Cheryl Shops

If you've been following me on Instagram, you know that I just returned from a 10-day vacation to Stockholm and Copenhagen. It was an amazing—I'll be posting my travel diaries over the next few weeks—and thanks to Sean's handy new travel camera, we took a ton of photos. So instead of focusing on just one outfit from my trip, I thought I'd share all of them with you. Here's what I wore during the four days we spent in Stockholm.

Happy Friday, and happy first day of non-cardholder access to the Nordstrom Anniversary sale! I just went to the store tonight to pick up a cardigan I ordered (it's still in stock, and you'll be seeing it here shortly) and the racks already look super picked over, so clearly the cardholders went to town in the last week. I actually had to redo this post several times, because the items I wanted to feature kept selling out. That said, there's still a lot of great stuff left from some of my favorite brands (and restocks are bound to happen), so I've picked everything from a statement sweater to this season's version of my favorite coat from last year's sale, plus a can't-miss beauty score. Here's what's in my cart for the second round.

I feel like my wardrobe is on the brink of a major transformation. It’s something that’s been brewing for awhile, thanks to ongoing Kondo-ing of my closet, but I think it’s about to come to fruition. I started a new job a few months ago; it’s creative, but in a corporate environment, and I’m now at a level where I’m feeling like I need a certain level of polish. It’s not necessarily dressiness; it’s more dressing to align with the authority of my position. I’ve found that I’m gravitating more toward a blazer-blouse-jeans combination, and when I wear skirts, midi suits me better. I’m not going to ditch all of my beloved minis, but I definitely need to pare down my collection, and probably confine them to the weekend. That is a rather lengthy lead-in to this post, but it sets the direction that my outfit posts will be moving toward. I never want to be the person to say what you should and shouldn’t wear at a certain age; I always say wear what makes you feel good—and at this point in my life, I’m feeling good in more tailored, polished things.

Like nearly every other fashion blogger on the planet, I always look forward to the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale in July. In spite of the fact that I'm a very good Nordstrom customer, I didn't get a sale catalog in the mail this year. But that's ok, because it's online and catalogs are bad for the environment anyway. (Nor did I get to shop the sale extra-early like a bunch of other bloggers, but that's ok too.) I will say, I am not super excited about what I've seen so far—like last year, the sale is a little heavy on Nordstrom private-label brands like Halogen—but I did manage to scope out some good finds. Nordstrom Cardmembers, you get to shop starting TODAY, Friday, July 12th; everyone else has to wait until the following Friday (which is kind of reason alone to sign up for a Nordstrom card). Here are my picks from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. (And yes, I know this is only six items—another another round of picks is coming soon!)

I lived in NYC for 13 years, and while I often miss having a proper summer, I don’t always miss the humidity that comes with it. That said, it felt good to be back on the East Coast for my friends’ wedding in Boston a few weekends ago. I hadn’t been to Boston in seven years, and it had been many more since I’d been there in summer. Aside from a few isolated rainstorms (including a particularly memorable one during the outdoor ceremony), we lucked out with the weather, and more importantly, I had a fantastic time catching up with some of my oldest, closest friends. Here’s what I wore to the wedding and to the welcome party.

First of all, apologies for the flakiness of my posts lately. I started a new job about a month ago (that I love!) and I don't have as much time to work on the blog as I used to. I was also traveling to a wedding last weekend, and this week was a holiday week. I'm also guessing that not many of you will be reading this post at 5pm on a Friday night, but hopefully you'll see it sooner or later! Since last year's summer dresses under $100 post was so popular, I thought I'd bring it back with a fresh batch of bright, fun, colorful dresses. Here are some of my favorites this season.

One of the many benefits of being a fashion blogger is that you get to discover all sorts of new ways to shop. They don’t call me Cheryl Shops for nothing, so when Fashom reached out to ask if I wanted to try their service, I, of course, jumped at the chance. Fashom is a try-before-you-buy styling service, kind of like the one that rhymes with Pitch Mix: you take a quiz online to determine your style profile, a stylist picks out some clothing or accessories for you, they arrive in the mail, you keep what you want, and send back what you don’t. The styling fee is $15 (it’s free your first time), and you can apply it toward anything you purchase; buy 3 or 4 of your items and you get 25% off, or buy all 5 and you get 30% off. The big difference is that you get to choose which items you want after your stylist narrows it down for you, and for me, that was a huge—and very positive—difference. Here’s what I chose for my Fashom box.

