Outfit of the Day | Mix and Match

Today's outfit post is going to be part OOTD and personal update. So it's no secret that I haven't been able to keep up with my blog so far in 2017, and there's a perfect reason why. Since last summer I've been so preoccupied with my jobs and my blog/YouTube work, and it literally got to the point that I didn't have much of a life. I don't know about you but working all the time is very draining (even when part of your job requires you to be creative), so this year I've shifted my focus to bettering myself both mentally as well as physically. I've actually been giving myself proper days off and I just started to work out again. Mix and matching is not only a fashion term, you can most definitely apply that concept to your life as well. It's all about finding the right balance for yourself.

Outfit of the Day | Earth Tones

You all know that I tend shy away from color a lot of the time, but this year I really do want to challenge myself to wear just a little more color. While I'm not planning on going all out with a yellow cardigan and hot pink pants like Kimmy Schmidt, I do plan to start off by wearing playful makeup and experimenting toned down colors in my wardrobe. And yes, I'm currently binge watching the show as I type up this post and I'm loving how silly it is. Back to this post though, in this outfit you're going to see how easy it is to incorporate color by pairing Earth tones.

Outfit of the Day | Double Denim

I don't think there's a more quintessential Laura outfit than this one right here. This is pretty much what I always wear whenever I'm not working and have to go out of my house (otherwise I'll happily wear pajamas all day). Give me a good pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a jean jacket, and comfortable sneakers and I'll be one very happy tomboy. Another thing that makes me super happy are dorky pins and if you follow me on Snapchat, then you know that I have a wide array of the most random pins. I have pretty much everything from a llama pin, to a wacky wavy pin (you know, those things that you often see in front of used car lots). In this post I'm going to show you how I style my favorite denim jacket with more denim and some pretty dorky pins.

Outfit of the Day | Sporty Casual

What inspired this outfit was a comment that I got in my Spanish channel. One of my viewers asked me if wearing athletic shoes outside of the gym was "acceptable" and you know what? I think they totally are. In the past year we've seen the resurgence of sport trends taking over and I personally couldn't be more happy about it. In middle school I used to be made fun of for wearing sneakers to school because kids were moving on to Vans and Converse, but now I get to rock my sneakers with no one to make fun of me. Suck on that middle school, haters! Also sneakers have come a really long way since 2003, so they actually lend themselves to be worn with a variety of outfits. Today's outfit is all business on the top and chill on the bottom, because sometimes it's fun to mix and match styles.

Outfit of the Day | Lunch at El Agave Restaurant and Tequileria

By know, I think most of you know how much I enjoy discovering new restaurants in San Diego. I'd say that it's one of my favorite things to do in my city, and when the opportunity came to collaborate with El Agave Restaurant and Tequileria in Old Town- I had to say yes! Food and styling a casual outfit? What's not to love? I decided to invite my mom to a casual lunch in Old Town and this is what I wore to our little mother-daughter lunch. You'll also get to see the "lunch of the day" which was really really great. You probably already heard me rave about the lunch if you follow me on Snapchat, but in case you didn't then you'll hear me rave about it in this post as well.

Outfit of the Day | The Drop Waist Dress

When it comes to fashion for curvy girls, we're always encouraged to wear items with a cinched waist because somehow that will give us a more "flattering" look. As much as I love a good pair of high waisted jeans, I honestly feel like I've been missing out on a few trends because they're not considered flattering on my body shape. Now this shape will not give you an hourglass look or fit your body like a glove, this is a trend for the people who like loose fitting clothing like myself. I was honestly a bit scared about wearing anything with a drop waist, but now I'm glad I decided to try it out because it looks quite nice- even on a curvy figure. It's a different look but one that didn't feel too forced on myself.

Outfit of the Day | Laidback Summer

The heatwave is back at it again in San Diego and I'm currently wishing that I could just live in the huge walk-in refrigerators at Costco. When it's this hot, all I want to wear is light clothing and a hat to block off the haters (in this case the sun). During my recent trip to the thrift stores I came across a pair of lightweight denim pants which I've been wearing a ton recently. They're absolutely perfect for summer because the material is very light and airy, plus unlike regular jeans these are pretty loose. I paired the pants with my thinnest white t-shirt and a boater hat for an easy laidback summer look.

