surviving the cold with SOREL boots

 I've lived in the Midwest for almost my entire life, so I know a thing or two about surviving the winters here. You always need to be prepared to wake up to a blizzard. If you want to get to work on time, you have to be up shoveling more than an hour before you want to leave for work. And most importantly, you need the right boots to keep your feet dry as you sludge through whatever weather is being thrown your way. 

Because I've been stubborn about footwear in the winter in the past, I've spent many winter mornings with cold and wet feet. No longer now, thanks to SOREL. I've admired their brand of boots for years, and now I'm kicking myself for not buying a pair years ago. I was given the opportunity to pick out a pair of their boots to try out - after much deliberation I ended up choosing the SOREL Slimboot because of the modern take on a classic style. I love that the underside is made for walking on slush and ice, but the top looks sleek and rich. SOREL offers a wide selection of boots, from the iconic styles like the 1964 Premium LTR boot, to the more modern Toronto Wedge bootie. If you are searching for your next pair of winter boots, I would recommend these to anyone - the quality is superior to any winter boots I've ever owned, plus it doesn't hurt they're beautiful to boot (har har).

If you're already a proud owner of SOREL boots, you can share your back to campus look with #SORELstyleContest on Instagram or Twitter and you could win a trip to New York for teenVOGUE’s Fashion University, or one of ten $250 shopping sprees and SOREL boots.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by SOREL through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about SOREL, all opinions are my own.

home for the holidays

I'm finally home! The semester wrapped up on Thursday, and I spent Friday getting some of my life in order (okay, mostly just cleaning and Christmas shopping), and then headed back to Wisconsin on Saturday. I have heaps of thoughts on going through and finishing my first semester of medical school, but that's for a future post!

For now, I'm just glad to be home, have someone else make my meals, celebrate Christmas with my family, and then fly down to Alabama for a few days on the beach. I'm already missing my friends back at school terribly but I'm trying to appreciate the short amount of time my family and I have together.

Speaking of holidays, when I was asked by Pantene to talk about holiday hair, I was unsure what exactly to show you guys. My hair is pretty lifeless on it's own, and I tend to just go with straight hair pinned half back most days. I've been using Pantene products for years and years, so I was excited to test drive a few more of their new products. Since I received a whole box full of Pantene products (including their Triple Action Volume Mousse, Extra Strong Shaping Hairspray, and their KeraGloss Repair Mist, which I'm really excited about), I decided that I'd show you how I make my straight hair have a little life twisted into it. It's super simple, takes only a few key products, and will hopefully save you time in the morning!

Today is all about just spending time playing in the snow with my puppies, but tomorrow I'll have a little post about what products I used and how you can win a box for yourself!

Vest: Gap [LOVE this plaid version]

Cardigan: J.Crew, thrifted

Scarf: H&M

Pants: Gap [exact]

Boots: Hunter [exact]

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

blogging errday

This month I will be participating (or at least trying to participate) in Jenni's Blog Every Day in May. I usually don't know really what to write about anyway, and talking about what kind of shoes I would like to buy is kind of boring I'm sure, so it'll be a good opportunity to have a topic to talk about every day. Today's topic is the story of our life in 250 words or less, so buckle up kids. Here's what's gone down in the last 25 years:

I was born in Germany, and because the USA seemed a lot more glamorous to my recently MD-ed father, we moved to Wisconsin when I was five. After moving around several times, we arrived in the “town” (read: village) my parents still live in today. Twelve years of school involved constantly battling being known as the German doctor’s daughter, spending summers on a vineyard, living in Germany for a year, finding true friends, driving a giant teal ’57 Chevy Bel-Air, life-guarding, finding love, losing love to “friends”,  cashiering at Wal-Mart, sneaking out, getting caught, and getting into my dream college.

Finally I got to leave my small honky tonk town and move to the big city. I got into an extracurricular that changed my whole life. Struggled with what I wanted to study, and after random classes settled on science because I thought I wanted to be dentist. Eventually decided on medicine when I realized teeth are boring. Worked as a camp counselor and got to re-live childhood. Met a boy on the back of a bus, fell in love, moved in together, and adopted two pups. Became friends with the greatest group of girls. Traveled all over the country for band. And then eventually graduated, which was a huge mistake.

Started working, started losing my friends to fun cities all over the world, supported Chris through his medical school education. Visited Australia and New Zealand, got to hug a koala. Cried when my medical school plans didn’t work out as planned. Started a blog. Cried again when I finally got into school. 

And in less than 7 weeks I get to start a new chapter in the story of my life #soexcitedtoquitmyjob

Shirt: Ralph Lauren, thrifted [similar]

Jeans: American Eagle [exact]

Belt: Gap [same style]

Watch: Kate Spade [exact] 

Shoes: Gap [save | splurge]

Nails: Essie Lapiz of Luxury

and in case you forgot what my puppies look like....

dresses at work?

