Step 1. Find a Thing you really, really want.
Step 2. Realize that you have to wait X number of days to have Thing.
Step 3. Resign yourself to the established waiting period. Try to find distractions, or try to forget about Thing in the meantime.
Step 4. Jump for joy when Thing Day arrives!
Step 5. Realize you still can't have Thing.
Step 6. Go back to Step 2. Repeat as necessary.
In my case, Thing is my scooter. I bought it in January and put it in the garage and the back of my mind, where it's waited patiently for The Longest Winter Ever (capital letters necessary) to end. But the friend who sold it to me hasn't actually used the thing in more than a year, so it needs a lot of initial maintenance. So far we've charged the battery, filled her up with gas and fresh motor oil, and sprayed some cleaner into the carburetor. She tries to start, but just won't turn over. Our next step is to change the spark plug, but if that doesn't work, I have to wait until next weekend for my friend's "scooter guy" to get back in town and clean the carb out proper. I get that this is all part of standard maintenance, but I'm not very good with the whole patience thing. Especially when it's gorgeous outside and I'm still relying on public transportation and/or exorbitant parking fees to get to work.
So, distraction time! Short-attention-span-powers, ACTIVATE!
shirt: secondhand
cardi: thrifted
skinnies: H&M
boots: gifted (via Old Navy)
In other news, warmer temps also mean the return of cute clothes! Spring florals, skirts, cute sandals, here I come! I busted out the first of my springwear--a floral shirt-- by mixing it in with some fall/winter attire that's about to go back into storage. (I'm looking at you, boots.)
Storytime: I got this shirt from my friend Hayley. She and her husband moved from an apartment to a house, and like me every time I move, she found a bunch of stuff she didn't want to pack and unpack. Most of it was clothes, so I told her to drop it off at my house and I'd take whatever I didn't want to the thrift store.
She showed up with literally 20 bags of clothes, bedding, appliances, purses and even a dog bed. We do not have a dog.
Needless to say, I donated more than I kept. Fortunately, Volunteers of America was scheduled to do a neighborhood pickup the next week, so it all just sat in my living room until pickup day. Matt wasn't thrilled, but I considered it a price worth paying for otherwise free clothes. Hayley got rid of her stuff, I got new stuff and nobody had to schlepp to Goodwill. Everybody wins! Except Matt. He got nothing. The end.
You all are familiar with Galentine's Day, the completely necessary holiday invented by Leslie Knope of Parks & Rec fame, yes? Good. For those who don't know, here's a quick rundown: It's celebrated the day before Valentine's Day by showering affection on the special ladies in your life. This year, I swapped the two; Matt and I celebrated V-Day on the 13th with our traditional epicmealtime, and I celebrated G-Day on the 14th with my friend Emily, who was up from West Virginia.
We went to a wine tasting at the grocery store (so. much. fun.), grabbed a couple of burgers and caught a movie. When we came home, I begged her to shoot some photos of my Galentine's/Valentine's outfit. Emily went to school for photojournalism, and she is crazy-stupid-talented. I have her work everywhere--in my house, in my cubical at work, on my phone. Hell, a shot she took at OU of the "Athens Block" bricks is even my Facebook banner...and a shot she took of me is my current profile pic. Anyway, she acquiesced, and now I just have to convince her to move to Columbus and shoot my outfits full-time.
shirt: H&M
chambray: thrifted
skinnies: The Limited via Discount Fashion Warehouse
boots: gifted (Old Navy)
necklace: giveaway win (Stella & Dot)
bracelet: Etsy
shirt: secondhand
slacks: thrifted
flats: Buckle
necklace: Stella & Dot (giveaway win)
This shirt is weird. I mean, I like it, and it was pretty fun to style, but it's weird. I lightened the photos here to give you an idea of what I mean. It's got that cross-chest bit of fabric, and on the inside the bottom layer only goes down halfway. It's crazy-comfy, and I think it looks pretty cool, but all day when I was wearing this, I kept trying to pull the top layer of fabric down for some reason. It felt like it should fall below my boob? It makes zero sense, I know.
