Gorgeous weekends and rainy Mondays

Ah, Monday. Thanks for being here to greet me with drizzly, dreary weather after such a beautiful weekend. No really. That made getting out of bed this morning sooo much easier!

Actually, I guess I really can't complain. I had such a lovely weekend, not even this rainy morning can really get me down. Friday night comedy shows, Saturday laziness, and a gorgeous Sunday spent sleeping in and playing outside makes for a fabulous weekend. And we capped it all off with a fun cookout Sunday evening with the girls upstairs and a few other friends.






cardi & skinnies: The Limited
shirt & belt: thrifted
boots: Target
The forecast for this week is calling for plenty of warm days, mostly in the 70s, and even a few sunny days thrown in for good measure. So I'm kind of sad to say that this may be one of the last time my Target boots (in any of the three colors I have, haha) appear on the blog. I think that's the only downside of spring...boots with skinnies kind of have to go on hiatus.

Boots with shorts, on the other hand, may still be an option.

What about you? Any styles you're sad to leave behind as winter begins to draw to a close?

Just a plain ol' Friday

So I was going to do a Food Friday post today, with the eggs Florentine I made for dinner last night. But I was just kind of winging it with the recipe, so it didn't exactly turn out delicious. Guess I'll just have to keep trying it until I get it right...something about the spinach was really off. I think I overcooked it. Ick.

And since I'm such a poor planner, I didn't have a Financial Friday post or anything like that backed up and ready to go. So here we are. Outfit post!






jacket, shirt: thrifted
slacks: New York & Company
flats: Target
ring: Modcloth (giveaway win)
necklace: gifted from my dad
Isn't it incredible what some good light will do for a photo? It was still too cold to venture outside for pics (I'm a complete wimp, unlike Kelly, who constantly blows my mind by braving the Canadian snow for the sake of good imagery), but we have south-facing windows in our living room, so the morning sun was just a-streamin' in for these shots.

This shirt is just about the comfiest thing ever. I've talked before about how I think thrifting is kind of frustrating sometimes, but when you find gems like this shirt or this blazer, it's pretty much 100% worth it.

Favorite things: Fall/winter edition

When I first started the ol' blog, I did a "favorite things" post that featured an outfit with all of my current faves. It was very springy, and I definitely still count all those items among my favorites. (So much so that I often rewear that exact outfit over...and over...good thing I don't make a point to post every single day, haha!)

I thought it'd be kind of fun to do another one, this time featuring items I've been wearing all fall and winter. Well, mostly winter, since these boots and the shirt are still relatively new. But still.






shirt: H&M
jeans: Guess via Macy's
boots: Target
necklace: Figleaf in Athens
bracelet: gifted from my momma
lipstick: Cover Girl in Rich
Yup, safe to say I love every piece of this outfit, on its own and as a whole. I've practically lived in this striped shirt since I got it at H&M with a gift card that Matt's sister gave me for Christmas. And these cognac boots are something I had been lusting after for months, if not a full year, before I bought them. Yes, this outfit might look better with skinny jeans, but honestly, the Guess ones are so comfortable, I can't not wear them sometimes. And they're long enough! And they don't sag on my butt! For the record, that absolutely never, ever happens.

Oh, and about the lipstick? It's this line that Cover Girl has that doesn't make your lips dry out the way other lipsticks tend to do. I'm in love. I have three or four shades already, and I'm itching for more. I wear this Rich color the most though; it's the perfect shade of everyday red. Not to vampy, but just bold enough to be noticed.

(P.S. Don't forget to enter my vintage T giveaway! Ends today at 5 pm!)

Do the Shamrock Shake!

You guys. It's back. It's finally back!!! The Shamrock Shake has returned to McDonald's!!



Okay, so maybe I'm a little too excited about this. But I'm kind of obsessed with this seasonal treat. It's sooo delicious, and I think the limited availability just makes it that much more special. So when I was contacted about doing a giveaway for this tasty treat, I was more than a little excited.

This year, McDonald's is partnering up with Skreened to sell some sweet vintage-style T-shirts celebrating the best shake ever created. Proceeds from the sales of these shirts (as well as 25 cents from each Shamrock Shake sold here in Central Ohio) will benefit the Ronald McDonald House charity. And you can win one of the unisex fitted T-shirts!



Mandatory steps to enter:
1. Follow @McDonaldsCMH_OH on Twitter.
2. Tweet this message: "Do the Shamrock Shake! Check out McDonald's vintage Shamrock Shake T-shirts: http://bit.ly/AlftPa"
3. Leave a comment saying you did the above. Make sure to INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL so I can contact you if you win!!

Extra entries (leave a separate comment for each):
1. Follow me on Twitter.
2. Tweet about this giveaway (make sure you mention me in the tweet so I'm sure to see it).

Giveaway closes Thursday, March 8 at 5pm. That way, the winner will get his/her shirt by St. Patty's Day :)

Giveaway winner announced!

Hi all! First, a huge thanks to Raych of Marriage by Design for hosting this amazing giveaway! I'm super jealous of the winner, who is...



Ashley P! Congrats girl. Check your email momentarily, we'll get you in touch with Raych so you can get your gorgeous new necklace!

(And if anyone's wondering why the random.org number only goes up to 20, even though the post says there were 37 comments...well, there were a lot of deleted comments, and a number of people who were ineligible because they entered after the giveaway closed on Friday.)

If you didn't win, check back here tomorrow (yep, tomorrow) for ANOTHER giveaway. Man, March is shaping up to be all about the goodies, no?

Fiscal Fridays: Progress (or, Shoes: A love story)

It's been a while since my last Fiscal Fridays post, but I haven't really had anything new that I could talk about in terms of finances. The Financial Diet has continued with very few slipups (though I'll admit, I do overspend a tad once in a while). But this week, something incredible happened, and I just wanted to share my progress, so to speak.

I'm not sure how the conversation started. I was watching the Academy Awards with my upstairs neighbors, and one of them mentioned that she had no idea who Christian Louboutin is. Now, I've been obsessed with his shoes since my friend introduced me to them a few years ago. (When we went to New York last summer, I even made a point to stand outside the store and drool for a bit.) So naturally, I did a Google image search and showed her several (gorgeous) pairs. And then I saw it.

A website selling overstock CL shoes. For cheap. Like, really cheap. And I saw the shoes I've been lusting after for ages: Simple black leather pumps. They'd go with anything. I could wear them anywhere. And they were beautiful.




Images via placeshoes.com
I prefer the non-platform ones, only because they're a little lower in the heel and I'm a complete klutz, but really, I wouldn't complain about either if I had them. Each pair was listed at only $89.00. I about died.

Since I transferred my credit card balance to a low-interest personal loan, my credit cards have carried very low balances. (I still use one sometimes for the points, but I pay it off as I go.) So putting a $90 pair of shoes on a credit card would definitely have been a possibility. I would just have to pay it off over the course of a few months is all. And then I stopped, cursor hovering over the "order" button. This was the exact kind of mentality that got me into huge credit card debt in the first place. And if I ever want to be debt-free, I have to change the way I think. Starting now. So I closed the browser window.

I've decided instead that those shoes will be my "reward" for becoming debt free, when I eventually do. And I'll buy them by saving up, not by charging them and paying later. And even though a little bit of me died inside when I thought about how long I'd have to wait for those shoes, another part of me started cheering. Because finally, I'm making the changes necessary to live a debt-free life.

(On a side note...has anyone used placeshoes.com before? Their "FAQs" page says that all their product is overstock and is invoiced as being authentic, but since they're not authorized dealers, they can't legally say the shoes are 100% authentic. Anyone have any opinions on that?)

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!