Day Five is the start of the work week after a long holiday break from the office.  It actually felt good today to dress up and get out of the jeans and sweatpants.  After wearing t-shirts and jeans as my “work uniform” for a few years, I love wearing fashion forward outfits with accessories galore!  Today I celebrated one of my favorite brands that is not widely available here in Seattle.  Desigual is a casual clothing brand based in Barcelona, Spain, one of my favorite places in the world.

They have amazing stores in Spain and a few here in the U.S.  I walked by one such store every day in Manhattan when I worked in Times Square a few years ago.  Now, I never entered the store unless they had a huge sale going on and then I walked right by that store guard and entered the inner sanctum of crazy colorful prints.  These wild prints and intense designs combined with flamboyant splashes of color are their trademarks on clothes for all.  Of course, I am a bargain shopper and they don’t run cheap so I wait for the 50% off sales and then pounce.  Today, I wore my beige/black print skirt and got a few compliments on it.  Don’t you just love a cute skirt with pockets???  In addition, I tied on their wild clown print scarf inspired by Cirque Du Soleil, which I got in Las Vegas on my daughter’s 21st birthday trip when we saw the Beatles Cirq show.  This show was overwhelming in it’s intensity just like the Desigual prints. And, yes, I am the coolest Mom in the world for taking my daughter to the Venetian for a weekend of light gambling and intense shopping and people watching.  So. Much. Fun.

With two wild prints, the rest of my outfit needed to be a solid color but not boring.  I only own one Eileen Fisher piece, which I picked up drastically reduced at Nordstrom Rack.  She has great quality items that are classic in design but are grossly over priced.  I love the lime green color that makes the prints “pop” and pulls out the green in the predominantly red scarf.  All these colors just make me feel so positive on a rainy Monday in Seattle.  Clothes DO affect your mood so dress for happiness.

P.S.  The amazing Rooster print I am standing by was given to my husband when he visited a local Community Center in Shanghai to take a calligraphy lesson from the locals.  When they found out he was born in the Year of the Rooster, one artist drew this while he was there and proudly presented it to him as a gift.  We just got settled into our new home and framed it on our bedroom wall.  It looks gorgeous and we can’t wait to send the artist an email to share with him how much we treasure it.  Memories of China abound!