looks Archives - Thrifty Wife Happy Life

What to Wear for the 4th of July!

June 28, 2016 by Katie Haller

I love the 4th of July! It’s always been a special holiday for my family and me. Not only is it our country’s birthday, but it’s also my dad’s birthday. I have a lot of happy memories spending this day with my family while growing up. Ever since I was a little girl, I always had to make sure that I wore my red, white and blue on Independence Day. Now that I’m an adult, not much has changed. I still look for those colors in my closet to make sure I’m festive for whatever I have planned on that day.

Some easy ways to put together a great 4th of July outfit is to look for basic pieces like shorts, tank tops, and skirts, then accessorize them with some holiday flair. For me, I like to accessorize with my red beads and add some denim in for my blue.

Whether you plan to spend your day at the beach, a picnic, barbecue, parade, fireworks or even if you have to be at the office…here are some easy ways to incorporate red, white and blue into your look.

I like this casual maxi skirt look. It’s perfect for a hot summer day, plus it’s super comfortable!

I love this white Ann Taylor dress. I actually wear it as a bathing suit cover up most of the time, but when you pair it with some wedge shoes, red beads, and a denim jacket; it can really dress it up nicely.

This casual look is perfect for a day time BBQ, then you can add the denim jacket to it for evening fireworks. I love the navy and white stripes in this tank top.

This is another great evening to look for fireworks. Having a red sweater in your closet can definitely come in handy, especially for holidays.

This look is a great work outfit for the day before the long weekend. We all know that a workday can drag on, especially the day before a holiday weekend. Dressing up a little bit festive can make your day more fun!

Those are my 4th of July looks. Follow me on Instagram @thriftywifehappylife to find out what I end up wearing this year on the 4th. I hope everyone has a safe a fun holiday!

Celeberity Looks- Kate Middleton Maternity looks

January 28, 2016 by Katie Haller

You didn’t actually think that I could go for 9 months and not do a blog post on Kate Middleton’s maternity style, did you? I just love her style way too much to not talk about her fashion during her two pregnancies, while I’m pregnant. Her style during pregnancy was no different than her normal non-maternity style; simple, effortless and classic. She wore some beautiful dresses that fit her baby bump perfectly. I just love how polished she always looks.

Here are just some of my favorite Kate Middleton maternity looks.

When you’re married to a prince, you’re bound to have a fabulous closet. This is why it can be hard for the average girl living on a small budget to recreate these royal maternity looks. But it’s not impossible when you get creative with what you already have. You will be surprised by how easy it is to recreate some royal looks.

Here are a few looks that I came up with from my own close in my closet that was inspired by some of Kate’s maternity outfits.

The Duchess has often worn wrap dresses; pregnant or not pregnant. For this look, I pulled out one of my favorite wrap dresses that I bought at a thrift store last year. I wore a tan sweater and nude shoes with the dress to complete the Kate look.

I loved the look that Kate Middleton wore on a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio in 2013, seen here wearing a polka dot dress and a black blazer. I really wanted to recreate this look, but my closet is lacking when it comes to polka dot dresses, so I substituted black and white polka dots for black and white stripes with this sundress from Target (worn here before I was pregnant). I wore my black blazer and black wedge shoes to finish the look.

Many of the dresses that Kate Middleton wore during her pregnancies were very simple and tailored to fit her body, with some kind of pattern. I thought that the style of this striped dress from Target was similar to some of Kate’s dresses. I wore it with my nude pumps and a statement necklace to dress it up.

I’ve got to say I’m pretty jealous of Kate’s coat collection. She has so many fabulous coats, that I would love to have. I loved this look that she wore here, with a Burberry trench coat, while pregnant with Prince George. I have a knock off trench coat from Forever 21 that I really love. I recreated her look with it and a simple outfit with leggings and black flats.

The best ways to recreate Kate Middleton’s looks is to just stick to her basics and copy her classic style on your own budget.

Dressing Your Baby Bump for the Holidays

December 18, 2015 by Katie Haller

Last year, I wrote a post called Dressing for the Holidays on a Budget. It was all about how to add some Christmas into your wardrobe, without having to spend money on a whole new outfit. This year, I’m still following my own tips on dressing for the season, the only difference is this Christmas season, I’m 8 months pregnant.

I’m excited to be pregnant during this Christmas season. Besides having to skip out on the holiday drinks I enjoy so much this time of the year, I’m very happy to be expecting our little man this Christmas. There is just so much to celebrate and be thankful for! Plus, I have this fun little baby bump to dress up!