Wearing pants is something that I thought was mandatory at work. I re-read our safety regulations recently and it specifies that legs need to be covered - nothing specifically about wearing pants! For most people, dresses/skirts with tights is a no brainer, but after 14 years of dance recitals, I was certain I would never make myself do that again. After watching girls like Kimmie and Whitney rock cute tights with their dresses and skirts, I was willing to give it another try. I was offered the opportunity to try out some No nonsense tights and leggings, so what's a better way to test out if I liked the dress/tights look than with free tights? 

I'm also unsure how I feel about Louboutin shoes and Chanel bags...

Kidding! Back to the tights. I received these cute purple patterned tights and red corduroy leggings.  The tights were a no brainer. I wanted as much of my legs "double covered" so I wore my old beat up boots (future post to come about upgrading to a nicer pair). Because I am fairly tall (5'9''), most regular dresses tend to be a bit short on me, so wearing tights actually helped me feel less exposed in the thighs. The tights held up very well throughout the day. They were long enough for me so there was no awkward gapping, and the control top meant I didn't have to suck in as much. Now that I know I can actually wear skirts and dresses (as long as my legs are still covered) to work, I'm excited to expand those parts of my closet.

Dress: Old Navy  {very similar}

Tights: No nonsense (c/o)

Scarf: gift from my mom

Belt: The Limited  {save / splurge}

Socks: Urban Outfitters  {very similar}

Boots: Steve Madden  {similar}

Watch: Boccia

I found bright red leggings a little harder to fit into my normal day-to-day wear. I maintain that leggings are not pants to be worn with a short shirt, so a tunic was necessary for me. I wore my leggings with a sweater tunic, scarf and jacket for a walk out with the dogs. The nice thing about these leggings is that they are corduroy so they kept me warmer than some of my other cotton leggings. I would recommend sizing down though, as my pair were a little too large for me. I've been wearing my pair around the house a lot as they are so comfortable!

Jacket: Souvenir from Germany  {save / splurge}
Leggings: No nonsense (c/o)
Boots: Steve Madden {similar}
Hat: Forever 21
Scarf: DIY

Dog: not for sale ;)

Disclosure: Find your pair of affordable No nonsense tights and leggings here. I was sponsored by No nonsense for this opportunity. All opinions are my own.

sequins for all

Happy Black Friday! Did you guys enjoy all of the sales today? Chris and I didn't leave the house until 8 AM for the mall and the outlet mall - we weren't going to fight anyone over some discounted shirts so we figured we might as well sleep in. I ended up buying a scarf (at full price....) at Forever 21, and then a button up and a sweater at the J. Crew outlet store. I also purchased this shirt at Loft on Wednesday. I bought my mom the same shirt as a birthday present - a girl can never have too many striped shirts or sequins! Later next week Whitney from Along the Lines of Style and I will be doing a "different ways to wear this shirt" post. I already know she's going to look adorable!

As far as "tightening" went over Thanksgiving, Chris and I took the pups on a 3 mile run that morning (it was like 50 degrees here!) and I didn't take seconds at dinner. I still got to enjoy everything about the day, but didn't feel as guilty at the end of it.

My youngest sister Karoline offered to take these pictures so I made sure to throw in a few fashion blogger poses. Here's the over the shoulder /skinny face / hair touching picture. Looking good gurrrrl.

Top: Loft  {exact}

Jeans: American Eagle  {exact}

Belt: The Limited

Shoes: Tory Burch  {exact}

Bracelets: Borrowed from Mom

Earrings: Tiffany & Co  {exact}

Nails: Maybelline Racy Red

We also tried to take pictures for our Christmas card. I've heard that taking pictures with children is hard, but I feel dogs are even worse. Look at Baer being such a good boy, posing like the stud he is. Hans could not care less though.

Does this say "Merry Christmas from the Stewart-Hasselhof household"? Or does this say "Feed your boyfriend a cheeseburger, medical school rotations are starving him"?

Handsome

I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, so I'm going to just leave this adorable picture here instead of subjecting you to my sick face. Hans loved the fabric so much when I was making my scarf that he got his own from the left over scraps. He's a handsome little bugger, isn't he?








Don't forget you can win a human sized scarf for yourself here!

'merica

I did a little holiday shopping yesterday after work to take advantage of all the sales. Banana Republic is having a 40% of sale items, and since I can really only afford the sale items there anyway, it worked out great. I got a 100% silk blouse for $20 and a safari shirt for $15, and had a giftcard so it ended up costing me nothing out of pocket! I also picked up this t-shirt at The Gap for $13 (they currently are having a 40% of all tees!)

Did you take advantage of the sales? Don't forget to stick to your budget!


Shirt: Gap
Belt: Madewell (similar)
Shorts: Aeropostale (embarrasing, but I love them)
Sandals: Sam Edelman for AE (similar)
Sunnies: Ralph Lauren via Lenscrafters

Happy 4th of July from us two Germans :D









Linking up with WIWW...go check out everyone's holiday styles!