Not really much else to say today. The holidays are always super-stressful for me, between parties and gift-buying (which I'm wayyyyy behind on this year) and various other social demands and constructs. But I love food and family, and the holidays always bring lots of both, so I really can't complain. Just don't judge me if I don't really get around to putting up a Christmas tree this year, 'kay?
blouse, skirt: secondhand
blazer: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
tights, heels: Target
necklace: gifted
Oh yeah, I went there. Does using words like "chillaxin'" make me cooly ironic, or just dorky? Wait, don't answer that; I've just realized that I don't actually care :)
So I thought this weekend would be a pretty busy one, but it actually turned out to be fairly chill. We went to a friend's housewarming-slash-football-viewing party (Go Bucks!) for most of the day Saturday, then Matt and I ordered in and watched movies the rest of the evening. (Apparently one's day-drinking skills go out the window a few years after college.) And Sunday I did some freelance work while Matt ran errands, and we settled in for some more do-nothing laziness. It was incredible, especially after the chaos of last weekend.
And of course, it's now Monday and I'm wishing for a third consecutive morning of lay-in-bed laziness. Ah, well. I guess I'll never be able to get enough of that :)
On a random note, after looking at these pictures, I've decided it's time to pull another RIT-in-the-washing-machine-dye-job. This blazer is decidedly less black than the tights and shoes. I've done it before, but dyeing clothes in the washer always makes me nervous. Have you ever tried it?
P.S. Hey Columbus-ites, don't forget to enter my giveaway! Ends a week from yesterday. Also, it's pretty damn epic.
Disclaimer: Most of my outfits are fairly modest/tame, but you are about to see what is undoubtedly the most risqué outfit I've ever posted, and possibly ever worn. It was for a bachelorette party that consisted of nothing but bar-hopping in Columbus' Arena District, where I was actually dressed more modestly than many girls out that night. That said, I felt pretty damn fabulous. Here goes:
dress: Express via Discount Fashion Warehouse
shoes: Lane Bryant via Discount Fashion Warehouse
necklace: Express
bracelet: Etsy
Ok, so it's not THAT bad. But I've never even considered wearing something with mesh-covered cutouts over my waist, back and chest area. I actually felt really awkward and nervous until I got a couple of drinks in me...then all the women in the bathroom kept complimenting me on it and I felt much better, haha. The only downside is that I now need to find another excuse to wear it out. It's not exactly a dinner-date kind of getup...unless I want Matt to look like he hired an escort for dinner ;)
Still. Every time I buy something, it's with the intent to remix it and wear it a billion times. It's kind of nice to splurge on a completely frivolous item! I initially thought the heels would be frivolous too, but they're so comfy and so awesome that I think I'll be wearing them fairly often. The challenge? Styling them for work. Muah ha ha...
Oh, and heads up: I only posted this today because frankly, it seems weird posting such an intense outfit during the week. Like, oh hey, happy Tuesday, here's waaaaaaay more skin than you're used to seeing. Let this serve as inspiration for your weekend, maybe? PARTY ON DUDES.
blouse: secondhand
skirt/belt: JCPenney
shoes: Buckle
I read somewhere that if you wake up in the middle of a REM cycle (aka when you're dreaming), you'll automatically be tired no matter how long you slept. So when my alarm went off in the middle of a stress-dream, I was both relieved and annoyed. On one hand, the panic of trying to get back to the airport to find my lost luggage in the middle of a zombie attack while I was on a field trip with my high school marching band was over. (I know, I know...I have really weird and vividly detailed dreams.) But on the other hand, that sense of anxiety lingered, and it was compounded by a feeling of sheer exhaustion.
Even now, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I'm taking advantage of my office's $2 dress-down days, where you pay $2, which goes to charity, and get to wear Casual Friday clothes on a non-Friday. I'm clutching my coffee cup like it's the Holy Grail in between typing each sentence.
Can this morning get a do-over?
Eh. Here's a photo from a day when I was feeling more awake. Only four more outfits from the old house before I can start posting outfits shot at this one :)
Okay. So for those of you who have been long-time readers (or as long-time as you can get for a blog that's two and a half years old) will recognize this as the post where I apologize profusely yet somehow lackadaisically for the upcoming infrequency of posts. Yup, that pesky thing called "life" is happening again (go figure) and I'll be a bit quiet for the remainder of the month. But instead of the old "freelance work is burying me alive!" excuse, I actually have a fun reason.
