Year: 2012

I had an amazing time in L.A. with the Toyota Women’s Influencers Network this week!  But I just got home last night at 7:00 pm and I haven’t been able to really process all of the great things I learned & experienced there yet, SO – I’m going to tell you about that next week.  What I can process for you now, is of course, MY CLOTHES!! Because my clothes were really simple, yet beautiful – a perfect way to describe their maker, Lands’ End.

You see, we were supposed to wear “business casual” to Toyota’s campus, and since I’ve been staying at home for four years, I no longer own A SINGLE PAIR of business casual pants (that fit, anyway).  So, I asked my pals at Lands’ End to help me out.  Please enjoy this very generous paraphrase of our conversation:

“Hey  I am going to wear all Lands’ End at this event because I love you guys, and I want to shill for you 24/7, but I have no pants, and since pantsless is generally not considered biz casual, would you send me a pair to review?  I already have the rest of my outfit put together.”  And they were all, “SURE! We’d love to!”  Because they are awesome.  And then they were like, “Do you need anything else?”  and because I am a total whore, I said, “Well I could use a casual-er dress.  I am going to wear one of my Mom 2.0 dresses but the others are a little too fancy I think.”  And they were all, “No problem!”  And THEN they were all, “Oh whoopsie, we are out of the color dress you wanted, so we just sent you TWO dresses, hope one of them works out.”  Seriously!! Lands’ End is amazing!

BOTH dresses ended up fitting, and I already had Lands’ End shoes and everything else I needed to make the outfits work.  So, here’s my fabulous Lands’ End wardrobe for the Toyota Women event:

This dress is what I wore Tuesday night for our opening dinner. It felt SO great on.  And the embroidery is just gorgeous.  It has POCKETS, which I loved.  The color is a really violet-y blue that you honestly don’t see much, so that in addition to the embroidery really set it apart.  This dress is so versatile, it would definitely go from the office to church to a picnic.  It was perfect for our California casual dinner, too.  I got so many compliments on it!  I wish I had gotten a better picture, I tried to have my friend Jen take one, but it was super-windy out and my skirt was up around my ears and no one needs to SEE THAT!  It really is just a beautiful, comfortable dress.

On Wednesday, for our day at Toyota’s campus, I wore the pants that started it all – the Women’s Fit 1 Stretch Crop Chinos.  I adore these pants!  So comfortable, very chic, they work great with heels or flats and can definitely take you just about anywhere you need to go in 24 hours (maybe not the gym – but who wants to go there anyways!?)  Here’s how I put my outfit together:

I realize I look like a total nerd in this picture, but I thought it showed my outfit so well, I’m taking one for the team (thanks again to Jenbshaw for capturing mynerd-ity.  She was just taking random pictures of me because I am THAT magnetic, apparently.)  Here’s a less nerdy one also. But wait til my actual Toyota post and you will see Jill and I go FULL NERD.  Anticipation!!

So, shockingly, most of this outfit I ALREADY OWNED. I know, crazy right? Well about 95% of my wardrobe is Lands’ End. Most days you will find me in it from head to toe. So this is why I love working with them. I put my $$ where my mouth is on a regular basis! This cream tank top I have on is actually from Lands’ End’s Lands’ End Canvas line, and I got it for Mother’s Day from my hubby!  It has little anchors on it and is tres cute.  The cardigan I wore at Mom 2.0, and the scarf I’ve had for about three years.  The Gatas Canvas shoes, which are AMAZINGLY comfortable, I also got for Mom 2.0.  We were supposed to wear shoes that we could drive in, because we got to drive some cool cars, and these were perf!  And Bedorbs!  (Two of my new fave abbreviations.  Abbrev. ev. right Jill?)

On to Tuesday night!  This was a little bit of a fancier dinner, but still casual-ish, however once again Lands’ End had the perfect dress that could work at a picnic or a theatre performance. And I loooooooooooooove it.  And it’s only $55. Hurry and go buy one!!

You guys, this dress is so comfortable I considered just wearing it to sleep after we got back from dinner. NOT KIDDING! And it has pockets, also, which were wonderful for my cell phone and hotel key. And it is VERY forgiving, no shapewear required! The fabric is actually a very heavy weight and hangs beautifully. You all want this one, girls. Seeeeriously. Jen, (who at, FOUR MENTIONS in this post is probably getting on your nerves right now, right?) was plotting to steal it from me so deviously, I am kind of surprised it made it home with me!

Well, that’s a wrap on my outfits. They were wonderful, and so is Lands’ End, who of course is not paying me to say this, but totes gave me the two dresses and the magic pants to review. Thanks LE, you made my time at Toyota that much more special because I felt like a million bucks in my clothes!