Lookbook: Short Shorts

It's finally getting hot enough to bring out the short shorts! And hot pink nonetheless, I heart these shorts!

What I'm Wearing:
Sweater: J. Crew (now on sale!)
Shorts: J. Crew
Shoes: Coach
Necklace: Forever 21

I liked the balance of the sweater with the short shorts. You gotta find a good balance or else the short shorts might turn into a hoochie mama outfit. Might be cute if your in your teens and early 20's but not so much the message I want to send out at my age. The sweater is a lightweight cotton so it wasn't too hot for the day, plus when you are constantly inside and then outside, the AC indoors can really chill you so I like to be dressed to be comfortable in both climates. I wore this outfit to go shopping with my husband and run some errands so we were in and out a lot that day.

I have owned these wedges for I think 3 years now which makes them one of my oldest pairs of shoes! I rarely keep things for too long but when I do that means I really like them. These are also one of my few pairs of wedges but they are really cute and quite comfy. Wedges are always a good shoe to wear with shorts as it helps elongate the leg but doesn't look quite as sexy as heels can be. I'm not one for Coach handbags (just not my style but I do like them on others) but I do have to say that their shoes are fantastic! Really great quality and great price point as well.

I've seen these fun flowery necklaces on many a fashion blogger and I had to get one of my own! I love the bright colors of this one and how it matched my shorts without being too matchy matchy. The last time that J and I ordered from J. Crew we noticed that you can add a monogram to some of their sweaters and cardigans so I ordered this sweater and he ordered a cardigan with "ISH" on it! Isn't it cute? I love the little touch. Totally worth the $10 for a personalized sweater :)

Thanks so much for your support of our photography business, seriously it means the world to me. The response to the destination wedding package deal has been amazing, and I want to thank Pretty Obsessed and Lucky Me for featuring us on their blogs.

I am a huge advocate of the day after shoot (it comes with our destination wedding package!) because the day after the wedding you are so relaxed, happy and in love which makes for the most beautiful pictures in the world. You will see what I mean when you check out our latest post... Click on over!

Lookbook: Nintendo Party

You saw this outfit previously in my Girlfriends Guide to Gaming party but wanted to do a full lookbook on it as the dress is too cute. I had to give it a post of it's own!

What I'm Wearing:
Dress: Lush
Belt: Nordstrom
Shoes: Christian Dior
Clutch: Felix Rey

I had been shopping around before my sister's bachelorette party to find some cute dresses to take to Vegas (because you can't wear what you already have in your closet, right girls? ;) and this is one of the dresses that I got. I did end up wearing it to Vegas and I thought it would be a cute dress to wear to the Nintendo party as well. Plus, I got to wear my awesome blue shoes which I am IN LOVE with. Everyone that sees me says "How can you walk in those" but trust me when I say they are comfortable! I have worn many many uncomfortable shoes in my life but these Dior's are not one of them.

My favorite new 'do is this front side french braid but I didn't pull it as far back as I did in this lookbook, I just pinned it right below my ear.

Here I am playing with the DSi that Brand About Town sent me. They even added a rhinestone heart for me! Do they know me or what? Loves it!

Oh and the big ol ring is Forever 21 and the bangles are J.Crew. The nail polish is Essie, Bachelorette Bash.

Just a little plug for me and my husband's photography business, as you know we are just starting out and we are still only doing this part time because we both still work full time, but we would love to book a few more clients for the rest of 2009. What's great for clients is since we are not doing this full time, we are able to offer really good prices for what you are getting.

To my Seattle readers: Are you getting married soon or know someone getting married? We have started booking 2010 weddings but realizing that we have slots open for the rest of 2009 so if you or someone you know needs a photographer, shoot me an email: tiffany (at) style-ish(.) com, we are doing a REALLY good deal for anything booked in 2009! (We are mostly booked in August and a few weekends in September but just email me with your date and I'll get back to you.) Even if you are getting married in 2010, just tell me you found me through this post and I'll give you the discounted rate too!

For Destination Weddings: if you are getting married somewhere like the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, Europe, basically anywhere that you would consider a "destination" , Jared and I would love to come along and shoot your wedding for FREE. (Couple is responsible for our travel and accommodations) Email me for the details.

To any of my readers, if you spread the word, and somebody books a wedding through your referral, I’ll send you a lil present! :)

We are even doing family portraits, pet portraits, engagement shoots, trash the dress, etc... whatever you want, we can probably do it! So feel free to contact me with any ideas you may have.

