A Shiny Start to 2020 + My Word of the Year!

     This past December ended up being busier for me than I anticipated, so sadly I wasn't able to share my favorite glam holiday look with y'all until today- a little over a week after New Year's. Whoops! Hopefully you'll excuse my lateness on that (and the fact there are Christmas trees in the background of these photos...). Anyways I still wanted to share this cute sequin dress with y'all as it could still be appropriate for other types of glamorous winter events besides just NYE. I'm also sharing my 2020 word of the year today!

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Dress c/o {15% off purchase with code alk315} // Shoes {old, similar here} // Purse c/o // Earrings c/o // 

     I've loved the look of sequin dresses for a long time, and I feel like that love grows even more at Christmas and NYE. I've owned my fair share of sequin dresses over the years, but I am quite picky about them. It is so unfortunate that a lot of sequin dresses are just not very comfortable to wear! Some of them are itchy, some of them aren't made of flexible material, some of them are heavy... some of them are all three of those things and more.
     But this sequin dress is a true Shein win!! It is incredibly comfortable to wear, so much so that you'll probably forget you're wearing sequins. It is priced under $35 which I think is very reasonable for a dress of this style. The dark green color is such a radiant hue for the winter season as well!
     My one main complaint about the dress is that the slit in the front of it is very open. It is still a gorgeous dress and that wouldn't be a concern if you're wearing it for an event where you won't be that active... but I personally love to dance and can sometimes pull out crazy dance moves, if I did that in this dress I would flash a lot of people. 😂I am planning to wear it to a semi-formal event with tights in a couple weeks so that it will be a safer choice for dancing, lol! I still love the dress, just wanted to note my one complaint with it.


     I also wanted to share my 2020 word of the year today! I had actually never really understood of jumped on the word of the year train before 2019, haha. But last year I ended up picking the word rooted, and it ended up being such a perfect mantra for 2019 in my life when looking back on the year.
     My word for 2020 is wander. 2019 was a year of really feeling at home and at peace with routine and life in Charlottesville. Now that I have all that down, I wanted to explore and travel as much as possible. Both with large scale trips, and also continuing to explore Virginia and my own backyard. I don't have any travel plans for January, but starting with February I'd like to hopefully be out of town at least 1-2 weekends a month! One thing that I've become really grateful and aware of in the last few months is that as a single woman, I have the ability to have true freedom and do things like travel frequently, without having to consider a husband or children. Where it is my desire to eventually be married and settle down, I want to take as much advantage as possible of my current stage of life now! And have some great adventures near and far in the process.

     God Bless,


     xoxo Annaliese