Way back in December, I mentioned in this post that I was contemplating buying a black midi skirt, but I talked myself out of it because I figured I could re-create the look with a dress. That worked for winter when I was wearing heavily layered looks, but now that it's warmer (and we've had a crazy heat wave), lighter is the way to go. So, long story short, I pulled the trigger on a black midi skirt, and I've worn it approximately five times in the last two weeks. It goes with so much, but here's one of my favorite ways to wear it.

It's been awhile since I've done a get the look post, but while I've been sleeping on it, you guys have been pinning up a storm—and this month's most-pinned look from my Outfit ideas for ageless style Pinterest board feels just in time for summer in San Francisco. And by that, I mean it's lighter-colored and incorporates sandals, but also layers, because fog. I'm so excited about this look, I kind of want to get it for myself, so here's how I'd do it.

Ok, before you get all technical on me, this dress is probably not actually a muumuu. It has an empire waist and some crazy sleeves, and I doubt Hawaiians make their muumuus out of toile. It was also not super-well suited to the 98-degree weather we were having when we shot these photos (yes, in June!). But this dress is loose, comfy, and easy to wear, plus it captures the laid-back spirit of summer (and of Hawaii), so I think that makes it an honorary muumuu. That said, this dress is a lot of look. so let's jump right into how to wear it.

In my neighborhood alone, there are several beauty retailers to choose from—everything from big guns like Ulta and Sephora, to single-brand fragrance stores (Atelier Cologne and Le Labo), clean beauty (Credo), and super luxe  (SpaceNK). For a beauty junkie like me, the more the merrier, which is why I was eager to check out the latest addition to my neighborhood, Bluemercury. Owned by Macy's, this very boutiquey chain is ramping up its presence in the Bay Area; the location nearest me, in Laurel Village, was one of nine new stores that opened last week alone. But what makes Bluemercury different from other stores, and why should you shop there?

The first thing you may notice about this outfit is that I’m wearing Birkenstocks. I will get to that in a moment. I would like to start with the fact that we shot these photos a mere week ago and I was literally freezing; today the high in San Francisco was 97 degrees. In the six years I’ve lived here, I think it’s been that warm here once, two years ago, and that was in September, which is usually the hottest time of the year. I know I complained about how crappy the weather was in winter and earlier in the spring, so it probably seems a little hypocritical (or even whiny) of me to complain about the heat now, but keep in mind, this is a city where most people don’t have air-conditioning…because even temperatures in the 70s are rare. Long story short, global warming is real. So in the name of less complaining and more action, here are 10 easy things you can do to stop global warming, courtesy of my alma mater. Now that’s that’s been said, let’s move on to my outfit.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, it seems like Mexico City is THE place to go right now, and for good reason—it's really affordable, it has world-class museums and restaurants, and it's a quick flight from most of the US (it was only about 4.5 hours from San Francisco). There's so much to see and do that it's hard to pack it into a single trip; we were there for five days and definitely feel like we need to (and want to) go back for more.  That said, I was happy with what we accomplished in our time there. So without further ado, here's what did, where we ate, how we got around, and why we loved Mexico City so much.

In case you haven't been following me on Instagram (shameless plug, sorry), I spent an extended Memorial Day weekend in Mexico City. I had wanted to go there for awhile—I feel like nearly everyone I know has been there in recent years—and without spoiling my upcoming trip diary, it completely lived up to the hype. The food was amazing (and cheap), the city very urbane, the people incredibly kind, and I had a fantastic time overall. We were incredibly lucky weather-wise—it rained briefly a few times at night (it's the beginning of the rainy season) but was sunny and in the low 80s during the day. The city is at a very high elevation (7,000 feet!) and the air is quite dry, so the weather was actually quite temperate (and my hair remained blissfully frizz free). I stuck to a light-neutral color palette for this trip, which made both packing and getting dressed quite easy. Plus, the city is gorgeous and brightly colored in lots of spots, so it totally popped in photos against my outfits. Speaking of which, here's one of my favorite looks from the trip.

