Not happy with you a-thread.com. Not happy at all.

This is one of those times I really wish I had a ton of readers like those other bloggers do. Then this post may actually help someone out.

So, I got suckered in by one of those Groupon-type flash sales where you spend $40 to get $80 worth of credit to a-thread.com.  The clothes are cute (the jewelry you can find other place for slightly less), and I liked that they also donated 5% of their sales to a charity of your choice.  Corporate social responsibility is a cool thing.  Rock on.

Either way, I have been less than satisfied with my experience.  There must be a bazillion glitches in their system.  Let me start off by saying that I tried to combine as much of my stuff as possible to spend all $80 at once and get free shipping.

Then I got word that the one shirt I really wanted (the one that I bought that damn coupon for) was sold out. COME ON!  Anyways.  I talked about that already here.

I also bought a pair of earrings.  I wanted it in a specific color, and there were two colors available: green and jade.

Now here's where my problem began.  I wanted that seafoamy one on the bottom.  I couldn't decide which one was "green" and which one was "jade."  I mean, I thought the seafoamy one would be jade, but in that drop down menu, it listed jade first and green second.  I figured this aligned with those little thumbnails.  Real jade does come in that yellow-y green color.  I guess I should have e-mailed someone to ask.  Whatever, either way, the yellow-green ones showed up, and not those seafoam ones.  I'm disappointed, but can't return because accessories can't be returned and things bought with this deal cannot be returned.

Oh and the necklace is backordered.  I knew this when I bought it.  I think it was supposed to ship by yesterday.  I haven't gotten an e-mail about this, so we'll see whether or not I ever actually get this necklace from a-thread.

So, I've waited awhile now and keep checking back in to see if there's anything I want to spend my refunded money on. I have to spend soon because the whole thing expires sometime in August.  I finally found a cute skirt I like, and am going through the checkout process, and get to the end, only to be charged shipping.  REALLY?!  The whole point of me combining things to begin with was so that I wouldn't have to pay shipping.

Here we are, a  month after I spotted the top I wanted, and I have nothing I actually want to show for it. This teaches me a valuable lesson on impulse buying.

And this teaches you a valuable lesson on not buying from a-thread.com. Many of their pieces can be found other places if you do some hunting around. I suggest you do.

30X30 Day 14 - Great Minds Think Alike

Whereas yesterday was a fashion fail for me, today is a total win.  I am really into my outfit today.

Silk shirt (Lands End Canvas); Skirt (Target, last seen here); Belt (House of Frasier); Shoes (Cole Haan); Purse (Kate Spade)

As I was uploading this picture, I realized that this coral/royal blue/yellow color combo seems to be a fave of bloggers. I can see why! I totes love it.

Pink Peonies

J's Everyday Fashion - can't find the link, but I promise it's there.

Kendi Everyday

I already had on my red bracelets because I thought I needed a bit more contrast, but I liked the way J went all out and added that red cardigan.  So I grabbed my red purse and took a few more pictures.

Bracelets (Target, J. Crew Factory); Necklace (Kate Spade)

I wish I had my nude shoes in my 30X30 closet.  I like the way all three ladies wore nude shoes with their outfits.  I also like Pink Peonies more watermelon-y top.  I think I may have something similar to that.  The shirt itself is from J. Crew (it's on sale right now plus an additional 40% off), but I'm trying really hard not to buy it since I don't need it.  I just have to keep reciting my new mantra: I will not buy I will not buy I will not buy.

I also have a bright blue top similar to Kendi's and some coral shorts. Maybe I'll try that reverse look sometime too!

GIVEAWAY FROM BECAUSE SHANNA SAID SO!

Because Shanna Said So (one of my favvvveee blogs) is hosting a giveaway.  You can win the snazzy black and gold chain bracelet from Glamour Me Jewels:

Aren't the other colors awesome? Bright colors and chains are all the rage for bracelets these days, and these bracelets are just over $20, making them a sound deal. Plus, I always love helping independent artists on Etsy, don't you?  I'm torn between the peach, the coral, or one of the more neutral ones, like this great tortoise shell:

But I think this one is calling my name:

I love anything nautical since Mr. Matched is in the Navy (and I also have a thing for all things pirate), and right now I'm super into black and white stripes. This little number has both! What's not to love?

If you'd like to enter to win that black bracelet, head on over to Shanna's blog here.

30X30 Day 13 - Fashion Fail

So, not one of my better looks.

Silk Striped Shirt (Alexa Chung for Madewell Risky Business Silk Shirt); Skirt (Limited); Belt (J. Crew); Shoes (Ann Taylor Perfect Pumps in Porcini); Bracelets (J. Crew Factory; Forever21); Necklace (H&M)

I like the stripe shirt with this skirt, but I think my accessorizing is a bit.... off. I got it into my head last night that I really wanted to wear this necklace with this outfit, but after looking at it, I don't think it was the best idea.  Plus, I think it looks way too similar (and not as successful) as my first 30X30 outfit. The other option was to wear either the coral or yellow gingham shirt with this, and I sorta wish I had.  If I had looked at these pictures before walking out the door, I probably would have changed.  Oh well. You win some you lose some.

Truth be told, it's because everything I wanted to wear I wore pretty recently or was still dirty (whoops. Should have done laundry this weekend). So, options were limited.  With this shirt, I have officially worn each item in my 30X30 closet. It's time to start mixing and matching.  I'll make more of an effort tomorrow :)

GOOD NEWS!

