Happy Fourth!

shirt: thrifted
skirt: The Limited
shoes: Payless
necklace: Express
belt, bracelet: Target
America! I don't have any red, white AND blue outfits in my queue, but this one is red and white, so...good enough?

So sometimes, my work outfits are a little more casual. I've mentioned before how lucky I am to have a pretty casual work environment. But every once in a while, I like to really dress it up. And for that, nothing but a pencil skirt will do!

Of course, a fitted button-down shirt and kitten heels help, too! I love the kind of edgy touch that the spikes add to it, too.

Well, I'm off to run a few errands before Matt and I head over to a bomb-ass Fourth of July party. Matt's boss throws this shindig every year, complete with a rented food cart and a bouncy house for the kids. It's pretty rad. Here's hoping the rain holds off for fireworks tonight! What about you all? Any plans for 'Murrica day?

Crunch time

t-shirt, necklace: Old Navy
short-sleeve button-down: New York & Company
skirt: thrifted
shoes: Payless
I read somewhere once that our brains are hard-wired to reward us for procrastinating. That must be true, because I always find myself in a tizzy the week before a deadline, scrambling to get everything together at the last second that I refused to do back when there was time.

This week is that week for me. But I've already sent in one project, and I just have one more three-story assignment to get through before July 1 before I'm able to get back to normal. And then I probably won't take on anything new for a while ;) But until then...I have a lot of work to do.

It's a brand new day, and the sun is high

pink shirt: JCPenney
collared sleeveless shirt: New York & Company
skirt: Target
shoes: Payless
necklace: Express
That is a reference to Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, for those of you who didn't know. And if you haven't seen it yet, my God, go do it. Right now. It's only 45 minutes long and I swear it is both hilarious and incredibly well-done. (Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, directed by Joss Whedon...need I say more?)

Anyway.

That song popped into my head as I was trying to think about what to write tonight. Because I'll be honest, May did not end well for me. Part of it was external issues that were affecting me, but it was mostly a negative attitude on my part that really dragged me down. And that negative attitude was caused, in part, by my inability (or unwillingness) to cope with what was stressing me. It was this awful cycle that took me into two weeks of rollercoaster emotions.

So.

As the song goes, it's a brand new day. I still have a lot on my plate (what in the world possessed me to take on two huge freelance projects simultaneously?!), but I'm going to handle it differently. And that includes being proactive about my stressors--finding ways to beat them before they get out of control.

That means making some real changes in my life. No more skipping out on the gym--I need the endorphins, and all of my shorts from last year didn't simultaneously shrink of their own accord. (I'm not kidding. I have exactly one pair of shorts and no capris left from last year--had to do a mad dash around thrift/consignment stores last weekend.) I'm also going to be more productive in the evenings, freeing up time to work on work and not bloggy stuff. I'm going to get up an hour earlier every morning (aaaahhhhhhhh!) to write posts, take and edit photos, and (on days I'm not posting) to do still more freelance stuff. That part will be the hardest. I'm not a morning person. I'm already dreading my alarm.

So bear with me as I adjust to this new schedule. Posts might become a little more weird and confusing--I often sip a glass of wine when I blog in the evenings, which explains a lot of my candid/stream-of-conscious writing, but obviously I can't do that before work in the morning. And sleepy Emma is a lot weirder than one-glass-of-wine Emma. You'll see.

*cue evil laughter*

The "winter wall"

sweater: The Limited
polo: Target
slacks: thrifted
shoes: Payless
hair flower: H&M
necklaces: gifted
That's the official name I'm giving this slump I'm in. I've hit the wall. Winter is the most dreary time of year in Ohio, where we can go weeks without seeing a blue sky or the sun. And the cold, snow, and general crappy weather conditions are not conducive to cute outfit styling. More often than not, I find myself dragging my butt out of bed and throwing on the warmest combination of clothing I can find...and that combination is rarely flattering, or stylish, or blog-worthy. Usually it's just slacks, flats and a sweater. Today I managed to make that combination work in a blogable way, but that's a rare occurrence. (It's not this outfit. This outfit is my typical, boring winter uniform.)

The same thing happened last winter, too. I hope you'll all bear with my lack of acceptable outfit posts between now and spring. I promise, this ol' blog will get interesting again as soon as the weather perks up.

Do all bloggers go through this? How do you handle the winter blahs? What outfit pieces help pull you out of the cold-weather rut?

