Falling back into place

If you follow me on Instagram, then maybe you saw this photo I posted last night:



That's right! My insurance claim was finally processed, so I went out and snapped up my new Macbook. (Using the credit card that earns me Amazon points, which I will promptly pay off when my check is deposited on Friday. Free money, woop woop! Also, new computer, woop woop times infinity!)

I also decided to try to re-install my Adobe Creative Suite. I knew if I was able to install it, that would mean the pawn shop had uninstalled all my software on my old computer in addition to wiping my other info from it. And sure enough, Adobe installed! So good news all around.

It seems fitting, then, that I'm down to the last photos from my point-and-shoot camera. And they happen to be from the morning that all this ish went down. I've been kind of avoiding these pics, to be honest, and for a while I thought I wouldn't post them at all. But not posting them won't change anything, and I'm sick of letting fear and regret dictate my choices and actions. So here they are.






button-down: New York & Company
dress: eShakti
nude shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
silver shoes: DSW
necklace: gifted
The top photo is what I had planned to wear to work that day. I stuck the heels in my bag because walking long distances in them is pretty awful, so I was wearing flip flops. (Yes, I tried to chase down a thief wearing flips flops and a dress.) Needless to say, those nude shoes are gone. I would up wearing the silver ones when I went to work for a few hours that day in a vain attempt to distract myself.

I suppose the silver lining to losing those Franco Sartos is that I didn't wear them much because the heel height was a bit too much for me...and my insurance pays out replacement value for items, so they gave me $95 for these shoes instead of the $25 or so I paid. So, that's cool, I guess.

Those bottom two side-by-side photos, by the way, are what I wore to my sister's high school graduation party. It's so crazy to think that she's going to college in just about a month--but she's going to my alma mater, so I'll have plenty of excuses to visit her ;)

Good choices

vest: thrifted
cami: Old Navy
jeans: Target
heels: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
necklace: old, don't remember
bracelet: H&M
I wore this for a night out on the town with my friend from work a few weeks ago, back when weather was warmer and less rainy. It was her birthday, so she and I, and a few others, all raged appropriately. Or inappropriately, depending on how you look at it.

Just before I walked out the door, I took off those 4-inch heels and threw on my leopard-print flats. In retrospect, it was the best decision I made all night. I am a bit awkward in these heels when I'm sober, and I knew there'd be a good deal of walking involved. I was right.

Hey, so did you enter my giveaway yet?

Wedding weekend: Last of the year

dress: c/o eShakti
heels: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
bracelets: handmade in Uganda (fundraiser purchase)
ring: TaDa.com
First, I know that this dress looks gray, but it's definitely purple, I promise. Someday, I'll photograph it proper light, I swear. It's frustrating when outfits don't show up on camera the way they do in real life, isn't it? (Where are my fellow bloggers? You know what I'm talking about.)

Anyway, I wore this last Friday to Matt's sister's wedding rehearsal dinner. Even though this dress is wool, it's surprisingly light and comfortable, which is great because dinner was a several-hour-long gathering filled with wine, good company and great conversation. (Come to think of it, I feel like those three tend to go hand in hand, don't they?)

Saturday was, of course, the wedding. It was so unbelievably gorgeous; Matt's sister, Beth, looked like she came straight from 1940s Hollywood. I didn't get a chance to get a photo with her (she and her new husband were busy socializing with the other 150 guests, of course), but after the ceremony I pulled Matt aside for a quick snap of my outfit with my phone.


dress: Lily Boutique
scarf-as-shawl, necklace, clutch: Target
shoes: DSW
bracelet: Forever 21 ring: TaDa.com
This dress is actually kind of the reason why I don't shop online very often. When I first saw this dress on Pinterest, I immediately fell completely in love. I waited literally four weeks for it to come back in stock, then pounced on it the second it was available. On the mannequin, the dress looks great. Classy. Elegant. On me, it looks so short as to be almost a little...wel...inappropriate. Almost.

But when I wrapped this scarf around my shoulders, shawl-like, it added some modesty to the outfit and kept it from showing too much skin. Low(er) heels helped with that, too. Maybe next time I'll try it with a pair of opaque tights, to balance out the shortness, and leave my arms bare. Hm...

A preview, or, just a lazy post

It's Sunday night and I'm still kind of recovering from the holy terror of a thunderstorm that plowed through the midwest on Friday. Actually, we got off really lucky...we never lost power, no trees fell on our cars and the power lines didn't fall and ignite a fire that burned our garage to the ground. Our neighbors weren't so lucky; these things all happened within a block or two of us. For a storm that only lasted about thirty minutes, I saw more damage than I've ever seen before in my life. Crazy.

Truth is, I had a much-needed weekend off yesterday and today. It's my last completely free weekend for most of the summer, so lying around watching TV and reading Game of Thrones was exactly what I wanted to do. So here's a preview-ish photo that I happened to have edited and ready to go. A version of this outfit will appear as a guest post later in the week. (Update: It'll be on July 13...check that day's post for the link!) Trust me, it's exciting. I finally went back on my word and tried the whole colorblocking thang.




shirt: thrifted
cami: Old Navy
skirt: The Limited
shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's





I belatedly linked this up to Everybody, Everywear. Woot woot!

