Fairytale Friday: Tiana

Since this week's princess had THREE movie outfits, it was a little more difficult to put the outfits together but never fear! The Fairytale Friday is here!

Dress- Modcloth | Necklace- Shopbop | Hat- Swell | Lipcolor- Bobbi Brown

I love the era Tiana is placed in for clothing. It's all so fun! Her down-to-earth nature kept her in a fairly simple outfit, though, so this is just a slightly updated no-fuss kind of look.

Dress- Dorothy Perkins | Shoes- Chinese Laundry | Earrings- Tarina Tarantino | Lipstick- Smashbox

A royal party deserves jewels and glamor, right?! Exactly. That's what I thought.

Necklace- Max and Chloe | Shoes- Tory Burch | Lipstain- Tarte | Dress- Modcloth

Lastly, I got something of a fairy vibe from her green dress. I'm not sure why. I tried not to make it too Tinkerbell-esque, and I think the shoes are what keep it from looking that way. They're era appropriate and look so good next to the warm pearls of the necklace.

Stay tuned for next week's Fairytale Friday post! We're moving toward most of the modern princesses now, so feel free to include which you'd like to see next :)

Fairytale Friday: Jasmine

Top- Alice + Carol | Pants- Sass and Bide | Shoes- Dolce Vita | Necklace- New Look

Since Jasmine only wearings one outfit through her movie, there is only one inspiration outfit this week. I was getting a "lunch date in Beverly Hills" vibe after I found the mint top, and the outfit practically built itself from there! I do think this might be one of my favorites from the series! Stay tuned next week for a new look. Which should I do next...Mulan or Pocahontas? Leave a comment and let me know!

Chubby Bunny CHALLENGE

A few days ago my little sister and I filmed this oh-so-attractive challenge video over on my YouTube channel. It's at least good for a chuckle I hope!

Have you tried the Chubby Bunny challenge? How far did you get?! Feel free to subscribe to my channel and like this video. It helps quite a bit more than people realize just to give a thumbs up :)

Fairytale...Friday?: Belle

Ok, children, I realize it is a Tuesday. However, in an effort to pretend that a new week isn't underway  and that I don't have grown up responsibilities, I'm posting last week's "Fairytale Friday" today. 

And that is that.

This week marks the last of what I consider to be the "classic" Disney princesses. That's not to diminish the princesses in the coming weeks, but Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle are the five that started the "princess franchise"...plus Belle happens to be my favorite :)

Dress and crop top - Newlook | Loafers - Valentino | Bag - Dooney and Burke | Earrings - Tory Burch | Bow- American Apparel | Lips - Nars "Isola Bella"

The point of these outfits is to make a wearable version of the princesses, and with pinafore dresses being "in" at the moment, it was just too perfect for Belle in her peasant outfit. Really, just about everything has a reason in this outfit. Her bag was originally going to be a tote, but I thought "you can't carry very many books without your arm falling off in a tote bag!"; Hence, the backpack. Her lipstick is a simple no-fuss peachy nude as Belle isn't the type to fuss with much, and her shoes are low-heel, easy slip-ons for the very same.

Dress - Ted Baker | Shoes - Dorothy Perkins | Earrings - Bloomingdales | Nail Polish - Chanel

I'm not sure which I love more: the butter yellow midi dress or the glitter sparkle heels. Either way, I had to include them. And wouldn't you know that it is ridiculously difficult to find a rose statement necklace? I looked for at least two hours trying to find one, but alas, I suppose it wasn't meant to be. 

Now, I can't make any promises, but I'm going to be needing quite a bit of distraction this week so it is more than a possibility that there will be a Fairytale Friday post ACTUALLY on Friday this week. Someone call the newspaper! Hopefully I'll be speaking to you then :)

Blurred Lines

Though I said I would never do it, I had to cave after I saw these during a retail therapy session. Thanks right...wedge sneakers. These aren't too tall on my ankle, they don't have any god-awful velcro, and they don't make me TOO tall. Plus they had silver studs on the side; how could I say no?! I snatched them up from Macy's and they're by a Macy's exclusive brand by Madona. This is the first time I've really taken notice of "Material Girl", but I wouldn't hesitate to look into the brand the next time I'm in the store. Have you worn any "Material Girl" items?

 I would have been absolutely in love with this photo had the sun not been in my eyes the entire time we were trying to get these done. Darn you, Mother Nature!

 Ignore my terribly undone nails please!

Top- Old Navy

Shorts- Target

Watch, Bracelet, and Necklace- Thrifted

Ring- H&M

Wedge Sneakers- Macy's

Lipstick- MAC "Ruby Woo"

I just felt so casually put together yet cool with my trouser shorts, basic t, and sneakers. It's definitely a new direction for me, but I have to say that I like it. Have you ever gone a new direction with your style that you didn't expect? Did you end up loving it, or was it a complete disaster?