Thanks loves!

Lookbook: Under $100

I have yet to download any pictures from Mexico yet but I took plenty of lookbook pictures before we left so am posting those this week. Once I have my Mexico pictures I will update you all on the trip! :)

Everything in this lookbook is under $100, even the shoes! I know, rare for me right? This little purple jacket is what made the outfit.

When I was frequently traveling to Europe for work, I always stopped in H&M and Zara wherever I was because I didn't have any of those stores near me. I loved the price points and the fun clothes that you could get. When H&M finally opened up in Seattle, it took me about 6 months to actually go there, not because it was far away (there is one in downtown), it just wasn't high on my priority list. I heard about the crazy lines and crowds and to be honest, cheap clothes + crowds+ lines are not my thing. (crowds+lines are not my thing period. This is why I try to take vacations on the off seasons) Maybe also because I could easily access the store now, it just didn't appeal to me the same as when I was shopping at the Barcelona store. Anyway, I have only bought one thing from the Seattle store, which is this little jacket.

Those of you that have been in that store, isn't it totally difficult to navigate and horribly unorganized? I would poke my eyes out if I had to shop there for more than an hour. I just scanned the place, found this jacket and ran out of there. I hate unorganized stores, that's also why I'm a pretty terrible "bargain hunter" I have no patience to sift through racks of clothes to find the one gem. If it's not laying out on a table or prettily hanging on a hanger, I will not even look. I'm a total sucker for placement. I'm one of those people that go to the grocery store and buy everything at the end of the aisle!

Here's the breakdown:

How much do I love Cheap Monday? They always have such great pieces at such great price points. If you are wondering, I always get my Cheap Monday pieces from Ian in downtown Seattle. They have a great selection for both men and women. I'm actually wearing the skirt backwards as it has an exposed zipper, which is a detail that I love but just didn't go with the outfit.

This is how you are supposed to wear it but it works backwards too!

get it here

I wore this outfit on a Saturday to walk the dogs and run some errands, nothing I had to get dressed up for so I didn't bother with the hair or makeup either. Sometimes I love getting dressed up for nothing but this was just not one of those days.

Punam has posted the pictures of my sister's wedding. Check it out! Gorgeous, gorgeous and gorgeous. I even love the crazy one of me dancing. That's how I do it, I don't hold back :)

You wanna Peek?

Hello loves! I'm back from Mexico! I had such a wonderful time and my sister's wedding was just beautiful. I thought it'd be great to start off my return from vacation with a fabulous review and giveaway!

When Kelly over at my so called fabulous life asked me if I wanted to participate in a Peek review I was intrigued. I hadn't heard of it before so I googled it to find out it was a little device that you could get emails and texts on all without the hefty fees of a data plan. Oh and no long term contracts which I think is so great. I hate getting locked in for 2 years with my phone plan. I currently have an iPhone that I love very much, I am always emailing and texting on it so I am pretty biased towards it. But I thought it would be neat to see how I would like a device that took all the bells and whistles away and really just gave me the two things that I do most on my iPhone anyway.

(getpeek.com)

What I liked about it:

• Really easy to type. The little keys on the Peek were perfect and I could type out messages in no time. (way faster than on my iPhone!)
  
• The blue blinking light that alerted me to new e-mails. As well as how it slightly vibrated whenever a new email came through.
  
• It was so easy to set up that I thought I had done something wrong. But nope, all my emails started showing up within minutes of me setting up the account.
  
• Importing contacts was easy.
• It was lightweight and added no heft to my handbag.
• It kept it's charge for quite awhile, I only had to charge it once every other day.
• It syncs right to your email, no having to push a button to download new mails, it will download when you get new mails.
• Emailing was easy and they went through with no problems at all.
• It can hold up to 5 email accounts
• The price for the device is only $59.95 and the price for the regular Peek (email only, no texting) is $19.95! So affordable!
  

What I didn't like about it:

• It doesn't connect with your email accounts so if you read it on your peek, it doesn't know that so it keeps it unread when you check it on your computer.
  
• Texting was iffy at best. I think my husband still has not recieved the text I sent to him 2 weeks ago and I think one of my texts to a friend took like 5 hours to get to her.
  
• You can't separate your accounts. All emails just show up in the same place. I have a few personal accounts but couldn't separate my hotmail from my gmail.
  