Routine

I'm still having the hardest time getting adjusted to a set routine or schedule with the new job. See, I'm a girl of planning, of scheduling, of consistency. Sure, I like a bit of spontaneity now and then (who doesn't?) but for the most part, I like to plan. And after three and a half weeks, I still haven't quite gotten into a swing when it comes to daily tasks like working out, blogging, showering, etc.

So my life still feels a bit hectic. I haven't gone to the gym in more than a month (sadface). For a while I was blogging at night, but I really prefer the whimsicality that my morning posts have. At night, my brain is on overdrive and I think too much about what to say. So now I'm trying to get up earlier, which is hard because I am the most un-morning person ever. This morning, I stood in front of my closet for ages because I just couldn't make my brain work hard enough to pick out an outfit. What I finally decided on—a pinstriped pink Oxford with my gray pencil skirt and black heels—still feels a bit off to me, but I'm so tired I frankly don't care. That's why I have a backlog of outfit photos, right?










blouse, skirt: thrifted
heels: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
necklace, earrings: InPink
bracelet: H&M
hair flower: Target

I don't know what I'm doing in that last photo. I guess trying to show off both my nail color and jewelry?

I have a very real love/hate relationship with this skirt. On one hand, it's cute and pink plaid and has a great shape. On the other hand, it's an extra small and squeezing my butt/thighs into it is usually a battle. I tried to have my grandma sew in a zipper to make the getting-on process easier (cause once it's on, it feels fine), but she couldn't. Alas. At least this shirt is a bit easier to deal with. And just as cute.

Also, don't forget that my giveaway ends tomorrow! Enter now while there's still time.

Rediscovering old clothes

I've had these slacks in the back of my closet for, I don't know, years. I wore fairly often two summers ago, but kind of forgot about them for most of 2011. They're a weird kind of so-dark-navy-that-they're-almost-black, and it's hard to see in the photos but they have very thin, light blue pinstripes. "They don't go with anything I own," I thought. "They're too hard to match."

False. I just wasn't trying hard enough.






sweater: Aeropostale
polo: Target
slacks: New York & Company
necklace: Tiffany & Co (gifted)
shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
If I think really hard about it, I can kind of remember buying these guys in a frantic shopping spree for "professional" clothes upon getting my first part-time office job. As it turns out, I didn't need to bother, because the office was so incredibly casual.

But the fit is so perfect at the waist and hips, and THEY'RE LONG ENOUGH. (For the record, this is one of only three or four pants I've ever worn in my life that fits both of those criteria. I'm dreaming of the day when I can buy some INDI jeans with my own custom measurements.) Anyway. What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry pants, for neglecting you. I promise to recognize your true worth from now on.

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Tomorrow's your last chance!

Monday already?

You know what's super annoying? When you spend all week planning to be productive on the weekend, but exhaustion and other commitments completely prevent you from getting almost anything done. Guess who that happened to this weekend. It's almost tempting enough to consider using a PTO day this week, but I only have so many of them and I have about a billion weddings coming up in the fall, so I want to try to save them for when I will really want to use them!






shirt: thrifted
slacks: New York & Company
scarf: The Limited
pumps: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
You know, I'm actually a firm believer that sometimes, you just have to take care of yourself first. Maybe my history of panic attacks is what makes me really force myself (not that it often takes much convincing) to have at least one day a week in which I don't do anything at all. I really think that's what helps me keep my sanity most of the time. When you're as busy as I am, having one day a week where you're not working from 9 am until 9 pm is really a pretty luxurious and incredible thing.

Oh, who knows. I'll probably be kicking myself tonight after work, when I'm trying to catch up on all the things I should have done this weekend. But that's the other thing that having panic attacks has taught me: There's no use worrying about the future if you can't do anything to change it now. So stop worrying, and cross that bridge when you come to it.

This really isn't the direction I saw this post going today. Oops. And oh well :)

Fat kid dreams

Lately, I've been having these incredibly vivid dreams about food. Normally, my dreams are pretty nonsensical (earlier this month, I had a dream about a cat that had my brother's head on it). So to have relatively normal dreams about eating delicious foods (albeit in sometimes bizzarre circumstances) is kind of nice. And man, this food tastes good.

Last week, it was a decadent chocolate cake. A few nights ago, the best apple pie I've ever had in my life. Last night, an incredible root beer float. So weird. The downside? I wake up craving food that 1) has no right being eaten for breakfast and 2) is simply impossible to replicate in real life. That's how good these dreams are.

Didn't mean to get off on such a detailed tangent about food dreams. I woke up an hour ago. I'm starving.






blazer and shirt: thrifted
slacks: New York & Company
shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
necklace: DIYed-ish
bracelet: Forever 21
Last night, in addition to getting groceries and doing some major work on my current freelance project, I finished Matt's Halloween costume. It looks horribly hand-made, but I figure, he's a boy dressing as a girl. How good can it really look?

