Seeing Red - Actual Amy - Plaid Jacket

Today is the last post for the month of February and for my Seeing Red series. If you are new to the blog, I do a lot of series, as it gives me a theme around which to style my outfits, so seeing as February is Valentine’s month and Heart Disease awareness month, red was my color of choice.

Today’s focal piece is a recent purchase from Maurice’s clothing store. This plaid jacket with its sherpa collar called to me as soon as I saw it. “Amy! Hey, Amy! You know you want me. I would look amazing on you, and you would look amazing with me wrapped around you. I’d also keep you cozy, as well as ramp up your casual, biker-chic vibe.” I do believe the jacket was right. Take a look at today’s outfit and see if you agree?

There are so many things I love about this jacket. The color, the pattern and the sherpa along the collar, cuffs and zipper inside, are the main characteristics that drew me to it. The deciding factor was the price. Since it was a winter/seasonal item, the price was only $19.99. I was doing a return to Maurice’s so I considered it an exchange and got it. The other nice thing about this piece is the fit. I could actually wear a bulkier item underneath and still zip it up without looking like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Ha, ha. It was a cold dat when we took these pictures and I clearly felt warm with this jacket on.

I was obviously going for a very casual look, so I chose my thrifted, distressed, Vera Wang cropped jeans. I wear these a lot in the summer, but thought they would give a fun, edgy vibe to this look.

It also seemed appropriate to have a thrifted band sweatshirt. I like the Beatles, but I was more of an Alice Cooper and Aerosmith chick as I was growing up. My younger daughter and I went to a Cooper concert a few years ago and it was such a blast. I guess I should have gotten a tee shirt!

To go along with this tough girl vibe, I chose accessories that included metal and black. Please don’t judge me for adding flowers to my olive hobo bag. Ha ha. It may have been a wish for spring, my inner flower child feelings or the fact that I really just love flowers.

Finally, my Seven Dials combat boots finished the look. What do you think?

Why is this outfit actually me? I was the one that beat up boys when I was in elementary school. I was the one that chased after my brothers on their motorcycles on my bicycle. I was the one that swam in the creek behind our house. I’m the one who would really like to have a motorcycle of my own. I’m the one who would like to be a warrior princess, if I could. This outfit just seems to sum me up. I told you that jacket was speaking to me. Ha, ha.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thank you for all of your support. I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Photo credit Rebecca Trumbull.

I’m including a few shopping links. These are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

Seeing Red - Red with Black - Taking Care of Our Hearts

We don’t often think of pairing red and black for Valentine’s Day. More often we style red with white or some version of red and pink. There are also many of us who don’t even visit the red or pink idea for Valentine’s because we either don’t celebrate that special day, we don’t like traditional holiday color schemes in our outfits or maybe are more into blues and greens than reds and pinks.

For these February posts, I’ve chosen to focus on red or darker versions of red like burgundy. I also wanted to make each of these outfits, not be so much about Valentine’s Day, although you could use them for a Valentine’s or Galentine’s outing, but more about the color red.

February is Heart Disease awareness month, and the color red certainly represents the age old idea of what a Valentine’s heart looks like, but it also represents that most important muscle in our bodies. This major fireball, which is about the size of your fist, works hard, pumping blood to keep us alive. Try to envision the heart as the UPS hub, where everything comes to and goes out that our bodies need to survive. Heart disease, like cancer, drug addictions and infectious diseases can be life threatening. It can manifest itself with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hardening of the arteries and many other complications. Take a look at some of these statistics that I got off the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) website:

“Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.1
One person dies every 37 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.1
About 647,000 Americans die from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.2,3
Heart disease costs the United States about $219 billion each year from 2014 to 2015.3 This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.”

— Centers for Disease Control Website

As you look at the pictures of this outfit I put together, I’m sure you can think of at least one person you know that has been affected by heart disease. This past fall at the college my husband teaches at, a 24 year old student died from a massive heart attack. It was a tragedy.

