A GRACE KARIN DRESS: VALENTINE'S DAY OUTFIT PROPOSAL

What to wear for Valentine's day? I'm sure many ladies (and gentlemen) are asking themselves that question. I can't offer much personal experience on dressing up for Valentine's day when it comes to gentlemen, but I can tell you what I've learned as a lady. I can sum it up in two main points: find something that will make you feel special but make sure you're comfortable at the same time. After all, you want to feel special on this lovely day, don't you? Now, you can define special anyway you want to. Moreover, you must also consider one important fact and that is how you are going to celebrate Valentine's day. If you are celebrating it by going on a hike with your significant other, obviously you'll ditch the heels and wear hiking boots. However, that doesn't mean you can't wear a pretty dress! My advice is to take a moment and plan your Valentine's day outfit, that way it will surely feel special. There are other things to consider as well, such as  where you'll be celebrating it and with whom. There is a lot of talk of Galentine this year, and I think the idea of celebrating this day with women you love is absolutely fabulous. Celebrating love in every shape and form is always good if you ask me. Rather than complain about the commercialization of this holiday, I like to take it as as a change to celebrate love because that surely deserves celebrating. Plus, I love festivities. Speaking of which, happy Lunar year to everyone who is celebrating it! I hope you're enjoying the Spring festival with your family and friends.

BLAZER & HEELS: OLD/ DRESS: HERE

 If you ask me, Valentine's day is simply the perfect time to wear a pretty dress, but if you absolutely abhor dresses, there are always other options. Indeed, there are many ways to make an outfit more feminine that don't include dresses, such as opting for feminine prints and silhouettes. A nice jumpsuit is a great option for a more dressed up Valentine's day celebration. The two of us have celebrated almost a dozen Valentine's day together and during the years I wore an array of different looks. Nevertheless, I often opted for dresses. Those who follow my blog for a while will surely remember at least one of my Valentine's day outfits, but if your memory fails you, feel free to remind yourself here and here. Different kind of dresses, worn with different kind of accessories, depending on whether we went for a fancy dinner or opted to go for a hike, but I often choose dresses on Valentine's day because it just feels right to wear a dress on this day. What about you? What do you like to wear on Valentine's day?

 Personally, this year I'd love to wear one of the designer dresses I have illustrated lately but (not on a teacher salary honey) I won't. So, I borrowed this lovely cherry print dress from my friend the Barbie doll. Well, not exactly. I actually got it as a gift from an internet site called Grace Karin. You can check out this dress here.  I already have one cherry print dress that I absolutely adore, but I figured another one won't hurt.  Who else loves cherry print? I happen to like both dresses and feminine prints, so the idea of bringing the two together really appeals to me.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with this retro dress. The only downside is that when I washed it, the colour from one the cherries spilled a bit, but I'm hoping this little discolouration will go away in future washings. Apart, from that, this dress is lovely.  It makes me want to dance, and that's always a good thing, right?  

This vintage style dress seems like a good option for a romantic date, doesn't it? I do believe that vintage style dresses are a wonderful option for Valentine's day, because they have that feminine appeal. With retro fashion becoming trendy, a dress like this one could be the perfect choice. If you don't own or can't find a true vintage item, you can always shop for vintage styled items. Today I'll show you two ways to wear this pretty little dress, one with a blazer and tights (for colder weather) and one minus the tights and blazer. Tell me which look do you prefer. 

The second outfit I'm sharing with you features the same dress, just minus the layers. If you're just getting in an out of the car, then you can get away with wearing just a sleeves dress under a warm coat. However, if you intend to spend time outdoors, please dress warmly. Getting a cold isn't worth it! My photographs might seem a contradiction in term, but if you check the weather prognosis, you'll see that we have actually enjoyed a very warm day in Herzegovina today. So, both me and my Barbie doll were dressed appropriately for these perfect weather conditions. 

I hope my friends from the colder regions won't think I'm rubbing it in, but today we have been blessed with the most marvellous weather. It was so sunny and warm for most of the day. We had some wind in the afternoon, but on overall it was a glorious day. I did get up at the crack of dawn to prepare for a business call from Beijing, and waited for an hour and a half in wain but let's not split hairs (at least I got the chance to reread some of Henry James masterful dialogues). Anyhow, it was nice to take a break from fashion illustrating and shot some photographs. My hands do need some rest, I've been doing a lot of drawing recently.

 I wasn't even a bit cold taking these photographs on my balcony. We had our fair share of cold this winter, but someone today when the sun came out all that cold simply disappeared and it felt like spring. That's Mediterranean climate for you. You can always count on sunny days.  It was so warm in my house today that we needn't to turn out the air condition.  Guests are always asking me how come my house is so warm, what kind of heating do we use and etc. The truth is that one air condition is all the heating we need. We did spend a lot of money on quality isolation and we have a lot of windows. It is hard to believe one can be this warm on a winter day without any heating whatsoever, but that's just the combination of good construction and warm Herzegovina sun. The design of the house serves to my husband's credit, he designed it, as well as negotiated and planned most of the construction work, while I was more in charge of inner decor and creating art. I think I already wrote about that. Scroll down to meet my friend the Barbie doll who has also enjoyed a nice sunny day. 

Remember how I said I borrowed my dress from a Barbie doll? Well, that wasn't exactly the case, but this look does remind of something that Barbie would wear. I actually bought a new Barbie doll so I could continue making dresses for Barbies ( I promised my niece new Barbie outfits). If you remember, last year I sewn my very first Barbie dresses. The dresses were a great hit with the little girls in my family. In fact, they were so popular I've been plotting new Barbie clothing ever since. Now, I've finally have a bit of spare time to devote myself to this task. You can see two of my DIY Barbie dresses in this post.  Making clothing for Barbie dolls can be tiresome because of all the tiny details, but it's also fun. The dress you can see on this Barbie doll is a work in progress, but I have many ideas and I'm sure I'll come up with something interesting. On another note, Barbie photography is such an interesting field, and I'm starting to realize it offers possibilities I never imagined. You know, taking photographs of Barbie dolls is something I think I'll enjoy. I only ever did it once prior to today (for the post I linked to), but I had so much fun taking these photographs today. It might become a new hobby of mine. Who knows?  As you can see, my Barbie is also celebrating Valentine's day. Just like myself, she got a lot of presents. Lucky us. Maybe I should name her? Any ideas for a name? 

That would be all for today. I hope you have enjoyed my Valentine's day outfit proposal. If you like this dress from Grace Karin site, you can use this code HMHZPJ19  to get 50 percent of your order (for example this dress is 29.90 without a code, and 15 dollars with the code).