+ a bonus entry from Tall Brown Fox!
Two things to celebrate in this post; a veritable bumper post!
Firstly, the ending of the Autumn chapter of my Seasonal Skinny Style Challenge.
Secondly, and rather delightfully, my wrap post happens to be my *** 50th Blog Post ***! Something of a milestone and for which I will allow myself a microscopic bit of pride.
I’ll be lighting a candle on a chocolate cupcake later today, making a wish, blowing it out and then eating it. The cupcake that is, not the candle. I prefer the taste of chocolate to be honest, to the taste of wax. I have a refined palette.
When I started this style challenge over 13 weeks ago, I didn’t have a clue how it would turn out.
Would I get bored and run out of steam by week 7?
Would I end up wearing similar outfits for the whole 13 weeks?
Would I end up wearing the SAME outfit for the whole 13 weeks?
I’m happy to report none of those things happened! We had a few items that were repeated –
I wore my navy beret in week 9 and it popped up for week 12
One of my favourite necklaces was worn in week 4 and then returned later for week 10
And one of my best buys for Autumn, my fringe suede & leather bag did heavy duty wear in no less than 4 outfits:
Wk 3 Date Night, Wk 5 Kaleidoscope, Wk 7 Biker Boots & Bling & Wk 9 Science & the Chiffon Shirt
but other than that, I managed to wear 13 diverse outfits, all showing different styles and aspects of my personality.
It’s been fun looking back over the previous weeks of the Autumn phase of the style challenge. At the end of every film, there’s a wrap party, so I thought I’d host my very own wrap party for the past season and dish out some Style Awards!
MY AUTUMN AWARDS
The Autumn Award for ‘Most Unusual Inspiration for An Outfit‘ goes to…
Kaleidoscope
This outfit was inspired by a photograph from my desk calendar.
The photograph was of different coloured crystal formations with stunning colours of orange, burgundy, blues and magentas which gave the effect of a stained glass window.
I took 3 of the colours – orange, cobalt blue and the burgundy to form this outfit.
The black accessories represent the graphite in the photograph that criss cross the crystals.
The highlight was when the photographer, Professor Bernado Cesare, commented on the blog post!
The Autumn Award for ‘Nudging my Style Boundaries‘ goes to…
Oversized Tartan Shirt & Leopard Print Tie
I do love a good tartan/checked/plaid shirt and have several in my wardrobe in various colours but when I saw this one I loved the longer length.
A year or so ago, I probably wouldn’t have even tried it on, thinking that as a petite it would swamp me. However, I did try it on, so the tale is never dismiss something out of hand until it’s been physically on you!
I followed my gut instincts and paired it with my leopard print tie. I love these kind of pairings when wore by other people and in turn, I’m becoming much more playful with my accessorising.
The Autumn Award for ‘Best Fun & Functional Outfit‘ goes to…
Flora & Fauna
This outfit was one of those happy accidents when I was playing around putting things together on hangers to have an initial look of how they might work.
I love this outfit because it ticks the boxes of what gives me pleasure from an outfit; it has to be both fun and functional:
soft textures,
a little mix of pattern mixing,
fun touches with the owl snood and sparkly beret
it’s warm, comfortable, stylish yet practical and the perfect alternative from my sometimes lazy way of dressing pre-blog, where I’d just grab a breton tee and denim shirt with my skinnies.
And Finally…
The Autumn Award for ‘Recycling A Garment From the Past‘
plus
my personal favourite goes to…
Geek Chic
The blouse had been languishing in my wardrobe, unloved and unworn for a few years. I was able to give it new life in an outfit that now better suits my lifestyle having long left the corporate world.
This shows how to dress up skinny jeans whilst still remaining stylish and casual.
The blouse allowed me to show off the varying shades of grey from the silver grey of my beret to the greenish-grey of my new, snapped up in the sale, brogues!
Sometimes a post extends beyond the original posting and this one was featured on How I Wear My Gray that Jill ran last month over on her blog Everything Just So
What was even more interesting for me was learning from Jill that some of the photos on my bag were of Marilyn’s trusted make-up man, Whitey Snyder. I love finding out fascinating background snippets like this.
When I was putting this ‘it’s a wrap’ post together, I thought it only fair to ask Tall Brown Fox what his favourite outfit was from the past 13 weeks of the Style Challenge, considering he’s been the photographer for all the outfits!
In the Special Category of ‘Tall Brown Fox Thought You Rocked This Outfit‘, the Autumn Award goes to…
Leopard Print & Plaid Accents
I wondered if he would chose the same as me but surprisingly he didn’t!
He said he liked how I made all the leopard print accessories work harmoniously together, despite all of them being different, alongside the plaid bag and cape.
He especially likes the plaid cape on me and thinks it’s been a great addition to my Autumn wardrobe!
And I have to agree with him. That’s all the more satisfying because it took me ages to find a cape that suited me in both size and style and I came up trumps with this one.
