No Pants November: I Rock a Lot of Polka Dots

Hello friends! Welcome to my first outfit post! Not only do I adore this colorful little combo, but there’s a little more behind the sudden fashion blogging as well:

Alright so I’m sure you’ve heard of the infamous no-shave November. As if we needed more of an excuse than the existence of sweatpants to be lazy, it’s like this declaration by society that being lazy as fall chills down is totally a-okay. In fact, it’s completely encouraged! That being said though, I don’t tend to do things the lazy (and honestly, smarter) way. For the past four years, me and a friend or two have remixed this month of laziness to turn it into a bit of a challenge! So now I give you…

No Pants November!

Basically, I try to go the whole month without wearing jeans or sweatpants, instead styling dresses, skirts, and shorts! For me, this is a super fun way to resist the urge to crawl under fuzzy blankets the whole month and not come out. Plus, layering is one of my absolute favorite styling techniques! And you guys finally get to see this fashion nonsense I’ve been planning to do! (That is if I don’t get too cold and give up. Although it’s definitely still between 65 and 85 degrees every day here right now.)

My hope is to put up a couple of OOTD posts on Insta every week, and give you a recap of my no-pants November favorites at the end! If you care to join me, just use #nopantsNovember and #WonderlandCheshireStyle on any Instagram posts! (Oh and I don’t do no-shave and no-pants at the same time. I don’t think you would want that…)

I guess the only “rules” I can think of is that leggings don’t count as pants, but I challenge myself by only wearing them under tunics or dresses as some extra warmth. (Oversize t-shirts with leggings really aren’t my jam anyway.) As I said, I also totally permit myself to wear shorts, and sometimes layer those with fun tights!!

And no, you can’t use the excuse that everyone will think you are weird for dressing up. The common uniform here at A&M is definitely Nike shorts and t-shirts and I’m one of the few that wears dresses for more than interviews and job fairs. But I get excited about lookin’ cute! You should be able to express your personal style however you want to! Even if you don’t do no pants, I at least challenge you to find some fun way to express yourself with your clothes! Being trapped by popular style kinda stinks. You do you, babe.

I call this one "OMG, it's a tree!" On an unrelated note, I rock at outfit photos. *sarcasm implied*

And if your personal style happens to be allllll the dresses (I can’t be the only one!) then hop on the band wagon and break away from a month of sweatpants and blue jeans!

So, do I have any takers?

Stay lovely,

Update: Apparently this is already a thing on the internet! So I won't be the only cold and insane one!

DIY Lighted Fall Flower Garland

I really love fall colors, but as with most other seasonal things in Texas, we don’t really get them naturally here! But no worries—that just means I’ve gotta bring them in myself! It all started with some cute little pumpkins, and now I am slowly inundating the house with all the autumnal things (and wearing fall clothes until about 10 am when the sun comes up and it gets too hot). This cute string light garland is just another way that I am welcoming the fall season even though it hasn’t really presented itself yet. Plus they are oh-so-pretty warming up the house in the evenings when it starts to gets dark!

You will need:

Strand of LED* mini lights (I used a strand of 50 warm white bulbs on white wire)

Fake flowers in fall colors

Hot glue gun

Masking tape or white electrical tape

*Make sure you use LED bulbs. They are much cooler, which is a big deal, especially around potentially flammable things like masking tape and faux flowers. Don’t start fires, guys. (Unless you’re making me s’mores.)

Before beginning, cut the plastic stems of the flowers short, leaving about 2 inches remaining. Remove the green piece from underneath the petals and prevent them from sliding down the stem with a ring of hot glue, similar to the procedure used in my giant flower crown tutorial. As in that tutorial as well, I used small dabs of hot glue to adhere some each flower’s individual petals together and bolster their overall shapes.

Then all you have to do is position a flower with the stem facing the bulb of a light and secure with a small piece of tape as seen above. Because I only had 23 flowers and 50 bulbs, I did this on every other light, starting from the third bulb on each end.

Once you are done, hang your lights up! This strand started under the fireplace mantle, then moved to make an arch over the doorway when it got too crowded. I used a couple command hooks of different sizes to hang it in place, and plugged them into the nearby outlet with a short, matching white extension cord.

I love how I created a little archway of fall loveliness as we transition into the dining room and kitchen. Not only do I feel like I’m traipsing through some fairy-inhabited woods, but these lights also create such a cozy and warm atmosphere when paired with the plain strand that now occupies the under-the-mantle space.

This little process could be adapted for any season (which I totally plan to do) and could be customized however you like! Use more flowers, or even add a fake green leaf vine coiled around a green-wired light strand to give a more natural appearance! (If you do use green-wired string lights, dark green electrical tape or maybe even floral tape would work well to secure the flowers, and the green plastic piece we removed at the beginning could be left on!)  Whatever you do though, make sure you take a moment to put on a flower crown and walk under your lighted garland into your own fairyland, even if you go there just to make some pancakes or other nonsense!

How are you inviting autumn into your home, regardless of the weather?

Stay lovely,

Monday in Wonderland: Hugs

Download here

All this #MondayinWonderland really says is that Corin is a total cheeseball. But I am totally okay with that.

For reals though, hugs are great. As my bestie quotes from Pushing Daisies: "A hug is like an emotional Heimlich. Someone puts their arms around you and they give you a squeeze and all your fear and anxiety come shooting out of your mouth in a big wet wad and you can breathe again." 

And so for some reason, I'm thinking of that today, and the cold weather, and the copious amounts of blankets i want to be cuddled under right this second, and this is how my brain put all that nonsense together.

Now go hug someone you love. (Not in a creeper way. Just enough of a squeeze so that you can breathe again. :P) I promise you'll feel better!

Happy November <3

Stay lovely,