...I can't resist pulling bright colors out of my closet. Yesterday, Seattle was gorgeous and sunny, and even warm enough not to have to wear my coat when I popped out for lunch mid-day.

I have this Pleione mixed media (knit and woven) top in kelly green that I've been longing to wear. It would look great with skinny jeans, sure, but I've not really been feeling the pants vibe lately (and truth be told, my skinnies and straight legs are a little too snug to be 100% comfortable at the moment.) So in a burst of inspiration, I decided to pair it with a similarly hued turquoise Halogen knit skirt. I'm still not comfortable with too much volume-on-volume, and belting didn't look quite right, so I popped a chambray button-down waistcoat over the top. To kick up the springy feel, I added yellow Fidji slingback pumps and a multicolored millefiori pendant that my sister brought me from Italy. And the mustard handbag had to come out to play too. (MaryK was very much on my mind when I paired so many bright colors together in a pencil-skirted outfit!)

It's a bit of a different shape for me - I don't recall ever wearing something *this* floaty and asymmetrical with a pencil skirt, and I did have second thoughts about leaving the house like this to go to work. However, I ultimately decided that this outfit was close enough to what I've been doing when I pair pencil skirt and identically hued tops together to create a faux-dress effect; it's just that in this outfit, the layers and colors are more visible. It may not have been the most polished outfit I have ever put on, and the fit on the waistcoat could be better, but I got a kick out of wearing it.

The outfit sparked a funny conversation with a colleague at work that brightened an otherwise dour day:
"So, what were you thinking when you put that outfit on?"
Me, not initially sure if this was a compliment or not: "To be honest, I needed something bright to wake myself up this morning, and the skirt and top just looked kind of cool next to each other on the bed. [Pause] I think people here are used to me wearing kind of wacky things."
"No, it's not wacky. But when you walk by, people notice that you have style."

As a pick-me-up, this week I also dipped my palate into a couple new-to-me spiced oolong teas. I'm utterly in love with Teavana's Toasted Nut Brulee, which is incredibly flavorful and blends very well with my beloved coconut black tea, and also French Spice Quartet, because I'm truly a sucker for anything with cloves in it. (The latter is amazing with chai oolong tea.)