Spotted Around Town

Happy Tuesday, sweet friends! How was your Easter weekend? We had an amazing few days at a church over the past week with volunteering, events for children and services all day on Sunday. I am so amped and energized for this week as I make some big shifts plus spend a few days away. Today, I’m heading to the triangle area for a few fun events + meet-ups then to the beach this weekend. I’ve lived in NC for almost 7 years (oh my…wow) and have never been to a local beach. Growing up in NJ, 25 minutes from 7 or so beaches, traveling an hour and a half for a beach experience was always so strange to me. Because of so, I saved all my beach experiences for when I was traveling to Virginia or going home to NJ. But after almost a year being away from the beach and a crazy past few months, a beach trip is exactly what I need right now.  

Okay guys, this “spotted around town” dress is easily becoming my favorite spring piece in my wardrobe. If you were looking for the perfect dress to wear to work, church, brunch, a daytime wedding or just about anywhere else, this is it. It’s a super simple v-neck cinched waist dress perfect for all body types. Plus, you can find the reverse design (black with white dots) in several dress styles in petite, tall, straight and plus sizes! One of the reasons I love shopping at Old Navy for wardrobe essentials is because of their size selection. I love love love shopping at small boutiques, however, I’ve found when it comes to blogging and wanting everyone to feel comfortable in what I share, stores likeOld Navy tend to offer sizing and height variations that are hard to come by. Even though I’m petite, I picked up this dress in the regular length so it falls right above the knee. This length is usually appropriate for every place you can think to wear a dress.

If you want to style this dress for work, throw on a pop of color blazer, pointy flats and your work tote for a comfy look in the office. For brunch with the girls, I would add my favorite summer hat, espadrilles and a small crossbody only filled with the necessities. Just like with any clothing purchase, I function by the rule of 3: the item needs to have the ability to be worn to 3 different occasions/locations/spaces in my life. If I can’t justify 3 places to wear an item, 99% of time I don’t buy it. The only time this rule doesn’t apply is if I’m buying it for the benefit of someone else such as being in a wedding. Besides that, even when it comes to bachelorette parties, I only buy color coordinated items that I can wear again. If you’re someone who struggles with building a solid wardrobe or always feel like you have a ton of stuff but nothing to wear, I would highly suggest trying this rule as you shop in the future. Since I just did a major purge of my closet, I could easily see the items I picked up without thinking about it that ended up in the donation pile. I was so embarrassed that at least half the items still had tags on them. The rest had only been worn maybe twice. 

*For my local readers, if you saw me running in and out of the traffic to get these pictures, just go ahead and pray for me because you’ll see me doing it again soon. We met in the midst of rush hour and had an interesting time shooting in between the lights and stop signs. *

Well friends, that’s all that I have for today! Do you have an item in your closet that you cannot live without?! I would love to know what it is! Thanks so much for reading. -xo, Azanique <3