While going through my closet, I’ve realized that there are a couple important things to keep in mind while planning out your maternity holiday outfits. The first thing is to remember to be comfortable. Between eating all the yummy holiday food and your growing baby smooshing your insides, comfort is my number one priority when picking out my outfits. The second thing to remember is to stick to very basic clothes that you can easily accessorize with some of your favorite Christmas accessories. My favorite way to accessorize during the holidays is with green, red or anything sparkly.

Here are some outfits that I’ve picked to wear this holiday season, using my favorite holiday accessories and comfortable maternity clothes.

This striped dress is one of my favorite dresses right now. It’s simple and comfortable. I love that I can accessorize it however I want. Here I wore it with my red cardigan and red bead necklace to give it that Christmas look. I also wore black tights and black ankle boots to complete the look.

For my next look, I wore this simple black cotton maternity dress from Target (similar here). This is the only actual “maternity” dress that I have bought so far. I figured if I was going to spend money on maternity clothes, it should be something simple that I could wear over and over again, and what’s more simple than a plain black dress? I added my green bubble necklace and my most comfortable pair of heels. I wore this look to my husband’s company Christmas party.

Here is the same black dress, I just tried it out with my shimmery gold scarf instead of the necklace. I also wore my black tights and ankle boots to give it more of a wintry look.

Continuing on with my all-black outfits, Here is an example of sticking with very simple comfortable clothes and just accessorizing them. Here I wore a black long tank top, leggings and a black blazer. I accessorized it with an infinity scarf that has some red and green in it and my boots.

I thought this look would be a great casual Christmas day look. I wore my polka-dot blouse, jeans, a red cardigan, green statement necklace and brown boots.

Those are just a few ideas that I have for this Christmas season. If you’re pregnant this year, hopefully these looks will help you figure out some ways to dress up your baby bump. If you’re not pregnant, this can still be a great guide to help you figure out what to wear this Holiday season!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Celebrity Looks- Kristin Cavallari Maternity Style

November 6, 2015 by Katie Haller

Of all the recently pregnant celebrities out there, I don’t think that anyone has pulled it off better than Kristin Cavallari. She looks amazing pregnant, even on her third baby! I have enjoyed being pregnant around the same time as her because I love seeing what she’s wearing and how she’s styling her baby bump.

For this post, I went through and pulled a few of my favorite looks that Kristin Cavallari has worn during her 3 pregnancy’s and then I recreated the looks by using my own clothes from my closet. Here is what I came up with.

Here is one of Kristin Cavallari’s Instagram pictures showing off her little baby bump. I thought this was a great look for fall. I love the denim and the striped tops together. I wore a striped long tank top from H&M (exact), a denim button-down from Target (similar), black leggings (similar) with a pair of brown riding boots (similar).

I love this look that she wore while traveling through the airport. It’s such a great travel look while pregnant. I love the black leggings and top with the long cardigan. It’s such a comfortable and stylish look. (I probably wouldn’t be able to pull off this look with the heels in my normal life, but I still tried so that I recreated the look.) I wore black leggings (similar), a black tank top from Forever 21 (similar), a long cardigan sweater from H&M (exact) and ankle boots from Kohl’s (similar).

I love a cute blazer look. That’s why I really love this simple blazer look that she wore. I wore black jeggings from TJ Maxx (similar), a white T-shirt from Target (similar), a grey blazer from Kohl’s (similar) and black flats from DSW (exact).

Maxi skirts are great during pregnancy, especially in the warmer months. I love how Kristin wore a striped skirt with the denim vest. I wore a striped maxi skirt from TJ Maxx (similar), a white t-shirt (similar) and a denim jacket (similar).

This last look is simple and casual. I love the scarf for when you don’t feel like showing off your bump that much. I wore white pants from Target (similar), a grey t-shirt from Target (similar), a black cardigan from Forever 21 (similar), a scarf (similar) and pair of flip flops.

I hope that you enjoyed these recreated Kristin Cavallari maternity looks. What celebrity do you think has the best maternity style?

Making the Most of Non-Maternity Clothes~Second Trimester

October 20, 2015 by Katie Haller

I think it’s finally official. I cannot hide the fact that I am pregnant anymore. For weeks I’ve been looking at my belly wondering if anyone could tell that I had a baby in there and not just a big meal. It wasn’t until one of the dads of a child in my class asked me if I was expecting. I looked at him and thought, who told you? Then I looked at my belly and realized that it was getting pretty noticeable.