After noticing that my favorite chambray shirt had a hole in it from too many wears and washes, I found my replacement almost immediately.

Ann Taylor Button Down Camp Shirt

This was the shirt that I spoke about in my last post. I like the darker wash of the chambray and the look is almost the same as my well-loved H&M one, but more polished.  When I went in-store to return something, I saw it out of the corner of my eye and it was $40!  I wish they had one of those "take an extra 30% off" things going on, but I wasn't willing to risk it. I wore my other chambray shirt so much, $40 is more than worth it to me.

I'm not positive I like the pockets on the front, but it's something I can live with. Plus, I really like the hidden placket.

As a sidenote, I would really like that polka dot chambray shirt from J. Crew that's now sold out online:

Gap had a similar one that sold out pretty quickly too:

Nordstrom has an even more expensive one (at $98), but it's still available.

Get it here

And Anthropologie is the last place I found one, but I don't like this one as much:

Available in petites and missy

(in my opinion, the J. Crew one looked the nicest, followed up by the Nordstrom one).  I told myself I definitely did not need it and let it pass. I think I'm going to be dreaming about it for awhile, though.  I just need to keep reminding myself that I have 2 chambray shirts and about 1000 polka dot tops (including a navy silk one that can give me the same look and feel as the polka dot chambray).  But how awesome would it be to own one that combined my two loves???

I noticed in some old pictures that Lands End Canvas had an awesome looking version a few months ago:

My thought is that this is something that may come to Kohls in a few months. I just don't think I'm willing to pay more than about $30 for something that I think looks very trendy and isn't really neutral enough to wear all the time.  It's very memorable, and so I think people will notice when you wear it a lot.

I bought a pattern for making a box pleat full skirt. Maybe I'll see if someone out there makes this kind of fabric and make a skirt with it.  What do you think?

30X30 Day 12 - 2 For 1

You're in for a lucky treat, folks.  I'm going to post two (!!!) outfits today.  One I wore last night out for dinner and the other I wore today.  One is a 30X30 look and the other is not.

Mr. Matched and I went out to eat last night at a fan-ceh restaurant.  Jeans definitely would not cut it, but I didn't want to completely change my outfit.  My solution was to switch out my jeans for my polka dot skirt and to slip on a pair of pumps.  I'm counting this as one of my 30X30 since the outfit I wore today was not.

Sweater (Old Navy); Necklace (ILY Couture); Skirt (J. Crew Factory, similar); Belt (Anthropologie); Pumps (Ann Taylor): Purse (Kate Spade); Bracelets (H&M, J. Crew)

I took this picture this morning, not last night, so my hair style is the same in both pics.  My belt's a little crooked here.  Whoops!

So here are my fabulous striped shoes again. I paired it with my polka dot skirt. I've worn this look a few other times in my pre-blog life and I like how fun it is!  The mint belt I think broke up the YELLOW and POLKA DOTS and I always like the way mint looks with any shade of yellow.

Second outfit of the day is what I actually wore today. I sorta jumped off my 30X30 train today, but all my casual-ish tees were in the wash and I was out of clothes!

Top (Forever21); Sparkle Tank (Express); Boyfriend Jeans (LOFT); Shoes (Ann Taylor); Bracelets (Target); Necklace (Francesca's Collection; this may be it, but I think mine is a different color. Hard to tell online)

So, funny story about that shirt.  I was going to buy another similar shirt for it for twice as much. There was one of those flash sale thingies where you buy a coupon code for $40 and get $80 worth of credit. The only reason why I  bought that coupon was because I really wanted this shirt:

a-thread.com

Cute, right?  I was super disappointed (and more than a lot annoyed) when I got an e-mail about 30 minutes after I hit "purchase" saying that the shirt was sold out. Sorry, better luck next time.  My $80 coupon would still be honored, but I couldn't get this shirt.  Fail.  The only thing really wanted was this shirt. uuughhhhhhh.

Then my bloggy pals came through for me.  Don't remember which blog it was now, but they had this shirt on their list of to-buys:

Forever21 (sold out now, but try your local stores)

Not exactly the same.  It's more orange-y coral than watermelon-y coral and the sleeves are short. There's no collar and the shirt is see-through.  I like the a-thread one slightly more, but the fact that I could actually buy this shirt and that it was only $15.00 with shipping made this one a good one. It definitely has the same feel as that a-thread one, don't you think?  The buttons are a bit cheap looking to me, so I may DIY change them out in the future.

I borrowed the a-thread styling by adding my own mint necklace.  I'm happy with this purchase overall.  Still haven't figured out what I'm going to buy with the gift certificate I have. (sigh)

Does shopping fate every work out for you?

30X30 Day 11 - Yellow on Yellow

I had a meh day at work yesterday, so I decided to jump start my energy by wearing bright yellow today.  Do colors help your energy?

Sweater (Old Navy); Denim (LOFT); Scarf (LOFT); Pumps (Cole Haan)

I like the idea of layering necklaces and scarves.  My bubble necklace is the same color as this shirt. I think it gives it a little bit of texture for layering on my patterned scarf.

Bubble Necklace (ILY Couture)

You can't really see in the angle of this photo, but I'm wearing my other favorite bright lemon necklace above the scarf as well (last seen here).  I though that all those beads below needed to be balanced by something up top.

Annnd because I didn't think that was enough, I added a bright cobalt bracelet:

Cobalt bracelet (J. Crew); Lemon bracelet (H&M); Cream bracelet (LOFT)

How do you layer your accessories?