Making the Most of your Wardrobe Archives - Page 12 of 14

How to Wear a Dress After you Shrink it??

March 2, 2018 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || How to wear a dress after you have shrunk it in the dryer?

I am totally guilty of shrining my clothes in the dryer. No matter how hard I try to pull certain pieces of clothing out of the washer to hang dry, one always gets left behind. Sometimes I get lucky and it doesn’t shrink up, but every once in awhile that cute summer dress I bought turns into a tunic. So what do you do with your clothes when that happened? Do you get rid of them, or do you try to still wear them? For me, I try to still wear them. I hate to get rid of clothes that still have life left in them.

Today I want to share 3 ways that you can wear a dress after it’s been shrunk in the dryer. This dress below was from my fill-a-bag sale at Goodwill a while ago. After I picked out a few cute things that I wanted, I just started stuffing clothes in the bag without trying them on. I picked out this striped dress and when I tried it on at home, I realized that someone must have shrunk it in the dryer and ended up giving it away. Well, I always believe that someone’s trash can be someone else’s treasure, and since the dress was basically free, I wanted to get some use out of it. Here are 3 ways that I like to wear my shorter dresses.

1.) Wear it with tights. I love the look of tights in the winter. They might be uncomfortable, but they suck in your legs and smooth everything out, making your legs look flawless. When I add tights to this dress, I feel like it gives it a Parisian look.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Stripe dress with black tights and booties

2.) Wear it with leggings. Wearing this dress as a tunic with leggings gives it a more casual feel. I love throwing on leggings and boots under a dress for work. It always gives the appearance that I dressed up, but really I feel like I’m wearing pajamas.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || dress with leggings and boots

3.) Risk it and wear it on its own. Sometimes in the summertime, it gets so hot that I don’t care how short my dress is. If you do wear a short dress, I recommend wearing it with flat shoes. I also like to wear some shorts under my shorter dresses. What I do is take an old pair of leggings that I never wear and cut them to wear as bike shorts under my dresses. This is a great trick for moms with little ones and definitely teachers, specially preschool teachers!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Stripe dress with flats and denim jacket

*This post contains affiliate links.

So there you have it. There is no need to get rid of a dress that you really love just because it shrank up in the dryer. Try out these tips and see how you like them.

If you don’t have any cute dress that you’ve shrunk up on your own. Here are some fun stripe dresses that you could style up. All under $20!!

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN

Making the Most of Your Wardrobe- Leopard Pocket Cardigan

January 9, 2018 by Katie Haller

One of my favorite clothing items in my closet for winter are long cardigans. I love them and I could wear them everyday. That’s why I have to get creative with how I wear my cardigans. My latest favorite cardi is from PinkBlush. I love it because it’s different than all my other cardigans. It’s made out of a soft velour material, which is super warm and cozy. Another unique thing about this cardigan is the leopard pockets. I thought that was a fun touch. As much as I love this cardigan, it’s a little more trendy than my other cardi’s in my closet. A trendy cardi like this can get old fast if you don’t find new ways to wear it. Luckily it goes with almost anything. I’ve put together 3 casual looks for today’s post wearing this PinkBlush cardigan.

*This post is part of a collaboration with PinkBlush. Although I was gifted this item, all my opinions are 100% my own.

Look #1
I wore a simple neutral-colored shirt under the cardigan with jeans and flats. It’s very simple and easy to wear.

Look #2
I wore all black underneath for this look. I always love to wear leggings and boots in the winter. A long cardigan like this is the perfect way to complete a legging look like this.

Look #3
Of course, I had to style this cardigan with a striped top. Whenever I want to mix up my patterns, I always go with a stripe leopard combination. I wore distress jeans and booties to complete the look.

Year of Color- Making the Most of Your Wardrobe – Orange Cardigan

November 17, 2017 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life-3 Orange Cadigan Thanksgiving Outfits

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchasing through a link, I will make a small commission. Thank you for your support!

