Style Challenge: A Dress in Winter

Audrey, over at one of my favorite blogs, Putting me Together, is issuing a weekly Style Challenge to her readers to help kick start the new year. I've decided to take part. This week's challenge was deceptively simple: wear a dress.

Although I love dresses, there were two real challenges in meeting this week's style goal. 1) It's cold! I don't want to wear dresses; I only want to wear sweatpants! 2) I'm not teaching yet, so I wanted to keep that cozy winter break feeling even as I spent a day in church staff meetings and class prep. The solution to both? Cozy layers. You've seen this dress from Target a lot over the last few months. I added sweater tights, an oversized cardigan, and the chunky circle scarf in addition to some crucial layers underneath (a cami and shorts) to keep me nice and toasty. My plan worked. I was totally comfortable all day while still feeling put together. (In other news, these boots that I got on sale at Clarks are my new favorite thing.)

The sweater is a new purchase, too, but it's no longer available online. I got it at Delia's, a store whose quarterly catalogs used to fill my middle school head with dreams of the coolest clothes, and which is now going out of business. They mostly cater to teens, so it was hard to find anything that worked for me at their going-out-of-business sale. I was very happy to discover this wonderful burgundy cardigan, which fulfilled both my sentimental attachment to my memories of Delia's and my current closet needs.

If you're looking to shake the winter blues with a little creative closet shopping, I encourage you to head over to Putting Me Together to join the weekly style challenges.