Fashionably Idu: .Fab on a dime.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Hello style lovers, welcome to another post. How was your week? Fabulous? Yes!! Mine? A good mix of happy and sad. Happy because I celebrated my twins’ birthday on Tuesday the 6th and sad because my partner teacher, a great friend of mine passed away. That was the breaking news on Monday morning the 5th of October. My principal and vice principal walked into my classroom about 7:30am both wearing long faces and I was like uh oh, I must be in trouble. They broke the news and it felt like the walls caved in. All three of us sat on the rug and I sobbed my heart out.

When I got myself together, I went down my contacts list and called or texted everyone that knew him directly or indirectly and told them the news in hopes that someone would say ‘well that’s not true, I just saw him, or I’m here with him or that was a bad joke they played on you, he is ok. No luck, the reaction was the same with each conversation, text message and voice mail. It was either (and I read this off of my phone) 'Wow, what a loss’, ‘You are kidding right’, 'You are lying, OMG', 'No way!!!!!!’, ‘So sorry for your loss’, that must be hard, are you ok?, ‘Unbelievable’, ‘He was so full of life’, 'He was a great teacher’ etc. Really guys, no one was going to say the words I hoped to hear. Bummer. Bummer. Life sucks sometimes. All I could utter was 'it’s so surreal'. Words failed me time and time again and my response stayed the same, 'its so surreal. I must have said that at least a million times. It still is so surreal.

Great support from the school district sending out substitute teachers to relieve the kinder team that day and all week as back up for whenever we felt like we needed to step away to breathe, talk, cry or do whatever. Councillors have been on site all week as well.

Gary was different things to different people, to me he was great friend, my confidant, my prayer buddy, a selfless friend, a good man and an amazing colleague. My heart bleeds. A gentle giant that gave his all to everything/everybody. Jeez God must have needed an extra angel.

Gary Golden, you will be missed forever. This post is for you. Not sure if I'll be able to speak at your funeral on Tuesday the 13th cos I'll be a wreck. But I thank the Lord for the opportunity to know and work with you.
Rest in Peace.

My wonderful principal, my amazing colleagues, so glad we have each other to lean on as we try to make sense of this craziness. Juaneta you are a rock and a blessing, love you always girl! What a week! I've turned to food and candy for comfort. What comfort foods do you turn to when challenges hit?

On the style diary, it's another Fab on a Dime look. You know what’s funny? Last year when this lip print dress in a beautiful shade of pink from the Alice McCall RTW collection hit the runways of Australia SS 14/15 fashion week here, I was one of those that ooh’d and aah’d, drooled and couldn't get enough of it. Hard as I tried and believe me I did, I couldn’t resist it so as you can imagine I snagged one and added it to my arsenal as soon as it hit stores. Oh to be a fashionista, nothing passes you by!!!

I wore it to an event in San Diego last summer and everyone loved it. I was totally shocked to see it at Shein, and thought it'd be great for another installment of fabulous on a dime and to promote breast cancer awareness this October. After all even though it's officially Fall, Summer weather persists in my lil corner of the planet. And that Summer sunlight hit and lit me all the way up as you can see, hehe. I paired the dress with pink bow shoes, a pink bag and a blazer to ward off the ~~mild Fall chill~~ direct heat of the sun on my skin.

Your thoughts?

Deets

Lip Print Dress - Shein (here)

Shoes - Shein (here)

Bag - Old (similar below)

Blazer - Karen Millen (old, similar below)

Thanks a bunch for stopping by, keep thinking the purple thoughts, Xo...

Shop The Look

.Fab on a dime. Alice McCall Fashion Fashion Week MBFW Pink Dresses Print dresses Short Dresses Strapless Dress

Posted by Fashionably Idu in .Fab on a dime., Alice McCall, Fashion, Fashion Week, MBFW, Pink Dresses, Print dresses, Short Dresses, Strapless Dress

Read My Lips, It's Fab on a Dime

Saturday, August 29, 2015

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"Never use the word "cheap". Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans - it's up to you." - Karl Lagerfield

Hello FI readers, welcome to our first FoaD post. I’m truly excited about starting this and plan on having fun with it. Buckle up and lets enjoy this ride, :))).

I am a firm believer that style is innate. It’s in you not your wallet and definitely not at the high end store. It’s not about the expensive price tag cos that doesn't matter if you are clueless as to how to style the pieces.

I usually have a good mix of high end and high street but like I stated in my post last (here) my emails are flooded with how to get some of my looks or any look at all for that matter on a budget. So I thought it’d be fun to do a monthly fab on a dime post just to show you can look absolutely stunning (hopefully I’m looking stunning, hehe) on any budget. Today it's all about high street. Achieving a high end look on a high street budget.

By the way something funny happened as we shot this look. An open top double decker sight seeing bus pulled to a stop right next to me on a red light. A bunch of sight seers cheered and pulled out their phones/ cameras and started taking pictures. You’d never believe it but I stood there and started posing for their cameras. This went on for like a good two minutes or so, however long it took for the light to change to green. So if these pics turn up somewhere else on the web, you know exactly how that happened. My daughter shook her head and said, "that was so you mom". But it was 2 minutes of great carefree fun and back to the business at hand, hehe. Was that out of pocket? Would you do that?

Remember how I mentioned restyling my clothes (here)? Great. So for this Fab on a Dime look, I wore my skirt as a dress by pulling it up and over my chest. I’m pretty sure a lot of us gals do that. Have you worn a tube dress as a skirt? Made it a high waisted skirt by pulling it up above your natural waist or lengthen it into a midi by pulling it down and having a wide belt act as a band and waist cincher? I love to explore different ways to style a piece. This skirt was the perfect length as a dress. The kissing pleats on the skirt opened up, added drama and structure to my now lovely white dress for all of $14.99. You can't beat that even if you tried, :))).

I stumbled upon this cute lil box clutch with the popular line ‘I woke up like this’ at TJ Maxx for $19.99 and thought I’d get it for my daughter. I did get it for her and borrowed it for this shoot. It has a long chain strap which is always a plus since I love wearing my bags cross body or as belt bags sometimes.

A $37.99 pair of yellow butterfly heels fashioned after the lovely Sophia Webster butterfly heels completed the look. So fashion forward and playful Carrie Bradshaw would absolutely, positively, and totally be in awe, hehe.

It did get a little chilly while I shot. A yellow jacket kept me warm and was a great addition to the look. If you’ve been reading my blog you’d notice I love to add a 3rd color to my looks so I used the beautiful long stem purple roses as a third color and accessory. They also added interest. I think all the pieces worked harmoniously well to create a beautiful fab on a dime look for under $100.

Yay or Nay? Your thoughts?

How was your week by the way? My daughter is taking a semester at UCDC and flew out to the east coast a couple days ago. I must have hugged her at least a thousand times as I sobbed my heart out at the airport. We face time pretty often though and that helps, :). It was my mom's birthday on the Tuesday the 25th, and we had such great fun celebrating her. Second week of school is a wrap. Super busy, days so early it felt like I spent the night or better still live in my classroom. On the flip side it was very successful. Kudos to my fellow educators, keep the positive vibes going, :).