Unexpectedly Sunny with a Chance of Moral Superiority

In honor of a very Southern winter day, a little Scarlett O'Hara

Tunic: COIN, Florence, Italy, gift from parents

Leggings: Target

Shoes: TOMS (The link goes to the silver ones because the black ones aren't available right now.)

Earrings: Bazaar in Turkey

This morning I checked the weather online before I got dressed. It said there would be rain and a high of 69, which was a little disappointing because I really wanted to wear these cute faux suede flats with little netting rosettes. They would have gone perfectly with this outfit, but I didn't want to get them wet, so I went for my TOMS instead. I layered my favorite all-purpose gray cardigan to stay warm in the wet weather, grabbed an umbrella, and headed out.

Cut to 12:45 this afternoon, when I was walking back to my office from a class. The sun was out, the birds were chirping, and it was about 75 degrees. I felt like I had stumbled into April. Last month, I had to buy a hat (something you almost never need this far south) because the high was consistently 40. Today, there were shirtless guys playing soccer on the intramural field next to my building. And that, dear readers, is winter in the South. Arctic frigidness one day, tropical breezes the next. Our summers may be impossibly hot, but at least it's easy to dress when you know it's going to rain every afternoon at 4:00 and be 95 humid degrees the rest of the day.

So anyway, this outfit wasn't quite what I wanted, but I think it's okay. I love this tunic that my parents brought back from Italy in the fall. My mom said that all the Italian girls were wearing them, which makes me feel super-fashionable and honestly a little smug about my fashion-forwardness. Combine that with the self-righteousness I get from wearing my TOMS, plus the fact that my earrings cost one lira in a Turkish bazaar and are therefore international and cool, and you have an outfit that should send me to the top of the prayer chain at church. And I don't mean the "people who are sick and needy" prayer chain. I mean the "people whose souls need some help" prayer chain. Yikes.