The Heart Association, formed in 1924, is the major force behind raising awareness about heart disease in the United States. Their website has a bucket load of information. You can see some interesting historical facts on their history page here. I am not getting paid to mention this, but merely want to raise awareness of a disease that affects so many people. You would think in our world where we have so much awareness about health, good eating, exercise and so on, that heart disease would be a thing of the past, but it’s not. We all struggle to make good choices and taking care of our hearts should be no exception.

I have not touched my camera for months, but this is what you get when schedules for taking pictures don’t coincide. Ha, ha. I just did not want to stand outside and try to get my settings figured out, so I tried to stand by the windows to get enough natural light. The skies were gray, as usual, thus the shadows on my face. Oh well, I tired and the pictures are good enough that you get the idea.

For this outfit I wanted to showcase this cute black Croft and Barrow tunic that I found a few weeks ago thrifting. It is probably meant to be more of a summer piece, and when I saw it, I thought it would look cute with cropped jeans and a tee or tank top in the warmer weather, but I also thought it would be the perfect topper for a winter look, thus this red and black combo.

My red cropped pants, I have styled on the blog before. You can see them with a black kimono and with a navy blazer. I found these a while ago at Meijer on the clearance rack and they are a brand called Stitch Star.

The lace 3/4 sleeve, Lauren Conrad top was a thrift find. Typically I would wear a cami underneath, but because I knew the black tunic was going over the top, I didn’t bother. The idea was to create a monochrome layer underneath and even though the pants and top are not the exact same shade of red, it works fine because they are not right next to each other.

To keep the look fairly stream lined I chose my thrifted black and gray houndstooth, Thirty One purse and my Aerosole black suede heels.

The jewelry I am wearing I bought for my oldest daughter’s wedding, so I am often looking for other reasons to wear the necklace and bracelet. I thought this was the perfect finishing touch. You can also see the fun metal rings on the tunic.

Would you wear red and black? What sort of occasion would you wear it for? I could see wearing this outfit for a date night with my hubs where we go somewhere more fancy than Five Guys. Ha, ha.

Do you take care of your heart? I need too. My cholesterol is borderline high, so I have started eating oatmeal more. Exercise is very important, especially cardiovascular. I try to walk a few days a week, but I know I need to be more purposeful in that area as well. I want to do better and my heart needs me to. I hope you all are taking care of your hearts. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to give the gift of health to our hearts.

Have a great Tuesday!

I’ve included a few shopping links for black tunics. These would be great to pair with red pants, pencil skirts or shorts. They could go with all sorts of colors. Feel free to peruse at your leisure. These are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

Seeing Red - Layering Light - Monochrome Pink Outfit

Seeing as it is the beginning of February, I thought it would be fun to make this whole month revolve around the color red, or some derivative thereof in keeping with a Valentines theme. Today’s outfit is the last in my Layering Light series, but I felt it fit into this month’s theme, because pink is just a lighter shade of red. I remember in grade school, learning how to make pink by mixing red paint with white paint. Even though this outfit is mainly pink, just think of it as a shade a red with white mixed in.

I got these dark pink Sonoma corduroy jeans at Kohl’s this past fall. They are soft and stretchy, and the narrow wale corduroy is extra warm in the chilly winter weather.

This light pink moto jacket is a clearance buy from Christopher and Banks. Can you have too many moto jackets? Of course not! Ha, ha.

This light pink Gap turtleneck was a thrift find. I like that it is lighter weight, because that makes it easy to layer under other pieces. The ribbed neck is also soft and comfortable, with no itchiness or irritation. Different fabrics affect my skin in different ways. I cannot wear wool and usually try to stay away from fabrics that are stiff and scratchy.

You can also see in the above picture, I added a pink scarf which subtly ties in to the darker color of the pants. The coppery metallic ring necklace and the thrifted copper bag were a way to add a touch of earthy color to the outfit.

These SO block heeled blush boots were the perfect choice to finish off the outfit.

This outfit would be a great date night look to wear with your significant other for Valentine’s Day. My husband is not a huge fan of pink, so I might wear this out with friends and choose something else for the romantic holiday.

Would you wear all pink? Do you own a pair of corduroy’s? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

This month I will be having another give away since this is my bloggiversary month, so keep a look out for that.