I can’t believe that it’s already mid-November! Christmas is right around the corner, but first, it’s one of my favorite holidays… Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday devoted to eating yummy food, being with family and friends and reflecting on what you’re thankful for. I hate that Thanksgiving gets overshadowed by Christmas. I like to take it one holiday at a time.

Just like every holiday, I love to come up with fun festive outfits. Since Thanksgiving is still a fall holiday, I like to wear some sort of fall color…like orange, which happens to be the color for November’s Year of Color linkup!

I don’t own a lot of oranges, but I do like it. Last spring I found this H&M cardigan at Savers on one of my thrifting trips. I really liked the rust orange color. I felt like it would be perfect for fall. Today I have put together 3 fall outfits that would be perfect for wearing for Thanksgiving.

Sometimes you might want to be a little dressier for Thanksgiving, so I picked a stripe swing dress for this look. A swing dress is perfect for eating a big meal because it’s extremely comfortable. It’s also perfect if you’re in you’re early stages of being pregnant or postpartum. It hides your tummy perfectly. I like to wear tights with my dresses when it gets cold out. I love the way the tights look with my black booties. I choose to mix it up a little and add a leopard clutch.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Orange cadigan with stripes and leopard

This next look is more casual. Just like the swing dress above, I love my swing tank tops. They are super casual and comfortable. I like to tuck mine in and layer a cardi over it. To accessorize I added a statement necklace, booties, and a cognac purse.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Orange cadigan with stripe tank and distressed jeans

I often find myself wearing leggings for Thanksgiving because let’s be honest, what’s more, comfortable than leggings? I tend to eat a lot of stuffing, so I hate feeling uncomfortable in jeans. A cardigan, scarf, and boots are the perfect way to dress up your leggings.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Orange cadigan with leggings and leopard scarf

Now I just need to decided what I will actually wear for Thanksgiving this year.

Next month is the last month of a Year of Color. It’s all about metallic colors for December. Get all your fun outfits, makeup, decoration, recipes and craft ideas ready to share. It should be a great way to end the year! Don’t forget to leave your orange link below!

An InLinkz Link-up

3 Ways to Accessorize a Simple Little Black Dress

October 19, 2017 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Making the Most of your Wardrobe | 3 ways to accessorize a simple black dress for a special occasion

October seems to be flying by. I can’t believe that it’s already time for another Year of Color linkup post. In case you just started following along, every 3rd Friday of the month I team up with some of my fellow blogger friends to host a link party called A Year of Color. Each month there is a color theme and you can share ANYTHING you like on that color. I always like to share an outfit post, because that’s what I feel I do best. This month’s color is black!

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

I can’t lie, I was so excited about this color. Black is always my favorite color to wear. It’s easy to accessorize, you can wear it with anything, plus everyone looks good in black. With that said, I had a difficult time narrowing in on what kind of outfit posts I would do for today. I ended up deciding on one of my favorite wardrobe pieces in my closet…..a Little Black Dress a.k.a. LBD.

In my mid to late ’20s my weekends were filled with going to weddings. All my friends were getting married, and to be honest I couldn’t afford to go buy a new dress for every wedding I attended. I bought this simple empire waist black dress for my rehearsal dinner (similar). Instead of going with a traditional bride rehearsal dinner dress, I played it safe and went with a black dress. I’m so happy I did because I’ve worn this dress on a number of other occasions since then.

Today I am going to show you how easy it is to accessorize an LBD like this.

The first way is a very classic traditional look. I wore black patent leather pumps, rhinestone jewelry and a satin clutch with rhinestones. This is perfect for a more formal wedding. I wore this exact look at my husband’s cousin’s wedding in Chicago a few years ago.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Accessories for a formal occassion

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Simple black dress accessorized with rhinstones

Shoes- Ivanka Trump- Von Maur (similar) || Necklace- Target (similar) || Clutch- Jessica McClintock (similar)

For my second look, I chose leopard accessories. I wore my gold sandals, with my leopard clutch and gold jewelry.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Gold and Leopard accessories

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | LBD accessorized with gold and leopard

Shoes- DSW (similar) || Necklace- LC Lauren Conrad- Kohl’s (similar) || Clutch- H&M- ThredUp (similar)

For my final look, I accessorized with some color. I always love how turquoise looks with black, so I wore turquoise jewelry with my turquoise clutch. For shoes I went with my nude pumps. I think that this look would be great for a destination wedding.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Turquoise accessories

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | LBD accessorized with turquoise

Shoes- Target (similar) || Necklace- Kohl’s (similar) || Clutch- Hand-me-down (similar)

Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to accessorize your black dresses and maybe help you out next time your stumped on what to wear to a wedding or special occasion.