One great thing about growing a baby is all the fun that you get to have to find new ways to style your new body. Pregnancy is not always cheap though. There are doctor bills, buying things for your new baby and for many of us….unpaid maternity leaves to save up for. This is why my goal has been to stay in my normal non-maternity clothes for as long as I possibly can. Maternity clothes can be expensive and I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothing that can only be worn for such a short period of time. That’s why I’ve been searching through my closet and trying out all my normal clothes to see what still fits and figure out how to wear them with my growing bump.

I recently went through and tried on all my dresses in my closet. I was just trying to get a feel for what I can still wear and what I will be able to wear in the upcoming months. I ended up having a great idea of how to wear some of my dresses in a new way. I decided to try styling a few of my shorter dresses as a shirt with a pair of blue jeans. I ended up coming up with a few super cute fall outfits.

For my first look, I tried on this blue and white striped dress that I bought at Target a couple years ago for only $2. After I washed it a couple times, it was always a little short on me, so I usually wear it with leggings. When I tried it on with my blue jeans it made the perfect maternity top. I accessorized it with a white sweater and brown belt. I also wore my brown Steve Madden wedge shoes. I feel like wearing some kind of heal or wedge helps lengthen out my body a bit. (I’m going to try to wear heals through my entire pregnancy. I’ll stop either when my feet swell up too much or I can’t take the discomfort any longer.)

I bought this sweater dress years ago at Express on clearance after Christmas. It always looked cute with leggings, but when I tried it on with my jeans, I felt that is made a great maternity sweater with plenty of room to grow. Again, I wore a pair of wedge sandals to give me some height. I feel like this outfit will be great for the upcoming cooler months.

Last but not least, I tried on this sweater dress that I bought last year at TJ Maxx. It’s a cute sweater dress to wear in the winter with boots, but I really like the look with my blue jeans. I thought it was cute on it’s own, or I could layer it with my navy blazer.

I’ve got to say that I’m having fun finding ways to dress up my new baby bump. I’m sure eventually I’ll have to invest in a few key maternity items, but for the most part I’m hoping to be able to wear my non- maternity clothes for as long as I can. I can’t wait to share more maternity looks with you in the upcoming months!

Creating a Fall Wardrobe in the Heat

October 16, 2015 by Katie Haller

One thing that has definitely been an adjustment for me with living in Las Vegas, compared to Michigan, is the long never-ending summer heat. Since fall is my favorite season to dress for, it’s been hard for me to embrace the season with my wardrobe. I guess wearing all my summer clothes can be a good thing because I’m not as eager to spend money on new fall clothes, but I’m still ready to put away the summer clothes and get back into wearing denim, boots, and scarves… just a few of my fall favorites!

Lately, I have decided to bring on the fall wardrobe, with or without the hot temperatures. I’ve been going through my clothes and figuring out new ways to wear some of my summer clothes with a few of my favorite fall clothes and accessories.

Here are just a few looks that I came up with.

This is a new outfit that I recently bought at Kohls. The top (exact here) was $10.80, found in the clearance section and the leggings (exact here) were on sale for $6.99, both found in the juniors department. I never shop at Kohls without checking Retail Me Not first for coupons. I ended up getting 20% off of my purchase. I decided to accessorize my new outfit with one of my favorite pairs of brown boots and my red beaded necklace. This look is the perfect mix of fall and summer.

Scarves are one of my favorite accessories to wear in the cooler weather. Last year I bought a few lightweight scarves at Charming Charlies (read about the scarves here). They have turned out to be a great accessory for the warmer climate. I wore this particular scarf with a pair of jeans, a black tank top, and black flats. Wearing a tank top or short sleeve shirt with a lightweight scarf is a great way to accessorize some fall into your wardrobe when it’s still warm out.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love my boots! Boots are one of my favorite fall accessories. Wearing your favorite pair of boots with a dress is a great way to bring them out when the weather is still warm. I also love to wear denim in the fall, so I wore my denim jacket with a t-shirt dress.

I love wearing maxi dresses in the summer, because they keep me cool, and I love scarves in the fall and winter because they keep me warm. So when I combine the 2 it makes for a great warm fall day outfit.

For all of you who live in warm climates, I’m sure you can relate to my fall dilemma, but hopefully these looks will help you figure how to bring a little fall into your life…even if you feel like the summer is never ending.