Really, the only difference between the two outfits is the blazer. The key to making this pairing work lies in the shades of blue. The way I like to think about print mixing a shirt and skirt is to pretend you're creating a custom dress that's just for you.

This next outfit is what I wore to my father-in-law's retirement ceremony. I wore my dark denim jacket for the actual party because it was inside a heavily air conditioned building so the extra layer was nice, but I went without the rest of the day.

I fell in love with this pineapple t-shirt last year and my love continues on this year. I love the way this outfit turned out. The bright colors of the t-shirt paired with the fun pattern of the skirt and punctuated with a surprise pop of bright yellow.

Which brings us to Saturday...

I had every intention of wearing this dress on its own, but then decided I didn't like the way it was laying. First, I tried a wide belt, which worked but I still wasn't satisfied with the top, so I layered my short-sleeve button-up chambray shirt over everything, but it was too lose and looked kind of sloppy. So then I decided to tie the bottom. I did it two different ways and settled on this version where you can still see a peek of the dress top. Then I went through at least eight pair of shoes before I decided on these dark brown slides. This was the perfect running errands followed by dinner with the hubs outfit.