My job is to make other people look good. I love it. I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. I have the privilege of hosting photo and video shoots for a variety of projects tied to my job. We have a wonderful, local guy, Jason, who is my good pal and does most of our shooting for us, so I always look forward to our projects together.

For the shoots, I often stand-in for testing. Jason has an embarrassingly large catalog of terrible outtakes of me standing in that we laugh about frequently. Yesterday was no exception. The photo below was taken just before I scolded him for never giving me the chance to take a good photo because he always catches me looking super pissed off, when really, it's my favorite part of my job!

Although my facial expression is awful in this photo - and proves why I'd never make a good model - I am a HUGE fan of this outfit. This is my "powerful marketing lady" outfit that I wear on days where I need to dominate my surroundings.

The jacket is from H&M - shirt, pants, and shoes are from JCPenney (are you surprised?). I especially love the jacket because it transitions really well from the office by day to a rock show by night. The cut makes whatever outfit I'm wearing look polished.

I thought this next photo was just cute. If you look really hard, you can tell that I'm smiling about and love this part of my job!

I've been making a daily effort to dig deep into my vast clothing collection and pull out items I haven't worn in awhile. It's been fun to see my "old friends" and remember why I've held onto some pieces for so long.

While flipping through my closet yesterday, I ran across the gem pictured below. A great t-shirt dress from Old Navy that I bought a year or two ago when I wanted to feel confident at a big meeting I was part of. The shoes have been mine for I don't know how many years...a deep discount JCPenney find is what I'm thinking. They're classic in both style and color, so I could never part with them. The tan in the shoes went well with the tan in the floral print of the dress, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I love the way this dress falls (although the length is borderline too short for work) I believe the loose cut, crew neck, and longer sleeves balance that out. The shoes made my legs look a mile long, which is great because I'm a shorty. The floral print is bold and makes me smile when I look at it (that's really why I bought it!). 

Let your style bloom! Dig deep in those closets and show the pieces that have been gathering dust that you still appreciate them.

I felt a lot of pressure dressing myself for the 80/35 music festival in Des Moines last weekend. The stakes are always high. Festival fashion is fun to observe, but I never feel like I fit in (i.e. I never feel as cute as I perceive others to be!). I saw A LOT of great outfits at 80/35. Cute dresses, outfit combinations, and lack of outfits (some festival goers opted for airbrushed clothing vs. the real deal). But it all looked fabulous.

I knew it was going to be hot, so I wanted to dress light. I stopped by Goodwill and was able to pull together the outfit pictured below for less than $20! I'm really into "side knotting" my shirts, because I think it is flattering on me, so I tried that out here. The outfit lasted me through some very sweaty moments and I felt "festival cool" in it. After I got home I thought of about 10 other variations on the same outfit that I could have worn instead...but there's always next year!