The Difference a Style Board Makes

Welcome to this week’s Embracing Beauty Link Up! Our first one was so much fun, we’re totally doing this again! I loved seeing all your creative and intentional ways to embrace beauty and style with you (and your kids’!) wardrobes!

This week’s link up will again stay open for two weeks, so share away! Here’s mine:

The difference a Style Board makes.

I talk a lot in my book about how important it is to learn to recognize styles and colors that you love to wear–it makes shopping and dressing faster and way more fun. I only learned to do this within the last two years, though, so I am still in process. I can’t go out and buy an entirely new wardrobe, but have been gradually updating my closet with my new and improved look with a few pieces each new season.

Being pregnant has given me added opportunity (read: valid excuse!) to purchase even more flexible fashion pieces for my wardrobe, and I’m doing pretty good with my vow to ‘rebel against frump in pregnancy’! In fact, I have never had such success during my thrift shopping adventures. I believe my increased success rate is directly related to having an ever-clearer vision of what my personal style truly is.  You know I love Pinterest for building a fashion pin board, but my latest love is Polyvore. At Polyvore I can go ‘virtual shopping’, allowing me to paste individual articles of clothing and jewelry onto a blank canvas so I can create a hypothetical outfit or even a whole wardrobe. Rather than simply making me discontent that I can’t actually afford half the things that catch my eye, my Polyvore style board instead has served to be like a visual shopping list, giving me clear direction on my shopping trips.

Here’s a Style board I made with my dream list of clothing and accessories for me and my belly this summer:

Very obvious is my favorite color scheme of Fuschia and Navy Blue with grey, silver, black, and white accents. This color combo makes me sooo happy, and when I stick with it, everything in my closet goes together. You can also see my love for maxi style dresses and skirts, and for a pop of color with accessories.

With that in mind, check out the stuff I’ve picked up at thrift stores or pulled from my closet that matches what’s in the style board….

Pretty cool, huh? I’m especially pleased with the purple striped shirt which is the exact color (but even cuter styling!) than the one on my style board. Not shown are two more maxi skirts I’ve found, as well as my favorite purple and pink layering tanks, which seem to be always in the wash. 😉

And here’s how I’ve been styling my new clothes with my (now 16 week!) baby bump…

Have I mentioned how much I love grey and purple and black? This is undeniable proof. 😉

And here’s one more, taken at an Award Ceremony at which Mr. Holden received recognition for his 15 years of contribution to the Adaptive Ski Program (yes, I am very, very proud of my man!).

That purple, beaded tank is my absolute favorite right now and cost me $3–found in the plus sized section!

Oh, and can I tell you about my hair? No, that’s for another post. But oh, my, will you believe that ‘do’ required no curling iron, no hair product, and took all of 5 minutes? Next time, Dahling!

OK, now it’s your turn! Show me what beauty you’ve embraced this month! Make me smile, make me gasp! Make me a little jealous, even! I forgive you! It’s all good inspiration! 😉

You remember the rules, right?

1. Link up to your specific blog post (not just your blog home page)
2. Link up to adornment-related posts, only. That recipe you created or home-decor project you made is awesome sauce, but this linky is for beauty in the area of personal style only–thanks!
3. Link back to me in your post, so your readers can find this community of women embracing beauty! {You can use the graphic below if you like}
4. Visit as least one other linkee (person who links up!) and leave a comment to help them celebrate!

Ready, set, Go!