Color of the Year

The Pantone Color Institute recently named "Tangerine Tango," a vibrant reddish orange, the official color of 2012. Well bring on 2012, because I just bought this gorgeous top at the Nordstrom Holiday Shopping Party last week — look who's ahead of the game! I wish I could say this was all I bought, but once I found out you could take the free wine into the dressing room with you, it was game over. Well played, Nordstrom.

Joie "Lenora" Pleated Tank

I can already picture this blouse with so many things in my wardrobe. And it meets all of my criteria — bright, fun color; vertical pleats to (hopefully) make me look tall and slender; loose and flowy so I can eat a lot without worrying about my potential food baby. (That last point is probably not something I should include on my criteria list, though, since I've recently realized that the majority of my blouses could double at maternity smocks one day. Not really a benefit.) I'm even more excited to wear this blouse given that we haven't seen the sun here in Minneapolis in days. For real . . . like since Sunday. I feel like I'm living in Alaska. At least this top will be a fun pop of color since the sun has apparently decided to hibernate.