So there we have it; my Autumn Seasonal Skinny Wrap Party. I’m off to sink my teeth into the canapés before all the prawn vol-au-vents and smoked salmon blinis get eaten.
‘Waiter, that last chicken satay skewer has my name on it!’
Do you have a favourite Autumn Seasonal Skinny Outfit? If so which one is it? All the outfits can be found on my Seasonal Skinny Style Challenge page.
Linking with / Visible Monday / #iwillwearwhatilike / Monday Creative Blog Hop / Garay Treasures / Turning Heads Tuesday / 52 Pick-me-up / Confident Twosday /
So many great choices – I love the leopard tie and the Marilyn purse. thanks for linking up,
Patti
http://notdeadyetstyle.com
Thanks Patti, the Marilyn bag is one of my favourites! Thanks for hosting.
Congrats for your 50th post. Today is my blog one year anniversary too. Love all your skinny outfits and I am a big fun of your wine colored skinny.:)
Thank you so much for your nice comments on my blog. Really appreciate it! Please join us today for Color and Grace Fashion link up!
Keep in touch and take care!
Grace
http://colorandgrace.com/
And I congratulate you right back for your one year anniversary! I'll miss the Autumn Skinny but I'm also quite looking forward to getting stuck into my Winter Skinny now!
Congrats for your 50th post. Today is my blog one year anniversary too. Love all your skinny outfits and I am a big fun of your wine colored skinny.:)
Thank you so much for your nice comments on my blog. Really appreciate it! Please join us today for Color and Grace Fashion link up!
Keep in touch and take care!
Grace
http://colorandgrace.com/
Congratulations on your 50th post!
Thanks Tiina!
Hurrah – 50 posts! And I love how you celebrate!
All your outfits are fun and look great. Do I have a favourite? I confess that the Geek Chic is my fave but only by a hair. It's the retro Hollywood vibe I get from it. And really, granny shoes with Marilyn? What's not to love about that?!
Same with me Melanie, that retro Hollywood vibe. Thanks for your lovely compliments.
50 posts does deserve a bit of a celebration and that looks like a great way to mark the occasion! My personal favourite is the most unusual source of inspiration – I loved it at the time and also loved the calendar photo that gave you such a fab festival of colours x
Anna
Cake is well and truly digested, Anna! I'm glad you like Kaleidoscope. You're right the colours of the photo really are a fab festival of colour and reminds us all that inspiration can come from all around us.
Well done on your 50! I can't believe that you haven't been blogging that long! You're like an old pro at it!!!! xx
Ha, ha, that's kind of you to say Kezzie! There's still heaps for me to learn but I feel slightly less of a newbie now!
There are a lot of wonderful outfit choices here. I like the "nudging your style boundaries" one the most; the mixture of colors & patterns are awesome. :]
// ▲ itsCarmen.com ▲
Thank you Carmen. Glad you like the Nudging Your style Boundaries – it's a fun outfit without being over the top.
Happy 50th! So glad you are enjoying it. Like you, I was amazed at how much fun it was to be really deliberate about my outfits, knowing I'd be posting them.
I love the shoes in the first outfit, but my favourite outfit is the plaid/leopard mix one – great pattern-mixing, you totally nailed it!
It really makes you look in greater detail, doesn't it? I feel my eye is becoming sharper and dare I say it, more discerning, if that makes sense? Tall Brown Fox will be delighted to know that you liked his favourite!
Thanks for your lovely words.
Congratulations on the 50th post! Have to say that many other of your outfits deserve an award too. You have always been so creative in your outfits and in your writing and I am so glad that you have not got bored with all this blogging stuff and hopefully will continue to entertain your readers with great posts.
That is so very kind of you to say, Olga. I'm very touched by your words – thank you! Not every outfit will rock the style world but it's definitely got me out of my style rut so here's to the Winter Skinny!
Congratulations on your 50th!
Your seasonal skinny has been great fun…my favourite was the oversized shirt.
A perfect balance between casual comfort and chic.
Not to mention the great checks v Leopard combination!
I am looking forward to winter's skinny….I hope it goes well with wellies!!
XXX
Samantha
Fake Fabulous
Thank you Samantha!
It was a close run thing between the oversized shirt and geek chic for my favourite but the brogues just pipped the line first!
You know I was only thinking at the weekend, oh crikey, I just might be wearing my wellies with every winter skinny if the weather carries on like this! Hope you're ok up there in Scotland and that you haven't been affected by Storm Desmond (honestly who names these storms, eh?)
So many lovely looks. I need some of your shoes in the first photo, love them 🙂
Thanks for sharing at Creative Mondays
Thank you Claire. The shoes are Topshop – not sure if they're still available but I only got them late Summer. They are fab, aren't they?
Congratulations on your 50 posts, glad to see you celebrate in style. Hard to name a favourite but Geek Chic wins by a narrow margin.
I ate far too many cupcakes, Jill! Geek Chic is proving to be popular. Glad you like my favourite too!