Giftsgiving! - 25 Gifts Under $25

'Tis the official kickoff for holiday shopping season! Smart shopping can allow for great gift picking and sticking to your budget. To help get you started, here's my list of wallet friendly gifts for the loved ones on your list, that they will be sure to appreciate (and use)!

1. / 2. / 3. / 4. / 5. / 6. / 7. / 8. / 9. / 10. / 11. / 12.

Here's a chance to do away with the impersonal feel that can come with gift cards, and what's better, is there's no sizing required! Giving a thoughtful gift and all that's needed is having a tiny bit of insight into her regular activities or things that she's into!

13. / 14. / 15. / 16. / 17. / 18. / 19. / 20. / 21. / 22. / 23. / 24. / 25.

And you can always pair two gifts together and still be under budget - like a multi pack of fashion earrings with the jewelry box, the tea bag caddy (or tea bag variety pack) with the tea kettle, or a couple hand towels with the foaming hand soap.

It really takes less effort than you think! Happy Black Friday shopping to all of you!

Getting it Together - Glove Storage & Organization DIY

Tis' the season, people, tis' the season!

Cold weather is moving in quickly and it won't be long before we'll be adding more layers to ward off the chill. One of my fav chilly weather accessories are gloves! I love them for adding something to my wintertime personal style, I have various types from fingerless to half cuts to elbow length. Only problem was the storage situation...

I kept them tucked into a multi pocket organizer, which limited visibility. And this contraption was upstairs in my closet, while my coats were downstairs in my coat closet. Needless to say, that didn't help with getting out of the door on time in the mornings.

Here's my easy DIY hack that I pulled together to resolve all of that:

Clockwise from top left: Blush and Gray Elbow Length Gloves: The Limited - sold out (similar)
Black Half Gloves: eBay (exact match)
Cream Pearl Fingerless Gloves: received as gift (no match available but these are super cute)
Black Quilted Fingerless Gloves: Forever 21 (similar)

First, I added a Command Hook to the inside door of the cabinet closet in my laundry room. If I have never sang my love and adoration for Command Hooks, insert it [here] because I seriously loooooooove them! They are seriously like the best thing evuh!!

For supplies, I found this belt ring at Ross Dress for Less for a $1.99 (you can find relatively similar belt rings at Dollar General for a few dollars).

And I ordered some Ikea curtain clips from Amazon for less than $10, since we unfortunately don't have a store locally.

I just slid the foam piece off of the belt ring, leaving me with a single chrome loop.

I line each pair of the gloves up where the tags are on the inside and put the clips there to prevent and/or hide any possible indentations that may get left behind. and then just slide the clip rings on to the hook.

This way things are orderly and I can easily see what I have, plus my coats are right there for easy decision making.

For storing unused clips, I use this little capped jar that I found at H&M a while back and it takes up negligible space on the shelf, but keeps them right within reach.

I'd love to hear how you store your winter essentials!

DD's Style File - The Moto Vest

I certainly pride myself on being budget savvy, but sometimes you have to give in to those investment pieces, so you splurge and spend a little more than normal. In my opinion, the key to these types of purchases is first all about quality and longevity. I consider this faux leather moto vest to be a perfect example of one such purchase.

I've had this piece for a couple years now, but I consider it a staple piece. So this is one of those times that I detour from the CPW (cost per wear) formula, because I often don't wear statement pieces as often, however I tend to keep them for a much longer period because they transcend the ever-changing trend scene.

Vest: The Limited - old (similar, similar, similar, similar, different alternative)
Dress: NY & Co - sold out (similar, similar, similar)
Handbag: H&M - sold out (similar, similar, similar)
Boots: vintage (similar, similar, similar)
Half gloves: eBay (exact match)

This piece also has greater versatility which offsets the investment. It can work at the office, church or date night. And can be worn with a variety of color palettes and add a punch of attitude to dresses, slacks or jeans.

In this case, taking a black dress (that I was going to get rid of) and adding the vest, some gloves and a fringe bag, easily added edge to a very simplistic base.

Just keep in mind that when it comes to purchase investment pieces, think long term about it will work with your wardrobe. You're not seeking to justify the price, I am just suggesting that your listing of reasons has more pros than cons. 

On another note, I've finally transitioned out of "the boot" and I'm now wearing a these New Balances...every day. Ugh...so yeah, I'm not really a sneaker girl, but I have to give myself time to heal. 

But I've never been so excited to finally get into a pair of flats! This broken foot has totally made getting dressed in the mornings more challenging that usual!

I hope your week is off to a great start! Be sure to check back often in the upcoming weeks, I'm working on a pretty sweet holiday giveaway for my readers and I wouldn't want you to miss out!

Getting it Together - Home Organization Day 2

My closet is one of those places that stays relatively tidy. Relatively being the operative word, but I do generally try to maintain some consistent order in there. However, THIS was driving me bonkers...

I have fewer pants than anything else (more on that later) and I generally dislike plastic hangers, I use them occasionally, but have an affection for the thin velvet hangers. This little area designated for my pants just wasn't working, it felt cumbersome to get them in and out without bumping into my bracelets. I didn't want to move them because I don't seem to wear pants as often as skirts and dresses.

And these saggy, tangley plastic hangers just caused the pants to slide around and not lie flush against each other. Now, despite my love for velvet hangers, I hate the way my pants clutched the fabric when trying to remove them and that corner area just didn't seem provide ample room for the full size hanger.

Left: Unsorted                                                                    Right: Sorted by Color

I finally got the idea to use kid size velvet hangers, so I purchased a set of 24 from Target for about $20 (I had a $10 gift card). Their more petite size allowed for better maneuverability in the smaller wall space and eliminated tangle and sliding issues. Sorting by color doesn't appear to make a lot of difference with this section, but I just personally prefer it because it makes getting dressed easier for me.

With this little experiment I also discovered two things:

1. I used up every hanger in the pack, so I had more pants than I realized. (I even had to purge a few pairs)
2. I loved the clean, unified look of all of the hangers being the same color and now I want to make sure all my hangers look like that!

I'm still on a organizing kick (when time permits) so I'd love to hear any tips and tricks you might have!

Getting it Together - Home Organization Day 1

So, what have I NOT have time to do as of late?

1. Take blog photos

2. Edit already taken blog photos (reason #2 why this is not a style post)

3. Write blog posts

4. Manicure my nails

5. Give myself a decent facial

6. Brush my dog (and when I finally do, it's not pleasurable for either of us)

7. Anything fun

Those things, for the most part, are definitely all about me; but that's because work, school and family get the overwhelming majority of my time. Then comes sleep. Precious, dreamless sleep. 

So, I won't lie and say that I have felt any less than frazzled some days, but I'm trying to manage.... What I have found though, is that when my brain feels over crowded with schedules, lists and deadlines, I begin to feel a serious urge to bring some order to things.

And my laundry room was not helping with my mental chaos... Every time I walked in there, my brain went on the fritz.

So, with less than a $20 dollar investment, I literally brought myself some peace of mind...

I already had the large chalkboard labels, I purchased the hang tags and oversized clothes pins from the Target Dollar Spot, and at Dollar Tree I picked up several baskets and a chalkboard marker. And now, I feel a little piece of happy every time I walk in. *contented sigh*

And I immediately felt like I wanted to put my entire life into little blue bins. Since I could not, I moved on to the kitchen and organized the top of the refrigerator and my freestanding cabinet. Getting rid of the clutter became almost therapeutic.

Are any of you guys organization junkies?? Because I seriously think that I could become one!