Yesterday's absence is brought to you by cheese. Because that's normal.

So I was all set to write a post for yesterday evening. I edited photos, got them uploaded, and was just about to start writing, when...fondue happened. And some other things, but I'll talk more about that on Fiscal Friday this week. So anyway, blame cheese. Cheese is the reason why I didn't post yesterday.






button-down: old, don't remember
cami, necklace: Target
slacks: secondhand
flats: Payless
bracelet: H&M
So last weekend was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with my bloggy-turned-real-life friend, Kellyn of The Church Mouse, who just moved here from Texas. I showed her a little bit of the city, we got brunch, and we went thrifting. (I scored an AMAZING faux leather moto jacket. Can't wait until the temps are above freezing again to wear it!)

Speaking of warmer temps, Ohio had a nice little "heat wave" last week, with temps in the 40s, 50s and even 60s! It was glorious. I took these photos outside simply because it was warm enough to do so, but I failed to realize the post-work light would be less than ideal for photos. Womp womp.

(P.S. to all you Columbus-ites: Don't forget to enter my giveaway! It ends this week!)

Now, it's back to the dismal 20s and 30s that are more characteristic of Ohio in January. Le sigh. At least it hasn't snowed again (yet).

Worded out

shirt: old, don't remember
blazer: thrifted
slacks: New York & Company
necklace: Forever 21 or H&M? not sure.
flats: Payless
I don't usually pre-draft blog posts. I'm more of a stream-of-consciousness writer. But just now, I drafted a whole post for the (probably temporary) return of Fiscal Fridays, and let me tell you, I am all worded out. I don't even really know what that means, but it makes me giggle to say it in my head so I'm going to stick with that phrase.

I'm hoping to return to Pinspiration Mondays as well next week, with my first-ever Pinspiration recipe. Well, it's not a recipe, per se. It's a drink. Which is vaguely recipe-like, only instead of making me (and my friends) feel full, it will make us feel drunk. Because it will make us drunk. Woohoo?

Yay photos, boo allergies

dress: H&M (thrifted)
cardi, belt, tights: Target
shoes: Payless
necklace: Banana Republic, I think?
This week, I've been going out with my friend Chasity (one of the girls who live upstairs that I've mentioned) to take outfit photos. At first, it was a little awkward, of course, but today we went down to the park at the end of our street and got some really awesome shots. I can't wait to show them to you guys! (She's even editing them for me, so I might actually have some professional-blog-quality photos on here soon. I'm a little excited.)

This outfit really makes me feel like fall is pretty much in full swing. It's been getting steadily chillier (until a weird warm day today), but it's definitely tights season. In other news, allergies are kicking my tail. Things have been a little rough the last few mornings, and as I type I have to pause every so often to sniffle a bit. Ugh. I'm just gonna curl up in my sweats and watch me some Grey's Anatomy with those upstairs girls :)

Summer cold

shirt, skirt: secondhand
necklace: InPink
shoes: Payless

I wore this last Saturday to a friend's housewarming party. I may or may not have obnoxiously counted down the minutes to my birthday, starting at 11:55 pm. Hey, I get excited about birthdays. And when there's alcohol involved, well...I get really excited. My friends were super sweet and, despite how annoying I'm sure I was, they all sang me "Happy Birthday" at the stroke of midnight. It made my whole night.

Do you ever get summer colds? I seem to get one every year, and this year's wasted no time...it's the first day of summer and I'm stuffy, achy, groggy and blah. I only made it through the work day by heading to the drugstore and dropping $20 on cold medicine. I have a full weekend ahead of me...I'm gonna go ahead and call that money well spent!

Surprises

I'm a big fan of surprises. At least, I am when they're good surprises. Being attacked by an angry swarm of bees as I walked to the bus stop after work yesterday? Not a good surprise. (Okay, to be fair, I wasn't really attacked. And they didn't seem too angry. But there was a swarm of bees in the intersection yesterday, and it was pretty strange. And scary. Pretty sure that many beestings would kill anyone. Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah. Surprises.) Finding a package on my doorstep from a certain amazing blog-friend-turned-actual-friend was quite the pleasant surprise, on the other hand.






Yup, my gal Sydney sent me a lovely package with three skirts, two tanks (one of which I'm wearing right now) and three blouse-y type shirts. And THEY ALL FIT. Even the button down shirt, which is crazy cause those things almost never fit me right. You guys, I think I found my clothes soul mate.






