Another Christmas has come and gone and here we are in that weird lost week…
THE STORY
…You know, that week between Christmas and New Years where if you don’t work or you’e off work, you don’t what day it is, what time it is, or what your name is. And if you’re like me, you’ve spent a good part of that week in pj’s or leggings and a sweatshirt.
Do you know what else I’ve been doing? Playing with my new virtual bff, Alexa. Apparently this was the year of millennials gifting their parents with Amazon Dots. My son and his boyfriend bought us two; one for us and one for his sister’s room as well as a few smart plugs to pair lights and whatnot with Alexa. My hairstylist bought one for her parents, and her sister-in-law gifted her in-laws with a couple of them as well. I feel like it’s a millennial conspiracy to see if they can freak out the old people with the latest technology…
I had actually been considering picking one up for months, but I wasn’t sure how useful it would be. Um, omg…I have been totally missing out. Honestly, the first day I spent most of my time telling her to turn my dining room light off and on, and ordering her to tell my bulldog to settle the f- down. I’m easily amused.
Since then I’ve set up my morning flash briefing, played twenty questions with her (and won btw), set cooking timers, chatted and most importantly, I now have music playing all of the time. I just tell her what to play and she plays it…if there’s a song I’m not digging I simply tell her to skip it and she goes to the next one. I’m also constantly googling things, like all of the time. It’s rare that my husband and I aren’t watching a movie and we don’t come up with some random weird question about it. Now I simply say something like, “Alexa, how old is Ving Rhames?” And boom, she tells me. See…I told you, randomly weird questions.
I know that I’ve barely scratched the surface, and I can’t wait to see what else she can do. I love the music part of it so much that I ordered myself an Echo the other day since it has much better speaker quality than the Dot. When it arrives I’ll put it in the living room and move my Dot to the bedroom. Apparently, at least in my case, the millennial conspiracy was unsuccessful because I’m all over this…but that’s not to say I won’t have to call my future son-in-law to help me with the set up…
THE OUTFIT
I’ve always thought that there is no easier way to spruce up an outfit than to add a duster or kimono, and this outfit is another example. The bones of the look are simply a pair of jeans and a graphic tank top, but throw a velvet duster over top and you’ve got something a little more special.
I’ve been lusting over a pair of distressed hem skinny jeans from American Eagle for awhile now, Alas, they aren’t available in my size so I decided to make a pair of my own. I have several pairs of Old Navy Rockstar jeans that I don’t wear anymore, but hadn’t yet gotten rid of. Lucky me, that provided the perfect opportunity to try some of my own distressing. I think that they turned out really well; subtle, but still cool…and since the distressing is only at the ankle I was able to slide ’em in on dress down day at work.
THE TIP
If buying denim already distressed isn’t your thing, perhaps try your hand at distressing them yourself. That way you can make the rips and frays as subtle or dramatic as you’d like and choose the perfect placement for the rips. It’s super easy to do…all you need is a pair of scissors and a vision. If you’re interested in a little tutorial, let me know in the comments!
THE LINK UPS
Check out the weekly link ups I participate in for even more fashion and style ideas…
Duster: Forever 21 (Similar); Tank Top: Target (Similar); Jeans: Old Navy (Similar); Pumps: Rialto (Similar)