Matt and I are moving!
We'll still be in Columbus--in fact, our new house is only about half a mile from our current one--but the new place is a major upgrade. It's a side-by-side duplex, so we have an upstairs for the first time! (Our current place is a one-over-the-other duplex, so our neighbors live above us.) Also, it has air conditioning, about 50% more space, a claw-foot bathtub, and an enormous six-by-nine-and-a-half-foot room that will be my very own closet. Needless to say, we're chomping at the bit.
Fortunately, we find ourselves with a bit of an overlap. Or a lot of an overlap. More than three weeks' worth. We got the keys last week and started painting over some ugly trim, narrowing down paint choices for the rest of the house, and just generally figuring out how much furniture and whatnot we'll need to fill the space. This weekend we'll paint pretty much every room in the place, thanks to some help from friends, and next weekend we officially move in. Then it's just a matter of cleaning up the old place, filling a multitude of nail holes, and all the other little things that will help us get our deposit back.
So what does this mean for Verbal Mélange, you might be wondering? Or not, I mean, I'm sure no one is as deeply interested/invested in this little corner of the internet as I am. But in case you're curious, I'll tell you. It means the aforementioned shortage of posts for now, but also a HUGE FLOOD of house-related posts in the near future. I'll still post outfit photos, of course, along with the occasional recipe. But the DIY- and decor-related stuff around here is gonna be featured in a big way. What can I say? I love to nest. And this house is actually worth nesting in, unlike our current one that features not-up-to-code flooring, teeny tiny spaces and generally sub-par potential.
So for now, I leave you with these unfortunately blurry photos. Sorry, guys...I didn't realize it until I deleted the others from this shoot. Womp womp.
dress: secondhand
button-down: New York & Company
shoes: Buckle
necklace: The Limited
tank: secondhand
cami: Old Navy
skinnies: Forever 21
jelly shoes: Urban Outfitters
necklace: Etsy
lipstick: Mary Kay in Red
You guys, I absolutely hate moving. It's such a pain in the butt. All the painting, packing, cleaning...it drives me crazy. The only thing I actually like about moving is at the very end, when you get to unpack everything and do some hardcore nesting. I'm a big nester.
But as we draw closer to the end of the month, I find that I'm less and less able to ignore the inevitable. And as much as I desperately hope I'll wake up one morning to find that the moving fairy has packed up all our crap, I know that eventually Matt and I will have to do it ourselves. I suspect that much of this weekend will be dedicated to packing up. Le sigh.
Ok, that's bumming me out. Let's talk about these photos. They're from the Fourth of July, and I completely forgot I had them. It was raining a bit, so I had to prop my camera up under our porch and shoot from there. I was having a hard time getting consistency from the flash, so one of the shots didn't come out quite as nicely as the others.
The Fourth was unseasonably cool, but no one was really complaining. I kind of liked that I was able to wear some rolled-up skinnies as the blue component of my red, white and blue outfit. And actually, I was pretty proud of this outfit. It was patriotic and festive without being too in-your-face...and the black shirt (which almost fits me like a dress) is one of my new favorite casual tops. So all in all...great success?
Ugh, sorry for the babbling. I'm trying to get back into the habit of getting up early and it's not going so well. I'd delete this whole thing and start over, but if I do I'll be late for work. Blergh.
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?
dress: eShakti
shoes: Buckle
belt: Target
Well, eventually I want to start getting up at 6 a.m., but this morning I managed to drag my sorry night-owl butt up at 6:30. It's better than nothing, but it leaves me with time for little else besides quickly editing these pics and throwing up a super-short post. No time for any of my freelance writing, but hey, there's always my lunch break, right?
I'm not really feeling these pics today, which is a shame because this is that super-cute dress I bought with last month's clothes budget. I wore it to a baby shower for one of Matt's cousins and got a lot of compliments. I also wore it to work, where I also got compliments, so yeah, I'm pretty pleased with this dress. I just wish I had taken better pictures in it, haha. My hair...ick. And what's up with the tilted background?? Oh camera, you are so weird.
Here's a close-up of the pattern on this dress. I. freaking. love it.
