Review--L.L.Bean

    My parents gave me $100 to spend on their credit card for my Christmas present.  So I turned to online sales and decided I would try ordering from L.L. Bean.  I've never been interested in them before, but when I got my new ruffly blazer from Coldwater Creek, it came with an L.L.Bean catalog.  I really liked some of their sweaters, so when it came to spending Christmas money, I went to their website and found an amazing sale.  I ended up getting the Camden Wool Jacket in a navy herringbone pattern and two of the cotton/cashmere blend sweater vests in black and grey stripes as well as in marine green.  

Review: L.L.Bean by lawschoolfashionista featuring coats

Sweaters and Sweatshirts: Women's at L.L.Bean, $25
Sweaters and Sweatshirts: Women's at L.L.Bean, $20
Jackets and Coats: Women's at L.L.Bean, $50
Amazon.com: 4x6 / 4 x 6 Triple Picture Frame Gold Wood with Antique..., $7.69

      You guys, the Jacket's shipping box was amazing!  It came in a jacket all on its own with inserts to make sure that the jacket kept its shape.  I was WAY impressed.  You know what else impressed me?  L.L.Bean's customer service.  When I was figuring out sizing I did the online chat thing and the person on the other end was able to give me garment measurements so that I could figure out what size to buy.  It was incredibly helpful.
     Here's the thing, I ordered my stuff Jan 4 and lo and behold a couple of days later, all the items I ordered were further reduced.  At first I got mad.  I mean, really? Did they HAVE to reduce their prices so I felt robbed?  But then! I remembered their awesome customer service from when I was shopping.  So I went back on L.L.Bean's website and opened up the chat dialog and asked if I could get a price reduction on the further reduced prices.  And I got it!  I saved myself a total of $17 just from asking!  So the moral of the story is ask, because the worst thing that could happen is that they'll say no.  It really is a great motto for life too.  No one else is going to ask on your behalf.  People won't just give you things if they don't know that you need or want them.  The only way to make your needs or wants or expectations known is to tell or ask someone.  And you never know what you'll get unless you ask.  
     So. . . ask away!  Anything you've wanted to ask me but didn't have the chance to?  Here's your chance!  Ask away and I'll do my best to respond to questions in the comments below.     

*This post was not asked for nor compensated for.  All opinions are my own.*

Smash!

     Ya know what one of my favorite parts of blogging has been?  Crashing through self-imposed boundaries.  This outfit, for example, crashes through SEVERAL.  Let's go down the list, shall we?
    1. Long Flowy top.  Normally I steer way the hell away from these types of tops.  I have big boobs and flowy tops just make me look big.  Because there's no defined waist, flowy tops just hang down from my largest part, the boobs and make it look like the rest of me is that big.  In reality, I have a much smaller waist.  I got this pink pin-tucked top when my sister returned from my parent's house with it over her Christmas break.  Mom didn't wear it ever so she asked if I wanted it.  I said sure not knowing how big the top would be.  I had no idea how to wear it until I asked Sally in the comments to this post. 
     2. Super skinny pants.  As mentioned above, I have big boobs.  Normally I prefer to balance them out with wider leg pants.  Skinny pants tend to make me look like I'm a big ball balanced on itty bitty toothpicks.  Not the cutest look overall.  But I got these pants anyway.  I've wanted pants that I could easily tuck into boots without squishing them up around my ankles.  When I went to Old Navy a couple of weekends ago I stumbled upon the sales rack and found that the super skinny cords were on sale for $8.79!  So of course I tried them on, figured out that they fit into my boots easily and got them.  The other advantage to these pants is that I didn't have any non-jean casual pants before I got them.  Besides, why not try out a trend for less than $10?  
    3. Denim jacket.  I've owned this jacket for years.  I may have worn it once before.  The reason is that I'm not a big fan of denim on denim.  A denim suit just doesn't do it for me.  And since I didn't own non-denim casual pants before these skinnies, there wasn't anything for me to wear my denim jacket with.  Until now that is. 
    When you add all these together you get the outfit to the right.  And let me tell you, I love it!  Part of it is the look and a whole other part is that I've crashed through some self-imposed boundaries all at the same time with some great results. 

