Sorry, I hope you guys are not sick of this Equipment blouse yet – I seem to be wearing it a lot this month. But, look! The pants are new! I’ve been stalking the Banana Republic website on the lookout for Sloan pants on sale. I was drawn to this pair because (a) they were under $70; and (b) the check print almost looks grey from a distance. I figured that would make them more versatile. I think I was  … right. Right?

I don’t normally buy pants online – hello, asking for trouble, my name is Adina! – but I recently tried on the same pair (in a different colour) in store, and knew exactly what size to get and what to expect fit-wise. These pants seem a little more prone to wrinkling than I remember from my old black pair, but it may be simply of function of the colour/print making the wrinkles more visible. Regardless, it’s not quite a deal-breaker for me.

Here’s a close-up of the print mixing, because this blog can’t have enough upside down shots of my lower half, I guess:

So, this was a pretty ballsy colour combo, but I always tend to forget just how bright this J. Crew coat is. You know what else was really bright? The sun. We woke up to a half foot of fresh snow that morning, but it turned into a sunny (and relatively warm) day by the afternoon – and the reflection off all that snow was blinding.

Naturally, I deployed my blogger tactics:

But, really, I was squinting up a storm. I’m sure you guys can handle a beady stare, though. Here it comes:

On second thought, maybe I should stick to staring over my shoulder at the terribly interesting thing not actually happening over there.

Last week, it seemed like it was Valentine’s Day every day. All over my IG feed and Bloglovin, peeps were dressing and prepping and decorating seemingly forever. Now, it may be the fact that I was really not in the right frame of mind (the kids have been sick a lot lately, and I’m in the middle of a extra major file), but I’ve never felt more out of sync with the Zeitgeist, so to speak. Am I the only person who doesn’t get the big deal about Valentine’s Day? I don’t even mean in a but-what-about-the-poor-singletons way. (Although I feel your pain, singleton friends. I managed to be single for Valentine’s Day for the first 26 years of my life.) But if you take away the consumerist aspect – if you’re too damn busy to bother with candy, and flowers, and dinners, at that particular time – what’s left of the whole production? /rhetorical question

Anyway, this is all by way of unnecessarily long introduction to the explanation of my outfit. I wore absolutely nothing thematic last week at work. Forget pink; not even a little bit of red. Part of it had to do with my general apathy about VD (see above), and part of it had to do with work. I don’t know how to say this without sounding obnoxious, but sometimes working in a professional capacity in a fairly conservative office is not conducive to fashion blogging gimmicks, like thematic outfits. It’s just too … cutesy. I think a subtle nod – a red accessory for VD, a bit of plaid for Christmas – is probably OK, but I wouldn’t go any further … if I were to go there at all. I don’t know, maybe I’m over-thinking it.

Back to the outfit. As much as I’m sticking to subdued colours and simple outfits lately, I’m really enjoying subtle print mixing (as a way to add a bit of interest) and playing with the little details …

… that probably no one but me notices. I am easily amused.