Dare to Design

Dress Design for Shabby Apple Dresses

Welcome to my entry for the Shabby Apple Dare to Design Contest! After much urging from several friends, I decided I should thrown in my ideas!

The inspiration for this idea came from layers and layers of clothing that I love - without the hassle. It has a two-piece look of gray skirt, gray sweater (attached to dress) with peach accents, and a peach chiffon shirt with a mock neck collar and ruffles coming out (I LOVE ruffles). Obviously, the color palette is gray and peach - perfect for spring! Skirt would be a nice lightweight silk. "Sweater" would have a textured gray fabric with peach silk for the accents, against a peach chiffon ruffled shirt.

Upcoming Trends

Trends for this fall!

Ruffles on shoes, shirts, and bags, galore!

Texture everywhere from suede shoes (my personal favorite) to velvet jacket.

Colored tights and leggings are still in, thanks to those short hemlines.

Leggings by ImageEnvy featuring Monsoon

What's your favorite trend this fall?

My New Favorite Book

I'm a strong believer in getting ready for the day (thanks to my mom) but sometimes find that I'm rushing with so many other things I don't have all the time I need to make myself look my best.

Carmindy (from TLC's What Not To Wear) wrote "5 Minute Face". I love it and highly recommend it to anyone. It teaches you all about the basics, that still highlight your best features, make you look beautiful, and can be done in under 5 minutes! Perfect!

 

Plus size

Forever 21 and Nordstroms have now launched plus sizes - and Nordstroms magazine's ads for it are incredible. The women are gorgeous and dressed perfectly for their figures.

The above is from Nordstroms for $189.00, also comes in black

Forever 21's line is called faith 21. It's in select stores and online. Great for your money!!

The above shirt is from Forever 21 for $19.80.

Foot Friction No More!

A friend recommended the Band Aid Friction Block Stick to me, saying it was like a deoderant stick for your feet....HUH? What she didn't tell me what that it's like putting an invisible band-aid on you foot. If you feel like your shoes are rubbing and you might be getting a blister, you simply swipe some where it rubs and VOILA! No more rubbing.

I had to try this out - I bought some at the local drugstore for $6.00. All of my summer shoes have already been broken in so I had nothing to try it on. And then the elevator broke at my job, and a co-worker was complaining of her feet hurting. So I whipped out my Friction Block Stick and asker her to try it. After thinking I'm completely nuts, she tried it. Worked so well, she bought herself some.



Still skeptical, I tried it on the hardest thing I could think of: my $5.00-half-size-too-small Michelle D shoes. Obviously the shoes were on a major sale and not in my size. Nevertheless - I wore these shoes for a solid 9 hours at work just to try it out. I had a back-up pair of heels in my car in case I needed to switch at lunch, but it wasn't needed. No blisters and no rubbing. I now never leave home without it!