The Details:

Denim Jacket: Old Navy Women's Denim Jacket

Blouse:Antilia Femme  Similar in Black or in Pink

Skinny Corduroy Pants: Old Navy

Boots: Candie's Similar Boots

Disclosure Statement

    I love blogging.  I really do.  I get to share my thoughts with you and get some great responses in return.  The thing is, blogging doesn't pay, normally.  Sure I could accept payments to review products, but that's not my style.  I prefer to give you my independent opinion, good, bad or in between, and not feel beholden to anyone in the process.  I have, in the past reviewed products that have been sent to me as gifts and given you my opinions on those.  In fact, I've reviewed things I've bought myself just to share my experiences with you.  And at the bottom of every such post I make sure to let you all know exactly what's going on.  This post is doing the same thing.
     I've decided to try to make a little bit of money off my blog.  In the next few days, for example, you'll see that I'll have a blog sponsor for the next 6 months.  In addition, I've created affiliate links with a few companies.  When I give you "The Details" in my outfit posts, I'll also be linking to similar or the same items that you can click through to and purchase.  If you chose to do so, I will get a small commission on these sales in return.  Linked items labeled as “similar” are as close as possible to what I’m actually wearing. If whatever I have on is still available for sale, I will always link directly to it, even if I can’t create an affiliate link that will earn me income.  I also have ads in the column to the right that will earn money for the blog with each impression or click through. 
     I hope that you know that I'm not selling out or trying to push purchases on you.  I'll still be the same chick figuring out how to get from law school to be a lawyer and sharing my journey with you.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask by email or in the comments.  It is my goal to always be open with you.
<3, A-C 

My New Theme Song

Miss Piggy does empowerment

My Closet

    "A place for everything and everything in its place"

      One of the best parts of our move in August is the master bedroom closet.  It is HUGE!  The Fiance and I divided it up more or less up the middle and we each have more space than we did in the old house combined.  For this I am *very* grateful.  Unfortunately, its allowed me to keep a lot of stuff that I need to go through and get rid of.  But that's not what this post is about.  This is about how I organize my closet.  I saw this post on Kendi Everyday and figured I would show you my closet too. 

     This past weekend The Fiance suggested we organize the closet better.  For the most part it was fine, but he wanted to put some towels in the closet.  So we switched around his shoes and I put my belts on hooks behind the door.  This freed up space on the built in shelves in the closet.  I took advantage of the extra freed up space to fold some bulky sweaters that work best folded than hung up.  One of the shelves is mine to put my bras and other under things on.  I've found that bras last longer if I have a shelf to lay them on.  In this picture you'll also notice that I have a step ladder in my closet.  Its not because we couldn't figure out another place to store it.  Rather its because I'm short.  I can reach almost everything in the closet EXCEPT for the very top shelf where I've been storing my scarves.  Smart, right?  I'm looking for somewhere else or another way to store them, any ideas? 

     The other thing that I have plenty of is shoes.  I am lucky enough to have a shoe rack where all of my heels fit.  Believe it or not they're also organized in a specific way.  The top row is work heels, ie the ones I wear most often.  The second row is heels that I wear every once in a while and the bottom row is special occasion heels along with those that are currently not in season like my gold thong sandal heels.  Sadly, not all of my shoes fit in it.  I have a few pairs of boots that don't fit.  They're found laying on the floor under my pants, long skirts and suits.

    This last picture shows  another aspect of using all the available wall space to my advantage.  Like hanging my belts in the picture above, I've been hanging my pins and brooches.  I have been using the little doll face my aunt made and sent me for this use.  Its always fun to look in my closet and see that happy little face smiling back at me.  If you're interested in having a smiley face brooch holder of your very own, I'll be posting them and several other crafties on Etsy this weekend.  This wall is also where I've placed my laundry hamper.  In our old house there wasn't enough room in the closet to put both my and The Fiance's closet and stand in it at the same time, so I really appreciate being able to put EVERYTHING I need and want in our closet and still have room left over to actually get dressed in there.  
     Despite having all this room, there is a whole bunch of other clothes that I store in a chest of drawers in the bedroom.  Luckily for me my chest of drawers doubles as the stereo stand and The Fiance's chest of drawers doubles as the TV stand, so its not like they're in the way.  The clothes that gets stored in there is stuff like socks, undies, PJs and T-shirts.  Now that I've shown you how I organize my clothes and shoes, its your turn.  How do you organize your clothes?  How often do you revamp your organizational methods?  Found something that you just can't live without and are dying to share?