Neiman Marcus Fall/Winter 2016 Trends

Last week Neiman Marcus in Fashion Valley hosted their semi-annual lunch to present the upcoming trends for fall and winter. The San Diego based bloggers and stylists were served a great lunch as the models walked down to show us all the different trends that we'll be seeing this upcoming season. I'm not much of a spring/summer person, but fall/winter fashion excites me so much. Bring on the dark colors, berry tones, and layers upon layers! I was also very happy to see some more trends that lend themselves to someone who isn't very girly like myself. I can definitely see myself rocking some moody fall florals or a sporty bomber jacket. Here's my recap of some of the trends that really caught my eye.

5 Easy Thrift Shopping Tips

I know you've seen me wear a lot more thrifted items recently (click here to find out why), but I actually wasn't very good at thrifting until this year. I remember begging my ex-boyfriend to take me to the thrift shops in Orange County when I would go visit him because I wanted to see if I could find some cool stuff like all the fashion vloggers on YouTube. And each and every single time I would leave the thrift stores disappointed or with only one item (which still counts as disappointed). Somehow I was convinced that I just sucked at thrifting and that I should stick to traditional retail shopping, but it turns out that I was just not going into this with the right mindset. In this post I'm going to share with you 5 easy tips to make your thrift shopping experience a hell of a lot more enjoyable and worth your time.

Outfit of the Day | Sunday Afternoon

One of my favorite things about blogging has been all the friends that I've made over the last few years. I definitely consider myself very fortunate to have befriended some of the sweetest bloggers in San Diego and I feel even more lucky that we're incredibly supportive of one another. We'll help each other take pictures, film videos, and even give each other advice. Sometimes in the blogging community you come across people that will see you as their competition, when in fact we're all in crazy blogging journey together. If we don't try to help one another, then who will? On a very sunny Sunday afternoon my blogger friends and I decided to meet up in North Park, have a delicious brunch, and take a few outfit pictures in some of the most "Instagram worthy" backdrops. This is what I wore to the blogger brunch.

Outfit of the Day | Rock The Vote

In the past I never really cared much about politics, but boy has time changed the way I view politics. If you've been following this election, then you know how crazy and weird it has all been. I was personally a Bernie girl and will continue to support him even though he's not the Democratic Presidential nominee. What Bernie's campaign was able to do for me is something that I will forever be thankful for. Because of his campaign I can now say that I am a much more active and passionate participant in our nation's government. I really feel like more young adults should feel that same passion and rally together to shape our country's future. That's why I think it's amazing for a beauty and entertainment website like Popsugar to team up with Rock the Vote to encourage people to register to vote and get their voices heard.

Outfit of the Day | Trying to Stay Cool

I may be all smiles in the picture, but inside I was trying not to melt. The weather in San Diego recently has been completely unbearable. We've reached the point that we are having 90ºF+ heat with a little humidity, and that is one horrible combo. While some people try to wear as little clothing as possible, I try to wear loose clothing that will not be sticking to my skin. I can get away with showing some skin every once in awhile, but most of the time I rather protect my skin while trying to stay cool. Can anyone feel me on that? Does anyone get red super easily? I feel like some of you might get me. During the process of finding items that will keep me cool, I've come to learn that mom jeans keep me much cooler than my standard skinny jeans.

Easy No-Sew DIY Solutions with Scotch™ Essentials

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WardrobeSolutions #CollectiveBias

Let me fill you in on a little secret... I absolutely suck at sewing clothes. Whenever I need something hemmed or repaired, then I'll either ask my mom or get it done at the dry cleaners because otherwise I don't trust myself with a needle and thread. There's a few items in my closet that I haven't even worn because I find the fit very unflattering, like this maxi skirt. I know many people love maxi skirts, but they're just not my cup of tea because they make me look a bit frumpy. If you're someone that isn't the best at altering clothes, then you're going to love this easy and very affordable solution that I found at Target. This requires absolutely no sewing skills and it will only take you a few minutes to do. Plus this is a great way to update your wardrobe without feeling the need to purchase more clothes.

