Textures

Coat: Thrifted, cute here, here and here; Leggings: TJ Maxx, similar here and here; Turtleneck: Old, similar here; Boots: Target, similar here, here, and here; Necklace: Charlotte Russe, similar here, LOVE this

Happy Thursday! Today’s post is all about textures! I love the mixing of different textures with my coat, leggings, and even my hair! When you’re styling an all black look with a statement piece, having one of your black pieces have a different texture or pattern can add lots of interest to your outfit! If I was just wearing plain old black leggings, this outfit wouldn’t be as exciting! I’ve been living in these leggings lately if you haven’t noticed on Instagram (if you’re not following ummm yah you should @mox_ie 😛 ). They go with almost anything and can be worn with a casual or dressy outfit depending on your mood. You all should have a pair of black leather leggings in your repertoire for surrrrre. OH, and this necklace. It’s been in heavy rotation ever since I got it months ago so you should probably get yourself one too. Perfect compliment to everything from your basic tee to your night out dress.

Blogging this last almost year (eek!) has been such an incredible experience. I’ve learned things about myself. Things I’m scared of. Things I’m good at. Things I need to work on. I’ve become more comfortable in my own skin and learned to love my body and who God made me to be even more. I’ve become more adventurous with what I wear and my outfit pairings. I’ve learned to appreciate the art of a good selfie. 😛 (Although I like to keep them few and far between unless I’m showing off a hairstyle or my new fave lip color.) I’ve found a place to share who I am, the good and bad, so that when you read, you know you’re not the only one. I’ve realized how much I love parenthesis (seriously, look at this post and see how many there are 😛 ). I’ve had an outlet for my love of writing, even if it’s just a quick blog post. I’ve learned to appreciate the beautiful place I live. (When you are constantly scouting out good places to take photos, you would be surprised to find how many are within less than a mile of your home!) But perhaps my FAVORITE part of blogging has been the relationships I’ve developed. Some of them, yes, are only Instagram-based, and yes my husband thinks I’m cray when I talk about so-and-so who, no I don’t ACTUALLY know, but c’mon I practically do when I see their photo every day and visit their blogs and read about their life. But there have been a few that I have been lucky enough to meet, and others still that I hope to meet some day. Yesterday I got to meet up with Paige, a blogger I had been following for a while, who just moved out here from Utah. I had no idea we would ever even get to meet one day. And now, after yesterday, it’s like we just became bff’s! We met up for crepes at Cafe Crepe in Santa Monica and strolled along Third Street promenade and took way too many photos together trying to get the “right” one. It’s crazy how you can meet someone and just like that, you’re friends. Our future dates will probably consist of more photos, duhhhh. And maybe a beach run! And now next week, I’m heading to visit Alena in Colorado! We met via Instagram almost a year ago and had our first blind meeting when she came to visit me in October! And now that we really know each other, we’ve got another adventure planned! It’s been so so so fun to meet all of these people! I seriously wish I could just have one big giant girls trip (Cancun, anyone?) with all these lovely ladies that I’ve met or wish to meet! It wouldn’t be the same without them! So here’s to you, ladies, for making this blogging journey so much fun! Love you all!

xoxox,

Christine