The Ageless Style Link Up- The first Monday of every month a group of over forty fashion bloggers pick a monthly theme and show different ways of styling it.
Hello! Long time no see. I am not back to a regular blogging schedule but I want to remain faithful to my blogging commitments so I will still participate in the Ageless Style Link Up once a month as long as they have it. But before I begin the link up post I wanted to give everyone a little update on me and my family during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
First of all, we are all healthy. Everyone is still employed, although my husband
was told he can't work over-time anymore. He always worked sixty hours a week our entire marriage, and now he is working a normal forty hours a week. It's nice to have him home more, but the loss of money from over time will hurt. We're also not sure how much longer he will even have a job, if this quarantine goes on much longer. That is scary, but I'm grateful he is still working for now as I know so many Americans are not. All we can do is take one day at a time for now so we don't fall into complete panic mode.
My children and grandchildren moved in with us the day before the "15 Days To Slow The Spread". It's been wonderful having them with us for the grandchildren have been a wonderful distraction for me. I would be going out of my mind with worry if they weren't here with me. Jason, my son-in-law is a private school teacher and has created an office for himself in our basement and is teaching his students on-line. Ashley is a private voice teacher and has been teaching her students via the internet as well. My other son Jordan is still in Illinois and still working full time. Although he is very lonely, we all agree he should stay there while he still has a job. But if he loses his job, he will move back home as well.
I know everyone is hopeful that this will end soon and life will return to normal, and I hope so too. But, I really think there is a more sinister plot behind all of this, and life will probably never be the same again. I won't get into all my "conspiracy theories" here as I'm sure many of you are aware of all of them already, but in preparation for the worst, we have been super busy planning and building a vegetable garden. I've always had a massive flower gardens, but other than tomatoes and cucumbers, I never had a vegetable garden. All the extra work of the normal spring garden chores, plus the new vegetable garden, and having more mouths to feed, has left me little time for blogging. I still plan on doing an Easter post, because no matter what, I'm dressing up in my new Easter dress from TJMaxx (that I purchased before this whole nightmare began), and having church with my family in our living room celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ! I feel like the "Who's" in "Whoville" in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". No matter what the world "stole" from me, I'm still going to sing "Christ The Lord Is Risen Today" on Easter Sunday and I hope you do too!
Now, on to the Ageless Style Link Up shall we? The theme this month is "Outfit Challenged". Shugunna challenged us to style an item in our closet that "we liked when we saw it, brought it home, but then never or rarely worn it". I immediately thought of this Ivanka Trump dress that I purchased from Ross two years ago and never wore. I purchased it for my trip to Savannah but never ended up wearing it because I thought it was too uncomfortable to wear walking around Savannah streets all day. It hung in my closet then unused because I always felt it was too "dressy" to wear anywhere, including church. I thought "Maybe I'll wear it to a wedding someday", but I always ended up wearing something else. So, when Shugunna challenged us to style our rarely worn items, I decided now was a good time to wear this dress to church but to try and style it "more casually" so I didn't feel so "dressed up" in it.
To tone down the formality of the dress to make it a little more suitable for our "casual attire" church, I simply added a lightweight long blue cardigan from Stitch Fix. It was also a great way to extend the wear of the dress into other seasons, as it is a sleeveless dress meant for warmer temperatures.
The weight of the cardigan is perfect for these cooler spring temperatures adding just the right of warmth.
I accessorized with a taupe clutch (also from Stitch Fix) and simple, elegant pearl jewelry. I kept the jewelry understated to tone down the fanciness of the dress.
For shoes, I thought it was finally time to show my toes as all the snow melted. I picked these open toed pumps from my closet.
Because it was a cool, windy day the day we took these pictures, I did keep the cardigan on all day. But I also wanted to show you a few pictures of this dress without the cardigan.
Like most Ivanka Trump dresses, it is a very figure flattering dress but also modest. I just love Ivanka Trump's style and I'm in constant awe of how amazing she always looks.
And now, be sure to check out what the other Ageless Style ladies styled, and link up your outfits below.
Have A Great Day! Amy
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