And by the way, see the little button to the right of this post?  I would *really* appreciate it if you nominated me for the About.com Reader's Choice Awards in the category of Favorite Fashion Blog 2010.

Comfy Jewels

      I was looking through my Picasa album to figure out what pictures I hadn't posted yet and found these from November.  I have no idea why I didn't post them at the time.  Maybe because I took them in the kitchen instead of on the porch?  I don't know.
     This is one of my favorite big comfy sweaters.  It is exactly as it seems, warm, big and comfy.  The perfect attributes to a sweater, as far as I'm concerned.  Little did I know when I purchased this sweater, that it is also the perfect color for me.  According to this article from Shine on Yahoo, its the perfect color for me.  I've read several articles all over the place that claim to tell me what colors are best for me.  None of them have ever made sense to me.  This one, because of its simplicity, does.  After reading through the article, I determined that I'm a Sunrise and as such jewel tone colors are supposed to look best on me.

Sunrise: “In the morning, the sunrise palette colors are clear, clean and crisp,” says Eiseman. “Primarily blue undertones evolve into jewel tones.”
Coloring : Fair-skinned, dark-haired brunettes; fair-skinned silver-haired women; fair-skinned cool blondes; dark, blue-black skin tones with dark hair; and olive skin with dark hair.
Palette : Shimmering jewel-tones like emerald, sapphire, aquamarine and amethyst.

Messy kitchen over my right shoulder!

 I guess it makes sense.  I mean the sweater does look good, right?  And I am most definitely a fair-skinned dark-haired brunette that can occasionally be an olive skin chick with dark hair.  I'm not 100% convinced that these are the *only* colors that look good on me, but they are some of my favorite to wear.  So I guess this color scheme is a good place to start.  Its not, however, a reason to throw out all my pink, black, white or red tops though.  Just a starting point.

    If you've been looking for a color scheme to help you figure out your best colors, because of its simplicity, I definitely recommend the article as a starting point.  If, however, you know what you look good in, then it probably really won't rock your world any, but it might be a good read anyway.  Are you a sunrise, sunset or sunlight?  

The Details:

Sweater: Target

Tee: NY&Co

Pants: Gap

Heels: Aldo

Necklace: Banana Republic Outlet

"new" to me

     This outfit makes me really happy, and there are a couple of reasons for it.  First, its makes me happy because 2 of the items, the sweater and jacket, are "new-ish" to me, but not new.  You see, my little sister spent her Christmas break at my parent's house in Puerto Rico.  While there, she rummaged through my closet as well as my mom's and brought me back some of her plunder.  This jacket, for example, has been hanging in my closet at home for years.  I bought it on a whim because it was on sale and never wore it.  Seriously, when I got it from my sister the tags were still on it.  This time around, though, I knew exactly how I wanted to style it, which by the way, was my problem when I got it.  I just didn't know how to wear it, nor did it really fit into my life at the time as an Undergrad.  

     In fact, this is the second reason why I love this outfit.  I've seen plenty of women rock jackets as part of their outfits and not just as outerwear.  I have tried to recreate the look, but I just didn't have the right jacket in my arsenal, until now.  This jacket does exactly what I want it to.  It fits really well and goes from outside to inside without a problem.  And it fits my life now.  I'm in a position where wearing a jacket and a sweater looks put together AND appropriate.  It totally dresses up the jeans and boots combo.  Did I mention that it made me feel pretty?  What sorts of clothes and outfits make you feel pretty and put together?

Bella posing while I take pics.

The Details:
Jacket: Wilson Leather
Sweater: NY&Co.
Jeans: Old Navy
Boots: Candie's 

EDIT: My mom called me to tell me I look great in these pictures!  She even said I look skinny! :D