Syd always sends the cutest cards in her packages, too. Seriously girl, where do you get those? Adorbs.

Anyway, pics of my coffee table wearing clothes is no fun. So here are some of me wearing clothes.









shirt: secondhand
tank: Target
jeans: Silver via Macy's
flats: Payless
necklace: gifted

I also recently got an ENORMOUS pile of clothes from my friend Allory, who cleaned out her closet and generously let me haul away the discards. The stuff that I didn't want (because it didn't fit, was out of style, was just workout clothes, or whatever) I crammed into three (three!!) garbage bags for Goodwill. There were, however, several SWEET pairs of shoes and booties that I loved, but can't wear because they're sizes 6 or 7 and I wear like a 9. Okay, a 10. So anyone out there with tiny feet want some cute booties, flats or calf-height boots?

Anyway, I kept about a dozen shirts from Allory, plus some shorts/dresses/skirts. So now that there is a TON of pre-loved clothing in my closet that wasn't technically thrifted, I'm going to start crediting them as "secondhand" in outfit posts. Schweet.

Live and learn

Today, I learned a major lesson about painting a wall. Always, always, ALWAYS paint a test patch first and let it dry. Completely. Because if you don't, you will spend an hour meticulously prepping, taping and painting a section of wall. And then you could hate it. Which is pretty much what happened to me today.






shirt: Old Navy
polo: Target
skirt: thrifted
flats: Payless
necklace: Forever 21
So now, I have a neon yellow built-in shelving unit in my bedroom. The paint chip looked softer. The paint in the can looked softer. The paint on the wall? Not so much. Thankfully, it's a small(ish) unit, so a quart of paint will more than cover it. But still. How annoying, right?

Ah, well. At least now I know. Plus, I have two more days this week, plus the weekend, to fix it ;)

Leap Day!

If you subscribe to the 30 Rock notion of Leap Day, it's the one day every four years that you do something you wouldn't normally do. Also, nothing that happens on Leap Day actually "counts." I don't know about the second thought, but I kind of like the first. So I'm commemorating that in both the outfit I'm wearing today (hint: it's 50s-inspired, and I rarely try to pull off a vintage look), and in the outfit I'm posting on the blog.

Excuse the sunglasses, it was the end of the day and my makeup looked scary-bad. So I decided to cover it up instead of, you know, redoing it just so I could laze around my house all evening.






poncho: thrifted
long-sleeve T: Old Navy
jeans: Guess via Macy's
shoes: Payless
sunnies: Target
It's a poncho! They're one of those style things that I was super-hesitant to try, and now I really can't figure out why it made me so nervous. I picked up this baby at Goodwill for a couple bucks, and it was a great purchase. It's so soft! The only real downside is that I have no choice but to layer it with a tee or cami every time. Cause I don't need the world seeing my sideboob/navel, thanks.

Also, a few quick housekeeping things. I realized I've never posted about the whole Google Friend Connect thing. Specifically, how it is disappearing for some people tomorrow. Since my blog is hosted on Blogger, I'm pretty sure this won't affect anyone who follows Verbal Mélange via GFC. But just in case, you can also follow me via Bloglovin, Facebook, or you can use the RSS subscribe button in the right-hand sidebar (just above the Labels links) to follow via Google Reader, Netvibes, Newsgator or Yahoo!.

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway for the chance to win a chunky, asymmetrical necklace that's just to die for. Fewer than 20 entries so far, so your chances are pretty good! And may the odds be ever in your favor! (Aahhh! Couldn't help it. So dang excited for that movie!)

'Tis the season

Oh boy. We're about to have some crazy weekends ahead, I can say that much. Sometimes, I'm a bit Grinchy. The hype and chaos of the holidays always leaves me feeling exhausted. And who wouldn't, when every December weekend has a party or two, and Christmas travel involves going from Columbus to Cleveland to Akron to Columbus to Findlay? (For you non-Ohioans: That's a lot of driving.)

But at the same time, a little bit of my Grinchy heart melts when we finally get around to putting up the Christmas tree. Something about decorating the tree, listening to Frank Sinatra's Christmas album, always gets me. That's on the agenda for this weekend and to be honest, I'm quite looking forward to it.






shirt and khakis: Old Navy
collared shirt: New York & Company
shoes: Payless
necklace: The Limited
I've been on a real kick with layering collared shirts lately. I don't know why, but I feel like this is just the perfect look—clean and put together, but not stuffy. It's like an instant touch of class, whether you're wearing slacks, a skirt or even jeans. Kind of the same way a blazer can make jeans and a graphic t-shirt look stylish. Wha-bam! Instant style.

