climbing the corporate ladder

This morning I struggled with choosing an outfit for the impending work day. You see, I had to match my clothes to the new hat I will be wearing this afternoon--my promotion went into effect on Monday but nothing has really changed yet because things are so crazy and disorganized in the office. The only reason I am even stepping into the new position at all this week is that clients are visiting from Boston for the next couple of days and I had to look "business casual." Pretty easy, because that basically means no jeans. Still, I didn't want to look like too much of a thrifty lunatic.

Problem #2 is that I'm just generally having trouble dressing for an office environment in the springtime. All of my new, cute spring clothes are either totally inappropriate for work (rompers? people would laugh...) or I just feel like a day in my cubicle is a totally unworthy occasion to debut new spring duds for. Still, I don't want to revert to wearing boring fall grays and browns... thus, dilemma.

I feel sort of like a sailor in this outfit. Nautical stripes + rope-like belt = ahoy! So... that's sort of Boston/New England, right? Which is appropriate, since the clients are Bostonians? No matter. I overthink these things.

Also appropriate: I realized the last time I wore this belt that it smells rather like a barn. I was sitting in a meeting in a stuffy, enclosed space and kept glancing furtively at the guy next to me because I thought he smelled kind of a like a dairy farm. When I left the meeting, however, the stink came along... and I came to the conclusion that my belt smells like hay bales. I'm hoping that wearing it out in the world will work the weird smell out of it. Otherwise I'll have to resort to spritzing it heavily with perfume and hoping for the best.

Also, I matched my shoes and socks to my belt. I couldn't help it.

(dress/belt: old navy; skirt/scarf: vintage; socks: walmart; shoes: Kohl's)