All in all, I liked the Peek. It was super easy to use and really easy to check my emails on and type out messages which is really important. I would totally recommend this to somebody who didn't want to pay for a long term data plan. At $14.99/month, the plan is much cheaper than a full data plan which is perfect for people that don't need the extra things that smart phones do. It's actually great for someone like my mom who would be thoroughly confused by a more high tech phone like an iPhone, I'm actually planning on continuing the service and giving it to her to see how she likes it. I have enjoyed my free trial with the Peek and I want to thank Kelly and Julie from Six Apart for letting me participate!

Now for the fun part! I am giving away one brand new Peek Pronto with one month of free service! Since this is such an awesome giveaway, I really would like to give this to one of my loyal readers so here are the ways to win:

• You must be a follower: Through blogger, a RSS reader, facebook, twitter etc...
  
• Leave a comment on this post on how you follow me. If you follow me in several ways (twitter + blogger, blogger + facebook, etc...) let me know and I'll count each one as an extra entry.
  
• If you tweet this on twitter you will get an additional entry (leave a comment here with the tweet)
• If you fan style.ish on facebook you will get another entry! (again, let me know here if you do so I can track the entries easily)
  
• If you post this on your blog will get another entry. You can copy/paste that picture above if you want to. (leave a comment here linking to your post or blog if you have it on your sidebar.)
• So sorry, but this contest is open to US residents 18 and over only
• I will close the comments on July 17th at 5:00PM
• Winner will be chosen by random draw and posted on this post within the next few days.
• Winner must email me back within two days or else a new winner will be chosen.

Good Luck! If you haven't yet, go check out my so called fabulous life, Femme Rationale and Through the Looking Glass for their reviews as well. They've already had their giveaways so hopefully if you didn't win one of theirs, maybe you'll win mine!

Makeup Tutorial: Brown Eyes

Thanks for all the comments on my last tutorial and thank you for the requests to see more! I am no makeup expert but try to do what I can do so I am happy when my tips help any of you.

I don't know why I have such trouble photographing my makeup but hopefully these pictures will suffice. I was going for a dark brown eye and natural for the rest of the face.

The makeup used for this look:

Clockwise from top:

• Smashbox eyeshadow palette in Pro
  
• Ardell false lashes #105
• Bare Escentuals blush
  
• L'oreal Infallible eye liner
  
• L'oreal Telescopic liquid eye liner
• various brushes
• Bourgeous lipglooss in #1
  
• MAC shadestick in Shimmer Sand

The Process:

• Apply MAC shadestick all over the lid. I like to apply it all over until the spot where I want the shadow to stop at so just slightly above my crease.
  
• Use brush #1 and eyeshadow #1 and apply over the shadestick, starting from the middle of the lid to the outer corner.
  
• Dip the brush back into the shadow and then apply color heavily just to the outer corner, think of it as the outer triangle of your eyelid.
  
• Use brush #2 and eyeshadow #2 and start blending with that shade from the middle of the lid to the inner corner. You will have a bit of a gradient coloring.
• Using the same brush, flip it over on the other side and apply the lightest shade all over the top of the eye lid to blend the color and then at the brow bone to add shimmer.
• Apply blush using brush #4 at the apple of your cheeks sweeping up
• Apply false lashes, I'm wearing Ardell #105.
  
• To apply lashes: put a very thin line of glue on the strip. Wait for about 5 seconds so that the glue can become tacky.
• Hold lash up to your eyelid to check placement. Place the lash on the inside corner near your lash line (but not on your actual eyelashes) first and then slowly pull the lash down to the outer corner. Hold in place for a few seconds to stay in place.
• Using brush #5 apply the liquid liner #5 to the brush for easier control. Line very lightly over the false lash line to cover it.
  
• Use the pencil liner, apply to the bottom of your eye lining until about 3/4 of your eye. Smudge, smudge, smudge.
• At the inner bottom corner where you stopped the liner, apply eyeshadow #2 for a bit of a shimmer and to brighten your eyes. Smudge some more.
• Apply golden/nude lipgloss

You can reference yesterday's lookbook to see how it looks out in the sun. I always try to be creative with my makeup but also try to keep it natural since my work place isn't the best place to experiment with makeup. Just have fun with it and play around with mixing shadow colors. I love eyeshadow palettes for that very reason!

Apologies for the lack of comments on your blogs and slow response to emails the past week, I have been super busy preparing for my sister's wedding (as you read this I am on my flight to the Riveria Maya, where it is taking place) which means I also didn't have time to schedule posts. See you all when I get back next week, can't wait to get updated on your blogs! Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe fourth of July!

