Real Mom Style- Hot Pink Shorts- WHA???

For many years, my basic style was a lot of dark colors (mostly black) and patterned dresses (usually with black in them).  No I was not a goth; I wore some color, it was just usually paired with a solid black shirt or a solid black skirt (I just wanted to make sure I was not making some huge color pairing error and Mom always said black went with everything).  And most of my skirts were mid-to-low-calf length, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't a great look for my body type.  I am not a big person, but I come from a family with big bones, so even at my tiniest, I will never be a size 0.  I'm totally fine with that, but I never realized that I was forever making myself look bigger than I actually was because I was dressing completely wrong for my body type.  I have a wide rib cage (compared to many people my height) and a pretty short torso.  Heck, I am just short; I'm only 5'3'', so wearing skirts that were mid-to-low-calf length for me was not helping me out.

I'm not a style expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I am slowly learning to add more bold colors and fun prints and patterns to my wardrobe.  Last week I picked up a pair of hot pink shorts at Old Navy.  And totally unlike the old me, I was excited about all the fun ways I could wear them!  I have yet to find a fun navy, striped shirt/tank I like, but when I do, it will look awesome with my new pink shorts!  And I knew I had something in my closet already that was totally perfect to pair with my new purchase (part of a birthday gift card that I finally got around to using).

 

You can barely see my gold flats in the picture on the right.  Those were the one part of the outfit, I wasn't so happy with.  This outfit totally could have used the sandals Andrea is wearing in the first couple pictures on her blog here .  The brown/tan flats.  I think those shoes (or something like them) would have pulled the the brown in the outfit together nicely.  My shoe department sorely lacks.  Have I mentioned I hate shoe shopping because my feet are very wide?  It's hard to find a good fit for me especially on a budget.

 

I took pictures outside today hoping that would improve the quality.  Not sure it did, but it made for some interesting effects.  I can crop pictures and on snapfish you can push this button that makes the colors bolder (like they are in real life, but the flash sometimes lightens the colors, I guess), but that is as far as my skills go, so any of the artistic looking pictures you see here are because of the effect of the camera and the angle of the sun when I took the pictures.  I thought this one was especially cool.

crazy, no?

See how short my hair is now?  I feel like I look like a kid, and
I definitely miss my longer hair, but I hadn't had a hair cut in
forever (seriously I think I totally scandalized the salon
worker with my split ends).  It is a tad shorter than I was
going for, but in about 2 weeks, it should be just where I
wanted it, and eventually if I get my hair trimmed regularly
like a normal person, it will be longer again for winter.  A fun
summer cut, don't you agree?  (just humor me even if you don't)

I'm linking up today with Real Mom Style, hosted by fashion bloggers, Mommainflipflops, thriftyandchicomom, and this week's host, verybusymama .  Head on over to her blog and add your style link-up!