And now, I need your opinion. Would you all rather see a Fiscal Fridays post tomorrow, or a recipe/food post? Can't decide...

Blogger clothes swap!

Clearly, I am a terrible candidate for a clothes swap. Not only do I send out my items late, causing my partner to post her swap styling late (sorry, Emily), but I also am incredibly unimaginative with new items. I feel like when I come across new pieces, whether they're purchases or just on loan, it takes some time for me to figure out how to really style them well. So my styling of Kelly's Le Sac dress from American Apparel was, well, rather lackluster.






shirt: Target
dress-as-skirt: American Apparel, blog swapped from Kelly
shoes: Payless
I could blame it on the fact that Sunday ended up being much more hectic than I had originally planned; I could blame it on a morning-after food coma induced by the traditional Friend Thanksgiving that we celebrated Saturday night. Or I could just own up and say that I was a little stumped as to how to style this to begin with. I liked wearing it as a jumper, rather than a halter or strapless dress, but even that wasn't entirely original, haha. I saw a photo of it on the American Apparel website.

But in the spirit of making an effort, I styled it a slightly different way, too. One that I just kind of made up on the spot, in fact.



In retrospect, I think this would look pretty cool as a halter dress too...take away the purple shirt and pull the sides of the dress (where the strap connects there) up to cover any indecency. In fact, given a few weeks, I could probably find a million ways to style this dress. But I have to send it back, so make sure to check out Kelly's blog and see how she styles it in the future (or how she has done it in the past).

And don't forget to check out the other swap ladies: Joanna (she came up with the idea), Kelly, Emily, Alisha, Sorren and Sydney. They're all good blog friends of mine, and I highly recommend adding them to your daily reads!

The blahs

I wore this to work last Friday, or maybe it was the Friday before. Either way, I was feeling much better when I took these photos than I am today. I just want to change into some comfy sweats and go back to bed for a few hours. I don't know if it's seasonal allergies or a regular cold, but I feel awful!

But enough pity partying for me. I have my awesome leopard print flats and a nice, yellow, cheery shirt to counteract the bad vibes I imagine I'm giving off. Fake it till you make it!








shirt and vest: thrifted
jeans: Silver via Macy's
shoes: Payless
necklace: The Limited
lipstick: Red by Mary Kay
I don't know what's up with my hand in that last photo, but I can at least explain the face. It's supposed to be a kissy face. Which I'm apparently bad at. But I love my red lipstick so much, I just can't help but make horrible kissy faces every time I wear it. Oops.

What's that? You love that necklace from The Limited? Why thank you. You could get your very own (or anything else from the store, for that matter) if you enter and win my giveaway for a $50 gift card to the store! Original post here.

Weekend happenings

Tuesday isn't too late for a weekend recap, is it? I say nay. Even though I had quite the busy weekend, I still didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped. (Isn't that always the case?) But I did manage to run up to David's Bridal to buy a bridesmaid dress, stop by JoAnn Fabric and a Halloween store for costume supplies (hint: Matt and I are cross-dressing to go as a cartoon couple), get started on sewing said costumes (by hand! ugh) and work two full shifts at the restaurant/bar. In fact, I think I'll have to do an awkward/awesome post on Thursday just to detail some of the weekend. But anyway.

Matt and I also carved pumpkins! By far one of my favorite things about Halloween is carving pumpkins (and baking the delicious seeds...YUM). Can you guess which one I did?


Yeah, not too hard to guess on that one, haha. Matt went a bit metal with his. I love the effect he created by carving some thin lines, instead of actual cutouts. And the 3D horns are pretty cool too! I still think mine is fun, though.


I also got the curtain tutorial started. Just have to find a spare minute to edit those photos...sigh. Anyway, I've some outfit photos too! Because you know, I couldn't go two full days posting non-style things :)






chambray shirt: Banana Republic
tank: Old Navy
black jeggings: The Limited
belt: thrifted
shoes: Payless
trench: Esprit via Burlington Coat Factory
Clearly, I still refuse to listen to the "keep the light behind the camera" rule. When will I learn? Also, can we call these pants cigarette pants? Because I really want to. Just sounds cooler, amiright?