For my costume, I just need to pick up some fake vomit and a nice bottle of whiskey. (Yes, the whiskey is an entirely necessary part of the costume. Hooray!) I can't wait to show you all photos! It's going to be awesome.

Split minds

Every morning when I get dressed, I compose a blog post in my head that corresponds to the outfit I'm wearing. I think about talking points, like how I almost paired a different shirt or necklace with the outfit, or a funny story about an item I'm wearing.

But by the time I actually post the outfit, a few days to a week later, I've almost always forgotten what talking points I had thought up and inevitably wind up talking about something else. Like with this outfit, I'm sure I had intended to say something about how I'm not sure if this all-neutrals outfit is chic or if it just makes me look washed out. But all I want to talk about this morning is how Spazzy keeps staring at me and mewing, and how stinking cute she is.






button down: New York & Company
cami: Old Navy
capris: Target
shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's
necklace: Banana Republic
Sometimes I remember what talking points I had wanted to touch upon, and then it starts to compete with whatever's going on at the moment I'm writing, and the post winds up sounding like two different people wrote it. Which I'm sure is rather weird to read, particularly if you can't follow my train of thought. (But don't feel bad if you can't...few people can. Even Matt makes me stop for clarification at times, haha.)

Oh well. Spazzy is now asleep next to me on the couch, and there's more adorableness going on there, so I think I'm just going to forget about my split-personality blogging habits and bug her for a little bit :)

This is not yesterday's outfit.

In fact, it is the first of a series of outfits that were worn/photographed before the 30x30 challenge. Time to play catch up, amiright? :)

Sadly, yesterday's outfit was not photographed at all due to unfortunate circumstances. I don't want to bore you, so long story short, my clutch system in my car is screwed up. We think it has something to do with engine temperature running slightly too high, which makes some metal part--probably a spring or a worn-down pad--expand and stick. So I'm driving through some terrible stop-and-go construction traffic, trying to get back to work after a doctor's appointment. And my clutch starts sticking. Then it stays stuck. As in, pushed all the way in, so when I hit the gas, my car goes nowhere because it thinks it's in neutra, even though it's really in gear.

So there I am. It's 95 degrees (higher if you consider the heat index) and I'm backing up traffic. Everyone's beeping, even though my hazards are on and I'm waving them to go around. Finally, some kind soul stops and helps me push my car off to a side street. I call the tow truck and wait 45 minutes in the sweltering heat. My outfit is soaked through with sweat (gross, I know, but that's why I couldn't take pictures of it). When the tow guy gets there, my clutch is perfectly fine again. UGH.

Was up all night with stress dreams about money, the work I missed yesterday, etc. Feeling like crap this morning. There's ten bucks in my wallet, I'm thinking about taking it to the thrift store for some discount retail therapy. Cause you KNOW I can't afford real shopping now that I have a car repair to deal with.

But on the bright side. I love this outfit and it makes me smile.

shirt, brooch and long shorts: New York and Company
shoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's

I missed these shoes during my 30x30 challenge. I wore them yesterday, too, which made me look ridiculous--running around by my disabled car in a cami (had to ditch the button-up shirt, too hot), a bright red pencil skirt and these monsters. It was so hot (HOW HOT WAS IT?) it was so hot I had to actually walk up to a woman doing some yard work and beg her for a glass of water. She was the sweetest lady--she and her son brought me inside, where it was air conditioned, and gave me two full glasses of ice water, plus one for the road. They also offered me OJ and snacks. Sometimes, the kindness of people really makes a bad situation a bit better.

Oversleeping

I'm running late today so there's not much time for chit-chat. But I do think it's funny to be posting a photo of me in a blazer in early June...suffice to say that when I wore this last week (or the week before?) I had to ditch the blazer for most of the day. But I just love the jeans-heels-and-blazer combo, don't you?

Blazer: Mossimo via TargetShirt: The LimitedJeans: Silver via Macy'sShoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall'sNecklace: FigleafWatch: Walmart

And before you ask: No, I don't know what kind of crazy dance move that is in the second photo :)

Oh look! It's the sun

For the first time in what seems like ages, the sun is out and the skies are clear today! Of course, we've had patches of sun recently--that's what I've been using for posts this week (and today), since indoor lighting in my apartment is God-awful for pictures. And even though Matt and I woke up to frost on our windshields and it's still only 40 degrees, the forecast is supposed to hit the mid-60s today, with no rain. I'll take it.

Shirt: Old Navy
Skirt & Necklace: The Limited
Belt: TargetShoes: Franco Sarto via Marshall's

Can I just say how much I love these shoes? I freaking adore them. There. I'd been looking for a nude heel for a while, and when I found these at Marshall's I about died. The only problem is they're about half a size too big (the next size down was far too small), so I have to walk slowly in them. Oh, the four-inch heel kind of adds to that.

I think Matt dislikes these shoes because they make me an even six feet, which means I tower over him. For the record, we're both around 5'8" in bare feet. Oh, the joys of being a tall lady.

By the way...anyone out there know why my photos are loading to Blogger with different widths, even though I size them all the same in Photoshop?