The Duckling Reviews...MAC Ruby Woo

After an insanely stressful last couple of weeks, a trip to the mall on Monday resulted in a very happy Katie...but a not so happy Katie's wallet. Two of the items purchased (you'll see the other in the coming weeks) came from the ever tempting MAC counter. I only have a cheap $4 red lipstick in my collection and I thought it was definitely time to upgrade. The result? "Cherry" lipliner and "Ruby Woo" lipstick.

In my honest opinion, I'm not sure if I'm sold on it or not. I spent about 10 minutes deliberating between Ruby Woo and Russian Red standing at the counter, and went with Ruby Woo on the recommendation of the counter girl.

Formula-wise, it's exactly what I expected. I own one other matte lipstick from MAC ("Snob") and just as drying. Ruby Woo tended to pull as I applied straight to my lips, but with chapstick and lip liner underneath it went on much smoother. 

Color-wise, this is a classic vintage red, and I think it would classify as having blue-undertones? It looks oh-so vibrant against my pale skin, and that could have been my mistake. The girl at the counter was a very dark-skinned African-American. With Russian Red (a slightly darker more "blood-brick" red) as my other option, I'm questioning if it would have been the better choice.

What do you think?

(Left photo in the shade, right photo in the sun)

Would a slightly darker red have been more day-time wearable? Would it have made my teeth look yellow? Am I just being completely insane at this point in my analysis of lipstick? Weigh in, I need to know!

Put Me in the Zoo + OOTD

Saturday proved to be a true family day: the zoo, movies, and ice cream treat afterward! The animals were in full swing early in the morning, despite the heat. I suppose that's a positive of having an insomniac mother. Early morning adventures are always in the works. By noon we were in the movie theater watching "The Heat". It wasn't QUITE as funny as I had hoped, but I've been a difficult comedy audience lately. It takes more than a slap-stick joke to get a chuckle out of me anymore. Hopefully my mood will lighten as time goes on...

This gorilla was quite a show himself, though. He stole lettuce from the other three, sat on it, and then proceeded to eat his banana! 

 This little guy was the cutest thing we saw all day. Don't you just want to cuddle him!?

 At our zoo there are a few peacocks roaming freely and we turned a corner to this guy spreading his feathers into this absolutely beautiful display.

 The heat got to this couple all too soon. They were panting and lounging in true cat fashion by the time we made our way over to them. 

Dress: Nordstrom

Headscarf: Thrifted
Earrings: Forever21

Sandals: Target

This was just a fun snap from the day. That's my younger sister, Hannah, and who wouldn't want to climb on a giant bronze gorilla? Exactly.

Worst Mommy Ever

I may or may not be the worst blogger ever. What kind of blog-mommy forgets her darling little baby's first birthday? 

This girl. That's who.

June 27th marked the one year point of The Style Duckling, and it's been every emotion imaginable. I could go into a long sappy post, dragging on about how "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" (throwing in a bit of literary sophistication), but instead I would rather just enjoy photos of birthday cats. This summer is absolutely flying by thanks to a myriad of events (mostly of the unplanned variety) and today has been a day of hanging out with the family, doing family type activities, you know the drill. I'll have a post on all of that later. Until that time, feel free to eat some cake for the blog and me as we still have to keep our trim summer figure.

(And by that I mean I need to keep small enough to fool you into thinking I look good in OOTD posts)

Don't Panic, Help Is Here!

As the last day that I will be able to reach all of you via Google Reader (cue the tears), I thought it appropriate to leave you all with just a small reminder of how else to get ahold of my posts and keep up to date!

1. Bloglovin'

This is my personal favorite and the one that I find to be the simplest. All it takes it a quick sign-up and viola! You have a whole new page filled with just what blogs you choose to follow. You'll be updated on the homepage of who has updated since you last checked, be able to mark posts and entire blogs as read so posts don't repeatedly show up, and even mark certains posts as your favorites if you want to come back to them for future reference.

2. Bookmarking

Though you won't be able to receive notifications when I update, a simple bookmark with keep my little blog right at your finger tips. In most browsers there is a tab at the top of your screen marked "Bookmarks" and there will be a "Bookmark this page" option. Enter whatever little reminder you'd like and go along your merry way!

3. Facebook/Twitter

Links located in the righthand sidebar

I always provide a link on The Style Duckling Facebook page and send out a tweet as soon as a post in finished and posted. Liking the page will ensure that my posts are conveniently located in your Newsfeed and followed @StyleDuckling on Twitter will keep you updated with a simple 140 character tweet. You can even set to have updates sent to your phone via the Twitter app whenever a new tweet is sent out. Perfect, no? That's what I thought.

So never fear, my little ducklings, though an era of Google reading is drawing to a close, all is not lost. There are still plenty of ways to keep informed. Let me know your favorite and I hope to see you soon!

PS- I'm always looking for people to follow on Twitter! If you do follow me, make sure to send me a tweet and I'll follow you back :)