I hope to see everyone back here next month for the color Orange. Don’t forget to leave your link below!

An InLinkz Link-up

4 Ways to Wear Black Slip-On Sneakers

September 19, 2017 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || 4 ways to wear black slip on shoes for fall

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed these black slip-on shoes that I’ve been wearing lately. They were my first purchase from my fall wish list, and I’m just loving how practical they are for fall. I was originally eyeing the Steve Madden pair of black slip-on shoes (here), but they were almost $60 and I knew I wasn’t going to spend that much. Luckily, Target does a great job of making knock off styles. I found these almost identical slip-on shoes (here) at Target for only $25, less than haft the price of the Steve Madden shoes.

Today, I want to share 4 fall looks wearing my new black slip-on sneakers. They can be worn with almost anything, but for today’s looks I styled them all with 4 different pairs of pants; white jeans, black jeggings, jeans, and leggings. All four of these looks are perfect for me to wear to work, or wear on the weekends. They are very casual and very mom-friendly!

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || White jeans, stripe shirt and slip on shoes

Top- Old Navy (exact) || Pants- Target (similar) || Necklace- Charming Charlie (similar) || Purse- Last Call Neiman Marcus (similar)

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Black jeggings, grey t-shirt and black slip on's

Top- Zappos (similar) || Pants- TJ Maxx (similar) || Necklace- Kohl’s (similar) || Purse- Last Call (same as above)

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Jeans, Stripe t-shirt and black slip on's

Top- H&M thrifted from Goodwill (similar) || Jeans- Thrifted from Goodwill (similar)

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Leggings, tunic and leapord scarf

Leggings- Last Call Neiman Marcus (similar) || Tunic- Nordstrom Rack (similar) || Scarf- Charming Charlie (similar) || Purse- Last Call (similar)

Making the Most of Your Wardrobe- Year of Color

August 18, 2017 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Making the most of your wardrobe- 3 ways to wear a bright pink shirt

I’ve been dreading writing this Year of Color post for a while. I always like to do some kind of outfit post with the color of the month, but this month’s color theme is neon.

When I started to brainstorm outfits with neon colors all I could think about was an 80’s theme party outfit. I felt completely stumped on how I could incorporate neon colors into my wardrobe. But then I remembered that I do wear neon colors. I typically stick to neutral colors when putting together outfits, but when I do dress in color, it seems that I always gravitate to bright neon pink. I have a cute hot pink cold shoulder top that I’ve been wanting to share in an outfit post for a while, so I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity. Today I have 3 looks for you to show how you can easily incorporate a bright color into your wardrobe.

*This post contains affiliate links which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link I will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.

For my first look, I wore my bright pink top with white pants, then I accessorized it with some gold and turquoise accessories. I really love how the turquoise looks with the bright pink. The two bright colors go well together. I also love how the white pants help keep the whole outfit bright. It’s a great look for summer.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Bright pink shirt with white pants and gold and turquoise accessories

Pants- Target (similar) || Clutch- hand-me-down (similar) || Shoes- Kohl’s (similar)

I’ve always liked pink and black together, that’s why for this next look I wore black shorts, black wedge sandals and a black satchel purse. I accessorized with a turquoise necklace. I figured that this would be a cute look for a summer date night out.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Bright pink shirt with black and turquoise accessories

Shorts- Forever 21 (similar) || Purse- Last Call (exact) || Shoes- Target (similar)

The last way that I wore my pink top was with my distress jeans and I accessorized it with a cognac bag and sandals. This is a more casual everyday look for me. I like keeping the accessories simple, because the bright pink is a big enough statement.