You guys. Oh, my God you guys. This weekend, Matt and I went out to celebrate our five-year anniversary, and we had the best dinner EVER. I know I use superlatives a lot, but this was quite literally THE best meal of my entire life, and Matt agrees. I kind of failed on the photo front — I was rushed for outfit photos because I didn't start getting ready early enough, and I completely forgot to take a photo of Matt and I together – but I did get a couple good snaps for the evening.
dress, bracelet: H&M
necklace: The Limited
shoes: Target
lipstick: "Rich" by Covergirl
I didn't even get a shot of the back of this dress, but it's the zipper-all-the-way-down-the-back one from Friday's clothes budget post. Matt got all decked out in his gray suit, in which he looks fine as hell, but like I said, I didn't get a shot :( The following pics don't even do the food justice, because the restaurant was pretty dim and I didn't want to use the flash on my phone...discretion seemed prudent there.
When I made the reservation earlier in the week, they asked if it was for a special occasion. I told them and didn't think much of it...until we got to the restaurant (it's The Refectory in Upper Arlington, for you Columbus-ites) and the host — or rather, maître d'...this is a fancy French restaurant — wished us happy anniversary. As did the woman who walked us to our table. And our waiter. And when we opened out menus, this greeted us:
Pardon my French, but that is some fine fucking service. We've never really eaten at a five-star, fine dining restaurant before. And the service at places like that is just out of this world and completely unlike anything else I've ever experienced. They put my napkin in my lap for me. I don't know why I find that so noteworthy, but I do. And when I got up to use the restroom? They re-folded it and put it back on the table. There was a guy whose sole job was to dish out bread, deliver drinks and scrape the crumbs off our table with a little scooper thing in between courses. Fancy. As. Hell. The waiter was also super patient when I couldn't decide between three dishes, and helped me pick out wines as well. (One of them, a house Muscat-Viognier blend, was so good that I'm now on a hunt to find a few bottles to keep at home.)
So anyway, then we got to the food. We split a special appetizer for the evening. I don't know what it was called, but it had three kinds of fish and shrimp and veggies and all sorts of other deliciousness, wrapped up in a puff pastry. I've never tasted anything like it. I even ate the mushrooms in that dish, which for me is a HUGE deal. I don't eat fungi. But oh man. It was that good.
Then was the soup/salad course. Matt got a Caesar salad, and I got this mussel soup, and we switched off. I could have picked that soup bowl up by the little lion-face handles and drank it all in one gulp. But I didn't, because I am a classy lady. Sort of. It didn't photograph very well (cream-based soups rarely do), but here's that sweet lion face:
Then came the main course. Uh. Muh. Guhd. Matt got filet mignon, of course, and I got lamb tenderloin. Both were just incredible. The steak especially was phenomenal; it was cooked perfectly and practically melted in your mouth.
And then, dessert. Oh, desert. So by the time we finished the main course, we'd been at the restaurant for about two and a half hours and we were so full, I thought they'd have to roll us out the door. I asked the waiter if the crème brûlée was worth overstuffing ourselves and he swore it was. He was not lying. There's even a story about how this crème brûlée came to be, which the waiter was kind enough to tell us as we ate. (Dessert and a story? I love stories! So great.)
Long story short: The Refectory's chef, Richard Blondin, studied under one of the great French cuisine masters of the 20th century. (I was too wine- and food-filled to catch the name.) So this master had a really great crème brûlée at an Italian restaurant of all places, and was inspired to really perfect the dish on his own. He worked on it for years, finally coming up with the right process of baking and cooling and cooking. And Chef Blondin was able to take that recipe with him to The Refectory. You guys, we were told this was among the best crème brûlées in the country and THEY WERE NOT LYING. I have half a mind to make more frequent reservations there just to eat dessert. And the best part is, the waiter brought out a little complementary pour of a dessert wine to pair with it — an orange muscato that was pretty much to die for. I never really understood wine/food pairings until I ate that dessert with that wine.
Our original post-dinner plans had been to go home and change, then go catch a late showing of Jurassic Park in 3D, because nothing says classy date night like 3D dinosaurs. But when we got home, we simply collapsed into bed. True food coma. It helped that it was 10 by the time we got home, which is our normal old-person bedtime anyway, haha.
So there you have it. The story of the best dinner of my life, and how a new anniversary tradition was born. Because Matt's already informed me that this has to be a recurring locale for our celebration :)