Awesome giveaway when I return! Check out these fabulous ladies for a "sneak peek" of what it will be :)

P.S. Feel free to add me on facebook and/or become a fan of style.ish on facebook! I really would like to use facebook to get to know my readers as I know that a lot of people do not have blogs or do not want to comment, which is totally fine but I would love to get to know some of you. I have already "met" so many readers through facebook and I think it's so great! Thank you all who have added me and big kisses to our style.ish "fans"!

**go check out Punam Bean's blog (yes, my wedding photographer too!) for my sister and her fiance's courthouse ceremony pictures. They are truly beautiful! I have had a lot of people ask but no, Jared and I are not shooting her wedding. I think being her Maid of Honor is enough work for me. ;) haha, just kidding. She really just wanted us to be guests and relax so expect to see some amazing goodness from Punam when we get back. And if you haven't checked out my wedding pictures yet, click here and here!

Lookbook: Purple Tones

I don't tend to do a lot of tones together. I like to wear contrasting colors more often, however when I paired this purple dress with this pink-purpley cardigan, I really liked it and then to add another tone, I paired it with the reddish shoes to bring out the pink in the cardigan.

What I'm Wearing:
Cardi: Michael Stars
Dress: Forever 21
Shoes: Christian Dior
Belt: Nordstrom

As always, in love with the belt. Sometimes it's fun to add belts to things that don't really need belts. I've never seen a belt as something to hold up my pants. I see it as an accessory that adds to the outfit. With the empire waist of this dress the belt adds a nice touch to accent the higher waist. I did my hair in a side french twist and just pinned the end of the braid at the nape of my neck to hold it in place and keep the hair out of my face. My advice to do this hairstyle is to curl your hair first so that you hair has a bit of texture to hold the braid in place.

I just learned this term "FOTD" which means Face of The Day. So here is my FOTD! Come back tomorrow for the tutorial.

Guest Post: PB Teen - not just for teens

Thanks everyone for all your feedback about Kelley's last interior design post. She's back for another great post!
Please make sure to read her first one as well if you haven't yet.

Once we enter the world of adulthood, magazines and catalogs geared towards teens and tweens don’t fit our lifestyles anymore. Well, maybe for some of you they do. I’m not judging, But let’s discuss the fact that you’re 30 years old and still subscribing to Teen Beat later. Right now I want to talk about Pottery Barn Teen, better known as PB Teen (because hey, in a generation of people who abbreviate everything, why not abbreviate Pottery Barn, too?).

The only reason I’m still up on it is because I used to design tons of teen-themed rooms for model homes, and it quickly became one of my favorite go-to sources for inspiration. The great thing about PB Teen is that it realizes that teens are living in small spaces. They don’t have houses, or even apartments – they have bedrooms under their parents’ roof, or dorm rooms shared with roommates. They don’t have their own kitchens or dining rooms, they have a bedroom which needs to be all encompassing. And while their marketing genius is geared towards the 18 and unders, I started to wonder – can a 30 year old use this stuff to?

PB Teen paper hatboxes, perfect for storing checkbooks, hair ties, undergarments, etc.!

Keep in mind, if I were still a single gal I would be using a lot more of this in our place, but Paul’s not really big on large scale pink polka dots or anything pastel, floral, or just downright girly, and PB Teen doesn’t offer a lot in the way of neutral or unisex items (I’m assuming that’s because they’re correctly assuming that the 18 and unders aren’t cohabitating with significant others yet!), so some of these may be hard to convince your hubby to embrace. But little pieces here and there won’t kill him. Here are some of my faves:

PB Teen Circolo nesting tables
Love the green ones!

PB Teen Nouveau floral rug
Black and white is always classic. This rug would be super cute with the Circolo tables, too!

PB Teen’s Awning stripe drapes create and airy, simple feel. Love the soft colors and thick stripes!

PB Teen Chelsea style tile – great to use in your kitchen for grocery lists, recipes, invitations….

PB Teen Painted dot bath towels. I can’t get over their cuteness!

Alright, I couldn’t decide if I loved this or hated it at first. Personally, I might have selected a different shade (like a drum shade), but I love the base. So cute on a dining room buffet table! PB Teen teacup lamp

Interested in reading my articles? You can find them on here, on Examiner.com! You can also follow me on Twitter @KelleyStratton