling each one every time I shop in their store! If I were you, I would get that girly girl, glamour loving, sparkle and shine, wonderful person in your life, the Thousand Wishes body spray. They carry it in body lotion, body scrub, and perfume, too. Personally, I like the body spray because I'm sensitive to strong scents and the spray tends to be a light scent, perfect for every day wear.

 

7. Up next is one of my all time favorite, year round products, by Mary Kay: the Satin Lips Set. My lips stay smooth and hydrated all year round, even in the winter, because of this product. You apply a lip mask, first, then wash it off, and apply lip balm. It's wonderful!

 

That wraps it up for today's last minute stocking stuffer ideas!

 

 

Happy matching!

 

Marcie

Part I: Stuff the Stocking with Sprinkles of Sparkle

I was working on tomorrow's post, which happens to have a few items from one of my favorite online shops, BaubleBar, when I discovered that TODAY is the last day to order from them, if you want your gifts to arrive in time for Christmas! Panic set in when I made this discovery, but quickly dissolved when I decided to split this post into two parts! So, I threw together part I of this post.

Welcome back for my next confession, which also happens to be a stocking stuffer guide for anyone in your family that adores a touch of sparkly, shiny, glittery, delicate things! I want to highlight the word delicate, because this MatchiN'ista is not one to wear anything flashy. As the saying goes, all good things come in small packages dosages...including glam and bling. This rings true for my beauty routine as well. My everyday makeup look is pretty plane jane, with the exception of my lip gloss. There's nothing that I love more than glamming up my lips with a healthy dose of lip gloss. Shiny lips make this MatchiN'ista feel fabulous, and who doesn't love to feel fabulous?!? A healthy mix of modern, classic, sparkle, and a little bit of glam, just about sums it up for me! Yes, I'm a girly girl at heart. <3

Ok, so here's what I have for you today. A few items from one of my favorite online jewelry shops, BaubleBar. They have the most fabulous gifts for the girly girl in your life, who enjoys a little touch of sparkle every now and then!

First up, this Everyday Stud Gift Set. 

I absolutely adore these earrings. Stud earrings are an everyday look for me, and these ones just happen to have the right amount of sparkle for this MatchiN'ista! :-)

Maybe you already knew this, but monogramming is on-trend right now! Yipee for me, because I have always adored monogrammed things! In fact, I use my handy dandy label maker to "monogram" everything in my house! Ok, maybe labeling and monogramming are NOT the same, but there's some similarities, right?!? I digress...

Next up from Bauble Bar, is the Classic: Metallic Personalized Gift Set, which just happens to be on my wishlist this year!

I don't know about you, but I love the layered look! The initial personalizes this piece and makes it a wonderful stocking stuffer, or gift, depending on your price range. Keep in mind, you're basically getting two necklaces for the price of one! Not to mention that the special someone in your life will melt over it.

If you're looking for other monogrammed items, be sure to check out the personalized section on the Bauble Bar website. They have a wonderful collection of necklaces and bracelets that can be monogrammed!

That's all for now, ladies! I will be back soon for part II of 'Stuff the Stocking with Sprinkles of Sparkle"! Don't forget, if you want to order something from Bauble Bar in time for Christmas, today is the last day to do so!

One more thing...Don't forget to stop by soon, because I will have more stocking stuffer ideas related to beauty and bling!!!

Happy Stocking Stuffing!

Marcie