Let it be known that this week, I do not have a favorite outfit photo to share with you all.

I don’t know why, but the prospect of taking photos of myself these past couple of weeks have been less than appealing to me.  It’s not that I feel bad about the way I look or anything.  I just don’t seem to have the energy or motivation to plaster a cheesy smile on my face and look happy for the camera.

Hopefully, this is just a phase and I’ll break out of the funk soon.  In the meantime, I thought I would share with you a few items in my closet that I think I could wear basically everyday (some of them I do).  Every girl has her “staple pieces” that she gravitates to and wants to wear with every outfit.  After seeing some of my outfits from week to week, I’m sure you’ve caught on to what some of those items are.

Over the next few Fridays, I will post some of my “favorite” items in my wardrobe (apparel, accessories, bags, shoes…the works!).  Below are the first five that came to mind.

Staple Piece #1: The Go-To Bag

In case you haven’t noticed from almost all of my previous Friday outfits (not to mention if you see me on a day-to-day basis), this brown small messenger-esque bag is my “go-to bag”.  Unless I’m going to some fancy shmancy shin-dig (“shin-dig,” Lydia…REALLY??), I really don’t care about whether the bag “goes” with the outfit.  I would much rather think about functionality.

It’s the perfect size to carry everything and anything I need in my life right now.  As expressed in yesterday’s post, I have yet to find the need to carry an over-sized satchel of diapers, bottles, kid snacks, etc.  And my days as a student are long gone, so no large bag of bone-crushing textbooks needed either.  Plus, it’s a cross-body bag…which is ultimately why I purchased this bag (at a Chicago consignment store for about $12) in the first place.

Staple Piece #2: The Sunglasses

I was given this pair of sunglasses by my mother-in-law (who actually received it as a gift from my brother-in-law, so I find out a few weeks ago).  I can’t wear them for TOO long (around the 1 hour mark, they begin to squeeze into my temples and cause some MAJOR headaches), but when I do, they are AWESOME!

Honestly, the primary reason you see me donning these dark spectacles in almost all of my outfits of the week is because they hide the dark circles/puffiness under my eyes.  I guess that makes me more vain and self-absorbed than I’d like to be…but at my age, I am still wanting to hang onto the shards of evidence that I am still “young”.  And if that means hiding any evidence that conflicts with that notion…so be it.

I honestly don’t like shopping at Forever 21.  After one of the t-shirts I purchased there (for $8.00, so no great loss) ended up with these little holes even BEFORE I got to wear it even ONCE, I’ve been swearing off purchasing apparel from that store.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t purchase their jewelry.

This particular necklace is the first of it’s kind that I purchased.  I was looking for a colorful, cheap necklace to add to my wardrobe (because accessories can sometimes MAKE the outfit).  When I saw this one, I immediately fell in love with it.  I didn’t even care that it was one of the more expensive pieces (about $18…steep…).  I HAD to have it.

And so I bought it.  And now I have it.  And now it’s the one necklace I wear about 80% of the time I bother to wear jewelry at all.  It’s awesome!