Get More Money Out of Your Sequins

how to wear a dress as a skirt, sparkly dress, ross, layering, how to layer over a dress, new year's eve outfit, new year's eve party outfit, nye party outfit, ootd

Let’s save ourselves some money this New Year’s Eve and recycle some of that Christmas attire!

So this sparkly dress is from Ross. I bought it for less than $20. But it’s sleeveless, so I don’t want to always wear it by itself. I also like sparkly skirts. So by adding a few layers on top – I’ve re purposed it into just that!

I started with a tight black tank because the dress has a cowl neck and that volume needs to be hidden. Then I added a black collared shirt. I liked doing this just because it gave the neckline a little more interest and it helps hide the bumpiness on top.

Finally, I layered on a simple gray long sleeve top. I like the gray because it’s different and I feel like it adds more depth to the outfit rather than just doing more black.

There was one time when I stuffed the bottom half of this dress down into a skirt and just let the top part show. But that was just a one time thing and I think using it as a skirt is way better.

Think about re-purposing something you own this New Year’s Eve!

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How to Accessorize a Fancy Sweater

how to accessorize a metallic sweater, metallic sweater, what to wear to a christmas party

I know there’s been a lot of talk of Christmas outfits around here lately, but this is a fashion blog and it is Christmas time. You didn’t come here to get the latest tech news. ;)

I first wrote about this sweater last Friday. But I wanted to talk about how I accessorized it.

Again, the great thing about going with something shiny is that it can stand on it’s own. A silver necklace wouldn’t work because it would disappear into the sweater. I considered doing a black necklace (and may go with one in the future) but because I was wearing my hair down, it wouldn’t get proper exposure.

So I chose these snake skin-patterned earrings. They were perfect because they had a pattern and weren’t shiny. This sweater really shines in real life, and adding shiny earring on top of that would mean passing out sunglasses before I walk into the room.

Remember, it’s all about balance. And (like you’ve heard me say a lot here lately) texture! If you have any questions related to this, remember to click on my social media links there on the right :) @thespiff_e on both Twitter and Instagram!

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Perks and Quirks

I once read that the title of your blog post can’t be witty. It has to tell the reader what they’re going to read about.

I hated reading that, because coming up with witty titles is right in my wheelhouse – it’s the load bearing beams of my wheelhouse.

Today I threw out what all of those wildly successful bloggers had to say about titles, and just boiled it down to, “Perks and Quirks”. Because  I want to show you all of the perks of TheSpiff and hopefully expose some of my quirks along the way (in the least creepster way possible…I’m now rethinking the use of “expose”).

I’ve been writing a blog for, well remember Xanga? Yep. So, let’s put 2001 on the time stamp. It wasn’t until 2009, a year into my marriage and months after graduating college that I decided to give myself an endless homework assignment combine my love of writing and fashion, fuel it with my passion to see women comfortable in their skin and start writing a blog legitimately.

A year after that decision I pushed “publish” on my very first post for TheSpiff. If you’re thinking that’s a long time between things and that I probably was watching too much Gilmore Girls, then you’d be right. But I was also working hard perfecting the site, coming up with a domain name, and pre-writing 3 months worth of blogs to get myself started.

Until I birth my first child, my proudest moment remains to be the night when I finally figured out how to manipulate html code so that my site looked exactly the way I wanted it. I will never forget that.

Fast forward to today and I’m now four months in on a newly revamped site (I paid someone this time). Today I wanted to kind of show you around and point out a new feature!

First off, take a look at my social media icons there on the top right. I know it’s like I’m introducing you to your right hand – it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. But maybe by “take a look” I mean click on them and hit follow… ;)

pinterest, fashion blog, knoxville fashion

I’ve got several great Pinterest boards that you’ll be pinterested in. I’m trying to drill down into the details of dressing, so I’ve got one on tights, jackets, shoes (etc.)…all stuff I would really wear. I don’t know WHERE I would wear some of it, but I don’t pin unless I truly like it.

Finally, and really the purpose of this diatribe, is I’ve recently added a way to subscribe to TheSpiff! If you’ll enter your email address in the box on the bottom right, you’ll get my posts in your email inbox. No more of this type, type, type, click, scroll nonsense, you can simply open your email, click and boom you’re reading one of my fashion/beauty nuggets for the day.

I make it oh so easy. It’s one of my quirks, I like to make things wildly easy on people. ;) …I also volunteer too much and sometimes I sing in the shower.

A Harvest of Blessing
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What to Wear This Weekend

gap shorts

Any 80’s kids remember that show, “Salute Your Shorts”? Today I’m going to help you get your shorts so dressy they just might get saluted. Probably not. But maybe.

This outfit was one of those downtown ensembles that I love to put together. I don’t know about your downtown, but ours has that artsy vibe. So I always like to break out of my box a bit whenever I’m going down there for dinner.

The box out of which I broke with this outfit was my “I don’t like to wear shorts” box. I’m not a fan of how they feel, and most of the time they look all bunched and wrinkly so they don’t often make it into my rotation. However, with it being a bit cooler out at night (and with a solid tan going on my legs) I thought it would be good to at least take these boys out once this summer (the shorts that is, not my legs).

Even though I’m not a big fan of shorts, this army green pair I got from Gap are pretty awesome. I love the length – not too mom, not too hooch – and the fact that they cuff and in doing so make my legs look smaller makes them ok in my book.

I balanced out the shorts with a patterned sweater and anchored the whole thing with gladiator wedges. Shorts get 1,000 times more flattering when you wear them in heels, FYI.

It’s a pretty simple outfit, in fact I’m sure you have some of these same pieces in your closet. So give it a try this weekend and see what you think!

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More Maxi for Your Money

Well Hello, Friday.

In an effort to give you more maxi dress inspiration, and maybe an idea or two of what to wear this weekend, I wanted to show you how simply adding a jacket to a maxi dress can make a difference.

Also, take a couple minutes to watch my segment from Tuesday to see how to get more maxi for your money!

Here’s what the dress looks like alone…

maxi dress

This is the look I wore on Tuesday…

chambray shirt 2 edited jpg

Maxi dress

 

Take off the chambray shirt, add a jean jacket and a belt to define the waste a little more. There’s my “high fashion” pose…once this is out on the internet I’ll probably be asked to move to Paris.

denim jacket adjust edited jpg

maxi dress

 

Or go a little more edgy and add a white leather jacket. You can’t add a leather jacket without giving your mean face, it’s just a rule – I don’t make the rules, I just follow them.leather jacket tough edited jpg

Maxi dress

And here’s my segment from Tuesday.

Enjoy your weekend!

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