Wardrobe Wednesday: Allume

Have you entered to win $75 from the Pleated Poppy yet? (I’m linking up with her for What I Wore Wednesday today!).

It’s been a week and a half since I got back from Allume, but I’m not going to lie—it feels like a month. I feel like so much stuff has gotten packed into the last 10 days—unpacking and husband being gone and soccer games and exercise classes and cooking and cleaning and homeschooling and laundry and life. See? So. much. stuff.  Now I know why I feel that way.

Which is all to say that it’s a bit odd to be doing a What I Wore to Allume post today since, in my mind, I haven’t worn these outfits in ages. Still. It happened. I documented it (in very grainy cell phone pics). And I’m sharing it, darn it.

Here we go.

I wore this on the plane and the first day of the conference (thanks to my friend, Michele-Lyn, for snapping this shot in the Hyatt lobby at about 10 PM when I suddenly remembered I hadn’t taken an outfit shot). It’s basically a too-short Goodwill dress ($4) with a lace Goodwill skirt underneath ($3), patterned tights I scored at Marshall’s for a couple of bucks, and two splurges that I wear all the time—my $60 Nine West leather boots (from Marshall’s about 2 years ago) and my $45 J. Crew jeans jacket.

Floral tights are fun!

Day 2 was another comfy outfit, which I decided to selfie since I felt a little strange asking friends to take shots of me in hotel lobbies. It consisted of a cute Hollister tunic that I scored for $0 at our clothes exchange, GAP outlet skinnies ($13), a GAP outlet cardigan ($6), and some $10 wedge booties from Target.

I scored some really great necklaces from the Everyday Icing booth (seriously, super-fun stuff at great prices, and a portion of their proceeds were going to Compassion) at the conference, and this delicate double-strand flower one was my fave.

Day 3 = another 10 PM YIKES-I-FORGOT-TO-TAKE-A-PICTURE shot, which my sweet, sweet new friend, Erika snapped for me after we got done with a round of Smile Booth silliness.

I’m sure you’re sick of seeing that jacket by now, you’ve already seen the booties before, and the striped tank was a $3 clearance purchase from LOFT, which I paired with a Goodwill lace skirt ($3) and a free scarf from the clothes exchange.

Everyone should be so blessed to meet an Erika if they go to a conference where they know practically no one. We had such good talks and laughed so much. It felt like I already knew her, and I can’t wait until our next conference together.

Oh, and speaking of other fun people to meet:

You might recognize Emily from Jones Design, who is just as ridiculously stylish and nice as she seems on her blog. She spoke at the conference, and I went up and introduced myself to her and was pleasantly surprised that she recognized me. We hit it off as well and have been enjoying getting to know each other via email since the conference. So grateful for all her practical advice and encouragement!

And finally, we have day 5, which was all about the bling:

I posted this shot to Instagram (handle: MisforMama) with a caption about how surprised I was that I didn’t give the airport security machines fits with all my shiny baubles. Ironically enough, I made it through fine with all the jewelry and then got patted down anyway (so awkward) because I forgot to take a tiny flashlight out of my pocket.

Here I am with puffy morning face under some serious down-lighting at 6 AM at the Greenville, SC airport.

And here’s a shot with all my layers (it was chilly!).

Wanna know the absolute best part of the whole trip, though?

{What? You don’t take couples-selfies while sitting on the airport floor in front of fire extinguishers?}

Meeting up with this hunk in the DFW airport. He was heading out for a week-long work trip as I was heading back from the conference, and we scheduled our flights so that, if all went as planned, we’d get to have a lunch date in the airport. Praise the Lord, it worked!

And the absolute ABSOLUTE best part? He passed up a $500 standby travel voucher and a bunch of reward miles so he could keep our date because he couldn’t call me to ask what I wanted him to do (I was already on the plane).

His words? “When else am I going to get to meet up with you in an airport? I wanted to see you.”

I’m going to say he’s a keeper.