Outfit of the Day | Babouche

One of the "it" shoes of 2016 is the Moroccan babouche. Yes, those pointy and flat slippers are in and you know I'm all over that trend. I'm a fan of any type of flat shoes, especially if they resemble slippers! You have Acne Studios selling a babouche for $490 and Everlane selling a modern take on the babouche for $145. I don't know about you, but I personally don't have the budget to be spending over $100 on a pair of shoes at the moment. And that's when my thrifty instincts kicked in and I started searching for a way to try the trend and save some money. Luckily I was able to find a new pair of handmade babouches from Fez, Morocco on Poshmark and I purchased them immediately! My dad may not like my new "Aladdin" shoes, but now I can say that I'm obsessed with the babouche trend.

Outfit of the Day | Faux Suede

I know suede is a very popular material but I honestly really never thought much about it. I usually would associate suede with fringe festival wear and very short suede skirts, but then I found this amazing faux suede skirt in the Target clearance section. I know what you're probably thinking, is Target even ethical? Surprisingly the Target brand clothes are in fact ethical and made in a sustainable way (source). I will be dedicating a full post on this issue very soon, but this should be great news to people who are looking to buy sustainable clothing at an affordable price. Target still has some work to do in order to become more transparent, but their environmental and sustainability efforts are definitely not going unnoticed.

3 Ways to Style An Oversized Shirt

Here's a little story about this oversized men's button down. It was Record Store Day 2014 and after doing a little record shopping, I stumbled upon the Buffalo Exchange Earth Day sale. First of all, I had no idea it was Earth Day and back then I was literally the worst at thrifting (even at a place like Buffalo Exchange). They had around 5 cardboard boxes outside the store full with $1 clothing items. And I won't lie, most of the stuff in the boxes was pretty horrible but then I managed to dig up this blue button down from the bottom of one of the boxes. At first I didn't think much of it but I decided to get it because I really loved the royal blue color. Now 2 years later I couldn't be happier that I decided to pick this $1 shirt up because it's one of the most versatile pieces I own. I wear it casually, a little edgy, and I even dress it up once in awhile.

Outfit of the Day | Chill 4th of July

With 4th of July just a couple of days away, I had to show you my subtle take on 4th of July fashion. I know this may sound hard to believe, but there was once a time that I would deck myself out with so much red, white, and blue. I still remember going to Limited Too as a sixth grader and picking out everything that had stars and stripes. Although it's fun to rock your patriotic AF look on the 4th of July, nowadays I prefer a much more subtle approach. Last week when I went thrifting, I found this beautiful striped top which luckily fit me perfectly. You can easily wear a striped top, relaxed jeans, sandals, and a red lip to any of your 4th of July festivities. It's possible to look patriotic without having to pile on all the red, white, and blue you can find.

Why I Stopped Supporting Fast Fashion

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had made the decision to stop supporting fast fashion retailers, and today I'm going to be explaining my reasoning behind that decision. It's no secret that fast fashion is huge within the blogging community. You will come across bloggers styling pieces from Forever 21, H&M, ASOS, Brandy Melville, and Zara time and time again. And I understand why that is- fast fashion is cheap, trendy, and very accessible. In the past I thought of fast fashion as my only way to build a decent wardrobe, but nowadays I've been caring more about ethics than getting a good deal on a plain white tee. I promise not to make this blog post sound too preachy because that's the last thing I want out of this, but I do want to encourage you to question the practices of fast fashion and come up with your own conclusion.

Outfit of the Day | Black and Blue

Hi, my name is Laura and I'm the minimalist and tomboy version of a plain Jane. I swear I'll never get sick of just rocking jeans and a t-shirt, aka my uniform for the past 20+ years of my life. Although there really isn't much going with this outfit, I did decide to play around with silhouettes a little bit. My love for the mom jeans is still going strong, but this time around I paired the loose jeans with a fitted black top. And to round up my basic outfit and make it a bit more modern, I decided to go with some round sunglasses and my old platform sandals. What can I say? Basics are the new black.

Outfit of the Day | Silk Scarf

I'm absolutely no stranger to scarves, in fact I once used to own a ridiculously large scarf collection. I literally had every scarf imaginable- long scarves, thin scarves, hand knitted scarves, colorful scarves, snoods... I think you get the point. I've always been a huge fan of scarves, and these tiny silk scarves have become my latest obsession. The first one I purchased was almost 5 years ago in Paris and sadly it's gone missing in my room *tear*, but thankfully these scarves are very easy to find at thrift stores. Whenever I wear this particular silk scarf, it always reminds me of airline stewardesses in a good way. So now I wear a silk whenever I want to give my plain outfit some ~airline stewardess vibes~.