I'm just back from a trip to Mexico City—yes, my full travel diary will be coming soon—and after five straight days of eating and drinking to my heart's content in a warm, dry climate, it almost feels like forever ago that we shot these photos. I also still have a bit of vacation brain, so apologies in advance if this post kind of meanders. There is no overall theme to this week's post, other than these are the pieces I've been living in lately, many of which I brought on vacation, and most of which you've seen before. Together, they're all neutral pieces (yes, leopard is a neutral!) that just work really well together. Here's how.

For some people, the start of summer means barbecues, fireworks, and the beach. To me, it means sales. For some reason, I enjoy shopping summer sales more than winter ones—I feel like winter sales happen around the holidays, when I'm stressed out for various other reasons. Summer is all about fun—bright colors, light fabrics, bare skin. And since the sales are just getting started, here are 16 items from some of my favorite designers, currently in my various online shopping bags. Everything here is under $500, with a handful items under $100 too. Pretty much every boutique and department store is on sale right now, from Barneys and Nordstrom to Shopbop and Net-A-Porter, so shop to your heart's content!

This week's outfit post is a bit different than my usual format, and it's all the weather's fault. May is usually a gorgeous month in San Francisco, but it's been unseasonably cold—it's even been raining lately, which is unheard of for this time of year. I had planned on wearing the first look featured here, but brought warmer layers so we could go out to dinner afterward. As it turns out, my warmer layers looked cute too, so we just ended up shooting both outfits. One is more dressed up and polished; the other is more casual and cool—and I can't decide which is my favorite, even now. Let me know what you think of this new format in the comments, and if it's a hit, I'll do it again from time to time.

I tried Armoire free for a month but was not paid for this post.

In this day and age of Marie Kondo, I think we can all agree that we probably own too many clothes, especially ones we haven't worn in months (or years). It's very liberating to get rid of a lot of them. And while the concept of a super-minimalist, capsule wardrobe appeals to me, I'm only human and need a little variety now and then. Which is why I'm fascinated by clothing rental services. Do we even need to own our clothing anymore? After all, we share cars (Getaround and Turo, not to mention Uber and Lyft), homes (Airbnb), workspaces (WeWork), money (Lending Club, Kickstarter), even knowledge and skills (TaskRabbit, UpWork). My curiosity was piqued when Armoire offered me a free trial—it's billed as an "infinite wardrobe," in that you can borrow up to 8 pieces at a time and swap them out as frequently as you want, all for $149 a month. So, in the name of investigative reporting, I said yes. Here's my honest review.

I've been on both a Marie Kondo-ing tear and a subsequent spring shopping spree lately, and both felt good. The Kon-Mari has cleared out a lot of space in my closet and also made me more conscious of what I'm buying. I am only shopping for things that spark joy, and I am thinking long and hard about whether I'm going to wear something for just a few months or if it's going to be a long-term addition to my closet. Of course, sometimes the best intentions don't always pan out, and it's hard to predict the future, but this pale pink linen blazer is certainly sparking joy for me, and I have a feeling it's going to stick around for awhile. I've already worn it multiple ways, but here's a wear-now, wear-anytime kind of look—and one of my favorites right now.

This post is sponsored by Brita, but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Real talk: plastic water bottles are bad for the environment. Like really bad. Americans consume 2,000 bottles of plastic water per second, and if we keep going at this rate, there will be more plastic bottles than fish in the ocean by 2050. The good news is that there's an easy solution to this problem: filling your own reusable water bottle with filtered water. It's a super easy thing to do that has a huge impact on the environment, plus you'll save money (hey, those plastic water bottles add up!) and filtered water tastes just as good as (or even better than) the stuff that comes from a bottle. Here's how I'm ditching bottled water with the help of Brita.