Here’s a not very juicy secret about me: I pick out my outfits ahead of time. Well, I do about 90% of the time, anyway. It really is a very efficient way to go about getting dressed, especially for work, if you ask me. Which you didn’t – unsolicited advice alert. Ahem. Getting back to the issue at hand, I sometimes pick my outfits so far in advance (weeks) that by the time I have to actually wear them, I’m no longer particularly enthused by my previous selections. So, from time to time, I just wing it.

On this particular morning, I decided that I HAD to wear this chartreuse blouse I recently rescued from the downstairs overflow closet/purgatory. (I’ve decided that maybe I don’t hate ruffles after all. For now.) I also decided that I HAD to wear my new J. Crew Factory leopard print d’orsay flats that I scored for $25. So I tried to come up with an outfit built around those two pieces.

When pressed for time, keep it simple. Actually, that’s probably a good mantra for all occasions, but especially if you’re running late/feeling stressed/unsure about what to wear. Black and tan have been serving me well recently, so they seemed like a good bet. And, voila, outfit complete!

I was very gung-ho, “rah-rah, go me with my awesome print mixing skills” until I saw the photos of this outfit and realized I had managed to pair stripes with stripes. *insert deflating balloon noise here* Well … at least my hat looks spiffy.

Speaking of which, I have struggled with hats a lot in the past, so finding this Aritzia fedora was a small victory. I love the look of hats, but have always felt silly wearing them, and had a hard time finding one that looked “right” on my (slightly) huge noggin. One of my stylish Vancouver friends sported this hat for brunch one day, and I immediately and shamelessly asked her if I could try it on. She graciously agreed, and I fell in love with the darn thing. Luckily, Aritzia sells this hat every season (my friend’s hat was a few years old) so I ran to the nearest store and picked up my very own. And hat and I lived happily ever after. The end.